Where StitchMaynia is Superfluous on a Slow Sunday Stitching...

Hello all - did you have a nice Easter holiday?  Mine was low key and lovely... an appetizer brunch at the home of the new baby... Elliott was the perfect host and slept through most of it... followed by a 2 hour nap that I took when I got back home... no wonder I didn't post last week. The days are flying by and I've had several lovely visits with Elliott... his mom and dad have pushed him over in his fancy stroller when the weather has been nice... and one night my son and I took him for a car ride... he was a bit on the cranky side but fell asleep after a short while... he's gaining weight and growing into his wardrobe of cute clothes... and I have several new places bookmarked... Carter's and Oshkosh... are 2 of my favs at the moment.

With few days left in April lots of cross stitch aficionados are gearing up for StitchMaynia... the  "rules" are quite broad... some people start a new project every day for 19 days... others for 31 days... some commit to working on one project for the entire month... others are doing a mix of WIPs and new starts... it's whatever your heart desires, just stitch stitch stitch...

Well last year I started with a plan of a mix of WIPS and new starts but I didn't last long... my attention wanders here and there and here and over there and what is that shiny thing waaay over there... so I'm not going to participate... and really StitchMaynia is superfluous to me as in the last 2 weeks I have worked on 6 different projects at least... and I'm fairly certain that this behavior will continue indefinitely as there are at least a dozen more charts I want to stitch...NOW!!

Sooooo... I do have some stuff to show... first off the completely stitch Little House Needleworks' Spring ABC...

It is so hard to get a good pic of these... 32ct linen I dyed with Rit dye... a mottled shade of cantaloupe... my pick of DMC colors... can't wait to get it FFO's and hung ... here's a closer look at the top and bottom half...

Excuse the shadows at the bottom of these pics... didn't see it till I went to crop them... anyway this will be a nice addition to my Spring decor and if the current weather is any indication we still have a lot of Spring ahead of us... I could use some sun and warmer temperatures.... but at least it isn't snow...right???

And with that one stitched I turned my attention to Pineberry Lane's Mrs. Maguire's Hen House...

I still need to backstitch between the siding I satin stitched on the coop and add some legs to the coop and it will be complete... 32 ct painted with Rit dye Apple Green and Lemon Yellow and DMC flosses of my choosing...

And with that one almost done I picked up the With Thy Needle & Thread  When Flowers Blossom...

I have been itching to start this one even though it is pretty big... 194W x 129 H... on 32 ct it is going to be about a 12" x 8"...  I had it all kitted up and ready to go and spent a lovely afternoon sitting on my sun porch with this one... didn't get as far as I had hoped as the sun made me sleepy and there was some napping going on too...

Started in the upper right hand corner... got a bee and 2 of the 3 big flowers on that side ... this will be great for my summer decor...


Then one afternoon, I forget which day it was, I decided that I needed to dye/paint some more linen... I stumbled across this fabulous new sampler from Blackbird Designs called O Joyous Day...

Isn't this GORGEOUS??? You can only get if from Stitchville USA...here's their website.... I called them ... on the phone...  I haven't done that in years... and ordered it ... I expected a week or so delay but it came in about 5 days and it is even more gorgeous in person... so I thought about what fabric I wanted to stitch it on... 32 ct is a given but what color... at first I dyed a piece a sort of yellow with some orange but it just wasn't working .... so it got darker... lots darker... like olive green darker... not suitable for this sampler.... try again... okay got a light yellowy green ... think Anchor 842... I liked it a lot but it wasn't good for these flosses... so third try... decided to go with a mottled grayed turquoise... now this I like...

I again started in the upper right hand corner...I want to continue stitching the zig zag there in the middle and be sure I have enough fabric width... this is also a BIG piece... 175 W x 211 H - on 32 ct that makes it 11" x 14"... and every time I dyed fabric for this I did a BIG chunk of linen... now what to do with the "rejects".... thinking.... thinking.... thinking...

and then it hit me... I've been watching lots of people start A Saviour's Praise by Shakespeare's Peddler... 

This sampler is FABULOUS!! and I bought the chart... but I know I will never stitch the entire piece... and what I LOVE LOVE LOVE most about this is the border... all those little motifs and the words ... it is just so wonderful... and then it all came together... I could cut up the big piece of yellowy green linen I dyed and LOVED and stitch snippets of the border as small vignettes and make them into little pillows...and this is what I have so far...

this time I started in the bottom left hand corner... I changed the little flower to a bee and made the scissors a gray...

and then I moved up and did the next snippet...

I pinked up the flowers and added a bee again to fill up some open space... these are about 2.5" wide and the height will vary... resourcefullness is 4" high and piety is 3"... some of the words like kindness and honesty will be even taller ... and I want to do a couple of snippets in the horizontal orientation... I envision these little pillows residing in a dough bowl or a cute basket ... will be on the lookout for a great display piece for them.  This way of stitching this sampler makes me so HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY... I can't wait to start another snippet...

but then I remembered that May is just around the corner and I haven't put a stitch in the May Year of Celebrations by Hands On Designs... yikes... so who needs StitchMaynia??? I've already got plenty of my own mania ...LOL... either way I am very happy sitting on my sun porch stitching and napping...life is very very good!!

So tonight we are celebrating my younger son's birthday... carryout from Olive Garden... we already went out for a Chinese dim sum brunch at 11am... and there was chocolate cake ... a little Bill Knapps cake, remember those? ... I love that restaurant... and I'm feeling a bit sleepy... and I did see a peek of sun a minute ago... so I'll wrap this up and take my stitching basket and relocate to the porch... don't know what to stitch on first but there will be stitching today...

Hope you have a great week ahead... I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today and check out what everyone else is up to...

happy stitching-
carol fun

Exciting news on a Slow Stitching Sunday...

Hello ... well it has been a very interesting week... and not because of any of my crafty stuff but because our family got the BEST gift in the whole wide world... a new grandbaby!!!  Elliott Damon arrived on Friday April 12 a bit after noon... he is ADORABLE... he is a bit of a peanut...only 5 lbs. 13 ozs. but we know he'll be a bouncing baby boy in no time.  His name has connections to both sides of the families... Elliott was his great great grandmother's last name on his mother's side and Damon is the last name of his great great grandmother on his father's side. He looks a lot like his father as many friends and nurses have commented... genetics... you can't fight them...  Mother and baby are coming home from the hospital tomorrow... Father has 6 weeks of family leave so they have plenty of time to settle in. Spring weather is upon us so there will be walks to the park in Elliott's fancy new stroller and lots of time for grandparents to come and cuddle him. I'm the winner of the location lottery as I'm a mere 3 minute walk to their house... I'm so lucky. Now to dive into making things for Elliott. I found all the novelty blocks I made back in July of  2015 for a fun quilt...  I hadn't sewn them into rows as I had one block that was more girl oriented and one that was boy oriented... now I know which one to use!  This is a pic when it was on my design wall...

I'll be getting some minkee for the back of this and send it off to Quilting by David this week!!   And then are are some cute onesies I want to embellish and little sweaters to knit and stuffed animals to make... I'm gonna be busy busy busy!!!

In the meantime I made my first purchase from the wonderful world of Target's baby section... I have resisted even walking through that part of the store until Saturday when I went to buy some onesies and this adorable outfit just had to come home with me...

and Elliott is so handsome and huggable!!  More cute stuff will surely find its way home with me... location is again in my favor as it is a 6 minute drive from my driveway to Target's parking lot... they make it soooo easy....LOL

Needless to say with all the excitement of Elliott's arrival I didn't get much crafty stuff done... I made some progress on the LHN Spring ABC's...

All of the letters are done and there is one more word to do... I'm a little over halfway  finished...maybe before this week is over.

And something haven't shown in quite a while....

Socks!!!  This pair used two different Opal yarns from the Claude Monet collection. I alternated 9681 and 9685 and added some blue heels. I really like knitting this kind of sock as I have no clue what patterns are going to appear. As soon as I kitchnered the toes on this pair I cast on another pair using two more colorways of the Monet collection... I do love Opal yarns!!

So lots of things to do this upcoming week... as I said before Elliott come home to his kingdom tomorrow, I've been asked to help them settle in... and I have appointments Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday afternoons and I'm taking my younger son to meet his friend for lunch on Friday...need more hours in a day.

I'll be linking up with Kathy's Quilts and checking out what everyone else is up to... along with everything else going on I want to go walk through a garden center or two... I know it is way to early to plant but I spied petunias and marigolds at one of my favorite garden places when I drove past today... want to start plotting and planning what to plant.

Hope you have a happy and productive week ahead... I'll be sneaking in some stitching and knitting in between cuddling Elliott ...

happy stitching-
carol fun

Pretty stuff on a Slow Stitching Sunday...

Hello all... sorry about skipping out last week... I just could not get my act together and felt I had nothing blog-worthy... this week I'm happy to report that I have lots of stitching to show... weather has shown definite signs of SPRING... my daffodils are up ... my hyacinths are blooming... the trees are budding... all good things... however the rain has been way too abundant... and it is going to rain again today. I'm sitting out on the sunroom porch...my favorite spot in the house and the wind is whislting, the clouds are darkening and I just got a weather update on my phone... a shower is expected in the next 15 minutes.

An update on my squirrel problem... a friend ... hi Meredith!... suggested a product called Flaming Squirrel Seed Sauce that you mix with the bird seed... here's a link to it on Amazon...

Notice the flames coming out of the squirrel's head... it has no effect on birds ...just mammals... like squirrels and deer... I consider repelling deer a bonus as they have snacked at my feeders too. Anyway, you mix this stuff with the seed and boy is it potent. Meredith warned me to wear rubber gloves and don't breath it in... you mix it up double strength to begin with and then after about 2 weeks you can do the normal dose. I am happy to report that the birds haven't noticed any changes but the squirrels have been pretty few and far between. I saw one the other day work very very hard to get onto my platform feeder...and once he got there he took one bite and whoosh... he was gone!!!   YES YES YES!! I've even spread some of the "sauced" bird seed on the ground around the feeders as they have munched there in the past. I am making my house as inhospitable as possible to the little rats in the nice fur coats... and I am thoroughly enjoying watching the birds... I have a pair of doves and I've seen several cardinals in addition to the numerous sparrows and robins.  I talked with my handyman about the window box problem and he suggested he could make covers for the boxes in the Fall from wood ... if they gnaw the wood he can repair them ... I think that might save the boxes from further damage. Now I can't wait to get them re-painted and planted up ... but it is still way too early ... another 4 to 5 weeks and then PETUNIAS!!!

Okay back to what you came here for... stitching!!! I FFO'd my April piece from Hands on Designs A Year of Celebrations...

A nice little Spring-y display... need to get started on May soon.

And I stitched up Pineberry Lane's Sister's Farm Fresh Eggs...

I'm loving how this one looks... I got that chicken wire frame at my LQS Homegrown Homesewn... it is from Darice and I also  found it here on Amazon... it comes as unfinished wood but I stained/painted it with undiluted Rit dye in Apple Green...ooohh... I found lots of crafty Darice stuff on Amazon...have to go peruse the offerings later....

I attached a wired ribbon burlap bow and added a pretty Prima flower I found in my card-making stash along with some cute leaf straight pins...

It is GOOD... very very GOOD to have a stash of crafty stuff!!  Now some people use magnets and washers and hot melt glue to attach the stitching to a frame but my preference is for  Scotch double sized foam tape... it looks like this in the package...

No burnt fingers and it is easy to use... a couple of strips on the back and press it down... I've been using it to mount all my stitching to frames and cut small pieces to attach bows or flowers. It holds very well and it easy to remove and redo a frame.  Sometimes I pick it up at Krogers and other times I order it from Amazon...here's a link... can you tell I LOVE Amazon Prime?...LOL... 

Anyway I think Sister came out nice... of course I painted the linen ... 32 ct... with Rit dye... Apple Green and Lemon Yellow... I changed most of the flosses ... used primarily DMC except for her dress which was  GA Raspberry Parfait... I did Smyrna crosses for the middle of the flowers and the band of trim on her skirt, along with some satin stitch... and I added hair... she was bald as are most of the Pineberry Lane prim gals... I think hair is an improvement...LOL

And this productivity of stitching and finishing had me starting two new pieces... first off, another Pineberry Lane chart, Mrs. Maguire's Hen House... this is how far I've gotten...

I used the same Rit dyes but they look brown-er here... IRL much lighter and clearer... there are more chickens to add and her apron and the henhouse needs to be sided... I'm doing it in satin stitch... five stitches high... I think it will look great!

I also painted and dyed more linen last week... so many things I can't wait to get to... I've been waffling on doing the LHN Spring ABC's... I've done Fall and Winter and the first one that was sewing related and have the perfect spot by the front door to display it...but I've tried and tried to get the linen right for it and failed several times...but this time I think I got it... instead of painting the linen I smushed it in a mason jar with a mixture of Rit Lemon Yellow and some Coral... be very sparing with the Coral... I've found it is a very intense dye... anyway I came up with a piece that is a lovely shade of cantaloupe... and here is my start on this piece...

It is hard to get a good pic of these long narrow pieces...now I started with the K...why there? Well for some reason there was a splotch of light green dye right where the roof of the house is ... I started there and covered it up and then worked up to the A... I checked my math numerous times and I should have plenty of fabric to complete the piece but just to be sure I'm going to stitch ALL the letters before I fill in any motifs. I'm using  the DMC conversion on the chart with a few changes... a different shade of green and I'm substituting a turquoise for the blue... yesterday when I stitched the F I wasn't sure I liked the turquoise I picked ...thought it was too bright but today it looks ok... yesterday I was looking at it in the sun, today is cloudy... I'll think about it a bit more ...easy enough to change it at this stage. 

Well I told myself that I'd be good where new charts are concerned... but I lied... I lie to myself a lot... I couldn't resist the new ones from With Thy Needle & Thread and while I didn't order them all at one time, I have gotten almost every new one she took to market. She has a great style, doesn't she?  There are just so many pretty charts and scrolling through Instagram I am constantly tempted ...and I have no willpower where pretty stuff is concerned... life needs all the pretty it can get!! 

And I've gotten sucked into a couple of new quilting projects... I've got one on my design wall ready to sew the rows together... I'm using some blocks I'd already sewn in a configuration I found in a new quilt book...and I got sucked into a QAL... you can see it here... it is for the Chamomile quilt...I want to make it big enough for my double bed so I need 25 blocks... each block has 16 squares... 25 x 16 equals 400 squares... and I have a nice stash of low volume fabrics... over 100... so if I cut 4 from each piece I'd have a lovely variety...and a humongous mess...LOL...which is exactly where I am now... tune in tomorrow and I'll share more ...even include pics of the mess ...hopefully it will make some one feel better about there messy sewing room...

Okay... I'll be linking up with Kathy's Quilts today... doing carryout for dinner so nothing to do here... the weather guys jumped the gun...no rain yet and even a peek of sun... very nice... next week has a couple of things I have to do but hopefully nice amount of stitching and sewing time will be on my agenda...hope you have a great week too!

happy stitching-

carol fun 

I think it may be Spring on a Slow Stitching Sunday...

Hello all ... well the weather this week and the fact that it was the vernal equinox on Wednesday have lead me to believe Spring is here... and the clincher is my beloved Cincinnati Reds play their opening day game this coming Thursday... yeah!! Weather forecast is for 65 and sunny and dry... should be a great day... hope springs eternal when the season starts... we have some better pitching and fielding. The owners have spent some money on the team this year and I hope it pays off. Opening Day is Cincinnati is quite an affair... there is a parade around noon which has a big turnout and all the local media cover everything that happens that day... it is sort of local holiday... people let their kids skip school if they have tickets for the game... it is a BIG DEAL!!  I'll be watching from the comfort of my stitching chair. My son had tickets for Opening Day a couple of years ago... he said it was a blast to attend.

Well I ran here and there last week but I did get several things accomplished. My group of quilty ladies gets together once a month and they were coming to my house after we did dinner at Cheesecake Factory, and that always spurs me to finish stuff. I got a quilt back from Quilting by David and I'm really happy with the panto ....

Here's a close up ... the pattern is called Just Roses...

And here is the Dude inspecting the quilt...

I'm happy it met with his approval... here's the back... I LOVE this fabric!!

And since the remnants of this quilt were still all over my cutting table I decided that a new table runner for my dining room table would be lovely... I knew the quilty ladies would ogle it...

I just quilted a big wavy line on this ...

I also love that Lemondrop Grunge... so pretty and Spring-y!!  

And I wasn't done yet... there were still some bits and pieces so I made a little mini-quilt...

I think I have this collection out of my system now... this fabric is the Painted Garden collection from Crystal Manning... it came out a while ago... and she has a new collection called Growing Beautiful that has captured my attention... 

I think this is BEAUTIFUL... and I LOVE that little pop of chartruese greeny yellow... that's gonna be my background color. I've been stalking the web looking for pre-cuts of this collection to no avail. My friend wrote to Crystal and she was  told  that they are digitally printing the fabric and the factory didn't have the ability to do layer cakes/jelly rolls/charm packs... darn... but I like this SOOOOO MUCH that I broke down and purchased a bundle of fat eighths... should be here this week. I'm thinking of doing something simple (I like simple... A LOT)  so it shows off the fabrics. 

I put the little mini quilt out on the sunroom porch... I think it looks great there...

I like the bit of softness it brings to the display...

And not only was I productive on the quilting front I also was on a roll with my cross stitch...first I finished stitching April in the HoD A Year of Celebrations...

I changed the tulips to yellow from purple... and used my choices of DMC... I still have a week to FFO it.

And after that was done I picked up one of my new Market haul pieces... Easter Holiday Hoopla from WTN&T... everyone on IG said it was a quick stitch...and it was...I changed most of the colors... some of the overdyeds I didn't have and others I didn't like, so this is a mix of Weeks/Gentle Arts/Classic Colorworks/DMC... I put the last stitches in this morning and went right to work FFO-ing it... I never do that ...don't know what got into me but I'm happy with the results!!

I stitched this on 32 ct linen I painted with very diluted washes of Lemon Yellow and Aquamarine... the little tart pan came from Michaels... I think it was $3... the rose-y pom poms were in my stash as was the ribbon. I will be able to reuse this for other charts in this to be released series...

And here it is in my display...

The other Easter piece was a gift a couple of years ago from Wicked Stitcher... I love those bunnies!!

Now what to stitch next... I think I'm done doing Easter stuff...and maybe even Spring stuff... may move onto Summer... I have several pieces I want to do with a chicken theme... and even though I said I would stick with small pieces  When Flowers Blossom from WTN&T is calling my name...

I'm thinking that a soft yellow or green background would be pretty and perhaps make both of the houses yellow-y gold... on 32 ct it would be about 8" high and 12" wide... maybe I'll have time tonight to pull some threads and maybe paint some fabric... 

But first I need to work on dinner... my son and his wife are coming over... we use to get together every Sunday but the schedule has changed... my son is the prosecutor for our little town and does Mayor's Court on the first and third Mondays of the month...so those weeks we get together for dinner after he's done with that... so that leaves the other Sundays for me... it is a nice arrangement. We are all on pins and needles awaiting the arrival of their bundle of joy... should be arriving before Easter ... so close... 

OK -just popped the prime rib roast in the oven for a sear of 30 minutes... need to prep the asparagus and I'll put together a salad and slice some avocados... I made a pasta salad yesterday and we have fresh strawberries and rolls... should be tasty. 

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

happy stitching-

carol fun 

Where some projects leave me feeling better than others on a Slow Sunday Stitching...

Hello all -- another week...another DST, I'm all off kilter, why do we do this twice a year week... I'm still not shifted to where I was before ... maybe by the end of next week. Anyway it was a semi-productive week, but not in the ways I had assumed. But I'll take finished or partially finished projects whenever I can find them.

First off on Tuesday I decided I should paint and dye some linen... all 32 ct... I cut several pieces for specific projects and some randomly sized pieces. I always start out painting the linen and then if I don't like how it looks I stick it in the mason jar with whatever leftover dye I have... sometimes the results of the smushed in the jar are waaay better than what I started with...sometimes not. Here is the pile of what I did...

As I've said before the colors are better in real life... that green at the 12 o'clock position and the turquoise at the 5 o'clock spot are kinda pretty... intense with some nice mottling... the lighter stuff is mostly pale yellow and light green and the piece at 10 o'clock is a opalescent dyed a pale tangerine. I did 2 long cuts for the LHN Spring ABCs... the dark one at 6 o'clock got overdyed apple green as I didn't like the bright orange swatch I had painted... the lighter piece at 3 o'clock isn't making me happy either. Instead of trying to include 3 colors I should have stuck with one or two... overall I'm feeling kinda meh about this bit of productivity ... perhaps I'll be happier when I find the right charts to go with them. 

Wednesday came and I was still in a painting mood...and Mother Nature was cooperating as it was sunny and not too breezy. Remember last week when I said I may paint the shelf unit on the porch... well I did!!! Now normally it would take me a minimum of 3 months to get around to a project like this but I found a chalk paint (that said I wouldn't have to sand) and they had the paint at Home Depot... the Behr Chalk paint in Granny Smith Apple (which looks NOTHING like the sample on line)... it was one of their standard colors but the lady at the paint counter said they could mix any color I wanted. Anyway armed with a new paint brush and foam rollers and a snazzy drop cloth I jumped in... I ended up painting both the shelf unit and the bench I have in that room.

Shelf unit...

Bench...

Not sure you can see it but there is a bit of this spring-y lime-y green in the carpet tiles which is almost a spot on match. I've never used chalk paint before but since both of these pieces were inexpensive wood that had a shiny finish on them I hoped the paint would adhere better without having to sand. I did end up putting a spray on Zinsser primer on the shelf unit. I thought the white color of the primer would also help cover the dark color of the wood. I didn't use any primer on the bench. Now after watching about 100 videos I decided not to wax either piece. If you wax them and you end up changing your mind you have to remove all the wax... and I may change my mind with these. Instead I'm going to use a spray polyurethane coating on them... but Mother Nature hasn't cooperated since I got the paint on ... so I'm waiting for another nice day with temps in the 60's and little wind to complete this project. I did find that the paint on the un-primed bench was east to scratch...had to do some touch up... so I'm sure a coating of some kind is necessary. I do like the matte finish of the chalk paint. so that is a plus.  And I LOVE LOVE LOVE the color!!! This project has made me happy so far...

As for stitching I have  a finish... just put the last stitches in this one Saturday night... Good Deeds by With Thy Needle & Thread...

It finished about 7" tall x 11" wide... not sure how I'll FFO it... maybe see what I've got in the basement before I think about professional framing.  This project makes me happy!!

And with this one complete I picked up the April installment of Hands on Designs Year of Celebrations...

I changed the flosses to DMC... 2 greens 2 oranges 1 turquoise 1 yellow and 1 white... it does have a BIG cloud in the upper left hand corner, which will take a while... but once I get the outline done in turquoise it will be mindless. I want this done before April rolls around and it should be doable before the week is over... I like the linen I painted but have no clue why I cut such a small piece.  It is a good thing I'll FFO this myself because there isn't much extra fabric to work with.  I think this project will make me happy when it is done...

And I do want to finish April pronto so I can move on to something new... several of the new charts I purchased last week are calling my name. I told myself to work on small stuff but one of the bigger charts I bought is really yelling in my ear...will have to see how this works out. 

The nicer weather this week (excluding Thursday evening where we had a tornado warning) has got me itching to work in the yard. I got my yard guy to pull out two barberry bushes in my yard... gonna get some hydrangeas to replace them ... and I pulled some of the winter stuff out of my window boxes ...and that is when I saw this...

these are solid resin HEAVY window boxes... they are very well made and not cheap... and warrantied against cracking and breaking... but this isn't a situation where the corner cracked off... no... the DAMN squirrels are sharpening their teeth on the corners of several of my window boxes!!! I am so ticked off... I'm usually very tolerant of the rats in the nice fur coats ... I don't chase them from my bird feeders...live and let live... till now... this is WAR!!!  I'll repaint the boxes and the damage won't show much when I plant but this has got to stop. Not only have they gnawed on the window boxes I found a spot on the gutter flashing where the paint is gone and they've gnawed on my house... is it made of gingerbread???  A year or so ago I put cayenne pepper in some planters to keep the squirrels from digging in them. I'm going to get a mega sized bottle of cayenne pepper and spread it in all the window boxes ... hopefully that will deter them. I also read where you can mix it in with the bird seed and it has no effect on the birds but the squirrels don't like it... they'll have to find a free meal elsewhere. Obviously this project has made me mad... 

However the yard is showing signs of Spring... I have one daffodil in bloom...

and lots more have buds ready to open... and I have one little bitty iris...

The hyacinths are also popping up and I had the lawn reseeded and some weed preventer put down... can't wait till I can buy annuals!!  I've been watching gardening videos and seeing so many pretty petunias and other plants. Not sure exactly what  color combo  I'll put in the window boxes ... I looked at some pictures from last year and while I love the yellow petunias they get overtaken by the pink ones... maybe I'll just do one color this year...but what color???  I saw some tangerine petunias but they are pricey and I need a ton to do all five window boxes.  Well I have plenty of time to think about it... I probably won't get to plant till the beginning of May and should wait till after the last chance for a frost which is around Mother's day here. I also need to stay out of Costco...another bag of dahlia tubers came home with me... I'm up to over 60 tubers to plant...need to order more stakes too!!  LOL

Well lots is going on this week... eye exam for my son, dinner out with my other son and daughter-in-law, monthly get together of my quilty lady friends and we are celebrating a birthday, lunch with a cross stitch friend and taking my son and his buddy to an anime show...I think the only crafty things I'll get done will happen when sitting and waiting ... oh well, there are always socks I want to knit.

I'll be linking up with Kathy's Quilts today ... hope you have a great week ahead!

happy stitching- 

carol fun 

I declare it to be SPRING... on a Slow Stitching Sunday...

Just a warning ...this is LOOOOONNNGGG... I didn't plan it to be but I have lots to chat about... Chatty Carol ...that 's me!   Remember Chatty Cathy and Chatty Baby dolls?  I still have a Chatty Baby somewhere...but she doesn't chat anymore... perhaps I should take some cues from her... but not today!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Hello everyone... I have declared that SPRING has officially arrived... at least in my house... Mother Nature is trying to cooperate with my agenda today... it is sunny and 50... however the winds are fierce... blowing around the sunroom porch as I sit here and type... it certainly whistles, but I'm believing it is blowing in better weather. And the sun is definitely appreciated to brighten my mood about the time change... which I HATE ABHOR DETEST... I'll keep my rant short this time... it all boils down to the same thing... quit playing with the clock... it will get lighter longer ... as it has done since the dawn of time... we could all wait a couple of weeks and have it occur naturally, instead of forcing it and screwing up everybody's body clock and sleep schedule.  And now I'll shut up about it... but I won't be happy about it...and you can't make me... LOL

So to implement my declaration of SPRING I banished the snowmen to their plastic bins for another year and broke out my new decor... bunnies... lots and lots and lots of bunnies...  and some chicks... and lots of yellow... the happiest color in the world, dontcha know?? So I spent most of my Saturday decorating my home... and true to my dear Father's description of me that I "bounce around like a BB in a boxcar" I bounced from space to space to space, back to the space I was working on 10 minutes ago, and then to another space.  I wear a Fitbit and I recorded 7500 steps ...and I never left the confines of my living room... maybe decorating can be an Olympic sport??

Lots of pictures... first the display shelf unit ... now after I putzed and putzed and putzed with these shelves I sat in my chair and gazed upon my handiwork and the thought crept into my pea brain that perhaps I had jumped the shark and done too much... so I slept on that thought and pondered removing some items... and then I thought  naaay... it makes me happy  to see all that lovely stitching and do-dads... I've determined I am the anti-thesis of Marie Kondo... there is just so many things in life that spark joy for me... can't be a minimalist.

The shelves...

oh my goodness... a bunny bonaza!! Lets start at the top... One of my newest Spring cross stitch pieces the Lizzie Kate Spring String...

I stitched this on 28 ct. evenweave that I painted with Lemon Yellow and Tangerine Rit dyes... I used DMC floss and changed the colors to suit me... it is a lot more turquoise than the chart.  Moving down to the next shelf... another Lizzie Kate pattern ... Spring Smalls...

This time it is 32 ct linen and again I turquoise-ed it up... the box is from the Dollar Spot at Target or as it is now called Bullseye's Playground... it has a handle that it hard to see in this pic and it measures  about  8" long and 4" deep and 6" tall with that wire mesh insert.  It is called an "Art Caddy" and it was in the section with kid stuff. They had it in 3 colors, bright blue, a natural wood tone and this turquoise... it was $3... I bought this one and the natural wood tone one... I think I'll stain it olive green for a Autumn display... the turquoise should work fine for the other 3 seasons. All those tulips were from Micheals... 2 bunches, $2 each and the stiff ribbon accent is from Walmart... it has a little clip on the end.

Also on that shelf is my bunny in the big blue dress that I stitched last year... the chart is Ah tis Spring!  by Not Forgotten Farms...

and isn't that little bunny sitting on the polka dot egg cute?  Picked him up at Cracker Barrel... I love their gift shop... cute stuff I don't see elsewhere.  And flanking the  LK Spring piece is a flock of chicks and a bunny cookie jar I got at Kroger's last year and an egg cup wearing bunny slippers... I have a small collection of egg cups with feet... I think they are hilarious!!

Moving down another shelf is my Sampler Hill by With Thy Needle & Thread... with its' 98 tulip border... I do love a good border... now I had this framed previously and when I got it back I did not like it... and I stewed about it and finally just took it out of the frame and stuck it in my needs to be FFO'd box... I do love this sampler and it is so SPRING-Y ... so I decided to finish it myself and Priscilla-fied it... I'm much happier with it now...

some greenery and a burlap ribbon and a covered button all mounted on a wood frame from Hobby Lobby... and yes more egg cups have feet...

On that same shelf we have a bunch of decor... some old and some new...

That bunny cake came from Hobby Lobby years ago... I use to have a boy version but it got broken... the frolicking bunnies are a salt and pepper set I got at Homegoods this year... I saw them on someone's shopping video on youtube and immediately coveted them.  I went to my Homegoods the same day and they had one set of them which I scooped up and headed to the cash register with... last Fall there was another cute themed salt and pepper set I liked... I looked around a bit more and as I went back to the display another lady grabbed them ... wasn't going to let that happen again.

And on the shelf beneath I have a bit more cross stitch and decor... the stitching is 2/3 of a chart by Blackbird Designs and that easel came from Micheals..

And on a side note I think you can see in this picture my major improvement to the shelf unit which is a making decorating so much easier... do you see the "glass" on top of the wire shelf?  It is plexiglass that I got cut at Lowe's to fit the shelves... each shelf in this piece is the same width but a different depth... and trying to get stuff to stay where I wanted it was often difficult because of widely spaced wires.... when I first put them on the piece they looked like glass to me and it is so nice to work with. Best idea I've had in a long time!  Not my original idea... I saw that they had done the same thing at Micheals on some of their display pieces  and I copied from them.

Anyway on the left side of this shelf is some decor I've had for years... a giant bunny head and a pretty dish with mercury glass carrots and a peek at the stack of quilts below...oh and that little chick I showed last week.

I know... there is a LOT of stuff here... but I LOVE my stuff... I love that I  can display it and enjoy it ... Marie Kondo doesn't have any clue what joy all this stuff sparks in me!!

And if that wasn't enough ... like those infomercials...wait wait, there's more... a new 3 tier tray and a new display with new cross stitch... ta dah!!

I just purchased this tray yesterday at Hobby Lobby... I like that the sides aren't high so you don't need to prop stuff up to display them... it has a turned wooden center and the edges of the trays are copper... I had seen this the day before and went home and thought about it ... decided I wanted it... went back and it wasn't where I saw it the day before...accckkk... someone beat me to it... I looked around a bit and found it wedged into another display ... I might not have even noticed if that is where it had been in the first place ... perhaps someone tucked it there for safe keeping for me... at least that's what I want to believe...LOL

Here's the top of the tray...

The tulip holding bunny is old but the cross stitch is new... the Bunnies chart from Prairie Schooler... I just finished this as a little pillow... no extra trim or fabric... and I love that crinkly paper that I filled the trays with... it is Easter "grass" from Walmart ... I had some in green but wanted yellow and was floored when I went there and they had TWO shades of yellow... that never happens... usually when I want an item  in yellow I'm lucky if I can find one choice ...

Moving down to the  other levels  we have a trio of  adorable bunnies from Walmart ( FYI Walmart has some very nice seasonal decor for a good price... I think I paid under $3 a piece for them... I hadn't thought of shopping for decor items there until I started watching Auntie Coo coo's videos on youtube... she loves Walmart and does a great job showing what they have and what the prices are)

And on the bottom tier I stuck the other two PS bunnies into a galvanized mini-tub  ... they make a cute couple, dontcha think?  So that is the majority of my SPRING decor... but not all of it... I'll show a few other things next week. I still want to make a new table runner for my dining table and a topper for the shelf unit on the sunroom porch... and I'm thinking about painting that shelf unit... I like the look of  it but not the dark wood... it shows all the dust.. still mulling over what color to paint it... I'm leaning towards either a dusty turquoise or perhaps a muted yellow or a green... something  not too lime-y ... perhaps a bit of olive green... decisions decisions... need to go to check out paint...

So did you enjoy seeing all the new stuff that came out at the Nashville Market?  I know I did and I jumped into ordering right away... here's my haul...

Starting in the front  and from left to right, I got the first portion of the Square Dance series by Heart in Hand... very cute monthly designs only 40 stitches square... and I got a plethora of With Thy Needle & Thread charts...but not all I want... I tried to be good... I'd like to do the Easter  Holiday Hoopla piece...  a bunny holding tulips is right up my alley ... and instead of "framing" it with a hoop I picked up a fluted galvanized round tin at Michaels which should work if I stitch it on 32 ct... stay tuned... the back row is the 3 Blackbird Design books that were released and a beautiful sampler from Kitten Stitcher/Shakespeare's Peddler, "A Saviour's Praise"...now I don't know if I'll ever stitch this one but I had to own it... the border is spectacular ...you can see it here.

And since I've  mostly forgone  my  semi-annual rant on Daylight Saving Time I shall put in a bit of a whine about the Ooh - La - La book by BBD... it does have several pieces I would like to stitch in it... but it also includes 2 charts for pieces I have already stitched. One is called  "Le Poulet"... you can see my piece here.  I stitched it back in 2015... it was a stand alone pattern... a pattern that I had somehow bought twice ...and now have bought a third time...sheesh... and the other piece is called "A Bit of Spring" in this book... when I stitched it back in 2015 it was in a book called Weekend which had a lot of quilt patterns and a bit of cross stitch... then the pattern was called "Early Morning Read".  You can read my post about it here.  I would still have bought the book even with the repeated patterns but I don't remember ever seeing them do that before and they don't mention anywhere that the book includes previously published patterns.

I ordered these patterns from 2 different places... some came from Fat Quarter Shop ... they have started selling cross stitch patterns and had those BBD books available right away... they have free shipping with an $80 order... the other patterns came from Kitten Stitcher's site  Shakespeare's Peddler... she offers a flat $3 shipping charge.  I normally shop with 123 Stitch and I still will... my past experience is that 123 Stitch has been slow to get in new charts particularly those from With Thy Needle & Thread so that's why I went elsewhere...and less than 12 hours later 123 Stitch posted that  they had those same patterns. I assume they've realized how competitive the cross stitch market is getting. There are a bunch of little independent on-line sellers these days and Fat Quarter Shop is big player in the online market.  As with any competition the customer should come out on top with this... I know I'll look around more next time I order. No one site has everything you want, so I have "to let my fingers do the walking" ... do you remember when that was a catch phrase for using the telephone book? Gawd I'm getting old...LOL

Well that was quite the magnum opus wasn't it?  Don't have any dinner plans as we went out for breakfast this morning as a family... son and DIL are going to her parents for dinner this evening... it is her birthday tomorrow.  I was none too happy to get up early this morning ... and it seemed even earlier with the time change...but the omelet was tasty and I'm hoping that getting me up early today will ease me into the time change...now I just have to avoid taking a nap... and Big Dude isn't setting a good example here...

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today... have lots of plans for the week for stitching and sewing...  hope that your week is full of stitching time!

happy stitching-
carol fun