I'm so glad I live in a world with Octobers... on a Slow Sunday...

 Hello all !   Oh it is definitely FALL here in SW Ohio and I am LOVING it!!  Cooler temperatures and the leaves are turning all my favorite colors... gold, orange, scarlet... what a gorgeous palette!   And on the practical side, the weather has hit that sweet spot where I don't need to turn on the AC... just opening the windows... and I haven't had to turn on the furnace.... I got an email from my utility company the other day noting that I'm using less energy.... and while they were congratulating me, I do think they were hoping I'm ramp up my usage soon... which will come... the last two months bills were outrageous... I could use a little break...

I'm really enjoying decorating with Fall and Halloween ... I'll put a couple of pics of the Fall stuff I put out... and then last week I made some substitutions and got out Halloween... and then at the beginning of November I'll move into Thanksgiving... and before you know it,  (ummm... 77 days) it will be Christmas... the weeks seem to fly by... 

So here's how my displays looked at the end of September... lots and lots and lots of pumpkins... and a nice collection of cross stitch...

Here's the tier tray by the pumpkin quilt... I stitched that  Autumn piece from Prairie Schooler years ago... No. 50 Prairie Seasons ...  I've also done Winter and Spring... I do love Prairie Schooler's style... one of the first designers I fell in love with and stitching their stuff all these years later is soothing and comforting... I've got some PS Santas  already queued up for Christmas. The little pumpkin headed guy is from Pineberry Lane's Cats & Jack's pattern which you can find here.  PDF download... instant gratification!!

The tall display is anchored by that wonderful chart Feast of Friendship by Blackbird Designs...  that GIANT bowl of fruit... that BIG BLUE house... classic BBD!!  I turned it into a true sampler by squeezing an alphabet into the cartouche at the bottom. 

Next shelf had Lizzie Kate's Autumn Alphabet #149... I've stitched all of these seasonal alphabets from LK... they were fun and you feel a sense of accomplishment with each little block...  the two pieces to the right are both BBD.... they were club pieces from Dyeing to Stitch when I did them, but they've since been released... at one time they were both called Bittersweet September, but they fixed that and now the one on the left is Bittersweet Lane (LOVE that border...looks like a bracelet to me) and the one on the right is Bittersweet September... I stitched the C & and N in a different color as those are my sons' initials.

Finishing up this display is my newest finish,  Fall Most of All by Calico  Confectionery  which you can find here...  check out her Etsy, she has some wonderful seasonal designs... there's a little BBD pillow, Waiting for Harvest and Autumn Keeper by Barbara Ana Designs. 

Here's the small display unit... a Lizzie Kate Autumn keeps company with a cute squirrel... the tree is Autumn Harvest from Barbara Ana Designs.. and I love that little white pumpkin quilt done in Sandy Gervais fabrics... she does the best fall fabrics... IMHO!! 

Below is the Flower Pot Sampler by From the Heart Needleart... one of the first pieces I stitched on linen I dyed myself ... I remember stitching this one when I broke my left wrist... I had to use a q- snap and a floor stand but I managed to figure out how to stitch while I was in a cast... it saved me from going crazy (although that is my opinion and it not held by all who know me...LOL)... funny what memories are attached to our stitching...  I still love that Longaberger pumpkin basket... and on the bottom shelf is my version of The Stitcherhood's Quaker Pumpkin... Thanks for indulging me in my trips down memory lane as I try to recall the names of the pieces I've stitched. Every season when I get my stuff out I think I have plenty of stitching... but then as I arrange things I always see a spot for a little more... which keeps me stitching... I'll never run out of stuff I want to do!!

So that was September and I started October with my Gourdy Guys wreath and my Lizzie Kate Boo Club piece.

I get out this wreath pronto on October 1 because it is the most labor intensive wreath I've ever made. There were 6 -7 individual steps to painting every face, so I need to admire it as much as I can!!

 LK Boo Club is a great stitch, if I say so myself... the painted linen came out even better than I envisioned it.   Hyacinth, Tangerine, Lemon Yellow and Apple Green Rit dyes make the best Halloween palette!   

Got out my spider quilt...

I arranged that pumpkin on the Haberdashery mini quilt so it looks like he scoping it out. 

Elliott was here on Tuesday and I thought he might try to pluck the eyeballs off of the spider as he did to the chicken quilt I had up in August... luckily for the spider Elliott was more interested in taking the batteries out of the pumpkin (it lights up and cackles) and exchanging the batteries for batteries in other light up pumpkins... I had a question on IG about how I get the quilts to lie so flat on the wall... I use a Hang it- Dang it quilt rod... you can find them here... they come in different lengths and they are adjustable for different widths of quilts... then I tape down the edges with this...

Scotch Brand Double Sided Poster Tape... I've been using this for years and it has never damaged the quilt or the paint on the wall ... sometimes I can even reuse the tape month to month... A tip for using this tape is DON'T use the cutter .. instead rip it off... you get a jagged edge which gives up a little nub or two of the tape to hold onto to get the backing off. ... less frustrating... and that's my Martha Stewart decorating spiel...LOL!

The tier tray had a the cross stitch switched out for a LK Halloween piece Pumpkin Pocket... it was a kit but all I used was the chart and the little black button... I like the painted linen a lot!  Those candy corn salt & pepper shakers are a hoot... and the Trick or Treat is a snippet from PS Trick or Treat  No. 88... I loved this chart soooo much that I stitched the whole piece and then I stitched snippets from it too.

 Which is what these little guys are... all snippets from PS No. 88...

I'm still working on the tall and the small display shelf units... got a couple of new Halloween pieces to add to them.

I did work in my garden last week and pulled out  7 of those TALL yard waste bags full of fading zinnias... I'm kinda hoping for a good frost to kill off what's left of my annuals so I can clean out the beds. I want to add to my outdoor lighting and that can't be done till I clear the space. The dahlias are still blooming away even though the winds are playing havoc with them and breaking off branches.  Here's one I brought in the other day, which truly lives up to its dinnerplate moniker... it is about 9" across and the color is fabulous!!  God sure makes some beautiful stuff!!   I've not made any dahlia tuber orders ... yet... I probably don't need any more tubers... except I'd like more of the variety called Brown Sugar ... it s gorgeous deep peach/orange color... and I think  I need some of the smaller pompom varieties... they are such adorable little ball shaped cuties!  I have plenty of time to order ... usually I do it in January while dreaming of Spring...a good thing to do when its zero outside!

So that's where the decorating stands... I'm still stitching a bit of Halloween and Thanksgiving... and as I said I've got some Christmas queued up... I took two Christmas quilt tops to Delinda the other week and I have one more on my design wall and another cut out...Can't stop making Christmas quilts even though I have over 25 already... they make me happy!!   And with the world in the state it is in, I need every little bit of happy stuff I can get!!!

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts today ... and if I get my butt in gear I may have a design wall to show tomorrow... no promises, but all the blocks are made, just need to get them arranged and then sewn together. Next week is busy busy busy... I have something going on every single day... which won't leave much time for stitching or sewing... but I'll try ... 

Hope you are having a lovely October...  as Anne of Green Gables said "I'm so glad I live in a world with Octobers" ... 

happy stitching!

carol fun

P.S. -- I hope that all the pics I posted are in the correct spots... Blogger gets fussier and fussier which each week. It takes forever to get anything to post ... by my count is I spent almost 3 hours on this between writing it and trying to get the photos to show up... which is the main reason I'm posting less and less... sorry... yes I can ramble on more here but IG is soooo much easier... So to remind you if you wonder what I'm up to, go check me out on IG       carolfun53

A little of this and a little of that on a Slow Sunday Stitching...

 Hello - well I had every intention of posting here last week but life intervened... I got sick last Friday... the erpping, messed up bowels,  achy all over kinda sick...and it hung on ... Friday, Saturday, Sunday and even a bit Monday... I willed myself to feel better by Tuesday since that's my day to watch Elliott ... and I felt okay ... not great... not energetic ... but he wasn't a problem... he kept himself occupied with a Phillips head screwdriver,  un- anssembling several toys and the extension table on my Janome sewing machine... nothing was irrevocably damaged and I put most of the stuff back together so he can take it apart again this Tuesday. 

I did have a couple of productive spells in the last couple of weeks to offset the days where I got absolutely accomplished... so let's talk about some things I did do...

I got a couple of new Fall -ish cross stitch pieces done and I got some Fall decorating done too.  I started out on the porch... the weather's been nice and I LOVE sitting out there, stitching and watching the birds at my feeders and napping... its a great spot for napping...LOL

I have a squirrel theme out here this year...that large tree on the green linen is an older piece by Barbara Ana Designs... and the newest cross stitch  is these adorable squirrels from Brenda Gervais... Autumn's Acorn Gathering... I stitched them on 32 ct that I painted with Lemon Yellow, Tangerine and Apple Green Rit dyes.  I love that these critters are dressed up ... that necktie kills me!

Another piece I got totally finished is this one from Calico Confectionery called Fall Most of All... you can see it here.... I love the colors in this piece and the sentiment... I DO love Fall most of all!!

I dyed this linen too and I think it is the first time I did a fairly neutral piece... don't know why it hadn't occurred to me before... mostly I think about dyeing a painting linen as a way to get more colorful stuff, but this works great for this piece... and I got creative with the frame too... this was in my stash of frames... yes along with a stash of fabric, yarn, thread, linen, floss I have a stash of frames... mostly I pick them up when they are marked down and this had a sticker saying $4.25.... it looked like this before I painted it...

It is a lot brighter in real life... kinda screaming yellow... and it was very slick and shiny... I probably should have sanded a bit before I started... and as I began I thought it was going to need a couple of coats of paint... but then I twisted my foam paint brush as I was laying on the paint and ooooooohhhh.... I like this!

More of it got covered than I anticipated... but I still like the end results.  I'm going to use this piece in my large shelf display.

In the living room I went with my Pumpkins quilt from Cluck Cluck Sew on the wall and my latest Fall quilt, Jelly Roll Whirl... 

I LOVE all my Fall decor ...and I have a TON of Fall stuff... you can see a little video I did of what how the decorating process started here... now for all of you who are thinking I do this all on my own, think again... I could not do it without the help of my younger son, Nick, hauling stuff up and down the steps... I store all the decor items in the basement and the quilts on the second floor, so everything has to be moved up and down... I guess I could do it on my own, but I'd have to half unload every bin, get it up or down the stairs and then go back for the other half... and it would take FOREVER... and that is just the logistics of the process... it takes me a day or two or three to get everything arranged... I work for a while ... then I sit and admire what I've done... then I end up moving things around ... and the process repeats  itself till my knees scream "enough"... I'm always amazed how many steps I take when decorating... I can walk a mile and never leave my living room!

I'll show you more of what I've done in my next post...

As for quilting I finally got all the blocks together on this quilt...

The pattern is French Vanilla from the book Perfect 10 Quilts, and the fabrics are from the collection Cheer & Merriment by Fancy That Designs.  I love the palette of this collection... the muted reds, the aqua, the deep teal, olive green and that brassy gold fabric... LOVE IT!! I bought a FQ pack so I have enough to make a second quilt with this line... and I will!!   Now I will admit that using the gold fabric with the snowflakes does make this a busy quilt... maybe too busy... but I'm re-defining busy to mean "sparkly".... very  very SPARKLY!!!    I still need to get the borders on it... my goal for today.

As for the gardening... well feeling puny and  not watering stuff for about 5 days took a toll on several spots... I ended up tearing out ALL the marigolds... I think this is the earliest I've ever done that... and I cleaned out the short zinnias around the bases of my 4 trees.. I'm okay with it... it gave me a head start on the clean up  I'll have to do with the whole yard... there is still a METRIC TON of vegetation that will have to be pulled up and stuffed in lawn waste bags ... as it is I filled about 7 so far. 

Luckily the dahlias hung on for me... I did have lot of spent blooms I needed to cut ...and the wind and the deer broke a couple of my really tall plants... insert frowny face... but I do still have some gorgeous blooms...

I love how showy dahlias are and how they come into their prime in late summer when other flowers are getting a bit faded... this year they have bloomed every where I planted them. Now I really should have pinched and staked them better... I'll work on that next year... and the garden centers are full of chrysanthemums .... and I also LOVE mums!   I picked up a couple and I'm going to go back today for a couple more... this first one is a color I have never seen before... the tag called it apricot but it is truly a beige color... and it was so pretty I bought 2 big plants....

And my lady pot that my son gifted me for Mother's Day  got a new do....

and the pyramid is sporting one pot of  petunias and a couple of mums...

Well I hope that you are feeling fine... I have high hopes for this upcoming week... want to get some stitching and some sewing and some knitting and some gardening  into my week. and they all look like possibilities at the moment.   I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts and check out what everyone else it up to... doing a dim sum lunch with my family today... and then I want to hit Joanns and see if I can find a wide back for that French Vanilla quilt and I'll be driving past one of my favorite garden centers so I think I'll stop and pick up a couple more mums...  why do I think after all of that I'm going to need a nap??  More big plans...LOL

happy stitching-

carol fun \

 

Squirrels on a Slow Sunday...

 Hello ... Hope you are all doing well... things here are ... squirrelly... literally and figuratively... LOL.. 

Oh I had lots of plans to sew but that didn't materialize. In the last 3 weeks, 2 of my 3 sewing machines have decided they've had enough of me and quit working. Now in their defense they are both at least 25 years old and have seen a LOT of sewing.  When the first machine, #1 of my beloved Jukis started with a glitchy foot pedal I was able to baby it for a while. But then it stopped working all together. It is currently at the repair shop but they are projecting 6 weeks out before I can get it back... I do hope they can fix it but I have some doubts. 

So I switched to my back up Juki... which is even older than my #1 Juki... and after a few days it no longer wants to pick up the bobbin thread... arrgghh... I'm not in the mood to take another machine to be repaired... so I switched to my 3rd machine... an older Janome... and it works fine ... but it isn't a Juki... it is slooooooooow....and every time I go to back stitch my right hand instinctively reaches for the lever on the right side of the machine... and it isn't there... 

What to do? What to do?  I know this is a first world problem... I'm blessed to own so many sewing machines... don't judge... I come from a family that believes having 3 cars is no where near enough vehicles for even one person... when my brother passed he owned over 45 cars... and sewing machines are waaay cheaper than cars...LOL ... So to remedy my situation I went online and purchased a brand new Juki!! 

Oh and along with dealing with getting a new machine, Dan my handyman was finally done with a year long renovation project he's been doing and had time to come and take care of a few things for me. He repainted the bathroom... I think this is the 4th time its been painted in 9 years due to repairs being made to the ceiling & tile work... and yes I have no idea what that has to do with sewing machines... but getting back to where I was headed, I decided I wanted a TV in my basement sewing studio (oh I do like the word studio... sounds so fancy...LOL)... and Dan installed it yesterday... its one of those new fangled ones that picks up all my streaming channels...here's the view from my chair...

Ordered it late on Tuesday and it arrived on Friday... got it all set up ... and I have a quilt all cut out and ready to go.. but it isn't any of one of the projects I spoke of 3 weeks ago... a shiny "squirrel" of a Halloween project caught my eye... 2 x 4 blocks done is Halloween fabrics, of which I have a LOT... Here's a couple of blocks ...

you can find the pattern here, a free tutorial by Film in the Fridge... I've made this pattern before using ALL yellows... its on my bed as I type this... I really like this version as the pieces and blocks are bigger and you have more space to show off novelty prints... some of my favorite fabrics. 

As for other squirrely things going on here... I've been spending lots of time watering the garden... I was given a Deer Park Beautification Award again this year by my little town... so I feel obligated to keep things looking nice... click here to see a video I made walking around the yard... but it is that time of year when it is getting harder. Petunias have said adios as are some zinnas... the small low ones are getting crispy and the tall ones have powdery mildew...sigh...  And while I'm watering I'm looking at all these plants and thinking...you are all gonna die and I'm going to have to clean out all these beds... arghhh... and I will need to do it as soon as I can, because I have 2 outdoor projects... some additional landscape lighting and having the shutters repainted  that can't be done till the beds are cleaned up... 

The dahlias are looking good.. hopefully they'll hang in there through September. I'm cutting several every day and bringing them inside to enjoy.

On the decorating scene...well it's too late for patriotic and too early for Fall... so I'm doing one of my favorite fill ins.... CHICKENS!!!   Here's some pics of what I've done... definite American Jane/Lori Holt vibes in the quilts... I do like the mix of AJ fabrics with Lori Holt patterns. 

The featured wall quilt and tier tray...

The tier tray...

A cute tin toy... the chicken peck and spin...

and a toy rubber chicken from the Target Dollar spot... I couldn't resist the party hat and polka dot sweater...

The large display shelves...

Lots of Pineberry Lane and some getting to be vintage Debbie Mumm ceramic ware. 

The small display shelves... 

 And I tucked in cut fresh flowers from my garden  in those pretty little yellow vases!

The new cross stitch additions are:

The Queen's Garden by The Scarlet House... I really love the little bees and the pompom trim

A freebie from Pinker n Punkin Quilting & Stitching called Summer Chicks,.. you can see it here.  

And check out her postage stamp Autumn SAL... you can see it here... soooo cute... I wanna stitch this too!!

And more from the cross stitch front there is an actual squirrel... this one from WTN&T Autumn's Acorn Gathering...

I'm almost done with him and I have fabric painted for his partner.

I did finish one square from Fragments in Time by Summer House Stitche Workes...excuse the wrinkles... not going to try to take another pic as I'm having difficulties getting these to post as it is.... grrr...

and there's a small start on the second one. I'll be ignoring this for a while till I get the Fall stuff stitched... trying to set aside maybe one evening a week to concentrate on sampler stitching so I can finish up this one and some others I've started. 

Well as I'm writing this on Saturday afternoon we've just had a glorious rain storm... came down in buckets... more on the radar so probably no watering for Sunday either... yeah!! I do enjoy sitting on my sunroom porch when it is raining... very peaceful... and the Lord knows I can use a little more peace... current events have not contributed to a sense of calm, now have they?

Anyway... the week ahead looks pleasant. Dinner with friends on Monday night... watching Elliott on Tuesday... he's all into coming to Grandma's house... every Tuesday he's sitting on their front stoop waiting for me to come and get him. I think having the TV downstairs will be nice for him too... I may get a bit more sewing done ... win-win... 

Well I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts... always pretty things to see there. I hope things are well in your world and that you have time to stitch and quilt and knit and crochet and do all the FUN stuff... 

happy stitching-

carol fun