March Stitch Along Update 1

There will be two Stitch Along updates this month. This is the first. Here is where I was on Three Boats in February. 

This is where I am now. 

There isn't much of a change as there was a trip to Boston and one to California to babysit my grandson and await the birth of my granddaughter. She isn't here as of the writing of this post on Wednesday. Perhaps there will be more of a change on Three Boats in three weeks.

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, Christina, Kathy, Margaret,

 Sunny, Megan, Deborah, Sharon, Daisy, 

Cathie, Linda, MaryMargaret, Cindy, Helen

We say goodbye to Gun. I will miss seeing her wonderful posts.

Thanks for stopping by!

Cheating

Do you sometimes feel like you are cheating on one craft when working on another? I've been feeling that way lately. Sometimes I want to work on a particular project, but feel like I really should work on another. It is silly, because I have two crafts that are a little bit time sensitive, but I am way ahead on working on them. 

So what are the time sensitive crafts? The first is the Woodland Babies birth announcement. I have added many stitches to it this week.

 

There are three animals to stitch along the top, but then I will have to stop until my granddaughter is born at the end of March. I will probably finish stitching this in the next week or two. I don't know why I feel like I am cheating when I work on something else.

The next craft that is sort of time sensitive is the crocheted kitty that is also for my future granddaughter. I am still working on the head. I haven't even gotten to the point of stuffing it yet.

 I don't know why I keep walking away from this and not just getting on with finishing it. Okay, so I am not way ahead on this craft, but it will be a while until she is old enough hold it. 

The rest of my crafts have no due dates, which is probably why I sometimes feel guilty when working on them. I added a few more blocks for "Windows into my World". 14 of the 36 blocks are assembled now. You can start to see the shape of a ball. 

I must say that I am loving working on these. I have definitely caught the EPP bug. I actually purchased some hexagon papers for future projects at Joann's going out of business sale this week. I also bought two specialty rulers. One for triangles and one for diamonds. The line for fabric was long and I wasn't interested enough in anything to just get 20% off the price. 

I finished sewing the last three rows of Royal Squares, the quilt that I recently reacquainted myself with. Here are all the rows laid out, ready to be sewn together.

Once I sew these rows together, I will have to decide whether or not to add borders. The pattern does not call for it, but I would like it to be a little bigger to fit a twin size day bed. 

As another diversion, I made Oatmeal Raisin Bites on Friday.

This is an old Weight Watchers recipe that is definitely not diet conscious. It is full of oats, sugar, butter and raisins.

My birthday was Wednesday. Hubby took me shopping on Monday and I got some new clothes. We had a delicious dinner at a restaurant that has music most nights. My son sent me two books that I have been wanting to read: 

I will be joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching and Frederique at the Quilting Patch. Make yourself some tea or coffee and pop on over to their sites to see what other bloggers are stitching. 

Thanks for stopping by! 

Dilemmas

I have so many great projects that I am currently working on, yet I am seem to be always itching to start something new. It's a dilemma. Right now, crocheting has caught my attention again.  I showed you that hat I made last week and I have since made another of the same pattern from various Homespun yarn scraps. It isn't pretty, but it will do for a donation. I have been going down the rabbit hole online looking at crocheted blankets. The last thing this family needs is another crocheted blanket. I think there are currently 8 of them just in my own home as well as an afghan that my mother knitted years ago. I am fascinated lately by granny squares specifically. In order to somewhat scratch the crocheting itch, I have started crocheting this cute little kitty for my future granddaughter.

I have been steadily adding stitches to the Woodland Babies birth announcement. I have had to roll the scroll frame. 

I am getting close to adding the animals that are on the top. This too is for my future granddaughter who is due in March. Once all the stitching is done, this will be put aside until her birth. Afterwards I will add her name, birthdate and vital statistics. 

I have finished a few more "blocks" for my EPP quilt "Windows into my World". I laid them out on the floor to see what is currently finished.

 I am pretty happy with how they look. I really want to start sewing the blocks together into "rows", but the directions recommend a certain order. I will have to wait until I finish at least half of the blocks.  

I have another dilemma. I want to get back to sewing on my machine. I was straightening up in my basement and took out a box that I knew had a languishing quilt in it. I had been struggling to match the many seams and put it aside. To my surprise, 6 of the 9 rows are already assembled. I really thought I had only made the blocks. The next three rows are waiting to be sewn together. 

I think I will start working on these this week and see if I can manage to get a flimsy done sometime soon. That should scratch the machine itch a little also.

My third dilemma is the desire to lose weight. I have been half-heartedly trying for quite some time. Sadly, I tend to add weight rather than lose it. I know my Hypothyroidism is one factor and my lack of consistent exercise is another. I know how to lose weight. I have done it before. Basically, I don't like to cook, but I do like to bake. When perusing the recipes that I have clipped, I think the baked goods recipes outnumber all the rest easily 2 to 1 or more.  On that note, I made one of those clipped recipes this week. Here is a link to the same recipe that I clipped some time ago. Chocolate, cranberry oat bars. They were so easy to make and very delicious.

To be fair I brought 1/2 the bars to a coffee get together with friends and 1/3 of the bars were given to my mother-in-law. That meant that only a few stayed in my house for me to eat. They are not to Hubby's liking which is why they were made when I could give them away. 

I will be joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching and Frederique at the Quilting Patch. Make yourself some tea or coffee and pop on over to their sites to see what other bloggers are stitching. 

Thanks for stopping by! 

February Stitch Along

For this update I have made a boatload of progress. This is where Three Boats on a Tropical Beach was at the end of January.

I have almost finished stitching the portion of the interior of the topmost boat that is on the current page.

 There were a whole lot of blues and oranges to stitch. I will soon be working on the second boat. I wish I could say that I am close to the end of this page, but I have just passed the midpoint of it. There is also still another 3/4 page to stitch on the bottom of this column after I finish the current page. 

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!

Wintry Weather

 It appears that the wintry weather in the Northeast of the US is interrupting our plans to travel to Boston. We haven't seen our daughter and her family since December, but they are expecting 6-10 inches of snow this weekend. It is only supposed to rain where we are, but it is no fun trying to travel on slick, snowy, icy roads. Hopefully we will be able to visit another weekend. Of course, there is also another storm expected to blanket Long Island with 12+" of snow this coming Thursday. Ugh!

Oh well, it just means that I will be "stuck" inside crafting. That is never a bad thing as far as I am concerned. I have been quite busy this past week with all my crafting. I managed to finish that hat that I was crocheting with the annoying Homespun yarn. The yarn looks grey in this photo, but it is a bright, light blue.

It came out quite pretty, though I don't like it for myself. This will be a donation hat. I have already started another hat of this pattern with the rest of the scraps of Homespun yarn I have. This will be a few different colors and then I won't have any more of that yarn.

I have been cutting and gluing fabric for the "Windows Into My World" quilt. I have also finished stitching two more of the "blocks". I have another partially stitched and one waiting to be stitched. 

The Woodland Babies birth announcement has been stitching up quickly this week. I finished the back stitching on the fawn and added two flowers and a bee.

We celebrated Hubby's birthday on Thursday with his favorite Entenmann's Chocolate Fudge Cake. 

It was just the two of us as he had to work all day. He enjoyed opening his gifts from me and the family.

I will be joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching and Frederique at the Quilting Patch. Make yourself some tea, coffee or cocoa and pop on over to their sites to see what other bloggers are stitching. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Slow Snowy Stitching

 We’re expecting a bunch of snow overnight. I would guess that tomorrow will be spent indoors stitching. I love snow days, especially now that we have someone come to clear the snow for us. Hubby just has to clean off his car and we usually have to clear a path from the back door to the gate and the garbage pail. 

I’ve been doing almost exclusively slow hand work lately. The Woodland Babies birth announcement now has its fawn. I just have to finish the backstitching on it. 

I finished another two “blocks” for the Windows into my World quilt. There are 36 "blocks". I am stitching them in number order.

I also cut out the fabric for the next two blocks and glued them to the paper. One of these blocks has very tiny pieces. 

Since I finished Hubby’s hat, my hands have been itching to continue to work with yarn. A friend has been using scraps of yarn to make hats for the homeless. I started looking through my yarn and decided to make an easy hat with yarn that I just don’t like. When you are crocheting or knitting it is very difficult to see where to take the next stitch with this yarn.

I will save the hat for a future donation….unless I like it for myself. I have yet to make myself a hat that I like. I usually just wear ear warmers. 

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. I am also joining Frederique at the Quilting Patch. Grab yourself a cup of tea, coffee or cocoa and pop on over to their sites to see what other bloggers are stitching. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Two January finishes

 How can it be February already?! Didn’t 2025 just start? When I realized how fast this year seems to be passing by already I decided to get my butt in gear and complete a couple of projects this past week. 

First I set to finish knitting Hubby’s hat. The weather is supposed to be frigid again this coming week, so he will have a hat that completely covers his ears. This is the Wasatch Back Country Hat on Ravelry. I've made it a few times now.

Next, I decided to complete the whole cloth pillow that I had quilted. I didn’t think I had enough of any white on white print for the back as fat quarters were just a bit too small. Then, I found two fat quarters that looked to be the same fabric….. at first glance. To tell the truth, few people would realize that they are oh so slightly different. 

I probably could have had more that a 3" overlap of the fabrics on the back, but I thought it would be plenty. It will do.

I’ve been slowly cutting out the colored fabrics for the EPP quilt “Windows into my World “. So far I cut out the pieces for blocks 1 and 2 and have sewn these blocks together.

 I may just continue this way as each block is a different colored fabric except for a few repeats. I’m finding the stitching somewhat easy. I have to be more mindful to pick up only a few strands of the fabric. The pieces of bock 1 were very thin. I’m not sure they are together perfectly, but hopefully I can make the final assembly work. That is a long way off though. 

I finished the fox on the Woodland Babies birth announcement and I’m currently stitching the chipmunk. 

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. I am also joining Frederique at the Quilting Patch. Grab yourself a cup of tea, coffee or cocoa and pop on over to their sites to see what other bloggers are stitching. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Second Stitch Along post for January

Three weeks ago I didn’t have much stitching to show due to the holidays and our trip to visit our daughter. This is how Three Boats looked then. 

We had another trip during the past three weeks. We went to California to see our son, daughter in law and grandson. Our 5 day trip turned into 6 due to the snow in NY. I’ve been working on Three Boats intermittently since we returned and have gotten up to stitching the top edge of a boat. 

It is not much, but it is progress. 

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!

CA and cold weather pursuits

I mentioned last Sunday that Hubby and I would be home by the time the post was live. I lied. Our 5 day trip turned into 6 due to the weather in NY. We left on Wednesday afternoon and arrived in CA around 8 pm local time. We were supposed to return home on Sunday, but Hubby got a notice on Saturday, that our flight home might be canceled so we rebooked for Monday night's red-eye flight and arrived home Tuesday at 6:30 am. It was nice to have an extra day and a half to visit with our grandson and his parents. 

We went to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park one day.

Our grandson enjoyed walking along with Mom and Dad and seeing all the animals.

 He was most intrigued by the water features and a big "hot air balloon" that was a ride there that he saw in the sky. We saw kangaroos that were relaxing. 

The lion was quite impressive.

There were a bunch of other animals to see on the tram ride. 

Hubby and I really enjoyed the adventure.

On Saturday we walked by the ocean. 

It was our son's birthday, so we also went out to dinner. Our grandson enjoyed trying all the food and was extremely well behaved. 

After enjoying weather in the 50s and 60s in California, we came home to a frigid 14 degrees. Brr! It is a good time to stay inside and craft. I had brought Hubby's hat with me to work on the plane, but I never did. I took it out one day in CA and realized I had made a mistake many rows back. I spent some time "unknitting" while there and finished that when we got home. This is where I am after fixing the mistake and starting to knit again. 

I want to finish this soon as we are supposed to continue having frigid weather. Hubby will need a hat covering his ears when walking to and from his car at the university. Classes start this week. 

Although I stated last week that I had started a bear on the Woodland Babies birth announcement it is actually a baby fox. The fox is almost all stitched now.

I have spent some time this past week cutting all the EPP paper pieces out and now they are all ready to place on fabric and cut out the fabric.

 I started with the fabric for the center "diamond" of each wonky square. I will work on the colored fabrics and the "trapezoid" sides this coming week.

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. I am also joining Frederique at the Quilting Patch. Grab yourself a cup of tea, coffee or cocoa and pop on over to their sites to see what other bloggers are stitching. 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

A small update and some past projects

 By the time you are reading this, Hubby and I will have just arrived home from a trip to CA to see our son, daughter-in-law and grandson. They live in southern CA, but closer to San Diego than Los Angeles where all the fires have been.

I have added two butterflies to the Woodland Babies birth announcement and started the little bear on the bottom right. 

Do you see this chart? 

Do you see how many different symbols there are for the butterfly in that chart? Those little butterflies had many floss color changes and took a little while to stitch. 

I have also added a few rows to Hubby's hat. 

This was my airplane craft, so it probably has more rows than it did when this photo was taken before our trip.

I thought I would share with you two items that I packed to bring with us for our future granddaughter. The first is a newborn sweater set that was made by my mother. I think she may have made it for my daughter, but I really don't remember.

 I know my son will appreciate having something from his Granny for his daughter.

The second item is the baby blanket that I made for my son when he was born. It is fairly large. It was made with the Tunisian crochet technique and then the bunnies were cross-stitched on.

 

Aren't those bunnies adorable. Here is a close-up.

 I decided not to make a new blanket for this granddaughter as I wanted to pass this one on. I have many more handmade baby blankets that I either made or received as gifts for my own two children. It is a shame for them to go to waste just sitting stored in my closet. I know that I will make other handmade items specifically for this granddaughter in the future.

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Grab yourself a cup of tea, coffee or cocoa and pop on over to their sites to see what other bloggers are stitching. 

Thanks for stopping by! 

Intimidated

Have you ever felt intimidated before starting a new project? That is what has been happening to me all this week. 

First, I wanted to cast on the yarn for my husband's new hat. I am always intimidated by casting on. It is always a crap shoot for me. Either I don't leave enough yarn for the necessary stitches (my first try) or I leave way too much yarn and have a small ball of yarn hanging from my project (my second try). I decided not to try the cast on yet again and just keep going after the second try. 

This hat is easy to make. It is just k1p1 all the way until you start the decreases. This my 4th time making this pattern. Hubby just asked that this one be a little bit longer to cover his ears. I am working on it while watching TV at night. 

The second intimidating project is the new quilt. I ironed all of the fabric and decided on the placement of the different colors.

Next I had to cut apart the pattern that I spent so much time meticulously taping together. Oh the nervousness! I don't know why as once I got started with the cutting, I immediately realized that this was no big deal. I do know how to use a pair of scissors.

Once I finish cutting apart the pieces of each individual square, then I will pin them to the appropriate fabrics and cut out the fabric pieces. I know how to do that, so I am a little more calm about that process. I had hoped that this could be a travel project, but I'm thinking that I had better get my bearings with it before I think about bringing it on a trip.

The third project that is intimidating me is the UFO I showed a couple of weeks ago that I want to return to and finish. 

I have yet to even attempt to try it. I brought it with me when we traveled to see our daughter. I looked at the directions in the car and just put it aside. Now I have already finished 2/3 or more of it, and the stitches that need to be worked on next I have already started, but it sure feels intimidating to go back to it after many, many years. I'm also not confident when stitching different embroidery stitches. 

I never get intimidated by cross-stitch or crochet, but the projects above seem a little daunting to me. Speaking of cross-stitch, I have finished the tree on the Woodland Babies birth announcement and added the lady bug and the frog.

They are looking so cute.

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Grab yourself a cup of tea, coffee or cocoa and pop on over to their sites to see what other bloggers are stitching. 

Please pray for the people of California who are dealing with those devastating fires. 

Thanks for stopping by!