A little bit of crafting

My mother's recent passing has understandably affected my crafting. It was hard to concentrate during her last days. After her passing there were arrangements to be finalized and a full house with my son, daughter, son-in-law, granddaughter and grandpup.  

You can see my tribute to my mother here.

I did do a little bit of crafting when I needed an escape. I had been steadily working on my granddaughter's Christmas stocking and it is almost done. The final figure is the reindeer and it just needs to be sewn to the front of the stocking.

Once I sew the reindeer on all that is left are a few snowflakes and the final assembly. 

I started a new sweater for my grandson with some yarn that I got through my stitching group. First I had to determine the weight as there were no labels. It's DK weight. I was going to make a pullover, but I think he will get more use out of the cardigan that I chose. He does live in California after all. 

I am hoping I have enough yarn for the whole sweater as I am making the 18 month size. He has smaller sweaters.  If not, I will make the arms a solid blue color. 

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are up to. I know that I have plenty of slow stitching to keep me busy.

Thanks for stopping by!

My world has changed

My world has changed. My cherished 96 year old mother has passed away. After quite a long battle with dementia, a-Fib and congestive heart failure, my mother left this world on my husband and my 38th wedding anniversary. Hubby and I went out to dinner and I had just gone to bed when I got the call. She had been bedridden for 21 months. It is a blessing that she passed. She had been existing, not living.

I have many, many years of happy memories. My mother raised me alone as my father died when I was a toddler.

 She also supported her mother until she died when I was in college. My mom took us on trips to Williamsburg, VA almost evey summer. She drove us to a vacation at Walt Disney World the first year it opened. She was hard working and independent. 

She walked me down the aisle when I married my Hubby.

My mom was an avid gardener. She loved rose bushes, perennials and "snowball bushes" (hydrangea). Her yard had several hydrangeas, azaleas, astilbe, and cone flowers as well as many others. 

Mom loved Nicolas Sparks books. I think she had almost every one of them. In the past few years though she bought them, but was unable to read them as she couldn't follow the story or remember the characters. Growing up she completed puzzles with me and played board games. Many of those board games she played with her grandchildren also.

In her retirement, she babysat my children and often went shopping with us. Every other week we had Sunday dinner with her for many, many years.

 She went on several bus trips with a cousin and some girl friends. Some of the places they went to were Maine, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. They had loads of fun and lots of laughs.

 She also learned to quilt through a church group run by resident nuns. She hand sewed and quilted all of her projects.

These are some blocks from her Sunbonnet Sue quilt.

You may remember that I finished quilting the pink baby quilt.

I still need to quilt the Overall Sam quilt that she made.

Mom made several table runners and a set of placemats.

 She knitted an afghan for each of my children and a sweater for me. This was the afghan she knitted for my daughter.

She won a blue ribbon at the local fair for an Irish knit afgan that she made for herself.

 She was taught to knit in the back of every stitch, so it was a challenge for me to help if she made a mistake. She often knit preemie hats that were donated to hospitals through our church.

Every Christmas she made stuffed clam appetizers from a recipe that I still use. She also made her mother's Sour Cream Coffee cake and Yorkshire pudding. She wasn't known for her cooking, but she served us a good dinner each and every night. Sometimes when she came home from work she enjoyed a Manhattan cocktail made with Jack Daniels. 

I miss my mom terribly as we hadn't been able to do much together since before the pandemic. I have been grieving the loss of our outings together for quite some time.

As an only child, I now have the task of clearing out and selling her home as well as all the other miscellaneous tasks that come with a passing. 

Please keep my family in your thoughts and prayers. 

Thanks for stopping by!

 

Stitch Along

 It is time for the first stitch along update of July. I can't believe we have entered the second half of the year already. It is finally feeling like summer here on Long Island. This past week we have had temperatures in the high 80s and low 90s. We are making sure to take a dip in our pool each day.

I have been steadily stitching on October Morning despite missing my regular stitching area. I am having two club chairs and the matching ottoman reupholstered as, after 20 years, there were some holes in the fabric. Right now there is just a big open space with a lowly skirt covered table. 

Hubby and I went to pick out new carpeting on Thursday as that too is 20 years old and rippling badly in places.

This is where October Morning was for June's update.

This is where I am now. I have added many stitches to the large tree trunk as well as some leaves.

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,

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

Cathie, Linda, Helen, MaryMargaret, Cindy

Thanks for stopping by! 

Two finishes!

 I made a list the other day of some of the crafts that I have that are currently in progress. Two of them just needed the finishing touches. The first is the pretty sweater that I knitted for my granddaughter. All that I needed to do was weave in a few ends and sew up the side seams. The pretty confetti yarn was something I found in my mother's knitting bag.

This sweater will join two others that appear to be similar sizes. This first one was made many years ago for my daughter by my friend Randi. I was surprised to see that the stitch is actually the same one that I just used.

This crocheted pullover was made by my former sister-in-law for my daughter...also many years ago.

I will bring these to my daughter the next time we visit. They may fit my granddaughter sometime this Fall or Winter. The one I made is a 2 and my granddaughter is currently 9 months. 

I also finished my daughter-in-law's Christmas stocking! I just needed to sit down and get on with it. It took me one whole morning to cut the fabric out and stitch the pieces together.

I like the fabric that I chose for the backing. It has the blue background with Santa and a snowman and a tree.

I chose a light blue snowflake lining fabric so that there was no chance of it showing through to the cross-stitch side.

I feel a great sense of accomplisment having finished both of these projects. Two lines are checked off of my WIP list. 

I have been steadily working on my granddaughter's Christmas stocking. Santa is done now.

There is an ice patch and a reindeer to add as well as a few snowflakes. I am currently 2/3 of the way finished with this stocking. I just asked my son and his wife to look for a stocking that they would like me to make for my grandson. 

Speaking of my grandson, we visited CA last week for 5 days to meet him and lend a helping hand to the new parents. Here we are enjoying a cuddle. Isn't he adorable?!

I brought the crocheted pup that I made for him.

I guess that is actually a third finish that I have to share. 

I can tell you that I didn't want to leave. Hopefully we will be able to travel there again this summer. Of course we are always available if they need some help. 

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are up to. I know that I have plenty of slow stitching to keep me busy.

Thanks for stopping by!

June Stitch Along Update

It is Father's Day here in the US. This is the first year of celebrating my husband as a Grandpa and my son and son-in-law as dads! Our family has expanded with 2 grandchildren in one year. It's a wonderful thing!

So far the weather in June has been fairly cool here. Not a lot of lounging on the back deck or sitting on the front porch. That means I've been inside doing a bunch of stitching on October Morning and other crafts. 

Here is where October Morning was for the last update.

There is a big tree trunk just above the mailbox that I have added many stitches to. I have also started adding a branch to the left. There is a whole lot of brown stitching to complete. I am also filling in some other colors as I move up the tree trunk. I hope you can see the progress.

It is really filling in now.

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,

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

Cathie, Linda, Helen, MaryMargaret, Cindy

Thanks for stopping by! 

Living on Mars

It has sometimes felt like we are living on the red planet here on Long Island, NY this past week. Or at least the sky has been yellow and orange due to all the wildfires burning in Canada. This is an image from a local newspaper of one of the NYC bridges. 

It hasn't been quite so bad here (our sky has had a yellow tinge), but I have had to forgo my daily walks and most any outdoor activities. The smoke smell makes it feel like you are standing down wind of a bonfire. I feel incredibly sad for those Canadian residents who live near the wildfires and are dealing with not only the smoke but the fire damage.

On the bright side, that means there has been plenty of crafting going on as I am staying indoors on the bad days.  

I am almost finished adding all of the parts to Santa on my granddaughter's stocking. He still needs holly on his hat and his second arm.

I am almost close to finishing the second sleeve of the sweater that I am knitting for my granddaughter.

I like that the sleeves are knitted directly onto the sweater. Once this is completed there are just a couple of side seams to sew up.

I started this little project on Friday.

I am making a little stuffed pup for my grandson.

We will be meeting him soon. I made one of these for my granddaughter so, of course, I had to make one for my grandson. As you can tell from the little balls of yarn, I am using up some scraps.

At the beginning of the week, before all the smoke arrived, Hubby and I decided to walk at Belmont Lake State Park. There was a heron precariously perched on a branch over lake.

There were several dogwood trees in bloom.

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are up to. I think I will add some pieces to the stocking today.

Thanks for stopping by!

June is here!

June is here and so is my new grandson! Lucas Matthew arrived this past week. He weighs 6 lbs. 15 oz and is 20.5 inches long. 

I have finished the large kitty bib. I don't know why, but this just seemed to take a long time to stitch. 

Now it needs to be washed and ironed. I will be bringing it with me when travel to CA to meet my grandson.

I have to stitch his name and statistics on the birth announcement now. I charted it all out yesterday. I want to bring that to CA also and find a framer out there to finish it. I will share it when it is finished.

I have been steadily working on the Christmas stocking for my granddaughter. Santa is well on the way to being completely stitched. 

His face was somewhat small to work with when embroidering.

I spent the Memorial Day weekend planting my flowers. My MIL had bought a flat of begonias for me for Mother's Day so those were planted along the edge of the back yard flower bed. 

Some of them were planted in this pot too. I also bought the perennial Thrift which you can see to the right.

I only bought one tomato plant and a zucchini plant for veggies. We will be traveling a bunch this summer and I don't want to have to rig up too many watering systems. 

The rest of the pots contain salvia, petunias, impatiens and a few others.

I always plant geraniums in the two pots at my front entrance. It faces South and they do well there.

We bought 2 double bloom impatiens hanging baskets that are hanging beneath our Kousa dogwood tree. It is in full bloom right now.

I planted more than I planned to, but less than last year. I do love seeing flowers on my deck. 

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Grab a cup of tea or coffee and pop on over to her site to see what other bloggers are stitching. I have a birth announcement to finish.

Thanks for stopping by!