Slow Sunday Stitching where a PBS actress's doppelganger crosses paths with a pant-less scarecrow...

How that for a title???  Have I piqued your interest?? Well read on...

It was a nice week with a goodly amount of stitching time in it...which is what made it a nice week. I have been plugging away on Little House Needleworks' Autumn ABC's and it would be finished if I hadn't gotten sidetracked by a piece by Barbara Ana Designs... Let's talk about the distraction first...


This is  Autumn Keeper by Barbara Ana Designs...

And here is my progress on this piece...

 I am just so smitten with her... I grabbed a scrap of 32 ct linen I had painted for another project and couldn't put her down. Now for some explanation ... In my opinion she bears a remarkable resemblance to a character in the PBS series The Durrells in Corfu... this is Margo...

The eyebrows... the red hair... the flip of the red hair... all make me think of her... so I'm calling this little gal Margo !!  Now I don't normally stitch pieces like this... there is no house, no alphabet, no chickens... but I had to have her. It helped that it was a immediate download from Creative Poppy which you can see here. I love being able to purchase a chart and then print it out right then and there. I wish more cross stitch was available in this format... but that could also be detrimental to my pocketbook... impulse control ... I don't have any...LOL!!

She is almost done... just have to finish filling in her skirt  and then stitch the vine that circles her... not sure how I'm going to finish  her... perhaps I'll make her into a little pillow.

And my infatuation with Margo had me dragging my feet on the LHN Autumn ABC's to the  point that the scarecrow still doesn't have pants...

He is a cutie...and he is an overview of the sampler...

It is hard to get a good picture of this since it is so long and skinny... I've made a couple of minor changes... I used Fallen Leaves for the pumpkins instead of the called for Pumpkin Harvest and I stitched the word Scarecrow in Blue Corn instead of the called for Caterpillar. The first change was deliberate and the second was a mistake.  I was just putting the last stitches in the W when I realized I had used the wrong color... but I like it and I'm not taking it out.

I want to finish this so I could display it in November... which is Wednesday... so  I need to stitch faster.

And I've spent some time cruising the web and stumbled on a couple of Christmas projects I'd love to do... there is this Barbara Ana piece that I've started before and put aside but I want to give it one more try...

and then I stumbled upon this piece by Tournicoton...

I love how the reindeer swoop around!!   First I need to finish the Fall stitching ...and then there is some secret Santa stitching I need to do... but somehow I think I'll squeeze in a little time for one or the other of these...the temptation is just too strong!!! and I am weak!!!

Oh...did you see this sneak peek on Instagram??

This is the Winter version from Little House Needleworks... it is suppose to be released next month. I am loving all of these samplers. 

So many wonderful charts ... we are such lucky stitchers, aren't we??

Well the day is winding down here... didn't know if my son and his wife would be back from their weekend adventure till late... we just grabbed some carryout for dinner so I didn't have to cook. It has been cold and gray all weekend. Friday was nice so I did a little clean up in the yard... put away all the petunia pots ... planted 90 daffodils and 18 hyacinths... I have more bulbs to plant but nice weather isn't expected again till Thursday or Friday... so I'll wait.  A lot of stuff needs cutting back and cleaning up... I have zinnias that are still blooming and it is hard for me to pull out a plant that is still blooming, but I do need to button up my garden before there is serious winter weather... until then I'll stay inside and stitch!!

I'm linking up today with Kathy's Quilts and on Monday I'll link up with Super Mom- No Cape.  Hope you've had a nice weekend and will have an even nicer week ahead...

happy stitching-

carol fun

It appears I have a thing for vermin ... on Slow Sunday Stitching...

Well last week I was stitching squirrels and today I'm into spiders....it seems like I have a thing for vermin....LOL...not really... I don't like spiders and snakes....shudder!!!  And last week I whined about wanting to start the 2009 Lizzie Kate Boo Club piece but I wanted to dye/paint some linen for it...sooooo I got off my butt on Monday and did it....

This is what the linen looked like after I painted it with Rit dye...

I used liquid Rit dyes ...the ones in the bottles...and I diluted it a lot. I painted on the linen with a 1" brush and tried to keep the places where the dye would overlap to a minimum to avoid getting a lot of brown ... and then I put some purple splotches on at the end. If I remember correctly... and I'm too lazy to go to the garage and check ... the colors I used were Hyacinth, Apple Green, Tangerine and Lemon Yellow. I laid the linen out on a piece aluminum foil on top of cardboard  as I didn't want it to leak through to my kitchen counters. The dye didn't cover the back side as completely as the front side... it may have been that the aluminum foil kept that from happening... so this is definitely "painted" linen ...not dyed. I let it dry and then ironed it with a hot steam iron onto a white paper towel and only got a little dye transfer.

And here is what I've stitched so far...

I love that black and white check border... it has a MacKenzie-Childs vibe to it...  and here are some close ups...

The button eyeballs are a nice touch in this section...

And the button eyeballs on the cat remind me of Felix the cat...  yeah... I'm old...LOL!

Any who I've accomplished quite a bit of stitching since Monday night... I've given myself a deadline of September 1 to finish this so I can get it off to the framer and back to my  house by October 1...and I think it is doable. Each of these sections is less involved than the Lizzie Kate Christmas piece I did.

Today is a great day to sit and stitch... we had a cool rainy morning which lulled me into a nap after a big breakfast  with my son and daughter-in-law... I don't have any dinner to prep and my beloved Cincinnati Reds are playing ball on TV...and in their usual fashion playing badly... very very badly...the Cards are up 13 to 3 and its only the 4th inning... oh they make it so hard to love them... right now their stated goal for the year is NOT to end up in last play in their division for the 3rd year in a row...not looking likely to happen.

Well I'll thread up my needle and link up with Kathy's Quilts today and Super Mom - No Cape on Monday. Hope you are having a lovely Sunday afternoon...and I hope your favorite baseball team plays better than my Reds... I can't imagine they can play worse...LOL

happy stitching-
carol fun

Look a squirrel.... on Slow Sunday Stitching...

LOOK there's  squirrel...no really a squirrel...upper right hand corner...LOL

Now along with this being a squirrelly project...oh shiny new thing... it has also involved a frog or two or three... which is ridiculous for as little stitching as I've done on this piece. This is the Autumn chart from Prairie Schooler No. 50 Prairie Seasons. I got this as a reprint and I'm happy to have it but as I complained about before it is printed on very flimsy cardstock... really more just thick paper... don't know why it couldn't be printed on better materials Edited to add:  I'll quit complaining about the flimsy paper on the reprints... I found several people selling the original chart and  they want  FORTY FIVE dollars!!!! As Roseanne Roseannadanna would have said...never mind.....   

I switched to this piece as I realized how close Fall ( 54 days) ...Halloween ( 93 days)... and Christmas ( 148 days).  If I want some new seasonal stitching pieces I gotta get going... I kinda want to start the Lizzie Kate Halloween  piece but first I need to dye some linen for this piece and I haven't gotten around to it.  And there are some other cute small Halloween/Fall charts that have caught my eye...focus...focus...

As for the Jeannette Douglas Designs Vintage Birds here is my progress...

I was working on this one and realized I was missing one of the flosses...GA Logenberry... and that's the color I need for the flowers below that little lonely bird...darn... I ordered it but it will be a couple of days before it gets here...and yes I could have moved over to other motifs but I just didn't want to ...so I didn't...insert stompy foot pouty face...


I did pick up something from the framer.... Sampler Hill by With Thy Needle and Thread...

I really like the frame...that olive color is a lovely match for the olive green leaves and hill... and I like the outer edge on this frame...

This is a truer pic of the colors... however I'm not as happy with the actually stretching and pinning of the piece.. it is wavy and looks a bit wrinkly in places and I pressed this piece before I dropped it off... I'm obviously getting pickier in my old age... I'm thinking of taking it out and repinning it myself ...I've never done that before and I worry about getting it straight but I might do it...have to wait and see. Good framing is getting harder and harder to find.

So that's where my cross stitching stands on this Slow Sunday... I did get some sewing done... check back tomorrow and the shawl that refused to be finished is finished... yeah!!!

Thanks for all the lovely comments last week... I shall post when I can...no guilt, well as little guilt as I can get by with... and if I don't get around to responding to comments I think you understand... I'm not sure why I seem to have less time for the blog lately but that's how life is going. On the downside, there is never a day that  goes by that I get everything done that I want to get done... and on the plus side,  I'm never bored... sometimes a bit frazzled but never bored.

Well need to put dinner together... a sorta Mexican chicken roll up casserole that is a fav of my younger son... think we'll go to the custard stand for dessert...maybe they'll have key lime tonight. Hope you have a productive week ahead... I think I have some sewing time coming my way along with some running around.

I'm linking up with Kathy's Quilts today and Super mom - no cape on Monday... stay cool if it is hot where you are or stay warm if it is cool...Mother Nature is a fickle woman...LOL!

happy stitching-
carol fun

Finishing up a few things propelled by guilt on a Slow Sunday Stitching...

Hello - hope you had a nice weekend so far... last week was a busy one and some things were actually finished... hallelujah!!!  Finishing something is a good thing in many many ways but particularly as it pertains to the guilt I feel for not having stuff finished... it surfaces now and again... and I totally blame this on my 12 years of Catholic education which taught me that if something isn't done or done correctly it is no one's fault but mine. That whole thing about free will and choices...boy the nuns really drove that home... but while guilt sometimes plagues me I also believe that guilt it good... it makes us do things we should do but don't want to do... sometimes I think the world could use a bit more guilt and a bit more shame...perhaps it would keep people behaving better... but that's just me.

So lets see what got finished this week in my crazy cross stitch world....

First, I finished the Lizzie Kate Jingles  series and it is ready (after a quick press) to go to the framer...I've got 3 pics as it looks better than the 1 long skinny pic from my phone.

I had those two bottom border rows to stitch and then add the little buttons. There were also beads that could have been used but instead I just did a white cross stitch... I didn't like the fiddlyness of the beads.

Second... a small pillow that was started over a year ago...

I charted the alphabet off of a BBD piece that was given away by Moda some years ago... the little pillow was machined stitched with a row of numbers where I have the woven ribbon and it was edged with rickrack... well I stitched up the alphabet pretty quickly and then dithered for quite a while about whether to do the numbers and then just let the whole thing sit and simmer ... for a long long time.

I recently rediscovered the piece and decided it was fine the way it was...just get it finish...here's the back... fabric from my stash...

and here is how I displayed it...tucked in with my Summer decor...

I added the buttons to the corners to hide an unfortunate incident where I blew out a corner trying to get it square... just another opportunity to be crafty...LOL

Third, back from the Joanns framing department, BBD Garden Borders which I've dedicated to my Grandma Damon...

this frame is nothing special...and I think I'd like it a bit darker... I can do something about that. Joanns has less and less selection anymore...glad I found another framer.

And if things have been finished new things must be played with... and they were...

this is Jeanette Douglas Designs Vintage Birds and I am LOVING it!!!  I was able to get another skein of Portabella and while it wasn't an exact match for what I had it is close enough to mix it in...
here's a close up of the peacock... ain't he a pretty fellow?

now I still have to fill in all those squares but I'll wait till the end to do that as I plan to stitch a Smyrna cross or a a Rhodes mound and I don't want to wear the sheen off of the floss  which could happen as I'm not using a hoop for this one.  I'm using 2 ply of floss over 32 count and I really like the full coverage I'm getting.

So on the cross stitch front things are progressing nicely... my quilting is lagging a bit and my knitting is in a total slump...still working a shawl I started eons ago that just refuses to be finished. When I'm working on one project I'm feeling guilty about what I'm not working on... it is a constant battle... LOL...and I'm feeling a bit guilty about this blog. I am not updating the way I use to and I don't see that changing... so many things going on all the time and honestly Instagram is easier to deal with. Now I know lots of you are going to tell me that you don't do Instagram and if  I don't blog you won't see what I'm doing but you don't have to have an Instagram account to see me ...or anyone else...on Instagram... you can access it from your computer or phone at  Instagram.com... or if you are just looking for me go here to https://www.instagram.com/carolfun53/

Part of my guilt about the blog is not responding to the comments that are left... I use to be good at writing a personal response to each one but it takes a lot of time... I'm considering responding to the comments in the comment section of the blog which means you would have to come back to see if I left you a message...how do you feel about that?  Personally when I leave a comment on someone else's blog I'm ok  either way... if they respond that's ok ... if they don't that's ok too. I'd really like to know your feeling about this.

So many blogs have gone away and I've found their owners on Instagram...and I understand why they left their blog behind... I assume they don't feel guilty about it... but I do... I like reading blogs... I'm just not sure how often I can update... perhaps I should just do once or twice a week...which is what I'm doing now instead of the 3 to 4 times I use to do it and feeling guilty about... mulling it over.

Okay...linking up today with Kathy's Quilts and tomorrow with Super Mom - No Cape...

happy stitching-
carol fun

Slow Sunday Stitching with Christmas in June...

So it appears that I can only manage one post a week... sorry... but in my defense last week found me to be extremely popular ... I had a lunch date every day last week... all were fun and tasty but I didn't get much accomplished otherwise.


No measurable knitting was finished... although I did buy some yarn...

I found this at my "big" Joanns... it is Superfine Merino a DK/Light Worsted ... it has 142 yds in a ball and it is super soft... it is also a bit pricey... $14.99 a ball... so of course this yarn can ONLY be purchased by me with a coupon... and I've lucked into several 50% off coupons. Now on Memorial Day I thought I was going to make out big time as I had 3 coupons for 60% off...except Joanns punked me as they marked this yarn down to $12.99 making my coupons useless...grrrr... this just makes me more determined to only buy this stuff with a coupon. OH I saw a great meme/t-shirt the other day ...

my situation EXACTLY...LOL!!

And fabric was purchased ... 2 jelly rolls and some bargain stuff from Instagram... but no sewing was done... insert frown-y face...

But there was progress on the cross stitching front... cross stitching is perfect for "watching" my beloved Reds play baseball... there were some good games, some great games, and so OMG terrible games... it softens the blow... LOL

First I want to show you a finished piece...now I finished this ages ago but I just recently got it framed and it looks great in my early summer decorating...

This is from the BBD Loose Feathers Abecedarian series... this was #3 and is called Forget me Not... my blue skeins were nice and bright and I love this  piece....and here is how it looks in my living room.

I love that I've been able to incorporate several cross stitch pieces on these display shelves...

on the top shelf I have my latest small finish ... and in the middle there is my beloved Lizzie Kate Spring sampler....

and at the bottom I have Forget me Not and a nice stack of summer-y looking quilts... along with lots of birds... you know I have a thing for fowl right???  LOL

And this is what I've been cross stitching.... my Lizzie Kate Jingles piece...

last time I touched this was December of '16 and I only had 2 of the charts finished... I got two and a half done this week...

love the snowman and the cardinals... and the cute heart frame...

the stocking and the cookies are fun motifs and while I like those peppermints they were a bear to stitch... hard to fit in the white stitches after I had the red ones complete...but they are stinking cute!

and this one should be complete tonight... just a couple of simple motifs to finish... that would give me 5 of the 12 charts done...yeah... I would like to have this one wrapped up by the July... maybe not the beginning of July but before it is over... I know exactly where I'm going to hang this and it will be a nice addition to my Christmas decorating.

So while I'd like to do some sewing next week I'm not promising anything... the other project on my list is cleaning out my garage... and this week looks like it would be perfect for that... dry weather, not too hot and so far, other than a doctor visit for my son tomorrow, there  is nothing on my social calendar ( oh that sounds so pretentious... snark)... there is stuff I want to take to Goodwill and stuff the just needs to be trashed. I have a shelving unit I want to assemble and organize my gardening stuff ...and I want to wipe down the shelves I have my grocery inventory on ( my older son teases me about my stockpile of toilet paper and boxed pasta, but if the zombies attack he'll be begging me for spaghetti and Charmin)... I figure if I say it outloud here on the blog that I'm going to clean out the garage I'll guilt myself into it... fingers crossed.

Hope you are having a nice Sunday...weather here has been sooooo nice... I love when the temps stay in the mid 70's to low 80's and the humidity isn't too high... that is perfect in my book. I've got dinner in the oven... a baked ziti dish with chicken and alfredo and lots of cheese... I'm making asparagus wrapped in prosciutto and a salad and rolls and a strawberry pie from Frisch's for dessert... can't wait till 6pm!

I'm linking up with Kathy's Quilts today and Super Mom - No Cape tomorrow...

happy stitching-
carol fun

Bird-brained...

So I haven't posted for Slow Sunday Stitching for quite a while as I didn't have anything to show...but today I do have something to show...and I continue to have birds on the brain and in my hoop (if I stitched in a hoop but I don't but somehow that sounds better than in my hand...which makes me think of a squished bird)...see I told you I was bird-brained...LOL


I finished The Christmas Bird by With Thy Needle and Thread...

this is so much prettier in real life... colors are washed out here but its the best I can do with the camera from my phone. I love the color of that background... 35 ct. Chestnut from Weeks Dye Works.. very rich...but that 35 ct. was not easy to stitch.  Don't know what I'm going to do with this. The picture on the chart has it finished as a little pillow...it about 2.75" X 6.125"... I'll think about that.

And this one is almost done...

this is Bluebird Out My Window also by With Thy Needles and Thread.  Just have a few more flowers to do and some scattered little ditsy elements to fill in the background. This is the first piece I've tried stitching since my cataract surgery and I've found I need some Mr. Magoo type magnification... but then I can see the threads ...and if that's what it takes, then that's what it takes.

I should be able to finish this tonight and I think I may start this piece...

Little House Needleworks "Needlework ABC's"... I got this as a kit and while I'm happy with the threads and the chart I'm not sure I like the linen that came with it... 32 ct. Confederate Gray by Weeks Dye Works... it is a nice color but the linen is real soft (I prefer stiff linen) and the weave seems very loose. This piece will finish 2 3/8" wide by 19 3/8" long and I think a loose weave will be difficult to get framed straight... I think I'll look in my stash and see what I may have... I think I still have some pale grey evenweave... I LOVE the motifs on this piece... the house, the flowers, the needle, the thread, the scissors and that cute stitcher at the bottom... she may get a different colored dress...just saying ... maybe something gold-y yellow and perhaps her hair will get a bit more auburn/red... some personalization on my part...LOL!

Along with the Bluebird out my Window, I hoping for some sunshine out my window...last week was gray and cold... tomorrow they are promising 60...hope they are right... my daffodils are hanging in there and I've seen some of my hyacinths poking up and something bloomed in my rose bed but I'm not sure what it is and I know that I'm the one that planted the bulbs...they kinda look like irises but they are only about 6" tall... maybe I did plant those...oh the memory ain't what it use to be... but the flowers are pretty!!

Well dinner is in the crockpot... beef tips in gravy to serve over egg noodles with a dollop of sour cream... should be yummy... hope you are having a lovely relaxing Sunday... I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today and Super Mom - No Cape tomorrow...

happy stitching-

carol fun 

A bit of stitching and a bit of panic on Slow Sunday Stitching...

Sooooo... I meant to post this way earlier today but several events have conspired against me. First thing that happened was my laptop decided it no longer wanted to talk to my camera. Grrr.... I googled what do do when your computer doesn't recognize a device... "hey I'm a camera... the camera you've talked to for the last 3 years... why don't you recognize me? I'm still the same old lovable Nikon I've always been."  The Google results were more  succinct and it told me to "Uninstall the drivers" and then "Restart" and the drivers would re-install themselves. Now if it sounds like I know what I'm talking about, I have a bridge to sell you. I know just enough about my laptop to get me into trouble... and that is just what I did.

I  did have a momentary thought about taking my laptop to Best Buy for them to fix but then decided that..."I'm a late middle aged confident woman and I can do this myself". I really shouldn't listen to the voices in my head... but I did ... and I found the correct sub-menu and hit the key to "Uninstall" the driver"... and it whirred and a little blue circle went round and round and round and round ...and I was getting dizzy watching it as this continued for a very very very very long time. I deduced that the laptop was stuck in some action that wasn't going well ( \remember I really have no idea what I'm talking about where computers are concerned) but I wanted to stop it... and hitting every button I knew did NOTHING... so I moved the the action of last resort for computers and I took the battery out of the laptop. Big sigh...

I let it sit for a bit and put the battery back in and turned it back on... and I got a big, blank blue screen...arghhhh!!! I killed my laptop!!! And then while simultaneously berating myself for my stupidity and calculating how much a new laptop is going to cost me, the blue screen disappeared and my laptop worked... a bit slower but it worked. Thank you God!!!

I tried again to get it to recognize the camera and finally gave up. My younger son showed me how to move pictures from my cell phone to my laptop and I did it this time but I have a feeling he'll have to repeat the process a couple of times before it sticks in my brain. 

And I composed a lovely post... and then hit something and the whole thing disappeared...poof!!!! ARGHHHH!!!!!  Big sigh...deep breath...start again....okay 4 letter words were also uttered... a lot of them!

So here's what I've been stitching... I have 2 new starts for the New Year!

First is the Blackbird Designs Garden Club Series Chart  #1... I've already did Chart # 2 but I'm going to try and do them in order from this point on. 

Of course this piece has had its ups and downs too. I gathered all the flosses for this chart...found the center of my linen and discovered that the I was missing one skein...the skein I need for the center.!  I thought for sure I had ordered some GA Burlap but I can't lay my hands on it... so I substituted DMC 830 or 831... I don't remember which one. And I moved on to the cherries but my GA Mulberry and GA Ruby Slipper were exceedingly close in color... grrr... back to the DMC for a few skeins to get some variety. My love/hate relationship with hand dyed floss continues...

And then there is this start.... the Jeanette Douglas Designs ABC Sampler... here's a pic of the whole piece....

and here is the little bit I've stitched....

I've shown this sampler at least twice before whining that I wanted to stitch this so on New Year's Day I did. Now I had to put it aside because I bought a silk thread and embellishment pack to do this one and didn't realize that the silks would come bundled in a skein of many colors that you need to identify and separate. At $70 for this package of silk I knew I had to place them in individual floss bags with their names on them... and I had no floss bags on hand and by the time I could go shopping the stores were closed. I did get there the next day and I stocked up on floss bags... I bought 3 package... 118 little bags... I won't run out anytime soon. 

So I have plenty to keep me busy on the stitching front... and plenty to do on lots of other fronts too!

I know it is cold just about everywhere in the US and I can't wait for it to warm up.  Tomorrow we should break freezing and by Thursday  the forecast is for 60... with rain... but 60 none the less... I'll take it!   In the meantime I'll sit and stitch ...

Hope you have a productive week ahead... I have high hopes for mine!

I'm going to link up with Kathy's Quilts today and Super Mom - No Cape tomorrow.

happy stitching-

carol fun 

Trying to get back on track...

Long time, no post... sorry about that. Nothing monumental happened I just got swept away  in a stream of everyday things that have to be done and the blog got washed away.  And until yesterday I didn't have anything finished that was blogworthy...but today I do!

This is my Sampler Hill by With Thy Needle and Thread...

It is stitched on a unknown 32 count linen from my stash and I did change quite a few of the threads starting with that big house... it is Crescent Colors Queen Bee... LOVE that golden yellow. All the turquoise bits are DMC 860. I substituted Gentle Arts Pomegranate and Faded Rose and Crescent Colors Jakey Brown for the tulips and other flowers.  And I may have stitched the lady's hair in a color similar to my own (thanks to lovely girl who keeps my gray at bay...LOL!)

I thought I would add some chickens to this sampler, in the spaces above the robins where little dogs had been graphed, but I changed my mine. I didn't think they really added anything to the piece and instead I stitched some little geometric motifs in  Crescent Colors Eggshell for tone on tone effect. Kinda hard to see, but it's in there!

I started this in July so it took about 3 months to stitch. Now I didn't stitch every night... there was lots of downtime on this one, but that isn't too bad for a piece that was 197 X 150 stitches... mine finished about 12" wide and 9" high.

Now what to start next???  Guilt says I need to start a Christmas project that is going to be a gift, and I will get to it... but maybe not today. I still want to stitch this....

The ABC Sampler by Jeanette Douglas and I have EVERYTHING I need to stitch this one ...

And I want to start the Blackbird Design Garden Club series...

This is the first picture I've seen of ALL of them completed and I LOVE LOVE LOVE them!  Now I had planned on doing all 12 of them on one piece of linen, but seeing them all stitched on different colors of linen patchworked together is really AWESOME!!!! And if I stitched each one individually they would be easier to deal with...no wrestling with a large hunk of linen... I think I've talked myself into doing them one at a time ...   hmmm... I wonder what linen I have in my stash that would work for one of these. I have 11 of the 12 charts... should be getting the last one in the mail this week.

Decisions... decisions.... I do have a afternoon pretty free... not doing dinner with my son and DIL today... my handyman is putting up the last pair of new shutters on my house (I'll take some pictures and show you soon.)  My gardening is pretty caught up... I re-did my window boxes with mums and pumpkins...and the weather is ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS!!!!  Fall has finally arrived... cooler temps...no humidity...and glorious sunshine today... Fall is my favorite time to year!!!

Oh, I did get my Fall decorating done... that might be a good post.  Most of what I put out is the same as last year but there are a few new additions.

I hope to get back on track with  posting on this blog... so stay tuned. I will link up today with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday and on Monday I'll link to Super Mom - No Cape. Both of these are great link up ... lots of cool stuff to see!

happy stitching!

carol fun

A little of this and a little of that on Slow Stitching Sunday...

The sun is shining... and that is a good thing... it puts me in a more energetic mood and right now I need all the energy I can get. Lots of stuff that needs to be done. But first I'll show something that is finished...

this is, as it states in the middle of the piece...SPRING... it is from the Lizzie Kate chart entitled Seasons #171 which you can see here. So far I've stitched Summer and Spring and I've got an idea for how to display these little gems where I can change them out seasonally. Check back with me on that... in a week or so... and now that I look at the picture I see I'm missing a border at the bottom...oh well, it shouldn't take long to fix.

I can do it while I'm watching Downton Abbey tonight. Yes I did already watch the last episode on DVD...twice...but I'm going to watch it again and probably cry again.  In my humble opinion, it comes to very nice ending... not everything is wrapped up. I read somewhere, I think Julian Fellowes might have said it... the lives of the characters go on, the camera just moves away.  I've also read that there is a plan for a movie...oh I hope so!

And as I'm writing this post, I'm baking some cookies for dessert tonight,,,don't be impressed, they are the break n' bake kind from the grocery... and I put the meatballs in for dinner. And I've been prepping my stuff for the Bonnie Hunter workshop I'm taking tomorrow.

Here's what my blocks will look like...

the class is Sister's Choice and while Bonnie probably has some tricks or ideas for putting it together, I'm walking my own path. I 'm using the Corner Clipper Ruler for the star points and I'm using a jelly roll... Tucker Prairie by One Canoe Two... instead of all scraps.  I have gone with a variety of black on white prints for the background pieces. My plan is is sash these blocks with white on black fabrics (I have a stash of those too and they need to be used) and the cornerstones will be whatever is left over from 9 patch blocks.

According to my calculations... and we all know my math skills are minimal, right?? You could conceivably get something like 37 blocks from one jelly roll. I'm not up to making that many blocks. I'm planning on 25 blocks and maybe a border... a nice throw sized quilt.

Most of the time I don't come up with a name for my quilts until I'm standing in line at the guild meeting to share at Show N Tell, but this time the name already came to me. "I don't have a sister, and these choices are ALL mine!"  That sums it up nicely, dontcha think?

Well I'll link up today with Kathy's Quilts and tomorrow with Super Mom - No Cape on Monday. I hope to post something tomorrow from the workshop on Instagram... you can check me out here.  My name on Instagram is carolfun53.

Hope you are having a nice Sunday afternoon!
happy stitching-
carol fun

Happy Valentine's Day...

A blast from the past... but perfect for today. This is Blackbird Designs Truly Thine. I stitched this on a lovely deep rose linen and the frame is a black lacquer faux bamboo... I really like this pairing. I changed the chart slightly substituting "mine" for "thine" and eliminated a large motif all done in Queen's stitching so I could add my sons' initials in Smyrna crosses. An excellent substitution if I say so myself...and I do!

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And here is my current project... Fragments in Time from Summer House Stitche Workes. This one has me singing "Don't go Breaking by Heart"...remember that tune by Elton John and Kiki Dee... right now I can't get it out of my head...argh!!!

Now I started out by assuming that the border was a simple repeat... NEVER assume... when you assume you make an "ass" out of "u" and "me"... another cultural reference from the past... a great The Odd Couple TV show episode. Anyway, while lots of the border is a simple repeat there are several places where it deviates...pay attention or there will be lots of frogging ahead... or in my case behind me. I swear I could have twice as much stitched on this piece if I had paid closer attention. Who knew that counted cross stitch would require so much counting????

I was happy when the outside border met and "assumed" the inside dividing bands would be a piece of cake...they weren't. But they are now stitched correctly. And then I made another assumption as where start the chart inside the border. I was off by 2 stitches and that had everything mushed up next to the dividing band...frogged again. When I actually stitch correctly it does go pretty quick, but I've ripped so much I think I'm going to need more floss. Big sigh....

This will be nice stitching for watching Downton Abbey tonight...and for watching the snow. We have a forecast of 2 to 3" over the next 24 hours. I can hear the shark music from Jaws as the weather radar shows the approach of the White Death. Oh goodie... maybe the Jaws music will drown out the Elton John/Kiki Dee tune!

I'm linking up with Kathy's Quilts today and Super Mom - No Cape tomorrow...hope your Valentine's Day is sweet!

happy stitching-
carol fun