Running around like a polka dotted chicken with its head cut off and lots of samplers on a Slow Sunday...

 Hello - that may be the longest title I've ever used on this blog... but it does describe the week I have had ... and the week I have ahead of me... so many errands, so many places to go, so many people to see... it is exhausting!!!   Rather than bore you right off the bat with my week of running around I'll save it to the end of this post, so you can skip it if you want... no problem.

As you would surmise running around is not conducive to getting a lot of crafty stuff done. I was able to spend some time with the Blackbird Designs The Bells on Christmas Day ... this is where I was...

this is where I am... 

making progress. Got both borders complete and several rows of alphabet. I like being able to look at where I was a week ago... I did more than I thought... good for me!!

I sewed a couple more of the Momo hexagons and I think I've made a decision on the Tiny House Christmas quilt...but I didn't get anything cut out yet.

I have a tiny bit of Halloween out... my dining room table... little witches and a giant pumpkin in a forest of candy corn bottle brush trees...

the witches and the pumpkin are from Teresa Kogut's Hello Halloween sampler.  I have lots more stuff to get out... that's the plan for today. 

Meanwhile, remember when the metal HOME sign fell off the wall in the living room?

I've been dragging my feet to re-arrange that wall but yesterday Nick and I attacked this project and I'm happy with how it turned out. This is not a final arrangement but it is good for now. Everything was put up with Command hooks so other than maybe taking some paint off the wall (again) things can and will be moved in the future. This is how the wall looks in the living room... 

Nothing lines up... I did that on purpose as I know we would never be able to get things to line up... and having every picture a different size with a different frame makes that an impossible task. Now I know that in the picture some things don't look straight, but Nick and I have checked and re-checked them with a little bubble level and according to that little gadget they are straight.

After tackling this wall we moved onto the spare room which we call the Green room... cause is it painted green... very clever of us... and yes it looks beige in this pic but trust me it is green...anyway, I added another bird sampler to this wall. 

Again an irregular arrangement as there are other bird samplers in my stash I want to add to this wall.  

Hanging "new" samplers... that is they haven't been hung before not that they have been recently finished, because they haven't, got me thinking about how many sampler walls and sampler displays I have in this tiny house... it turns out that there is a lot... according to my count I have 80 samplers hanging on the walls on the first floor... and there are more downstairs but I'm too lazy to go count them at the moment. 

The hall is tiny, only a bit over 3 ft wide and I have both sides covered in samplers... I want to have that doorbell chime removed ... I have to figure out if it is for the front door or the back door... because you'll see in the next picture there is another one on the other wall and I don't know which is which.  I want the one for the front door gone as that doorbell isn't accessible from outside anymore, so it is useless and taking up valuable sampler space!

this side... weird angle... hard to get back far enough to get them all in the picture...

other side of that same small hallway...

The green room has a nice amount of wall space ... lots of samplers and my plans is to re-arrange this wall eventually and squeeze in a couple more...

and I tucked in a couple of samplers under the shelving on this wall... 

I started cross stitching and quilting 40 years ago when I had my first child... in the throes of maternal hormones I decided  I wanted a house filled with samplers and quilts and needlepoint Christmas stockings and I think I've succeeded in my vision. Before I cross stitched or quilted I did needlepoint and I do love the stockings I've made for every person in my family... but needlepoint has gotten outrageously expensive so I'm glad I found cross stitch where the materials are more reasonably priced... and I like the look of cross stitch more for samplers and decor pieces... it works for me. 

I moved into my little house 11 years ago this month and the amount of cross stitch I've done since then surprises me... when I began I decided I would only do samplers and they had to have a house on them. The second piece I ever did was this one... a sampler from Polly Carbonari... on Aida... where I learned to pay attention to dye lots even though this was DMC.

Now I have strayed quite a way from just samplers with a house and there is certainly an embarrassment of riches in all the different styles and designers of cross stitch.  My stash is large and I'll never get all of the pieces I want stitched but that's okay... just owning some charts is enough. 

So this is the part where I whine about my busy week, I will spare you all the details and just do a summary...Monday I had 3 places I had to go. Tuesday had 5 different things to attend to. Wednesday was the busiest, 7 different places I had to be at different times. Thursday was easier than the day before, 4 events to deal with. Friday I slowed down to only 2 places I had to be at and Saturday (as I write this) I've been out once today and I may be able to stay home the rest of the day and most of tomorrow...yeah!!

Then I can gear up for next week - which so far has at least 3 -4 things I have to do every day out of the house. Tentatively the week after this one looks quiet... oh how I want some quiet... the weather has turned cooler and it is glorious... I've turned off the AC and opened all the windows and a couple of nights it has been so cool I've had to get up and close them... my idea of PERFECT weather. I want to sit out on the porch and stitch and enjoy the weather. 

My plan today is to finish up the Halloween decorating so I have something to show you next week. Right now I have stuff scattered all over the living room... what a mess! 

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today... Nick put a pot roast in the crockpot so dinner tonight will be yummy  and I want to rest up a bit before I hit the ground running tomorrow. 

Hope your upcoming week is not as busy as mine...LOL

happy stitching-

carol fun