A little of this . . a little of that . . .
Even when I’m feeling “under the weather” like I have been the last week or so, I can usually still stitch and it’s a good thing. I had orders for 16 pillows after posting my last grouping. That’s a good thing of course! But 16 pillows – that’s a lot to get done. I’m getting there though – only 2 1/2 half to go! Lots of pumpkins and witches. It’s getting to be that time of the year!
This is what you do when you take a break for a week. Last week when I was being a bum I binge watched Downton Abbey (I know – I’m way behind everyone else in my TV shows!) and I stitched. I stitched a lot! While it was hot and humid outside I worked on Halloween and fall things! I finally got them all died and filled and stitched into pillows. I love how Miss Grimhild fits inside this gourd – it’s like they were made for each other!
I did a lot of stitching today. I should have been doing other things – like getting the camper ready for the weekend. But instead I stitched. Drew and I did run and get groceries after perusing the sale ads that came out today. Then back home to stitch some more. I want to get this sampler done so I can start on an order. I’ve been stitching samplers here lately along with pillow tucks to sell but this one I’m going to keep for myself. I have no idea where I’m going to put it but it’s staying here with me!
Wow – we had a busy last few days! We sold shave ice on the 3rd and the 4th, the weather was unbearably hot and humid (which is good for selling shave ice but hard on these old bodies!), our freezer decided to misbehave during this time so we dealt with that, the 4th of July parade, getting the camper ready for camping on the 5th, the freezer apparently had some stale water in a drippan underneath that provided us with one horrible horrible smell that had to be taken care of, finally made it to the campground, had beautiful camping weather, managed to get in lots of stitching and relaxing, babysitting Bayah at the campground Friday night, a wedding reception in Bettendorf on Saturday night for my cousin, home with the camper yesterday, over to Dad and Mom’s last night to retrieve all our meat to put back in the freezer that is now up and running again. We had lots of fun but today I’m thankful to get back to normal!
It’s been so excessively hot and humid these past couple days – we’ve stayed inside as much as we can. And I’ve been staying up later than usual to get some much needed stitching time in. I went through a short dry spell where I just wasn’t wanting to stitch. I did a little embroidery but as usual, I enjoyed a small project or two and then I was done. Then I ordered some patterns from Lori Rippey and Tina Woltman and I’m back into my stitching again.
In my quest to be more organized, I’m putting every new pattern I get from now on in a binder and I think I’ll group them according to designer. That beats throwing them all willy nilly into a tub where I can’t find any specific one. Someday I hope to get through all those tubs and get all my patterns put into binders. That will be a huge job!
I’m loving the drab prim colors, the alphabets, the simple motifs. I haven’t stitched any samplers in quite awhile and I’m enjoying getting back into that too. I feel grounded again.
Joe has the first three days off work next week for the holiday and he’s taking Thursday and Friday off as well. We’ll sell shave ice again on Tuesday and Wednesday and then our plan is to camp after that. It should be a fun week, nothing too pressing, hopefully get a few more things done around here the next couple days, the fun 4th of July festivities and then a little getaway. Although we’ll be running home now and then to check on the chickens and gather eggs!
After a busy weekend it was nice to have a quiet Tuesday. Drew must have been wore out from the weekend as he was calm and quiet all day. I got the house picked up and vacuumed, the kitchen and the bathroom cleaned. We didn’t venture outside anymore than we had to due to the heat. I was happy to see my peonies finally bloomed. I love peonies – they are so beautiful and they smell wonderful! Too bad they don’t last longer!
After supper Joe and Drew headed over to Dad and Mom’s so Joe could help Dad repair his mower which gave me a nice quiet evening at home to stitch – I don’t get quiet evenings at home much this time of year so I really enjoyed my stitching time and watching Calling the Midwife! It’s funny though – I looked forward to this time – a couple of hours of quiet alone time – and yet I was more than ready for my guys to come home!
I’m finally getting caught up on orders. I love this time of year because it’s so nice to finally get to be outside and out of the house but we get so busy that I don’t get to stitch as much as I’d like. I told Joe I’m going to have to stop taking orders for now becuase I just can’t dedicate the time to stitching like I would like. It’s hard to not stitch. But by the time we get into the house of an evening and settled in for the night, it’s getting late and I’m just plain exhausted and too tired to stitch. This time will pass and we’ll get settled into our summer routine and I’ll be able to bring stitching back into my days but for now, I’ll just have to grab a few minutes here and there when I can to keep me grounded. Stitching is my relaxation, my calm during a storm, it’s just what I do. I think maybe my next project will be something for me. Something I won’t feel pressured to finish. It’s been too long since I’ve stitched just because. Now to pick the perfect pattern from my every growing stash!
I’m sitting here with the TV on watching Sister Wives – not sure why I watch this show but I do. Joe thinks I’m crazy to watch it but he’s gone tonight for work so I have a free evening to watch what I want and since Dew wanst to entertain himself right now I’m watching what I want! I have Drew behind me playing away with his train set in the dining room and I can hear the rain coming down. I love love the rain! It’s just nice and cozy right now. I feel like we’ve been so busy lately and yet we’ve really not been doing much of anything. We haven’t accomplished anything big around here. Once in awhile it’s nice to do nothing but once the weather starts to cooperate we’re going to have to get busy and get things done around here.
I spent the day in town today with a friend. How nice to spend a day just visiting. We hadn’t gotten together since way before Christmas and it was just time. I’ve become something of a hermit lately. I like to be home. I’m content to be home. I’ve gotten really good at isolating and I have to make myself spend time out and about. When I don’t it gets harder and harder for me to get out and socialize. It was nice to get out and converse with somebody in person and just get away from the house and I need to make myself do it more often. The longer I go without socializing the harder it gets for me to get out and I have to make myself get out of my comfort zone of home!
I have gotten a lot of stitching done over the last few weeks. These two are getting filled with crushed walnut shells and then I’ll stitch them up. I’m not sure if I want to sell these or keep them for myself. I’ll probably try and sell them and then stitch up two more for myself. I’m loving how they are turning out and will hate to see them go. I love Tina Woltman designs. They are so prim perfect!
These two love their chickens!We added to our flock over the weekend. We don’t have much room left in our coop but we also want to be able to keep a steady stream of eggs comings so we brought two babies home Saturday morning. I wanted more but that wouldn’t be fair to them. Even though the coop supposedly will hold 10 chickens I think the six we now have will be a stretch for them in the winter. We might have to rethink our coop situation next spring. These chickens are addictive! And I went out to check for eggs today I got quite a surprise – I opened up the door and saw a blur of orange run past only to see a nest of baby kittens in the box the chicken usually their eggs in. And one of the Reds was laying in another box. I quickly shut the door as the mama cat was really really anxious. I don’t even know if she was done having them as she wasn’t in there when Joe let the chickens out this morning. Not a good place to have babies I’m afraid. Hopefully she will decide to find a new home for her babies.
We now have a Barred Rock named Lizzie and an Americana named Matilda! Drew picked out the Barred Rock and named her. He picked out the smallest one (I remember always wanting the runt when I was young too!) they had and so far she seems to be thriving. I wanted an Americana because they lay blue eggs. No other reason than that – I just want to have blue eggs! They only had two Americanas left so I was glad we decided to check on Saturday. We were going to wait a couple more weeks but they weren’t sure what breeds they would be getting in later so home with us they came! Now we really have a mix of breeds but I think it’s fun that way. We can easily tell them apart and they each have their own distinct personality except for the two Rhode Island Reds. We have never figured out how to tell them apart!
The weather is finally warming up here. We had an evening and night of rain, lightening, thunder, sleet, snow – you name it we had it – but it’s warm enough now that nothing sticks. I think Joe’s getting the camping itch because he’s been grilling us some yummy meals. He grilled jalapeno stuffed chicken breasts one night and they were so good he grilled more a couple of nights later to take over to Mom and Dad. Dad had bunion surgery and a hammer toe worked on so we thought Mom would like to not have to fix supper after taking care of Dad all day. Then yesterday he grilled what he called a Bacon Cheeseburger Fattie. Another really yummy meal and it looked to pretty – he weaved bacon to roll the hamburger/cheese mixture up in. Definitely camping season meals for sure!
And I’ve been busy stitching away. I had a large order that kept me busy. I’m thinking I might not be so open to orders anymore. I get so nervous about getting them down and shipped and that’s all I can concentrate on. Not such a good thing for me or my family I’m afraid. But I have found a new show on Netflix to watch while stitching- Calling The Midwife. A really enjoyable show!
I’ve stitched for so many years I’ve lost count. My aunt taught me when I was a young girl and I’m so grateful to her for taking the time to teach me. I stitched on and off over the years and then for some reason I stopped for a few years. I just had no desire to pick up the needle. I did lots of other crafts and did lots and lots of scrapbooking for a time. I never thought I would get tired of scrapbooking but for some reason the desire just slowly went away. I have some beautiful books and we love to pull them out and look through them but now I hardly ever even print a picture. I have so many pictures of Abby and even Aaron. Not as many of Eric but I still have way too many. And then Drew comes along and I had stopped taking and printing pictures. I started taking pictures again but I just don’t print them like I should.
Anyway, back to stitching. I picked up my needle again a few years ago and discovered stitching on linens and developed a love for the primitive patterns and the designers that are out there. Good bye Aida cloth and bright colors and cute designs. But along with this new love and more time to stitch again now that I only have Drew at home, I have run out of room for my creations. And I’m a pack rat and feel the need to keep everything so of course I can’t get rid of any of my creations!
Then I started following some primitive and country decorating pages on Facebook which led me to some primitive selling pages and I took the plunge. Joe has been pushing me for years to try and sell what I stitch but if it wasn’t for Facebook I don’t think I would ever have even tried. And low and behold – my creations sell! I’m not going to get rich by any means doing this but I can at least justify my stitching now. I’m not filling the house with unneeded creations and it’s not costing me anything to make what I do because I’m selling what I make. And now when I sit and stitch at night not only am I enjoying myself immensely I’m making others happy too! It’s a win win right??!!
Stitching is a form of therapy for me. To just sit quietly and pull thread through linen. The feel of it, the sound of it, and the creating process. The beautiful colors of the threads and putting those threads together to make beautiful designs. And there’s something about the primitive designs that just tug on my soul. Their simplicity and dark muted colors. And then dying them in a coffee bath when I’m done stitching to make them even more muted. Picking out the perfect baking fabric – Civil War reproduction fabric is my fabric of choice. Just one more thing to draw me to the past just like these little pillow tucks, cupboard keeps, whatever you want to call them do. I like to think that even back in days gone by, even when our ancestors didn’t have much and they had to sew by hand out of necessity that they would stitch a little pin tuck and put a little primitive design on it to make it pretty to help lighten their load and have something pretty to adorn their home. My stitching draws me to the past and gives me something pretty to adorn my home too – a little pillow tucked into a little bowl or the corner of a shelf. Just a little something to brighten the day!