Sigh

 That is the way I feel this week. It’s a sad sigh for the United States, women, people of color and the world. Now you may not agree with me, but I ask that you be kind. That is all I will say on the subject. 

I have been spending a good deal of time crafting and avoiding the news lately. I have finished the hand quilting of the whole cloth pillow top.

 I have to choose the pillow back fabric and assemble it. I bought some cording a couple of weeks ago. 

The Prairie Schooler Santa is almost done. I’m in the midst of stitching the white parts.

When he is done, I will assemble the two that I made this year into small pillows. 

I have made a tiny start on the Woodland Animals birth announcement. Just a couple of leaves at the top of the tree.

I haven't done any quilting on the first I-Spy quilt, but I did manage to find the color thread that I wanted at my local Michael's store. Sadly, the JoAnns that I usually shop at has virtually no thread and is in quite a disarray with boxes of stock stacked in various places in the store. It is really depressing. 

I have been working on the second I-Spy quilt. I had to draw diagonal lines on 480 little black squares to accurately sew them to the fussy cut blocks.

Then I just chain pieced the four corners around 20 blocks at a time until all 120 blocks were done. This was completed over a few days.

Now I am cutting the 1 1/2" by 3 1/2" rectangles for the sashing. The 1 1/2" strips were already cut so they just needed to be cut into 3 1/2" pieces.

I will trim and press all of the blocks next and then lay them out to arrange them and add the sashing. There is more to do than I thought to finish this second one. 

Last weekend we visited our daughter and her family. Our granddaughter had fun playing with Grandpa.

We will see them again for Thanksgiving when the whole family will be staying with us for several days. 

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. I certainly have plenty of slow stitching to choose from.

Thanks for stopping by!

November Stitch Along

November is here already. How did that happen? I’ve haven’t been adding many stitches to Three Boats. This is how it looked three weeks ago. 

This is where I am now. There is a tree trunk that goes across the sand and you can see the water's edge in front of the rock. It isn't a lot as I have been busy with other crafts, but any progress is better than none. 

This Stitch Along is hosted every three weeks by Avis at Sewing Beside the Sea who kindly sends us the needed posting reminders. 

Grab yourself a cup of coffee or tea and take some time to visit the other 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,

 Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Sharon, Daisy, 

Cathie, Linda, MaryMargaret, Cindy, Helen

Thanks for stopping by! 

Six works in progress!

Yes, I currently have six different projects on the go at once. Three of them are quilt projects and three are cross-stitch. I really wish I had a yarn project, but that will have to wait a bit. First, I am about 3/4 done with the whole cloth pillow quilting.

 I want to finish this soon as I am also going to hand quilt the first I-Spy quilt. Yes, I know I said that I planned to machine quilt it, but I have very limited space around my sewing table and I found it quite difficult to maneuver especially as I am going to quilt it diagonally across the blocks. I also would need to find the correct thread. I was trying to use thread that I had, but it is too thick compared to the thread I have for the bobbin and I couldn’t get the tension right.

This quilt isn’t very large and should quilt up quickly. I have it all set up on a quilt stand in my daughter’s old room. 

I’ve been cutting the sashing and corner square fabric for the next I-Spy quilt. This black fabric is different from the one in the last quilt.

 Originally I had planned to make two of the same quilt, but then I changed my mind when I was scrolling the internet. I planned a somewhat different quilt with the same 3.5” size fussy cut blocks. Well, I changed my mind again when I realized how much I love the I-Spy quilt that I just finished. Also, I already have all of the fabric that I need. 

As for cross stitching, I’ve added many stitches to the Prairie Schooler Santa. The bunny and the squirrel are stitched as is his face. 

Once again I am leaving the white stitches until the end so I haven't stitched his beard or the trim on his coat. I am working on his hat now. There is also a raccoon and three birds to stitch still.

I’m going to be stitching a lot more woodland animals soon. This one will be a little time sensitive. Do you remember this birth announcement that I stitched for my granddaughter. 

Well I will be stitching the slightly smaller version (18 count Aida cloth instead of 14) to be completed by next March/April. My son and his wife are expecting a little girl at the end of March. I am making the smaller version so that it is not a lot different in size from her brother's birth announcement though the orientation is different. You can see that one here. 

The last cross stitch is Three Boats on a Tropical Beach. You can see the last update for that here. I have gotten a decent start on the next page since that post. There will be an update on Three Boats next week.

Hubby and did take some time to walk in the local preserve and look at the tree colors. 

The geese and the ducks were enjoying the small lake. If you look behind the last goose near the reeds you can barely see a heron standing along the edge also.

I think this pair of ducks were hoping for some food. They came right up to us.

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. I certainly have plenty of slow stitching to choose from.

Thanks for stopping by!

Lots and Lots of Crafting!

 The weather has gotten cooler and more fall-like and I am enjoying spending time indoors crafting. First of all, I have made tremendous progress on the first I-Spy quilt in the past two weeks. All it needs are the four black borders,  then I can sandwich it. I plan on quilting this in the ditch by machine. 

 I was amazed at how quickly this came together! My seams even matched on the first try. No seam ripping!

 I’ve been adding quilting stitches to my small whole cloth also. The center motifs are completed. 

This has been what I work on while “watching” the Mets in their post season games. I get way too keyed up watching them so I usually sit on the far side of the living room and listen more than watch. 

Sometimes I work on the Prairie Schooler Santa while watching, but this has mostly become my early morning stitching piece. 

Santa’s coat is done as is the basket of greenery that he is carrying. 

I have started reading "The Island" by Elin Hilderbrand. I haven't gotten too far with it yet. It is an easy read. 

 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!

October Stitch Along Update

I'm doing a mini happy dance here....okay, maybe just a single skip. I have finished page #8 of Three Boats on a Tropical Beach.  It is the 6th page that I have completed out of 24. I am working in columns. Column 1 was pages 1,7,13 and 19. Column 2 (that I am currently working on) is pages 2,8,14 and 20. I am about to start page 14. This is how Three Boats looked three weeks ago.

This is how it looks now. 

I finished the page yesterday morning. There were so many confetti stitches to complete at the bottom of this page. Do you see this rock formation?

 Yesterday, I was adding tons individual stitches. There was 1 stitch in that rock formation that had the floss symbol "5". Just one stitch! Three stitches had the floss symbol "V". You get the picture. I am more than happy to be moving on the the next page which doesn't seem to have quite so many scattered stitches. 

This Stitch Along is hosted every three weeks by Avis at Sewing Beside the Sea who kindly sends us the needed posting reminders. 

Grab yourself a cup of coffee or tea and take some time to visit the other 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,

 Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Sharon, Daisy, 

Cathie, Linda, MaryMargaret, Cindy, Helen

Thanks for stopping by! 

Slow Sunday Stitching

I am making progress with the I-Spy quilt. All 120 blocks are stitched, trimmed and ironed. Here is the layout that I decided on. It is laid out on the bed in my son's old room.

 

I have to cut the black sashing strips next and then sew them to the blocks in 12 rows of 10 blocks. 

I have been hand quilting the whole cloth pillow a little bit every once in a while. I finished the first motif and am on the second. 

I have also added stitches to the Prairie Schooler Santa's coat.

 It doesn't feel like I have made much progress on any of these crafts, but this week I also washed some windows and spent time reading Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn. This is yet another historical WWII novel. It is about a female Russian sniper.

I also took out most of my Autumn/Halloween decorations.

The two new pillows are sitting on a bowl that my mom had.

I like this little arrangement on our bar.

I had some bananas that were overripe so I made these Banana Crumb Muffins.

 I cut this recipe out of a Taste of Home magazine years ago. This is my favorite banana muffin recipe. The only change I will mention from the recipe that I linked is that my original recipe calls for 1/3 cup of melted butter rather than 1/2 cup. The extra butter is not needed. Trust me that 1/3 cup is plenty. These are rich, delicious muffins. 

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Sit back with a cup of tea or coffee and see what other bloggers are stitching. I think I will make some English breakfast tea to have with one of those muffins. 

Thanks for stopping by!

A Variety of Stitching

I have been spending a lot of time clipping threads from the back of my daughter's quilt. I will then give it a good ironing, especially all of the seams on the back to make sure they are going in the correct directions and laying flat. Sadly, the long arm quilter that I used to use has closed her business. I have info on two other local long arm quilters though, so I will be looking into contacting them this coming week. One is a few minutes from me and the other is over an hour away. 

I have been sewing the snowball blocks for the first of two I-Spy quilts. I actually finished sewing all 120 blocks this past week. Now I have to trim the seams and press open the corners. 

I am glad that this quilt is coming together so quickly. 

I finished Pumpkin House into a small pillow. I was trying to determine what I could use as trim when I found this rope floss in my stash. I know these are part of the items that I inherited from my aunt when she passed. I figured I could braid a few colors of this floss.

I had the fabric that I used for the back of the pillow in my stash.

Now this pillow is ready for display.

I am working on finishing A Crow's Pick also. The backing fabric was one I recently received from a friend's mom who is reducing her stash. It was a brand new fat quarter that matched the colors of this piece perfectly.

I have some odd "yarn" in a variety of colors that I am also going to braid to put around the edge of this pillow.

I will work to finish this pillow on Sunday.

I have started quilting the whole cloth piece that I have. It is 16.5" square. I think it will make a nice pillow for our bed. I am using tatting thread that I inherited from that same aunt to quilt this with. I have almost completed quilting the first motif.

I have kitted up the 1990 Prairie Schooler Santa to start working on also.

I like all the animals in this one. 

Hubby and I enjoyed a great dinner out at a new restaurant for us called Grasso's on Wednesday evening. We've been looking for a restaurant that has piano music and this one was recommended on a Facebook forum that I follow. The food was delicious and the music was enjoyable.

Friday morning I got my Covid/flu vaccines. I drank a lot of water and took it easy Friday. I always have a reaction to the Covid vaccine. This time was somewhat less of a reaction than I have had in the past. Just some chills at bedtime with some body aches. By midmorning on Saturday I was feeling much better.

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. 

Thanks for stopping by!

September Stitch Along Update 2

Three weeks have passed since the first stitch along update of this month. This is how Three Boats looked at the beginning of the month. 

This is where I have gotten to now. The sky is finished and I am stitching the ocean.

 Perhaps I will be able to finish this page by the next update. It ends just below the next set of green gridding.

This Stitch Along is hosted every three weeks by Avis at Sewing Beside the Sea who kindly sends us the needed posting reminders. 

Grab yourself a cup of coffee or tea and take some time to visit the other 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,

 Jackie, Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Sharon, Daisy, 

Cathie, Linda, MaryMargaret, Cindy, Helen

Thanks for stopping by! 

 

And Sew It Ends

There is a major happy dance going on at my house. I have finished the flimsy of the Log Cabin Star quilt (Judy Martin's Timberline pattern)!

 Most of the seams lined up perfectly. I fixed those that bothered me and left a few as is. They are only noticeably off if you look real hard. I must say that I am so proud of this quilt. It is by far the most difficult quilt that I have ever assembled. It is only my 4th queen-sized quilt. 

I am waiting for the backing fabric that I ordered to be delivered and then I will contact the long-arm quilter that I have used in the past. I hope she is still in business. It has been quite a while since I had a quilt that needed machine quilting. I am thinking of having it quilted with an overall pantogram as the log cabin pattern is the star of the show. 

I have made progress on A Crow's Pick. It is almost finished. 

I don't have the buttons that are supposed to be added and quite frankly I don't see the point of them as they are just triangles. I think I may stitch a bat or a smaller crow in the upper right corner. I am thinking on that. I may just leave it and add a bow there when I make this into a small pillow.

Now I will get to work on stitching the 120 snowball blocks for the first of 2 I-Spy quilts. I still have to fussy cut some more 3.5" squares. 

I was in a baking mood this week and made a Cottage Loaf. This bread was delicious and so easy to make.

The recipe was clipped from a Family Circle magazine in 1989, but I only just made it this week. I have many, many clipped recipes. I think I qualify as a clipped recipe hoarder. I have more recipes clipped than I could ever hope to make in my lifetime even if I tried a new one each day. Never mind the many cookbooks and Taste of Home magazines that I have also. Sigh.....

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! 

And Sew it Continues

 I am still working on stitching together the 14 rows of the Log Cabin Star quilt (Judy Martin's Timberline pattern). I have stitched rows 1-5 together and took the advice of Gail at The Cozy Quilter and decided to stitch the rest of the rows in groups. This group of 4 rows below and another of 5 rows still to be stitched. This past week I stitched together rows 6-9....the center of the quilt.

Oh my, was it a PITA to stitch row 7 to 8. There were so, so many seams to match. There was also a lot of seam ripping and muttering. It took me two days of 2 hour sewing and pinning sessions to get just those two rows together. Not all of the seams are perfect, but most are and the rest are less than 1/16" off, if that much.  Adding row 9 was a breeze yesterday that was accomplished in just one 90 minute session that included pinning, sewing and trimming. Whew!

I have already started the working on the next 5 rows. They should be done this week and then I will stitch the three blocks of rows together. Then it is on to stitching the borders together and add them to the log cabin blocks. I hope to finish this by the end of this month.

I have also been adding stitching to "A Crow's Pick". The pumpkin is done and so is the crow except for his beak and legs. 

I am using DMC floss instead of the charted Weeks Dye Works so the colors are not showing as much contrast in the photo. Next I will stitch the diamonds for the border. This is mostly my nighttime TV watching project. 

I have yet to add another craft project though I really want something else to work on. Preferably something with yarn. Of course I do have the large cross-stitch Three Boats on a Tropical Beach that I continue to add stitches to each day. 

The weather is back to feeling somewhat summer-like this week. Our pool has been closed, but my butterfly bush decided that it wanted to bloom again.

It is so pretty, but it is hidden behind our above ground pool. 

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

Thanks for stopping by!

And Sew it Begins

I have finished assembling each of the 14 rows of the Log Cabin Star quilt (Judy Martin's Timberline pattern). Now begins the arduous task of matching 13 seams for each row added. I have connected 3 rows so far....maybe one or two more by the time this post is published. 

Thankfully the seams are nesting together nicely.

I have added more stitches to Crow's Pick and started a new color.

I worked on this in the car last weekend as we traveled to my daughter's home in Boston. My granddaughter turned 2 this week and her party was last weekend. 

My how the time has flown. 

The following day my mother-in-law celebrated her 91st birthday. We brought dinner and a cake to her house to celebrate.

I am trying to decide on another craft to start or a WIP to pick up. I would like to get my hands working with some yarn again, but I don't know what I want to make. I am just not interested in finishing the sweater that I started many moons ago for myself. I think I want to try a different pattern and yarn. My local yarn shop is closed for a couple of weeks so I will just have to wait a bit. 

I have been reading a bunch. I recently finished "The Sugar Queen" by Sarah Addison Allen, "One True Loves" by Taylor Jenkins Reid and "Summer at Tiffany" by Marjorie Hart. I liked all of these very much. I am currently reading "A Single Thread" by Tracy Chevalier. 

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!