April Stitch Along Update 2

I was hoping to show you the finish of the 4th page on this update and I finally finished it on Wednesday. Yay! This is where Three Boats was at the beginning of April.

Here is where I am now. The first column of 6 and the 4th page out of 24 are finally done!

 

There was a bunch of confetti stitching with several different colors of peach, orange, yellow and lavendar in this sand at the bottom. 

 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

Thanks for stopping by! 

Progress and another UFO

I have been steadily working on the Log Cabin Star quilt (Judy Martin's Timberline). I finished another 10 blocks to make the finished total 141.

 Only 55 more of these blocks to complete. I already have the next 10 started.

They are actually further along than the photo above shows. 

I am also busy filling in the Pumpkin House. The sides are done and I have made progress on the center section.

I decided that I needed a project that I could easily work on while watching nighttime TV. I find it too difficult to cross-stitch once it is dark outside so I was looking something easier on the eyes. I decided to try to finish another UFO. This is one of my mom's projects. She had made and hung a Sunbonnet Sue quilt years ago. My daughter has it now. She had also started an Overall Sam quilt, but she never finished the blocks. A few years ago, I took it out and worked with her to choose the final fabrics and I stitched the last few Sam blocks and assembled the top. 

The dark blue backing fabric that mom had chosen for it ran badly when I washed it so I bought a white and navy pindot fabric that will work better.

It is now all pin-basted and ready to be large-stitch quilted with DMC floss. I went to Michaels and got 6 skeins of a dark blue floss that should work just fine. This hand quilting will be my night-time TV craft.

I finished reading "It Ends with Us" by Colleen Hoover.

 I did not enjoy this book. I found some of the subject matter disturbing and I was not really interested in any of the characters. My daughter gave me this book for Christmas so I was determined to finish it, but I really only liked the last 1/4 of the book. 

I also finished reading "The Paris Library" by Janet Skelsien Charles.

This book I loved. It is set in the American Library in Paris during WWII. The characters are extremely interesting and the story moves at a nice pace. 

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!

Frogging, Spring Flowers and a Quilt Show

In one of my recent posts I showed you the Pumpkin House that I am cross-stitching and stated that I had to audition several floss colors that were not the recommended DMC conversion color as the orange pumpkins at the bottom didn't contrast well with it. Well, I had decided on DMC 3779, but as I continued to stitch I realized that it was much too bright peach....almost pink. Back to the drawing board. I needed something a little duller. I finally settled on stitching with one strand of 3779 and one of 3771. The latter is a much duller peach, but when used alone the pumpkins once again did not contrast. With one strand of each floss, you can now see the pumpkins and the color is a much better match to the cover photo.

Spring flowers are in bloom here. My big bed of daffodils is in full bloom.

I have some pretty tulips around also.

I love my purple tulips.

Hubby and I drove to a quilt show about 45 minutes from home yesterday. It was a small show that was not a judged show. I thought you might like to see some of the quilts that I thought were interesting. This is called Passages. I love the graphic look.

This one is Star Shadows.

This guild, the Smithtown Stitchers, had a Row by Row Challenge with several of those quilts on display. This one was "Cakes and Candy and Pie, Oh My!"

This was "Creamsicle, A Study of Orange".

This "Butterfly" was a collage pattern.

So was "Sandy's EBBA".

There was also a House Challenge. I liked "Home Tweet Home".....

and "Pumpkin Cottages".

Finally there was an Ombre Challenge. These were the rules. 

The variety of quilts made was impressive. My favorite quilt was in this challenge, "X Ombre". 

"Light in the Darkness" was also a great quilt from this challenge.

There was one Log Cabin Quilt called "Opposing Logs". 

You know how much I love Log Cabin quilts. Speaking of which, I have committed spending 30 minutes or more most days on the Log Cabin Star quilt and I almost have the next 10 blocks completed. I am about to add the last log to each and then sew the y-seam.

I feel like I am coming down with another cold. It may just be allergies, but I don't think so. Hopefully, it won't knock me down like the last one did. 

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!

First April Stitch Along Update

These last 3 weeks went by way too fast and also awfully slowly. Since our last update, Hubby and I visited our son and his family in California for 4 days and came home sick on Palm Sunday. I finally started feeling somewhat better on Easter (no celebration though) and I finished my antibiotics yesterday. Hubby is still feeling very rundown, but no longer coughing. Never the less, there was little to no crafting happening for almost 2 weeks. That being said, this is where I was on Three Boats for the last update. 

This is where I am now. 

I thought I would have this page completed by the end of March, but I am almost there. Here is a closeup of the last page that starts just under the boat.

 Those stitches you see at the bottom are the bottom of the page. There has been an awful lot of confetti in this stitching and well....I was sick. Hopefully this page will be finished by the next update, but no guarantees.

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 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 is taking a break for now. We will miss her posts.

Thanks for stopping by! 

 

Earthquake and feeling better

We had an earthquake! I was sitting at our kitchen table having recently finished breakfast when I heard a loud, long rumble and watch my water start moving. I thought it was a few heavy duty trucks rumbling down the street, but as I went to look out my dining room window I saw my chandelier slightly sway. No trucks to be seen. Hubby was getting out of the shower and was wondering what the heck I was doing on the first floor. I went up the stairs and said that I thought we had an earthquake. Sure enough we did. Thankfully there were no injuries anywhere and little damage except near the epicenter. We don't get very many earthquakes here in New York. The last one a few years ago had more of a rolling feeling. This one was just loud with some shaking. We had an aftershock around 6pm that had a similar rumble. I happened to be sitting in the same place for that one. It was an interesting Friday. 

Hubby and I are feeling better after almost 2 weeks of illness. I am finally crafting again. I have been stitching the Pumpkin House on and off. There was a lot of frogging this morning. Do you see the two peach colors on the outer edges of the house by the pumpkins? 

Those are two different DMC colors. On the left is 758 and the right is 3779. They are very close in color. I know that they are very pale. I had to audition these as the DMC conversion that the designer suggested was so close in value to the orange pumpkins that you couldn't discern the pumpkins against the house. It also looked nothing like the color on the sample cover design. 

I am not using the variegated flosses that are charted, but rather the DMC conversions as those are what I have. In the end I decided on the 3779 as the pumpkin was more visible. 

I think this is better. Obviously there is a lot more stitching to do in this color. 

I also finished the last ten Log Cabin Star blocks I was working on. I now have 131 of 196 complete. I have already started on the next 10.

 I want to try to spend at least two mornings a week at my sewing maching to get these done soon. 

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!