Another finish

Santa is all stitched. 

I plan on finishing the two Prairie Schooler Santas as pillows after Thanksgiving. 

I am making headway on the Woodland Babies birth announcement now. I’m working on the leaves of the tree. 

All of the blocks for the second I-Spy quilt have been trimmed and pressed. I laid them out on a bed and then gathered together the twelve rows of 10 blocks. 

I have 9 of those rows assembled now. 

Only 3 more to go and then I have to cut the cornerstones for the sashing rows. 

I’ve been in a baking mood lately. I made cranberry orange breads from my Better Homes and Garden New Cook book. You can find the recipe here. I also made Taste of Home pumpkin scones with cranberry butter. All were delicious. I forgot to take photos. 

I’m back in Physical Therapy again. I made the mistake of wearing a shoe with a slight heel when I went outlet shopping several weeks ago and my right hip has been bothering me ever since. I thought it was bursitis, but the orthopedist says it’s sciatica. I have a pain med and physical therapy. It’s interfering with my daily walk and sleeping mostly. Otherwise I’m doing okay. It doesn't interfere with my crafting. LOL

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Take some time to have a cup of tea, coffee or hot chocolate and pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are up to.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sigh

 That is the way I feel this week. It’s a sad sigh for the United States, women, people of color and the world. Now you may not agree with me, but I ask that you be kind. That is all I will say on the subject. 

I have been spending a good deal of time crafting and avoiding the news lately. I have finished the hand quilting of the whole cloth pillow top.

 I have to choose the pillow back fabric and assemble it. I bought some cording a couple of weeks ago. 

The Prairie Schooler Santa is almost done. I’m in the midst of stitching the white parts.

When he is done, I will assemble the two that I made this year into small pillows. 

I have made a tiny start on the Woodland Animals birth announcement. Just a couple of leaves at the top of the tree.

I haven't done any quilting on the first I-Spy quilt, but I did manage to find the color thread that I wanted at my local Michael's store. Sadly, the JoAnns that I usually shop at has virtually no thread and is in quite a disarray with boxes of stock stacked in various places in the store. It is really depressing. 

I have been working on the second I-Spy quilt. I had to draw diagonal lines on 480 little black squares to accurately sew them to the fussy cut blocks.

Then I just chain pieced the four corners around 20 blocks at a time until all 120 blocks were done. This was completed over a few days.

Now I am cutting the 1 1/2" by 3 1/2" rectangles for the sashing. The 1 1/2" strips were already cut so they just needed to be cut into 3 1/2" pieces.

I will trim and press all of the blocks next and then lay them out to arrange them and add the sashing. There is more to do than I thought to finish this second one. 

Last weekend we visited our daughter and her family. Our granddaughter had fun playing with Grandpa.

We will see them again for Thanksgiving when the whole family will be staying with us for several days. 

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Sit down with a cup of tea or coffee and pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are stitching. I certainly have plenty of slow stitching to choose from.

Thanks for stopping by!

November Stitch Along

November is here already. How did that happen? I’ve haven’t been adding many stitches to Three Boats. This is how it looked three weeks ago. 

This is where I am now. There is a tree trunk that goes across the sand and you can see the water's edge in front of the rock. It isn't a lot as I have been busy with other crafts, but any progress is better than none. 

This Stitch Along is hosted every three weeks by Avis at Sewing Beside the Sea who kindly sends us the needed posting reminders. 

Grab yourself a cup of coffee or tea and take some time to visit the other bloggers below who are part of this stitch-along. There is a wide variety of stitching projects. These talented stitchers are from all over the world, so please allow for the time differences and check back for each post. 

Avis, Claire, Gun, Christina, Kathy, Margaret,

 Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Sharon, Daisy, 

Cathie, Linda, MaryMargaret, Cindy, Helen

Thanks for stopping by! 

Six works in progress!

Yes, I currently have six different projects on the go at once. Three of them are quilt projects and three are cross-stitch. I really wish I had a yarn project, but that will have to wait a bit. First, I am about 3/4 done with the whole cloth pillow quilting.

 I want to finish this soon as I am also going to hand quilt the first I-Spy quilt. Yes, I know I said that I planned to machine quilt it, but I have very limited space around my sewing table and I found it quite difficult to maneuver especially as I am going to quilt it diagonally across the blocks. I also would need to find the correct thread. I was trying to use thread that I had, but it is too thick compared to the thread I have for the bobbin and I couldn’t get the tension right.

This quilt isn’t very large and should quilt up quickly. I have it all set up on a quilt stand in my daughter’s old room. 

I’ve been cutting the sashing and corner square fabric for the next I-Spy quilt. This black fabric is different from the one in the last quilt.

 Originally I had planned to make two of the same quilt, but then I changed my mind when I was scrolling the internet. I planned a somewhat different quilt with the same 3.5” size fussy cut blocks. Well, I changed my mind again when I realized how much I love the I-Spy quilt that I just finished. Also, I already have all of the fabric that I need. 

As for cross stitching, I’ve added many stitches to the Prairie Schooler Santa. The bunny and the squirrel are stitched as is his face. 

Once again I am leaving the white stitches until the end so I haven't stitched his beard or the trim on his coat. I am working on his hat now. There is also a raccoon and three birds to stitch still.

I’m going to be stitching a lot more woodland animals soon. This one will be a little time sensitive. Do you remember this birth announcement that I stitched for my granddaughter. 

Well I will be stitching the slightly smaller version (18 count Aida cloth instead of 14) to be completed by next March/April. My son and his wife are expecting a little girl at the end of March. I am making the smaller version so that it is not a lot different in size from her brother's birth announcement though the orientation is different. You can see that one here. 

The last cross stitch is Three Boats on a Tropical Beach. You can see the last update for that here. I have gotten a decent start on the next page since that post. There will be an update on Three Boats next week.

Hubby and did take some time to walk in the local preserve and look at the tree colors. 

The geese and the ducks were enjoying the small lake. If you look behind the last goose near the reeds you can barely see a heron standing along the edge also.

I think this pair of ducks were hoping for some food. They came right up to us.

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Sit down with a cup of tea or coffee and pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are stitching. I certainly have plenty of slow stitching to choose from.

Thanks for stopping by!

Lots and Lots of Crafting!

 The weather has gotten cooler and more fall-like and I am enjoying spending time indoors crafting. First of all, I have made tremendous progress on the first I-Spy quilt in the past two weeks. All it needs are the four black borders,  then I can sandwich it. I plan on quilting this in the ditch by machine. 

 I was amazed at how quickly this came together! My seams even matched on the first try. No seam ripping!

 I’ve been adding quilting stitches to my small whole cloth also. The center motifs are completed. 

This has been what I work on while “watching” the Mets in their post season games. I get way too keyed up watching them so I usually sit on the far side of the living room and listen more than watch. 

Sometimes I work on the Prairie Schooler Santa while watching, but this has mostly become my early morning stitching piece. 

Santa’s coat is done as is the basket of greenery that he is carrying. 

I have started reading "The Island" by Elin Hilderbrand. I haven't gotten too far with it yet. It is an easy read. 

 I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are stitching. 

Thanks for stopping by!

October Stitch Along Update

I'm doing a mini happy dance here....okay, maybe just a single skip. I have finished page #8 of Three Boats on a Tropical Beach.  It is the 6th page that I have completed out of 24. I am working in columns. Column 1 was pages 1,7,13 and 19. Column 2 (that I am currently working on) is pages 2,8,14 and 20. I am about to start page 14. This is how Three Boats looked three weeks ago.

This is how it looks now. 

I finished the page yesterday morning. There were so many confetti stitches to complete at the bottom of this page. Do you see this rock formation?

 Yesterday, I was adding tons individual stitches. There was 1 stitch in that rock formation that had the floss symbol "5". Just one stitch! Three stitches had the floss symbol "V". You get the picture. I am more than happy to be moving on the the next page which doesn't seem to have quite so many scattered stitches. 

This Stitch Along is hosted every three weeks by Avis at Sewing Beside the Sea who kindly sends us the needed posting reminders. 

Grab yourself a cup of coffee or tea and take some time to visit the other bloggers below who are part of this stitch-along. There is a wide variety of stitching projects. These talented stitchers are from all over the world, so please allow for the time differences and check back for each post. 

Avis, Claire, Gun, Christina, Kathy, Margaret,

 Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Sharon, Daisy, 

Cathie, Linda, MaryMargaret, Cindy, Helen

Thanks for stopping by! 

Slow Sunday Stitching

I am making progress with the I-Spy quilt. All 120 blocks are stitched, trimmed and ironed. Here is the layout that I decided on. It is laid out on the bed in my son's old room.

 

I have to cut the black sashing strips next and then sew them to the blocks in 12 rows of 10 blocks. 

I have been hand quilting the whole cloth pillow a little bit every once in a while. I finished the first motif and am on the second. 

I have also added stitches to the Prairie Schooler Santa's coat.

 It doesn't feel like I have made much progress on any of these crafts, but this week I also washed some windows and spent time reading Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn. This is yet another historical WWII novel. It is about a female Russian sniper.

I also took out most of my Autumn/Halloween decorations.

The two new pillows are sitting on a bowl that my mom had.

I like this little arrangement on our bar.

I had some bananas that were overripe so I made these Banana Crumb Muffins.

 I cut this recipe out of a Taste of Home magazine years ago. This is my favorite banana muffin recipe. The only change I will mention from the recipe that I linked is that my original recipe calls for 1/3 cup of melted butter rather than 1/2 cup. The extra butter is not needed. Trust me that 1/3 cup is plenty. These are rich, delicious muffins. 

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Sit back with a cup of tea or coffee and see what other bloggers are stitching. I think I will make some English breakfast tea to have with one of those muffins. 

Thanks for stopping by!