Putzing along on a Slow Sunday...

 Hello - well another week where plans for productivity did not entirely materialize... I'd like to say the spirit was willing but the flesh was weak, but the reality is the spirit wasn't really feeling like working... sigh... I got in about 2.5 days of gardening... the weather went from unseasonably warm to unseasonably cool with a hefty dose of windy... not conducive to my efforts. I got the front side (Matson Ave) cleaned out of dying daffodils and alliums... and I got some perennials and some little zinnias and some seeds planted on the Gail Drive side of the house... better than nothing, but plenty more to do... just putzing along at a snail's pace... sigh

As for crafty stuff I dithered and putzed between 2 cross stitch pieces.... I made progress on the LHN Farmer's Market ABC's... excuse the wrinkles...

isn't the little gal cute??  Her hair is a bit more red than charted and her eyes are a bit farther apart than graphed... I may have to do a bit of ocular surgery on them. 

And the realization that this is Memorial Day weekend had me jumping into the patriotic stitching I want to do.... I started God Bless America by Erica Michaels on a white 32 ct linen... and I found it exceedingly boring to stitch on... I had one word done "Bless" and I decided to paint the whole piece of linen a pale blue... I used Rit Dye Evening Blue... and I like it sooooo much better!! 

Then I went on to make other changes ... I like the design but there are 3 shades of blue... DMC 3780, Weeks Blue Suede and Weeks Fathom... and honestly the difference in color is barely perceptible in my eye... and there is entirely too much blue for my taste... so I'm adding in more red... Ruby Slippers by Classic Colorworks to be exact... I'm made the capital letters red and I'm using Ruby Slippers instead of Weeks Brick for the flag... much more cheerful and true to life IMHO.... now painting the fabric blue necessitated stitching in the white stripes, they are left unstitched if you use a white linen... and that is more stitching but I'm okay with it... and I'm loving the look of this now... fun fact:  the stripes on the flag will amount to almost 1000 stitches... whew... 

also I started this project with the plan of doing the large version of the chart and I'm now planning on doing the shorter version of it... I'm really liking the addition of buttons to that final band... and I'm  just not feeling the larger version at the moment.

As for decor here is the porch display... small and very green... 

Up top is one of the samplers from  Prairie Schooler No. 45 Garden Samplers   and  Tulip House from Pinker n Punkin ... the Prairie Schooler piece is the only sampler I completed from my ill-fated 7 samplers for my 70th birthday... sigh... I do love this piece and it looking at the chart I'd like to stitch the other 2 samplers... there is just something about a Prairie Schooler piece that makes my heart happy!!

And you can't overlook my giant bird cookie jar... a friend snapped this up at Homegoods for me a couple of years ago... such a fun piece!

On the middle shelf I have Bobbin' Along by Notforgotten Farms ... the pattern calls for this to be a drum but  I've never done that  kind  of finish so I went with this display... I used perle cotton for the thread on the spool and there is a real needle at the end of the thread ... and I kept out  Bower Birds by Liz Matthews from my Easter display... 

On the bottom shelf is Brite Birds by Kathy Barrick... I got the pattern here  and it is my understanding that this was a freebie...

And on the wall I have the Little House Needleworks Spring ABCs...

I'm seeing a lot of people moving on to putting out their patriotic displays starting this Memorial Day... that is wonderful but I am not there yet... I'm thinking mid June I'll bust out my plethora of patriotic pieces... got several things I need to FFO from last year and I picked up another cute Uncle Sam pattern this week...  Parade Sammy by Calico Confectionery...

I'd love to have dough bowl of little Uncle Sams... a goal for future years... 

Well last week filled up quickly... Tues/Wed/Thurs were a blur... Monday and Friday were marginally productive... not sure about this coming week... Tuesday is Elliott and Wednesday Nick has a doctor's appointment but that's all I'm sure about right now... I'm certain more things will happen... 

Hope you are enjoying the Memorial Day weekend... we're staying close to home ... will be able to watch the local parade from the end of my street and be very grateful for the sacrifices made by so many brave men and women to protect our freedom. Land of the free because of the Brave!

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today and leave you with my favorite garden display at the moment...a plethora of petunias!!

happy stitching-

carol fun 

it's all about timing on a Slow Sunday...

Hello ... another week that filled up fast... I read an article that said as you age you should stay social for your mental and physical health... LOL... at this rate I'll live to be 200 years old.... oh ... I hope not... anyway I did something social every day except Friday and even that day was chatty as I worked out in the yard all day and several people stopped to talk about the garden which was fun.

Now the timing of stuff last week was tricky... it seemed that every time I had the availability to work in the yard it was raining... and when I was occupied with other stuff the weather was perfect for getting outside... but in the end I did get some stuff done around the yard... 

I planted about 75 marigolds ...after I cleaned out most of the daffodil debris... I like the planting part, the cleaning out part, not so much... but you have to clean up before you can get in there and plant... and so  I spent hours cleaning out the beds on the Matson Ave side of the house... the Gail Drive side of the house still needs attention.... lots and lots of attention... and I need to constantly remind myself that Rome wasn't built in a day and there is no way I alone can get everything done in a day... sigh...

Since I wasn't able to work in the yard as much as I wanted I satisfied by gardening urges by going to garden centers... and I came home with these...

lots of those little zinnias I like to edge the beds with and other assorted annuals... and I picked up several perennials... which were pretty but pricey... the cheapest I got was $10 ... and I remember when I could get them for less than $7...  those were the days, my friends...

I'm writing this on Saturday and it is good that I need to do this as I am quite achy from my Herculean efforts on Friday... I worked in the yard from about 1pm till 7pm with a break for a snack and dinner... and I really wanted to do more but the body had had enough!!! The spirit still wants to get out there now and  do some more planting, but the body says what are you thinking???  Ice that knee and take a couple of Aleve and maybe a nap... I believe I shall obey the body... LOL

As for crafty stuff I did get a little stitching done... I got the windows and the alphabet in for American Sampler House...

now to start filling in the side... I'm saving that for an evening when I watch a movie.

And I made some nice progress on Farmer's Market ABCs by Little House Needleworks...

I'm stitching on 32 ct linen I painted with Lemon Yellow and Apple Green Rit dyes and I'm using just DMC... these are fun to do because there is a nice balance between letters and motifs.... I've done all the samplers in this series... the 4 seasons and the first one which was Needlework ABCs...you can see it here...  I love that they are narrow and long and fit in several small spots in my house... this one is branching out  bit in subject matter... and I'm kinda hoping for more that are focused on say Christmas or Halloween ... that would be fun!

As for a bit of decor ... here's my tall shelf display... the theme here is birds and Spring... 

At the top I have the Sunnyside Sampler from The Drawn Thread... this one makes me want to stitch some of the other designs she has that are in this long horizontal orientation...

Next shelf has 2 pieces from Blackbird Designs (and doesn't it make a lot of sense that Blackbird Designs would have lots of charts with birds??... I do love BBDs)  ... the one on the pedestal is... I don't remember... it is a BBD and I spent about an half an hour searching my blog for the name of this piece and I just can't find it...  and the one below is Welcome dear August from the book In Friendship's Way... this was a sort of birth commemoration  for a grandchild of Alma's or Barb's ... I forget which... I substituted the word Hope for August.  I love that it has a bird and FOUR different borders!

In the middle I have For the Birds by The Drawn Thread... I did this one years and years ago... and then to the right I have 2 vintage bird figurines ... I don't know the maker... these were Christmas gifts from my older son and I love them!

Moving down more cross stitch...Ah 'Tis Spring by Notforgotten Farms, Sampler Hill by With Thy Needle & Thread and Hollyhocks Were Always There from the BBD Sewing Club book...

in looking at these pieces now I'm not sure they all needed the addition of ribbon and bows... I may make some alterations on them in the future... a little less frou frou...

Bottom shelf has a vignette with a pretty turquoise plate and some Marjolein Bastin tins and a little bird pillow that I got off of Pinterest years ago and have no clue who's design it was...

and here's a close up of Ninon by Jardin Prive... this was my Blessings Sampler this year and I decided to finish it by putting it in a hoop that I painted ... 

and the other piece is Funky Bird by Barbara Ana Designs.

Plans for next week include more garden work and I really want to get down into my sewing studio... I haven't touched my machine in weeks and the quilts that need to be bound are piling up and up... as I type this there are no doctor or dentist appointments on my calendar for this week... Elliott will be here on Tuesday and I'm meeting a friend for our monthly dinner date on Wednesday and I'm going to work out with Anna my personal trainer at least once this week... I will say working in the yard on Friday  was definitely an upper body workout... I pulled up sooooo many daffodils... perhaps I'll get some nice muscle tone...LOL...

Weather forecast still has rain predicted for several days ... I do think I'll call my sprinkler guy and have him come over and tell me how to use the drip irrigation... the lawn is looking fine...no need to use those sprinklers yet... fence installation is still a week or two or three away... and while I know it is Spring I feel like I'm behind and it is Summer... which it isn't... Summer solstice isn't till June 20th... don't know why I'm rushing it...  

Hope your upcoming week is a good one.. I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today...  I have tickets to see the Neil Diamond play A Beautiful Noise this afternoon... looking forward to it... Sweet Caroline (a link for your earworm enjoyment)   is one of my favorite songs and I can't imagine it won't be included... bum, bum, bum... when my older son went off to college at Purdue he came home knowing the lyrics to Sweet Caroline and I was surprised...turned out they play it at Purdue football games... and who doesn't love at least one song from Neil Diamond?

happy stitching-

carol fun 

Happy Mother's Day!

 Hello - well it was one of those weeks where I wondered, what happened to my week??? I had 3 medical appointments  and I juggled a plumbing guy, a paint removal guy and a fence guy... not literally, but figuratively LOL...things were busy.  The plumber put a new faucet in the bathroom, the paint removal guy got the years old paint overspray around my window boxes removed, and the fence guy is finally getting me an installation date for the fence ... but that only happened after I was informed that the receipt I got when I charged the downpayment for the fence wasn't an approval... I had put in the CC code incorrectly and while it said it was a receipt I didn't notice where it said "not approved"... sheesh... you'd think if the charge didn't go through they'd send a notice of that, not a receipt which leads one to believe that you paid... argghh.. now still on my agenda is getting the windows washed on the outside and the blinds cleaned on the inside and the porch/front door landing done.  So I've been keeping other people busy... as for me... well I got a few things done.

Let's start outside... as of Sunday we've had three whole days with NO rain... I don't remember the last time that happened. Do you recall that new sprinkler system I had put in?  I have yet to have the occasion to turn it on... maybe this week?  I did get some stuff planted up...

First the display of petunias... I'm LOVIN' this...

There are 20 different varieties of petunias here and I think all but 2 are Proven Winners... gosh there are some gorgeous varieties  available these days. I have fond memories of planting petunias with my Grandma and my 2 Great Aunts... but back in those olden days the only colors were white, pink, red and purple.. and we planted all of those colors together. 

I got this big planter filled in... starting with the flowers up front, I'm really into that purply-orange osteospermum... or African Daisy... this variety by Proven Winner is called Bright Lights... and I tucked in some Persian Shield (that the purple leaf stuff) and  some lime-y green coleus... and some other stuff I forget what they are called.... 

I put this planting arrangement together...a cordyline, some PW petunias, some coleus and that caladium in the middle... love it!  Behind this is a grass plant that usually gets about 6 ft tall and will make a nice background for it.

I have several other big pots I'm working on but I splurged on two of these for next to the garage... 

I wanted something already in full bloom and I just plopped the whole shebang  into the larger pots... I need to save the pot these petunias are in and use them in the future to plant the bigger ones instead of filling the bigger ones with dirt... less messy. 

And here's what is waiting for me...

I keep reminding myself Rome wasn't built in a day and I'm not going to get this all planted up in a day... but I want to!!   However at the moment my left knee is not cooperating... one of my medical appointment was to the ortho doctor and we agreed to do the PRP,  platelet rich plasma shot... but I can't get it till in June as they are already booked up for this month... sigh... trying my best to avoid knee replacement surgery as long as I possibly can. 

As for crafty stuff  I did get all the block sewn for the 18 patch Jelly Roll quilt...

but I didn't get them sewn together yet... nor did I get the binding on the yellow quilt I want to hang on the living room wall.... but as Scarlett declared,  tomorrow is another day or maybe next week... LOL

I got a little stitching done... I was distracted all week by other stuff and spent too much time doom scrolling... but I managed to finish The Robins are Here! by WTN&T. Don't they look dapper?

And I finished the stitching on Pinkernpunkinquilting's Marcher of the Flag.... another freebie from the incredibly generous Melisa!

This was a leftover piece of  Aida I had painted for another project...  and I love how the yellow is in just the right spot to highlight the flag...  now to get these pieces FFO'd!

When I was thinking ahead about things I wanted to stitch last week I totally blanked on Mother's Day... I have a tradition of starting a new project on Mother's Day totally guilt free... and I looked back to what I started last year and it is still languishing... sigh... and while I could work on this again, after all this is my tradition and my rules... it just isn't talking to me... but this one is....Little House Needleworks Farmer's Market ABC's...

This is one I'd love to have for  this  summer... I've done all the other ones in the series and they are a quick fun stitch... 

Oh I got some framing done.... and it looks awesome!  I used a new to me framer Lisa of L&M Framing. She is local to me in the Greater Cincinnati area and I dropped these off to her but she does oodles of mail order business... here's her website and you can see lots of stuff she's framed... and here's her Instagram... I wasn't able to get out to pick up the finished framing so I had her mail it to me and damn that girl can pack ... both pieces arrived in perfect shape..

First is Red Bird Sampler by With Thy Needle & Thread.... now I stitched this on linen I dyed with Aquamarine dye and I added the alphabet at the bottom because my definition of a sampler is that it has to have an alphabet!! This was is very apropos to show for Mother's Day... my initials are in the body of the piece next to those pots of flowers ... and my Mom's, PF and my Grandma's, CW are on the bottom. 

And this is Fragments in Time 2022 from Summer House Stitche Works... this is one of those pieces that is released as 8 little cardstock charts and then the border is a freebie on her website... I dyed this linen  with some concoction of Rit dyes and stitched it with a DMC conversion... I love this one so much that it makes me want to start another version ... 

I did the one from 2014...

and I have the charts for  at least 2 other years... tempting, tempting...

Oh Lisa has lots of finished projects she's done on her website but she is taking a summer break... spending time at some family property... and won't be back till in September or so... keep that in mind... I'm definitely going to have several things to send to her when she returns.

So the plan for today is to have brunch at my older son's house ... he orders the great spread from a local restaurant that does these yummy meals... there's a breakfast casserole and some bacon with a sugar glaze and fruit and yogurt and bagels and lox and other stuff I forgot... it comes prepped ... you just have to pop some stuff into the oven ... he's done this the last couple of years and it makes it easy on his wife and the mother of his child and for me and my DIL's Mom... 

This afternoon I'll probably putz in the yard...those flats of flowers aren't gonna plant themselves... and I'll do a little stitching ... and Nick already prepped a little Mexican chicken dinner for us yesterday that he'll pop in the oven... maybe we'll go down to the local soft serve ice cream place too... they have orange Dole Whip this week... one of my favs...

While I was cleaning a couple of weeks ago I came across some evening bags of my Mom's that I had saved... I  let go of them as I have no occasion to use them but before I did I opened them and found some jewelry and this little pin that flooded me with memories...

My brother and I pooled our money one Mother's Day and purchased this little flower pot pin for my Mom from Marsue's Gift Shop in the Newport Shopping Center in Newport KY... I don't remember exactly what year but I'm thinking I was about 12 so that would make it 1965... it obviously meant a lot to my Mom that she saved it ... it wasn't expensive (cause we didn't have much money) but it was a heartfelt gift and memory.  Right now I have it propped up on my dresser so I see I every day... I miss my Mom and my Grandma... my Mom has been gone for 45 years ... she was only 47 when she passed... and my Grandma left this earth 33 years ago in her 84th year... they both  loved sewing and crafty stuff and gardening and made me the person I am today... and on this Mother's Day I say special prayers for them and hope that I've made them proud and that my children will remember me with the same love I have for these 2 wonderful women.... 

and with that I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts and Quilting is More Fun than Housework... and I hope that you have a wonderful Mother's Day and make some memories!

happy stitching-

carol fun 

Thinking ahead on a Slow Sunday...

 Hello - well another week has gotten away from me and this one wasn't nearly as productive as the last one... but that's what  I expected. At my age a high level of activity is not sustainable for more than a couple of days...LOL  

Now I did get a few things done but there are still plenty of projects on my list.  

Over the weekend I got all the Easter decor put away. I was determined it would all fit back into 2 bins and it did after I jettisoned about a dozen knick knacks that I haven't used in years. Then I turned my attention to putting out Spring-y stuff and my bird collection... I do LOVE birds!  I started with the idea I'd just recreate the displays I had last year but that went off the rails pretty quickly and the arrangements I came up with are about 90% different than last year... and I like them... but this takes waaaaay longer to do... lots of moving stuff from place to place and dithering and adding things and taking things away ... I swear I walked 2 miles and never left the living room!  Now I'm not totally done as I never did get around to putting a binding and sleeve on the quilt I want on the wall ... but I'm happy with what I'm looking at and the bins are back into the basement. There will be more purging when I put this stuff away as I still had a bin full of decor left over... obviously it isn't all vital stuff... 

And speaking of the decor here is a bit of it... my small shelf display...

Up top  I picked up some new flowers for that vase at HL and there's a cute little bird pulling a wagon of flowers from Homespun Elegance... Delivering Posies... if you have minute go check out her Etsy shop... several of her charts fell into my cart...LOL..

I left up my little tulip quilt and parked a small pillow snippet from Pineberry Lane's Tansy Yarrow Rue chart in front of it.  I'm a big fan of the primitive quality  of Pineberry Lane but not much into the color palette so I brightened this up.

Middle shelf from left to right has the full version of Tansy Yarrow Rue, again with a palette change...

a little field of yellow tulip knick knacks and  Good Deeds from With Thy Needle and Thread... notice the big tulips in this piece... love them!

Bottom is Because It's Spring by Wendy Peatross, a recent  McCoy pottery acquisition, love the bird on this one...

and a little sampler with tulips from the OOP Blackbird Design book Thank You Sarah Tobias... the chart is called Pins & Tulips Pincushion and I stitched the back and front as one piece.

 Next to the TV I've got another little display... I LOVE this vase... it may be McCoy but it doesn't have a clear mark on the bottom... when you put flowers in it they just arrange themselves so nicely... I picked up this marked down $2 bunch of alstroemeria at Krogers... the color is gorgeous and they last a long time so I'm definitely getting my money's worth here...

the pear is from the Annie Beez pattern Spring Green Pears...  I want to stitch more of these and I have a bunch of the pear patterns in my stash. 

And speaking of stash... as I was putting away the Easter stuff and getting out the Spring-y bird stuff I jumped to thinking ahead  about my next display which will be patriotic... I want to get that stuff out mid- June ... so I pulled out my bag of patriotic charts and found that I had several pieces that were almost finished... sheesh... so I picked them back up..  this one Patriotic Tiny Town only needed one roof and one chimney and then all of those backstitched stars...

I know how I'm going to finish this one and it shouldn't  take a lot of time.

Then I turned my attention to this one by Melisa of Pinkernpunkinquilting ... the Marcher of the Flag... 

gosh I do love stitching on Aida ... I know that Aida isn't the style right now but it is so comforting... as I recall Melissa said this piece was in honor of her daughter who was in the Air Force... I painted the Aida  and it came out so pretty IMHO.

And I even put a couple of stitches into this one... American House Sampler by Annie Beez... I only got a hold of this chart late in July last year... it was sold out everywhere... 

now I'm making changes (when don't I make changes...LOL) and instead of the house being white it is going to be yellow... like my house... right now I'm thinking DMC 3821... 

I've decorated the living room in red, white and blue for years but this year I want to extend that decor to my sunroom porch...so I need a few more pieces... I was cruising ebay and found a couple of Debbie Mumm patriotic pieces I've never seen before... still deciding what I might purchase... and I want to do something large... which I've narrowed down to thes 5 choices (not very narrow is it?) 

First is God Bless America by Erica Michaels... 98 x 177...

Next The Pledge of Allegiance by Crocette a gogo...131 x 275 

And this one, e pluribus unum by jan hicks creates!...114 x 171   

 And last but not least...  Allegiance...185 x 128

 and the whopper ... 1776 Sampler ...225 x253

These last two are both from the book Hello America by Teresa Kogut.

I'll think about my choice as I work on the other 2 pieces and I thumb through the rest of my patriotic stash... so many I'd like to stitch!

Well the week ahead is mildly busy...errands to run on Monday, Elliott on Tuesday, Wednesday the dental procedure that was scheduled for last Thursday and then got cancelled by the dentist at the last minute... oh and I'm supposed to dinner with a friend that night... hope I'm up to it... so far nothing on  Thursday and Friday. 

I haven't gotten anything potted up from last week... and I need to clean out the window boxes of the dead stuff. I put a down payment on a fence for my backyard... and dealt all week with the bureaucracy of my local government to get a $25 permit to have it installed. I think I got them all the documents they wanted. Had a guy come and look at the mess I made with spray paint around my window boxes a couple of years ago... tip: spray paint goes everywhere.!!.. now when the boxes are full you don't see the overspray but it is very evident right now ... the company that came does graffiti removal and says they have a process to remove the paint from brick... I researched it and there is a chemical spray you can get that I thought I'd try, but then I thought it through... chemical spray, me on a ladder, scrub brush, hose... doesn't sound like an activity I should  engage in.  Gonna leave it to a professional. 

Indoors there is still cleaning and purging to do and as I mentioned before (I"m hoping if I repeat this enough times it will motivate me...LOL) the quilt for the living room wall still doesn't have a sleeve or a binding...sigh... Hopefully I will get some things accomplished but as I type this all I want to do is sit on the porch and stitch and watch the birds at my bird feeder... (ok I wanted to insert a picture here but for some reason blogger is balking)  

oooh another tip... a baffle under the bird feeders is quite the squirrel deterrent.  Here's what it looks like, I got it on Amazon. Now everything I read said it needed to be 6 ft off the ground... this is only about 5 ft... and the feeder is about 7 ft from the house... I thought they may still try to propel themselves off the side of the house but I haven't observed that and I haven't seen a squirrel at my bird feeders all week!!  Why didn't I do this years ago?? I've bought several "squirrel proof" feeders that didn't seem to deter them and the birds didn't want to eat from them... this was a simple $20 fix... live and learn... 

Well I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today... it has been stormy all weekend so it is perfect weather to stay inside and cozy on the sunroom porch... my idea of a great time!  Hope you have a great time doing whatever you want to do this coming week!

happy stitching-

carol fun