Slow stitching on Sunday

I'm linking up again this Sunday with Kathy's Quilts Slow Stitching and I have a bit of cross stitch to share. Along with the link up Kathy has a nice post about slowing down and taking time to breathe and it was quite a timely reminder for me. Relax, take time to think and be ever so grateful for all we have. Very good advice!

So I planned to get a bit more stitching done this week as I watched baseball but Tuesday night's game commanded ALL my attention. Homer Bailey of my beloved Cincinnati Reds pitched a no hitter! Amazing! And my oldest son was lucky enough to actually be in the ball park. He was thrilled to witness it and believes he will probably never be a part of it again as it is such a rare occurrence. I did get the basket almost totally stitched on my Victory Garden by Nan of Threadwork Primitives from the Ladies Prim Society.

And after drooling over the new Blackbird Designs Loose Feathers charts that are starting this month, I decided to pull out my Anniversaries of the Heart and put some more time in on it.

I finished the block for October and started the one for November. I like that the border on the November block is regular and was easy to count - good selection for stitching and baseball "watching".

Now I really have to take some time and sit down and decide what to put in the spaces for personalization. The November block has a large space and I don't have any family events to commemorate in that month, so I'm thinking that a little quote about Thanksgiving may be a nice touch.

And you need to go and check out my friend Marsha's blog, Everybody Loves Clark. She is having a great giveaway and I can't believe I'm sharing this with you as I would really love to win these charts - LOL! Anyway pop over and become a follower and sign up. She was working on getting up to 100 followers and it looks like she made it but the more the merrier!

Okay off to stitch a bit more and watch some baseball! A great afternoon in my book!

Happy stitching-
carol fun

Pondering placement on Design Wall Monday

I got a few more of the St. Louis 16 patch blocks sewn up. This is one of each of the fat quarters I have from the Snap Pop line by Sandy Gervais. This is the "standard" placement and it does look nice.

And this is the same 12 blocks set on point.

I think it looks good too. Hmmm.... I'll just have to make the other 13 blocks and see which placement wins out.

Tonight is my monthly quilt guild meeting and it is the first time in ages that I don't have a quilt top to take to one of the long arm gals. It seems strange since I've been finishing at least one top a month for quite a while. Guess it was time for a breather. I assume once I get into my "moving" mode in the next month or so I won't get a top done in those months either. Oh well. And speaking of my house, I stopped by last night to see what had gotten done last week. Even though I don't have his undivided attention, my contractor has tried to do something every week. Last week he removed the water pipes in the basement ceiling and ran some new water lines. I can see where some of the electrical outlets and switches have been replaced and others are in process. I just keep telling myself that every little thing is one step closer to completion.

Happy stitching-
carol fun

Slow stitching on Sunday

First before I forget.... and I have for the past couple of days. Since the Google Reader is going away I have claimed my blog on Bloglovin, so you can follow me there. Or you can follow me on Feedly. I hope I've got these buttons loaded correctly. I am following blogs on both sites and trying to see which I like best. So far it depends on whether I'm reading them on my blog or my Kindle. Use whichever works best for you  and thanks for reading my blog. I do appreciate it!

So there were a couple of baseball games last week, and while the scores were less than satisfying at least the cross stitch time was pleasant. I finished Bluebird Sampler by Threadwork Primitives.

I am very happy with how this turned out. It measures about 5 X 7 inches. I think I will have it framed as it will look very pretty on the blue walls of my new bedroom.... when I finally get moved in.... which is still a while away.... as the renovation is in slow motion at the moment. Need to put this thought out of my head - now.

So fortuitously, after putting the last stitches in the Bluebird piece on Wednesday night, on Thursday the mailman brought the latest installment of the Ladies Prim Society from Dyeing to Stitch. This piece is another one by Nan at Threadwork Primitives - love her stuff! It is called Victory Garden and it will be a beautiful pinkeep.

Source: threadworkprimitives.blogspot.com via Carol on Pinterest

Now I only got a couple of motifs started.

Love the crown -- we all need a crown don't we? And that bird...I'm not sure what Nan had in mind but to me this little guy looks like one of those fancy schmancy chickens. You know the ones with the cute topknot of feathers? And you know how I love chickens - LOL! The linen is lovely olive green. My picture doesn't show that well (blame the photographer). You stitch your initial on a separate piece of linen and sew them together to complete the piece. I can't wait to get to that part.

And have you seen the Loose Feathers offering from Blackbird Designs? Here are the first six charts.

Source: blackbird-designs.blogspot.com via Carol on Pinterest

Source: blackbird-designs.blogspot.com via Carol on Pinterest

The chart with the big bird in the little tree in the upper left hand corner of the first picture is suppose to be released in July. I am loving these. Alphabets, great borders, a house or two and birds - love them all!  Barb Adams of BBD says that each chart can be framed in the same style molding and the 12 pieces will fit together like a collage. I'm thinking of stitching them and then sewing them together with BBD fabric and making a wall hanging quilt. I'll have to see if this works in reality but it seems to work in my brain - which really isn't any guarantee now is it? LOL!

So while parts of my life are stressful at least I can turn to my stitching for enjoyment and relaxation. And as Martha would say "that's a good thing."

Happy stitching-
carol fun

The trouble with fat quarters

I had a great time on Thursday at the NQA show in Columbus. Lovely quilt and nice vendors and I got to meet Terry from Terry's Treasures. Hi Terry!! You can see a pic of both of us on her blog here. I'm the one with the fuzzy hair and the crazy purse. I had planned to text Terry when I got there but I got sucked into the vendors. I was thinking to myself that at the end of the aisle I was in, I would call her and the next thing I knew someone said, "Carol?". Now she's never seen me before but she said she looked down and saw the yellow shoes I talked about and figured it had to be me. LOL! It was great to meet another blogger, and Terry and I exchange emails now and again and it s great to put a face with blog. Terry showed what she bought at the show and she was way more virtuous than me. I thought I was being virtuous because (almost) all I purchased was fat quarters.... the trouble with fat quarters is that the don't like to go home alone. They need friends to hold their hands and tell them everything is going to be fine. At least that is my story and I'm sticking to it- LOL!

So here are the fat quarters I bought. Big Dude gave them his sniff of approval.

There are 50 fat quarters in this haul. Oh my goodness! I didn't realize how many I purchased until I got them home and started to refold them. I was concentrating on more Kaffe dots and the paperweight patterns which remind me of dots. And then there were some brights and a couple of blacks & whites and two adorable Peanuts "Its the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" that I couldn't leave behind. Here's a close up.

And I got this new template/ruler set at Quilt Trends shop in Columbus. They were making a scrap quilt out of Kaffe fabrics with this set and it was gorgeous.

And I got a pattern that makes a bunny wall hanging with the little Twister ruler and a foundation pieced Christmas tree. I think that takes care of the holiday shopping for a little while. Sorry for the glare - the cover is real shiny.

That tree will be about 40" tall. They had an even taller one but I didn't know if I'll have a big enough space to hang it in my new house. The sample was really cute with ornaments hanging on it.

So all in all it I got a great haul of goodies at the show. Now to spend some quality time with my sewing machine and play with these fat quarters.

Happy stitching-
carol fun

What's on the Needles?

I got quite a bit of knitting done this last week. I was energized by finishing my Strathcona scarf and starting this new Cladonia. Oh I am loving this one!

I saw this color combo here on Ravelry and could NOT resist. Normally I don't get excited by gray, but combined with the golden yellow and then adding that orange as an accent - wow! The yarn is DROPS Alpaca and I got it here at Nordic Mart. I've never knit with alpaca before and I love how soft it is. It reminds me of that angora I use to wrap around my boyfriend's high school class ring so it would sort of fit hand (and yes I am dating myself here, but it is a good memory). Anyway I've bought alpaca before but somehow I've never used it. I will now and I plan to get more. Cause more is better, right? (Shake your head up and down, up and down. Good job! LOL) I've made this Cladonia shawl before and I will make it again. There are so many gorgeous color combinations. Right now I'm really into 2 or 3 color shawls/scarves/cowls. Here's another pattern I want to try - click here - Albers Cowl. I bought this one last night and I think I should have plenty of leftover yarn to chose from - like that laundry basket of bit and bobs in the corner.

Here is the Strathcona finished but not blocked yet. I like how it comes to a point in the center. I'll probably knit this again too. So many projects, so little time.

Check back tomorrow. I have pictures of my haul from the NQA show in Columbus and the highlight of my day, I got to meet Terry of Terry's Treasures. She has already posted about the show here. I have appointments today and need to scoot but I'll put together a post tomorrow.

Till then -
happy knitting and quilting and stitching-
carol fun

Working on Wednesday

On this Wednesday I can show the work I did on this quilt, Hourglass, from the latest book by Kim Brackett, Scrap Basket Beauties.

The fabric is an older collection from Moda. The designer is Keiko and  the line was called Wee Woodland. I love the colors and that border print with the alphabet put me over the moon.

Terry Finnerty of the Walking Needle quilted this one and I really like that swirly pantograph.

These little guys are my favorite creatures in the alphabet print - love the bird and that snail is just too stinking cute!

Like all the quilts I've made with Kim Brackett patterns, this one went together very easily. I may make this pattern again in Kaffe Fasset prints. or maybe some 30's prints, or maybe just black and white prints. Oh my head is spinning with all the possibilities - LOL!

Happy stitching-
carol fun

This way or that way on Design Wall Monday

I needed an easy, no brainer quilt project and I remembered the St. Louis 16 patch that I had seen on Sew with Sass blog. You can check it out here. It makes BIG blocks. Mine are coming out 14 1/2" unfinished.

The fabrics are a line called Snap Pop by Sandy Gervais. This line has been out for a little while but I hadn't seen it till about a week ago. Somehow neither of my go to stores - Fabric Shack or Fat Quarter Shop - carried this line. I only found it when I was on Moda's site. You can see the entire collection here. I love the colors in this collection and the wavy plaids. After polka dots, plaid fabrics are my second favorite print. Now like most collections there are more darks than lights so I've added in some polka dots that are in my stash.

So that first picture is the layout that I saw the most, but I got to thinking (and that's where things usually go off the rails). What if I turn the blocks on point?

Oh I really like this. I could fill in the outside triangles with more dotty fabrics. I almost always like blocks better on point and there is the added bonus that the quilt gets bigger without adding more blocks. My original plan was to make 25 blocks set 5 x 5 which would make a quilt about 70" square. But if I put the same number of blocks on point, now the quilt will be about 79" square. So do I really need this to be a bigger quilt? Well, no, not really. But I seem to be genetically unable to make small quilts. Its not my fault - LOL!

Check out the other design walls on the Patchwork Times. So much inspiration there.

Happy stitching-
carol fun