Pondering planting and productivity on a SNOWY Slow Sunday...

 Hello - well as I sit here on Saturday morning I swear I can hear the shark theme from Jaws playing somewhere... Snowmaggedon is imminent here in southwest Ohio... I know by the time you read this many many many of you will have been impacted by this winter storm and I hope that you are okay. Right now we are forecast to get a foot ... or maybe a bit more... of the white death... arghhh... I'll be fine... I have no where I need to go till mid-week and even that isn't vital... I have plenty of food in the fridge and plenty of projects to work on... I just worry about all the people who have to go out in this mess and the people in areas of the US that just don't normally  have to deal with  this kind of weather... I've lived all over the US and spent several winters in NE Pennsylvania... that was wicked weather... at this moment I'd bet big bucks that no school in this area will be open on Monday and lots won't open for days... and many businesses won't be open early in the week either... and while I'm already hoping that the snow that hasn't even fallen, melts quickly, the long range forecast is for frigid temperatures for at least a week more... sigh...

It is no wonder that I've spent lots of time pondering what I want to plant in my garden this year?  I've been looking online at lots of places that sell dahlia tubers ... but I haven't ordered any... yet... I'm chomping at the bit to see what Costco is going to get in. I've seen 2 YouTube videos where people have already seen the dahlia tubers in their store but they were on the west coast... I checked the blog and last year they didn't show up in Ohio till late February.  My plan for my raised beds this year will require LOTS and LOTS of tubers... I found this guy...   dahliamandrew    ... WOW... go look at the videos on his IG... he plants his tubers 6" apart versus the 12" to 18" I've always been told about... my raised beds are 3' wide and 6' long... right now I'm thinking of doing 3 long rows in each bed and putting at least a dozen tubers in each row... so 36 tubers per raised bed... and I have 4 beds  where I want to do this... so that's 144 tubers ... now I did dig up what I planted last year so some of them may be viable for this year... and I'll still need some more tubers to plant in the other parts of the yard... because you can never have too many flowers... or too much fabric... or yarn... or floss... or linen... or charts... or... well you get the picture.

 Speaking of floss and linen and charts... I'm calling my Blessings Sampler Alphabits finished!!

It measures 34" in length...  Here's some closer pics...

I went back and fixed my errors under the Q and I did find the heart shaped shell buttons I thought about putting under the O... but they are too big... so I ordered some smaller beads that should come on Wednesday... not sure what I'm going to work on next... I got out my bag of patriotic charts the other day as an IG post of a beautiful  Teresa Kogut piece was posted and I couldn't remember if I had the chart or not... update... I did have it... it is a whole book called Hello America and the pic I saw was of the cover piece... and check out 123Stitch... there are lots of cute patriotic charts from Teresa... 

And I saw where someone else finished stitching this one by WTN&T... Liberty House... it has been in my stash for a looooong time... 

I'm pondering how to spend my time here at home the next couple of days in the most productive way possible... do I finish up some projects that have been languishing?... or do I start something new?... what I don't want to do is fritter my time away watching videos online and doom scrolling IG... which will probably happen...here and there... sigh

As for snowman decor which is so appropriate this week... here's my small shelf display...

Up top I have this gorgeous snowman cookie jar that Nick found for me in a thrift shop and the Lizzie Kate's Winter Alphabet. 

And to the left is a cute little sled shelf filled with more snowmen...

Below there is a little cross stitch and my collection of snowman heads... just the head...LOL

In the middle is The Drawn Thread's Welcome Winter... and mine looks totally different from the model since I stitched it on that turquoise linen... 

And I have a little snowman from WTN&T...Holiday Hoopla... I like him in the little tin frame.. I left off the stocking cap he had on the chart and added some snowflakes as I like my snowmen wintery not Christmasy...

On the other side I have Alfred by Heart in Hand... he's cute and my Dad's middle name was Alfred...

That bottom shelf could definitely use some cross stitch pieces... perhaps I could use my time this week to FFO a couple of the snowmen I have already stitched up... that would be productive...

Good thing I got my running around done last week... the ortho doc confirmed I need a total knee replacement for my left knee...I'll do that this summer... trying  to coordinate with Chris and the vacations they have planned... they  want to do a Florida trip this year... they were supposed to do it over a year ago but it got cancelled when Chris started his current job as a county magistrate... I'm thinking July would be a good time to do the surgery as my garden will all be planted by then and with the drip irrigation and the sprinklers there isn't as much to deal with.

So I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today... and I'll say a prayer for all of you who are in the grips of this snowstorm... I hope you are safe and warm inside with a nice project to work on...and remember there are 53 days till the Vernal Equinox... gotta be hopeful.. 

happy stitching-

carol fun 

A lot of Debbie Mumm and some misbehaving cross stitch on a Slow Sunday...

Hello - so how was your week?  I don't know why I start every week thinking "oh it's not too busy"... and then it is very busy... all I can surmise is that I lie to myself... a lot... LOL  Last week had me out of the house to attend to an appointment or a lunch or a dinner or taking someone  somewhere every single day. Usually Saturday and Sundays are calmer but as soon as I'm done writing this (on Saturday) I'm off to a birthday party for my older son... he's 41 today... and I'm 31 years older than that... sheesh. 

Anyway all that running around was tiring... so when I did get back to my comfy stitching chair not much happened... and my fatigue was both physical and mental... don't know how many of you followed Scott Adams... he first came to prominence as the creator of the Dilbert cartoon... and later developed as a best selling author of many books that offered a new way to look at one's life. I've been watching his podcast every day since Covid... 10 am sharp with a simultaneous sip ...he always provided a new view of the happenings in the world. Last May he was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer that had spread to his bones. He tried several different treatments but passed away last Tuesday morning... he continued to post a video podcast every day... right up to the day he died. Although I never met him in person I felt he was  a good friend... I spent hours and hours listening to his podcasts and I've read several of his books. Right now I'm re-read "Reframe your Brain: The User Interface for Happiness and Success". Chapter 3 is particularly pertinent at this time as it deals with mental health reframes... and this one hits home:

Usual frame: Death is a tragedy. Death is the end of this person.

Reframe: The deceased has no more problems and energy can change form but it never disappears.

There's a lot to think about there... and I did a lot of thinking about it this week.

Switching gears... I am so happy that I got out my snowman decor... so much Debbie Mumm and Prairie Schooler stuff  which always makes me feel good. Starting off with the quilt on the wall...

this is my version of the Suburbs quilt by Cluck Cluck Sew ....  I call my quilt Mummvile and every house is different and every fabric is a Debbie Mumm ... it was so fun to pick out the perfect door for each house... and I love the panto that Delinda used... it's called West Wind as I recall... 

and the tier tray has the Snow Day chart from Prairie Schooler No. 177 January and lots of Debbie Mumm figurines ...

and it sits on top of another Debbie Mumm quilt... don't remember where I found that snowflake block pattern but the quilt is approaching vintage as I machine quilted it myself...and I haven't any machine quilted anything bigger than a table runner in over 10 years... 

and on the other end is a Debbie Mumm snowman cookie jar atop a stack of quilts all done in Debbie Mumm fabrics...

and there's a laundry cart full of quilts all made with Debbie Mumm fabrics ... okay there is one in there that isn't a Debbie Mumm but I needed it to fill the cart... 

On my dining table I have a tray of Prairie Schooler Snowmen sitting atop a table runner made with Debbie Mumm fabrics... 

and by now you can see how smitten I am and always have been with Debbie Mumm stuff... she was the first designer I ever fan girled ... and I have tons of her fabrics and I have a bunch of the plates she designed... and some teapots ... and knickknacks and I'm up to 4 of her cookie jars... eBay is a blessing and a curse as I can find stuff there that I wished I bought when they first came out... got in trouble this month with 2 "new" to me cookie jars... one was in the original box and in pristine shape the other came cracked with a chunk of out it and I'm still dealing with the seller... this guy put the cookie jar in a box he gerry-rigged together with packing tape... the only padding he put around the jar was a brown paper bag... that's it... no bubble wrap, no packing peanuts ... just a single brown paper bag... and when the package arrived it appeared that something had been dropped on it...so far the only suggestion for a remedy to this situation is to send back the cookie jar... but I'm suppose to package it so it arrives in the same shape I got it... which would require me to go get some bubble wrap or packing peanuts and a solid shipping box... which would take time and energy along with some cash that I don't want to expend... I countered with give me half of my payment back and we'll call it done... the breakage is in the back of the piece so I can still use it as a decoration but not a cookie jar... he's ignored me for a couple of days so it is time to poke him again. 

Anyway... I didn't get a lot of stitching done this week as I was tired and a bit down...and then my Alpha-bits piece misbehaved... I had finished the letter M last week ...halfway done... and the letter N was fine but starting with the letter O the wheels fell off... first I had a heck of a time getting the stitch count right on the letter it's symmetrical but I couldn't seem to make it symmetrical... and then I got completely annoyed with the Rhodes Hearts that are charted under the letter O... I got the first one correct but after a few, a couple. several ...no lots of tries I could not get the next heart stitched correctly or in the right place... grrrrr....

At this juncture I decided this piece is like a timed multiple choice test... and you have to move on when you don't know the answer.. 

the P went fine which gave me false hope that I was back on track.. the Q...  it isn't symmetrical and I couldn't get it to meet up ... took 5 tries, arghhh... and then there was that rather simple looking back stitched motif...  I know it is hard to see... there are 5 of them... and on closer inspection 3 have an error in them... grrrrr again... I'll go back and fix them when I'm in a better mood... moved onto the R...  good thing is I still have time to finish this... today is only the 18th... 13 days left in January and 8 letters left...

Right now I think I may replace those Rhodes hearts with some shell/mother of pearl buttons I have that are heart shaped...gotta find where I put them... 

So I put the Alpha-bit piece in time out and started a new project... this is January Prairie Schooler No. 177... 

years ago I collected every one of the Prairie Schooler months charts and wanted to stitch ALL of them... so far I've done July and November and March ... I started April but I'm not liking the linen I chose so I need to start it over some day. Here, I'm using 32 ct Opalescent Wichelt ... sparkly like snow...

not a big start but any stitch is one more than I had before... and it was a nice well behaving piece of stitching.

Now I am not going to say that next week looks calm ... cause it doesn't... it looks busy busy busy... I have 2 appointments on Monday, one to work out and another to see a surgeon about my knee... it is now bone on bone... replacement is going to be necessary and I want to do it this summer... Tuesday I taking Nick to meet a friend for lunch and afterwards I have Elliott, Wednesday my quilty lady friends are doing lunch and then coming back to my house and I'm taking a family member to dinner that evening... Thursday I have my monthly haircut and color appointment and I'm not missing that ... and Friday I'm going up to see Delinda and pick up a quilt and hopefully have something to drop off... I found all the blocks from a quilt I started last year... I packed them away with each row pinned together and labelled a color picture of what the layout was... I have no recollection of putting it away like this but I'm sure glad I did as it is an indication that there's a lot of stuff I don't remember what I planned to do with them... LOL

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today ... I hope to have a quiet day to recharge before the week kicks into high gear...I hope that your week ahead is only as busy as you want it to be!

happy stitching-

carol fun 

A bit of snowy decor on a Slow Sunday...

Hello - well it took alllllll day last Sunday... but I got the Christmas stuff put away... I'd work a little and then sit down for a bit... work a bit more... ice my knees... put some more stuff in bins... sit down and doze off ... get up and pack up more stuff... sit down again and realize I'm getting too old for this ... I'm definitely going to have to attend to my knees this year.... even a double dose of naproxen wasn't enough... I'm sooooo not looking forward to a knee replacement (maybe even both... sigh)... but I don't know how much more of I want to put up with. And I hate that it will mean that I won't be able to watch Elliott for a while... not sure when would be the best time to do this... probably during Summer vacation ... he gets out of school at the end of May. And the weather is nicer so I wouldn't have to be as concerned about getting to physical therapy...  I know who I'd like to do the surgery... he's been recommended by 3 people... 2 who had both of their knees replaced ... and a friend who is a surgical closer who works with lots of ortho guys and she highly recommended him. So tomorrow I'll  talk  with the ortho person I see (she doesn't do surgery) and get the ball rolling. 

After the Christmas stuff got put away Nick brought out the snowman stuff... it took me Monday and Tuesday to get it all put out... now I operated much the way I did on Sunday... do a little, rest a little, do a little, rest a little... but I didn't do it all day either day... didn't feel real good either Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday or Thursday... not just my knees but some digestive issues... Friday had me finally feeling "normal"... I'm glad the decorating is done for a while... 1st day of Spring isn't till March 20 and Easter is April 5... I'll be wanting to see my Spring stuff by then... right now I'm spending way too much time looking at seed catalogs and dahlia tubers and pining for Spring... boy are dahlia tubers pricey this year... I looked back on this blog and last year I got a bag of 8 at Costco for $14... that's  a steal... I assume they will go up again but hopefully not as much as the online nurseries... I think I'll hold off on ordering online until I see what I can pick up at Costco. Last year I was able to find them at the end of February... 

Anyway where was I?  Oh snowman decorations... here's some of what I did... the sunroom porch...the view from my chair...

this was the first spot I did as the weather until Saturday has been wonderful... I was able to sit out there and enjoy the sun several days... we had temps in the mid 60's... in January!!! Not typical but so nice... it will be more "seasonal" this week... 10 day forecast has lots of days with high's only in the 30's... brrr... but no snow... so I'll take that...LOL...like I have a choice...sheesh...

Up top I have Snow Day  by WTN&T... this is old... I stitched it in 2012 and didn't get it framed until 2018...talk about procrastination... I couldn't find this anywhere but eBay and they wanted $65 for the chart... wow!  I'm not sure if I still have a copy of the pattern... probably not... back then I didn't think about saving patterns once they were stitched... I had no idea they'd become OOP and people would pay big bucks for them... live and learn...

middle and bottom... lots of snowmen and snow stuff and a cute house from Melisa of Pinkernpunkin Quilting... this was called Aunt Dot's Saltbox... she stitched it in pink but you know I have a thing for yellow houses... I'd love to add another wintery house to this display  and her Winter Saltbox would be a great one to stitch... and I'd change the house from blue to yellow, naturally... I love the addition of a snowman and the cardinals on these pieces... gotta get some 16 ct Aida painted....

Oh and I put some knickknacks on the window ledge on the sunroom porch... love those little felt birds... and I'm not sure why I haven't put more stuff on this ledge... I want all the decorating space I can get!!

Inside I've got my tier table full of little Hallmark snowmen... all the ones on top are from the Mitford series... got these back in 1999-2003 when they first came out... 

In the middle  of TV cabinet I have a little display of primarily Prairie Schoolers and one snowman (the one in the star) from Teresa Kogut... 

and up top on the TV cabinet ... this snowman is one Nick found for me in a thrift shop... so cute ... and the little sampler is ABC Bonhomme De Neige...

As for crafty productivity... I concentrated on the Alpha-bits Blessing Sampler and I've made great progress...this is where I was on Saturday... half way finished!

It is a nice piece to work on ... the letters are easy to stitch and then the dividing decorative bands make you pay attention... some stitches are definitely easier than others ... I want this done ASAP as I have a burning desire to stitch something "snowy"... either a snowman or a house ... now if I actually FFO'd any of the stuff I showed last week I'd have some new snowy stuff to add ... but I didn't have the energy to work on them... maybe this week... maybe...

I have a full Monday, work out early (early for me...LOL) with Anna, then an appointment with ortho, and dinner with friends. Tuesday is my day to pick up Elliott from school and spend time with him till his parents get home. Wednesday I usually take a certain family member to lunch or dinner. Thursday Nick has a dental appointment. Friday there's nothing so far. Saturday is Chris' 41th birthday... we will celebrate sometime this weekend. I already have his gift ... the newest big Lego house... he teases that he's 40 and his mommy still buys him Legoes... and I do!

I'm hoping that on Monday I can get a cortisone shot in my right knee... and see if I want to sign up to get another PRP shot in my left knee... I got some relief last time but not 6 months worth... and the other night I somehow managed to injure myself while sitting in my recliner... what?? I moved the wrong way and something got pinched inside my knee and boy did it hurt... sheesh...

I hope your upcoming week is a good one... I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today... Nick is making dinner for us so my plans are for some stitching and taking it easy... 

happy stitching-

carol fun 

Wandering around on a Slow Sunday...

Hello - well it has been another week where I'm not sure what day it is... or what I should be doing...but I muddled through. Stayed home on NYE as I've done for years and years...   and  2026 was ushered in by a ton of fireworks from my neighbors... as I anticipated... somehow he had some left over and fired more off on January 2 too... nothing I can do about it as they made fireworks legal in Ohio a year or so ago. 

I did fulfill my New Year's Day routine to the letter... I started with knitting a little after midnight... then after the fireworks concluded I went to bed... woke up and did some online work puzzle games... I love the Spelling Bee in the NY Times... started my Blessings Sampler. (more on that below) .. went out to a nice lunch... came home and sewed for a while... my older son stopped by for a bit ... and then I took a little nap... spent the evening knitting and stitching and watching videos on my laptop... it was a very very enjoyable day... the kind of day I'd like to repeat over and over and over and over and over and you get the idea.

So before New Year's I got a bit weary with knitting and picked back up some cross stitch. I went to look through the bag that has SNOWMEN in it and found that I had started 3 little pieces from the Prairie Schooler No.143  Button Up... one was complete... one needed just few stitches ...and the third was barely started... but I got all 3 done!

Snowman...

Cardinal...

And my favorite... Snow Angel... it reminds me of Elliott the last time we got snow...

Now to FFO them and some other little snowmen pieces I found in that bag... and perhaps I might even stitch a new snowman this season... it would also help if I got out my snowmen... but alas the motivation to put Christmas away has not yet materialized... maybe today... tomorrow... Wednesday... it will happen... I looked back at my displays in January/February last year and I do LOVE LOVE LOVE my snowmen stuff. Snowmen were my first foray into collecting stuff as an adult. It started when I was living in Modesto California... a place that doesn't really have cold... okay one year when I was there it did get below freezing for a couple of days... people went nuts... lots of outdoor sprinkler systems froze, burst and ended up icing all of the landscaping in the yards. I lived in a neighborhood of newer homes, built on a slab with the PVC plumbing coming straight up out of the ground and into the house. Being from the Midwest we realized these pipes would freeze and burst so we placed a cardboard box over them with a mechanic's utility light over the pipes and  we kept the faucet dripping in the kitchen as that sink was on an outside wall... ours was the only house in the neighborhood that didn't freeze. For days there was no PVC pipe to be found in all of Modesto... anyway... where did I wander off too ... oh yeah the lack of cold had me homesick for the Midwest and I started collecting snowmen.

As planned, I started stitching on my Blessing Sampler for 2026 Alpha-bits ... I painted the 32 ct linen with Apple Green and Aquamarine Rit Dyes... here's a look at the painted linen... this piece is 42" long...

 and decided to use DMC 501 as the floss... the color is appropriately called Dark Blue Green ... here's where I am on Saturday as I typed this...

I'm using 2 strands for the letters but some of the decorative stitches I'm doing with one strand if there is a lot of thread involved... like the Double Leviathan stitches under the C... now I know this chart was done in 2004... and that technology has improved... but if you stitch this be aware that the scale of the charts changes from page to page... in other words you couldn't make a working copy and paste them together, as they wouldn't line up. There are 3 letters to a page and when I moved from C to D I was going to paste a copy of the pages together... but the scale of the page with DEF is smaller than the scale of the page with ABC and I can already see that GHI is different scale than DEF... just a heads up.  Anyway I think this is going to be so pretty hanging out on my sunroom porch... there is this narrow little space beside the door that will be the perfect spot and it will pick up the turquoise blues and apple greens I have out there. 

As for knitting I got this pair done...

and I did start a pink pair...

this is coming out kinda Fair Isle ... I didn't expect that... and I'm not sure I'm liking the color of that heel... need to dig through my bin of solid colored yarns and see if I find something I like better...

As for sewing, I got a nice amount of those Momo hexagons sewn together... 

I've gone back and forth as to whether this should be a throw ... or a bed size quilt... or a throw... right now I'm leaning towards throw... need to get the hexagons on the design wall and see how big it is. 

I also played with some charm packs I had... now these are Chez Moi by Sentimental Studios.. and it is old... I'm thinking it came out in like 2009... anyway I found 4 of these charm packs on eBay ...

and why is it that fabric that is OOP is so alluring ... this happens to me with regularity... when the fabric is easy to obtain, I like it, and think I'll get that soon... but then some other shiny object comes along and I forget ... and by the time I do remember it is no longer available anywhere but eBay or Etsy and it costs way more... sigh... I think there might be some genetic cause of this as both my son and my grandson have fallen victim to this behavior. My son has spent the last year scouring eBay for Lego Mixels for Elliott... Elliott discovered them through old YouTube videos... they were only produced from 2014 to 2016...5 years before Elliott was born. There are 81 of the little Mixel creatures and as of Christmas Elliott is now the ecstatic owner of ALL 81... and now it appears that he's gotten into Lego Bionicles... a collection that was started in 2001 and ran through 2016... I foresee my son spending more time on eBay...  

ooops...where was I... wandered off again...Oh... I want to make something out of the stuff I already own... and I found some Grunge in my stash that has the taupe-y brown splotches along with a smudge of pink... but I only have 2 yards... 

so while I wanted to make those center parts into stars I don't have enough to do that ... and do the sashing strips and do a bit of a border ... so they will just be plain squares... 

The plan is to make 16 blocks... and boy did it take a long time to get to my point... lots of wandering off today... 

I tried to figure out how many quilts I completed last year... and it depends on your definition of completed... several were finished except for the binding ...which took a year (or more) for several of them... I think  I sewed about 7 quilts and I "finished up with the binding" on another 6... an okay year... I'll chalk it up to not being able to sew at the beginning of the year because of my fractured knee ... and a general quilting malaise the rest of the year.  I'm definitely seeing a pattern where cross stitching and knitting are occupying more of my attention than quilting... and that is okay. 

Next year I'd like to make one, maybe 3 patriotic quilt for the 250th anniversary of the United States... I have a FQ bundle of Lori Holt's Americana collection that I want to use for a bed size quilt and a layer cake of Americana that I want to do this star block using these papers...

Here's a link to a video showing how you use these... you stack up the fabrics, cut them according to the paper and then shuffle them so each star will be different... sounds like fun, and that one is going to be a throw size... Like my cross stitch I'd like to finish up some stuff I started in previous years... the Dorothy quilt with the Momo fabrics... and the Fresh As a Daisy quilt with the American Jane fabrics... and perhaps a really scrappy quilt... I haven't done one like that in a while... one where I end up pulling tons of fabrics off the shelves and out of the bins and then only cutting a small piece off...sigh... and there will be a Christmas quilt or two as I do every year. I never got around to doing one with the Fancy That Design House  Old World Yuletide  collection and I definitely want to make a quilt with these fabrics... and go back and finish up the Cathe Holden hexagon Christmas tree quilt... I know I won't run out of things I want to make... just time and motivation... it is what it is...

So first full week of 2026... starting off with taking a family member to a doctor's appointment on Monday, Elliott is back to school on Tuesday so I'll go pick him up... working out on Monday and Wednesday... dinner with a friend on Thursday... lunch with another friend on Friday...at the moment the following week looks a little calmer and we will be celebrating my older son's 41th birthday in the middle of the month... times flies swiftly, doesn't it?

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts... might be able to sit out on the sunroom porch for a while if I crank up the space heater... temperature is going to be back up into the 50's this week... woo hoo... I know we will probably pay for this in February or March but I'm happy sitting out in the sun... hope your 2026 is off to a great start!!

happy stitching-

carol fun