Some Cross Stitch Finishes and the Future

I have a basket of shame full of cross stitched pieces that aren't finished into either a frame, on a backer, or into a pillow.  There are a lot of cross stitchers that just stitch and then put their finished stitches in a basket or a drawer.  Mine are in a basket so I call it my basket of shame.  

Here is one that I finished stitching quite awhile ago.  

These are Robin Pickens Seasonal Couriers.  The one above is summer.  

In this photo there are spring, fall, winter and the bottom right stitch is Patriotic Typeface from Fat Quarter Shop.  Honestly, I finished stitching all of these awhile ago.

All 5 of these fit on the wooden backer from Chantelle's 141 Design Company.  The backer comes unfinished.  I painted it and wiped it down with a pecan stain.  I've put magnets on the back side of the backer and on the back side of the stitches so I can switch them out for the seasons.  

I glue the fabric to the foam board I order from Amazon.  Then I thread lace my stitching to more foam board.  I find that if I lace my stitching, it's easier to center it and get things even.  And if something happens to the fabric backer,.....well, there's always more fabric!

Here are 4 Patriotic stitches that I made into pillows.  So far I haven't even made a dent in my basket of shame.  I'll keep working on it.  

Do you have this guy where you live?  This guy is called Tally, and he goes through the grocery store taking inventory.  I don't see him every time I'm there, but he's in the aisles pretty often.  And he's stubborn.  I can walk right up to him and stand in front of him, and he keeps nudging forward.  I like technology, but I can't get used to this guy.  

That's all for now.  

I hope you're finding some time to stitch today.  

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.  

Quilts, Hexagons. Cross Stitch and Shopping

Hello   I hope you are all doing well.  I've been busy with physical therapy and exercises, and in between I've managed to squeeze in some other fun things.  

This is my latest little quilt from the Simple Whatnots group.  Our group meeting was last week on Tuesday.  This one is called Prairie Pretties.  I just did some simple quilting on this one.  This stitch is made by choosing the zig-zag option on your machine and setting the stitch width and length wide.   

I sewed the binding on by machine and then I stitched it by hand on the back.  I think hand sewing the binding to do the last part of a quilt is kind of relaxing.  I know everyone doesn't agree with that.  

I've watched several videos on You Tube about crocheting an edge on a quilt.   I decided this little quilt was small enough that it wouldn't be a huge time investment to give it a try.  The video I watched used a backstitch on the edge of the binding,  I started out that way, but my backstitching on the quilt looked like my backstitching on an embroidery piece.   So I used a buttonhole stitch instead.  I'm kind of glad I did because it seemed like it gave the quilt edging more stability.  The buttonhole stitch is a bit tricky to put on the edge of the binding.  I kept trying different needles until I found one with a large enough eye to get the thread through and one that was sharp enough to get the thread through the binding.  I have no idea what kind of needle it was.  I'd guess a chenille needle????   I used Aunt Lydia's Crochet Thread Fashion 3 (100% cotton) that I bought at Michaels.  I started with 2 rounds of single crochet to give the next round a good foundation.  Then I did a 4 double crochets, skip 1 chain, 1 single crochet, skip a chain then another 4 double crochets.  You continue that all the way around the quilt.  If you crochet, that's a pretty simple shell stitch.  

I've also made a few more 5/8" hexagon arches for my Avignon quilt.

I found a little zipper bag and had no idea what was in it.  There were more hexagons.  I think they just keep multiplying.  I pulled out sets of 6 and sewed them into a ring so I can put centers in them sometime later.  These are 3/4" which is the size I use most often.  

I make the ring leaving one side open, and then I find a hexagon from my box of centers and clip them together.  

Here's the pencil box full of odd 3/4" hexagons that I use to choose my centers.  

                                                   

I also found some time to meet a friend in Rushville at Mystic Fabrics.  We shop first then head over to Pizza Hut to eat and then we sit there and stitch.  The girl working there always comes over and says she loves that we're getting together to stitch.  Here's a few photos from inside Mystic.  There's lot of cross stitch patterns, floss, and some yarn.  

They have a lot more fabric than this.  Somehow I only took photos of the wide backing fabrics.  

I've made quite bit of progress on America the Beautiful by Stitching with the Housewives.  I'm working on the flag now.  I kind of like repetitive stitching so I'm enjoying this part.  

That's all for now.   Until next time.......

I hope you are finding some time to stitch today.  

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.

A Weekend Getaway

 We had a weekend getaway to Ohio at Hueston Woods Lodge in the state park there.  The room had a lake view, and the Lodge has a restaurant in house so it's just a nice place to walk around and relax.  And......

The Real Story:    We went for the hot water.   Yep.   Last Thursday I did a lot of laundry, and I noticed that the washer sounded like there was air in the pipes.  Then later on in the day I noticed that the same noise was coming from the sink.  Friday morning we showered and my husband drained the hot water heater tank thinking that if he drained it and turned the circuit breaker off and back on that would take care of the problem.   Well no.  The circuit breaker wouldn't turn back on so there we were with no hot water.  We called a plumber, and he came out on Friday.  He couldn't fix the old water heater......and he couldn't come back until Tuesday morning with a new one.  That's a long time without hot water from Friday to Tuesday.  Besides not being able to shower, your brain automatically makes your hand go to the hot water faucet whenever you wash your hands or do anything at the sink.  And then nothing comes out.  My son said we were welcome to go to his house to shower, but after thinking about it we'd have to take clean clothes, towels, shampoo and conditioner.  So I had the idea to go to a hotel for a couple of days.  We checked a few places, and decided to go over to Ohio to Hueston Lodge.  We stayed until Monday afternoon.  The plumber was here at 8 this morning, and after 3 1/2 hours, he had the new water heater installed.  When he left he said we'd have hot water in about an hour.  No.  My husband went downstairs to check the temperature on the new water heater, and one of the pipes was leaking.  The plumber just left (after his second visit today), and again said we'd have hot water in about an hour.  We'll see.  

Here are a couple more photos I took of Hueston Woods.  This was taken with the panorama setting on my phone.  It looks like everything is squished.  

This is the lobby where you check in.  For some reason I didn't take a picture of where the rooms are.  They are off to the right of the photo.  This is where I've gone in January 2024 and 2025 for the Keepsakes Stitch Away retreat.   It's especially nice in the winter because sleeping, stitching and the restaurant are all right there so we don't need to go outside in the winter weather until we're ready to head home.

The lobby is actually on the second floor.  Here is the big spiral staircase leading from the first floor up to the lobby.  

Of course I took along a hexagon project.  This is the layout for the Avignon quilt I'm working on.  The pattern is in the Feathering the Nest 4 book by Brigette Giblin.  This quilt will be totally scrappy using some new fabrics I've purchased and some of my old repro fabrics that I love.  That cheddar one down toward the bottom of that photo might not make the cut.  It kind of stands out too much from the rest.  I'll see when I add these to the others I have stitched.  These are 5/8" hexagons.  

I've also started a new counted cross stitch project with a couple stitching friends.  We take turns picking a project on our birthdays for all of us to do.   Some years we send each other a kit to stitch.  Other times we just pick a project.  I didn't pick a project on my birthday in April, but another friend picked this one for her August birthday.  This is America the Beautiful by Stitching with the Housewives.  This is a pattern that I've had for quite awhile and have always wanted to do.   Priscilla and Chelsea did their model stitch on black fabric.  They stitch on 28 count over 2 threads.  I decided to do something different so mine is on 18 count dirty Aida cloth.  The word America looks like it's stitched in black, but it's actually a dark navy.  It shows up better in person.  It's actually kind of fun to get back into cross stitch again.  

That's it for now.   I've got more stitching to show but I'll save it for next time.  If you're still reading, thanks for listening to my tale of woe about having no hot water.  

Thanks for stopping by for a visit.

I hope you're finding some time to stitch today!!