WRESTLING---

 I feel like I have been wrestling with big bears for the last couple of days!!!

Remember we set up the larger folding table last week--so this week I am working at taming the larger quilt pile and getting them set up with backing, batting, and the basting them--and they are a bit heavy and hard to work with--

But I got one all done--

Do you remember this one???

These blocks are colored with--pencils and I started this one in June of 2016--and pretty much kept at--

  and I see that I did put the blocks together the first time in Aug of 2017--but did not like what I did --so redid the whole top in April 2018--and now finally it is--

now a quilt--in waiting --for me to hand quilt it--it is all basted--

Now the only problem here is--when that will happen--

as I have 5 more large quilts to layer and baste --

and so this afternoon --I  "wrestled another" quilt and got the backing made,

then the batting cut and layered all 3 parts and pressed them together--

all ready for basting--

Yep--I hear Christmas bells a ringin!!!!!

I also realized that I did not have enough batting to do all the rest--4 more--I was 2 pkg short--

I really like to use Dreamers Cotton batting, white in the 'request' thickness--the local quilt shop was  out--and no way to get there anyways--so in trying to think about where I used to order it online--I decided to check on Amazon as I need it quickly too--found they had 3 pkgs in the right size left--so ordered them--and here is the crazy part--Amazon's price was $12.95 each--the quilt shop's price is $21.50--that was $8.55 more for each one--so even though I would of loved to support my local shop--I had to go with Amazon!!

HAVE AN AWESOME DAY IN WHATEVER YOU ARE DOING--

HUGS, DI

IS IT OR ISN'T IT--SUNDAY--

 It is one of those days--where you wonder if this dark bank of clouds is bringing rain, wind, and whatever--or will it be the next batch--so far it has been ok here--but north of us got some really bad weather!!

So what has everyone been up to this past week??

Me--All I know is --I was busy every day--yet not sure just what all I did get done???

I did get my '3' purple angels stitched up--

And I got another Dresden plate finished--

And last Sunday evening while watching the Nascar race--

I got an embroidery piece finished--

this pattern is a Crabapple Hill pattern--(I did change the color of the truck--Meg did her's in yellow on the pattern)

I did order 2 more in this series and yesterday I got them traced out and today--

 I got one of them colored in--ready to start the stitching on it--

and yes--I did change the color of the truck--again!!!!

And I did something that I don't ever do--

I ordered a kit--

I just couldn't help myself--you all know how I love birds--and this kit has everything in it--

even threads, batting, backing, everything for only about $25--

Now don't ask me when--WHEN-- I am going to make it up--cause??????

A couple days was still spent on cleaning and such--and on Thursday, Shauna came to help me for a couple hours with putting up curtain rods to hold my quilts (instead of push pins)

We still have more work to do--but it won't be this next week--I have to wait for another shelf unit to arrive first and that delivery date is June 21st so it will be after that sometime --(that will need to be put together too)!

I have made progress on the Flamingo counted cross stitching piece--and on all three of my knitting projects--the Shawl, socks and baby sweater--

Oh and I just remembered what I did all of Tuesday afternoon--my seed bead order came in--so I spent the afternoon opening small bags of beads and putting them into small round containers--oh what fun I had!!!!! Remember these beads are for the Hexagons in old linens I am doing!

ARE YOU WORKING ON ANY NEW QUILTS OR STITCHING PROJECTS??

HUGS, DI

SUNDAY'S STITCH IN TIME---

 It was "kinda" funny this morning--I got up to blue skies and sunshine out my window--and I was in the bathroom at the sink brushing my, and I can see a small area of the window though the mirror and there is water running down the window--yep--it was raining--and the rain cloud must of been right over the building--cause the sun was still shinning out my window--!!!

I made even more progress on some projects this past week--

I got this small applique finished--

This is one of May's blocks from 'my book'--I am still behind on these--opps!!!

And -- the blue heart quilt did talk to me about borders--so I dug out my new collection of blue prints and found two that would work--

the bird strip only went up and down--so had to use just the flower print on the top and bottom--

and this will be the binding--it's all ready--

and even though I tried to keep this quilt less than 40" wide so I could get it basted for hand quilting--well--that didn't happen so it is in the pile for when I get the new folding table cleaned and set up--which might be this next week--we will see!!!??

And here is Step 1 of finishing these blocks--

lots of unstitching was done--and I did find that the lint roller did a great job in picking off all those little threads--

Step 2--

Notice the new piece--appliqued at the top of the block--it now looks more like a curtain--

than before--

I will not be working on this project nor much of any sewing--other than hand work until maybe Thursday--

Monday and Tuesday I am planning to finish the spring cleaning and redecorating--and Shauna will be back Tuesday afternoon to help put up the curtain rods for hanging my quilts and some of the heavier cleaning--and I think I have a play date with Carolyn on Wednesday--!!!!

And here is my newest counted cross stitching project--

Flamingo's anyone--????  there is '11' of them in this row --I have one more all stitched in and start of another one since I did the photo--they made it into a pincushion--I haven't decided yet????

And I decided it was time to hang out the Summer ABC strip --

HAVE AN AWESOME WEEK

HUGS, DI

AND NOW IT'S JUNE--

 And I even have a sister named --June--and I can remember calling her "June Bug!!"

I have been on a work spree the last couple days--and have lots of projects prepped for sewing--

So--first up though is my OMG goal for June--

Remember these blocks-??

I think I really really need to get these going again and get a 'top' made --so that is the main goal--and my second goal that needs to be done by the end of June is--

the hand quilting on this one and the binding put on it--

I got this one basted yesterday so it is all ready to be started--

Yesterday I also got this one trimmed and the binding sewed on it and then the binding hand sewn down and now it is a finish--

And as I said--I been working on prepping alot of my hand stitching  projects for June--

our color of the month is purple--

there is '3' purple angels in this little box--just waiting for needle and thread--

this tote has 30 some squares for yo-yo's in purple--

this little tote has 3 different projects in it--that need some needle and thread work--

and while I had the table all set up for hand basting--I got this one all basted this morning --after I got the laundry done--

and here is where I am on the 'newest' shawl that I have decided to make--

I do believe that is my 4-5th start with this yarn-but I am happy with how this pattern is shaping up-so hopefully I am on a roll here --now!!!

And I have started a new counted cross stitching piece--but forgot to take a photo of it just now--I am sure I will be doing a photo of this for this week end!!!!

And I do think I am going to add border to the blue heart top I showed in the last post--at first I wasn't going to add any--but--I as a women--can change my mind--right????

DON'T FORGET TO STOP NOW AND THEN AND SMELL THE FLOWERS--THERE IS SOME NEAT ONES IN BLOOM RIGHT NOW!

HUGS, DI

SOMEONE NEEDS TO TALK TO--

 Me--Di--about posting more often--I seem to be on this once a week thing--just Sundays--hummm????

I do have sewing to show you though--

Today--like this very afternoon--I finally got out the bag of the blue hearts--you remember that sewing them together was May's OMG project and other than taking them out for their photo the first part of May--well--they stayed in the bag until today--nothing like rushing around at the last minute!!!

I discovered I had 11 blocks with the blue background and 40 blocks with the white backgrounds--so this is the plan --I did plan it out on paper and then this afternoon--I fired up the sewing machine and away I went 

And here it is--in all it's pretty blueness!!! I kept it really simple--and it was fun to sew the blocks together and not have to measure and cut lattice or corner pieces--!!!

Thursday morning I was 'happy dancing' around here--did you hear me???

Cause after 4 months of steady cross stitching every morning--

Look what I finished--

There is an outer border that the author added--I don't think I want to stitch that on--

I changed several things on this piece--the order of which blocks went where--and I have alot more cardinals on mine --and a few things I changed the colors on--like the boots on the girls--a couple roof colors and all my people and critters have 'eyes'--I really did enjoy stitching this (ok--I did alot of whinning on doing those white frames on each block!!!!)

On Thursday afternoon--Shauna came to help me --finally got up the curtain rod, curtain--more ivy and the new fairy lights that my daughter sent me for Christmas--

This window is very hard to photo cause of the Sun--this string is a big set of lights and oh so pretty-we have them set to change to about 4-5 colors and it is slow and pretty going from one color to the next!! and I love the ivy--the way she pinned it to the front of the curtain in a loopy style and then added the fairy lights to the ivy!!!  ( I have ordered a second set of fairy lights for over my hutch)  these lights are a plug in style--not battery kind!

Yesterday I played with beads all afternoon--

I got this new case so all my beads would be in one place--and see that little tiny spoon--it finally earned it's keep around here--

I had this set of small beads in this plastic contain and needed something to scoop them out with and transfer each color bead to a little container--

Then yesterday I played with them some more with one of the hexies-

I really did not know about the 'sizing' of beads and wanted to see which size worked the best for these hexagons--and decided I needed the 08--3mm size--so went shopping online (as I mostly have 06--and they are a bit large) and have ordered some --ok--alot of beads for these project --but I may also use some beads on the hearts I am doing each month and maybe even on the angels for each month--and by ordering them in sets like I did-I saved a ton of money--the tubes of each one in the Bead store is an average of $4 or more per color--this way--for the same amount--it is less than a dollar a color--so????

And I did get these two pincushions finished--

Ok--time for dinner and then time to watch the races--they don't start till 6:30 pm tonight!!

DON'T FORGET TO THANK SOMEONE IN THE MILITARY TOMORROW--

HUGS, DI

HAPPY SUNDAY--EVERYONE!!

 For me it was a hot and sweaty week--though--our temperature's here in Florida were lower than up north --can you believe that--we only had 80-85 degrees here and a strong breeze--up north is was 90 and hot and humid--wow!!!  But our heat and humidity gets turned up on  Wednesday here--soooo???

It was a good week to work up my sweating-with doing alot of spring cleaning, sorting, and rearranging--I am not totally done--but the rest I need help for--so at least now I can get back to some real sewing!!

So I mainly just did alot of hand work late afternoon's and knitted in the evenings--

I got the second pin cushion top finished-

more red yo-yo's made up--

Still have more yo-yo's to stitch up!

the rest of the 9 hexagon's I had cut out and cut the pieces for all--are all now tacked on--

some stitchers like to do the sewing down as they go with the putting on the beads, ribbons, and such--or they use a bit of glue here and there-I like to actually take tiny tiny stitches with #80 thread and catch each little curve, or lace trim--also stitch the long edges down in the seam lines--

now I get to play with the beading on these!!!

And you can see I am nearly half way finished with the stitching on this last block on the Farm house series--hopefully this will be finished this week!!!!

And my new plant stand came in and I got it put together and my plants all arranged on it--the plants are all in baskets-

I love that now my plants are up higher and will catch some sunshine--and more light!!!  But I used all my baskets on this stand--so I will just have to 'force' myself to go shopping for more baskets one of these days real soon!!!!

And in my birthday card from my sister June--she sent me a old photo of me--

I am not sure it is me--if so I am about 5-6 years old-- I think--and that white thing on the left of me-is suppose to be some kind of mixer that my mother got for Christmas--again--not sure it is mom's--cause where we were living at this time--we were very poor and did not even have food to eat--but I have framed it and will say it is me--so where is my Christmas gifts--and where is my sister June who would of been about 3???

Our pasts can be as mysterious as our futures sometimes!!

MY THE FORCE BE WITH US FOR MORE SEWING THIS WEEK--

HUGS, DI