Intimidated

Have you ever felt intimidated before starting a new project? That is what has been happening to me all this week. 

First, I wanted to cast on the yarn for my husband's new hat. I am always intimidated by casting on. It is always a crap shoot for me. Either I don't leave enough yarn for the necessary stitches (my first try) or I leave way too much yarn and have a small ball of yarn hanging from my project (my second try). I decided not to try the cast on yet again and just keep going after the second try. 

This hat is easy to make. It is just k1p1 all the way until you start the decreases. This my 4th time making this pattern. Hubby just asked that this one be a little bit longer to cover his ears. I am working on it while watching TV at night. 

The second intimidating project is the new quilt. I ironed all of the fabric and decided on the placement of the different colors.

Next I had to cut apart the pattern that I spent so much time meticulously taping together. Oh the nervousness! I don't know why as once I got started with the cutting, I immediately realized that this was no big deal. I do know how to use a pair of scissors.

Once I finish cutting apart the pieces of each individual square, then I will pin them to the appropriate fabrics and cut out the fabric pieces. I know how to do that, so I am a little more calm about that process. I had hoped that this could be a travel project, but I'm thinking that I had better get my bearings with it before I think about bringing it on a trip.

The third project that is intimidating me is the UFO I showed a couple of weeks ago that I want to return to and finish. 

I have yet to even attempt to try it. I brought it with me when we traveled to see our daughter. I looked at the directions in the car and just put it aside. Now I have already finished 2/3 or more of it, and the stitches that need to be worked on next I have already started, but it sure feels intimidating to go back to it after many, many years. I'm also not confident when stitching different embroidery stitches. 

I never get intimidated by cross-stitch or crochet, but the projects above seem a little daunting to me. Speaking of cross-stitch, I have finished the tree on the Woodland Babies birth announcement and added the lady bug and the frog.

They are looking so cute.

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Grab yourself a cup of tea, coffee or cocoa and pop on over to their sites to see what other bloggers are stitching. 

Please pray for the people of California who are dealing with those devastating fires. 

Thanks for stopping by!

First 2025 Stitch Along Update

Happy New Year! I can not believe that 2025 has already begun. The last three weeks have been busy with Christmas, a 4 day trip to Boston to celebrate with our daughter and her family and then the New Year was here. I did manage to stitch on Three Boats in the past three weeks though. 

This is where it was in December. I hadn't added hardly any stitches at all in the three weeks prior.

I have finally finished the horizontal tree trunk and its shadow and am now stitching some sand. 

I will soon be starting work on the top boat again. It has a whole lot of confetti stitching. It may be slow going for the next few weeks. 

This Stitch Along is hosted every three weeks by Avis at Sewing Beside the Sea who kindly sends us the needed posting reminders. Trust me when I say I was quite shocked her reminder came and I realized three weeks had passed already.  

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!

Happy New Year!

2025 is here! I don't know whether to be happy or sad. I am not looking forward to turning another year older next month. Nor am I looking forward to the divisive climate that will most likely prevail here in the US. Sigh.... I am looking forward to going to visit our son, daughter-in-law and grandson in CA a few times this year as well as meeting my new granddaughter. I am also looking forward to visiting with my daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter here and in Boston a few times this year. Hubby and I have an awesome trip planned for this summer that I will tell you about when we return. This is a milestone year for me and for our marriage. I will turn 65 and Hubby and I will be married 40 years. I will tell you when those events are happening when they get closer. 

I have been slow to get started with my crafting this year. I don't exactly know why, but so be it. I spent some time the last couple of days cleaning my sewing machine and the area around it. I still have to sort and put away all of the fabrics from the quilting projects. Speaking of quilting, I am slowly starting to prepare for the next project. Remember that I am going to work on the EPP quilt "Windows Into My World". 

The initial prep for this has started. I had to print out 15 pages of templates and precisely tape them all together. I will have to cut them all apart again to have the pieces I need for the quilt, but right now I have a big template sitting around. 

Next I took out all of the fabrics that I had purchased along the way as well as some from my stash. I think I may need a few lighter colors or at least use a few of the lighter colors more than once. 

Looking at the photo above, I definitely have to delete some colors and use multiples of some of the medium and light fabrics. I have washed all of these fabrics, but I still have to iron them. 

I have added a lot of stitches to the Woodland Babies Birth Announcement.....some of them more than once. 

I was happily stitching down the left side of the tree trunk, across the bottom and up the right side when I realized that the stitches on the right were too close to the heart and weren't going to correctly match up. Sadly, my mistake was at the bottom of the left hand side so I spent a good deal of time taking out my stitching. You can see the remnants of the past stitching. As I went along though I would take out an area and then stitch the part of the trunk that makes a "V" under the heart. At least I felt like I was being productive and it was easier to check the placement of the bottom stitching. I have almost completed the replacement stitching.

Before Thanksgiving, I was trying to rush a mitten project for my grandson to use when he visited. I made one mitten, but didn't have time to finish the 2nd before they arrived so I went to a local children's resale store and was able to purchase a 2 pack of brand new mittens for him to wear. 

I have decided to crochet the second mitten now, just because the first one is so cute. I don't have enought yarn for the hat and he doesn't need it in California.

Hubby has requested another hat. He seems to have misplaced one of the two that I made for him a few years ago. He likes this pattern, but has asked to make it a bit longer than his current hat so that it covers his ears more.

 I happen to have some DK yarn that should work just fine. The hat will be black with a blue rim. I will be casting on sometime soon.

Here are two more crafty Christmas gifts. These are from my daughter and her family.

The reason I am showing you these is that I want to make a crocheted stuffed animal for my granddaughter who is due in March. I am thinking that the kitten will be a good choice. I have the yarn to complete it in my stash. 

I am looking forward to stitching Cinnamon House at some point this year. It is a companion to Pumpkin House that I completed last year. 

We thoroughly enjoyed our 4 day visit to Boston to celebrate Christmas with our daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter. Grammy and Grandpa enjoyed some quiet reading time.

We also went Candlestick bowling, which I am truly horrible at. It is surprising as I was on my high school bowling team years ago and I have always enjoyed a competitive game. Candlestitck is different though and I am older with a shoulder that doesn't move the same as it used to. We had a fun game though. Just enough to entertain a 2 year old on a rainy, cold day.

I am joining Kathy for the first Slow Sunday Stitching of 2025. I am also joining Frederique at the Quilting Patch. Grab yourself a cup of tea, coffee or cocoa and pop on over to their sites to see what other bloggers are stitching. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Finishes for 2024 and looking forward to 2025

It is time for the annual roundup of craft finishes that occured in 2024!

January 

I finally finished stitching October Morning for the first finish of 2024, but then had to deal with bleeding floss when I washed it. This is how it looked before washing.

It looks much better now, but it is still waiting to be framed.

February

I finally finished a UFO this month that had been hanging around for 4 years. It had been a birthday gift. This wooden box used a whole lot of floss as the perforated stitching area was about 1/4" thick. Thankfully I had a whole lot of random inherited floss that was perfect for it.

March

March saw yet another UFO finish. This cross-stitched/embroidered apron is now ready to be a hostess gift someday.

June

There were two finishes in June. The first was a gift for the newborn grandson of a friend. I think this little lamb is adorable. I plan to make another one of these for my 2nd granddaughter who is due in March.

I also finished the cross-stitching on Pumpkin House. 

July

Overall Sam was completed! This quilt was started by my mother years ago. Before she became bedridden, I took the blocks out of the drawer where they were stored and worked with her to decide on the fabrics needed to make a few more Sams. When I visited her I would applique the rest of the Sam parts to the background fabric and then decided with her the embellishments for the hats and the buttons on the overalls. I finally finished this quilt one year after her passing.

 I will enjoy it for a while and then give it to my son eventually just like my daughter now has the matching Sunbonnet Sue.

August

 I finished the first Christmas ornament this month. This felt gingerbread man with be for my granddaughter. I gave it to her at Thanksgiving. 

I also finished stitching the first of two Prairie Schooler Santas. 

The second Christmas ornament that was finished this month is for my grandson, though I never posted the completed ornament. This is it before it was stuffed.

 

I gave also gave this to my grandson at Thanksgiving when we had a big celebration. 

September

I finally finished the flimsy of my daughter's quilt! That was a super big accomplishment. 

The Pumpkin House that I finished stitching in June was made into a pillow.

 A Crow's Pick was stitched and finished into another pillow this month. Here it is on display with Pumpkin House. I love how they both turned out!

November

I had decided to try my hand at hand-quilting a whole cloth pillow top. I finished the quilting in November, but it has still not been made into a pillow. 

I will probably get around to assembling the pillow in the new year.

Another Prairie Schooler Santa was stitched.

 Neither has been made into a pillow yet. That seems to be a trend. I am hoping to do so before I put away my Christmas decor. They will be ready for display next year.

It seems I was busy in November. I also completed the quilting and binding my grandson's I-Spy quilt. 

I gave it to him when my son and his family visited for Thanksgiving.

December

Most of my time in December was spent binding quilts. First I finished my daughter's Log Cabin Star quilt. (Judy Martin's Timberline pattern).

We will be visiting with her and her family soon and I will give this to her and her husband. 

I  finished my granddaughter's I-Spy quilt the day after Christmas.

She will be getting this soon also when her parents get their quilt. 

All in all there were 17 needlework items finished this year with 4 of them still needing final finishing touches....framing or making into pillows. I am most impressed with myself for finishing the Log Cabin Star quilt as that was a multi-year project that took a whole lot of patience to assemble. 

Now to look forward to 2025. First off, I plan on steadily working on the Woodland Babies birth announcement.

 I added a few stitches since last week, but Christmas and binding the I-Spy quilt took most of my time. Baby girl is due in March so I have some time. Once she is here I will start making her a Christmas stocking of her own. I have a couple of ideas that I have passed by my son and daughter-in-law. The final decision is theirs.

Once again I will make each grandchild a Christmas ornament. There will be three to make next year. I have already decided on them.

I will continue to work on Three Boats. 

I am currently on the 7th of 24 pages. I predict that this will be a WIP for many more years. 

Now the following project is a long term UFO. I recently picked it up again to work on during a car ride. It is a Creative Circle Kit that is probably from the 1980s. Maybe earlier. 

I have worked on it intermittently in the ensuing years. I am not a big fan of this kind of overall embroidery. I would like to finish it sooner rather than later and have it framed. 

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am hoping to start work on this quilt.

This coming week or the next, I am plan to print all of the pattern pages and sort through the fabric that I have purchased. I am not sure whether or not I have enough different colors of fabric. This is EPP pieced so I also have to watch some videos on the process and make sure I have the correct materials. 

That is all that I currently have planned for 2025, but you know that I will find more crafts to keep me busy. 

I did get a new treat for Christmas. My son and his family gave me a rotating cutting mat. 

This will definitely come in handy for future quilts. I could have used it with those I-Spy quilts for sure. 

I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year! Best wishes for a happy and healthy 2025!

Thank you all for stopping by!

 

Merry Christmas

Wishing all of my readers a very Merry Christmas!

 

Ready to be gifted

My Log Cabin Star (Judy Martin’s Timberline) quilt is all ready to be given to my daughter and son-in-law. I finished sewing the binding on Thursday.

This was the one big item that I wanted to finish in 2024. I never thought it would take me right up to the end of the year to do so. 

I’m almost finished with my granddaughter’s I-Spy quilt. I finished the quilting and sewed the binding to the front. Yesterday, I embroidered the label. Today my slow stitching will be hand sewing the label and the binding to the quilt back . 

Our tree is all lit and decorated. 

Each year I like to try out a new cookie recipes from the hundreds that I have clipped over the years or are in my cookbooks. This year I made Confetti Logs from a 1991 clipping. Yes, you read that year correctly.

 They are tasty, but nothing special so the clipping will be trashed. What a shame to save something for so many years that wasn't worth it. I have to get around to trying more of my clipped recipes.

I added some stitches to the Woodland Babies birth announcement. The tree trunk is getting bigger and now has its heart. 

We had a little bit of snow on the grass yesterday. The weather is supposed to be bitterly cold the next few days so it may last until Christmas, but I won’t hold my breath.

I love when there is snow on the ground for Christmas. 

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and Happy Kwanza! All these celebrations are this coming week. 

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. 

Thanks for stopping by! 

Too fast

 The last three weeks have gone by way too quickly and I have been busy with many pursuits other than Three Boats. This is where it was at our last update. 

As I predicted in my last post, there was absolutely no crafting of any type completed the week of Thanksgiving. The subsequent weeks have been busy with getting the house back in order and getting ready for Christmas…..decorating, gift shopping and baking. I can assure you that less than 100 stitches were added since the last update as I only just returned to stitching on it yesterday. This is how it looks now. 

If you can discern the changes then well done. 

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!