Stitch Along Update

 On the last update I was almost finished with the birth announcement. I just had to stitch my granddaughter's name and the necessary statistics. I showed the finished birth announcement here.

Now I can show it to you framed. There is a story behind this frame. I received a call from the framer telling me that her supplier called to tell her it was discontinued and could I come back to the store to pick another frame. I told her I would be in later in the week. About half an hour later she called again to tell me that she had just received a shipment from the same supplier and, low and behold, it included the wood for the frame that I had chosen. Yay!

The framer quickly completed the framing and here is the completed birth announcement. The frame is a little rustic to go with the Woodland Animals.

So what am I working on now? I started another Christmas stocking. This is for my daughter in law who is a veterinarian.

I am hoping that I can finish it for this Christmas, so it is pretty much the craft that I am devoting most of my time to. This is where I am so far. I can't get a photo that shows that the background fabric is a pale blue. Trust me, it is.

I have already made a trip to Joann's in order to find lining and backing fabrics.

 The snowflake fabric will be the lining and the snowman fabric will be the backing....I think. I often use felt for the backing, but I think this will be better as the cross-stitch fabric is 18 count Laguna and not as heavy as 14 count Aida cloth. By the way, don't you just love that black checkered Santa fabric. I am a sucker for jolly Santas. I just had to pick it up.

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, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, 

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

Daisy, AJ, Cathie, Linda, Helen, Connie, MaryMargaret

Thanks for stopping by! 

Lots of new crafts

For some reason, finishing the birth announcement triggered a desire to start something new. I didn't start just one new project. Oh no, that would be the most sensible. Nope, I started three new projects! REALLY?! What am I thinking?

Thankfully, one of the projects is already completed. What do you think this is?

Those are a whole lot of individual pieces that become a cute little dog. I have had the directions to make these dogs for many years. I used to sell them at craft fairs. They lured in the little children and then their mom or grandmother would often buy another of my crafts. I found this pattern years ago in a magazine. Don't ask me which one. I forgot how easy it was to crochet and assemble. 

Here is the finished pup just waiting to be adopted by my granddaughter.

So I finished the birth announcement which you can see here. Of course that means that I have to start another cross-stitch project even though I have 2 others already in progress. You may remember that I made my son-in-law a Christmas stocking. You can see that here. I had already chosen a pattern and bought the fabric for a stocking for my daughter-in-law. My son and daughter-in-law will be visiting for Christmas, so I decided that I would try to stitch her stocking to have it ready this year. She is a veterinarian, so this is the stocking I chose to make. It is from the Winter 2015 "Cross-stitch and Needlework" magazine.  

I will have to adjust it somewhat so that I can add her name at the top, but I have plenty of fabric to do so. Below is where I am so far. Trust me that the background fabric is the same light blue as in the photo above. It was dark out and I was using an overhead light when I took the photo.

I want to make a trip to Joann's soon to get backing and lining fabric as I want somethingt o complement the light blue. 

What else did I start you ask? I have been wanting to stitch up some Christmas fabric to make gifts for Christmas. I can't tell you what they will be, but this is where I have started.

Most of those strips of fabric are from a Moda Jelly Roll that my son got me as a gift last year. I had to supplement with a few stash fabrics. I am basically following a Thimbleberries pattern that I have used before, but I may leave out some of the appliqued elements. 

Here are a preliminary layout for the quilty gift.

I have since altered the initial layout to add more variety of fabrics.

I have also been busy baking. It is Autumn, so I had to bake something with pumpkin. I have been collecting recipe clippings for years and years, but I don't always get around to making many of them. I decided to try this one for Pumpkin Bread that came from September/October 1996 Country Woman magazine. Yes, I have been holding on to it for 26 years!

The recipe makes two loaves. I thought they were delicious. I gave one to my mother in law (who thought it was a little heavy), gave half to my mother and kept half for me.

My usual pumpkin bread recipe has raisins in it which I love, but this recipe was moist and delicious.....probably all the eggs and oil. This is not diet food. 

Well that is all for now. My daughter and granddaughter are visiting for the weekend so I have to go enjoy some snuggles. 

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

Thanks for stopping by!

 

HQAL update for October - Ideas needed.

I finished quilting the inner border of the Maroon Baby quilt.

I am very happy with how it looks. Some of the blue washaway marking pen still hasn't come out, but I am not worried about that. I can't decide how to stitch the outer border. I had bought a stencil that I thought would work, but no matter how I try to adjust it, I can't get it to fit nicely without drastically altering the length of each motif. I also have the stencil below.

The motifs are smaller so I think I could more easily make them work along the border. I am seriously thinking of just stitching piano keys or taking a plate and making my own baptist fan type of stencil along the border. I am a former math teacher so that wouldn't be a problem, but then I would have to figure out something for the corner stones.

 Does anyone have any recommendations?

The HQAL is an opportunity for hand quilters to share and motivate each other. The talented quilters below post every three weeks to show our progress and encourage one another. Stop by their sites to see what they are working on. If you have a hand project and would like to join our group contact Kathy at the link below.

Kathy, Margaret, Deb, Nanette, Sharon, Karrin, Daisy, and Cathie 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Miscellaneous

On the first weekend of October we traveled back to Boston to celebrate my SIL's birthday and, of course, visit our little granddaughter. On our way up to Boston we stopped at a restaurant that Hubby has wanted to try since we first started bringing our children to college many years ago.....Super Duper Weenie. 

It is a small place with picnic tables in the windowed area on the left and a counter with stools where the awning is. It is known for it's specialty hot dogs that have a wide variety of toppings. Hubby and I are not big on hot dog toppings. I just had a plain dog with spicy brown mustard (I prefer yellow mustard) and Hubby got a hot dog with mustard and sauerkraut.

We also ordered fries and shakes. Mine was vanilla, Hubby's was strawberry. I have to say that Hubby was disappointed after waiting so long to try this place. Neither of us were impressed with the just average hot dogs and the fries were nothing special. The shakes were quite good though. Yes, it is true, we didn't go for any of the dressed up hot dogs, but a good hot dog doesn't need any elaborate toppings. This is an easy off/easy on spot for food on Interstate 95 in Connecticut, but I don't think we will be stopping again.

Our trip to visit our granddaughter was wonderful. I brought Turkey meatballs and Marinara that we had for dinner on Friday. I made baked filet of sole with mashed potatoes on Saturday. 

Oh wait, you would like to see our granddaughter? She has gotten very cuddly and likes to sleep on your shoulder.

I can't believe that she turned one month old just after we visited. 

On our way home on Sunday, it was my turn to pick a place to eat. This is another roadside restaurant that we have seen for years and years on the Connecticut-Massachusetts border. It is called Travelers Food and Books.

Inside the shelves are lined with books and jigsaw puzzles. Now these books are not the latest releases, but they are for sale. 

Hubby and I each had a good old fashioned burger with fries that was just delicious. We are looking forward to going back on future trips to Boston. Next time I may look for a book or puzzle to purchase.

Speaking of books, I have been reading a lot again. I recently read Nora Roberts' books "The Awakening" and "The Becoming". They are the first 2 books of the Dragonheart Legacy Trilogy. I loved these! I am eagerly awaiting the third book which comes out in November. I really love her fantasy/witchcraft books.

On the crafting front. I finished the birth announcement and I brought it to the framer. 

Now I have to decide what to work on next. There are so many choices.

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

Thanks for stopping by!

 


 

Stitch Along Update

 I had hoped I would have a finish today, but I am almost there. This is where I was last time with the Woodland Animals birth announcement. I was working on the raccoon on the left.

I have since finished that raccoon and the owl in the middle. I am almost finished with the squirrel.

 

Then all I have do stitch are the name, date and statistics of my new granddaughter. I will definitely have a finish 3 weeks from now. I hope by then I have this piece in with the framer. 

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, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Sharon, Daisy, AJ, Cathie, Linda, Helen, Connie, MaryMargaret

Thanks for stopping by! 

Down a rabbit hole and back

 I haven't been posting about it, but I went down a rabbit hole and have been working on a cross-stitched gift for my neighbor who became a grandma about a month before I did. She is a big fan of Mary Poppins so I trolled the internet for a chart that I could use. I came across this simple pattern. I altered the saying to meet my needs and changed the hat slightly as I didn't think it looked enough like Mary Poppins' black hat. 

On Tuesday I finished the stitching, bought the frame and presented it to my neighbor.

Since I was working on this while trying to also work on the baby announcement I didn't make a lot of progress on the latter. I did finally finish the raccoon and the branch to its right. 

I am now working on the owl in the middle. I have part of the tail started.

I am hoping I can finish this in the next week and then bring it to the framer.

On Wednesday Hubby and I went on our usual walk in the local preserve. It had rained on Tuesday, but the lake was still very low. The geese were mostly walking rather than swimming.

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 pour a cup of tea...or coffee... and enjoy some of the posts. 

Thanks for stopping by!