A design wall for Monday that overcompensates for gray days!

Yesterday I complained about all the gray days we had last week (I know I'm whiny that way.) So in my sewing I tried bring some color into my life- I may have gone a bit overboard.



Those 4 rectangles on the left are going to be new placemats to show off my Fiestaware dishes. I used the new line of Moda fabric A Stitch in Color. Isn't it wonderfully happy?? And then there is my Swoon along block for this week. And rounding out the design wall this week we have my Full House entry for Another Year of Schnibbles.I even got it quilted!



I was lucky enough to have a layer cake of A Stitch in Color so I got lots of mileage out of it. The background is a Benartex "Fusions" and yes the color is correct - it is a screaming yellow orange. Think the color that they use to paint lines on roads- that's the shade I'm talking about. I have like 9 yds of this, so I'm good for a while.



Love the little houses and the little sawtooth stars. I'm calling this one Carolville cause if I was a city planner this is what my town would look like. Lots of brightly colored houses! Now I was forced into using some of the prints with gray in this Schnibble and the placemats and it is okay. I know that there is a purpose for every color in the spectrum I'm just not feeling the love for gray.



This is my 7th Swoon block -just 2 more to go. Doing one a week is a pace I like- very doable. So I hope that your week has plenty of sunshine in it. Otherwise I may have to come to your house and make you sew something with some of the 9 yds of that screaming yellow fabric!

Happy stitching-
carol fun

A happy sampler for Sunday

Well I didn't mean to disappear last week. Nothing momentous happened to keep me from blogging but the general malaise of a blah week. I swear the sun did not shine at all for 6 days straight. Gray, shades of gray, foggy, rainy - yuck! Okay, it wasn't ice and snow and for that I am grateful but I need sunny days to give me energy. There were several days when I thought Cincinnati had been relocated to Seattle without my knowledge, which would not be a good thing. I can deal with cold but I don't do well with gray - just saying.

So Saturday was a wonderful day - the sun was shining all day! And Joann's called and my latest sampler was framed- ta dah! Presenting the Lizze*Kate Winter Alphabet! I love this piece because it just seems so happy!



The linen is a lovely icy blue green color and I used DMC floss. I'm very pleased with this frame. It is a creamy white - it matches the DMC 712 used for the snow! And I I love the shabby chic look of the bumps with the finish worn off. I've been eyeing this frame for a while hoping that sooner or later I'd have a piece that it would look good on and this was it.



My chart came with embellishment pack so there is a cute little heart charm hanging on the front door.



And two tiny little red buttons for holly berries! I really enjoyed stitching this sampler and I've ordered the Spring one. I felt like it was a quick stitch since every frame and every letter made me feel like I had accomplished something.

My plans are to be much more diligent in posting this week. I have pictures in my camera and a bunch of stuff to show. I did get some sewing done and when you see the colors I was using you will know how gray weather affects me -- I don't do well with gray.

Hope your week is sunny and productive!
Happy stitching-
carol fun

Swooning over String beans for a Design Wall Monday

Okay this design wall is the result of the sewing I got finished on Saturday. One more Swoon block (that makes 6 of 9 done) and a bunch of String Beans blocks, 22 of the 45 I plan to make.



This was a good combination of sewing since the Swoon block took lots of attention and patience, and the String Beans blocks are like eating potato chips - you can't stop at one!



String Beans is a new pattern by Loft Creations. My plan for this quilt includes polka dots, checks, plaids and stripes - yikes! I'm going to do 45 blocks - 5 rows of 9 - with that dotty yellow as the sashing and the border.



And this is my latest Swoon block with the Kaffe Fassett fabrics. I'm liking this one too!



So the sewing for last week was pretty productive. Now I still haven't started the snowman wallhanging I want to do, or my Schnibble for this month. Oh well, hopefully this week will have some quality sewing time for me and for you!

Happy stitching-
carol fun

An encore appearance for a sampler on Sunday

I hope everyone had a very enjoyable weekend. I was able to do some sewing and some stitching and some knitting so it was a good one for me. Today I was out of the house most of the day so my choice of a sampler for Sunday is one I already had pictures of - The Mystery Sampler from Blackbird Designs. This is one of my absolute favorite samplers I have ever stitched.



Now by the time I stumbled across this sampler it had been released for a while and parts of it were already turning up as OOP. It took me a while to assemble all the parts but it was so worth it.



I love everything about this sampler. It has a house, a lovely vine covered house. An alphabet with cursive letters like I learned to make in second grade.



A verse that could be my mantra "I can not count my day complete till needle, thread and fabric meet." And lots of wonderful birds, a pot of fanciful flowers and a wreath. What more could a person want in a sampler?

And looking at this sampler led me to taking this one out of its ziploc bag.



This is how far I've progressed in doing the Anniversaries of the Heart series. I love this sampler too. It is going to be a big one - about 28" wide by 18" high. The fabric is a evenweave in a dove gray tone. I want to get this one done before the end of 2012. It is doable if I work on it a little every week.

And looking at this project made me remember at least 3 other "large" samplers I have in process- The Houses of Hawk Run Hollow, And They Have Sinned and The Four Seasons collage by Marjolein Bastin. Boy I started some BIG projects! Well I'm going to focus on one at a time. Its a good thing that cross stitch will patiently wait for you to rediscover it.

Now to spend some time in my recliner doing a bit of stitching -
carol fun

Fun with green vegetables!

Oh my goodness - I've never had this much fun with green vegetables before! I got my copy of the String Beans pattern by Stephanie at Loft Creations on Tuesday and couldn't wait to play with it. These blocks sew up very quickly and you can't stop at just one.



I had this polka dot background fabric sitting on my cutting table. It is called The Pixie Pops and is from Timeless Treasures. The other fabrics are from my stash. The plaids are Mary Lou Weidman fabrics.



As I was sewing these blocks together I got to thinking how green vegetables have never been on my list of favorite foods, and I have two sons who turn their noses up at almost anything green. I use to tease when they were kids that the only green things that knowingly passed their lips were green popsicles and green M&M's - LOL!

Ok - off to do some errands and then hopefully some time behind my sewing machine. Hope you have a great weekend!

Happy stitching!
carol fun

Pincushions on Parade!

Oh how I love a title with alliteration - Pincushions on Parade is the brain child of Beth at Love Laugh Quilt. Go over and check out the pincushions links - there are some great ones!

Here are my participants - I've arranged them in categories. First we have the avian pincushions -



a pair of wise owls and a large contingency of poultry is represented - everybody scoot close together and smile! I made all of these guys.

Next we have the dessert category - slices of cake, a cupcake (I gave away a bunch of these) and a slice of jelly roll cake. Its hard to tell in the photo but the white felt is sparkly! I made all of these too.



Then we have a miscellaneous category - a bit of this and that. The pear and the strawberry were gifts. The little cross stitched porcupine I just finished about a week ago and I will be doing more of these. And the embroidered one is one of a kind since I lost interest before I finished this one.



The final entry is my workhorse pincushion that I use every day. This is a big one - it measures 6" across and I like how I can put different kinds of pins in different sections and yet they are all at my fingertips. I made this one and several others that I gave as gifts. Notice this one is made of all dotty fabrics. It is stuffed with walnut shells and it is pretty hefty.



I love pincushions, even when all I do is look at them. I've seen several Blackbird Design cross stitch ones that I want to make soon and I have several patterns for other felt ones I want to try. I don't see this collection getting smaller any time soon.

I don't know if the comment posting problem is fixed or not. The person who alerted me to the problem, sent me an additional message and was able to comment, but I got an email from someone else who couldn't. Soooooo.... if you can't leave a comment on the blog but want to give me a shout out use this email address

cfun53@gmail.com

Happy stitching-
carol fun

Problems posting comments?

I got an email from a friend saying that she was having trouble reading my blog in Google Reader and that it was freezing up when she tried to comment. I read on someone else's blog the other day that Blogger had installed a new comment program and it had some bugs. There was a suggested fix but I can't figure it out since I'm still using the old Blogger interface and not the new one. (I tend to try to leave well enough alone and I barely understand the old interface.)

So if you can't leave a comment you can always go on the sidebar, scroll down to the picture of me when I was cute and young, and click on "View my complete profile" - that takes you to the page with the link to my email. Feel free to send me a comment there. Hopefully things will get resolved soon.

Thanks again- I do love reading your comments and I appreciate you taking the time to write them!

Happy stitching-
carol fun