Hello Everyone! How’s your week been. Seems like another busy week for us. I was actually on my own on Friday and Saturday while my husband visited his father with his brother. I took advantage of easy meals to get a lot of crafting done.
I spent a good portion of Friday working on fully finishing some cross stitch pieces. None are complete yet, but they are close. I did a lot of hand sewing and circle making with this group. I also painted a frame for a finish, too.
I also finished the Chandelier Table Runner top by Lella Boutique. I think I did a pretty good job of keeping it organized while I sewed the pieces together. I spent over an hour laying it out so I sewed them together one row at a time so I didn’t get the pieces mixed up or turned backwards. These are mostly Bonnie and Camille and Minick and Simpson fabrics from Moda. Later today, I’ll go through my fabrics to see what I have for the backing and binding.
I also finished the second quilt block to match the Stitchy Stars Cross Stitch piece. It’s the one on the right and is the Christmas Star from Lori Holt’s “Vintage Christmas” book. I have the next two blocks cut out and ready to sew. This week I’ll pull the fabric for the next set of blocks. I am really enjoying making these small blocks. I like working with more challenging blocks and these are fitting the bill.
That’s it for now. I have a friend that will be visiting next weekend, so it may be two weeks until my next quilting update. I hope you have a great week and thanks for stopping by.
Hello Everyone and welcome to Works in Progress Wednesday where I share my cross stitch progress for the week. I’ve only worked on three things this week, but made good progress on all of them.
Let’s start with a new start.
Since this past weekend was the first one in June, I joined in the #bbweekendsal hosted by Brenda and the Serial Starter on YouTube. Since I didn’t have a current Blackbird Designs project going on, I chose a new one from the Sewing Club Book. It’s called “In My Garden”. I’m stitching it on 36 ct Winter Moon from Zweigert, 1 over 2. I’m using some of the called for colors and substituting DMCs and a few others to make it look more like the picture.
Here is the weekend’s progress. I only worked on it and thought I got a good start. It will fit into a 5″ x 7″ frame when I’m finished, so it’s a nice small size. I’ll see how I do on some of my other WIPs to decide if I get back to this before the first weekend in July.
Next up is Stitchy Stars by Lori Holt. This is my project for #CrossStitchCamp hosted by Sheri of Colorado Cross Stitcher. I have decided to stitch and hang it vertically. I also completed the same quilt block in Sherri and Chelsi fabrics. I’m stitching on 32 ct Lt Mocha from Zweigert, 2 over 2, using floss to match the quilt fabric.
Yesterday, I finished another section (top to bottom) of Scenic Farm. Love, love love it! I think I’ll move back over to the barn and work on that section next. I do need your opinion for those who follow along regularly. Do you see the white showing through on the background trees to the left of the stone house? If you remember, that is supposed to be four strands of floss (half stitches). That was the first area I stitched and only stitched with 2 strands. I went back over with one strand, but I think I’m going to have to do some of it with another strand. It’s been pressed several times, so I don’t know how much more those gaps will close up. What do you think; add another strand or leave it? Behind the house and next to the barn are stitched with 4 strands.
I put Scenic Farm on the design wall so I could get a good picture, but then I looked at it from a little ways away and thought we needed a picture of what it will look like on a wall one day. I have worked on it in the mornings for almost every day for 6 months now. I think I’m going to take the rest of the week off from Scenic Farm and work on Sarah Jane’s Saltbox house by Pinker ‘n Punkin Quilting and Stitching. I really want to get it fully finished soon.
For the rest of the week, I’ll continue to work on Stitchy Stars and try to get some stitches in on Flea Market Flowers, too. I may also take a day or two to fully finish some of my finishes. They are starting to pile up.
I hope you all have a great rest of your week and weekend. Happy stitching and quilting and thanks for stopping by.
Hello Everyone! I hope you are having a great weekend! It’s been a busy and productive week here. I finally got back to the store to get my herbs and Caladiums so they are waiting to be planted. We cleaned all the pollen off the deck and vacuumed the cushions so now I can put the new plants in the back. There is still a little pollen floating around because I could see it after we cleaned, but it should be almost over now. I also was able to get in some quality quilting time this week.
I finished my next set of County Fair blocks. Only five more to go plus the cornerstones and sashing are made. The fabric is Christmas Figs by Fig Tree.
I also finished the blocks for the Mini Chandelier Table Runner by Lella Boutique. I hope I don’t agonize over the layout too much. There is a some repeat of fabrics and I really don’t like the same fabrics to be next to each other. Do you care if you have the same fabric next to itself or do you try to spread them apart?
If you didn’t see Wednesday’s WIP post, I started a new cross stitch project using the Stitchy Stars pattern by Lori Holt.
I plan on making a mini quilt using the star blocks in the chart and Sherri and Chelsi fabrics from Moda. I’ve pulled the fabrics for the first four blocks and will be working on the first one today. I believe I said that all the star block patterns were in Lori Holt’s Vintage Christmas book, but I was wrong. There is a very similar block in Vintage Christmas, but the designed block is in Farm Girl Vintage 2. I don’t have that book, but the difference in the blocks are the quarter square units which I can make without a pattern. After going through these blocks to get the background fabric information, I’m finding I’m changing the cutting instructions anyway. I like to cut pieces a little larger then trim down, so I’m adding a bit to some of the measurements. I also like to make flying geese 4 at a time for the same fabric combination, so those measurements got changed. If you would like good directions for making oversize 4 at at time flying geese, check out Julie’s, The Crafty Quilter, post. She shows two methods for making oversized flying geese in the post and gives cutting instructions for different sizes.
That’s it for today. We are going to have a warm couple of days before it cools down a little later in the week. I guess summer is finally here. I hope you have a great week ahead and thanks for stopping by!
Hello Everyone! Where has the year gone. Hard to believe that it’s June already and that summer is here. If you missed our Memorial Day outing, you can go here to see a little bit of our day.
I have two finishes this week.
First up is Gathering Berries by Misty of Luminous Fiber Arts using her 32 ct Sparrow hand dyed fabric. I just had the lower bird to stitch and finished it in one evening. I’m going to put this aside until I stitch her next bird design, Gathering Clover. I think I want to fully finish them the same. I have the fabric and floss for the next one, but not sure when I’ll start it.
I also finished my version of Misty’s Liberty Quaker. I plan to finish it into a drum with the smaller Quaker motif on top. I’ve watched Vonna Pfeiffer’s tutorial once, but will watch again before attempting the finish.
I also made a little progress on Flea Market Flowers by Lori Holt. I’ll continue to work on this a couple of days a week so progress can be made. I’m not in a hurry on it.
And the last of the WIPs I worked on this week is Scenic Farm. I’ve made good progress and stitched the tree and started the snow at the bottom. I also finished up the sheep. I don’t have much more to do for this hoop section except to finish the snow and backstitch. Once the backstitching is finished, the house sections should really stand out.
I told you last week that I was going to camp with Sheri of Colorado Cross Stitcher on Instagram and YouTube. I’ll be posting progress pictures under the #crossstitchcamp tag.
The challenge for June is to stitch something that has been inspired by someone else. I’ve been inspired to stitch Stitchy Stars by Lori Holt from all kinds of people on social media. I’ll be stitching it on 32 ct Light Mocha linen using the floss colors above, a mixture of Aurifloss, DMC and Cosmos.
The floss color choices were inspired by my large stash of Sherri and Chelsi fabrics from Moda. If you recall, when I first showed you the Stitchy Stars chart, I mentioned that I would really like to make those star blocks into a quilt. I decided to see if I had the patterns for the star blocks in any of my Lori Holt books before drafting the patterns myself.
Yippee! I found them all in Vintage Christmas. I’ll be making the 6″ blocks from the cross stitch design, plus adding two more from the book so I can have a 3 by 3 gridded mini quilt. I’m sure it will take a lot less time for me to make each quilt block than to stitch each one of those squares.
The challenge is to complete your start in a month. I will have to plan out how much I need to get finished each week and make that a stitchy priority so I can finish in time. Sheri will be giving away prizes on Instagram, too. It’s not too late to join in. It should be fun and will encourage me to work on something and get it finished in a timely manner.
That’s it for this week. Thanks for coming along with me as I share my quilting and stitching journey each week.
Hello Everyone! I hope you had a nice weekend. Our weather cleared up for Memorial Day and we had a nice day out.
We started the day with a visit to Handley High School where the Rotary Club displayed about 1000 flags. The flags could be purchased to honor individuals who served and their names were placed on the flags and the war they served in.
That’s the high school in the back with the large flag on the front. It was a very moving experience.
Since Winchester is a small city, a lot of the downtown restaurants and shops were closed for Memorial Day. We did find a restaurant open in another part of town and had lunch. From there, we drove through Front Royal to the east side of the mountains to a brewery/winery where we spent a very pleasant afternoon.
This is Shotwell Run Brewing Co and Blue Quartz Winery. They share the same tasting room so you can have either craft beer or wine. We chose beer that afternoon and it tasted refreshing as the day warmed up.
This was our afternoon view. The seating area overlooked the vineyards.
You could also see Old Rag Mountain in the distance. It doesn’t look quite as rugged with the trees in leaf as it did in the winter time when we were riding through the valley.
This is the view from the front of the building and parking lot. In my opinion, the prettier view.
You know the place is alright when it has a barn quilt on the outside.
But look what was on the inside! Beautiful antique quilts!
We enjoyed sitting there, listening to a singer for most of the afternoon. It never got too crowded, which was nice. The brewery is about an hour from our house through beautiful countryside. Now I’ve seen that valley in the winter, spring and summer. We’ll have to make the trip in the fall to see all the seasons, although I’m sure we’ll be back before then!
Hello Everyone! I hope you are enjoying this Memorial Day weekend (for my US readers). Please take some time this weekend to think about those who have served our country and paid with their lives. Our weather has been showery and cool, but tomorrow is supposed to be nice. We are planning to visit a local flag display and do something yet to be determined when it will be sunny and warmer. In the mean time, it’s been a good time to work on my new project.
First though, I started 5 new blocks for County Fair and got all the cornerstones made for the sashing.
County Fair pieces
There are 42 9-patch 3 1/2″ squares here. The rest of the sashing is made but not cut. I’ll wait to cut until I measure a good selection of the blocks to see if I have to make any adjustments to the length of each sashed piece.
I really needed to start something new and as I changed my quilts from Spring to Patriotic earlier this week, I new I needed a new table runner for my island. I went through my patterns and found the Chandelier Mini Table Runner by Lella Boutique. I got the picture from Vanessa Goertzen’s blog and I must have gotten it as a free download and it looks like it is still for free.
I wanted to use some of my Bonnie and Camille fabrics, so I pulled out the green cube where I keep them all. They were such a mess. I needed to take an afternoon to clean that cube out before I could pull fabrics.
This is how much fabric I had jammed into that 10″ x 10″ x10″ cube! There is some yardage, but mostly leftover pieces of fat quarters and layer cakes. I also have a layer cake of Smitten that I have only pulled a few squares from over the past couple of years. I decided to still leave that together, but the partial layer cake fabrics I had bundled together all got separated and sorted by color.
Next I pulled out the fabrics for the table runner, mostly reds and a few navies.
Instead of squishing it back into the cube, I emptied another container and put the folded fabrics in it and the yardage and pre-cuts went back into the cube. Next time I’m at Target, I’ll pick up a container with a lid for the folded fabric.
I pulled some blues from Minick and Simpson’s Mackinac Island fabric from last summer and added a few others to get the number needed. The background dot fabric is from Fig Tree’s Catalina Island fabric line.
I’ll be working on the table runner while also finishing the County Fair blocks this week. I might even try to squeeze in a few cross stitch finishes, too. We’ll have to see what the week’s activities are going to be. I hope you have a great week and thanks for stopping by.
Hello Everyone! I’m back with my weekly stitching update plus a new cross stitch challenge for the summer. Let’s start with the challenge.
If you’re a stitcher, you probably watch some Flosstube (YouTube Cross Stitch videos). In the most recent video of Colorado Cross Stitcher, Sheri introduced us to her Cross Stitch Camp Challenge. The challenge will be to start and finish (not fully finish) a new cross stitch design in June, July and August. She will track progress on Instagram and you can find all the information in the first 15 minutes of the video. I hope some of you will join in with me as I try to meet the challenge for June, which is to stitch something that you have been inspired to stitch by someone else. That’s an easy one to pick, because there is so much eye candy on Flosstube, Instagram, and blogs. There is inspiration overload everywhere!
I think my pick will be Stitchy Stars by Lori Holt. I ordered it shortly after it was released and although Fat Quarter Shop did a stitch along, I haven’t started mine yet. I need to pick my fabric and floss before June 1 so I’ll be ready to go. I have heard others comment that there is a lot of stitching in those blocks, so I’ll have to come up with a plan to get it finished by June 30.
I now have most of a house in Scenic Farm. I was able to stitch most mornings this week and think I got a lot accomplished. It amazes me that I still want to stitch on this. I got a little tired of stitching the sky, but when it comes to stitching the buildings and trees, I am really enjoying it.
I finished the bottom band of Liberty Quaker by Misty of Luminous Fiber Arts. I’m stitching it on 28 ct blue evenweave. I didn’t realize that the blue was so washed out when I edited the picture. If you haven’t guessed, I’m making it into a drum or will try to. I have never made one before. I want to stitch one of the Quaker motifs from the pattern for the top.
I also finished my out of place leaf and stem on Gathering Berries, also by Misty. If I hadn’t mentioned it last week, or you knew the pattern really well, you would not know it wasn’t charted this way. There is another bird to stitch in the bottom corner and I just need to finish it!
My last piece I worked on this week is Flea Market Flowers by Lori Holt. You can see the full design in the picture with Stitchy Stars above. There was a lot of stitching in that first motif. I feel certain that this will take some time to stitch. You can see how I carry my threads when I’m stitching. I stitch with a 5″ tension hoop so when I come to a point where the design and thread will go past the hoop area, I run the thread under the back and out of the way so I don’t have to cut it. I also used the leftover threads from the pink flower to start another motif instead of throwing them away. I’m stitching this with the called for DMC on 40 ct Soft Porcelain from Luminous Fiber Arts.
I have pulled out my patriotic and summer quilts so I can start a little seasonal makeover in my decor. That will keep me busy for a day or two. We don’t have any firm plans for the weekend, but I’m sure we’ll find something fun to do. I hope you do too.
Thanks for stopping by and have a great rest of your week!
Hello Everyone! I hope you are having a great weekend! We spent a very pleasant Saturday afternoon catching up with my family for my Dad’s Birthday. Unfortunately, my brother and my kids couldn’t be there, but both of my sisters were there with their families. Although I have seen parts of the family individually over the past several months, this was the first time we had all been together since the summer of 2019.
I have just one sewing project to share today. When we got home from camping last week, I really gave my fabric purse that I made many years ago a hard look. I needed a new one! I have several that I switch out, but all are starting to show real wear on them, especially on the bottoms and the straps.
This is the London City Bag by Pink Sand Designs and is the second one I’ve made. The purses I’ve made have all been with flower print fabrics like Bonnie and Camille. This time I decided to go a little more sedate and modern looking with Grunge and Grunge Dot by Basic Grey.
The inside has a nice zipper pocket and three open pockets. It’s not a large purse if you like to carry lots of things, which I don’t, but I did make it slightly larger. It has a cross body strap, but since I used the D-ring and Swivel set hardware, I can adjust the straps so it’s also shoulder bag length. I used Soft and Stable instead of the fusible fleece and Decor Bond called for. When making bags like this, I would recommend using a #14 needle in your machine to go through all the layers.
Now for our trip. We arrived at Douthat State Park near Clifton Forge, VA on Monday and left on Friday for a 4 night, 3 day trip. Unfortunately when we left on Monday, we had just read about the gas pipeline troubles so we made sure that after we set up the camper we went back out and filled up with gas. Our plan was to go to either Clifton Forge or Covington one day and ride around the area, but we thought we shouldn’t do that. By the time we left on Friday, there would have been places to get gas, but we didn’t know. We were totally without any kind of phone service except at a few places in the park. It was also a cool week. We had two afternoons that were in the high 60’s with some sun, and one day in the 50’s and cloudy. It was in the low 40’s at night.
There are four campgrounds in the park and we stayed at the White Oak Campground. To get there, you cross this low water bridge. It did look a little sketchy going over it the first time, but we had a little extra room on either side. We did see a video of water over the bridge when it rained and your vehicle would be stuck in the campground when this happens. There are hiking trails in and out so you wouldn’t be totally stuck. I don’t know what happens to people who are scheduled to come and go on the days it’s closed though.
This was a beautiful campground that ran along Wilson Creek. Most of the spots were pretty level and they were nicely spaced. Our site backed up to the creek, but it was about 15 feet down a steep bank. It was very pleasant to hear the running water. The bath house was nice and clean and they had a fish cleaning station. My husband didn’t bring his fishing gear, but with the number of trout we saw people with, we might have had a nice dinner one night if he had. Next time!
We went on a couple of nice long hikes on Tuesday and Thursday and then had a picnic lunch at the lake on Wednesday (the cold day). The blue line is a trail heading out of our campsite, up and over a small mountain. We used that access both days as the starting point of our hikes. The red line is the 5.5 mile hike we did on Tuesday and the green line is the 4.5 mile hike we did on Thursday. As you can see, there is still plenty of hiking left, but some of those will require full days to do. Most of the trails were also mountain bike trails and some were horse trails.
At the top of the first trail, there was a view of the lake. The first day, we hiked to the Blue Suck Falls.
Most of the trails were rated moderate to difficult and from this picture you can see why. In some places they were nice and smooth, but in others, there were lots of rocks. To get to the falls, you hiked up a very rocky trail. In fact for about 10 feet, you were actually hiking up through the creek.
Blue Suck Falls
These are the falls. A little disappointing after some of the falls we’ve been to recently, but it is May, not March, and we really do need rain in our area. If we had known, we probably wouldn’t have hiked to them because the trail really was difficult.
We continued our hike that day through a Mountain Laurel grove which was still in bud but is probably beautiful now. We also crossed lots of creeks. The one above was near the end and one of the easier ones to cross. I did manage to keep my shoes dry! We had a great day and did a little relaxing at the campground for the rest of the afternoon.
Wednesday was mostly overcast and cool, but we did take our lunch to the lake. There are several nice picnic areas in the park and a beach area. Next to the Lakeside Campground (shown at the end of the lake above) there is a boat launch area. Just trawling motors are allowed, but there were always people fishing. I’m glad we decided not to stay at the Lakeside Campground because the sites were much closer together. If you don’t mind this and have your kayak and want quick access to the lake, then this would be the place for you.
Douthat SP was built by the Civilian Conservation Corp in the 1930’s. The lake has an earthen dam and these two spillways. The lake is very well stocked for trout (there is an additional fishing fee for the park) and you can rent canoes, kayaks and Jon boats.
The sun did come out a later that afternoon and we walked down to the creek by the campground. There were people fishing along here everyday, too.
Thursday was a sunny day and we decided to hike by the lake. You can see the beach area on the other side. There were wildflowers in bloom all along this part of the trail, too. We hiked down to the Lakeside Campground, then back up and around through the woods to one of the picnic areas.
From one of the picnic areas, there is a kids only fishing spot at the bottom of the spillway. It was a very pretty area. Behind the fence at the top of the hill on the other side, is another really nice picnic area (where we had lunch) with access to the lake trail and the camp store.
We will definitely be going back to this state park. It was only a few hours away and easy to get to. Next time, I’ll try to get some pictures of the park facilities because it really is one of the nicest state parks we’ve been too.
We have already planned our next outing to a Pennsylvania SP near Gettysburg in June. I hope it won’t be too hot, but I am looking forward to camping in a little bit warmer weather.
Hello Everyone! How is your week going? I’ve been pretty busy here!
We were gone last Monday through Friday, camping at Douthat State Park, so I had multiple loads of laundry when we returned. We had campfires and it was cold, so blankets and jackets all had to be washed, too. This is a sneak peek of the highway leading into the area. We had a great time and did lots of hiking. I’ll share more pictures with you later this week.
While camping, I started three new cross stitch projects, one for each day we were there.
The first day, I started Flea Market Flowers by Lori Holt. I’m stitching it on Luminous Fiber Arts’ 40 ct Soft Porcelain, and love how the DMC looks on this linen and it’s so tiny. I stitched one day at camp and one day at home. I think I’m going to enjoy stitching this. I’m keeping it in the project bag I made using the Canning Season block form Lori Holt’s Farm Girl Vintage book.
The next day, I started Liberty Quaker by Misty of Luminous Fiber Arts. What a difference. This is on 28 ct evenweave by Artiste. I rarely stitch on 28 ct because I like my projects to be smaller and to have better floss coverage, but it does stitch up faster than the higher count fabrics. I’ve stitched on it for several days and only need to stitch the star and bottom border for part one. Can you guess how I might be finishing it?
I just have a small start on the house and haven’t had a chance to get back to it, Liberty Quaker has just been so fast to stitch. I’m keeping it in my project bag with Lori Holt’s block Old Glory also from the Farm Girl Vintage book; very appropriate for a patriotic project. I’m stitching it on 32 ct Parchment from Weeks Dye Works. This is one of the free designs that Melisa shares often on her site.
While I was riding along, I worked on Gathering Berries, also by Misty. I finished the border while traveling, then worked on the bottom leaf after we returned home. Can you count? I apparently can’t. I counted 16 + 6 = 26, twice! I always count at least twice, sometimes more if a motif is starting out in the middle of nowhere. When I realized I was way off, I stitched the star to see if I can work the stem in with the leaf where it is. I can so I’m not ripping it out. Since the rest of the design doesn’t depend on it’s placement, I’m going to let it go.
I also continued to work on Scenic Farm early in the morning at the camp site. Since the mornings were cold, we didn’t go out too early. I finally got to the point where it was getting difficult to stitch near the bottom…
…so I moved the hoop and did a lot of work on the house. There are at least 7 colors so far and several of them blends. It’s a little slow going, but I’m enjoying building the house.
I will continue to work on this group of projects until a few are finished then move on to something new. I also started making a new fabric purse and hope to have a finish to show you on Sunday.
I hope you have a great rest of your week and thanks for stopping by.
Hello Everyone! Welcome to Works in Progress Wednesday where I share progress on my cross stitch projects. I have two finishes to share today, too! Yippee!
I finished Salute to Abigail by Blackbird Designs. I made a lot of progress on it during the first weekend of May for the #bbdweekendsal and decided I would continue to stitch on it until it was finished. I’m not sure how I’m going to fully finish it yet, maybe something very simple or maybe framed.
I started Abigail as part of my Patriotic Maynia last year. I have not added up the days stitched on it yet, but here are the rest of the statistics:
Fabric – 32 ct Lakeside Sand Dune
Floss – CCW Cupid and DMC 115 (red), CCW Blacksmith Blue (dark blue), Weeks Sky (med blue), DMC 3865 (white) Note: used 2 skeins of all except 3865.
Date started – May 16, 2020
Date finished – May 6, 2021
I also finished the Let’s Talk Spring small by Hands on Design. I haven’t decided how to fully finish this one either, but it will probably be round.
Fabric – 32 ct Charcoal Lugana
Floss – all called for
Date Started – April 20, 2021
Date Finished – May 5, 2021
Days Stitched – 7
I also got a little time in on Gathering Berries by Luminous Fiber Arts. I finished the left side border and after recounting several times, I think it’s the right number of stitches. When I work on it next, I’ll continue to work on the borders just to make sure they meet.
Previous Scenic Farm progress.
Scenic Farms current progress. I haven’t worked on this every morning since the last time you saw it since I took time out to work on Abigail so progress has slowed a little. I will say working white stitches on white fabric is not the easiest. I had to be really careful with the placement and we’ll just say that some of it had to be redone occasionally. I will work a little bit more on the bottom, then do the backstitching in the trees before moving to the bottom section. I’m getting ready to stitch the stone house which will require lots of color changes.
I didn’t take pictures, but I took a day to kit up several new starts. I got the rest of the called for DMC for Flea Market Flowers by Lori Holt so it’s ready to go. I plan to start my version of Liberty Quaker by Misty of Luminous Fiber Arts. I hope the finish will work out as planned. I also kitted up two new freebie Saltbox houses by Melisa of Pinker n Punkin Quilting & Stitching, Sarah Jane’s 1776 Saltbox and Katie Anne’s Saltbox. These should keep me busy for a while, plus continuing to work on my other WIPs.
I hope you have a great rest of your week and thanks for stopping by.
