Ups & Downs & Round & Round on a Slow Stitching Sunday...

 Hello... hope things are well in your little corner of the world. Things here have been up & down and a bit of round and round thrown into the mix. First I want to thank all of you for the prayers and good wishes for my dental surgery... I used them!!   It wasn't as easy this time as last time... I was totally wiped out on Tuesday after the procedure and my son told me to skip babysitting on Wednesday and rest some more... and I did.  I've been a good patient... the doctor said so...LOL... I brushed and flossed and used the special rinse and took all of the antibiotic... on the follow up visit last week it said both spots, the extraction and the prep for the implant looked great... nice and upbeat... then the down stuff came... turns out they had a hard time keeping my airway open during the IV sedation. He suggested I see a specialist for sleep apnea... and if I can get the specialist's office to return calls, I'll make an appointment... grrr... I don't doubt that I do have sleep apnea and I'd like to get it checked out... I have a feeling a c-pap will give me better sleep... but I am concerned that the airway issue will keep me from being able to do IV sedation at the dentist office and I have more work to be done....  and so I left the office feeling a bit up & down... but I for the first time in months my mouth wasn't hurting... until the evening, when it was... argghhh... I suspect that the infection is not totally cleared up. I'm back to my ibuprofen regime ... will be calling the office on Monday to discuss if I need another round of antibiotics.  So that has affected my mood.... 

I have been medicating myself with gardening for the last two weeks... somehow weeding and seeding and planting gets my mind off my mouth.... we've had a TON of rain... 5th rainy-est May for the area... I haven't  hardly watered  at all ...which is good for my water bill... but lots of things I've planted in the ground are having a slow go of it.   I'll include a some pictures below...

Things in pots and the pyramid of petunias seems to be doing well...

 the marigolds are struggling... I've had to go back and pull out dead one and replant several times... it is a good thing I want a mix of different varieties because every time I go back to the garden centers they don't have the ones I bought previously. 

One of the window boxes ... that dahlia to the right side is one I left in the ground over the winter... already pushing 4 feet tall!... and this year I'm planting shorter zinnia in front of those shrubs. 

Some new to the yard perennials... tickseed and tall phlox...

and this is called a Shrimp plant... Hannah at the garden center talked me into this one... not that is was a hard sell...LOL

and the dahlia bed!!!

It is looking great... I'm trying a new way of "staking" them this year... I've put steel garden stakes every foot or so and make a 1 foot grid from twine... the idea is for the plants to grow between the twine and be supported by it, instead of trying to stake every single plant...  I'm still waiting on a shipment of tubers for back of the bed. Turns out one of the places I purchased from has somehow disappeared. No website, no telephone, no email...poof!!   However there was still a FB page and it was filled with gardeners like me saying I paid for the tubers back in Jan/Feb/Mar/Apr and have never received them. I filed a dispute with Discover and they are giving me a provisional credit and trying to sort things out. Soooooo... I went back to see if I could get anymore tubers and lots of places are already sold out... insert frowny face... but Longfield Gardens still had some pretty dahlias left... I've bought from them before... twice already this year... they tubers I got were very nice and my order should be here tomorrow. I'll be sticking with them from now on. 

As for decorating....I know lots of people have moved on to patriotic... and I have plans to do the same... in another week or so... haven't had the motivation yet... in the meantime I'm enjoying my Spring-y decor... a mix of my favorite cross stitch designers... Blackbird Designs, With Thy Needle & Thread, From the Heart Needleart, Barbara Ana Designs, Pineberry Lane... and some vintage McCoy and Shawnee pottery mixed in. 

I haven't gotten a lot of cross stitching done the past 2 weeks... couldn't concentrate...hoping to change that situation today and work on some patriotic stuff. 

As for sewing... I forgot to take pictures, but I put the back together for a top I made months ago and I got it and  the flag quilt from the book County Seat Quilts finished and off to Delinda to quilt... click here for glimpse of what my flag quilt looked like half done on my design wall. 

I did work a little bit more on the Bonnie & Camille swap blocks... 

maybe tonight I'll work on it... all the big blocks are done... just need to do the sashing & the border and I am LOVING that border print. 

As for round & round... I've been knitting socks again... a mindless pursuit for when I'm tired and can't concentrate... 

Don't know what my plans are for the next 2 weeks... last week had lots of appointments... this week only has one listed so far. My yard is pretty much planted... I've been spreading seeds every couple of days and I know a few more perennials will follow me home throughout the summer.  The weather has cooperated a bit so I was able to take Elliott to a park last Tuesday... the one with the bulldozer you can rock back and forth on and the digger/scooper apparatus in the sand box ... Elliott ADORES anything construction related... and we hit the jackpot last Tuesday... sitting in the park, totally unattended (but thankfully locked)  was a small back hoe/digger... 

as you can see he was in awe of this beauty...there was no one else around so I let him crawl up on the tracks and stand in the bucket... if the doors hadn't been locked I know he'd have gotten inside it... he was greasy and dirty when we left the park but quite happy!

Hope you have a good week ahead... I do wish the world could get it acts together... my Grandma told me time moves faster the older you get... well I'm getting old mighty quick because it appears to me that things are getting worse at a much faster pace... and I DO NOT LIKE IT ONE BIT!!

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts... enjoy the pretties over there...

happy stitching-

carol fun 

How green it is in my little world on a Slow Stitching Sunday...

 Hello all - I'm writing this on Saturday... sitting out on my sunroom porch... it raining cats and dogs... I love sitting out here and watching in come down without getting wet... and everything is getting so green!!   I've been working in the yard whenever the temperatures allowed. I know it is  meteorologically speaking still Spring but it sure has felt like Summer... several days close to 90... and plenty of thunderstorms... I will say I haven't had to water much at all.

So when I was last here it was Mother's Day and my younger son dedicated his whole day to helping me in the yard... and boy what a BIG help he was!!   We planted about 11 flats of annuals.... zinnas , petunias, marigolds, coleus., cleome... a couple of one gallon  perennials...  I counted some stuff... 80 zinnas, 50 marigolds, 42 petunias, 24 geraniums.... it was a a LOT of stuff... but boy does it make me happy happy happy!!!

Then last Sunday I was at it again and got my dahlias in the new raised bed... 175 dahlia tubers to be exact!!!  

I know I know ... it doesn't look like anything now, but just wait...  I'm loving our new patio set and the hanging ferns...

And here's an update on the pyramid of petunias... looking good!

 

Compare and contrast to just 2 weeks ago...

I looked at the pictures of them marigold bed and they're not doing as well. It has bounced back and forth a lot between hot and then wet... I think I'll add some seeds to it and hope that fills in well. Of course I want everything to be in full bloom RIGHT NOW... which is ridiculous cause we got a lot of  Summer still to come.

Since I couldn't plant any more today I popped into the garden center just before it rained and picked up a couple more plants... cause you can NEVER have too many flowers/fabric/floss/charts/yarn... you get the picture... LOL

Got some new to me varieties of perennials... just need for the daffodils to die back a bit more so I can clean out the beds and make room for them.

This is one of 2 pots by my garage and its looking good...

Cannas and calibrachoa petunias and some salvia that is already getting swallowed up... the cannas already have blooms starting...and I love the burgundy color of the leaves... 

And I stumbled upon these petunias... I've never seen a petunia that was yellow and green before... 

The tag says Danziger Ray Pistachio Cream and here is a link to them.  I've never heard of this plant company before but they have some interesting looking stuff.  I want a really pretty ceramic pot for these and all of mine are already full so maybe I do some shopping tomorrow as it is suppose to be rainy then too. 

And from all the petunias outside  lets segue into petunias in the house... my living room wall...

This quit is an oldie but goodie... a Phillip Jacobs print I Stacked n Whacked ... and I got a new tier tray...

I got this on Amazon you can see it here... I like the whitewashed finished, the scalloped edge and it has a nice amount of height between the tiers.  I picked up that cute little turquoise chair at Michaels ... a nice way to display a small... and I love the turquoise theme I've got going here. 

As for another display in my living room I've got a green vibe going on ... and I've got other green stuff to share too... 

You know yellow is my favorite color but green ... all shades of green ... are a very close second and in getting my knickknacks and seasonal cross stitch pieces out I find I've done a lot of stitching  with green...

Here's one of my more recent finishes... Brite Birds by Kathy Barrick... it was a freebie you can see  here...

I've had this frame for a while... I think it came from Micheals... the roof and the bird and the clips were black and I painted them with a couple of shades of green... I stitched a single bird from the piece for the 2nd clip spot...

And at the other end more birds stitched on green and in green...

The bird with the spool of thread is Bobbin' Along by Notforgotten Farms and the little pin pillow is Birdhouse Alphabet by Little House Needleworks... my foray into doing over one on 28ct...like the look, not a fan of the actual stitching part. 

Below another freebie this time from Hello from Liz Matthews ... you can see it here... I used some variegated Sulky for this ...

An oldie but goodie from The Drawn Thread that I can't recall of the name of... oh wail I just found it when I was searching for something else... it's called For the Birds...

And some little pin pillows which are snippets from the border of the A Saviour's Praise by Shakespeare's Peddler.... you the whole thing here ...

And yes I do have A LOT OF bird knickknacks... I LOVE birds... I'm sitting here typing and watching them a my feeders right now... there was a pair of cardinals just a minute ago... 

Oh I mentioned how green things are in my little world at the beginning of this tome... and here's the stitching to prove it...

First I finished the Blackbird Design  A Tribute piece I started on the Saturday before Mother's Day ...

I'm very happy with how this turned out... I may have this one professionally framed... I'm thinking a small gold frame would be very pretty...

And then I did this small...

This is Hello Spring from Sub Rosa...you can see it here... its a PDF download... I want to finish this as a little pillow.

And I found this WIP and it totally fits my green vibe...

That green is really intense IRL... like deep pea green... this is The Queen's Garden by The Scarlett House which you can see here and the queen has her head...  

I'm thinking of putting some of the Spring decor away and getting out more summer-y stuff for a couple of displays ... and I think I'm going to get out the patriotic stuff by mid June... gotta get some stitching done for it. 

I'm trying to keep myself busy... the yard work is great for my mental health and right now I'm enthused about cross stitching...and I've even gone down in the basement and sewed a couple of blocks for that Bonnie & Camille quilt on my design wall.   I find the world right now is making me crazy... and on a personal level I'm dealing with dental issues again... ugh....double ugh...triple ugh... the tooth that I thought about getting the root canal re-done is going to be pulled on Tuesday. I did some research and the probability of successfully re-doing that 30 year old dental work is not high ... and  I'd end up having it pulled anyway... after spending several thousand dollars for the procedure... so I'm skipping that  part and moving on to an extraction and prep for an implant. I'm doing the IV sedation again... my regular dentist recommended it because my mouth is very small ( I know I know you'd never think that if you heard me blather on in real life, just like I do here, but it is)... my mouth is hard to work in ... so I'll just spend the bucks with the oral surgeon... if you are so inclined a little prayer at 8:00 am on Tuesday would be appreciated... I'm a bit anxious but it went well last time, and I'd really like to have a day when my mouth doesn't hurt...that hasn't happened in a couple of months and I'm tired of popping ibuprofen like they are M & Ms... 

So gonna keep busy this week with stitching and maybe some sewing...don't think the weather is going to be conducive to more planting... forecast is for stormy weather...

I hope things are well in your world... I'm so glad I do have my garden and my crafty stuff to keep me occupied..I'll be linking up with Kathy's Quilts today... and spending some time seeing what everyone else is up to... 

Happy Mother's Day on a Slow Stitching Sunday...

Sending best wishes out to all of the Mothers today... I hope you are appreciated and pampered ... you soooo deserve it!   

I'm spending my day doing the things I love to do... stitching  a little, sewing a little and because the weather is cooperating gardening A LOT!!  Last week was pretty gray and rainy and chilly ... it kept me from planting but ti didn't stop me from shopping... pics of some of the stuff I collected at the 6 or was it 7 ...maybe 8 different garden stores I visited ...and I got a small start on the pyramid of petunias... it really needs a coat of paint too...

Lots of coleus... love all the different colors and leaf shapes...and in the background you can see our new outdoor dining set... it took Nick & I several hours to put it together but it is very nice and I know we are going to enjoy it...

And small dahlias and marigolds and cleome and salvia and cannas...

Can you tell I am a bit concerned that all the good stuff will be going quickly?  I also got some hollyhocks in gallon pots and some other perennial too... 

Plan for today is to get the window boxes done... my younger son will help me as I need to get up on a ladder to reach 3 of the 5 ...he hands the plants up to me so I don't have to constantly go up and down the ladder... and then I have 2 large pots to plant up and a couple of small ones and my raised planter ...  if I'm not too tired I'd like to get zinnias that I edge the beds with planted as it has rained a ton the last 2 days and the ground is nice and soft.  But that is probably overdoing it... Rome wasn't built in a day but I'd love to whip my yard into shape in less than 24 hours...LOL... I still have tons of daffodils that need to be cleaned out but they haven't died back enough.... and I'm thinking I'll wait till the end of the month to plant all the new dahlia tubers I bought... and since they haven't all arrived yet that is a real good strategy...

Weather here should be fine... I don't see a single low temperature below the mid 40 for 10 days out... I think we are past any chance of frost... yeah!!

On the stitching front I have a finish... Spring from Prairie Schooler Seasons #50...  

I think I have a tag shaped frame that might work for this...

And I've continued my Mother's Day tradition of starting a new cross stitch piece guilt free... I've done this for several years... I have two charts calling my name ... I painted and dyed linen for them Friday night and I LOVE both pieces... the first one is The Green Pear Band Sampler.... I sprung for the silks for this one...

I painted the linen with a combination of Golden Yellow, Pearl Gray and Tan... loving the splotchy mottled look...

and my second selection is a rather obscure chart by Blackbird Designs called A Tribute...

it is in the book entitled Women of Grace & Charm: A Quilting Tribute to the Women Who Served in WWII... I painted & dyed the linen with Apple Green... I think that monochromatic look is perfect for this piece...

Not sure which one I'm going to stitch on.... and I probably won't get a lot done as the plants are calling my name...

My sewing mojo has returned a bit... had a conversation with a friend last week about blocks that were  made in an exchange and how we hadn't done anything with them. In my case it was a Log Cabin swap done with Bonnie and Camille fabrics from back in 2017... I planned on waiting to put them together anticipating someone coming up with a dynamite setting ... but I never saw one that caught my eye, so I'm going with this layout... 

I'm sewing 4 of the individual swap blocks together with sashing and cute little fussy cut birds as cornerstones... then I'm sashing the GINORMOUS block again, with more cornerstones... and I think I'll add a piano key border out of all of the leftover 2.5" strips I have ...

... and I have enough blocks leftover to do another smaller quilt... don't know if I'll get to that right away... 

Dinner will definitely be carryout from somewhere... I don't have the patience to deal with crowds at a restaurant today... 

Next week is looking fabulous weather wise... temperatures in the 70's and 80's and no rain... although after planting all those flowers I'll be wanting a bit of rain... got another shot of cortisone in my knee and it seems to be helping... still have dental issues... going to have to have another tooth pulled... same story as before... 30 year old dental work that has somehow reached the end of its effectiveness... this one was root canaled and crowned so it ain't coming out easy... I'm doing the IV sedation again and the oral surgeon will prep this and another hole in my mouth for implants... and then there are 2 other implants that I can move ahead on too... glad I got all my house projects done as I hadn't planned on the dental expenses and if I had known I probably wouldn't have spent the money on them... but there's no changing the past and I'm glad I did  them....that raised bed is going to be so much fun to play in... and I need fun to take my mind off the dental issues... ibuprofen is my very close buddy these days. 

I'm so glad that Spring has sprung... I need it for my mental  and physical health... the world is too crazy to deal with some days... actually lots of days... but like fabric stores and cross stitch shops and Mexican restaurants I've never been unhappy playing in the dirt... cheaper than therapy and I have something to show for it...LOL

Hope you are having a marvelous Mother's Day and that the week ahead is wonderful!!!  I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts ... probably won't get time to check things out till later tonight when I'm kicked back in my stitching chair  snuggled up to my heating pad and chasing a couple of ibuprofen with some bubbly water... gosh I live such a fast paced life style....ROFL...not at all!!

Oh here is a planter my younger son got me as a Mother's Day gift... and I added the orange-y petunias... Proven Winners Dreamsicle is the color....

a self portrait in flowers!!!  I LOVE IT!!!

happy stitching-

carol fun  

Messages on a Slow Stitching Sunday...

Hello - it was brought to my attention that I haven't been giving this blog any attention in the past couple of weeks... so I'll try to rectify the situation today... April has been busy... a birthday party for Elliott... he turned 3... Easter... a bunch of lunches and dinners with friends...two outdoor projects around my house... dental appointments... ugh... I could have done without that last category, but it appears they will continue into May, June, July, etc.... double ugh... 

As for what I've been doing crafty wise I've been following a couple of messages I received recently... first message was from a Flosstube video where the missive was you should stitch one what YOU like... don't be influenced by what everyone else is doing... and the second message was a remark from a dear friend that maybe I should focus just on cross stitch... and that's what I've been doing... I have several quilt projects waiting for me, but I'm just not feeling it... but cross stitch has me in its clutches... so I've been stitching stitching stitching... and I'm sticking with 32 count... I've been swayed to pull out some 40 ct. and I've been working on this piece for a while...

Bower Birds ... ok ... I was going to insert a picture here but for the life of me I can not figure out what safe place I put this project in... I live in a small house... and I pride myself on my organization but I've looked everywhere I thought it would be... maybe this  THE sign that 40 ct is not for me...LOL

I did finish up this piece... Brite Birds by Kathy Barrick... it is a freebie... 

Rit Apple Green dye for  the linen and for  the floss... lots of bits and pieces of Gentle Arts Dried Thyme... I LOVE that color but I must have at least 10 different dye lots and they range from olive to pine... and not enough of any one dye lot to start a new project with... but I think it worked out well here... I stitched the extra bird so I could use this frame I found in my stash... and yes along with a stash of patterns, and flosses and linen I have a stash of picture frames... I think this one came from Michaels... it had black trim  and black clips... I took them off and painted all the black trim with  3 different  shades of green... I like how it turned out... 

And I banished the bunnies and broke out the birds for a re-fresh of my decorating... here's one of my displays...  I LOVE all the green and turquoise...Up top with my Brite Birds is my snippet from the chart Bobbin' Along by Notforgotten Farms and a little pin pillow from Little House Needleworks called Alphabet Birdhouse...  I did on 28 ct over one... like 40 ct. I don't think I'll be doing that again either.. LOL...

I even FFO that little HOPE freebie from HellofromLizMatthews... I like how it sits in that little bird tray...

And here's another little FFO...and I do mean little... this is only about 1.5" x 2.5"... 

they are the tulips from  the WTNT Seasons of the Heart booklet for Spring... and the pincushion is a recent purchase from Avi8rlady... here's a link to her etsy shop.... you could use it by your sewing machine to hold pins or clips but I like it for my display and it is perfect for showing off some of the polymer clay pins I have from Just Another Button Company!

Switching back here to stitched but not FFO'd pieces is my Spring from Seasons of the Heart booklet by WTNT... 

Also I started the 1889 Alphabets from Needlework Press... 

I dyed the linen  with Rit Golden Yellow and Tan which gave me a lovely honey color, and then I splotched some more Tan on it... turns out Tan had a lot of green in it which I like.. using DMC for this and I plan to display it on a spool like the chart picture...I'm planning a whole display with these pieces from Keeper of the Pins by WTNT

 and some other sewing/tomato charts I have in my stash...

And if that wasn't enough stitching I decided I needed to do Spring from Prairie Schooler No.50 .... I've previously stitched Winter and Fall...

now this is on Aida... and I suspect this is 18 ct not 16 ct as using 2 ply is a little snug... but I know I wouldn't like 1 ply at all... I painted this quite a while ago and re-discovered it when I got out the chart... it was waiting there for me...  this is nice comfort stitching. 

Right now I can't get enough of the cross stitching.... so I'm riding this wave... I already picked out another new project I will start on Mother's Day... it has been my tradition for years to start a new piece on Mother's Day... my gift to me... I'm going to do the Green Pear Sampler by From the Heart... you can see it here...  I'm even treating myself to the silks for this because I love the muted look of this piece and while she gives you a lovely DMC conversion it is more intense... 

As for my outdoor projects I've finally got my landscape lighting installed... and I love it... I think I'm going to have him come back in the Fall and add a few more path lights... they look like this and shine the light down so at night they illuminated my flowers... the daffodils looked great before they faded.

And I have a brand new LARGE planter box for my dahlias...

this is 4 feet wide and 24 ft long and about 20" high... along with the dirt I had, I added 3 more cubic yards of mushroom compost... I'm hoping to put some veggies in it too... trying carrots and maybe some cabbage and leaf lettuce... we shall see...the box in the bed is the first of I think 5 more outstanding dahlia tuber orders... I lost track of what I bought so it will be a surprise when they arrive... LOL I am chomping at the bit to get outside and play in the yard... my empty window boxes are taunting me... but even though today is GORGEOUS... 80 degrees and sunny ... the rest of the week isn't as nice... still some 30 degree nighttime temperatures... last year I got ahead of myself and had things planted up by the first week in May...only to have to unplant stuff and put it in my garage overnight for a couple of days... I'm really really really gonna try to stop myself from planting till mid May... that's when it is suppose to be safe from frost around here. 

Well next week we celebrate my younger son's birthday and then Mother's Day is after that... I need to shop for a patio set ... think I found one I like for the price I want to pay at Krogers... I've already cruised a couple of garden centers but I didn't buy anything yet... I am enjoying the sunny days out on the sunroom porch... so glad I enclosed this little space... it does have terrific light for stitching... and I'm planning on doing lots more of it!

If you want to keep up with what I'm doing check me out in IG at carolfun53... I try to post something there a couple of times a week... 

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today...even when I don't post I always check her out every Sunday... 

Hope you are have time to stitch or do whatever it is YOU WANT TO DO!!

happy stitching- 

carol fun