Stitch Along Update

It is a good thing that this week is a stitch along update as Santa is the only craft that I have worked on this past week. Three weeks ago was the day after my son's wedding and I was still in California. You can see some photos of the wedding here and of our adventures here.  

Here is how Santa looked for the last update three weeks ago. 

Oh my, I didn't realize that I hadn't even finished the cap's furry edge. Wait until you see where I am now!

Santa himself is completely finished as is the bottom border. I have to stitch my son-in-law's name and the top border. Then it is on to the embellishing.

I don't think I ever shared the hanging basket that Hubby bought me for Mother's Day last week. It looks great against the hedge that is behind it.

One of my azaleas has bloomed finally. It's color is similar to those in the hanging basket.

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 talented 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, Constanze, Christina, Kathy, Margaret,

 Cindy, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Megan, Deborah, 

 Sharon, Daisy, AJ, Cathie, Linda, Helen, Connie

We are so glad that Connie has returned to the stitch along to share her pretty stitching! I, for one, am looking forward to seeing what she is working on.

Thanks for stopping by!

Lots of crafting!

My crafting mojo has been high. I have been stitching away! 

First, I have to show you the progress I have made on Santa.

I have finally finished all the cross stitch on Santa himself. 

There are still two borders and my son-in-law's name to cross stitch. Then it is on to backstitching and beads. The end is closer. 

When I sit and visit my mother, I often bring this maroon/beige baby quilt to work on. I have marked some of the borders and I get quite a few stitches put in each time I visit. I am just about to turn the corner on this first border.

I have also added some embroidery stitches to this sweet little bib. Isn't she just adorable. 

The bib is so soft that it is a breeze to stitch on. I am enjoying watching the picture take shape.

It is Mother's Day here in the US.

I will visit my mom for a bit and enjoy a quiet day adding stitches to Santa. I just realized that all of the stitching that I am working on has a mom link. Santa is because I am a mother-in-law, the quilt was pieced by my mom, and the bib is for my future granddaughter. 

I posted the second wedding post yesterday. It has pictures from our adventures in Carmel, CA. You can see it here. 

This little bunny has been visiting our deck. It is very curious.

It even climbed in one of the pots.

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!

Wedding Trip Part 2

After a six hour flight, we arrived in California on the Wednesday prior to our son's Saturday wedding. We picked up our rental car after waiting on a long, long line and then picked up our daughter and son-in-law from their terminal at SFO airport. From the airport we drove down to Santa Cruz to check in to our rooms at the Inn at Pasatiempo. The inn is literally around the corner from the wedding venue. 

We rested the rest of Wednesday except for going out to dinner at a local brew pub.

Thursday morning our son and his then fiancee arrived late morning. First we had to pick up his and hubby's tuxes and then we could enjoy some vacation time. 

We took a ride to Point Lobos Nature Reserve in Carmel, CA. It was a cool, windy, cloudy day, but we enjoyed the sights nonetheless.

There was the threat of rain, but we stayed dry.

The water was churning and swirling. It was beautiful.

There were a bunch of sea lions out on this rock. We could hear them, but they were just little dots to see.

What a view!

Hubby and me.

The rest of the family.

There were a few flowers to see.

These views!

Sometimes the path took an interesting turn.

But again....the views!

There were cormorants in this cove.

They are an aquatic bird that fully dives under the water. It was fun wondering where a diving bird would emerge. 

After this we drove into Carmel and walked around that pretty town. There were seveal small art galleries to view and a walk down to the ocean.

Finally some blue sky!

We stopped for dinner at Pepe's Little Napoli restaurant and had a wonderful meal.

That's it for Part 2 of the wedding trip. I will share Part 3 in another post.

Thanks for stopping by!

Wedding trip Part 1

 Hubby and I went on a trip to California that included our son's wedding! This post will be about the plane ride stitching, the rehearsal dinner and the wedding. I am sure you all want to see some wedding photos!  A future post will include the places we visited before and after the wedding. 

First, I started some new stitching last Wednesday on the plane to California. How do you like these bibs? Can you see the price tags on them? 

One is for 49 cents and the other is $1.69. I inherited these from my Wisconsin aunt when she passed several years ago. There are a few more of them, but these are the two that I have decided to work on for my future granddaughter. I have picked out the floss. I am using some of the floss that I also inherited from that same aunt. I am so glad that I finally have a reason to stitch them. I am not very adept at embroidery stitching, but these seem easy enough and I don't really have to use fancy stitches. It is a bib after all. 

What do you think of my start? Plane stitching is really not all that comfortable especially when you are in the middle seat.

Friday was the rehearsal dinner. I reserved a private room at an interesting restaurant called Shadowbrook. What is really fun is that you can take a tram down the mountain to the restaurant.

It was a fun little ride. We had a small rehearsal celebration in a private room. We finally got to meet the bride's family! The food was absolutely delicious also!

There is an open air patio behind the happy couple where you can also dine. The restaurant had 4 dining levels.

I know, I know, you want to see some wedding photos. The wedding took place at Hollins House in Santa Cruz, CA. My son and his wife had a "first look" before the ceremony. All of the family photos were taken at this time. I only have a few as we don't have the photos from the photographer yet. This was just after the ceremony that took place at the gazebo. They look so happy!

They had beautiful weather on their wedding day. Hubby and I were thrilled.

As I stated, the photographer has photos of our whole family, but we did manage to get one of hubby, me, our daughter and son-in-law. It is hard to believe from this photo that my daughter is halfway through her pregnancy.

Behind us is the Pasatiempo golf course as well as the Pacific Ocean. It was a beautiful view. Here is the view without the people.

Above was the patio where the cocktail hour was held. 

Dinner was on the grassy area overlooking this view.

Here are the bride and groom at their own little table.

They cut their beautiful cake and carefully fed each other. The cake was part red velvet and part carrot cake. So delicious!

Then the dancing started. 

My son and I danced to "My Wish" by Rascal Flatts.

I kept singing the words so I wouldn't cry.

All in all, it was a wonderful, fun, happy celebration. 

The newlyweds were off to Hawaii the next day after spending some time with us. We headed home that night. I will share some photos of our other adventures in future posts.

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are stitching. I am just getting back to working on Santa again. I should have the white stitching completed today.

Thanks for stopping by!

Stitch Along Update

 It's that time again. The last three weeks have just whizzed right by. The last time that you saw the Santa stocking for this update I was getting ready to stitch the second half of his mustache.

I finished filling in the mustache very quickly. I have since completed all the white stitching around Santa's face and have added the two different blue colors on the furry brim of his hat. I have also started filling in the white in the brim.

You should be able to see that I have added some red to Santa's cap too. I got tired of stitching so much white. 

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 talented 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, Constanze, Christina, Kathy, Margaret,

 Cindy, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Megan, Deborah, 

 Sharon, Daisy, AJ, Cathie, Linda, Helen  

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Easter

Wishing all of my followers Happy Easter! 

Hubby and I went for a walk in the local preserve recently. There were a few ducks and flowers to look at. 

I have been steadily working on the Santa stocking. I am still adding stitches to the furry brim of his hat. I  have a few more light blue stitches to add and then it is all white.

Yesterday I made a quilted fabric cover for my Amazon Fire. I made one for my Kindle years ago and realized I needed one for this device also.

 I won this device at a raffle at my school a few years ago and only recently started using it when my mini iPad started giving me problems. It is somwhat old in computer timelines. With the cover, I can put the power cord inside with it and keep them together. 

Hubby and I bought Easter flowers for our mothers. I picked out this gorgeous hyacinth for myself. Usually I choose tulips, but this gorgeous purple color just called to me.

Easter will be a quiet affair at our house today. Just me, Hubby and my mother-in-law. A small ham, baked ziti, string beans and chocolate cream pie are on the menu. I will visit my mother and bring some food in the hope that she may want to eat it.

Spring is still popping up in my yard also. Here are some hyacinths from a past Easter.

Some tulips also from previous Easter plants.

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are stitching. I will find some time to work on Santa today.

Thanks for stopping by!
 

A finish!.......and some other crafting.

Yes, I finished the Baby Elephant Afghan. 

I love it. I think it is adorable. It will be nice and snuggly warm for my future granddaughter. 

I have been steadily adding stitches to Santa. 

He has both of his eyebrows completed. Now I am adding two different shades of blue and some white to the furry brim of his cap. You can see how the brim of the cap is taking shape.

A few of you have asked how my mother is doing. Well, she was released from hospice last week. Hospice determined that she has a greater than 6 month life expectancy. That means I have been scrambling to find a doctor that does house calls so I can get her medicines renewed and get prescriptions for some other items that she needs. It is sad as all she does is sleep most of the time or call out for long dead relatives. She can really only eat foods that are pureed or puddings and such. She can't really feed herself anymore. She is existing, not living. 

When visiting my mother I have been happily quilting this pretty crib size quilt. I may have mentioned that my mother hand pieced this quilt. She never wanted to quilt it, so that is what I have decided to work on as I sit and visit her. The cross-hatch quilting is going fairly quickly. 

I recently bought some quilt stencils to use in the borders and cornerstones. I bought more than I need as I know there will be other quilts to use them on in the future.

I also purchased some quilt markers and a small whole cloth piece that I have been wanting to try my hand at.  I added a few extra stencils to work on another of my mother's quilt pieces also. My mom had embroidered too small shamrocks on it. 

I am removing them....we had discussed this long ago....and I will quilt the center with the large square stencil you can see above. This will be finished as either a table topper or a pillow.

I receive this wonderful belated birthday gift from my son.

I will be making some Christmas table runners and/or placemats with the jelly roll on the right. I have no plans for the other one yet, but I love the fabrics.

Spring has sprung with my daffodils. These are in front of my house.

These are in a corner of my back yard. They are such a gorgeous grouping.

We had a curious juvenile bunny visit our back deck. It kept me entertained for a few minutes.

It was going under and around all of the covered summer furniture.

I am glad Ruby's visit a couple of weeks ago haven't scared them all away.

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 adding more stitches to Santa. The end is in sight now. 

Thanks for stopping by!