Spring is here! Or is it?

I had two snow days this past week. This was the view from the front of my house early Thursday morning

 The snow was heavy and wet as you can see from my poor Kousa dogwood tree.

I was productive on those days though and finished one of the Christmas trees on the Advent Calendar.

I added some stitches to October Morning. I added the windows on the little house and some grass. I have to finish those dark green stitches and then fill that space in next.

There is only one row of Granny Square Roses left to add to the afghan. You can see the pile of squares next to what is completed.

Then I can connect the columns and figure out what kind of crocheted border I want to add all the way around. Does anyone have any ideas? I would love to hear them as I am a little stumped. 

I also managed to get a little Easter decorating completed. I smile each time I set out this bunny family. 

They were a kit that I painted when my children were little. I wish that I could find kits like these now to make decorations for my children to have. I can't see to find anything of the same quality.

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are stitching. I am planning on starting the second tree on the Advent Calendar. 

Thanks for stopping by!

I need some cross-stitch

With Baker Beach completed, I am currently working on my Advent Calendar and the Granny Rose Square afghan, but the other day I really wanted to cross-stitch. I didn't want to start something new so I returned to October Morning.

I added the coral colored roof that you can see. This is a stamped cross-stitch that mom started many years ago, but didn't enjoy working on. I started working on it a few years ago, but I prefer counted cross-stitch. I think I need new needles as it is very difficult to get the needle with three strands of floss through the fairly dense fabric. My hands were aching after just adding those 50+ stitches, but I did get to work on some cross-stitch and that made me happy.

Do you see that butterfly needle-minder at the top? I am very proud to have made that myself. It was a pin that my son had bought for me when he was in elementary school at one of the school's Mother's Day sales. Although I have several, I rarely wear pins any more, so I cut the pin off of the back and glued on a heavy duty magnet from ACMoore. Now I can use it all the time and remember when he gave it to me. It works like a charm!

Now to update the other projects. I have added two more pieces to the Advent Calendar. 

The tree on the left is growing nicely and I am hoping to finish it this week as the University that I work for is on Spring Break and my afternoons will be free. I still have to go to my day job.

At night while watching TV, I am adding squares to my Granny Rose Afghan. 

I have 6 of 12 rows completed and I am partway done adding the seventh on the left. Of course once the rows are all added I still have to connect the columns, but that should work up fairly quickly. I think it is looking pretty nice.

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!

Slow, slow stitching

So I think this Advent calendar is going take a while to stitch. I sat down with it yesterday afternoon. I thought that I would stitch pieces #3 and #4 onto it and then take a short break.  

Well, that top green tree piece is #3 that you see added to it. That little piece took well over an hour to embroider, bead and sequin and then stitch on to the background. Needless to say that is the only piece that was added yesterday.

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. I will be adding piece #4 with no ideas about adding piece #5. If it happens great, if not that is okay too. I just want to be able to finish it before Thanksgiving. 

I have been happily working on adding rows to my Granny Rose Square afghan. There are three+ rows added. There are 12 rows in all. It isn't twisting anymore.

There is no timeline for this project, but it gives me something to do at night while watching TV.

Finally I wanted to show you how pretty our snow looked last Wednesday.

This is the view from my front window. It is mostly all gone now except for on my north facing deck, but we are expecting another 3-5 inches Monday into Tuesday and the wind-chills are in the 20s and 30s. Didn't we just Spring ahead? The birds, bunnies and flowers are all anticipating Spring, but I think it might be some time before we see the warmer weather here.

Thanks for stopping by!

Snow Day

It is snowing here on Long Island and I received an early morning call that school was cancelled today. Yay! 

I have been working on crafts all morning. I finished zipper stitching together the first two rows of my Granny Rose Square afghan.

I am going to start adding the third row soon. These keep on twisting at the intersections and I think that adding the third row will stop that. 

I also finished the sequins and embroidery of the first piece of the Advent Calendar and moved on to add the second. 

This will be a slow process as I must work at a table because of the beads and sequins. I am going to enjoy this though because it is easy to see my progress.

My snow day is allowing me to join Ginny for Yarn Along today. She has resumed this feature of her blog on a monthly basis. What are you knitting/crocheting? What are you reading? I haven't been doing much reading myself other than math textbooks, but I did pick this book up recently and decided it is just what I need to easily pick up and put down as necessary.

I do like a light Nora Roberts' romance novel now and again.

I hope everyone experiencing Winter Storm Quinn stays warm and safe.

Thanks for stopping by!

Granny Rose Square Afghan

I have bought the yarn that I need and I am working on putting the Granny Rose Square Afghan together. I am using the flat-seam zipper method that I found here. I briefly thought about a more elaborate joining, but I really just want to finish this and I think the roses need to shine.

As you can see, I haven't gotten very far. It is a start though. This is the layout that I have decided on.

Although it is difficult to see, there are five different colored roses....maroon, pink, dark purple, lavender and red.

I haven't worked on the Advent Calendar as I need to spread out on my kitchen table and I just haven't wanted to do that recently. I also find seeing the beads and sequins somewhat difficult at night when I have the time to work on it. 

My son was visiting last week in order to rest and to celebrate my and Hubby's birthdays. We are both in February. Here is what he gave me for my birthday.

 Aren't these plates adorable. I can't wait to use them this Easter. There are two of the small egg shaped ones and then the large platter.
Hubby gave me a canvas purse for Spring as I requested. I photographed it against a Tommy Hilfiger pillow in my son's old room. It is the only piece remaining of a comforter set whose red color ran the first time I washed it despite following the care instructions. 

No crafty gifts this year, but that is okay as I have plenty of stash. A recent trip to Joann's resulted in this ....

These are all of the colors of floss that I need for my next large cross-stitch project. They now need to be wound onto those bobbins and placed in this box.

You can imagine that I was somewhat disappointed to find that of the 50+ colors that I need for that project, this is all that I actually had. As you can see by #838, I was low on some of the colors also. I used a birthday coupon to get all that floss discounted. 

The Advent Calendar is my stitching plan for today. 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!