At loose ends on a Slow Sunday...

Hello - well  to be perfectly honest the tragic events of the last week had me at loose ends...I'll talk more about that at the end of this post in case you want to skip it.  I bounced around from project to project... it took me days and days to get my chicken decor put away and my Fall decor out... I moved things a hundred times and then finally said,  "I'm done." 

So here's a bit of what it looks like... 

I went with my Sandy Gervais bird quilt on the wall... I LOVE this quilt... I designed it myself using all 6 panels and making improv pieced scrappy blocks to fill it out. 

Sandy Gervais does the BEST Fall fabric in my humble opinion and I have made several quilts with her Fall collections. Right now one is on my bed...and one is out on the sofa on the sunroom porch...and  one is on my recliner on the sunroom porch...and there is one downstairs  that needs a binding... and  one that is at the long arm quilter waiting it's turn to be finished. And I started another one last year for Jelly Roll Saturday... I might pick that one up before the month is over.

So where was I?  I remember... the tier tray is a smaller one .... 

 I have my selection from Prairie Schooler  No. 210 Prairie  Fairies ... there are 3 more in this chart that I like to stitch...

And 2 little pillows that are snippet from Bent Creek's Autumn Soapbox...

Outside on the sunroom porch... I have an acorn and squirrel theme going on... 

I have the my pick from Prairie Schooler No. 66 Autumn Samplers ... one of my favorite Prairie Schooler pieces ...

in the middle you can see the Brenda Gervais squirrels... Autumn's Acorn Gathering... and the cute squirrel driving an acorn car... did you know that Brenda Gervais and Sandy Gervais are sisters?  They married two brothers so they still have the same last name and boy are they both so talented. 

and on the bottom shelf I have  the Ewe & Eye & Friends piece called Simply 855. That was the floss number it was charted in but I used an overdyed ... I marvel that I did that alphabet over 1 ... definitely better eyesight back in 2011 when I stitched this one. Gosh I'm getting really old...

On the wall I have Barbara Ana's Autumn Tree... I like all the stuff perched on the branches. 

As I said before I could not settle on what to do crafty wise so I ended up starting not 1, not 2 but 3 new cross stitch pieces ... these were the charts I talked about last week... 

Here's the Pineberry Lane Fancey Blackett' s Brooms....

I love this prim piece on this purple linen... I dyed it with Hyacinth Rit Dye. 

And then I jumped over to the Bent Creek Autumn Soapbox... 

I dyed this linen with some Apple Green Rit Dye and I think I added some tan to it... and that is one BIG pumpkin... the pic below is a better capture of the linen. 

And then I bounced over to Shakespeare's Peddler's Jenny's House... I have a  tiny start... 

I painted this 32 ct linen with Aquamarine Rit Dye and so far I've decided the house will be Crescent Colors Queen Bee, the tree is DMC 3862, the leaves on the tree are Gentle Arts Dried Thyme and the stars are Weeks Carolina Cecil... now I have to pick out some other flosses but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it... and I'll be calling this one Carol's house cause that CC Queen Bee is a great match for the  little yellow brick house I live in. 

So today is my birthday... 72 trips around the sun... my mind doesn't feel old, but my body reminds me with regularity that I am getting there...ok... ok... I have arrived... I am old... but it beats the alternative, right?  I will say that my fall at the end of last year has motivated to try and take care of my body a bit more. I'm working out with a personal trainer once or twice a week to improve my core strength ... I'm back to walking and I'm doing 3 miles a day... I'm trying to keep my mind sharp by doing a bunch of the NYT puzzles every day... I really like the newest one called Strands. Have you ever listened to one of those podcasts that talk about things you should be able to do if you're past 70 and want to live longer?  It is thought provoking.  I'll keep working on my balance and try to improve my hand strength (thank goodness for jar openers)... and I hope to have more trips around the sun. 

I'm celebrating with dinner at my older son's house and I just want to stitch for the rest of the day. The nice "Fall-ish" weather has reverted to Summer... 80's all week... had to shut the windows and turn on the AC... hopefully things will break in about 10 days.  Next week is gonna get busy... again... I thought being retired I'd stay home more than I do...LOL

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today... Hope your week ahead is a good one...

happy stitching- 

and if you want to leave now that is okay... but I have a little reflection on the stabbing death of  Iryna Zarutska and the assassination of Charlie Kirk... this is a rambling mess but that's how it is in my brain right now.  

I am having a very hard time expressing myself regarding these tragic events.  I am sad and I am angry. Perhaps it is because I'm old that I am gutted by the senseless killing of young people who had their whole lives ahead of them.  Iryna,  stabbed by a man who's been in custody 14 times and was let loose, and the callous disregard of those around her on the train.   Charlie, who I knew from his YouTube videos.  I was always impressed by the depth and breadth of his knowledge.   And I harken back to bits of wisdom imparted to me as a child.  "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me" and "If you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all". We encourage children to "use their words" instead of resorting to violence. To quote Utah's Gov. Cox " Words are not violence. Words are words. Violence is violence."  And it needs to stop. We don't have to agree with everyone all the time, but we can respectfully agree to disagree. Minimizing the stabbing death of Iryna and  celebrating the tragic death of Charlie is disgusting.  The lack of civility and the outright glee of some people,  fills me with sadness. How can you claim to have the moral high ground when you mock a man's death... and you mock his grieving wife. I will never understand this.

I know this is a simplistic take on complicated issues ... and there is so much more I could say... but I'd end up talking for hours.

I'm going to back away from social media for a while... there is so much negativity and down right hatred that I can't deal with. I'm going to sit and stitch and knit and pray... I've been praying a lot... the world needs more prayers.  May the Lord bless and keep you... 

carolfun

HAPPY sewing on a Slow Sunday...

 Hello - well I've discovered it is hard to get  stuff done if one doesn't stay home... and this week I was out of the house every single day... and the older I get the harder it gets for me to get productive once I've been out and about... I come home, sit down and on numerous occasions I've fell asleep for a little cat nap... now this can't be all my fault... I blame it on comfy recliners... feet up, head back and eyes shut immediately... toss in beautiful weather with the windows open  and a lovely breeze and it is impossible to stay awake...LOL

I did have a couple of brief afternoons of craftyness  and started a new quilt project... now this isn't one of the Christmas ones I want to do...no... this one came out of left field... I found 2 layer cakes of the Julia collection by Crystal Manning in my stash... and to me they have a fun shabby chic/cottage core look... and I wanted to sew something simple but pretty and slightly boho... so I cut the layer cakes into 3" squares ... such nice little stacks...

and I made 9 patch blocks out of those little stacks... quite a few 9 patch blocks...  now I started making pretty blocks... 

and soon realized that if I was going to get the number of blocks I want for a bed size quilt... that number is 64 blocks... I was going to have to use the black prints which I had been avoiding... so I made some blocks with the black prints...

and then I mis-cut about 5 of the 10" squares... rats... so I didn't have enough of some fabrics to do 2 blocks from the same fabric... and that lead to doing some scrappier ones...

and I LOVE these!!  I got 34 blocks from this  one layer cake even with my cutting error ...

and now I'm starting in on the second layer cake and I'm going to try not to make any duplicate blocks ...and I'm going to make a lot more of the mixed up scrappy ones... they make me happy! Now this is reading quite dark at the moment but envision it with yellow sashing and red cornerstones ...

See, doesn't that brighten things up nicely??  If I wasn't lazy I'd take the blocks downstairs and put them on the design wall with the sashing ... but I am lazy... I'll try to do a better layout next week.  I think I have enough of the yellow to do a nice border ... fingers crossed. This is an older collection so I've had to do some searching to find what I want... and this is not an unusual occurrence for me... somehow I fall in love with fabric collections long after they've been released... which turns me into a fabric sleuthing Sherlock Holmes...LOL

This is a great project for me right now... not stressful... just easy fun HAPPY sewing... 

Now I only did a little cross stitch... but any stitch is one more than I had before, right?  Here's where I am on Every Opening Flower... got the door and the windows roughed in... and started adding the paint to the house. I don't want it to look stripey so I'm stitching it in small irregular sections so it looks blotchy...  

Excuse the wrinkles... I will iron it properly when it is complete... which I hope is soon... fingers crossed.

Oh I picked up my Teresa Kogut  Faith, Hope, Peace and Love sampler from Hobby Lobby... I think they did a very nice job!

I love the motifs in this piece and I did a little personalization by making the squirrel in the bottom panel a white squirrel... there are a couple in my neighborhood!

For what it's worth ... I played with the colors   on my phone and this is off... can't get that green linen to show correctly... grrr....it is a bit truer in the first pice

The weather has been GORGEOUS the last week... I've opened up all the windows and turned off the AC.. not quite sweater weather but getting there. I put away some of the Chicken/Garden decor last night... hope to get it all put away today. 

Nick helped me clean out the dead stuff in the window boxes and we put out the plastic pumpkins and put the solar lights inside... they look cool at night!

Now my birthday is next week and I've been thinking about what new project I want to start... two years ago I attempted "7 for my 70th"... and as of this year I've completed 2 of those samplers ... sigh... I only got 4 started before I got sick and ended up spending my actual birthday in the hospital... a September I don't wish to remember... and last year I wasn't in the mood to start something new... I don't know why because I'm almost always in the mood to start another project... and this year I'm debating between a Fall sampler, a Halloween piece and chart that I'm going to add an alphabet too so it meets my criteria for a sampler...

These are my choices...Autumn Soapbox by Bent Creek... I have a piece of linen dyed for this and picked up the flosses at Hobby Lobby yesterday. 

Fancey Blackett's- Brooms  by Pineberry Lane... I have a cool piece of linen I dyed purple that I could use for it. 

and Jenny's House by Theresa Venette... this was the final part of an enormous 8 part sampler called For the Parlor... you can see the whole sampler here... 

I love the house and the giant tree and like I said I would add an alphabet along the bottom...  and while I'm leaning toward this chart I would need to dye some linen for it ...and I looked at the DMC conversion for this and I'm not fond of it... I think I need to do a floss pull of some over dyeds and some DMC and come up with my color choices... the house will definitely be some shade of golden yellow maybe Crescent Color's Queen Bee with an olive green door... just like my house... and I'm thinking some Gentle Arts Dried Thyme for the leaves ... and a slight change to the configuration of those windows... and yeah, this needs some more thought...

Decisions, decisions...

The upcoming week doesn't look too busy... Elliott on Tuesday,  and some exercise,  and one dinner engagement ...so I should have time to prep a birthday sampler... and I do want to get out the Fall decor...it is one of my larger decor collections... I like to do Fall in September and then tweak it for Halloween in October and then change it up a little for Thanksgiving in November... I do LOVE FALL MOST OF ALL!  So I need to get my butt in gear. 

However at the moment my recliner on the sunroom porch is calling my name... the windows are open there is a lovely breeze ... and perhaps I might take a little nap... perhaps...

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today... I hope you are have a nice week!

happy stitching-

carol fun  

Unexpected happenings on a Slow Sunday...

Hello -  Happy Labor Day Weekend!  It is hard to believe that Summer is officially over... although I have no problem letting go of heat and humidity... the weather last week was glorious!!!  Highs only in the low to mid 70's... lows in the upper 50's... humidity waaaaay down... I opened all the windows and turned off the AC...I wish it would stay like this forever... and I am grateful that the 10 day forecast has this weather trend continuing and even getting a bit cooler... meteorological Fall starts tomorrow and I'm ready for it!

Well as for the unexpected happenings for a change they were happy ones... first off I finally was able to get my front porch/deck/landing project completed ... and it came together unexpectedly and quickly. I had given up on the contractor who came and looked at the job back in April... we exchanged  texts and phone calls for a while but then he went silent. Last time I contacted him was a text back in mid-June inquiring when he thought he'd get to the project ... and I still haven't gotten a reply.  Then my dear friends Bill and Linda had a project done at their house about 2 weeks ago and gave my info to the contractor they used and who did a great job for them. His name is Corey... he came to my house on Monday afternoon, emailed me a written bid on Tuesday, I thought about it for a couple of hours and asked for a break out of materials versus labor which he sent and then told him "DO IT"... he ordered the materials on Wednesday, they were delivered at the crack of dawn (7am) on Thursday morning and his crew showed up shortly after that to start the work. It took 3 days but I am very happy with the results...

Here's what it looked like before...

Here is the finished project...

the Trex decking is a great match for the siding and blends well with the yellow brick. Now when I open the door to retrieve a package I won't be hanging out over those concrete steps wondering if I'm going to take another header onto the sidewalk... 

Now I'm always anxious when I have people working at my house... I had a bad experience 10 years ago when I moved into the house with 2 guys who lied to me about a mold issue (the wall just need to be washed down, no chemicals were needed) and while one was giving me a sales pitch the other stole jewelry out of my bedroom dresser. I didn't realize the jewelry was missing for about 3 weeks and by that time I'm certain it was pawned and broken up. My older son went to a bunch of pawn shops looking for the jewelry to no avail... anyway sorry for that tangent... but like I said other than Dan my handyman, oh and  Larry the plumber, I'm leery of people I don't know working at my house. So I had a hard time settling down with a crafty projects... oh now you can see where I was going with that story... I stitched a little but not on Halloween. Instead I picked back up Every Opening Flower by WTN&T... and a little progress was made... where it was when I picked it up...

and where it is now... got that border in the bottom left corner roughed in and did a couple of letters of the alphabet...I want to get the house outline done so I can watch a movie and do some mindless stitching. 

I'd like to finish this by mid-September as that would be 2 years from when I started this as part of my "7 for my 70th birthday" extravaganza that went down in flames when I had a bout of diverticulitis and caught C-diff at the hospital... I still LOVE this sampler and want to get it stitched and framed and be a central part of the sampler wall in my living room that I want to expand. 

And then another project appeared unexpectedly. Now I have not 1, not 2 but 3 Christmas quilts I'd like to make this year... and I have fabric for all of them... and I had a plan for which one I would do first... ummm, this quilt was not number 1 or number 2 but it said "make me, make me" ... and I did.  Now this started with this fabric from J. Wecker Frisch's  Classic Christmas collection. Oh I LOVE a good vintage collage!!

So I decided that I didn't want to chop it up a lot and I cut it into 10" square and then used a layer cake pattern I found on Etsy... you can see it here... called Simple Layer Cake Quilt Pattern.  For the sashing I used coordinating prints from the collection.  I tried to cut the 10" squares at different intervals so that no two were exactly alike. What I didn't realize till I started laying it out was how dominate that red rectangle that says Herald would be... but I think I scattered it about pretty well.

It is a Large throw... almost a twin... 71" x 78"... some of my favorite blocks...

Now to get on with the other two Christmas quilts as there are only 116 days till Christmas!

As for decor  I was going to start putting away the chicken and garden stuff but it didn't happen... maybe this week ... but here is the last of that  decor, my large shelf display... lots of stuff I stitched previously and one new addition...

At the top I have Sunnyside Sampler by The Drawn Thread and a giant getting to be vintage Debbie Mumm platter...

To the left of the platter is a new addition, the small chart from Kathy Barrick's Vibrant Flowers...

And to the right of the giant platter is one of many Pineberry Lane pieces I've stitched... this is Mrs. Maguire's Garden... I brighten  up the palette on all of my Pineberry Lane pieces... love the prim look but not a big fan of the grungy brown... that's just me...

On the middle shelf starting on the left hand side I have The Queen's Garden by The Scarlett House and 

In the middle I have another Pineberry Lane, Mrs. Maguire Bee Charmer and Bee's Knees from Notforgotten Farm...

Moving down I have yet another Pineberry Lane, this one is Sister's Farm Fresh Eggs...

And finishing up with Mrs. Maguire's Hen House... Mrs. Maguire is quite the busy lady, ain't she?  LOL

Next week has something going on every day... Monday night we're doing dinner with friends, Tuesday I have Elliot, Wednesday I have an appointment to get my teeth cleaned and I work out with Anna in the afternoon, Thursday my cleaning lady in coming in the morning and I have my standing hair appointment in the afternoon. Nothing on Friday so far, but I bet something will come up.  And as I said before I'd like to get out my Fall stuff... other than an occasional 80 degree day there is lots of cool weather in the forecast and I am loving it!!

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today... gonna take it easy... the weather is perfect for sitting out on the sunroom porch with the windows open ... I can stitch a little and maybe nap a little too!

happy stitching-

carol fun 

Perking up on a Slow Sunday...

Hello- well last Sunday I was dragging but things have gotten better... I slept A LOT... and I think it helped... and I've actually gotten some things done...not as much as I wanted to... but then I NEVER get everything done that I want to...LOL

First off I finished the Teresa Kogut Faith, Hope, Peace and Love sampler that was a Patreon purchase. 

Now I've had to play with the color in this pic... why do iphones have such trouble with green fabrics? And why do I stitch on so much green fabric?  oh well... this is pretty good... I picked out a nice brown burl frame at Hobby Lobby... fingers crossed I'm happy with the framing when it is done.

And since I finished that I decided to treat myself to a new start... I've been seeing lots of cute Halloween stuff... and Darlene you know I'm talking about you... so I got out some linen I had previously painted and added some purple splotches for good measure and started this one... Sprout from Notforgotten Farm...

too cute!! So then I picked up Boo Berries...

Took about 2 nights of stitching to complete each one of these.... I have one more little scrap of blotchy fabric that I want to do Oswald on. 

A friend prodded me to get  the binding on some of those quilts I have languishing... one a week she said... and I did!! I picked the smallest one... this my American Jane Spool quilt...

the pattern is from the Sew Emma book Simply Jelly Rolls  and the pattern is called Biscuit.  I plan to hang this over my cutting table in my sewing room but for now it is across the back of the sofa...

Ok the color of the quilt is much better in the first pic ... it has been overcast here for a couple of days and the little light coming through the window behind me is blowing out the color... sorry.

And looking across the room you can see my chicken quilt on the wall... this was from left over Lori Holt leaf blocks and flower blocks... I machine appliqued the chicken on after it was quilted...

The tier tray has a funny little tiny toy... you wind it up and the chickens peck...

and the cross stitch is from Nikycreations Summer Scissors you can see it here. 

And this is my small shelf display... chickens and garden stuff is the theme right now... 

On the left side I have a stuffed rooster I picked up at a Hallmark shop years and years ago...

and on the right side...

the cross stitch on the little tin box is Rise and Shine by ScissorTail Designs... you can see it here.  I love the little chicken mini quilt... not sure where I got that pattern... 

Moving down on  the left hand side have a little chicken piece that I can't remember for the life of me who it came from... Heart in Hand? Hands on Designs?  Bent Creek?  I searched for it but no luck... the little chicken stack pillow on the bottom shelf is from Pinker N Punkin,  it is a freebie you can find here. 

Moving to the right side... another piece from Pinker N Punkin called Bees, Blooms and Chickens you can see it here... and truck is a snippet from Hands on Designs  Fresh Eggs Farm. 

and here's a better pic of the piece hiding on the bottom shelf...

This is Good Deeds from With Thy Needle and Thread ... you can find it here.  Next week I'll close out Summer with my big shelf display... still have one piece I want to FFO for it. I like my Summer displays but I'm chomping at the bit to do Fall... I'm hoping that doing Fall inside makes it cooler outside... forecast for the week is for a cold front to move through today and bring the temps down to the 70's in the daytime and 50's at night... can't wait to turn off the AC and open the windows and tell Duke Energy to take a  hike!

And next weekend is Labor Day weekend... where did the Summer go?  It seems to drag and speed by all at the same time. I'm looking at my garden beds and everything is wild and pretty overgrown... I'm not looking forward to cutting everything down and cleaning up the beds... but it will have to be done. I'm going to ask my lawn guy to use his dump trailer again. That made the job easier as I didn't have to get all the garden waste stuffed into paper bags for garbage pick up. 

Plans for next week include more stitching and some sewing... if I follow my friend's advice I'll get the binding on one more quilt... and I have three Christmas quilts I want to do and I need to get started on at least one... Elliott is in school all day... doesn't get off the bus till 4pm... that's a loooong day in my opinion. Anyway I'm watching him for about 90 minutes on Tuesdays over at his house... his Dad gets off work around 4:30 and depending on the traffic on I-71 he's home around 5:30... although last week it took till 6:30 as it rained just as rush hour started and a horrible accident had the expressway closed for over an hour... not good. 

I think I'll stitch up Oswald from Notforgotten Farm... the 3 little guys will be a nice addition to my Halloween display ... and I have a turkey I want to stitch for Thanksgiving... and there is still a Christmas sampler I should do, but I'm not feeling it right now. I looked through a bunch of my WIPs the other day and there are several I'd like to get back to. I saw a lot of the new releases for the Fall Needlework market... definitely some pretty things but so far I'm only tempted by one... and that is a very good thing, dontcha know?  I have enough charts to last 10 lifetimes... LOL

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today... Nick likes to fix dinner for us on Sundays and I think he's doing meat sauce tonight...yummy... going to try to stick close to home this week and get things done around here. Maybe if the weather's not too hot and I find some motivation I'll clean up the garage... it is a mess and a lot of the mess could just be pitched in the garbage...I still want to rearrange some fabric in my sewing room and there is a bunch of stuff in the storage room that needs to be donated... I need a personal assistant to do my bidding...LOL... 

Hope you have a great week ahead...Fall is coming... and that pumpkin donut I ate yesterday has me ready for chrysanthemums (I saw that Costco has some big ones) and sweaters and trees turning colors ... meteorological Fall starts September 1 but I realistically know it will be October before all my Fall wishes will come true... sigh...oh well...

happy stitching-

carol fun