Finishes and progress made

 Not sure how it got to be Friday already because I didn't get as much done as hoped. But that might be because I kinda took Monday and Tuesday off. Well not completely because I put the finishing touches on two cross stitch projects. 

This first one has been stitched for quite some time. I am glad I waited as I am in love with how I finished. The black background is a black framed canvass from The Dollar Tree, which I just found on Monday when I just happened to stop into the local store. For the cross stitch I sewed the black striped fabric to it and then layered two pieces of batting over a stiff cardboard and wrapped the cross stitch around it. The orange fabric is also wrapped around a piece of cardboard. The glue gun comes in handy to glue all the layers together. A little wired burlap bow finished it off. The pattern was a freebie at one time from Primrose Cottage Designs. 

Another freebie was this pumpkin/crow in a jar from Melisa. She has a whole series of items in jars. A fun and quick stitch that has also been waiting to be finished for a year I think. I used an easel from the Dollar Tree and painted it black before adding the cross stitch which I also wrapped around batting and cardboard. Notice the four acorns I glued onto the bottom, they were from our many oak trees. I am looking forward to decorating with my fall decorations soon.

Wednesday I got back into quilting mode and quilted one of the recent panel wall hangings I was working on Sunday. 

The gray orange triangles on top and bottom of the panel are the result of a Villa Rosa Design little card. I did resize it. October Sky is the name of the pattern. 

Next up was finishing up a sunflower table runner that was in progress for a couple weeks at least.

I need another Cinderella wall hanging to put in the shop. It's quilted but needs binding, I'll do that Friday. 

Linking with Finished or Not, TGIFF, Off the Wall, I quilted this, and Beauties pageant.

Sitting watching TV and here comes a buck looking for a drink from the pond in the backyard just a few feet from the house. And then comes buck #2 a little smaller and buck #3 smaller yet!  We love our wildlife for sure.

What's new on the design wall

 Hello and Happy Monday and last day of August. As we all say where has the time gone!!  On Sunday we didn't have any plans, we were both happy just staying home and working on our own projects. Here is what my day began with.

I picked out three fall panels from the plastic bin I store panels in. The top right one and the bottom left one are on the same panel. I used another piece last year which you can see HERE. Trimming them to a size I knew I could work with. Interviewing fabrics and elements came next. Since I had used these triangle in a square pieces on the one I did last year why not use them again.

Liking the one I did last year the rest of this one was done the same, saved a lot of designing time! Now it is ready to quilt. After that was pieced I moved on to figuring out what to do with the other gray/orange one. That gave me a bit more trouble-thinking time. At first I was going to split that one into two parts for two different wall hangings. But after putzing around for well over an hour and not liking anything I thought of I decided I needed to plan it with using it as a whole instead of splitting. The other gray/orange one got taken down and so did the green panel. A clear wall was needed for my brain to think! 

The first thought was to make a gingham tall pumpkin and a squatty orange one to add on top. I would surround those with other elements like flying geese or HST's and borders to bring them up to size with the panel.  After staring at that for a while it didn't do anything for me. Off to Pinterest for inspiration-do you use Pinterest for that? I do frequently.

That brought me to thinking about a Villa Rosa pattern called October Sky that has had me intrigued for a while. So I bought it and sized my blocks to fit my panel. Easy peasy and I love the look! What do you think? I'll work on that a bit more today. I usually write my post the night before and totally forgot last night.

Right after supper I put the finishing touches on this mini sunflower sampler which is a freebie from our generous friend Melisa! I found the wooden back pieced at the Dollar Store which I painted it black. I mounted the stitched 14 count Aida over batting and a stiff cardboard, hot glued the gold sparkly cording around the sampler, and hot glued the whole thing to the black wood. Stay tuned to a couple more finishes soon.

Linking with Sew and Tell Monday, Design Wall Monday and Monday Musings.

Saturday our 5 year old granddaughter spent part of her day with us, always so fun. While she was here we looked out the deck door and saw this guy sitting on the deck! We frequently have bunches of them come through the yard and snatch a drink at the pond-he had his friends with him.

Scrap quilts

Spring Lake is now quilted and bound. 

My fourth donation quilt this year.

Earlier this month I shared that I was trying to do the leader ender thing again.  In the past it seemed I never stuck to it, I would forget to use them even when they sat right next to the sewing machine. This time I did better but then it got to a point I just wanted to get the quilt done. It was no longer my leader ender it became my priority. It's been pieced for a week, Saturday I pieced the backing and quilted it. While you are reading this I might be working on the binding;) This is my fifth donation quilt so far this year.  I'll show you more in a few days.

I'll be sharing this scrappy goodness at Oh Scrap! on Sunday.  

Monday it will be shared at Sew and Tell, Design Wall Monday and Monday Musings.

For my slow stitching Sunday  I hope to be able to finish up this little guy.

 

Christmas finishes and fall too

 Since Friday's post I finished up two more table runners. Saturday morning their bindings were added to them. Both are Christmas themed. The first one is skinny enough to be used on a piano.

This runner was made using a charm pack. 

Since redoing my sewing room and getting those white cabinets so I could get lots of fabric sorted out and put in there I now know what I have on hand. Part of one shelf holds odds and ends of Christmas fabrics suitable for backings. 

This next table runner is called Banded Lemoyne Star from Studio 180-Deb Tucker. Yes I have her special ruler to make Lemoyne stars:) There is a lot of trimming involved but the accuracy is wonderful because of it.

All fabrics from my stash. 

I finished this cross stitch on Friday morning. The burlap background I found at the Dollar Tree. I knew it would be perfect for finishing up a design. This particular design has been waiting for a few falls to get finished. I used a heavy cardboard and a layer of batting and wrapped the cross stitch around that, hot gluing it down. The other two were done by just wrapping fabric around cardboard without batting. Then glue the layers together, add a bow and it's ready to display.

Linking with Sew and Tell, Design Wall Monday and Monday Musings. 

Maple Leaf finish

 I am so excited to have the maple leaf quilt all done. Thursday night it went on the frame, the quilting was my Friday and some on Saturday along with getting it bound. I'm absolutely loving how it came together. 

The piecing on this was done over the last two winters other than the last two borders which were in the last couple weeks. Luckily I had fabric for the backing in my stash! Not sure if that was set aside for this quilt or another, but the size worked so I went with it;) It finished at 54"x 75"

Free motion swirl hook quilting resembles the leaves blowing in the wind. The fabric for the leaves was bought as a fat quarter pack, I knew it would make great leaves when I bought it. I still have some left, not sure if enough to make another quilt should I need to.  This quilt is now in my Etsy shop and I will keep my fingers crossed that it sells. 

Another finish is a small one but oh so cute! It was a freebie from our generous friend Melisa  . I love how she has been finishing some of her little ones, so I channeled my inner Melisa. As I was reorganizing my sewing room recently I ran across white yarn that I had twisted to look like rope. It resembles some trim Melisa uses for her little stitchings. Thank you Melisa for cute designs and ideas!

Hope to see you at our favorite Monday linky parties... Design Wall Monday, Monday Musings, Sew and Tell Monday and Wait Loss Wednesday

Slow stitchin'

 It's another warm Sunday and some slow stitching in the air conditioning sounds good to me. A while back I showed you a start on a Valentine cross stitch. Here is where I am at today, progress has been made.

I have also continued hand knitting slippers for donation through my daughter in law. Last time I showed them I had eleven pair done. Thirteen have now been knitted, one them still needs sewing up which I will do today. 

Yesterday I made the other two matching southwest placemats. 

I also finished up the last orange pineapple block, took a photo, put the project away and then as I was getting photos ready for this post I deleted the pineapple block one. So you will just have to take my word for it that it is done because I don't want to dig it out!

Lots of slow stitching happening today so I am linking to Slow Stitching Sunday and Sew and Tell Monday

Strip time

 Making strip sets has been my focus for the last few days. First cutting a bunch of strips of neutral and this black which has little gold circles. Then sewing into long strips and then the sub cutting began. 

Sewing going along smoothly. 

Oh I forgot to say these are for the leaf quilt. Here is what is going on with the strip sets. Still a ways to go but I am loving it!

For some slow stitching time I started a new little cross stitch. You are asking why I started another new something?  So I will be joining in with Slow Sunday Stitching.

That's because I actually finished two in the last two weeks!! So I kinda thought I deserved to start a new one, LOL.  Once again I used colored pencils to make a grayish aida cloth. I 'think' I used my Derwent water color ones.  White embroidery floss didn't show up very good while doing the snowman so I outlined it with a metallic looking blue gray. Then instead of stitching snowflakes on the top I used snowflake buttons I had on hand.  I also added three snowflake buttons to the green polka dot fabric. This finished up at 9" wide and 6" tall.  I don't consider this late for the season, I am ahead for next winter;)

This one I got done on time for this upcoming St. Patty's Day. He's about 6" square.  Both of these were monthly freebies from Primrose Cottage Designs.

Here it is with my little shamrock wall hanging. 

Linking with Finished or Not Friday, TGIFF, and Off The Wall. 

String progress + cross stitch

 I have made a little progress on my bright string quilt. The white sashing with orange cornerstones got added. I cut the sashing at 1.5". Next I will add a white border all around cut the same as sashings. The plan from there is to make a piano key type border with more strings. 

There is a finish today also...A little cross stitch pillow using a pattern from Primrose Cottage. This was one of their free monthly patterns. If you didn't know they offer a free cross stitch and a free quilting pattern in their monthly newsletter but you have to sign up.

Did you notice the background color of the Aida cloth? I used a green colored pencil and went over the white Aida to get a light green. I have no idea how this will hold up over time but I don't plan to wash it so I am not worried. This piece has been stitched since November and just now finished it into a little six inch pillow. 

Linking with TGIFF, Finished or Not, Off The Wall, Beauties Pageant and Oh Scrap!

Slow stitching

 I hope everyone is having a great December. Ours has been busy. But I have taken time to do some slow stitching for a change of pace. While traveling the first week of December I started knitting socks again.

But as you can see this is as far as I can go because my needle broke. Will have to wait to continue until I get to Hobby Lobby.  

But that is okay I had other yarn and needles to start making slippers again. One pair done using a burgundy 4 ply yarn with a sport weight pink yarn.

And second pair started using a variegated 4ply with a blue sport weight yarn. My daughter-in-law loves these and so I make and give to her to donate to someone in need in her community.

And I also started this Christmas Tree stitchery from a pattern by Melisa at Pinker n Punkin blog.

That is my slow stitching this week. Also linking with Sew & Tell and Monday Musings

Happy Halloween!!

 

The extent of my Halloween decorating is this nook in our main entry way. 

And my two finished cross stitch bowl fillers!  Both are the free designs from the very generous Melisa, thank you for all the fun stitchings you shower us with!! The Hocus Pocus pillow us from Primrose Cottage Designs. If you sign up for their cross stitch newsletter you will get a free design each month. If you sign up for their quilting newsletter you will get a free quilty design each month.

Linking with Off The Wall Friday, TGIFF, Finished or Not Friday

Slow Stitching

For my slow stitching Sunday I hope to start this little stitch.  Oh you say why is she starting another one, well....

because I finished stitching this one. I think it will be a little pillow like how Primrose Cottage finished theirs. This was a fun one to stitch.

Saturday I quilted, bound and appliqued this snowman runner.  If you want to see the whole one you can check out this POST of a previous one, same thing but different border fabric.

This is what my design wall looks like today. These snowman blocks have been up there for over 2 weeks. I hope to make them into a runner but haven't decided on the design yet. Thinking it would come to me as I see them there every day...hasn't worked yet!

Linking with Slow Stich Sunday , Design Wall Monday and Sew and Tell Monday.