Small stuff on a Slow Sunday...

 Hello - so how was your week?  For me it was one of those filled with small stuff ... only accomplished small stuff and was annoyed by small stuff... let me get the complaining out of the way so I can hopefully end this post on a positive note...

Mother Nature has annoyed me... first my pretty redbud tree lost about a third of its crown when this branch broke off... 

I thought maybe a deer pulled on it, but the young man who does my lawn work said he thinks the branch was too heavy for the trunk... he'll come and cut off the branch but the tree is going to look pretty wonky... which will annoy me... and this is the 4th tree I've had planted in this spot.. perhaps Mother Nature is trying to tell me something?  I'm obviously ignoring her... but I've decided if this tree dies... and it probably will ... I'm not putting a tree there... instead I'm going to have a flagpole installed. Several people in my neighborhood have free standing flag poles... and there is already electric out there with the landscape lighting so I could fly a flag all the time... I solution I could live with.

The day after the tree broke I looked out and the damn squirrels (who are cute but are really just rats in a nice fur coat) somehow got the baffle off of the bird feeder pole and were feasting ... Nick helped me reassemble  it and I put some super glue on the sections to make it harder for them to repeat this caper...and yet as I sit and type this there is a squirrel at the feeder... I'm trying to see how he got up there... arghhh... 

Also the deer are driving me nuts this year... so many plants that are supposedly "low deer browse" are tasty morsels... this was a coral bells/heuchera... I love that dark burgundy color ... it lasted about 3 days...

and they are eating the carp out of my limelight hydrangea tree... I'm spraying but with the on and off rain it isn't working... and to annoy me more there is rain in the forecast for most of this week... 

Okay... gonna take a deep breath and move on... I haven't yet found the motivation to get out my patriotic stuff... nor did I stitch any patriotic stuff ... but I did shop for patriotic stuff... these charts arrived this week... Patriotic Quaker and American Samplery both by Primrose Cottage...

carolinacajuncreates over on IG has shown some wonderful patriotic pieces and has suggested a SAL to celebrate the upcoming 250th birthday of the USA.. the hashtag is #america250sal ...  and it is the kind of SAL I can get into as it has a very looooong time frame...  this 4th of July and going till July 4th of 2026... and I'm thinking that American Sampler by Primrose Cottage would be a perfect piece ... I'm going to order the fancy flosses for this and I'm thinking a pale blue linen... I'll use Rit Evening Blue... would be a great  combination. In fact I actually stopped typing and went and ordered the flosses on 123Stitch... my favorite online cross stitch shop!

And I got this chart... I love the addition of the flowers under the flag... Flowers of Freedom II by Samplers and Primitives... 

I got this as I love red samplers but I've never stitched one... this one is a lovely reference book too...  Connected by the Red Thread by Soed Idee...

And I don't know how this one escaped me back when there was the Needlework Market but oh I love this... Quaker House Stocking & Sampler by Kathy Barrick...and I like how she already charted it to just be a long sampler...

I picked up the DMC for this... 

changed out the one light blue for a light teal and did 3371 instead of black and 3850 for a white... I love this palette... and this is another piece I want to dye some linen for... and I might add an alphabet on the bottom... 

And while I seriously thought about starting something new whilst  I was in my annoyance funk, instead I picked back up Every Opening Flower by With Thy Needle and Thread... this is one of those samplers that makes my heart happy! Here's where I was the last time I worked on this... that was back in April...

Here's where I am now...

Excuse the wrinkles ... I made some nice progress on this ...which is a good thing because then I saw THIS SAMPLER on IG... OH MY GOODNESS!!!!

It is called Stay True and this was the retreat piece at Amana and I  ABSOLUTELY MUST STITCH THIS!!  Now I'll have to wait a year or so till it is released which won't be easy... this sampler has EVERYTHING I love ... a great border, birds, flowers, an alphabet and that yellow brick house!!  I live in a yellow brick house... and I'd love to have a fully fenced yard and a little pond... and I can dream...LOL

I have plenty to keep me busy till this available but I will drop everything when I can get my hot little hands on it!!

Speaking of fenced yards... I'm loving the fence and as far as I can tell it is keeping the deer away... it is hard to describe but the fence protects the back side of the yard but it opens to the patio which can't be fenced... so instead I've got it barricaded off with plants ...

If you zoom in you can see the fence in the back and in the far right corner is where the roses are... I want to get something climb-y for that screen.  I've weighted it down with a rock and I can slide by and I think it is keeping the deer away... I did spray some deer repellant as a precaution and I got some blooms....

this is Cinco de Mayo... and it is lovely... the other bushes have lots of buds... and with all the rain they are getting plenty of water...now a good dose of sunshine would be helpful.

The dahlias that were in the ground are looking great and this is my first dahlia bloom of the year...

It is really tall... that window box is about 6 ft off the ground... after this first bunch of blooms I'll trim it back a bit. 

Well today is Father's Day and Nick and I will be going over to Chris house for a little celebration... next week looks quiet... just the normal stuff, dinner with friends, a workout with Anna ... and on Wednesday I'm scheduled for the PRP shot in my knee... fingers crossed and say a prayer that I get some relief from it... the last couple of weeks I'm doing a ton of icing and I've broke down and taken some sort of pain killer almost every day... I don't like doing that but I had to.

I'm hoping for a burst of energy and motivation here... not only do I want to get out the patriotic stuff but I also want to clean out my garage and the basement storage room... oh I and want to rearrange the fabric on the shelves... box up the brights I'm not using and put out the Grunge and Christmas and Halloween fabrics I do play with... I think it would be great if I had a personal assistant... I could give directions and they could execute my vision... and I'd be happy to pay someone to do this... wish I knew someone with say a high school kid who'd like to make a little cash... sigh

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today ... I hope that your week ahead is a good one... and that motivation and energy pay a visit to my house!!

happy stitching-

carol fun 

Indecision, rumination and rain on a Slow Sunday...

 Hello .... how was your week?  Mine was filled with indecision and  on and off rain which combined for low productivity... I'd also like to blame it on my bum left knee which was bothersome all week... 10 more days till I can get the biologic shot... fingers crossed this will give me some relief... but I've given a lot of thought this week about knee replacement. It seems inevitable... and perhaps the beginning of 2026 would be a good time to do it.  I've been ruminating on the situation... as of August Elliott will be in 1st grade, full time school, and my babysitting will be curtailed. By November or so the garden will be cleaned out. It would be great to get the surgery and the rehab done and dusted by Spring... I'll have to see how this all plays out.

So I have very little to show you this week... well the fence project is complete... finally got the gate...

now I have no clue when they installed this. I know for a fact it wasn't there Tuesday ... and  it wasn't there Wednesday... at least I don't think it wasn't... but I went and worked out on Thursday morning at 10am and when I got back it was there!! My Ring doorbell didn't capture any movement (this is on the side of my house without a camera) so I assume they came into the yard out of range... but I am very happy to have this completed because... I went and got roses!! The last garden center I called, Burger Farms, told me on the phone they had David Austin roses... and they did, but they had a very limited amount of inventory... you could tell they had a lot more earlier in the season but I am happy with what I took home. 

This raised bed is the the very back corner of the yard...along with the gate I've blocked off access on the right side of this bed... there is still an entrance through the covered patio but so far I haven't seen any evidence of deer encroachment... and  I have an idea for blocking it if needed. Now 6 rose bushes is probably more than I should have planted in this space, so we'll see how this works out ... but right now they are making me very happy!

I wasn't able to get 6 David Austin roses, but I did get 2 and then I got 3 more that are English looking and one that was an unusual color that I loved.

I got Molineux which is yellow and Queen of Sweden which is a pale pink... and if you want to see more varieties here's their website.... 

My Queen of Sweden doesn't have any open blooms yet, but this is the Molineux...

I picked 3 roses of the Bloom- ables brand...Leonardo da Vinci which is a deep pink, Polka which is peachy and Cloud 10 which is white... Polka and Cloud 10 are climbers and I'm adding a trellis behind them.  If you want to see some more eye candy go check out their entire site... sooooo many pretty roses. 

Here are pics of my roses...

Leonardo...

Cloud 10...

Polka...

The last rose I picked is called Cinco de Mayo from Weeks Roses... the color is so hard to describe but the copy on the label agrees with me...it says "indescribable blooms of smoked lavender and rusty red- orange"...and the foliage on this one is a burgundy and green... very pretty..

My rose is full of buds but no blooms yet... check out the link above on the name ... the color is exquisite. 

Now I pick roses in the same way I pick fabrics... the color and the name influence me greatly... if there had been another yellow rose I would have bought it ... and how could I pass up a rose called Polka???

I got the roses planted on Monday and that evening I was over on YouTube and stumbled across this video...a tour of the David Austin garden... breath-taking... and I was intrigued that lots of the roses were in big pots... and while I don't have any more room in the raised beds I do have room for pots along the new fence wall... 

sooooooo I may try to get a couple more rose bushes.... and yes it is very good thing that my vices don't run to gambling and liquor and drugs... LOL...although those vices might be a less expensive than what I've spent on house and garden projects this year... yikes!

The cicadas right now are deafening... probably 3 more weeks till they are DEAD... then I can sit out on the patio.... or even pull a chair out into the sun... and admire my flowers... I can't wait... the fence and the gate add the privacy I've wanted for my yard... so happy with this addition to my home. 

As for crafty stuff... well I spent a lot of time with Annie Beez American Sampler House  and here's where I am now....

OMG that flag took forever and there is SO MUCH house!!!   I finally had to stitch on something else for a while and I went back to the Erica Michaels  God Bless America... that linen is more blue in real life... 

Remember when I started this one I said I was going to do the large version... and then after a bit of thought I said I was going to do the smaller version... well I ruminated while working on this piece and tried to decide if it done? Do  I make it into a little pillow? ...OR I put this away till next year and finish it then?... a I have a nice selection of patriotic pieces that need to be FFO...

The two spools are from Crafty Bluebonnet's Patriotic Spool Trio... and the cute flag bearer is from Pinker n Punkin Quilting...Marcher of the Flag...

Patriotic Tiny Town from Heart in Hand... 

On the left is a Threadwork Primitives Patriotic Pear and on the right is a strawberry from Prairie Schooler No. 100  American Strawberries. 

and the more I think about it (more ruminating) I think the Annie Beez piece is going on hiatus with the Erica Michaels piece and I'll pick them back up next year.  There is plenty of FFOing there to do....

If I get up the energy I'll start getting out my patriotic stuff this week... or maybe next week...and I'm still ruminating over starting another Prairie Schooler garden-y sampler... or maybe jumping ahead and working on something for Fall or Halloween... or God forbid, picking back up one of my many UFOs... just feeling a need for a change of scenery... Oh I talked myself out of the pricey OOP Blackbird Designs chart on eBay... spent some time with my BBD stash and found several other charts that are just as pretty and already paid for...  

No big plans for the upcoming week... Elliott on Tuesday... Nick has a dentist appointment on Wednesday and I have my hair appointment on Thursday... and that's enough running around for me at the moment... I'm in a stay at home mood, which should translate into getting more stuff done, but it hasn't. I'm content to sit in my recliner on the sunroom porch, watch the birds, cruise the internet and nap... I have the bulk of the garden planting done... I always end up adding some plants throughout the Summer but just one or two here or there that follow me home from the garden centers... I do need to clean out my garage... it is a mess... but the frequent rainy days have provided a nice excuse for not tackling this job yet. 

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today... it rained Friday night and Saturday night and is forecast to rain again today and Monday...and then we may get 3 dry days... sigh...lately we never get more than 3 or 4 dry days in a row... the rain is getting to me... so I may spend some time down in my sewing room... plenty to do there... or just veg out in my recliner on the sunroom porch and watch the rain... Hope the weather where you're at is pleasant and that you have a lovely week ahead!

happy stitching-

carol fun 

Plenty of planting and binge binding on a Slow Sunday...

Hello - well the rainy days dominated my week... but I feel I made the best of it, trying to be productive outside when there was no rain and trying to be productive inside when it was raining... it seems like we only go a day or two without rain and then it comes right back....current forecast for this week is pretty similar to last week...  there was no rain yesterday and today/Mon/Tues have no precipitation predicted but Wed/Thurs/Fri and Thursday look soggy... sigh... my petunias are drowning... I've gone out and tried to empty out any water that I can from them but one has already checked out... I'll look for a replacement this week... 

And speaking of flowers Sunday and Monday of last week had plenty of planting... the weather was ideal... not hot and a nice breeze and I took advantage of that... by my estimate I dug over 150 holes of various sizes... lots were small that I dug with a trowel but there was a substantial number of larger holes too... I planted a ton of perennials to replace those that didn't make it through the winter... I stumbled on a sale at Lowe's ... 2 to 2.5 qt perennials are regularly $8.98 a piece ... they were on sale 2 for $10... wow... now that's a bargain... I got poppies, daisies, pestamon, coreopsis, echinacea, lavender and I don't remember what else... I planted about 5 flats of those little zinnias and a bunch of salvia and a couple of dozen cleome ...and I planted several bags of dahlias and some gladioli and I planted a bunch of seeds too... right now everything looks kinda sparse, and I know it will improve, but all that blank space has me itching to add more... I'm an overplanter... LOL... Mother Nature is keeping me in check by raining and curtailing my outdoor activities... 

Here are some pretty spots in the yard...

I intersperse pots with the planting that I put in the ground....give it a bit more height and interest IMHO...

Also outdoors I got a call on Wednesday morning asking if they could come and install my long awaited fence on Thursday... of course I said yes... they were scheduled to be here at 9 am... but I was anxious and got up at 7am... which was a good idea because they showed up at 8am!  Glad I was dressed... now they put in 36 feet of 8 foot tall vinyl fencing and they prepped the opening for the gate, but they didn't install the gate... argh... not sure if it wasn't put on the truck or if it wasn't ordered... they left about 1pm and without telling me anything. I called the fence company and they weren't sure what happened but said they'd be back on Friday to finish the job... except it poured down rain all day Friday ... and I haven't gotten a call about the job... need to contact them bright and early tomorrow...

Here's what the fence looks like... I really really  like it!  It totally blocks the view of the junk in the neighbors back yard and it's too tall for the deer to jump...

 

and here's where the gate should go... I put that screen up to temporarily keep out the deer...

and once the gate is in I want to plant roses in the raised bed that is in the farthest  corner ... if I can find roses I want. Early on I could have ordered David Austin roses online... but at this time they only have 2 of the 6 varieties that I want. I checked out 3 garden centers that said they had them, but they didn't... I have one more to check out, they told me on the phone they had them... they are about a 25 minute drive from her...hope I can find what I want...

On the days I couldn't get outside I escaped to my underground lair... my basement sewing studio... and there was a pile of quilts that needed to be trimmed and bound... I have ignored this pile for quite a while...

turns out there were 10 quilts languishing... 9 needed bindings and one needs a sleeve sewn down... and I jumped in and got 4 of them bound in a one day binge sewing session.  

First I did this one... a flag quilt I made with vintage Debbie Mumm's last June...

I want to hang this on the back of the couch... I know it is a bit hard to see but  I really like the panto and the thread on this one... red, white and blue...

Next was this behemoth... 86 inches square... Bonnie & Camille log cabin blocks from a swap that started in 2017... and it took till 2022 for me to get it assembled and quilted... and now it is 2025 and it is bound...

I fussy cut the little bird print for the cornerstones...

Delinda did a pretty feathery panto on this one... 

I'm going to use this one outside on the sunroom porch to cover my stitching chair... it will go nicely with the turquoise carpet.

Now I  really liked this swap because you HAD to use Bonnie & Camille fabrics so you knew you were getting good quality... and the blocks were oversized so you could trim them down and make them uniform... and while I was wrestling this quilt through my machine I remembered there were blocks left over from this swap...and I had made a top with them... where did I put the top?  Well I found it hibernating in its plastic bin and not only was top in the bin so was the back  I made and the binding... OMG... this is all  ready to go to Delinda to be quilted... glad it didn't suffocate over the last 3 years...LOL

Next I moved onto the most recent quilt I've gotten quilted... this American Jane Honeybun quilt...

I love this panto... it is called Knit One Purl Two...

 and I love the multi colored thread it is quilted with... I think the variegated thread adds a nice extra touch to a quilt and I pick it a lot... I used a red/white/blue thread on the DM Flag quilt....and I used a very Spring-y one on this quilt...

This is from the Kim Brackett book Scrap-Basket Sensations and the pattern was called Flowers for Nana's Girl... but while I was piecing the blocks the song "Build me up Buttercup" kept running through my head... one of my favorite songs from back in the 70's... so I'm calling it the Buttercup quilt ... every block is a different tone on tone yellow and some are 20 years old... several old Hoffmans that I loved... and the green is a Pat Campbell Fossil Fern... remember when that was popular?  I started this quilt in 2011 so this one is 14 years in the making... never never give up...LOL!

I've been wanting a Spring-y yet not tulip-y quilt for the living room for a couple of years... so I'm pleased that I  finally got this done... 

if you enlarge the picture you can see the thread is yellow/orange/lt green... complements the blocks so well. 

On the back of the couch is an oldie but goodie... 

I sewed this one is 2010 as part of a QAL with Amanda Jane Nyberg of Crazy Mom Quilts...according to my blog there are 362 different yellow prints in this quilt... here's how it looked when I had it on my bed...

Oh back to the wall quilt ... the tier tray has a theme of birds and bees... 

up top are two little pillows with birds from Blackbird Designs... I forget which book... they were finished as heart shaped pillows in the book... 

oh a tangent here... I got out my stash of BBD books looking for the pattern and had a lovely trip down memory lane... sooooo many pretty BBD patterns... and then a bunch of OOP BBDs popped up on my computer from eBay...how does that happen??? Anyway I have several patterns that are going for big bucks on eBay but I have no interest in selling them... BUT a pattern popped up that I do wish I had... and it is very pricey... so I clicked Add it to Wishlist and what usually happens  is the seller will make you a counter offer for a bit off the listing price... and this seller did... and it is still pricey buuuuuuttt.... I've been debating with myself for the last 2 days about whether I should splurge and get it... I would stitch it... and yes I could turn around and then re-sell it again... but I wouldn't... decisions, decisions... I can afford it but I've never spent that kind of money on a pattern before... and the good Lord knows I've spent more than the price of this chart on flowers just last week at the garden center... can you tell I'm getting closer to talking myself into this??

okay, back to our regular programming.... and below is Bees Knees from Notforgotten Farm.. ain't he cute?

My current plan is to keep up the Spring stuff about 2 more weeks and then get out the patriotic stuff. Hopefully I'll have this piece done by then... this is American Sampler House by Annie Beez and I "painted" the house yellow instead of white... because I can...

this was  a good piece to stitch on this week as it was mindless...and because of the holiday on Monday I was discombobulated all week as to what day it was... I had Elliott on Tuesday but it felt like a Monday... and then Wednesday disappeared on me... Thursday felt like Friday and Friday like Saturday... and now as I type this it is Saturday again... so maybe I'm back on track... 

 I want to work out in the yard a bit... just have a couple more things to plant... and I need to figure out how to turn on the drip irrigation... the grass is doing fine right now...oh I forgot to mention the cicadas are back... arghhh... and when I was out there a bit ago the are so NOISY... it is like living in a sci-fi movie... they don't bite or sting but they are the ugliest things and BIG... and right now they are all over my patio ... they won't totally disappear until July... so another couple of weeks... 

And while my knee didn't bother me last week with two intense days of planting right now it is screaming and all I'm doing is sitting in my chair... I'm scheduled for the biologic shot on the 18th... I can't wait... I hope it gives me relief...

So next week,  more rain... Elliott on Tuesday  and pest control guy on Wednesday... needs to spray for ants... nothing else on my calendar so far but I'm sure it will fill up... it always does... I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts and Quilting is More Fun than Housework today...

Hope you have a week filled with the stuff you want to do!

happy stitching-

carol fun