Hand Work

 So, since the advent of the knee issue, I have been working on lots of hand projects. I always have some going on for sitting and slow stitching or crocheting. I have made great strides in my hand work and now that I am able to sew again, I need to keep up on the hand work too.

First, there is this long term crochet project. I started it last year before our move. Last weekend I was down to needing 13 more blocks.

I had been making one complete block at a time up until now. I decided to go ahead and make all 13 flowers first, assembly line style. Here they are.

I usually weave in the ends of my crochet work as I go. I learned that from Lucy at Attic 24, whose pattern this is. It keeps you from losing momentum at the end of a project if all the ends have to be done.

I have no idea why I never did that with these blocks. But once all the blocks were made, I found that I had to weave in two ends on 100 blocks. That's 200 ends. I made myself sit there over 2 days and do it.

And now, here they are all neat and tidy. I can assure you this will never happen again. I have learned my lesson. Weave in as you go.

And now the next step is to slip stitch them all together in rows to make the throw. this is the first four rows all done. You slip stitch the vertical rows in a chain fashion, and then go back and slip stitch the long horizontal rows.

This is gonna take some time, but I will keep plugging away and be back to show it off, hopefully soon.

Last hand work to share is this cute little stitchery from Kirkiri Press. There is a series of these little animals that you embroider and embellish and then stuff into little hand size stuffed animals. This one is Fiesta Cat. I bought the kit from Snuggly Monkey. You can find them lots of places on the internet.

Okay, that's all for now. Have a great day.

Feeling Better

So, now that I am feeling better, my knee is still recovering though, I can sit at my machine and sew a little. So this is what got sewn this week.

I was able to sew up the blocks for April's installation of the Pas de Deux quilt that I am making along with Rachel Hauser of Stitched in Color. I had cut all the pieces out last week before I hurt my knee, so, the sewing went pretty quickly.

 And I was able to sew up last week's and this week's blocks for the Perfect Pineapple QAL that I am doing with Amber from Gigi's Thimble. This one is a block a week for 36 weeks and now we are half way there.

Last weekend I made carrot cupcakes for Easter with the grandchildren. This is a recipe from King Arthur Flour and the stuff on top is candied walnuts which turned out great. The recipe is their Spicy Carrot Snacking cake, which also has directions for the cupcakes. So good!

Then, just because I felt like it, and also because there was a need, I made some thread catchers. This is a tiny one to actually hold chalk for a chalkbord. Thimble is there for scale.

This is a pattern I bought years ago from Amanda Jean at Crazy Mom Quilts. I have mad a bunch over ther years for lots of folks. My oldest daughter has taken up stitchery and needed one to crry around with her as she stitches all over the house. I had given her one of mine, but the time has come to make her one.

This one with the Rapunzel fabric is for my granddaughter. She needs one because she will take her mom's if she doesn't have one of her own. And I have never been able to figure out what to do with this cute fabric.

This one is for my daughter. I thought she would like the mustard yellow and the bright pop of pink.

This one is for me. I haven't had a new one in years, and I do love this fabric. Besides, I'm not taking the one of mine that I gave her back, so this counts as a replacement. I love these little thread catchers. I have become so used to them being wherever I need them. Have a great weekend everyone.

The Week That Got Away

So, as you know, I have been trying to catch up on so many projects since our move. Last week, I was making good progress on the Scrap Stash Plus quilt by Quilty Love. I got really revved up on Tuesday, and decided to put everything else aside and get that top together.

And so I did. But...you knew this was coming? Right? When I went to put it up on the wall to take a few pictures, first of all, my design wall is too small. So I thought I'd use washi tape. I had a jar of the stuff, hardly used. You know what? Washi tape goes bad! I couldn't peel a strip off of any of the rolls to save myself. I was really mad at myself for letting it sit like that and then I had to throw it all away. So next I got out my painter's tape. And my step stool. That's where things went awry.

I misstepped while climbing up and down to put the tape up and while I was startled by that, I didn't fall. So I was fine. Or was I? That evening, my left knee was a little sore and stiff, so I took a couple of ibuprofen and went to be. The next morning, I could hardly walk. Then I noticed my knee was swollen. 

Well, there went my week of progress right out the window. I was relegated to a char or the couch, knee elevated with ice applied in 20 minute increments. For three days. The up side is that I did have hand projects to work on as well.

I finished this embroidery from Liz at Cozy Blue. I bought it awhile back, but it had to stand in line in the embroidery queue. I love her simple designs. I have six of them already hanging up in the sewing room. This makes seven.

I am also finally, finally finished with the squares for my Flora Granny Square blanket. 100 squares, done. Now I have begun the process of joining them all together. I began that, but then I noticed that from some unknown reason, I never wove in the ends when I finished the squares. Y'all, I never do that Lucy @attic24 taught me to always weave in my ends promptly. I have no excuses for this misstep in the process. So I am weaving in. I am about half done. Pictures soon.

The knee is better enough that I can sit at the machine and sew again, so I am going to try and at least catch up my #perfectpineapplequilt and finish my April Pas de Deux blocks this week. Wish me luck! And no more step stools for awhile.

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.

An Interesting Thing

 So, we have been in our place for almost 3 weeks now. We are happy with our choice of this place to live and are settling in. For much of January I was chomping at the bit to sew on my machine. I could not wait to get set up somewhere. I now have the almost perfect set up. (almost because nothing is ever perfect) But...I am having trouble finding my groove. I feel so much more drawn to the hand works I have been doing these last couple of months.

Mostly I am stitching on this Dropcloth Sampler. I have really been enjoying learning, or in some cases relearning these stitches.

This is the Schoolhouse Sampler from Dropcloth Samplers. It's getting close to finished now and I do have another one already to go when I finish this.

I also signed up for Rachel Hauser's Pas de Deux block of the month for 2022. I knew I would be starting it late, but I am almost done with January and I am hoping to get February done this week. Just in time for March's release. Lol

I taught my 14 year old grandson how to bake muffins last week. He did a great job! They were very tasty.

And of course I promised the littles some pink marshmallows for Valentine's day. Heart shaped of course.

I also signed up for Gigi's Thimble Perfect Pineapple block. We are supposed to be making a block a week for 36 weeks. I need to get two more done to be caught up on this one. Here's hoping.

And of course this crocheted blanket is still going on. I only need 17 more blocks to have enough to put it all together. So very close. 

So the plan is, to start sewing today and see how much I can get done. I am hoping that if I plan this as a sewing only day, I will get in gear and maybe start to get back in the groove. I also am hoping that I can get back to blogging, especially since there are so many projects to talk about.

See you soon.