Second March Stitch Along Update

 I’ve been slow to get back into the swing of stitching on Three Boats a few days each week. This is where I was 3 weeks ago.

I had hoped to finish the page that I am working on by the end of this month, but I think I will aim for the end of next month now. That will be my push over the next few weeks. This is where I am now. 

Some more blue and brown stitches were added. You can see that I am back to confetti stitching. Ugh. 

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! 

Spring is here!

Spring is here, but with the weather we are experiencing it is hard to believe it is so. The crocuses in my garden are blooming and the daffodil leaves are pushing through.

We celebrated St. Patrick's Day with some corned beef, baked potatoes and Irish Soda bread. I have shared the soda bread recipe previously. I have some Irish ancestry on my mother's side.

Remember last week when I said the I-Spy quilt was about 1/4 quilted. Well….. I sat down to continue quilting the I-Spy quilt last Saturday and discovered that I had several spots where the backing had folded and rippled. As I started to remove some of the quilting stitches I realized the I hadn’t done a very good job with piecing the batting either. It had ripples and spots that felt downright hard. My perfectionist self couldn’t have this in my granddaughter’s quilt. So I have spent several days removing all of the quilting stitches. I also purchased new batting. 

Now to start over with the machine quilting while being much more careful. This is the first time I have had this problem.

I finally got around to making the multicolored binding for Having a Ball. I carefully measured and cut 2 1/4" strips, sewed them together and started sewing the binding on to the quilt. Uh-oh, my math was way off and I had to add several more inches to the binding. Thankfully, I have plenty of left over solid fabrics. The binding is completely attached and now I am stitching it to the back of the quilt. I love using binding clips instead of pins.

I have added some stitches to the Cinnamon House. It might be hard to see as most of the added stitching is cream colored. The two little pumpkins on the big house and the motif above the door are all cream.

I am currently reading "The Little Shop of Found Things" by Paula Brackston. It is a time travel book that is somewhat lighter fare than the historical fiction I have been reading. So far it is an easy and enjoyable book to read. I tried to borrow "Remarkably Bright Creatures" from my local library as it was recommended by several other bloggers, but it is unavailable for quite some time. They won't even take any more holds for it. It is also not currently available to borrow on the Kindle either. It is on my Goodreads list for future reading. 

 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! 

Socks

I finally knit a pair of socks. I’m pretty pleased with myself. This is definitely not the only pair I will ever make.

 I found the process much easier than I expected. 

I have cut some 2 1/4 inch strips for the binding on Having a Ball. Now they need to be sized lengthwise and sewn together.

 For some reason I’m procrastinating with this. I don't know why sewing together a bunch of strips seems daunting right not, but it does.

Cinnamon House is back in the craft rotation again full time. 

I want to finish this before starting another cross-stitch piece. 

I need to get back to quilting the I-Spy quilt also. I have it about 1/4 quilted. A project for the coming week. 

I finished reading The Forest of Vanishing Stars by Kristin Harmel. I have liked other books by this author, but this one I found to be a less interesting. I also tried to read The Keeper of Lost Art by Laura Morelli, but I felt the story was slow and mostly uninteresting. I stopped reading it when my Kindle loan ran out and saw no need to renew it so that I could finish reading. I think I have to give WWII stories a break for a while. I need more upbeat, joyful stories that counteract the current world we are living in.

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! 

Almost finished and a trip

We have spent the last week in California. Just before we left last Saturday, I finished quilting Having a Ball. I love the way it looks!

Here is all of the hand quilting from the back.

I need to make the binding for this. It will be a scrappy binding using all of the colorful fabrics in the ball.

Let me tell you the odyssey of our flight from JFK to San Diego. Our daughter drove from Boston to Long Island with our granddaughter on the last Friday of February. We were scheduled to take a late morning flight to CA on Saturday. A car service took us to JFK airport. We had all of our luggage as well as our granddaughter's car seat and umbrella stroller. Kudos to my daughter for carrying the 23 pound carseat in a backpack throughout the airport. I know that I couldn't do so. 

So we board our flight and take off on time around 11 am. There was some commotion caused by a passenger emergency at the front of the plane a few minutes after take off, but we kept flying. About 1.5 hours into the 6 hour flight it was announced that we would be returning to New York. The plane turned around and back we went. We had experienced a 3 hour flight to nowhere. Emergency crews came and removed the ill passenger. We were allowed to get off the plane, but only if we took all of our items with us. Hubby and I stayed on the plane, while our daughter and 3 year old granddaughter exited the plane to stretch their legs and buy us sandwiches for dinner as we would not be arriving in CA in time to eat dinner as originally planned. After an hour or so, a new flight crew was installed and the emergency equipment and other supplies that had been used were replaced on board. The passengers who deboarded were allowed back on the plane and we were once again on our way. We arrived in CA, tired from the long day, much later than planned and started our week long vacation.

Our son-in-law had found a wonderful vacation home in Carlsbad, CA near our son and walking distance to the beach and a local park. 

Our son in law with his nephew and daughter.

Our grandson enjoying the park.

There was a piano at the house that our oldest granddaughter enjoyed.

Our youngest granddaugter enjoyed looking out at the patio.

The house was perfect for us. This was a sunset view over the ocean from the second floor.

On our first day, we celebrated our youngest granddaughter's first birthday. The celebration was a week early as that was when we were there. The next day our daughter and SIL took their daughter and our grandson strawberry picking while hubby and I watched our youngest granddaughter. 

On Tuesday, all 9 of us went to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. The grandchildren enjoyed seeing all of the animals. 

There was an adorable baby giraffe...

some kangaroos,

and more.

 

Wednesday was another beach and park day. We also all had dinner together every night at the house we had rented. Thankfully, the flight home on Thursday was uneventful. Our daughter left our home on today. It is quiet here now. Time to get back to working on some crafts.

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! 

First March Stitch Along Update

Three weeks have passed since our last update. A lot has happened in those 21 days. The Olympics were wonderful to watch each day and are, sadly, over now. Here on Long Island we had a blizzard that dumped 29 inches of snow last Sunday into Monday. This is my back yard. That is a 6 foot fence with bushes covered in drifts. 

That snow was followed by another inch or 2 on Wednesday. Ugh! We only saw the green grass for one day after the early February snow storm before this blizzard arrived. You would think that I did a whole lot of stitching on Three Boats, but I don't work on it in front of the television. I like to listen to music when I stitch this as I need to carefully count where the stitches need to be placed. I don't really have to pay attention to the music.

This is where Three Boats was for the February update.

This is where I am now. 

I filled in a lot of different blue flosses. There are more to work on still. I had hoped to finish the page I am working on by the end of February, but now I am aiming for the end of March.

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! 

Snow Again?

 It rained all day on Friday. It didn’t quite wash away all the snow from four weeks ago. Yes, there has been snow on the ground on Long Island for all that time. I have lived here all of my 65 years and don’t remember snow on the ground for that long ever. The weather prediction is for more snow on Sunday and Monday. Really?! Ugh. 

Of course, having Olympics on the TV from early morning to late night all day every day has helped me to deal with the decidedly depressing weather. It has also contributed to great progress on my crafts. 

The background of Having a Ball is almost 3/4 quilted. I have a nice rhythm going with it now. 

The second sock is well on its way to completion. The heel is done and I’m heading toward the toe. 

I looked in my stash and found this pretty bamboo sock yarn.

I can’t wait to start another pair. I want a different pattern. If anyone has a favorite, please share it with me. 

The I-Spy quilt sandwich is pinned and ready for me to begin machine quilting. 

I finished reading The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches.

I liked this book and would recommend it. I wouldn't say it was an exceptional book to read, but it was certainly enjoyable and the characters were interesting. I just started reading The Forest of Vanishing Stars by Kristin Harmel. I don't have an opinion of it as yet. 

I will be joining Frederique at the Quilting Patch on Saturday and Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. I hope you take some time to relax with some tea, coffee or hot chocolate and pop on over to their sites to see what other bloggers are stitching.

Thanks for stopping by! 

Olympic crafting

I love watching as many Olympic sports as possible. Skiing, snowboarding, ice skating, speed skating, curling! They are so much fun! Since I am still dealing with a head cold, I haven’t been feeling like leaving the house and venturing out into the cold weather. The Olympics are a great distraction. We are no longer in the deep freeze, but it is still Winter and the snow that fell three weeks ago is still on the ground. 

My days have been spent drinking lots of fluids, watching TV as well as quilting or knitting. The background of Having a Ball is about halfway quilted. 

I am really enjoying the process. I’m pleased with the quilting. 

The first of two socks is completed. It is not perfect, but it fits. 

The second sock is well on its way and is definitely looking better than the first. I can see myself knitting more socks in the future with a better yarn. This yarn is somewhat scratchy, but it is a good yarn for a first try.

 One of my few outings this week was to a local quilt shop to get fabric to back the I-Spy quilt. It is the same fabric that I used for the other two I-Spy quilts that I made. 

Hubby’s birthday was on Thursday. It was a small celebration. 

I will be joining Frederique at the Quilting Patch on Saturday and Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. I hope you take some time to relax with some tea, coffee or hot chocolate and pop on over to their sites to see what other bloggers are stitching. 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Thanks for stopping by!