Detours down Memory Lane on a Slow Sunday...

Hello - not sure what to start talking about as I've got a million thoughts running through my head simultaneously... yeah it is quite noisy in my noggin... anyway I'll just jump in here and if you hadn't already gotten the idea thing are going to be random with several detours down memory lane.

Weather... always a good topic... perfectly suited to dither about... we have been having less gray days.. YEAH!! ... and it has been unseasonably warm... which I like ... but at the same time it is unnerving... last week I sat out on my un-heated, un -insulated sunroom porch and it was 62 degrees... in early February... in SW Ohio... unheard of!! I have daffodils that are blooming!!!

I don't remember that ever been the case in the almost 10 years I've lived here. Usually at this time of year I'm  freezing my butt off and longing for Spring... right now I'm contemplating putting away my snowman decor... and I have NEVER put my snowmen away before March.... the only thing stopping me is getting up the energy to do it... and a sneaky suspicion that if I do put them away we'll get walloped with a blizzard... kinda like carrying a umbrella to keep away the rain, perhaps if I keep out the snowmen we won't get snow???  I know there is no logic in that thought... but that is just one of the million ones I have...LOL

And speaking of snowmen decor lets have a look at it.... all of this is on the first floor of my house... living room primarily, some sunroom porch and a bit in the hallway... as I look around I may have jumped the shark ... but then it makes me happy to be surrounded by all my pretty stuff... you know I LOVE my stuff!!

I've already shown the porch and the hall so today I'll show the living room... the beauty of this for me is I can see almost all of this from my stitching chair... 

Here's the quilt wall ... it is always my starting point when I decorate this room. 

The pattern is Suburbs from Cluck Cluck Sew... I call mine Mummville because ALL the fabrics are vintage Debbie Mumm and each house is a unique combo... an HOA nightmare... LOL... The swirly panto quilting was done by Delinda... she does beautiful work.   So I posted this pic on IG earlier in the week and tagged Debbie Mumm and I was shocked when she left me a comment... now it was only a clapping hands emoji but it made by day. So I fan girl replied telling her I've been collecting her fabrics for decades and how I'll never part with my HUGE stash of her fabrics... and she replied again thanking me for my years of support and enthusiasm... OH MY GOODNESS!!! Its not only her fabrics I collected I love her plates and tabletop decor...

The tier tray has 5 DM snowmen in it with that cute Prairie Schooler Snow Day piece... and if you look back in the quilt picture you will see  that the bench is covered in a quilt made with all DM fabrics, there is a short stack of other all DM fabric quilts and a DM cookie jar... yes I was and still am obsessed with Debbie... In the living room I have a dozen quilts I've made with her fabrics and there are more in storage.... I shed a tear when I use up the last little bit of a fabric of hers... there was an adorable lady bug print that I used up and a cute Uncle Sam too... lots of memories in those fabrics.  I remember going to the big quilt show in Paducah one year. I swore to my friends that I wouldn't purchase any more DM fabric since I already had a ton... and yet every booth/stall/store we stopped out had so much DM and it was all on sale!!  And resistance was futile and I came home with tons more.... and I don't regret a single yard I purchased!!

And that was just one of the  trips down memory lane  I'm taking today.... now I'll get back to the living room...  here's the display in the TV cabinet...

Prairie Schooler and Teresa Kogut snowman and other cute snow guys I've collected.

The small display shelf  is topped with the Winter Alphabet from Lizzie Kate and my favorite snowman cookie jar.... my son picked this one up for me in a little resale shop.. I love the blue bird on his shoulder and the squirrel ... more sweet memories....

The tall display shelf unit has a ton of knickknacks. Sometimes it is hard to come up with a new arrangement of the stuff I have ... some pieces are so tall they will only fit in on space. This year I moved my Jim Shore snowpeople to the very top... and I like it!!

Cross stitch  pieces are from With Thy Needle & Thread, The Drawn Thread, Lizzie Kate and Heart in Hand... I think next year perhaps I can add a new small stitched piece or two. The round wreath with the cardinal is needlepoint. I made if for my Grandma back in the late 80's ... she displayed it all year long and every time I see it  I flashback to exactly where it was in her living room (she could see it from her chair).  She taught me how to crochet and embroider....  I was her first grandchild and I was her favorite ... and I knew it... I was only in my 20s' when my parents passed away... she outlived both of them and so was with me the longest... oh... another trip down memory lane. 

I have this display in on my kitchen counter... so hard to get a good pick... either it is too sunny or too dark... I do love the snowman with the measuring cups on his head. Got him at Hallmark probably 15 years ago.  And the new Rae Dunn Frosty is so cute!!  A gift from a sweet friend...

As for crafty stuff I've been stitching and knitting... I finished a pair of simple socks with Opal that will be a gift for a friend... and I still had a nice amount left over (it helps that we ladies have smaller feet)... and I really loved the skein... lots of pastel lavender and mint green and peach and yellow... and I had a new skein of Opal with deep purple and magenta and olive and it occurred to me that together they might make a good looking pair of socks....

and IMHO they did!  These just flew off my needles because I couldn't wait to see what would develop. I knit them by alternating the yarns each round so you get those cute little stripes.... and you don't know what color is going to butt up against another. After I finished the one sock I rewound the darker  skein so the pattern would again be a surprise.

And that was so much fun I decided to start another pair like this... this time I picked two of the more Fall toned skeins... golds, olives, browns... I do love Fall most of all and I wear these colors a lot...

Here's what I got so far... I'm loving it... and yes I think I have 2 or 3 pairs I knit with similar yarns in this same fashion... you can't have too much of a good thing!!

As for cross stitch, I'm making great progress on my 12  Days of Christmas by Prairie Schooler.

Four days complete and I've got the spacing worked out for the other 8. I've already gone through an entire skein of DMC 935 green... 

I put that one down and picked up Fragments in Time 2022 by Summer House Stitche Works... I do love this one too!

Yippee the  border met!!  And I got that center band with the alphabet done. I about gave myself a heart attack over it. I stitched it from right to left and I was about at D when I looked at it and recited the alphabet.... which was great until I realized there was no L.... OMG ... how did I miss that??? Turns out there is no L...  don't know why there isn't an L but I'm happy that I didn't have to frog anything.  These blocks are pretty stitch intensive. I still have a little bit of stitching to do on that bird block... perhaps I'll finish that today. I am going to use a different layout of the 8 little blocks. I noticed that blocks 1 through 4 all have a fancy border ... and blocks 5 through 8 have a simple dotted border. I think the piece will look top heavy if all the fancy border blocks were at the top so I'm going to have 2 simple and then 2 fancy on the top and then 2 fancy and 2 simple on the bottom. 

Here's my plan...

I also stitched 2 new Valentine pieces... I'll show those next time with the displays  I think I'm going to pick up O Joyous Day by Blackbird Design... it is almost complete and I'd like to have a sampler finished this month. My tentative goal is to have a sampler  done  every other month this year... we'll see how that works out. I may be a wee bit ambitious here... LOL

Its Super Bowl Sunday... I haven't forgotten I'm just ignoring it since my beloved Bengals didn't make it... already hoping for next year... I did see a great commercial that is going to play ... and honestly if my team isn't playing the commercials are more interesting to me. Anyway back to the commercial is has Zach Braff and Donald Faison and John Travolta.... you can watch it  here.....  talk about memories... Grease is a classic and one of my favorite movies... I LOVE musicals!!  I think I may rewatch Grease this afternoon... and sing along with every song!!

So that winding trip through what I've been up, and and detours down memory lane, sums up the last few weeks. Have a couple of appointments this week but nothing much. A little babysitting and there should be plenty of time to stitch, knit and sew... .sounds real good, doesn't it?? 

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today... I do appreciate her Sunday link up and love seeing what others are up to. I hope you have some quality me time to do the things you want to do!!

Happy stitching-

carolf un 

Mundane and semi-motivating on a Slow Sunday...

Hello -  well this post is rather mundane but also semi-motivating...at least to me...I'll admit that the last  two weeks blew past me... and while I made no formal New Years' resolutions... I never do... I did resolve to try to try to get a few things accomplished...and I was only slightly successful in my endeavors. The weather here has been all over the place... too many gray rainy days but a couple of lovely sunny ones with temperatures hitting 60!! It has been so warm that my daffodils are already popped up about 5"...

 Currently we have a return to a more proper seasonal pattern in the 30-40 degree range with snow flurries here and there and unfortunately more cloudy days... ugh... it seems like we are having waaaay more cloudy days than usual...and it isn't just rainy days and Mondays that get me down... its gray cloudy ones...soooooooo...

I'm attempting to keep myself busy with crafty stuff. Do you keep track of what you are working on?  I know a lot of the  crosstitchers use the Needlework Press Book of Days to record their progress. I used one a couple of years ago but I also use a paper calendar for the rest of what I'm doing and didn't like having 2 separate calendars... so now I have one calendar with space for everything....

each day I like to record what we ate and what I worked on along with things like appointments.  I know the eating part seems weird but my son often asks "what did we do for lunch/dinner the other day?" and I can then look it up... as the older I get the more I realize I don't always remember what I did yesterday... or the day before... without some notes. 

Also it is fun to decorate the pages of my calendar with stickers. As a child of the 50's I fondly remember getting papers back in school with cute stickers on them.  The nuns had to lick each one back then... no self- adhesive stuff... and along with gold stars there were seasonal stickers that made me happy. I'm using stickers from the Antiquarian Sticker Book Series like this edition...

I'll admit some of the stickers are creepy but lots have that vintage vibe I love! So I'm indulging myself in another childhood and giving myself lots of stickers!

As for what I've done... I'm ahead of my schedule for The 12 Days of Christmas by Prairie Schooler... I have 3 blocks completed and the outline for a couple more stitched... 

It is  satisfying to finish each block and easy stitching...comfort work. 

Then I got ambushed by a chart on IG from Calico Confectionery called the Lotsa Love Sampler...

... go check out her Etsy shop... lots of cute stuff and PDF downloads...instant gratification!! 

Now I told myself I wouldn't start this unless I had a piece of linen in my stash ready to go... I knew I wanted to stitch it on a turquoise background... and as luck would have it this scrap was the perfect size!

The designer charted this sampler so you can do pieces individually. I love the font on this one and rearranged it to be horizontal rather than vertical.  I used the DMC Color Variations floss 4210... they are similar to a hand dyed floss but less expensive ... and yes the variation isn't random but I don't think that shows up when you are stitching with it. I've picked up several colorways at Joanns and online at 123Stitch. 

I'm considering this piece to be a seasonal small... it took me about 3 evenings of work to complete...not bad... not certain how I'll finish it... have a couple of ideas. 

As for sewing, I got the Bright Ornaments quilt top done...

thought about adding borders but that would make it too big for the living room wall space. I used a layer cake of Basic Grey Peppermint Bark and the background in Grunge in the color Ale. Need to get a back together and I can take it to be quilted.

Started working on an new quilt for my son... the pattern is Cinnamon Twist.. not sure where I first saw this but tracked it down to FatQuarterShop....

It said it was a" free "pattern... but there is fine print... it is "free" when you purchase a Cinnamon & Cream Jolly Bar... so it's not entirely "free"... Nick really liked the pattern, so I  put the fabric in my stash... 

Nick picked out the fabrics for this quilt... he likes the blues and greens but nothing too frou frou... lots of geometric patterns... 

I think it looks very handsome!

I didn't knit much on the shawl but I am working on two pairs of socks... one one pair that is just a skein of Opal  and another that is a scrappy pair with leftover bits of Opal... mindless knitting...

Plain...

Scrappy...

Dan the handyman was finally able to finish up the back door project... it took longer than I thought it would, but then every home project takes longer than I think... 

Painting the raised panels of the door cream and the other part brown makes it match the garage door and the shutters on my house.. it also took waaaaaay longer to do and Dan painted both sides of the door this way so it looks great!  You see this door when you enter the breezeway next to the garage... it goes into the garage... the back door is just to the left of this door... but I think it makes a great impression.  I have several of those "Welcome" boards in different  seasonal designs... I saw a cute one online at my local garden store... it has snowmen... need to pop in and buy one. 

Hoping to finish out this month quietly... nothing on my calendar... dental work got pushed into February... my knees have been hurting on and off but I checked and I just got a shot of cortisone in my left one the end of October... and it has been my experience that you have to wait 5 months before they'll give you another, so, it appears I'm reaching the end of this treatment... I do know they hurt more when the weather gets crappy... my sainted Grandma was right... you can feel it in your bones!

Well as I review what I've written it appears that nothing is totally finished... everything is in flux... but that's okay... recording what I've been up to  is semi-motivating for me and countless times I refer back to this blog to figure out  what I was doing with one project or another.  Just yesterday I was looking at some quilt blocks  in my sewing studio that I started last year... and while I did remember the pattern name, I didn't remember how many blocks I planned on doing. So I searched it using that little box in  the upper left hand corner of the blog and refreshed my memory... I have 15 blocks done but need 25...glad I don't have to figure it out again!

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today... should be a quiet one till around 3pm when the Cincinnati Bengals play the Buffalo Bills... lots of excitement in the city as we aren't use to having winning sports teams...LOL... we won't speak of my beleaguered Cincinnati Reds... I love them whether they win or lose, but it is a whole lot easier to love them when they are winning... 

Hope you have some creative time in your part of the world in the next  2 weeks... I'm plugging away at projects and already looking forward to Spring... 

happy stitching-

carol fun 

New Year but same old me on a Slow Sunday...

Hello - well we are into 2023 and things are pretty much the same around here. We did have a spell of wonderful weather... temps in the 60s, positively Spring-y... so  nice... perhaps Mother Nature's apology for trying to freeze us to death two weeks prior?   But now we are back to "normal"... the temperature isn't so bad but waaaaay too many gray days... I NEED to see the sun!!!

And that will conclude my weather rant for today... 

I started out the New Year following a tradition I've had for years... I spent the day doing stuff I want to do all year... so I crossstitched, I sewed some quilt blocks, I knitted, I did some online shopping and I went out to eat... it was a positively perfect day I'd like to repeat 364 more times!!

As for what I've been doing... well I got all the Christmas stuff put away and it took a while as I did some major purging. I was motivated to clean out several closets too as I had some minor house damage from that "bomb cyclone". Took a giant load to donate and helped my son sort out at lot of his stuff... turns out he's a bit of an accidental hoarder. We discovered 5 pairs of brand new sneakers and 4 pairs of brand new slippers...now this was totally unintentional as he had put the items in a closet and forgotten he had them. He won't need any new footwear for a while. And the cleaning out and reorganizing lead to donations at the local library and more space in the house... good things!

I've been working on this shawl ... the pattern is Be Simple Variation... free here on Ravelry.  The yarn is Uneek Fingering from Urth  Yarns... I love this yarn and have bought it in several colorways... and if I knew which colorway this is I'd tell you but I lost the ball band .... sheesh...  The changing colors keep me motivated to keep knitting... don't know if you can see it, but I'm  looking forward to getting to that purple swath...

I got the Prairie Schooler 12 Days of Christmas started... 

I outlined stitched several blocks and then got to work on this one... all it needs is legs and some leaves... then I'm going to drop down and do the block underneath. Since I stitch in hand I like to work from the right to the left so I'm only holding the unstitched parts.

I want to do one to two blocks a month so it can be framed in November.... I think that's  very doable... but we shall see, won't we?

I've also been stitching seasonal smalls and got some finished yesterday...these two are both from the Prairie Schooler No. 134...

I added them to two other Prairie Schooler snowmen had already stitched...

and now I have a "melt" of snowmen!  Did you know that is the collective name for a group of snowmen?  I just learned this the other day... but luckily these guys won't ever melt!

I have a love/hate relationship with this linen... it is 32 ct opalescent that I dyed... love the sparkly snowy look but it is hard to stitch on... my needle catches on those sparkly bits as they are a plastic thread... but it is worth the effort overall...

My Prairie Schooler kick continued,  and I did this snowman too... I forget which leaflet he came from... I think one that had  Santas  and snowmen...

And I did  these pieces from the With Thy Needle and Thread book The Snow Ball...

Gluing on that pompom trim wasn't fun... I thought it would look like little snowballs... but it kept getting wobbly... so I'm not totally happy with the finish but it is done for now... 

This little display is tucked into the telephone niche in the hallway... it is original to the house and I love it!!  My contractor want to tear it out and drywall the spot... glad I didn't let him do it. This is right between the bathroom and my bedroom so I go by it numerous times a day. All the cute snowman knickknacks were a gift from a dear friend... the designer is Johanna Parker... I love the pastel colors and vintage vibe!

I was able to sew the Bright Ornament blocks into rows last Tuesday when Elliott was here... my thanks go out to Legos and Paw Patrol for keeping him occupied...LOL.. I'll take another picture when it is all together... might get that done today...

My biggest accomplishment, other than the tossing of stuff and re-organzing, was I got out all my snowman decor... and as you know there are a LOT of snowmen!!

Here's the porch... I didn't purposely try to make it primarily monochromatic, but I like it!

I'm thinking this display could use a small crossstitched  piece tucked in on those lower shelves....hmmmm...

And I like the Momo quilts out there...

And I have Momo in my bedroom too..

I do LOVE LOVE LOVE Momo, but the older stuff... with the 70's vibe. Her last couple of collections have been too pastel for my taste. Glad I have a nice stash of her fabrics in the colorways and prints I like.

So plans for the rest of the month include stitching another block on the 12 Days of Christmas,  getting that ornament quilt off to Delinda to be quilted and starting a new quilt... and it isn't one that was on my list of quilts I wanted to sew this year, but it's an old idea that has returned and it demand attention...NOW!!  

I've got a bit more purging to do and have a dental appointment for some bridge work, my finance guy is coming by for  a semi-annual review, lunch plans with the girls,  and my oldest son's 38 birthday (how did he get so old?? Actually the correct question is how did I get so old??)

 Also hoping to wrap up a  house issues...

Have had Dan the handyman here several days fixing some stuff up and putting in a new door from my breezeway to the garage. The door that is there is just a wood slab, and I suspect is it original to the house which makes it 70 years old. It has been swelling and warping and it is so hard to get open I'm afraid that I won't be able to close it...yikes... so Dan and I went to Home Depot and bought a new metal insulated door...  he hung it and  has to come back tomorrow to finish up the framing and put in the lock ... it still needs to be painted... but the weather needs to be warmer for that... 

And if you stuck with me through that ramble, reward yourself with some chocolate!

So I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts  today and spend some time seeing what others are up to... I've got plenty to keep me busy but always looking to see what is new and different to play with!

happy stitching-

carol fun 

Looking ahead on a Slow Sunday Stitching...

 Hello!  Well Christmas is past and the New Year is here.... and I'm happy for that... as we are all inclined to do, I've been rewinding in my head different events of 2022 and I'm glad a lot of them are over...specifically pesky "getting older" health issues.  I'm still dealing with a couple that are going to come with me in the New Year, but I'm shifting my focus to things I want to do in 2023... Got lots of crafty projects I want to get to and have some vacation plans in the works..  that makes me happy!

A quick aside here that I'm very happy that "bomb cyclone" event of last week is past for my little spot of the US.  Those below zero temps and even lower wind chills  did not makes my vintage little house happy... I'm glad I got a new furnace in 2022 ... it got a workout. And now Mother Nature seems to have gotten that little tantrum out of her system...going to be upper 50's today... and long range forecast seems good too.  I'll table my weather whining for a bit... LOL

I've been keeping track of my quilt and cross stitch  finishes... I've completed 10 quilt projects... and one was a table runner and two were baby quilts... so not much productivity there. My latest completions are this quilt...

the pattern is French Vanilla from the Sew Emma book Perfect Ten Quilts . The fabric is the Cheer and Merriment collection from Fancy That Designs.  I bought a fat quarter pack of this line and purchased yardage of a couple of prints for background for the bed size quilt and this throw...

the pattern here is Dorothy Quilt...and from that fat quarter pack I have just bits and pieces left. An efficient use of fabric!! I really like this pattern and will be doing this again... maybe with a scrappy low volume background. 

And here's a pic of the panto I used on both quilt... it is called Poinsettia and Delinda from The T Shirt Quilt Company did the quilting... the back of the quilt looks like a whole cloth quilt ... so pretty!!

My plans for 2023 include the Bright Ornaments pattern for the living room wall. I've gotten some blocks completed...

The fabric is Peppermint Bark by Basic Grey and a Grunge background... the think the color is Ale. 

I have the kit for the Tilda Embroidery Flower quilt and I want that for the living room wall too. 

Now I'm not normally a "solids" gal... in fact there are no solids in my stash... just tone on tones. I love the needlepoint/crossstitch look of this quilt.  I bought this as a kit as there are 45 different fabrics. I'm scaling down the size of the squares from 2" cut to 1 3/4" inches so it fits the space. 

I promised Nick a new quilt for his bed. He's picked out the fabrics and  I think we've decided on a pattern. And I have another throw sized Christmas quilt pattern and fabric  I want to do. 

There's a bed size Halloween quilt cut and ready to go waiting downstairs and a Momo quilt left over from last January... that's going to be my core list. I'm sure some squirrels will come along but those are going to be my focus.  I'm going to write these projects down and pin the list to my design wall to try and keep me on track... we'll see if that works or not since I'm more inclined to bounce around like a BB in a box car ( my sainted Father's description of me... and he was right...LOL). 

As for crossstitching... I finished 47 projects. Now  99%  were smalls that are seasonal decor and I intend to continue that trend.   As for large finishes I had,  Feliz Navidad by Blackbird Designs....

and Christmas Joy by BarbaraAna Designs... 

I'd like to do several large sampler projects in 2023 to hang on my walls... and to kick that off I'm starting The Twelve Days of Christmas from Prairie Schooler..

I found this linen already dyed in my stash... and I can just squeeze this design on it... I changed out the called for white... too stark... went with 3730.. more muted. Can't wait to get some stitches in this today!

I also want to do the Noel Sampler from With Thy Needle & Thread...

My goal is to have a couple of Christmas samplers to display next to the living room wall quilt, for the season in 2023.

I'd also like to have some traditional samplers... I have 2 sitting here by my chair that are started and I'm going to work on them... excuse the wrinkles... 

Red Bird Sampler from With Thy Needle & Thread....hmmm... I thought I had more done on this one...

And Fragments of Time 2022 by Summer House Stitch Workes...

Oh I forgot how much I've completed on this one.... Oh Joyous Day! from Blackbird... maybe it should move to the front of the line...

And I've gotten the all the  flosses together for  Sunnyside  by The Drawn Thread....

And this one is talking to me too... Dutch Alphabet by Sheepish Design... I'd like to stitch it with one of those variegated DMCs... green?  blue?  ohhh... maybe shades of gold....still need to think about this ... was thinking I could challenge myself to stitch one letter and crown a day... 

As for seasonal smalls, I'd like to have a dough bowl full of Christmas pieces... lots of Santas for sure... I just stumbled upon this pattern last week...

I'm going to do the Santas individually and  mix in some small Prairie Schooler Santas too... and some of those pieces that just say things like Merry or Bright or Noel ... 

So I'm never going to run out of things I want to do!!  And I'm so happy about that!!

I want to take a minute and thank all of you lovely people who read these ramblings ... as the years have rolled on this spot is more and more my personal craft diary... I post a lot more over on Instagram  (carolfun53) because it is quicker for me ... but when I'm trying to recall what some pattern was called or how I arranged a display I come back here to find it.. so each platform has its pros and cons... like everything in life...

Hope you are spending this New Year's Day doing the things you want to do all year long... I'm going to stitch a little, sew a quilt block or two together and knit a bit... and we're going out to get a bite to eat because cooking is NOT something I want to do all year...LOL

Notice I have not made any New Year's resolutions... of course I want to eat healthier and get more exercise and lose weight.. and I will TRY to TRY and do those things... no promises... as I get older and really know how short life is, it is very hard to pass up a crusty piece of bread or a plate of pasta or a nice dessert... those are things that make life lovely! And no good story every started with... "we had a nice green salad"...

I'm also making no promises about my craft spending... I truly do NOT need anything. I have oodles of fabric, charts, flosses, linen, yarn and doodads... I will  TRY to TRY to watch what I purchase...  

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts... I really  appreciate her hosting a linkup every Sunday... it provides me with motivation to get things done and recorded. 

Happy New Year and Happy Stitching!

carol fun