Christmas in July

For the past few years, I have done my own version of Christmas in July by working on the yearly Christmas ornaments that I make for my grandchildren. This year is no different. I have decided to make each the polar bears from this felt kit this year.

 I have started the bear with the candy cane. 

This will be for my grandson. Usually I embroider each grandchild's name and the year when I am about to attach the back to the ornament at the end. These ornaments attach the front and back in the middle of the assembly so I already embroidered my grandson's name on the back of this polar bear. 

I also want to make this Charmed Santa Face for me. 

I have made one for each grandchild so now it is my turn to have one. 

I have been slowly working on the snow globe stitchery. Another Christmas in July project that will probably last for another few months.

 

 I made a couple of counting mistakes along the way that required some frogging. It is 28 count linen and you stitch each cross over two threads. I am being more careful now. 

I have quilted 3 of the nine blocks of my mom's churn dash quilt. I really like the way the stencil looks on the blocks with the cross. 

This has been my go to craft while watching the World Cup games each evening.

Speaking of World Cup games, my son-in-law bought tickets to the France/Norway game in Boston and invited my husband and his dad to join him and my daughter for the game last Friday. This is why there was no post last week.

I watched my 3 year old granddaughter who was an angel. We played Old Maid and Go Fish as well as many other games. She liked using the card holder I made her from two old CDs.

This is such an easy craft. Cut two pieces of fabric about 1 1/2 inches larger than the CD. Two pieces of batting the same size as the CD. Place the batting on each CD. Put the fabric on top and do a running stitch about 1/2" from the edge of the fabric. Pull it tight so that the fabric wraps to the back and secure. Do this for both CDs. Then place the CDs so that the fabric edges are on the inside and sew a couple of stitches through the middle to hold them tight. Add a button in the middle on each side. Done! 

I did a bunch of reading in the car and finished this Agatha Christie book over just a few days. It is the first novel that she ever wrote. I enjoyed it. She used to be my favorite author when I was a teen.

Now I am reading this book by Debbie Macomber.

I really like her books, but this is different. It is written all in letters. I am not really sure that I like this style of writing, but so far it is easy reading.

I made a cherry tomato foccacia this week.

 It is tasty, but a little to doughy for me. Nothing special, but I tried a new recipe and used up grape tomatos that had been refrigerated while we were away. 

Most of my daylilies bloomed while we were in Boston. These are all that are left.

I am trying to decide what quilt I want to make next where I can use the multitude of fabric that I have. One of these is my first choice.

 

You know that I love log cabin quilts. I am leaning toward the top one. I will probably use blue/black/red for the dark and cream/beige for the light. Sort of like this example that I found on the internet.

This would be a queen size quilt.

I also like this log cabin variation that gives a 3D look.

I have a lot of turquoise strips. This is a variation with the light colors in the center.

This would be a wall hanging.

We will be celebrating the 250th Anniversary of the United States on Saturday. I'm sad that it is not as exciting as the Bicentennial was 50 years ago. Hubby and I will be staying home and watching the multitude of illegal fireworks that the people in our neighborhood shoot off each year. It is not legal to have fireworks in New York yet they will start tonight and probably continue through Sunday night. I am talking about big, beautiful up in the sky displays. Rarely do the police come unless the fireworks or parties get out of hand. We can sit in our driveway or on our back deck and enjoy the show although the excessive heat we are experiencing may mean we stay indoors. 

Happy 4th of July!!!

I will be joining Frederique at the Quilting Patch on Saturday and Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Take some time to relax with a glass of something cold or  a cup of tea or coffee and pop on over to their sites to see what other bloggers are stitching.

Thanks for stopping by! 

A finish, something new and flowers

Cinnamon House is all stitched. Of course it still needs to be made into a pillow. I love it! It will be a nice complement to Pumpkin House. 

Next up will be this snow globe that has been kitted up for a while now. 

I started the quilting on my mom’s Churn Dash quilt. I stuck with outlining the blocks like my mom would have on the churn dash block, though she would have used contrasting floss. I preferred to go with matching floss. It is hard to see in this photo. I made up my own little swirl for the floral corner.

 On the cross block, I am using the stencil that I am sure was bought for this quilt. 

You can see the quilting design better from the back. I think it is looking great.

I finally started feeling well on Wednesday. I was amazed at just how exhausted I felt for several days. Thank you for your well wishes.

I finished reading The Darkling Bride by Laura Andersen. I loved this book and was sad that there wasn’t more to read. On the other hand, I also finally finished reading The Resistance Women by Jennifer Chiaverini. I did not like this book at all. I usually enjoy this author’s books, but this one was so very dark and ominous in its entirety that it was a chore to read. Normally I would not finish a book like this, but it was one of my rare purchases, so I stuck with it. Yes, it is an historical novel based on actual people in Germany during WWII, but I have read other novels of this time period that were easier to read and conveyed at least some instances of joy. Sadly, I cannot recommend it. 

I am now reading The Daughter’s Tale by Armando Lucas Correa. It is yet another WWII novel, but so far it is quite interesting. It also takes place in 2015, so I don’t think it will be continuously oppressive. 

My tiger lilies are in full bloom. 

As are the Astilbe. I need to replace the sad coral bells in front of the astilbe.

The Hosta is big and beautiful.

 

The new hydrangeas are just starting to bloom.

I don't know what these new plants are but the bees love them and they are quite pretty.

I will be joining Frederique at the Quilting Patch on Saturday and Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Take some time to relax with a cup of tea or coffee and pop on over to their sites to see what other bloggers are stitching.

Thanks for stopping by! 

June Stitch Along update

 I had been hoping to have another page finish on this update, but life got in the way. This is where Three Boats was three weeks ago. 

Since then my daughter and granddaughter came to visit for 4 days and Hubby and I traveled to California for 5 days. I would have finished the current page if I had stitched on those nine days. Family is much more fun though. I’m so close to finishing, though there is a lot of confetti stitching going on too. On top of that, I have been sick with a nasty scratchy throat and dry cough for a week that has now turned into a slight cold and thick cough. Ugh! I’m tired because I have not been sleeping well. But enough of that, here is how Three Boats looks now. 

The bottom stitches are the end of the current page. So very close. I should be well into the next page for the next update. Much better than taking 6 months to finish one page. 

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, Kathy, Margaret,

 Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Sharon, Daisy, 

Cathie, Linda, MaryMargaret, Cindy, Helen

Thanks for stopping by! 

A trip and a little bit of crafting

 We made a trip to California last Saturday to celebrate our grandson’s 3rd birthday. We had a wonderful visit that included a trip to the local playground and local beach. 

There were some really cute baby ground squirrels at the beach.

A highlight for the grandchildren was watching the recycling truck pick up the trash outside their apartment window. It doesn't take much to amuse toddlers.

On the flight to CA I added a few stitches to Cinnamon House.

 Two more motifs have been completed. I would have done more, but I was enjoying the movie Nottinghill. It is a favorite of mine. 

We came home Wednesday night and Thursday was spent doing laundry and grocery shopping. I did manage to finally finish the scrappy baby blanket. It will be put aside for future donation.

 The directions called for a ruffled edge, but I didn’t have enough white yarn left, nor did I like the ruffle idea so I just used one row of single crochet and one of double crochet. 

I had just enough yarn. 

 I downloaded a few books for the trip. I read A Resistance of Witches by Morgan Ryan.

 This is her first novel and it was wonderful. It is set during WWII, but is not really a war novel. I look forward to reading any future books the she writes. I finished it quickly and am now reading The Darkling Bride: A Novel by Laura Andersen. I like it so far. 

I will be joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Take some time to relax with a cup of tea or coffee and pop on over to their sites to see what other bloggers are stitching.

Thanks for stopping by! 

A visit, Legos, flowers and crafts

Last weekend our daughter came with her daughter for a weekend visit. Of course it rained both Saturday and Sunday, but we still had some fun both outdoors and indoors. 

When they arrived Friday afternoon it was sunny and we walked to one of the local playgrounds.

Saturday morning saw clouds and light sprinkles. I had a library pass for free entrance to Old Westbury Gardens where there was a LEGO installation. We all put on our raincoats and walked through the grounds.

 It became a treasure hunt for my granddaughter to find each LEGO sculpture. There were lily pads with a frog. 

A dragonfly. 

Birds on a feeder full of LEGO seed. 

A farmer and his granddaughter. 

A snail on a mushroom. 

A fox and some rabbits. 

 There was a proposal happening at this pavilion. We waited and then saw this hummingbird.

Finally, a butterfly. 

There were also a lawn mower, sundial and wheelbarrow that I did not include in these photos.

There were flowers to see too. 

 

That afternoon while it was raining my granddaughter and I made brownies. 

The rest of our visit we read books and played games. I sent my daughter home with these two outfits that I made for her when she was little that my granddaughter should be able to wear soon.

I didn’t work on my crafts at all for a few days. Nonetheless, Cinnamon House got a few more motifs. 

All of the granny square rows have been sewn together. The blanket just needs its border.

My Kousa dogwood is in full bloom now. 

I will be joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Take some time to relax with a cup of tea or coffee and pop on over to their sites to see what other bloggers are stitching.

Thanks for stopping by!