Sunday, March 17, 2024

March Stitch Along Post

 The last time I posted, I was almost finished with the third of 24 pages. This is what it looked like 3 weeks ago.

I had hoped that I would have the 4th page done by this post, but my daughter and toddler granddaughter came for a visit and this project was put away for a few days. I have made a good deal of progress on it though. The third page is completly filled in and I am well into the 4th page. It was helpful that there was a whole lot of one particular color that could be completed before changing floss colors again. I am working with a lot of flosses that are similar in color right now. It makes counting carefully imperative.

This is where I am after three weeks of stitching.


 I don't think I will finish this page this month as we have a trip planned and this is not at all portable.

Thank you to Avis at Sewing Beside the Sea for hosting this Stitch Along every three weeks and sending 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, ClaireGunChristinaKathyMargaret,

 JackieSunnyMeganDeborahSharonDaisy

CathieLindaHelen, MaryMargaretCindy

Thanks for stopping by! 

Sunday, March 10, 2024

Another UFO is done!

Yay! I finished stitching the apron. This UFO is off the list.

Please excuse the wrinkles. I still have to wash and iron it. I'm a little worried about the maroon floss running, but I will use a Color Catcher or two.

I decided that I needed another small piece to work on as Three Boats and the Log Cabin Star quilt are big. This cross-stitch is for me. It is the first of the Pumpkin House series. What you can see are the two windows on the right of the house.

I also finished the puzzle that I was working on. 

It has all of its pieces and I won't want to make it again so I have boxed it up, sealed the boxed and wrote on the bottom the date that it was last completed and that all the pieces are accounted for.

We had one, only one, nice day this week...warm and sunny. Hubby and I took advantage of the nice day and went for a walk in the local preserve. There were a whole lot of geese, a few ducks and a swan on the lake.


Hopefully there will be some more sunny warm days soon. 

I have started reading the book my daughter gave me for Christmas.


This is a new author for me. So far I am enjoying her writing.

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are stitching. I need to give Three Boats some attention today. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Sunday, March 3, 2024

Slow Sunday Stitching

My slow stitching has been....well...slow lately. I have added more stitches to the cross-stitched/embroidered apron. I am almost done with the words. I don't dread working on the letters any more as I seem to have finally mastered the stem stitch. 

I hope to have this finished by my next post. 

I tried a few different approaches when joining the pieces of the final two logs of the Log Cabin Star blocks. First, I am no longer trimming both ends of the red diamonds as the pattern calls for. I am hoping to give myself some extra wiggle room in the end. I have also decided that instead of joining the white and red diamonds together first, I am joining the white diamond to the green trapezoid and then adding the red diamond last. It seems to be a better approach and the next to last log was attached with much less angst. 

I am now working on adding the last log of each block using the same method. 

I finished yet another puzzle. 

I think I may keep this puzzle for the grandkids to try in the future. It is cute. I have already disassembled it and started another one. This next one is frustrating as it is a whole lot of green pieces. 

 You can see from the box photo that there are also scattered white and purple flowers in that green.

I have been working on it steadily. Yesterday's rainy day made it near impossible to decipher where the pieces should go. I won't be keeping this puzzle once I complete it.

I am glad I am working on this on the white desk in my daughter's room. I want to finish it by Wednesday as my daughter and granddaughter are coming to visit later next week and will stay in that room. 

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

Thanks for stopping by!


Sunday, February 25, 2024

February Stitch Along Post #2

The three weeks between Stitch Along posts seem to happen faster and faster. This year seems to be going by quickly also. Can you believe that we are already near the end of February? Three weeks ago, I showed you my restart of Three Boats on a Tropical Beach by Artecy Cross Stitch.

I have been spending a lot of time working on this now. I have no idea when it will be finished as I am working the third of 24 pages, but I am making progress.

Below, you can see that I have almost finished my third page and I have started adding some stitches on the next page below as some of the floss colors are on both pages.


  I am almost done with the tip of the second boat and then there is just a whole lot of sand on the next page. The next page is not a full page, so hopefully I will have it finished by the end of March though probably not by the next check in. 

Thank you to Avis at Sewing Beside the Sea for hosting this Stitch Along every three weeks and sending 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, ClaireGunChristinaKathyMargaret,

HeidiJackieSunnyMeganDeborahSharonDaisy

CathieLindaHelen, MaryMargaretCindy

Thanks for stopping by! 


Slow Sunday Stitching

Last weekend we visited our daughter and her family in Boston. We finally got to celebrate her 30th birthday....three years late. Hubby and I had always planned to take her to dinner and a Broadway show in NYC. The pandemic obviously changed our plans. So this year we celebrated in Boston. We ate dinner at a fabulous restaurant, Estella, that was just around the corner from the Boston Opera House where we saw "The Book of Mormon". It was irreverent, but hilarious. We absolutely loved it. 

Of course we also were able to visit with our son-in-law and granddaughter the rest of the weekend. We even went to our granddaughter's gym class before leaving on Monday. 

There was a beautiful sunset over Manhattan as we crossed the bridge on our way home to Long Island. Please excuse the blurred black suspension cable.

I have been trying to finish more of the UFOs that are hanging around. I did add a piece of fabric to the back of the stitching on the wooden box that I showed you here. I had a scrap of coral colored fabric and I just used some spray fabric adhesive to secure it. Now I won't worry about any of the stitches coming loose. That is all done now. Yay!

I am trying now to finish the embroidery on this apron. I still have to finish the cream colored cross-stitching. I also have to use the stem stitch to finish the words. I like the cross-stitching, but I just don't enjoy stitching the letters of the words. I am trying to go back and forth and do two or three lengths of floss of the stem stitch and then do one length of cross-stitch. I have finished the "D" and am currently working on the "r".  

I have made this apron once before for and I no longer remember why I decided to buy the kit and make it again. I think I will finish it and keep it for a future hostess gift. I have plenty of aprons of my own and really don't need another.

I completed another puzzle. This one is of the White House in Washington, DC. It had all of its pieces, but some of the tabs were starting to lift up. I tried to glue them down somewhat before I sealed this puzzle up for donation. 

I worked on some of the Log Cabin Star blocks, but didn't yet finish the next 10. 

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

Thanks for stopping by!


Sunday, February 18, 2024

Another UFO finish

I have finally finished the cross-stitch box that was a birthday gift 4 years ago. It is a wooden box with a perforated top. 

It used a whole lot of floss to stitch as the top is about 1/4 inch thick. I also broke 2 needles in the process. I found this pattern online. I may still glue a piece of fabric or felt to the back of the motif as it was difficult to secure some of the ends. 

Speaking of birthdays, Hubby's was the day before Valentine's Day. We had snow that day so he met with his university students via Zoom. This was the view from our front window. It was a heavy wet snow that clung to the tree branches.

I bought Hubby's favorite Entenmann's Chocolate Fudge cake and lit some candles.

I spent part of the snowy day adding logs to the next 10 blocks of the Log Cabin Star quilt.

I have one more plain log to add before getting to the two frustrating logs and y-seam. I hope to have these blocks finished by the end of the week. 

 Snowy days are good for reading also. I recently read "Slow Waltz in Cedar Bend" by Robert James Waller.

 This was another of my mother's books. I have two more of hers yet to read. I would not recommend this book. It wasn't really bad, just not very interesting or compelling. I could put it down and not really care to find out what the next chapter was about. 

I am now reading "A Miracle for St. Cecelia's" by Karen Valentine. 

So far it is fairly interesting and I am looking forward to reading each chapter. This is one of the books that I picked up for free at the Traveler's Restaurant in Union, CT. So far, I have chosen well when we dine there.

I also decided to work on one of the puzzles that I took from my mom's house when she passed. I would like to donate some of them, but I want to know that each one has all of its pieces. This puzzle went together fairly quickly and even had an extra piece. 

I am not sure if that piece goes to one of the other puzzles or was always an extra so I have put it aside. I will seal this puzzle box and make a note on the bottom of the day that it was recently completed and that it is not missing any pieces as of that day. 

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are stitching.  I will be working on Three Boats....update next week.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sunday, February 11, 2024

Valentine's Day Crafting

Hubby and I don't do much to celebrate Valentine's Day. We get each other cards. I get him a box of chocolate and he gets me a bouquet of flowers. I usually try to make a special dinner. Hubby's birthday is the day before and mine is the end of the month so Valentine's Day is low-key. I don't have many Valentine themed crafts around. I designed and stitched the pillow that is currently in the header photo. The little pillow from Little House Needleworks below hangs on a cupboard door all year long, but it goes with the holiday theme.

This fabric heart wreath I made many, many years ago when I used to sell at craft shows.
This small ribbon wreath was made for shows also.
I think my daughter may have helped me make this little hanger when I was trying to get her interested in quilting. Again, many years ago.

 This year I decided I needed a couple more Valentine themed craft items around. You may remember last month when I made the phone jack cover. Well I had bought two different wooden houses at Dollar Tree. I decorated the second house for Valentine's Day.


I used felt, puff paint, scrap ribbons and some pompoms. All of which were in my crafting stash. Again, the black plaid wooden house only cost $1.

As you know, I have been doing some organizing in my basement, which entails going through years and years worth of craft magazines. I am keeping some, recyling some (that I have cut out the few craft instructions that I want) and donating some. As I was perusing one issue of Crafting Traditions I found this little heart and decided to stitch up my own version. Again, I used scraps that I have.

It was quick and easy to make. Just the kind of craft I was looking for. Here it is hanging on the corner cabinet in my kitchen.

I went back to working on my daughter's quilt and was able to finish the 5 blocks that were giving me fits. I have 121 of 196 completed. I also started on the next 10 blocks.


I have actually already added two more logs to these since I took the photo. 

I have been in a baking mode. Don't ask me why as I usually give half of my baking to my mother-in-law and freeze most of the other half. Hubby doesn't have a sweet tooth (except for chocolate) and I really don't need all the calories. I do have tons and tons of clipped recipes though that I want to try so I have been baking.

The first was a Cranberry Orange cake. Although it was made using cake flour and baked in a tube pan, it was really more like a quick bread.


Next I made Oatmeal Raisin Breads. These were yeast breads that came out quite dense.


They were tasty, but nothing special. I also made a new corn bread recipe to go with chicken barley soup. No photos of these. The soup recipe turned out great and is a keeper. The corn bread was tasty, but also nothing special. I guess you could say that I purged two recipes and found two that we like a lot.

It seems that I have been pretty busy this month.  

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

Happy Valentine's Day!

Thanks for stopping by!