Slow Stitching

I am writing this while watching the news on Thursday that one of 6 buses from Farmingdale School District, my alma mater, carrying students going to a band camp in Pennsylvania went off the interstate, crashed and rolled over. Two people died and dozens were injured. I don't know anyone personally involved, at least I don't think so right now, but I am so very sad. How horrifying for those children and their parents. 

I need to craft now. It will soothe my soul as usual. 

So on a lighter note, I have been crafting away. Santa's face is stitched and beaded. 

I hope to start working on his hat soon. 

I am making progress on my grandson's stocking. I am still not happy with some of the floss colors. The photo on the kit has much brighter colors than have been provided. I have looked online to see if I could see a finished stocking from someone else and I was pleased with how it looked. This is where I am right now.

 

Finally, I have finished the two fronts and the back of the knitted jacket for my grandson. I found two skeins in my stash of another variegated blue that coordinates nicely for the sleeves and the hood. 

I'm trying something new by knitting both sleeves at the same time. The knitting needles I have are quite long and allow me to do this. 

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

Please pray for the families and friends of those who died or were injured in that horrible bus crash. I still live nearby. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Progress and a finish

Last weekend we were in Boston celebrating our granddaughter's 1st birthday. It was a week late as she was sick for the original party day. She is well now and is walking all over the place. How fast time flies. 

Since we returned on Sunday, I have been continuing to sort through boxes of my mother's items. I found a treasure trove of WWII vmail sent to my grandmother from her three sons.....my uncles. I also found a postcard sent to my grandmother by my grandfather when he was chauffering for a family in Saratoga Springs. 

There was also my father's naval log book from WWII. He served on the destroyer USS J William Ditter. 

I don't remember ever seeing these growing up, but my mom saved them. I have his naval medals and his navy hat also. 

When I need a break I craft, of course. I have been making progress on my grandson's Christmas ornament.

I have finished stitching Santa's face. Today I will add some of the beading....or all of it. Then I need to start working on his hat.

I have added some stitching on my grandson's Christmas stocking. Although the floss colors still don't match the photo of the stocking, I am pretty happy with the hair coloring. I don't think this will be finished for this Christmas. It is very dense stitching.

Since the above photo, I have finished the little boy's hair. The process for adding photos to my PC from my iPhone has changed slightly (not for the better) so I did not take an updated photo. 

I have been working on the hooded jacket, also for my grandson. I have finished both fronts and have the back about halfway finished.

I need to buy a coordinating yarn for the sleeves. I thought I would have enough of this unknown yarn as there were three almost full skeins and the pattern calls for 2 skeins, but there must be less than I thought. I should have enough to start the hood, but I will use the coordinating yarn to finish it so that it looks like it was planned. I'm calling it artistic license. 

I have another finish! The binding is on and the Celtic Autumn table topper is washed. 

This looks like a Courthouse Steps block, but it is actually made from four individual blocks. You can zoom in to see them. My mom didn't get all of the seams lined up when she hand stitched this. That's the reason some of the long pieces look bowed. 

Hurricane Lee passed by! Thankfully it stayed out to sea and didn't cause us any problems. Hubby and I drove down to the beach to see the waves. This is Jones Beach State Park. You weren't allowed to walk on the sand. You needed to stay on the boardwalk, but you can see where the sea had already overwashed the beach and left lakes throughout the sand. 

The edge of the beach is way off in the distance. You could see the spray from the waves rolling in. Normally you can't see the breaking waves at all as there is a slight angle down to the ocean.

You can see the waves rolling in here.

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

Thanks for stopping by!

 

September Stitch Along Update

I am surprised that I was able to make any progress on October Morning lately as I have been working on many other projects at the same time. You can see an update on those here.

This is where I was with October Morning three weeks ago.

This is where I am now. I decided to show you the whole picture at this point.

Can you see the best part?

I've stitched all the way up to the top right corner! Yay!

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, Claire, Gun, Christina, Kathy, Margaret,

Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Sharon, Daisy, 

Cathie, Linda, Helen, MaryMargaret, Cindy

Thanks for stopping by! 

That nasty stitching frog has been visiting!

My goodness I have been doing an awful lot of frogging. First I started my grandson's Christmas stocking this week. The center is the little boy's head. I happily stitched away on the first two colors that were just fine. Then I got to the third color. Ugh, the color that was supplied was more brown than a darker flesh color and it looked like the little boy had a dirty nape and jawline. I checked the provided color and it was not even close to the stated DMC 3778 color. So I went to may stash and found the correct color. This looked a little dark also, but I decided to give it a try. Okay, it still looked dark and quite pink, but maybe it would be better once I added the brown hair. Nope, it was impossible to tell the line between the face and the hair. Double Ugh! Now I go back to my bobbin stash and try to find a color that I think will work better. As I am perusing my flosses, I realize that the first face color is not anywhere closs to the DMC 758 that it is supposed to be, it is much closer to DMC 752. Okay, what if I use DMC 758 that is a darker version of 752. Bingo! I removed all the pink stitches and stitched that area for the third time.

Now I had to go to the chart pages and make notes as to what color I thought was being used and what color I now substituted. A whole lot of work for the start of a new project. I am happy with how the boy's face looks now and will continue with the hair. I hope the rest of the colors are true to form. I am afraid to check.

I have a finish! The first Charmed Santa from Mill Hill is finished! This one is for my granddaughter.

Of course, I had to immediately start the one I want to make for my grandson.This is when that frog made another visit. I have stitched the first row three times.

 For some reason accurate counting eluded me.

Finally, I decided to finish the table topper that my mom had hand-pieced several years ago as it has some Fall colors. You may recall that I was hand-quilting it while I was visiting her. It has been sitting unfinished in my sewing area and I had to move it a few times lately. I saw it when I went to work on my daughter's quilt (that didn't happen) and decided to get it finished. First I had to find a fabric to use for binding. Thankfully, Mom had some 2" folded strips of the orange fabric. I think she used it to bind another quilt at some time. There was just enough when I pieced it together to get around the table topper. It is 18" per side.

Guess what, that frog visited again. For some reason, despite refreshing my memory by reading some instructions, I didn't sew the corners correctly to miter them. After I had the whole binding sewn on, I had to use the seam ripper to take out the corners and restitch them. All is well now.

I have decided to call this Celtic Autumn as my mom had made it with a nod to her Irish heritage....the green, white and orange of the flag. She had even added some shamrocks in the corners, but they were too small and she didn't like them. One reason she never finished it.  I quilted the center as a nod to a Celtic knot. I plan to use it as an Autumn table topper, hence the name. 

Let's hope that nasty stitching frog stays away for a while. 

Thanks for stopping by! 

September Slow Stitching

September began with my mother-in-law's 90th birthday on Friday. Hubby and I brought dinner to her home from a favorite Italian restaurant and celebrated with a cake for dessert. 

When we visited our son and his family last week, I brought yarn and a crochet hook and started making a new hat for my mother-in-law. I finished it in time for her birthday.

 I made the same hat for her a few years ago, but she lost it. I know she liked it a lot so I made it again. It is from a long ago Hooked on Crochet magazine.

I've been working on the Mill Hill Charmed Santa. I have finished his face and am now beading the hat.

I am pleased with how quick it is working up now that I let go of trying to get it to be perfect. I think it is looking great. I hope to finish this over the holiday weekend. 

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

Thanks for stopping by!

A needed break

This past week was spent visiting our son, DIL and grandson in CA. I didn't realize how much I needed to just be away from the usual day to day happenings. We traveled to San Diego on Saturday with Hurricane Hilary in the forecast when we arrived. We took a detour on the way from the airport to a local frame store, The Frame Station, and chose a frame for the birth announcement. The store had sandbags by the door in preparation for the storm.

The bottom left frame was the winner. It should be ready for my son to pick up in 2 weeks. 

 Thankfully the hurricane was just a tropical storm when it hit CA on Sunday and it traveled inland from where we were in Carlsbad. There was only a little bit of wind and around 2.5 inches of rain. We stayed in and enjoyed lots of cuddles with our grandson.

On Monday the weather had cleared and we took a walk by the ocean. For some reason, I didn't take any photos. We saw several California ground squirrels and lots of other people walking....many with their dogs.

On Tuesday Hubby and our son got to play golf. When we heard that the hurricane was approaching Hubby was debating whether to bring his golf clubs on the trip. I am so glad he did as they had a good round and gorgeous weather. My daughter in law and I enjoyed a quiet day. I watched Lucas so she could exercise and get some other things done. So much cuteness.

On Wednesday we took a ride to Discovery Lake in nearby San Marcos. 

It was only about a 3/4 mile walk around the lake, but some of the views were very pretty. There is also a 2.8 mile hike, but it wasn't clear whether the trail would be stroller friendly. 

Afterward, the family indulged me with a trip to a local quilt store, Grand Country Quilts. 

It is actually two storefronts on opposite ends of a parking lot. The first was mostly primitive fabrics. It is really a very welcoming shop.

My son thought it was one of the best shops he had ever visited.

I bought two solids for a hand-pieced quilt that I have planned.

The second shop was for more modern quilts and fabrics.

This shop was bright, open and airy. I bought some novelty fabric that I hope to use in I Spy quilts for my grandchildren. I found hens, toucans, bunnies and adorable hedgehogs.

Both shops had well-attended classes in progress when we visited. I plan on returning to this shop whenever I can on my California visits. It is only a short drive from my son's apartment. 

Now that we are back home in NY I've gotten the crafting bug again. I worked on a crocheted hat for my mother-in-law while on the flight from NY to CA. 

I have made this hat for her previously, but she lost it. Her 90th birthday is this coming Friday, so I hope to have it done by then.

I have also been working on the knitted jacket for Lucas. I am currently working on the second front side. 

I am finally enjoying working on the Charmed Santa Faces ornament for one of our grandkids, not sure which one yet. The cross-stitching was just not laying right as far as I was concerned. I guess the trip to CA made me realize that it doesn't have to be perfect. Yesterday I finished the cross-stitching on Santa's face and started adding the beads.

I hope to finish beading the face today. Then I can move on to stitching the hat. That will be my Slow Sunday Stitching for today. 

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

Thanks for stopping by!

Stitch Along update

I still haven't really gotten my crafting mojo back. I have spent much of the second half of July and the beginning of August clearing out my mom's house and bringing items to thrift stores. It is done now. The house is for sale and should sell quickly. 

My daughter and granddaughter visited last weekend and took home some of the items that my daughter wanted from my mother's home. There are still a whole lot of boxes in my garage and basement that need to be sorted. Some items will stay with me, some will eventually go to my son and some still need to go to thrift stores. 

Virtually the only craft that I have spent any time with lately is October Morning. That is a good thing as I can post an update this week. This is where it was three weeks ago.

 I have made a decent amount of progress on it since then although it could have been a whole lot more. 

Here is where I am now:

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, Claire, Gun, Christina, Kathy, Margaret,

Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Sharon, Daisy, 

Cathie, Linda, Helen, MaryMargaret, Cindy

Thanks for stopping by!