Quilting and Cross-stitching

In my free time, meager as it has been lately, I have been quilting and cross-stitching. The weather has been cooperating....cold and miserable. Perfect for stitching. I have removed almost all of my mom's quilting and have been adding my own. I almost have all of the stitching done in one direction.

Baker Beach is filling in slowly. Last week it looked like this:

You can see that I have added part of a black rock and some of the water above it.

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. If you read yesterday's post you know that I may not be stitching much. I am also linking to Quilting is More Fun than Housework. On Monday, I will join the Stitchery Link Party at Super Mom - No Cape. Pop on over to these sites to see what other bloggers are up to.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sadness

My FIL passed away today. He is the handsome guy second from the left. He turned 90 years old on St. Patrick's Day. 

This picture is of the three generations of men in my husband's family. My son, FIL, Hubby and Hubby's brother. This picture was taken 3 years ago. Since soon after our family has been navigating the long road of dementia. He and my MIL were married 65 years. 

I have known him since I was 18.....almost 40 years. Please keep our family in your thoughts and prayers over the next difficult week.

Spring?

Ah Spring, where are you? Spring starts on Monday, but you wouldn't know it here on Long Island. We were supposed to have some more snow last night, but thankfully nothing stuck. My deck is still covered from last week's snow. 
My Spring Angel needs be taken out. I wonder where I stored her? That reminds me that I really have to finish my Summer Angel design and then stitch her.

There are more stitches on Baker Beach . I am about one-third of the way finished with page 8. Last week it looked like this:

 You can see below that I have filled in some of the greys and blues below the black rock which is also finished now.

I also spent a little time working on Autumn Church. Please ignore the hoop marks.

I rarely work on this, but I decided to add a few stitches to the tree all the way to left. It was satisfying just to know that I worked on it.

I think that I will spend my Sunday working on Baker Beach and starting to quilt this pretty little quilt. 

This is one of the quilts that my mother hand-pieced. It is a crib-sized quilt. Mom had already basted it. She also started quilting the center bars in a cross-hatched pattern, but she does not want to finish it and was thinking of just getting rid of it. Noooooo....... I told her that I would quilt it and save it for one of my (hopefully) future grand-daughters. This will not leave the family though. 

I am going to remove her quilting as it appears that she used a white thread instead of cream. I have put in my first row of quilting stitches following her markings. My quilting is on the right...mom's is on the left. I don't like the border stencil that she marked. It is too small. I have a couple of stencils that may fit the borders. I will decide that when I get there.

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. On Monday I will join the Stitchery Link Party at Super Mom - No Cape. Pop on over to these sites to see what other bloggers are stitching. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Finished!

What do you do on a snow day without much snow? Well, first you bake some Irish Soda Breads. This one is ready to be wrapped to give to my MIL. You can find the recipe here.

Then you finish reading The Runaway Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini. I really liked this book which is number 4 of the Elm Street Quilt series. We return to Elm Creek Manor and learn more about the beginnings of the Bergstrom family through a long forgotten memoir. This is one of the more historical novels of this series. Easy and enjoyable reading although sometimes disturbing, but what life story isn't disturbing at times.

I think I will begin reading A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler.

 This has been on my to-be-read list for quite some time, but I haven't been able to find it at the library until recently. I will have to renew it because it is due back on Friday, but that shouldn't be a problem. 

I also finished knitting my shawl on my snow day. 

It still needs to be blocked. I love it. I love the pattern and I love the way the yarn shaded as I knit it.

  It required some frogging along the way, but it is so pretty that it was worth it. Now that I understand how to knit a lacy look, I am sure I will find some other pretty patterns to attempt. 

I think I will now concentrate on finishing my Granny Square Roses.

They have been hanging around for quite some time and need to made into something....probably an afghan. Of course, first I have to finish all the roses and then I have to figure out a plain color Granny Square to go in between each rose square. Ah well, it is a WIP that may take some time.

I am joining Ginny at Small Things for Yarn Along today. What are you knitting/crocheting? What are you reading? Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are up to.

Thanks for stopping by!

Slow Stitching and Bitter Cold

We have a high of 32 degrees F expected today. It was colder yesterday. I woke up to 16 degrees F. Brrr! I have to go food shopping today and pay a visit to my mom, but other than that I will be hibernating. 

That is what I did yesterday also. We had a little bit of snow on Friday. This is my back deck...

 and my back yard.

You can see from what is left on the railing that we only had a couple of inches. Since we had 60 degree weather the day before this snow, the sidewalks and streets stayed clear. That is not supposed to happen this coming week though. We are having a deep freeze on this weekend, so the huge snowstorm that is expected Monday night into Tuesday will definitely stick to the roads. I may actually have a snow day this week. You know that I will enjoy a full day of crafting if I am home. Although I will probably have to shovel some snow also.

This weekend's bitter cold with a strong wind is perfect for finishing my shawl and working on Baker Beach. This was where I left off last week.

I added some more grey stitches yesterday:

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. I will be adding more stitches to Baker Beach today. On Monday, I will join the Stitchery Link Party at Super Mom - No Cape. Pop on over to these sites to see what other bloggers are stitching. 

I will be enjoying the last gasps of Winter (I don't mind hibernating). 

Thanks for stopping by!

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I'm back!?

I hope that I am back blogging for a while, but I'm not so sure.  My laptop has spent a good amount of time in the shop and is still not back to normal, so there is no guarantee that I will be able to be back blogging consistently. That being said, I need to quickly give you some crafting updates.

I have made great strides stitching Baker Beach. I finally finished the 7th page out of 10. I have also gotten a really good start on the 8th page.

Unfortunately, all that wonderful stitching is on somewhat of a hold right now, because I aggravated a trigger finger problem in my right hand. My palm is now swollen and sore. I have a doctor's appointment scheduled for next week to get a shot of cortisone in my palm. That is definitely not something I am looking forward to. You may recall that I had this happen last year too. I have a feeling that I will eventually need surgery to fix this problem once and for all. (I had the surgery on my left hand when I was a teen many moons ago) That will have to wait until summer if it is necessary.

I have also been knitting my shawl.

It is almost done. 

This is probably another reason why my hand is hurting.

Isn't it pretty?

I am now doing a whole lot of reading....no computer, no crafting, so that leaves books. I have recently read The Silent Sister, by Diane Chamberlain and Orphan Train, by Christina Baker Kline. Although both of these books are a little dark in their story line, I really liked them. They are two totally different types of books, but both contain a sad family story with secrets. They were on my list to read for quite some time and I am glad that I finally read them. I would highly recommend them. They each have short chapters that keep your interest. I am now reading The Runaway Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini. This is the fourth book of the Elm Street Quilt series. I am enjoying this easy read series immensely.  

I will be joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching this week. I am hoping to put a few stitches in on Baker Beach. I will also hopefully be joining the Stitchery Link Party on Monday at Super Mom - No Cape. Pop on over to these sites to see what other bloggers are stitching. 

I hope I can regularly keep in touch. 

Thanks for stopping by!