A theme of unexpected events discussed on a Slow Sunday...

Hello - well it was quite the week... filled with unexpected events which caused my plans to change multiple times ... but in at the moment I'm writing this post, things have seemed to work out... at least I think they have... so let me recap ... last Sunday Nick and I started to put away the Fall decor... and it became incredibly obvious that before we could do that, we were going to have to clean out at least part of the furnace storage room... and we ended up working several hours on that, resulting in a BIG load of stuff that we took to donate... but it was just the beginning of that process. We were able to put some stuff away and Nick brought up al the Christmas decor. But we were both too tired to get much of it out of the bins.

Monday there were errands to run and the forecast of snow caused us to change the plans to meet friends for breakfast on Tuesday morning , to dinner on Monday evening ... which we did...and we had a very nice time... 

Tuesday the snow came... about 4 inches... Elliott and all the rest of the kids in the area did not have school. His Mom cancelled her appointments and stayed home with him while he played in the snow... Elliott made a snow fort in their front yard. And it was serendipitous that I didn't need to watch Elliott because I felt crappy all day Tuesday. I have this issue where unexpectedly the salivary gland on the right side of my face will get blocked... and it will swell... and it hurts... and the only treatment is warm compresses and sucking on lemon drops and swallowing water and other liquids to make more saliva. These flare ups usually last a day or two and that's how it went this time. In between applying warm compresses to the side of my face I did get all my Christmas decor out... hallelujah!! I definitely worked at my own pace and it took me ALL day to do this... I would arrange a bit or two and then sit back down with a warm compress... and I was super tired all day so a couple of cat naps also happened. 

Wednesday I felt better and after breakfast and a couple of errands I had a renewed sense of purpose in cleaning out the rest of the furnace storage room and the under the stairs storage space and we took another BIG load of stuff to be donated... oh that felt good... you can actually walk into the furnace room without tripping over a bin or having to move one out of your way...very satisfying. In the evening we met Chris and another family member for dinner... it was a full day. 

Thursday I sewed... a lot... I got the binding on this quilt...

This is J. Wecker Frisch's Classic Christmas collection and I'll show you another picture in a bit of it all quilted up and hanging on the back of my sofa.  

I got the binding on this wall hanging, also a J.Wecker Frisch piece...

Love the panto on this one...swirling snowflakes.

                                

I have this displayed on the door going up to Nick's room and I really like how it looks there.

I made two pillowcases and the binding for the Tiny Christmas Giant Lemoyne Star (GLS) quilt ...here's how it looked on my design wall before I took it to Delinda...

 And I went to dinner with a friend. It was another very productive and satisfying day.

Friday got re-arranged numerous times. First I was going to go up to see Delinda to pick up the GLS quilt...but my daughter-in-law's uncle is in the hospital in Lexington with extremely serious heart issues and she wanted to go see him and needed me to get Elliott off of the school bus. So I rescheduled Delinda... but then the plans changed again as her uncle had his second surgery that week and couldn't have visitors... but a babysitter was needed for Friday night as there was a company Christmas dinner that had to be attended. So I watched Elliott and somehow re- re- scheduled a trip up to Springboro to get my GLS from Delinda.  

I also got 2 workout sessions in with Anna but both of them got flipped from the original time as she had unexpected things happen. I felt like I was running a race all this week. So glad to have Sunday with no plans other than to get the binding on the GLS quilt, as next week has something scheduled every single day... not always a big thing to do, but some event where I have to be somewhere at a certain time and some fun stuff like lunch with the girls and watching Elliott so I'll focus on that. 

All the running around and cleaning didn't leave a lot of time or energy for crafty stuff this week outside of the binding projects... have I ever told you that binding the quilt is my least favorite part?  Well it is and it explains why there are always finished quilts sitting in my sewing room waiting to be bound. A deadline like Christmas is motivating and along with the 2 quilts I did this week and the GLS which is due to get bound today,  there is still another Christmas quilt waiting for binding... maybe, just maybe I'll get to it this year. It would be a nice quilt to give my son and DIL... need to find fabric for the binding. 

I did finish a sock...

and I cast on it's mate. I want that big green swath to show up again but I'm not certain it will as I re-wound one ball of the yarn so I'll get a different pattern. I'll be happy however it turns out. 

Oh the yarn Advent calendar is  hitting all the right notes so far... here's what I opened as of December 6.

Now I'll have to wind each little hank into a ball but I'm really liking that they are labeled as to which Opal collection they came from.... so if I want more I could track it down. That is a great detail. 

Another week has passed where I did not put a single stitch in a cross stitch project... sigh...I've been re-thinking my plans for a Blessings Sampler ...saw on IG where several people are doing a patriotic sampler to get a jump on their projects for the 250th birthday of the United States... and I have lots of plans for this celebration ...I have a stack of charts and there are 2 quilts I want to make....sooooo.... it would be good to work on this. I started a patriotic sampler a while ago but only got a little done, so I need to pick it back up... and these are my current choices for the Semiquincentennial or the America250  celebration. 

I'm leaning toward the Scarlett House one as it is a true sampler... that is it has alphabet.... but the other two are very cute! I'll think about this... maybe see what flosses I already have for it. 

As for Christmas decor let me show you a little of what I've done... let's start in the kitchen where a meeting of gingerbread men has convened... I know this isn't  a great picture... I've taken a bunch of pics at different times of the day and either there is too much light coming in that window or not enough...sheesh... anyway they are a good looking group...LOL

The only Christmas decorations I've bought this year were the gingerbread man blow mold on the far left (and I have some harsh words for its construction) and the polka dot gingerbread man, second from the left (he's actually a book holder) and a tiny gingerbread man mug.  So here is the tiny guy... with what I'm calling his parents...

they are tucked inside the chicken wire bottom part of this display. As for the blow mold, he's suppose to light up on a timer... however I have not been able to open the battery area... and a google search revealed that LOTS of people can't get it open. It is secured with 4 teeny tiny itsy bitsy screws ... I have a set of small screwdrivers to repair eyeglasses and even those screwdrivers were too big, and I, and many others, stripped the screws... so I tried prying it open with a bigger screwdriver and so far I've been unsuccessful

in that endeavor. I shall try again later this week. 

Out on the sunroom porch I went with the pink theme again... 

Up top I have the Lizzie Kate Christmas Alphabet and the needlepoint angel I stitched about 40 years ago... where did the years go???

In the middle is Lizzie Kate's Tiny Tidings XXI  and some cute retro looking pink deer... and on the bottom another Christmas Joy by Barbara Ana  and the tree pillow is from Emily Call's Quilted Christmas. 

On the window ledge I corralled a few knickknacks and a little Lizzie Kate piece...

I didn't put out all my Christmas decorations ... again I have an almost full bin of stuff left over... I see another trip to donate more stuff when the time comes to put away the decorations this season... and that is a good thing... trying hard to keep less stuff.

The new addition to the porch was putting these snowflakes all over the windows...

some are sparkly and some are matte white... they are cling plastic and I thought if I went with a snowflake theme I can keep them up all winter. At night I'm turning the inside light on so they are more visible and you can just a barely see one of the white wooden snowflakes I have in the window boxes... hopefully I can get some lights in the window boxes tomorrow as more of the snow from Tuesday has melted. 

Inside I went with the wonky tree quilt on the wall ... I haven't used this one is a couple of years... I made this back in 2017 and it holds the distinction of being the last quilt of a "large" size that I machine quilted myself... I take all my quilts now to Delinda of The T-Shirt Quilt Company... she does a great job every time!. 

and the tier tray has a sleigh of Santas ... I found that "sleigh" is the collective word for a bunch of the red suited guys...LOL... the ones up top are from Prairie Schooler  No. 135 Good Saint Nick  and the Santa piece on the bottom is a freebie from With Thy Needle & Thread called Merry & Mintty... and the little boy hold the train is a tree topper I needlepointed about 39 years ago... I'm feeling really old here...

So here is the J. Wecker Frisch quilt on the back of the sofa...

I love the panto and the lime-y green thread... I think the bells look very 1950's vintagey!

As I finish up this post on Saturday it is quite the gray day... and I'm feeling the need for a nap... doesn't that sound nice?  I know next week is going to get busy again but I'm so happy that I have my decorations out and I've gotten my big storage room cleaning pretty much done... there still is a couple of baskets I have to go through  but I need some more of those big cardboard boxes to put the stuff in to take it to donate. Going to hit Costco again on Monday...that's when they seem to have the most cardboard boxes and you can take them for free. 

Want to get the binding on the GLS before the girls come over on Wednesday... that is a deadline that is entirely doable... want to decide on a Blessing Sampler and pick up a needle and stitch a bit... perhaps the patriotic sampler I already started could fill the gap... and of course I'll work on my sock knitting... when I'm too tired to do much of anything I can still manage a few rounds and the anticipation of how the pattern is going to knit out is good motivation. 

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today... I've been seeing some lovely Christmas displays... it makes my heart happy. 

Hope your week ahead is a good one and that we all get something on our to do list accomplished!

happy stitching-

carol fun