Less drama means more craftyness on a Slow Sunday...

 Hello - well last week was for the most part, better than the 2 weeks previous... Monday had a rough start... took family member to 2 medical appointments... now said family member needs to take the meds prescribed and eat... something they weren't doing before... as of now they seem to be following the doctor's orders and on Wednesday appeared improved... hope this continues...

As there was less drama and trauma this week I actually had a couple of afternoons to indulge in crafty stuff... which made me happy!  I'm still in a patriotic groove where cross stitch is concerned...

I finished Heart in Hand Liberty House... a petite patriotic sampler...Fat

and I stitched up this little flag... it measures 2" high by 3" wide... 

it is on a piece of 18 ct Aida I found in my stash... I like the color but oh it was so soft... I don't like soft fabrics for stitching... anyway I think it turned out  well... as you can tell I like doing smyrna crosses... which is a good thing as there are 247 Smyrna crosses in this little piece!

Then on Wednesday I turned my attention to another patriotic chart that I love...Prairie Schooler No. 8  American Primitive... this was a unicorn chart for me for many years... the copyright is 1985... which means it is the same age as my older son... 41 years old... sheesh... where does the time go??  I stitched the Double Eagle Sampler from this chart back in '24. 

And I always planned to stitch all the other pieces from this chart... so I dyed up some linen with Evening Blue Rit dye and grabbed my favorite patriotic DMC flosses and got to work... here's how far I am on Uncle Sam...

I outlined his hair and jacket so now I can stitch and watch the Olympics at the same time... after he's down I want to do Lady Liberty and then the donkey and the elephant... I love how timeless Prairie Schooler designs are... and how comforting they are to stitch.

Friday I worked out early with Anna, came home and ate lunch and went down to my sewing room... haven't done that in eons... I wanted to sew up the first block in the FQS's Sewcialites 3 QAL... you can read all about it here... the plan is to release one block every Friday from now till the middle of August. You can make the blocks 3" or 6" or 9"... I'm doing the 9" size ... and I'm going to make it scrappy with Lori Holt fabrics... here's my first block...

I haven't made an Ohio Star block in a long long long time... but I think it came out pretty good... and it will be fun to use a lot of different fabrics in this quilt. I have a sizeable stash of Lori Holt fabrics so I'll have lots of variety. I like using a lot of her more "novelty" prints... in this block I fussy cut the little typewriters in the center and paired them with the little yellow tulip print... yellow tulips are my favorite flower... unfortunately they are also a favorite snack of the deer in my neighborhood so I don't grow them... I just like to sew with them and buy them at the grocery store... LOL

Well the Sewcialites block went together fairly quickly and I looked around my messy sewing studio and decided I should work on a project that was already started... and had been hanging around for quite a while... I started this in 2020... the pattern is Fresh As a Daisy... you can find it here... and then it languished in a plastic bin when it briefly saw the light of day in 2024 only to return to hibernation... and then re-emerged again about this time last year... and now I'm calling it done! When I started this I planned on making it big enough to fit my full size bed... my plans have been downsized and now it is going to be a lovely throw size quilt...

I really like those setting triangles being a different fabric... it makes a nice frame for the blocks IMHO... here's a couple of close up of the blocks... 

some daisies are monochromatic and some are scrappy ... there are so many American Jane fabrics that I love! I found fabric for a border on this site, American Jane, which is run by Sandy Klop's husband. They have a lot of inventory of older collections Sandy designed... I hope to get these blocks sewn together this weekend... cause next week is gonna be busy, busy, BUSY...

I have  at least one appointment to attend to every day next week... some days have multiple things going on... I'm tired just thinking about it... last week had some lovely weather... but it was a faux Spring... and I knew it...we all knew it... things changed yesterday and while there were 50's on Friday, as of Sunday we are back to typical winter weather... temps in the 30's... but there is hope on the horizon that by the end of the week we will see 50 again... the first day of Spring isn't till March 20...got a couple of weeks to go... I popped into Costco last week and one location did have a small rack of dahlias... but they were pretty picked over... I was only able to find 3 varieties I wanted. The lady at the front desk said more are coming and she was correct... this is what greeted me at Costco on Saturday...

four GIANT racks of flora and fauna goodness... there were elephant ears, caladiums,  begonias, astilbe, peonies, calla lilies, cannas,  asiatic lilies and my favorite DAHLIAS!!! I got there about noon and I will be that these were just put out that morning... oh I had so much fun... Nick looked all over the racks and I think we got 2 bags of every variety of dahlias that they put out...and some elephant ears and cannas... 26 bags in total... Nick called my cart the Mother Lode...LOL

I am so HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY!! I know I have to wait till mid to late May to plant them but they are now sitting on the shelves in my garage, waiting more patiently than me, for their time to shine!

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today... need to go grocery shopping and hit the pharmacy for the family member ... and then I hope by the time I get back home I won't be worn out so maybe I can sew or stitch a bit... hope your week is just how you like it!!

happy stitching-

carol fun