Unexpected happenings on a Slow Sunday...

Hello -  Happy Labor Day Weekend!  It is hard to believe that Summer is officially over... although I have no problem letting go of heat and humidity... the weather last week was glorious!!!  Highs only in the low to mid 70's... lows in the upper 50's... humidity waaaaay down... I opened all the windows and turned off the AC...I wish it would stay like this forever... and I am grateful that the 10 day forecast has this weather trend continuing and even getting a bit cooler... meteorological Fall starts tomorrow and I'm ready for it!

Well as for the unexpected happenings for a change they were happy ones... first off I finally was able to get my front porch/deck/landing project completed ... and it came together unexpectedly and quickly. I had given up on the contractor who came and looked at the job back in April... we exchanged  texts and phone calls for a while but then he went silent. Last time I contacted him was a text back in mid-June inquiring when he thought he'd get to the project ... and I still haven't gotten a reply.  Then my dear friends Bill and Linda had a project done at their house about 2 weeks ago and gave my info to the contractor they used and who did a great job for them. His name is Corey... he came to my house on Monday afternoon, emailed me a written bid on Tuesday, I thought about it for a couple of hours and asked for a break out of materials versus labor which he sent and then told him "DO IT"... he ordered the materials on Wednesday, they were delivered at the crack of dawn (7am) on Thursday morning and his crew showed up shortly after that to start the work. It took 3 days but I am very happy with the results...

Here's what it looked like before...

Here is the finished project...

the Trex decking is a great match for the siding and blends well with the yellow brick. Now when I open the door to retrieve a package I won't be hanging out over those concrete steps wondering if I'm going to take another header onto the sidewalk... 

Now I'm always anxious when I have people working at my house... I had a bad experience 10 years ago when I moved into the house with 2 guys who lied to me about a mold issue (the wall just need to be washed down, no chemicals were needed) and while one was giving me a sales pitch the other stole jewelry out of my bedroom dresser. I didn't realize the jewelry was missing for about 3 weeks and by that time I'm certain it was pawned and broken up. My older son went to a bunch of pawn shops looking for the jewelry to no avail... anyway sorry for that tangent... but like I said other than Dan my handyman, oh and  Larry the plumber, I'm leery of people I don't know working at my house. So I had a hard time settling down with a crafty projects... oh now you can see where I was going with that story... I stitched a little but not on Halloween. Instead I picked back up Every Opening Flower by WTN&T... and a little progress was made... where it was when I picked it up...

and where it is now... got that border in the bottom left corner roughed in and did a couple of letters of the alphabet...I want to get the house outline done so I can watch a movie and do some mindless stitching. 

I'd like to finish this by mid-September as that would be 2 years from when I started this as part of my "7 for my 70th birthday" extravaganza that went down in flames when I had a bout of diverticulitis and caught C-diff at the hospital... I still LOVE this sampler and want to get it stitched and framed and be a central part of the sampler wall in my living room that I want to expand. 

And then another project appeared unexpectedly. Now I have not 1, not 2 but 3 Christmas quilts I'd like to make this year... and I have fabric for all of them... and I had a plan for which one I would do first... ummm, this quilt was not number 1 or number 2 but it said "make me, make me" ... and I did.  Now this started with this fabric from J. Wecker Frisch's  Classic Christmas collection. Oh I LOVE a good vintage collage!!

So I decided that I didn't want to chop it up a lot and I cut it into 10" square and then used a layer cake pattern I found on Etsy... you can see it here... called Simple Layer Cake Quilt Pattern.  For the sashing I used coordinating prints from the collection.  I tried to cut the 10" squares at different intervals so that no two were exactly alike. What I didn't realize till I started laying it out was how dominate that red rectangle that says Herald would be... but I think I scattered it about pretty well.

It is a Large throw... almost a twin... 71" x 78"... some of my favorite blocks...

Now to get on with the other two Christmas quilts as there are only 116 days till Christmas!

As for decor  I was going to start putting away the chicken and garden stuff but it didn't happen... maybe this week ... but here is the last of that  decor, my large shelf display... lots of stuff I stitched previously and one new addition...

At the top I have Sunnyside Sampler by The Drawn Thread and a giant getting to be vintage Debbie Mumm platter...

To the left of the platter is a new addition, the small chart from Kathy Barrick's Vibrant Flowers...

And to the right of the giant platter is one of many Pineberry Lane pieces I've stitched... this is Mrs. Maguire's Garden... I brighten  up the palette on all of my Pineberry Lane pieces... love the prim look but not a big fan of the grungy brown... that's just me...

On the middle shelf starting on the left hand side I have The Queen's Garden by The Scarlett House and 

In the middle I have another Pineberry Lane, Mrs. Maguire Bee Charmer and Bee's Knees from Notforgotten Farm...

Moving down I have yet another Pineberry Lane, this one is Sister's Farm Fresh Eggs...

And finishing up with Mrs. Maguire's Hen House... Mrs. Maguire is quite the busy lady, ain't she?  LOL

Next week has something going on every day... Monday night we're doing dinner with friends, Tuesday I have Elliot, Wednesday I have an appointment to get my teeth cleaned and I work out with Anna in the afternoon, Thursday my cleaning lady in coming in the morning and I have my standing hair appointment in the afternoon. Nothing on Friday so far, but I bet something will come up.  And as I said before I'd like to get out my Fall stuff... other than an occasional 80 degree day there is lots of cool weather in the forecast and I am loving it!!

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today... gonna take it easy... the weather is perfect for sitting out on the sunroom porch with the windows open ... I can stitch a little and maybe nap a little too!

happy stitching-

carol fun 

Perking up on a Slow Sunday...

Hello- well last Sunday I was dragging but things have gotten better... I slept A LOT... and I think it helped... and I've actually gotten some things done...not as much as I wanted to... but then I NEVER get everything done that I want to...LOL

First off I finished the Teresa Kogut Faith, Hope, Peace and Love sampler that was a Patreon purchase. 

Now I've had to play with the color in this pic... why do iphones have such trouble with green fabrics? And why do I stitch on so much green fabric?  oh well... this is pretty good... I picked out a nice brown burl frame at Hobby Lobby... fingers crossed I'm happy with the framing when it is done.

And since I finished that I decided to treat myself to a new start... I've been seeing lots of cute Halloween stuff... and Darlene you know I'm talking about you... so I got out some linen I had previously painted and added some purple splotches for good measure and started this one... Sprout from Notforgotten Farm...

too cute!! So then I picked up Boo Berries...

Took about 2 nights of stitching to complete each one of these.... I have one more little scrap of blotchy fabric that I want to do Oswald on. 

A friend prodded me to get  the binding on some of those quilts I have languishing... one a week she said... and I did!! I picked the smallest one... this my American Jane Spool quilt...

the pattern is from the Sew Emma book Simply Jelly Rolls  and the pattern is called Biscuit.  I plan to hang this over my cutting table in my sewing room but for now it is across the back of the sofa...

Ok the color of the quilt is much better in the first pic ... it has been overcast here for a couple of days and the little light coming through the window behind me is blowing out the color... sorry.

And looking across the room you can see my chicken quilt on the wall... this was from left over Lori Holt leaf blocks and flower blocks... I machine appliqued the chicken on after it was quilted...

The tier tray has a funny little tiny toy... you wind it up and the chickens peck...

and the cross stitch is from Nikycreations Summer Scissors you can see it here. 

And this is my small shelf display... chickens and garden stuff is the theme right now... 

On the left side I have a stuffed rooster I picked up at a Hallmark shop years and years ago...

and on the right side...

the cross stitch on the little tin box is Rise and Shine by ScissorTail Designs... you can see it here.  I love the little chicken mini quilt... not sure where I got that pattern... 

Moving down on  the left hand side have a little chicken piece that I can't remember for the life of me who it came from... Heart in Hand? Hands on Designs?  Bent Creek?  I searched for it but no luck... the little chicken stack pillow on the bottom shelf is from Pinker N Punkin,  it is a freebie you can find here. 

Moving to the right side... another piece from Pinker N Punkin called Bees, Blooms and Chickens you can see it here... and truck is a snippet from Hands on Designs  Fresh Eggs Farm. 

and here's a better pic of the piece hiding on the bottom shelf...

This is Good Deeds from With Thy Needle and Thread ... you can find it here.  Next week I'll close out Summer with my big shelf display... still have one piece I want to FFO for it. I like my Summer displays but I'm chomping at the bit to do Fall... I'm hoping that doing Fall inside makes it cooler outside... forecast for the week is for a cold front to move through today and bring the temps down to the 70's in the daytime and 50's at night... can't wait to turn off the AC and open the windows and tell Duke Energy to take a  hike!

And next weekend is Labor Day weekend... where did the Summer go?  It seems to drag and speed by all at the same time. I'm looking at my garden beds and everything is wild and pretty overgrown... I'm not looking forward to cutting everything down and cleaning up the beds... but it will have to be done. I'm going to ask my lawn guy to use his dump trailer again. That made the job easier as I didn't have to get all the garden waste stuffed into paper bags for garbage pick up. 

Plans for next week include more stitching and some sewing... if I follow my friend's advice I'll get the binding on one more quilt... and I have three Christmas quilts I want to do and I need to get started on at least one... Elliott is in school all day... doesn't get off the bus till 4pm... that's a loooong day in my opinion. Anyway I'm watching him for about 90 minutes on Tuesdays over at his house... his Dad gets off work around 4:30 and depending on the traffic on I-71 he's home around 5:30... although last week it took till 6:30 as it rained just as rush hour started and a horrible accident had the expressway closed for over an hour... not good. 

I think I'll stitch up Oswald from Notforgotten Farm... the 3 little guys will be a nice addition to my Halloween display ... and I have a turkey I want to stitch for Thanksgiving... and there is still a Christmas sampler I should do, but I'm not feeling it right now. I looked through a bunch of my WIPs the other day and there are several I'd like to get back to. I saw a lot of the new releases for the Fall Needlework market... definitely some pretty things but so far I'm only tempted by one... and that is a very good thing, dontcha know?  I have enough charts to last 10 lifetimes... LOL

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today... Nick likes to fix dinner for us on Sundays and I think he's doing meat sauce tonight...yummy... going to try to stick close to home this week and get things done around here. Maybe if the weather's not too hot and I find some motivation I'll clean up the garage... it is a mess and a lot of the mess could just be pitched in the garbage...I still want to rearrange some fabric in my sewing room and there is a bunch of stuff in the storage room that needs to be donated... I need a personal assistant to do my bidding...LOL... 

Hope you have a great week ahead...Fall is coming... and that pumpkin donut I ate yesterday has me ready for chrysanthemums (I saw that Costco has some big ones) and sweaters and trees turning colors ... meteorological Fall starts September 1 but I realistically know it will be October before all my Fall wishes will come true... sigh...oh well...

happy stitching-

carol fun 

Dragging myself by for a moment on a Slow Sunday...

Hello - the week got away from me in so many ways and I'm exhausted... I'm writing this on Sunday morning instead my usual Friday or Saturday...   I saw this meme that spoke to me... 

this is my current mood...I ran around doing a bunch of stuff Monday through Wednesday and on Friday something hit me... I did nothing all day Friday but sit in my stitching chair, didn't even pick up a needle... and Saturday I slept more hours than I was awake... I slept in my bed, I slept in my stitching chair, I slept on the couch on the sunroom porch... I will say it isn't my back that hurts it is my neck and I don't know why and I'm still dragging...

So I'm leaving you with one pretty picture and I'm going to try and get some stuff done around here. 

I want to shovel out my sewing room and I fingers crossed that will motivate me to get something accomplished.

There are several quilts just waiting for bindings...sigh... my least favorite part of quilting. 

I have to go out and water ... it has been another HOT HUMID HORRIBLE week weather wise... I've neglected my window boxes and it shows... too early to rip them out but they aren't looking good...in fact they may be done for... 

Have several cross stitch pieces that need to be FFO'd.. and also my least favorite part of cross stitching. 

I heard rumblings of a cool down around here but can't find any forecast that supports that...I am sooooo ready for Fall...

Not sure this post is worthy of a link up with Kathy's Quilts... but I'm sure there is something over there that you would enjoy so check her out...

See you next week... and maybe ... just maybe... I'll have something to show... 

happy stitching-

carol fun 

Some things out of place and some are missing on a Slow Sunday...

 Hello - it was one of those weeks where I don't know where some of the days went to... how did I miss them?  I did get a few things done but it seems like I should have more to show for my time...sigh...

I'm going to start outside today... on the happy side I got an award from my little town for my yard full of flowers... the Deer Park Beautification Award... I've gotten this about 8 out of the 11 years I've been here and it makes me happy... ignore the lawn... last week I had I treated to kill the nut sedge...which it did but it also killed some of the grass too...I know it will get better, it just takes time...

Anyway, aagain this year it appears that the flowers are eating  my house... I overplant ... 

and I know it... 

but I can't stand empty spaces when I start putting things in the garden in the Spring and then they grow and multiply and other things grow and multiply that I didn't plant. Currently these are popping up in my garden beds...

the official name is Lycoris... but around here we call them naked ladies because they have to leaves... I have never bought or planted this flower ... I have no idea how it got into my garden ... and even though it isn't planted where I'd like it to be I will leave it be....

Also this year I have had an abundance of cleome popping up that I did not plant this year... it is a different variety from the ones I did plant... 

the larger flower in the foreground is a renegade... the smaller blooms  behind it are the ones I planted this year... I will say the smaller ones are very hardy and have hugely multiplied ... much more than I expected... and they don't tend to droop during the day like the larger bloom variety... BUT... I really LOVE the larger bloom ones... I planted them a year or so ago but I couldn't find that variety this year so I went with what I could get... and now the larger variety is popping up in places I would not have planted it... but I can't bear to rip them out... like these blush white ones...

so they are out of place and  they will stay that way... I do hope I can find the larger variety next year... or maybe some seeds... the larger variety has only emerged in the last month or so and has just taken off like a rocket. I only wish they were coming up in the back of the beds instead of the front where they are blocking out any view of other plants I put in... 

I also have a love/hate relationship going on with the zinnias I planted from seed... the package said they would be 8 to 12" tall ... it is a LIE... they are easily 24 to 36" tall and if I had known that I would NOT have planted them in the front of the beds... but again I can't bring myself to yank them out.  I planted a whole raised bed of what were according to the seed packet cactus zinnias... full and kinda shaggy... the are neither ... they look just like ordinary zinnias and they've gotten tall and floppy... why do I believe seed packets??  And I have a patch of weeds that is quite green and robust... it has a little yellow flower... and I'm leaving it alone for the moment but next year I think I will plant cleome there as it tend to take over... gonna try and crowd out the weeds... as a gardener hope springs eternal!!Blac

We did have a  little rain this week...not enough... and it is back to the upper 80's lower 90's... there is a forecast of rain Tuesday through Thursday on one of the weather apps on my phone (the other has no rain forecast) but I have as much faith in this as I do in the descriptions on seed packets. 

As for crafty stuff... my finish of the Noel Sampler spurred me to pick back up the Blackbird Design piece  The Sweet Birds Sing...

I wanted to add an alphabet at the bottom ... and I was going to graph something myself when I came across this alphabet in the book Thank You, Sarah Tobias... this is a OOP book but you can see the projects that are in it here...

I think it fits well with the style of the birds and it was an easy stitch... so being happy with my finish I went and ironed the piece and started to head out to the framer when I realized ...it was NOT finished...

you see that little Smyrna cross I circled... there are 29 more of those I need to add down the sides...sheesh... glad I found it in time... I have 2 samplers on my walls that I know of that are missing stitches ... I didn't see the omissions until long after they were framed ... so I try to be more watchful and be sure I didn't miss something... but it happens... 

Now thinking that I had the Sweet Birds finished I picked back up Teresa Kogut's Faith Hope Peace and Love...  I started this in May of 24 and the last time I stitched on it was April of this year and I should be able to get this done this month... this is a Patreon pattern that hasn't been released as far as I know...

Here's where I left off... the color of the linen is awful in this pic...

And here's where it is now...

The linen color is truer in this pic... think DMC  471 with a brown under tone. As you can see I changed the orientation of this chart and I  just have that last section to do.... oh and I need to re-do the letters  H I J K as they are in the wrong color floss. Now I was patting myself on the back that I had made copious notes about this piece as I've changed  almost every single color... it is graphed in a couple of shades of blue and tan and I "colorfied" it... however I had put this down for a while and in checking my notes I found out that I have notes that are totally contradictory... and it definitely took looking at this in natural light to realize that I stitched HIJK in a different floss than the rest of the alphabet... luckily it is the square with the fewest letters... 

Not sure what I'm going to work on next... maybe some Halloween or there's a new Tiny Town by Heart in Hand titled Quilted Tiny Town...

I want to add this to my Fall display... so it may be up next...

When I first looked at my calendar for next week  it looked wonderfully bare of engagements and then WHAM... now I have 3 places I need to be on Monday...two I'm looking forward to, one not so much... Elliott on Tuesday and I think this is the last Tuesday before school starts... Wednesday only one thing, working out with Anna... Thursday hoping to do lunch and some quilty stuff and Friday I have a funeral to attend... the Mom of a dear friend passed away last week.  

So I hope your upcoming week is a good one... only doing things you want to do... I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today... doing dinner with family that has come in town from California to visit... and hopefully some time to work in my garden and sit on my sunroom porch and watch the birds... I've been getting a ton of birds lately, mourning doves, purple headed martins, cardinals, blue jays and some sparrows... and yesterday I had a couple of hummingbirds that were feasting on the cannas and the pestamon... such fun to watch!

happy stitching-

carol fun 

A FINISH and some decor and some blathering on a Slow Sunday...

 Hello - so how was your week?  Mine got busier than I anticipated with an out of the blue lunch meet up with some woman I knew 35 years ago... we were all in a babysitting Co op group back then ... stay at home moms ... a bit on the older side... who'd left full time jobs to raise our kids... it was nice to catch up ... and I spent Tuesday with Elliott... he gave me an education on Minecraft... Grandma is getting hip...LOL.. and the guy came to clean the blinds and WOW they are so much brighter ...it has been about 8 years since I had them cleaned and he recommended having them done every 4-5 years... I'll try to remember that. 

The weather has taken a nice turn ...but it took getting through another week of upper 90's... my electric bill and my water bill hit my email on the same day... YIKES... I do hope that is the high point of this season. Forecast is for the week starting in the low 80's and working its way up... I was able to turn off the AC and open the windows yesterday... nice to air out the house. 

As for productivity... well instead of dividing my attention between a quilting project and a cross stitch project I decided to go all in on the cross stitch and I FINISHED the Noel Sampler!!!

Here's how it looked when I picked it back up mid July this year... 

And here is it FINISHED!! 

I did this on 32 count and it measures about 14" square. I love how the colors pop on the green linen. I dyed this with Apple Green Rit dye. (The color is the truest in the pic above and the pic of the two pieces below the bird.)   I made a couple of small personal changes to the piece. I eliminated the dogs ... one was replaced by a tree and the other by a star ... and instead of a date about the house I added more snowflakes.  I do think that portions of this sampler would make great little pillows... like this section for example...

This is the 2nd piece of what I plan for a trio of Christmas charts ... and this is how I plan to hang them..

That piece at the top is Prairie Schooler Christmas Alphabet.. and right now I'm thinking of doing Blackbird Designs The Bells on Christmas Day(you can see the chart in the bottom right hand corner of the cover)  for the 3rd piece of the trio and it would hang above these  2... a showcase of my favorite designers! I'm also thinking of doing the BBD piece in the DMC conversion since I used DMC on both of the other pieces... need to get a piece of linen dyed for it. 

Now I plan to turn my attention to 2 other pieces that are almost complete... and then I might do something Halloweeny ... I also have a couple of bigger sampler projects I haven't started ...but I really want to... I was watching Carol Saltbox Stitcher on Youtube and she was showing a bunch of projects she wanted to start even though she has tons of already started projects, and her attitude is I'm going to stitch what I want to stitch when I want to stitch it... I LOVE that attitude!! So I will continue to jump around like a BB in a box car (one of my Dad's favorite sayings about me) and stitch what I want to stitch, when I want to stitch it. Stay tuned there may be a tiny bit of a new start on something next week that you haven't seen before.

I was able to get out my garden/chicken decor... but I'm still tweaking some of the displays... I started out on the sunroom porch since I spend a lot of time out there and this is what I have...

Up top I have one of the pieces from Prairie Schooler No. 45 Garden Samplers   and that new to me Debbie Mumm cookie jar... ain't it cute?

In the middle I have some chicken knickknacks and the Magic Garden sampler from Shakespeare's Peddler... I started the one over 10 years ago and it took almost 5 years to get around to finishing it... I didn't understand why the chart had the lilies on the left side charted in black (I changed them to daylily orange) but the designer, Teresa Venette, said she had the idea for the piece from a Tim Burton film... so that makes some sense... but I'm happy I made them realistic.

On the bottom shelf I have a plate I found at Homegoods years ago and a little piece that seems to find its way into so many of my displays... this cute little bird pulling a wagon with button wheels is by Homespun Elegance and is called Delivering Posies...  

and I recently came across this chart  which hopped into my cart... Delivery Plenty... 

a turkey with a cart of Fall goodies... this would be so cute in my  November display!! 

Along with changing the decor in the living room  and sunroom porch, I changed out the quilt on my bed... 

This is a boho mish mash of some Tim Holtz fabrics and some vintage Moda from the Basic Grey Curio collection... I love the mix of all those patterns in the quilt and on the floor!

 And I have a chair that sits in the corner of the room and I like to put a coordinating quilt on it... I posted this a couple of weeks ago when I was talking about possible Christmas quilt patterns... at that time I couldn't find a pic of the quilt finished and last week for several days I couldn't find this quilt anywhere in my house... argh... I spent a chunk of time looking at the plastic bins in my attic area ...and boy was it hot up there... and then I gave up... and I came back downstairs and sat in my comfy stitching chair... and glanced across the room... and there in the TV display cabinet was this quilt... argh argh argh... I forgot I had stuck it in there instead of putting it in the bin with the coordinating bed quilt... anyway here it is ...

You can get the pattern as a freebie from MSQC... just watch this video...

And on the bed is a favorite pillow of mine... got it at Target a long time ago... it is yellow... my favorite color and it says HAPPY!!

and it makes me HAPPY!

So plans for next week... working out with Anna M/W... I've been seeing her for a couple of months and I can tell I am getting stronger... I continue to walk 3 miles or more a day and I'm  training with weights at Anna's. I kinda want to do it 3 times a week but it does break up the day ...have to talk to her about how to get her schedule (which is kinda full, she has a lot of clients) and my schedule to sync up more... I have Elliott on Tuesday... school starts in about 2 weeks for him... August 18 as I recall... gonna get my hair cut and colored on Thursday...and on Friday my SIL and her daughter are coming into town from San Diego...going to see them for dinner.  I'm sure other stuff will come up too... such is life... and it is a pretty good one dontcha know...LOL

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today... read some blogs, watch some Flosstube videos and sit on the sunroom porch and stitch... Nick is fixing dinner again this Sunday ... it is becoming a very nice routine ...pot roast in the crockpot tonight... with a noodle side dish and watermelon... very tasty.  Hope you have a good week ... I'm working on getting my head wrapped around the fact that the year is half gone... I looked back through my posts to see what I've gotten done so far and I've definitely made some good progress on cross stitch stuff, but my quilting is lagging... sitting out here on the sunroom porch is my FAVORITE activity and it lends itself so well to cross stitching... the recliner is comfy and the sunlight coming through the windows on 3 sides of me is fantastic... so I'm going to do more of it!

happy stitching-

carol fun