SUNDAY'S THIS AND THAT'S

 

First --

isn't this a 'cute' fabric--??

You know 'Di' and her mice!!!

I ordered this-- in this online order of fabric that just came in--

From the Fabric Shack--

There is some cute little birds on another one-

and a couple purple ones--and a red one--

then there is a couple for backings for a couple projects--

oh and one has the alphabets on it-thought that just might be something I would need

some day!!!!

And a Total finish--

This black flowered quilt is all done--

it's one of my quilts that I just don't think I like after it is all done!!

Do you ever have those????

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And now for an update on some of my 'online' orders--

as you know I have not been happy with some of them--

but now need to amend that--

I did 3 orders off Facebook Ads--

the first one was from Quilters Deal and was the fabric bundles--

They took 70 some days to get here--and I am still disappointed in the quality

of the cloth-(being very thin)--but then I also have had to tell myself--

what did I expect for $12 a bundle--there's no way they would be quilt shop

quality for that price--so I am bad!!!

Second item I ordered from Fabric Hut--

again it took 70 some days--and this order shipped directly from China--

why this company doesn't have them in stock here in USA--I just  don't understand--

anyways--

you know that I have stated that the packaging was cheap--

I need to explain a bit further--it was in  a package and it also comes with lots of

replacement blades--but the package did not tell me how to change the blade--

and it came with no blade in it--

when I took the screw out to put a blade in it--a small metal piece--(bent) piece fell off--

I had no idea if it went on the front or the back--

I did get it together and must of done it right--

cause it works--

and it works really well--

I cut through 8 layers of quilt shop fabric with it the other day--

plus I have used it alot and it is still nice and sharp--

I believe the blades are titanium( or something like that)

so this order was worth waiting for!!

The next order was from Love to Sew--

 and is a large wool mat and the string of lights for the sewing machine--

these took well over 80 days to get here--

and I have not gotten to use them yet as they were in time out from all their travels!!!

I have used a smaller wool mat--so do love the wool mats--

I just wanted a larger one for my pressing table--

and I don't remember the price now--

the 2 items together were only $42--so the price was right, for sure!!!

Here is another new item that I got recently--

 this holder--

and I do like it--

it's just-- I wished the bottom was 'weighed' more--

it does tip over easily--but it does work really well on my cutting out table!!!

Okay-- think this catches us up for now!!

I am busy winding more kinds of floss on little white cards this afternoon--

while I watch a western movie and then the races--

what are you doing?????

TAKE TIME TO JUST 'SIT' AND SMELL THE ROSES--

OR TAKE A GENTLE NAP TODAY--

LUV, DI

IT'S RAINING ON MY HEAD--

 This song kept going through my mind yesterday-

as I worked on finishing up this new quilt top

for the Silver Lining sew along--

I didn't use one block we make-- and instead added the one block

about Dancing in the Rain--

thought it fit well with this line of fabric as it has rain drops, umbrellas and boots

on some of the fabrics--

Now these corner pieces--

about did me in--

they are suppose to be 3 rain drops --individual with a bit of space between them--

and done with applique--well---I worked and worked on them and just could not get them

to come out right--SOOOO--

I did my own thing--and hand stitched the 3 pieces together and 

then appliqued them as one piece to the corner pieces!!!

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and then I went for Rain drops to Baking--

and baked up a storm with the apron blocks--

and I got this far yesterday with them--

I had wanted to make them in a row--with borders to cover up the electrical box on the kitchen wall but--because of the border print I wanted to use with --it just wouldn't come out right -so to plan B I went and this is what I ended up with--

I have had this fabric for about  5 years now and really wanted to get it used  in something and felt these aprons would be perfect and I can't believe how well the colors in the aprons I chose--went with the colors in the fabric--even that lime green!!

And I  even have a large enough piece left for the backing--

I had gotten this piece thinking I would make me an apron--but then  I don't bake often enough to need an apron--so--we will use it for a quilt!!!

So I have been on a roll this week-the apron top is my #3 of the dirty dozen challenge--so next thing is to get it with the backing and batting and basted for hand quilting (it's also on this months OMG goals) along with the black flower quilt that is still being worked on!

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I ended up in a 'pickle' this morning--

I wanted to go for a walk again this morning and it was getting late--but off I go--as I get out in the hallway I see that down by the elevators is the rescue squad and they have a tenant on a stretcher waiting on the elevator--which did not want to come up to the 3rd floor--I waited half way  down the hall way as there was at least '6' men and women with the tenant--now all had masks on--but they all crowded into one small elevator--really!!!!  So not knowing if our elevators were really working properly I decided to go down on the single elevator in the back corner of the building and wouldn't you know it--in one of the long hallways--I met a group of people delivering food bags to some tenants--again they did have masks on --but it was tight side by side passing--finally made it outside and did a short walk as it was getting too hot to go further and no breeze today (which is unusual for here) After I got back here I just kept feeling --not clean--so took off my clean clothes that I had only had on for an hour and took a shower--felt better!!!   Can you see what this crazy Covid 19 is doing to us---besides the possible worry about getting it--it is just plain driving us 'looney'!!!!!!  at least that is my excuse!!!!! 

So what 'big' plans do you have for the week end????

Me--more of my floss cards came today--so I will be watching races and winding pretty colored threads around little white cards!!!!

RELAX--TAKE TIME TO JUST WATCH A BEE TAKING POLLEN FROM A PRETTY FLOWER--OR A WATCH A PRETTY BUTTERFLY JUST ENJOYING THE BREEZE AND FLUTIN AROUND-LUV, DI

SLEEPLESS IN FLORIDA

I went to bed on time around 10:30 and did go right to sleep--

but woke up around 2:15 am and was awake for hours--

finally got a bit of sleep between 6:30 and 8 am!!

Must of been the full moon!!!!

So I did not get as much done today as I had planned--

But I did have a busy stitching day yesterday--

and look at this--

The Snowflake mystery for July--

the top is all done--

I used a center block I found on a panel for my center block--

the wood frame around the word Joy brings out a bit of the brown in the long

pine branch strips!!

This really was a fun mystery to sew--it is 51"x 51"--

and it is hanging on my living room wall as that is the only space large enough 

to photograph on now!! and after all the pressing I did on this one--

it will hang there until the backing comes in and I get it gets 'sandwiched' and basted!!!!

And here is some embroidery work from Sunday's stitching--

a couple more Christmas pieces-

and I worked on this for a couple days--

Can you guess which top I embroideried this one for??????

And some more appliqued baskets --

I am nearly done with !!!

And today I did work on putting another set of blocks together in to a top--

but did not get it finished--maybe tomorrow!!!

JUST KEEP SMILING--EVEN UNDER THOSE MASKS -

AND YOU WILL FEEL BETTER AS WILL THOSE AROUND YOU!

LUV, DI

TIME TO TALK AUGUST

Goals--that is--

I have '2' for OMG--

the first goal is to finish hand quilting this one--

I have nearly finished all the flower blocks--just 2 need to have the inside edges hand quilted--then to decide how to do the little blocks in between the rows and then the outside border rows--

and--The second one is--

I will be putting these blocks into some kind of top--

And would love to get this one hand quilted too--

only time will tell--

we do have 31 days in August and after today--

that means I have 29 more to work with!!!!!!!!

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In other goals--

1. to get the Snowflake blocks into a top

2. to get the Silver Lining blocks into a top

3. to get the Jolly Bar blocks into a top--

  (as we will be doing the last block for this one this week-

    so figure we will be getting the finishing instructions next week)

4. will be finishing up my applique basket blocks end of this week--

so will need to find another applique project to work on--

wonder what I might do????

Ok ---you all get the picture--

looks like this month will be putting alot of blocks into tops--

and I thought someone said this month was for those 'fun' projects

that we keep collecting and never get too???????

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Hurricane update--

I never would of known there was a hurricane off our coast --

had it not been for the news--

only 2 miles from the beach and we got nothing here--

only a little bit of rain every once in a while and a little bit of wind mid afternoon--

but I guess they say there is some beach damage--and now it moving up the coast--so to my SC and NC and anyone else in it's way--take care--I am thinking of you!!!

KEEP SMILING AND KEEP ON-- KEEPING ON

--WE CAN DO IT!!

LUV, DI

SUNDAY HURRICANE

It is about 1:45 pm here on the east coast of Fl and --

I think the bands from the hurricane are getting closer--

as the tree out my window is blowing around more--

but the sky is still quite light and bright!!!

Here is a 'in progress' reports--

First up for slow stitching Sunday--

this is what I worked on this morning--

that little mouse gave me a hard time--

I actually had stitched him in on Saturday morning-

only to discover I was off a whole row--

so had to frog him out

 and then today I started at his feet and worked him up!!!!

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and for my July report for--

I am happy to say that once again--

I stitched 31 days out of 31 days in July

and stitched for a total of 145 hours--

I mean what else is there to do these days of having  to be home!!!!

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And in the Dirty Dozen challenge--

she picked #3--

and so these are the blocks that will be finished into a top for August--

My fairly new embroidered apron blocks--

think this is the only newer 'ufo' project on my dirty dozen list--

all the others are older--sitting in the wait line!!

So I have to put on my thinking 'hat' and decide how to finish them--

these did not come with a quilt finish in the pattern!!

So-- here I am just waiting on --whatever--the weather is gonna do--

but I am pretty sure I will be doing some kind of sewing while I wait--!!!

and there is a race on today at 3pm from New Hampshire--so am

hoping I don't lose internet service--time will tell!!!

 MAKE SOME NEW PLANS FOR THIS WEEK--

BUT BE SAFE--REMEMBER THE RULES--

LUV, DI

I THINK WE SHOULD--

Make August a month for just for Fun projects--

and apparently --

I will be starting the month off with this--

We have a hurricane headed right for my county here on the East Coast of Florida--

I live about 2 miles inland or less--

so talk about an unusual year--we don't get hurricanes until Sept/Oct--!!!!

Okay--- back to some 'fun' plans for August--

We all work so hard on our projects--

that I think we forget about all the projects and ideas and patterns--

that we have collected for like forever--

so let's stop the train -- for this month and work on at least one or two of

 'our'--I really want to make this--someday--

and make that someday be -

someday in August--

anyone on board with me??????

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Here's how I have ended out the Month of July--

today I finished up this quilt top--

Remember me embroidering these mermaids a couple years ago--

from over on Joy's blog site????

well--they are now a quilt top--

And here they are--

in the deep blue sea--

I happened to have a charm pack that I thought would go perfect with them--

and here is what was left--

Just 3 'half' charm pieces!!!

Also --if  you can see them--

there is designs in the white pieces, of crabs, sail boats, light houses, frogs, ect!!

This will be donated somewhere when it is finished--

went shopping on line for the backing--found '2' I like now to  decide?????

And another little top --

and I got this 'leader n enders' squares (mini charm pack) finished into a little top--

And I got a nice surprise in the mail yesterday--

A belated birthday gift--lots of goodies--

and the money is for chocolate--

as she knows you don't send chocolate to Florida this time of the year!!!!!

And the kitties already have found their home--

Up on the window sill so I can keep an eye on them--

the funny thing here is--

I have dreamed about 'yellow' cats for a couple years now--

haven't figured out what those dreams mean yet???

And this bundle looks like string or ribbon--

but it is really stretchy so it is for face masks--

I will probably be making some more in the next couple days for gifts--

so this will come in handy then--

and all that 'lovely' fabric is so pretty to look at !!!!

Thank you so much, Alice!!!

So will I might be doing this over the week end--

Hanging on for dear life--

what are you going to be doing???

Don't forget to pick out your 'fun' project for August!!!!

KEEP SMILING AND BEING KIND AND STAY HOME--AND BE SAFE!!

LUV, DI

STOCKED UP!!

We will get to the 'stocked up' in a minute--
but first some 'quilty' news!!

Got the last block put together for the
Silver Lining stitch along--

Now my block is turned a bit different from the pattern--
see the light blue and white triangle pieces--
those were suppose to be facing the center block-
but it looked too 'washed out' that way for me--
so I turned it around!!!!!!!!
and here is all the blocks so far--
(these are not in the order that we sewed them)

next week we get the finishing instructions--
there is some embroidery blocks that we also got with this one--
I think I know which one I want to stitch and add to these blocks--
so will be working on that over the week end!!

and I got this week's Jolly Bar blocks stitched up this morning--

3 arrow blocks--
a fairly easy block to do--
think we just have one set of blocks to do for this quilt--
then the finishing of them the next week--

And look at how I used the boxes that my counted cross stitching threads where in-

I used  them to sort my Valdani threads in
they used to just be in a big zip lock bag and it was hard to see all the colors--
looks like I have lots of naturals, green, and browns--only one really bright yellow!!!
Maybe I should order some yellows--
I love shopping!!!

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Now about the 'all stocked up'--
I was getting low on a couple things--
like water and chocolate so my girl friend and I had made plans to go shopping--
Wednesday-(today)--but then yesterday just before getting on the computer--
I caught the weather report and--
low and behold--
there's a big storm system headed right for us--
maybe this week end--and I know how 'crazy' the stores can get--
when they start talking big storms here in Florida--
so we decided to go yesterday--
I was surprised that the store--Publix's was calm--
and the water aisle was well stocked--
so I got my water--
then later I went down the paper goods aisle and there
I scored--
my brand of Toilet paper--in  a 12 pack even--
one of those babies flew into my cart-
and paper towels--
and my brand of tissues--in the flat box--
and now don't forget the most important item--
chocolate---

so now I am ready for the storm--
or if people decide to 'panic' buy on toilet paper again!!!
and here is one fact that puzzles me--
toilet paper comes in 4 packs--and that is what I usually buy--
and often get 2-4 packs--which equals 8 rolls--but now
you can only get '1' package--that's only 1-4 pack or the 12 pack!!!
so I really had to get the 12 pack anyways!!
I think they should limit how many 'rolls' you can buy--
like 12--and not how many packages you can buy--
at least for this 'little' stitchy brain of mine--it would make more sense!!!!

And I just did another Joann's order--
for more floss cards, boxes,- so I can continue organizing my thread collections--
always something to look forward too--
though going out to a restaurant would be fun-or
actually going into a store to shop,
besides a grocery store would be nice--
but--
just think how 'lucky' we are that we are 'fighting' this virus today--
with all the tech-knowledge we do have now--
and the ability to order online--!!!

I think I will go 'clean' me some chocolate ice cream now, too!!

SUNDAY TIME

Boy --can Sunday's roll around fast--
even in 2020 and so many 'weird' things happening!!

I did get this goal accomplished already--

and this month I only had one goal--
and that was to --

hand quilt and finish this heart quilt--
and I am happy dancing--
cause it is all done and hanging on my bedroom wall!!!!

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My #5 dirty dozen goal--
was the flower blocks--black cotton background and wool flowers--
that needed to be put into a top--
and basted for quilting--

and that is done and ready for me to start hand quilting this week--

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All my --block of the months are done--for July--
and so far all my 'stitch alongs' for July are all caught up--
even Part 4 of the Snowflake mystery--

These 4 blocks were fairly easy--
until I sat down to sew them together--
and realized that I had to plan out each of these rows--
so that the little red cardinal, bows and stars--
were going in the right direction--
2 of these strips will be going from east to west--
so they were the ones I had to concentrate on the most--
the other 2 strips were going north and south--so once I had a plan-
it pretty much came out ok--that is until I went to press them
--and--
realized that one of the long green strips would need to be unstitched--
turned around and restitched--job done--back to pressing them--
we only have one block left--the center block --then the finishing--
so stayed tuned this week for that!!!

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Now everyone has been talking about 'squirrels--
and I guess my big squirrel for July has been my floss boxes--
that is taking all the little bags of floss and winding the floss around little cards--

I already showed you the first two boxes--
 and then I ran out of the little cards
and had to order more--they came in this week so got this job done--
and I just love opening these boxes of so many pretty colors and deciding which ones
will get pulled for each project!!! there is over 425 colors in these 4 boxes!!!
and then
I decided I needed to keep going--

and do my counted cross stitch floss's--
-- this is how I have been storing them and using them--
I have one box done now--but--
ran out of those little cards--
so will have to wait to order more of them!!!!

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Oh and remember this 'little' pile of 132 half square triangles??

well--here is how they look now--

all ready to be used--someday in a project!!!

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Well--I need to go work on my present Counted cross stitching project--
as I did not get to work on it this morning--
I walked down the street this morning--
to see the front of the new apartment building--

they have about got this project finished--the new sidewalk is in and the cute fencing--

and this is the side of the building--
and up on that deck that curves around is a swimming pool--
the apartments are Studio, one and two bedrooms--
and I hear the Studio apartments are going for $1,600.00 a month--
(I don't want to know what the others are going for--the studios are 2x what I
get a month to live on--I would need 2-3 roommates to afford one of them!!!)
the bottom level is suppose to have a restaurant and a couple shops in it--
but don't think anyone has leased the spaces yet!!!
This is the apartment building that I have watched get finished from my apartment
window since I moved in!!
and then I continued on the street for a couple blocks--
first time I have walked down there in months!!

WE CAN DO THIS--WE CAN CONTINUE TO BE CAREFUL AND SAFE--
AND WE CAN BE KIND TO OTHERS WHILE WE DO IT--
THINKING OF ALL OF YOU--
LUV, DI