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! 

Three Boats Progress!!

In my post three weeks ago I had finally finished stitching the 9th of 24 pages. I realized though that at the current stitching pace, I wouldn't finish Three Boats on a Tropical Beach for another 7.5 years! That is just not acceptable to me, so I decided that I have to dedicate time almost every day to working on this project. This is where Three Boats was at the last update 3 weeks ago.

I decided that I would aim to stitch 100 stitches every day in order to try to finish a page a month. That would still be another 15 months of stitching. I then decided that I am going to aim for a finish by the end of 2027. That is a reasonable goal yet still allows me to try to stitch 100 stitches a day. I have succeeded in the 100 stitches almost every day in the last 3 weeks. Some days more, some days less, but steady progress is happening. This is how Three Boats looks now.

Are you as pleased and amazed as I am? I am almost halfway done with the next page. Of course, my granddaughter is here this weekend so Three Boats is stored away from toddler hands for a few days, but that is okay as playing with her is much more important.

Wish me luck at being able to keep up this pace.

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, Helen

Thanks for stopping by! 

Refreshed landscaping and crafting progress

On Monday, the landscaping around our house was refreshed. Many of the bushes in the area in front of the living room window had died and the flower bed had been creeping forward each year. A sick looking hinoki cypress was removed and other bushes were added. The stones that had been there were repurposed for a small wall and stepping stone walkway to the garden hose. My dianthus was transplanted. It is looking great now that it is refreshed. 

Our back yard had been professionally landscaped over 30 years ago, but over the years some plants had died, others got woody and still others were infested with gnats. Almost all of the hedges and bushes were removed and replaced with new plantings. We hired the same nursery that did the work years ago. A son now runs the business. They kept my loved Kousa dogwood and one rhododendron as well as several of my perennial flowers. 

There is plenty of room now for me to fill in with other perennials as I see fit.

 I am very pleased with this refreshed garden.

I have sewn together each of the seven rows of the granny square baby blanket.

 Now I have to sew the rows to each other and crochet a border around the outside. This is my nighttime TV viewing project.

Cinnamon house has all of the bottom motifs completed and the flower pot started on the left side. 

In between all of the crafting, I have been reading The Resistance Women by Jennifer Chiaverini.

This is a great book, but I have to remember not to pick up any more WWII books. In the current USA political climate, I just don't enjoy these fear filled and anxiety ridden stories. 

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! 

 

Coconut Cream pie and crafts

For Mother's Day last Sunday, I made a Double Coconut Cream pie from a small Better Homes and Gardens pamphlet that I have had for years.

 

Oh my, it was delicious! It was a better treat for Mother's Day than any store bought dessert. I even managed to make a decent pie crust by following the recipe. I usually have trouble with them.

I am still working on the granny square baby blanket. All of the squares are completed and a layout has been determined.

 I have sewn together the bottom row since this photo was taken.

As a result I have yet to start quilting the Churn Dash quilt, but I have made a determination as to how I will quilt some of it. I found this table runner that my mom pieced and quilted. I didn't even realize I had it when I decided to look at some of the other table runners that she made to get inspiration.

I am going to quilt the Churn Dash blocks in the same manner with these flosses.

My mom always used DMC floss for her quilting.The quilting on the cross blocks is still to be decided.

Cinnamon House has a few more motifs completed. 

There is another bird and flower still to stitch along the bottom.

I've been taking advantage of the warmer but cloudy weather and washing windows when I am not crafting. So far all the windows on my first floor have been cleaned and the curtains washed and rehung. Did you ever hear the saying "Outside side to side, inside up and down"? I read it somewhere years ago to help determine where a window streak might be. I wash the outside of the windows using a side to side motion and the inside of the windows using an up and down motion so that if there are streaks, I know if they are inside or out. I remember the saying because "inside" and "down" both have the letter "n". There are still 13 windows on my second floor that I would like to clean this Spring. All but one are double hung windows that tilt inside, making cleaning them fairly simple. We can no longer remove the screens on the second floor windows as they are difficult to get back in since the house has settled over 20+ years. They would need to be pushed in from the outside which is not happening.

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! 

Flowers , crochet and cross stitch

The weather is getting warmer. It feels like Spring has finally shrugged off the dregs of Winter and seems to be here to stay. I bought two hanging baskets to get the flower viewing started. 

They are so lush and pretty. 

These purple flowers that spray outward are perfect for this tilted pot. 

Impatiens bloom the best near the back of the house that faces north and only gets morning sunlight. 

These will soon fill in nicely. 

Planting two different cherry tomato plants may be wishful thinking, but I’m giving them a try again. They are the only veggie (um, fruit) that I ever successfully grow. I need to buy new tomato cages this coming week.

Our SIL gets an amazing raspberry harvest each year and shared a few plants with us in the fall. I put them in a container as I don’t want to have to constantly monitor their spread. They seem to be growing well.

 Perhaps this will be another successful edible. The thrift is in bloom. Such a pretty little flower. 

One of our azaleas is starting to bloom.

 We have contracted to have a landscaper remove overgrown, woody and infested bushes in our back yard and plant some new bushes and plants. We no longer want hedges. We will be getting some flowering bushes and many perennials. This azalea may or may not be transplanted. 

Wednesday was an interesting day where we had 3 hours of no power. The local electrical company was replacing the telephone pole and transformer that is in our neighbor's backyard just behind our dogwood tree.

Of course, once this was completed and the power was back on, not only was one of our smoke alarms chirping, but our cable modem was fried. Hubby had to scale the ladder to reset the smoke alarm that is on the cathedral ceiling of our bedroom. Then he went to the local cable store to trade our modem for a new one. Quite the day. Hubby was not amused.

I have almost finished crocheting all of the granny squares. I need 49 and I believe there are 45 at the moment.

I laid what I had out a few days ago to get an idea of what types I needed to fill in with and give myself a sample layout for when I assemble the blanket.

I have added a few motifs on Cinnamon House. 

I have concentrated on the crochet and on Three Boats. You can see the latest Three Boats post here. I will be working on it more extensively so that I can finish it, hopefully, by the end of 2027. 

Once the crocheted blanket is finished, I will start quilting the Churn Dash quilt. 

We are celebrating Mother's Day today in the US. I made a casserole of baked ziti yesterday to be heated today. My MIL will join us. 

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! 

Stitch along mini Happy Dance

Finally! I have worked hard this week to finish the ninth out of 24 pages of Three Boats on a Tropical Beach. 

Here is how Three Boats looked three weeks ago. 

There was so much confetti to stitch at the end of this page. These are less than half of the flosses I needed to use just this past Friday. Ugh!

So, Happy Dance! This is how that page turned out.

 I didn’t even do any stitches in the next page as I wanted the finish so badly. I started this page in October. There are 15 pages left. At this rate it will take me 7.5 more years to complete. I need to get a move on. 

I thought I would also share a full length photo so you can see where I am going next. 

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

Sadly, Sharon had a tragic loss in her family this week and will not be updating for a while. You can see her post about that here.

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, Helen

Thanks for stopping by! 

Derby Weekend

Kentucky Derby weekend is a big deal in our house. Well, at least it is for Hubby who is a huge horse racing fan. My picks for the Kentucky Oaks (tonight) and the Derby tomorrow have been given to Hubby and he will place my bets. Less than $20. We do not bet large amounts of money. 

I was in the mood to bake and found a Kentucky Derby muffin recipe in my clippings. They have bourbon in them. 

Cinnamon house has a few more motifs completed. The birds and flowers alternate across the bottom and stitch up fairly quickly so that will be my focus this coming week.

I have been concentrating my cross stitching on Three Boats to try to finish the current page. There will be an update on it on Sunday. 

I was unable to finish the granny squares for the donation blanket in time for the last pickup day, but I will continue to work on it until it is done. I need 49 squares and I currently have 26.

 

It is using up a lot of little scraps of yarn. I’m sticking with blue, white and mint green. I have run out of the variegated and blue yarns so it will be mostly green and white with random squares of the blue when it is assembled. 

I’ve decided to hand quilt this Churn Dash quilt top that I found in my fabric closet. It was hand pieced by my mother. Isn’t is pretty.

 The backing fabric was already pieced and stored with the top. I have batting that is the perfect size and I’ve already pin basted it. 

I found this stencil and chose this inherited tatting thread that I plan to use. 

I’m sure the stencil was bought specifically for this quilt, but never used. I’m debating whether to use it on all the blocks or just the churn dash. Your thoughts are appreciated. 

I also found these three basket squares to be used for a table runner or wall hanging. 

These were also pieced by my mother and the fabric is there to finish it. I will make it into a runner soon as there is not much to be done and it will be another WIP finished. These two will be my quilt projects until I decide on another quilt to start. I have been going through my books, magazines and patterns. I have a couple of ideas on what to piece next. 

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!