Where one thing leads to another on a Slow Sunday...

Hello - well the week wasn't loaded up with lots of appointments ... which gave me a nice amount of free time... but I really think I should have more to show for it... however it is what it is... the weather heated up and we had several days in the upper 80's and low 90's accompanied by a healthy amount of humidity... too hot, too darn early in the season  IMHO... it isn't even officially summer!   I'm happy I got all those dahlias planted in the raised beds and my attitude about the garden improved when I found the little zinnias I love for sale at my local Mejiers... I got 3 flats and Nick helped me get them planted on Wednesday along with about 2 dozen of the dahlia tubers that I found languishing in the Costco buckets...fingers crossed that they like being planted... I also spread some totally foul smelling stuff that is suppose to repel the deer ... and I have seen some rebound growth on a couple of plants so hopefully it is effective. I did pick up a flat of begonias that I still need to get into the ground... and I've found a home for the rose bushes that I don't want anymore... my trainer Anna said she'd like them and she just moved into a new home with a big yard... so that will work out great. 

As for decorating,  here's some more of my patriotic stuff... on the wall...

I LOVE this quilt... I even used a pic of it as my avatar on a social media site... all the fabrics are Debbie Mumm ... it was larger originally... it had that bunting border on all 4 sides... but that was too big for this space so I cut them off and the repurposed border pieces ended up leading to table runners and little quilts... here's a close up of the eagle surrounded by 13 stars...

I certainly had a lot of different blues, red and creams at my disposal back then. 

In the tier tray...

I have 2 patriotic houses from Melisa at Pinkernpunkinquilting... she does such wonderful designs and then so graciously gives them away for free... thanks Melisa! Also there is a little Uncle Sam.. I took him from a bigger design by Priscilla from Stitching with the Housewives and the sunflower in the back of the truck is from Red White and Bloom by WTNT...

Here a look across the room with another DM patriotic quilt on the back of the couch... that couch makes a great quilt rack...

On the wall next to the front door I have  Summer ABC's by Little House Needleworks... I think it kinda resembles a firecracker with this frame and the pompom on the top... the original chart has apples charted next to the letter B but when I went to stitch it someone had added bunting next to the B and I copied them. 

and this is my back hallway... the entry that everyone uses... this is the first time I've decked it out in patriotic gear...

 The quilt is a vintage Debbie Mumm panel I found this year on eBay... and I remember when this was a current piece of fabric... it got marked down at my local quilt shop to a ridiculously low price and I bought yardage of it... which I used as the back of the Debbie Mumm eagle quilt on the wall... what goes around comes around, doesn't it? and one things leads to another...

As for crafty stuff, I retreated to the basement on a couple of those blazing hot days and pulled out all the Debbie Mumm 9 patch blocks that I had made...

 and it turns out that I had more sewn than I remembered and I had cut out enough to make a 54" square quilt... but I want it more rectangular so I'm adding 2 more rows - 9 blocks- and it will be a great lap size quilt ... I just need to make  6 more 9 patches. 

And as I was pulling out some more fabrics for that 9 patch I decided I should cut out more hexagons for the Debbie Mumm quilt I first started a year ago this week... here's what I have cut so far...

and I found this note... OMG... I actually wrote down what I had planned!!!  I didn't think "oh I'll remember this"... which never  actually happens...LOL...

According this I need about 20 hexagons from each of those color families ... I know I have plenty of Debbie Mumm fabrics ... and the collections were heavy on red and blue so the extras I need should be easy to get to. ... here's a bit of what the layout should look like...

not sure I have enough to of the bee fabric for the triangle points ....  this is probably my favorite DM fabric ...

it also came as bees on blue, and green and red ... oh, there was also a lady bug fabric that I adored but I've used up every little bit I had...sigh...  on one hand I hate to use it all up all of the bees,  but if I don't use it now, when will I use it??? I ain't getting any younger... were any of you Debbie Mumm fans? As I recall her peak years were the late 80's to the early 90's but I collected her fabrics for as long as they were printed. I do like the earlier collections better... at the end she was doing fabrics for Joanns and the colors were lighter and brighter and didn't coordinate well with the earlier collections... but even so I still bought a bunch of them... one collection leading to another and another and another... and now they live in small plastic bins in my root cellar closet... LOL

So while searching my memories of DM I did a little online search and found that the ceramic buttons she designed are still available here... OMG... I remember making lots of jumpers and having those ceramic buttons down the front... and they were so comfortable... and hid a multitude of flaws... gosh I loved them!

It was a weird week for hand work... I didn't put in a single cross stitch...instead I knitted  wool socks... the perfect project for a 90 degree day right??? Anyway these are scrappy socks using the little mini skeins of Opal yarn I got in the Advent calendar last December...

I love knitting socks like this... I alternate 2 different skeins so I never know how it will turn out... I like when the same color comes together on both skeins and I get a solid swath here and there... it mixes things up nicely with the stripe-y parts...  and as soon as I finished this pair, I started another pair, cause one thing leads to another... knitting socks is mindless and soothing... something I need more of in my life... 

The upcoming week has lots of little things to do... Elliott and his parents are vacationing and I need to go over and check on their cat... another neighbor is feeding it but Chris likes when I look in on their furry friend... I need to drop Nick off to lunch with a friend on Tuesday and I'm doing lunch with a couple of the quilty ladies on Wednesday... I need to get groceries for  a certain family member and change their glucose monitor ... the weather is supposed to be a bit less hot and humid so I should be able to get those begonias  and the last of the Costco bucket dahlias in the ground ...after that I just want to veg... knit some more, sew a little and stitch a little and nap a little... hopefully that will come to pass.

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts... I always like seeing what is happening on the blogs posted there... and I want to thank everyone who still blogs... I've wandered away from IG... there wasn't any particular reason why, but I did... as you can tell I like the blog format where I can ramble endlessly about the mundane happenings in my life... I just checked and I've been posting on this blog for 16 years... lots has happened and I'm glad I was able to record it... cause the memory ain't what it used to be... LOL

Hope you have a great week ... 

happy stitching-

carol fun