Weekend things

Hubby and I visited a flower show at a nearby nursery a couple of weekends ago. Here are a few photos:

I loved the garden statues, but they were quite expensive.

Don't you just love a waterfall?

I liked both the tree and the wind spinner.

I like the look of this hammock. Not sure I would like laying in it.

I love the deep purple/blue hydrangeas.

Yes, there was even a mini pool.

I was hoping to purchase one of the plants below, but they didn't have any to buy.

We bought a few items for our home though. I got one new indoor pot to repot one of my Christmas cactii. I bought the correct potting soil for it also. 

I used this plants former pot to repot the other Christmas cactus that I have.

I also bought the correct food for them. I am hoping the repotting, food and more attentive care will help them bloom again. They haven't bloomed in several years.

I forgot to share a sweet item that I received in the mail from June of Butterfly Wings. She had made this sweet "Peter Rabbit" herself and was giving away the pattern. She included a small snowman also. I am looking forward to working on both of these.

 This past weekend I managed to finally add the second to last log on ten more log cabin blocks. This log took forever. I discovered that I had cut some of the blue-green trapezoids an eighth of an inch too short. It mattered a lot! Ugh! There was a whole lot of seam ripping occurring while working on these. 

I have chosen the pieces for the last log of these 10 blocks. Perhaps I will start sewing them next weekend. 

Thanks for stopping by!

A visit

Our daughter and Ruby came to visit from Wednesday to Saturday! 

Can you tell that Ruby doesn't like to be held? Looking at this photo, it is hard to believe that my daughter is 18 weeks pregnant also. It was so nice to see her again and to enjoy Ruby's antics. Ruby definitely kept us hopping during this visit. Many times I have shared photos of the bunnies that visit our yard. They all scurry away when Ruby is in town. Lately, we have also had a family of cats, a mother cat and two kittens. Ruby enjoyed chasing them out of our back yard also. Sadly though, one night while Ruby was visiting some creature must have killed a bunny. Ruby came trotting out from behind some bushes in our back yard the next day with a quite dead bunny. She didn't kill it as it was stiff and cold. She was so proud of her find. My daughter and I had to corner her on our deck to get her to drop it. Thankfully she dropped it right into the garbage bag that I was holding and my daughter and I had on vinyl gloves that I still had from the beginning of the pandemic. Ruby was tired out after her adventure, but first she had to give me the stink-eye.

Now on to some lighter fare. I am still plugging away with adding the white stitches to Santas beard. I am almost up to his mustache.

I also added a few stitches to October Morning that I haven't touched in quite a while. I am working on the bottom right area.

I thought that by this blog post the Baby Elephant Blanket would be completed, but sadly I had to pull out most of the last pink border as I had made a mistake on the second corner. I am now working on the third of the 4 rows of this border. Perhaps you can see the lacy row on the outside of the right-hand side. 

Spring has finally started to bloom in our back yard.

Those daffodils are drooping because we haven't had all that much sun. It was a cloudy, rainy day yesterday when I took this photo. We are supposed to get bitterly cold weather tomorrow - below freezing all day. Sigh....it doesn't feel like Sping at all.

I just finished reading an absolutely wonderful book: "Secrets of a Charmed Life" by Susan Meissner. 

It is mostly set in England during WWII. It is a little difficult to reading knowing the similar hardships being experienced by the citizens of Ukraine. It is such good story though that I highly recommend it.  

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 working on Santa again. 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Memories

I mentioned last week that we are becoming grandparents. Now, 19 years ago we totally renovated our Cape Cod style house and turned it into a full two-story Colonial. We had to empty out all the storage containers that were in the basement and the eaves. Most of those storage containers ended up in my mother's unfinished basement. Some are still there. Now that my daughter is expecting, I decided to go through some of those that I know contain old baby clothes. There is a box of baby girl clothes (including some of my own baby items - I am amazed they are still in decent shape), a box of baby boy clothes and one full of just handmade items. I thought I would share a few of these items with you every so often. 

First, here is an outfit that was mine oh so many years ago.

The baby shoes on the left were my daughter's, on the right mine.

This is a dress that I crocheted for my daughter. Unfortunately, she was born in January and her daughter is due in August so it is doubtful that this will ever fit her baby. I can see that it is a little stained around the neckline.

The sweater and hat set below was mine. I don't know who made it for me and my mom no longer remembers. It is wool and quite densely knit. 

As for my own crafting, I have been adding many, many white stitches to the Santa stocking. The pompom on his hat is now filled in as is some of his beard.

You may just be able to see where the white has been filled in as it has a creamy color to it rather than the bright white of the Aida cloth. 

I am adding the final few rows on the Baby Elephant Blanket. I am on the 2nd of 4 pink rows and then it will be done. 

I usually work on this when visiting my mother, but that is now causing her to be more confused. She thinks I am having a baby. I think I will start hand quilting when I am with her. Years ago she made this pink crib sized quilt, but never finished it. I started quilting it a while back.

 It will be mindless stitching when I visit her and I can tell her that I just want to finish a quilt that she started. I need to look for some stencils for the borders and corner squares. The middle is just cross-hatching.

By the way, much of the marking was done with a No. 2 pencil. Does anyone know how I can remove the pencil markings once the quilt is finished? It is fairly light, but still. I will use quilt marker for the stencils.

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Sit down with a cup of tea or coffee and pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are stitching.

Thanks for stopping by!

March Stitch Along Update

 I am dead set on finishing my Santa Stocking as soon as possible. I have a whole lot of other projects that I want to work on, but I won't start them until Santa is finished. This is where Santa was three weeks ago. I had just started the second mitten.

A week off from work allowed me to finish that mitten and to roll the scroll frame which I posted about a couple of weeks ago.

Well there has been a lot of progress since that post also. I have rolled the scroll frame again. Santa's second arm is done and I am working on filling in all the white that I left to stitch for after I had completed the gift and arms.

Here is a close-up so you can see where the white stitching is completed and where it isn't. It is completed under the hat's pompom.

I still have more red and green to stitch on Santa's hat, the top border and my son-in-law's name, but I am really in the groove now. 

Be sure to check out my family announcement. You will see another item I will be working on in future stitch along updates after Santa is done.

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, 

Carmela, Sharon, Daisy, AJ, Cathie, Linda, Helen  

Thanks for stopping by!

An announcement!

 When I first started working on the Baby Elephant blanket last September I just wanted something to crochet and I had always wanted to make this blanket a second time in the hope that I could gift it to a future grandchild. Well I am happy to announce that our daughter is expecting a baby girl at the end of August! 

We are going to be grandparents!

I am going to add one last pink border to this blanket and call it done. 

The pattern calls for another blue border after the next pink one, but I want it to end with pink for my new granddaughter as there is a whole lot of blue. It is also already quite large. It will be nice and warm for this winter in Boston. 

Of course, I already had to buy a cross-stitch birth announcement pattern to work on. It is the Woodland Babies Birth Sampler by Stoney Creeek.

This will be added to the list of items to complete. You can see the Santa Stocking progress here. I will be finishing him first. I also have a stocking to make for my future daughter-in-law. Oh, I will have to look for a stocking kit for my new granddaughter also. I think I will look for a felt stocking rather than cross-stitch.

I have added more logs to the next 10 quilt blocks. Yesterday was a rainy/snowy day that was perfect for sewing. 

I have to add the strip you see sitting on top to each of these blocks. The three on the bottom need adjustment as teh strips aren't straight. The precision needed on these blocks is causing my seam ripper to get a whole lot of use. 

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 immersed in adding more white stitches to Santa and making Irish Soda Bread. It is that time of year. 

Thanks for stopping by!

March Already

My goodness those first two months of 2022 seemed to fly right by! There are less than 2 months until my son's wedding. Wow.

It was my birthday last Saturday. Hubby bought me a cork cross-body bag that I had my eye on from Brynwood Needleworks. It is beautifully made and quite roomy.

You can read Donna's Brynwood Needleworks blog here.

I mentioned last weekend that we were visiting our daughter and son-in-law in Boston.  We hadn't seen them since Christmas. We decided to be brave and went candlepin bowling and out to dinner at a bistro that was off the beaten path (in other words there were very few people dining there). The food was delicious.  We wore our masks wherever we went. Hubby and I can't risk getting ill as we need to provide for our mothers. Of course, I didn't think to take any photos of the family. Ruby was very photogenic though. 

I brought the Baby Elephant blanket to work on in the car. I finished the first pink border and have since begun the 2nd blue border. 

This blue border is the same as the pink and there is supposed to be yet another pink and another blue. I am thinking of stopping after the next pink border as it is quite large. It is more like a toddler blanket than an baby blanket. 

I have been steadily working on the Santa stocking. He has his 2nd mitten and cuff. I had to roll the scroll frame again.

I have to finish his arm on the right hand side and then I can fill in all the white in his beard and on his cap. 

I have also finally finished those 10 quilt blocks that I started on my week off. 

For some reason, I had a lot more trouble with the y-seams on these 10 blocks than I had on the previous 10. There are now 31 out of 196 of these blocks completed. 

I did start on the next 10 blocks yesterday and got up to the point that I have to add the first row that has a diamond in it. So I am further with these 10 blocks than the photo shows. 

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are stitching. I think I will add some more stitches to each of these projects at some point today. 

Thanks for stopping by!