HAPPY sewing on a Slow Sunday...

 Hello - well I've discovered it is hard to get  stuff done if one doesn't stay home... and this week I was out of the house every single day... and the older I get the harder it gets for me to get productive once I've been out and about... I come home, sit down and on numerous occasions I've fell asleep for a little cat nap... now this can't be all my fault... I blame it on comfy recliners... feet up, head back and eyes shut immediately... toss in beautiful weather with the windows open  and a lovely breeze and it is impossible to stay awake...LOL

I did have a couple of brief afternoons of craftyness  and started a new quilt project... now this isn't one of the Christmas ones I want to do...no... this one came out of left field... I found 2 layer cakes of the Julia collection by Crystal Manning in my stash... and to me they have a fun shabby chic/cottage core look... and I wanted to sew something simple but pretty and slightly boho... so I cut the layer cakes into 3" squares ... such nice little stacks...

and I made 9 patch blocks out of those little stacks... quite a few 9 patch blocks...  now I started making pretty blocks... 

and soon realized that if I was going to get the number of blocks I want for a bed size quilt... that number is 64 blocks... I was going to have to use the black prints which I had been avoiding... so I made some blocks with the black prints...

and then I mis-cut about 5 of the 10" squares... rats... so I didn't have enough of some fabrics to do 2 blocks from the same fabric... and that lead to doing some scrappier ones...

and I LOVE these!!  I got 34 blocks from this  one layer cake even with my cutting error ...

and now I'm starting in on the second layer cake and I'm going to try not to make any duplicate blocks ...and I'm going to make a lot more of the mixed up scrappy ones... they make me happy! Now this is reading quite dark at the moment but envision it with yellow sashing and red cornerstones ...

See, doesn't that brighten things up nicely??  If I wasn't lazy I'd take the blocks downstairs and put them on the design wall with the sashing ... but I am lazy... I'll try to do a better layout next week.  I think I have enough of the yellow to do a nice border ... fingers crossed. This is an older collection so I've had to do some searching to find what I want... and this is not an unusual occurrence for me... somehow I fall in love with fabric collections long after they've been released... which turns me into a fabric sleuthing Sherlock Holmes...LOL

This is a great project for me right now... not stressful... just easy fun HAPPY sewing... 

Now I only did a little cross stitch... but any stitch is one more than I had before, right?  Here's where I am on Every Opening Flower... got the door and the windows roughed in... and started adding the paint to the house. I don't want it to look stripey so I'm stitching it in small irregular sections so it looks blotchy...  

Excuse the wrinkles... I will iron it properly when it is complete... which I hope is soon... fingers crossed.

Oh I picked up my Teresa Kogut  Faith, Hope, Peace and Love sampler from Hobby Lobby... I think they did a very nice job!

I love the motifs in this piece and I did a little personalization by making the squirrel in the bottom panel a white squirrel... there are a couple in my neighborhood!

For what it's worth ... I played with the colors   on my phone and this is off... can't get that green linen to show correctly... grrr....it is a bit truer in the first pice

The weather has been GORGEOUS the last week... I've opened up all the windows and turned off the AC.. not quite sweater weather but getting there. I put away some of the Chicken/Garden decor last night... hope to get it all put away today. 

Nick helped me clean out the dead stuff in the window boxes and we put out the plastic pumpkins and put the solar lights inside... they look cool at night!

Now my birthday is next week and I've been thinking about what new project I want to start... two years ago I attempted "7 for my 70th"... and as of this year I've completed 2 of those samplers ... sigh... I only got 4 started before I got sick and ended up spending my actual birthday in the hospital... a September I don't wish to remember... and last year I wasn't in the mood to start something new... I don't know why because I'm almost always in the mood to start another project... and this year I'm debating between a Fall sampler, a Halloween piece and chart that I'm going to add an alphabet too so it meets my criteria for a sampler...

These are my choices...Autumn Soapbox by Bent Creek... I have a piece of linen dyed for this and picked up the flosses at Hobby Lobby yesterday. 

Fancey Blackett's- Brooms  by Pineberry Lane... I have a cool piece of linen I dyed purple that I could use for it. 

and Jenny's House by Theresa Venette... this was the final part of an enormous 8 part sampler called For the Parlor... you can see the whole sampler here... 

I love the house and the giant tree and like I said I would add an alphabet along the bottom...  and while I'm leaning toward this chart I would need to dye some linen for it ...and I looked at the DMC conversion for this and I'm not fond of it... I think I need to do a floss pull of some over dyeds and some DMC and come up with my color choices... the house will definitely be some shade of golden yellow maybe Crescent Color's Queen Bee with an olive green door... just like my house... and I'm thinking some Gentle Arts Dried Thyme for the leaves ... and a slight change to the configuration of those windows... and yeah, this needs some more thought...

Decisions, decisions...

The upcoming week doesn't look too busy... Elliott on Tuesday,  and some exercise,  and one dinner engagement ...so I should have time to prep a birthday sampler... and I do want to get out the Fall decor...it is one of my larger decor collections... I like to do Fall in September and then tweak it for Halloween in October and then change it up a little for Thanksgiving in November... I do LOVE FALL MOST OF ALL!  So I need to get my butt in gear. 

However at the moment my recliner on the sunroom porch is calling my name... the windows are open there is a lovely breeze ... and perhaps I might take a little nap... perhaps...

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today... I hope you are have a nice week!

happy stitching-

carol fun