A Little Mondy Catch Up

 I am a bit of a lazy blogger. There, I said it. It's not hard to sit down and write, but I need photos, so sometimes, I put it off. It's all the downloading and editing that gets me every time. So anyway, that said, here's what I have been up to since I was here last:

The art museum in Raleigh has an exhibition every spring called Art in Bloom. My daughter really wanted to go, so of course I went with her. It was breath taking. These are just a sample of the pieces that were there. All made from fresh flowers, and inspired by works hanging in the galleries there.

Then we took a couple of days mid-week to go to the beach. It was pretty quiet, since it's still not terribly warm there yet. This is the obligatory under the pier shot.

I picked up tons of shells. I always say I won't, but then I do. I promised Miss N I would bring her some.

A beautiful east coast sunrise. The beach is actually facing south, so you have to look to the left to see this.

The view from our front porch. We spent a good deal of time sitting there and listening to the waves. It is so soothing. We did hang out down on the beach as well. Saw some deer there on our last morning. I have never seen deer at the beach before.

On the home front, I got my dining table back from my daughter, and I painted the dirty old white legs this gorgeous blue. It is a chalk paint.

And,I made these covers for the arms of my couch. I bought some Essex Linen to make the covers with.

This is what they are covering up. Years of kids and cats and dogs. I am pretty happy with my new covers.

And finally, I finished my March installment of Pas de Deux. Again, Blogger has rearranged all my pictures here. This is the center star piece for this month's block.

It began as this. I am trying really hard to use only scraps for this quilt, but I needed peach colors and I only had two in my stash/scrap bins.

This is the whole thing. The two strips at the bottom will be added later on in the construction process.

I love the color play in this quilt so far. Not a rainbow, but plenty of colors in each section are making for a very interesting piece.

That's all for now. It's laundry day, so I need to get going. Talk to you soon.

Never a Dull Moment

 Never a dull moment around here. I thought that as soon as we got moved in and settled, I would have lots of time to sew and catch up on sew alongs etc. Not happening. So much to do.

Since I have gotten back into embroidery, I decided to rearrange my floss into color families. In an effort to be able to still find them by number, should I need to, each color family is in numerical order as well.

I was finally able to finish the blocks for January for the Pas de deux quilt along with Rachel at Stitch in Color.

Tried a new recipe from the New York Times. Chicken pot pie with cornmeal biscuits on top. I can highly recommend it. Mad a half size and it was perfect for two.

Bought myself some tulips. I needed the spring happy colors in my apartment. These filled the bill.

I bought all four different kinds of cinnamon from Penzeys. I am teaching one of my grandsons to cook and bake and we are going to have a lesson on cinnamon. It should have some delicious results.

Still working on the perfect pineapple QAL with Gigi's Thimble. I actually have 4 blocks done, but I am going to be 3 weeks behind as of tomorrow. These take me almost 2 hours to finish one. I plan to keep chugging along though.

I am working on a new wedding quilt for a recently married couple. All batiks, which I almost never do. I think this will be stunning when I get done. Mor pictures to come.

My two oldest daughters have discovered the joy of antiquing. They bought me this early mother's day gift to help to display some of my many quilts.

I did finally get February's blocks done for the Pas de deux. I am waiting for some fabric for March's blocks. In spite of all the fabric I seem to have, a couple of colorways are lacking.

I put my crocheted blankets in the bottom of this cabinet that I used to use for linens. This apartment has linen closets in each bathroom, so yay! Blanket storage it is.

Still chugging along on my Schoolhouse Sampler. I haven't done much in the last week. I had a cold; the first time I have been sick in over 2 years and I just had no desire or energy to sew anything. I did take a Covid test just to be sure. My husband had the cold the week before me, so I know where it came from.

I started this little project about 6-7 years ago when I first learned to make colonial knots instead of French knots. I didn't think I would ever finish it, but something sparked me and I worked diligently on it to finish it. I must say that it did not end up as I first pictured it, but I am very happy with it. A good long rest in time out was what it needed.

And finally, it seems we have a rooster living near our apartment complex. I don't know where he comes from, but some mornings he is just there and the other day I got to hear him too. Don't forget tomorrrow is Pi Day. I am off to make my pie dough now! See you soon.