Things Did Not Go As Planned

***Warning*** Gross injury description below.

Good day, my friends.

I sure hope you had a great weekend.  Mine didn’t quite go as planned.

Hubby and I did get our Friday night pizza.  And I made the peach crisp. Then this happened…

As soon as I took the crisp out of the oven, a flying ant got into the house.  He landed above a window. I removed the cushion from the chair below the window so I wouldn’t slip. I killed the ant. As I was stepping down, my hand slipped off the arm of the chair and I fell. I was shocked to see my ring finger on my left hand was at a 45-degree angle, sideways.  I quickly snapped it back into place and called for my husband to remove the bug remains from the wall.

Since the last place I wanted to be on a Friday night (or any night, really) is an emergency room, I waited until Saturday to go to urgent care.  The X-rays showed a possible chip close to the knuckle. And one of the physical tests indicated I may have torn some soft tissue. They put the finger in a splint, buddy-taped it to another finger and referred me to an orthopedic specialist, which I will see this morning.

I’m not in any pain, unless it is touched.

Saturday was rainy and pretty much a bust. But I did receive a bit of happy mail.

Do you remember Sinta? She used to blog at Pink Pincushion.

I think her last post there was in 2019. Well, we can find her these days under the same name on Instagram.  She is still making the most beautiful quilts and recently made one from Fig Tree’s Strawberry Garden book. The book is published by It’s Sew Emma, which is owned by the Fat Quarter Shop. Since Sinta was a model quilter for the book, she was allowed to give away a copy of the book on her IG.

I was the lucky winner! This book is chock full of beautiful quilts using Fig Tree fabrics, which I love.  I enjoyed looking through the book while resting, icing and doing all the things I was told to do.

By Sunday, I was getting pretty bored. Since there was no way I was going to take my chances with a rotary cutter, I decided to stitch.

Liberty House got quite a few stitches added to it.

I’m hoping for good results from the doctor’s this morning. And I’m leaving the bugs to my hubby from now own.

Enjoy your day and week ahead.

Quilt Blocks and a Cross Stitch FO

Happy Friday!

We made it to the end of another week, and I am so excited. I have just a little bit of cleaning left to do.  Then I can do whatever I (or my sweetie) want to do.  We are hoping to get a hike in at the Biltmore if the weather is nice. And we always look forward to our Friday evening tradition of pizza and a craft beer at our favorite place in town.  It gets busy there, so we go early. That allows me the rest of the evening to stitch or sew or bake. We have fresh peaches that are just about ready, so I’ll be baking a crisp this evening.

 

The week has been productive both at work and in the sewing room.

 

I finished two more blocks for Lori Holt’s Scrappiness Is Happiness quilt.

 

This is the Patchwork Star block. It measures 16 ½”.

This is the Patchwork Tulip block. It measures 9 ½” x 12 ½”.

There are only six more blocks to go.

I’m still stitching bee charts.  This one is Honey Berry by Erica Michaels. 

It was another quick finish.

I used fabric from my stash and changed the floss colors to match the Primrose Cottage charts. I’ll give you all the details on fabric, colors, etc. when I fully finish it into a berry, which I hope will be this weekend.

Crafting plans for this weekend are to sew two more SIH blocks and fully finish some cross stitch projects.

What are you up to this weekend?

F.N.S.I. and Weekend Recap

Good day, my friends.

The third Friday of the month came quite quickly, in my opinion. But the good thing about that is I got to participate in Wendy’s Friday Night Sew-In.

I had a finish on Honey Bee Basket by Primrose Cottage Stitches. 

It was an easy and quick stitch. You will find the details on fabric and floss in my previous post here.

I have a finishing piece in mind and hope to get to it this weekend.

Friday night was also a baking night. Hubby asked for a blueberry cobbler, and who am I to say no to that?

I tried a new recipe from Tastes Better from Scratch and we think it is the best one yet!

Saturday was supposed to be a sewing day, but we needed to go to Asheville for a few things. We parked near a veterinary clinic while running errands.

This is the outside of the clinic. Isn’t this a fun wall?

We had a little rain on Sunday and my hydrangeas loved it!

The little lime hydrangea is just beginning to bloom.

The others are much further along.

I had shared in a previous post that I was participating in a stitch along on IG from May 21^st until July 2^nd. The hashtag is #ItBeeTuesdaySAL, hosted by Christi @javagirlstitches and Ana @anaroat1. We posted progress on our bee projects on Tuesdays and tagged them. They had a give away for the participants and I won one of the gifts.

It is a collection of finishing items, a needle minder and floss keeper by Souleful Creations.

I’m sure you will see some of these items in the upcoming bee display.

So, that was the weekend on Aster Ridge. What did you get up to? Anything creative? Did you do any baking? Tell me all the things!

Lemon Brownies, Quilt Blocks, More Cross Stitch

Happy Thursday, Friends!

We are almost to the weekend and I’m excited to share some recent sewing and cross stitch progress with you.

First, I mentioned in my last post that I was off to make lemon brownies. 

A couple of people here on the blog and on Instagram inquired about the recipe.

I shared the link to the recipe years ago but thought I would offer it again for anyone who is interested in trying them.  I have had to make a few adjustments since moving to the mountains, but they are still delicious and one of our favorite summer desserts.

Find the recipe here.

I am still making progress on Lori Holt’s Scrappiness Is Happiness quilt.  Since the quilt-along has ended, I’ve assigned myself a schedule to make at least two blocks per week, picking up where I left off last year.

We were instructed to make two Butterfly blocks.

This is the Neighborhood block.

After completing the quilt blocks, I made progress on Liberty House by Brenda Gervais of With Thy Needle and Thread.

June progress…

This is where I am now…

This is part of a stitch-along hosted by Hollis Hands Create on Instagram. The general idea is that we start a patriotic or summertime themed cross stitch on Memorial Day, with the goal to finish by Labor Day. The hashtag is #HollisSummerHolidaySAL if you are interested in seeing what others are stitching.

Next, I pulled out Olga’s Autumn Stocking.

Since it was time to move the scroll rods, I thought I would open it up and show you where I left off in June.

I put in 413 stitches last Sunday which completed a few motifs around and under the pumpkin.

I’ll continue to work on this piece on Sundays.

Grandma Winnie’s Basket is a chart in the 2024 Nashville Needlework Market Cookbook. I do not have a cover photo to share because only the chart was published.  I stitched this while we were camping in the Outer Banks in May, then promptly misplaced it.

While I was organizing my cross stitch last week (more on that in a future post), I found it tucked away in a completely different project. So, I quickly finished it into a pillow.

And lastly, I stitched one more patriotic piece. This is Uncle Sam by Threadwork Primitives.

He will be finished using a skeleton key. I hope to get that done this weekend.

I think I’m finished with patriotic for this year. More bee charts are on the agenda for the next couple of weeks.  I started Honey Bee Basket by Primrose Cottage Monday while watching MLB's All Star  Home Run Derby.

I’m stitching this on 32 25 count Lugana in the color Cloud by Lori Holt and using the called-for DMC floss.

This evening’s agenda is to cut the next couple of Scrappiness Is Happiness quilt blocks and prepare for some weekend sewing and stitching.

What is keeping you busy these days?

 

A Start and Finish for the Patriotic Hoosier Cabinet

Happy Sunday, Friends!

I mentioned in my June 24^th post that I needed one more piece for the top shelf of the Hoosier to complete the patriotic décor.

I selected Patriotic Quaker 1776 by The Proper Stitcher.

I stitched it on 36 count linen, Vintage Country Mocha. The chart called for Weeks Dye Work Battleship for the blue thread but I didn’t have any. Instead, I used Deep Sea. The red and white were the called for Baked Apple and Grits.

I love how the little pillow came out.

It fit perfectly in my oddly shaped dough bowl.

I think it filled the top shelf of the Hoosier cabinet quite well.

Lin, whose blog is St Victor Quilts, had the same curiosity as I did regarding the purpose of the Longaberger basket I recently purchased. I did a little research and learned that it is a vegetable basket.

And speaking of vegetables, well technically a tomato is a fruit, I had forgotten to show you the rather large tomato I purchased at StitchCon.  This thing is almost as big as my face and really makes the Featherweight look small.

I found some cute pins in my stash for it.

Lastly, while doing some finishing, I ran across a piece I stitched four years ago but had never fully finished it. 

It is Firework Lane by Little Stitch Girl. The fabric is a 32 lugana, Bluish Cloud by Fortnight Fabrics. I used the called for floss and added one DMC metallic thread for a few of the fireworks.

I repurposed one of the two patriotic wreaths that used to adorn our home in Florida. It had a sign in the middle that had faded but I hated to get rid of the wreath. A lot of work goes into making those.

And with that I'll let you get on with your Sunday.  I hope you have had a nice weekend so far. I’m off to finish up some cleaning and bake lemon brownies.

See you soon!

June Stats, Bee Finishes and FNwF

Happy Belated Independence Day to my USA friends. I hope everyone had a nice and safe holiday.

Mama came over for dinner. We played games and watched the Lake Junaluska fireworks from our deck. It was a very low-key day, and I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

I had a very busy June with cross stitching. I completed 6, 854 stitches on 6 projects. I’ll show you progress on all of those projects soon. I need to take current photos of them.

I mentioned in my last post that I was going to make pillows out of the bee pieces I recently finished stitching.

A Bee C and I Would Rather Bee Stitching
by Primrose Cottage Stitches

I used pieces of Lori Holt fabric from my stash as well as some scrap felt. The buttons are also Lori's. Her button colors coordinate with her fabrics so they are the perfect accoutrements for these pillows.

I ordered and received three more bee charts and there is another one that I am waiting for my favorite store to get. I can’t wait to show you how I am displaying them this summer.

I stitched and fully finished the Stitching Bee by Little House Needleworks last year. You may remember I wasn't completely happy with the finish. I added a couple of honey dippers with twine bows to it and I think it helped a little.

Cheryll at Gone Stitching hosted Friday Night with Friends this week. It is always the first Friday of the month and I was excited to join this time.

Now…don’t fall off your chair or spit out your coffee or tea….but, I actually made a quilt block. Shocking, I know!

This is Lori Holt’s Granny Star Block from her Scrappiness is Happiness book. I was keeping up on the sew along last year but then the move happened, and I never got back to it.

This block measures 6 ½” unfinished. I used some of Lori’s fabrics I have in stash. I’ve completed 21 of the 31 blocks sewn during the QAL. It felt good to sew again so maybe I’ll keep going with this one.

I’ll be back on Sunday to show you the patriotic display on the Hoosier cabinet. Hope you will join me then!