February CupboardScape

 Better late than never my friends.

Today's post is my February CupboardScape.

Lots of red in this one.

Red coverlet piece.

One of these days I will hang this quilt block

which I purchased framed.

Right now I just tuck it away behind a door.

I stitched this piece last year.

Cupid's Sampler once again.

Just a simple display of textiles.

The backdrop is an antique linsey woolsey

blanket where you can see the seam.

Antique blankets like coverlets should

have a center seam...because the looms

were not that big.

In other news,

Saturday and Sunday

we went back and forth from snow

to freezing rain both days.

We ended up with a total of about 7 inches.

Would have been more if not for the freezing rain.

Tundra wanted to be outside no matter what.

I did enjoy seeing our Winter birds outside.

Cardinals, Dark Eyed Juncos and Bluejays.

I spent my weekend hunkered in.

Stitched, hooked and sewed a bit.

Cleaned and did laundry and watched

all of my taped shows for the week.

Ones that Bob does not like.

Well my long weekend is over now.

Have to get my butt back to work.

February Blessings To All!

Janice

Friday Finishes

WOOHOO!

I finished not one but two projects.

First up is Eliza's French Birds.

If you notice the birds are on

a very long stem of leaves and berries.

  

On the backside of this pattern

was the original stitched piece.

Very faintly I could detect a vase.

It would not show up in my picture,

so you have to trust me.

Since I kept seeing this vase,

I decided to try and graph it out

as best I could.

With doing that I then had 

to move the date 1849 to below Eliza's name.

I think this turned out pretty good.

 

I then turned it into a pretty big pillow

by adding some coffee stained fabric at the bottom,

while tying a frayed ribbon bow around it.

I will now put it out when I decorate

for Valentine's Day.

I was also happy to get Cupid's Sampler

finished and off to the framer it went.

(Hobby Lobby)

This pic makes it look cock-eyed...

but truly in person it is framed perfectly.

I cannot take great pics it seems. LOL

The frame I picked out looks really good...

again me thinks it does.

Cannot wait now to put these both

out for display now and future Valentine's.

In other news,

On the way home from the doctor Monday

we saw not one but five eagles on the ice

10 minutes North of us. 

With the ice jam by our house...

no open water for the ducks,

so they have moved North....so did the eagles.

We saw three adults and two juveniles.

Wednesday we had about 7 inches of snow.

It started before I left work.

By the time I got home at 4:30 it was

snowing pretty good.

Tundra was loving it though.

He did not want to come in.

More snow is expected for us tomorrow

(3-5 inches)

Again more on Sunday.

I am so over Winter...but February

here in Michigan is usually when snow comes

on our side of the state.

Hope everyone has a fantastic Valentine's Day!

We are just going to go to our favorite

take out chicken place for some

broasted chicken and potatoes

and eat at home for dinner tonight.

St Valentine Blessings To All!

Janice

 

Maker's Monday

Hello friends.

Hope all is well in your neck of the woods.

For those who asked,

Maker's Monday is something 

I just made up for blog posts.

When the Polar Vortex hit,

I decided to get out my crochet hook,

some yarn and ribbon.

Remember not a pink fan,

but I have customer's who are.

This was the color taking the yarn from

 inside the skein which I prefer to start with.

I started with two rows 

which mimic a granny square.

Then the third row made the heart shape.

Added the ribbon for hanging if you choose to.

This was the color on the outside of the skein.

I packaged these with three to a cello bag.

Hang them on your Valentine tree,

a cabinet door or wherever you choose.

Next I took this antique coverlet

piece I had.

With some leftover linen,

stitched the words Be Mine.

Do you see where my mind is?

Why Valentine's Day for sure.

Stitched into a small pillow.

Sewed on the stitch piece.

So sweet for my primitive customers.

All already have gone to the store.

In other news.

last Thursday when I walked out the door

to go to work...we had freezing rain overnight.

My car doors were stuck.

I tried desperately to get the driver's side open.

No avail...but did manage to get

the passenger side to open.

I then had to crawl over my console to

get to the driver's side.

If anyone would have seen me..

it would have been a funny sight for sure.

Then ten minutes into my drive,

the door ajar light came on and my inside

car lights also came on.

I had to pull over and open my door

and close it right away.

Then it started freezing rain again.

Again 10 minutes more into my drive,

I had to pull over and scrape the ice off

my windshield wiper blades.

Finally get to work...and the internet 

was down in the office. UGH

I called my boss to let her know.

She told me I should have stayed home,

but then told me to go back home

and to drive safe.

So almost 3 hours later I was back home.

Oh and also into my drive to work,

an idiot driver decides to pass three cars at once.

Then later on, another idiot did the same thing.

So glad no accidents occurred.

We watched the Super Bowl last night.

I made Hot Wings and Cheese Nachos.

Although I don't care who wins this year,

I always enjoy watching the commercials...

however not many good ones this year.

Just a few I liked.

Maybe one year our Detroit Lions

will make it to the Super Bowl.

One can hope anyways.

Congrats though to the Eagles.

I have today off.

Bob and I both have appts.,

so will be going to those this afternoon.

Monday Blessings To All!

Janice

Cozy Inside

Hello friends. 

As most of you know for the month of January,

I like to transition from Christmas to Winter decor.

I kept most of the greens up on the fireplace.

Removed the reindeer and added this child's pic.

One evening Bob and I were talking about

moving the living room couch so we could 

enjoy our fireplace for the Winter months.

Well I told him not to do anything until

after Christmas.

When I got home from work the next day...

he moved everything around.

this table no longer fit in the living room

where I had it, so it went into the bedroom...

until  after Christmas.

Decided it would look nice in front of 

the keeping room fireplace.

Added a wintery display.

Am calling it done. 

It makes the room seem even more cozier inside.

We are now cozy in both rooms.

The following posts are more of my

Winter displays for this year.

****WARNING***

Oodles of pics.

Hope you enjoyed this year's 

Winter displays.

Now onto Valentine's Day.

In other news,

 when I head outside will determine

if I am driving to work or working 

from home today.

The weather folks keep changing the forecast.

Not sure if we will be getting the ice storm,

or the snow.

If it is the ice, will be staying home.

Last night there were two Canadian 

Coast Guard cutters escorting 

two Canadian freighters through

our ice jammed river.

Wish I could take pics,

but the majority of the river road

has no place to park on the side...

and no parking signs are posted

every so many feet.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

What are your plans for the weekend?

I will be getting out my Valentine's decor.

Stay Cozy Blessings To All!

Janice 

Sunday Starts

 Hello my friends!

Hope all is well in your neck of the woods.

Today my first Sunday start

is  Mademoiselle Viola Martini 1876

by Gigi R.

I chose this one for my heritage wall

in homage of my great grandmothers. 

Since I stitched my great grandfathers in blue,

I thought this red would be a perfect color

for my great grandmothers.

Did not want to do in pink.

Stitching on 36 ct Legacy Lugana linen,

For the sampler letters using 

 Gentle Arts Cranberry floss.

The motifs will be completed with all 

of the called for flosses.

My next start is a pattern from 

Crocette a gogo.

I was drawn to this pattern for

both the snowmen and the hearts.

Did not want a lot of pink,

so opted for this teal blue for this snowman.

I also will change up the white letters 

in the alphabet.

Don't want that much white.

My goal for February is to stitch

mostly Valentine items,

however will continue my

sampler Sunday and work on my

heritage sampler this day.

I started this sampler yesterday.

It will not be a homage to any family member.

I chose it because of the saying.

Will stitch this entirely like is.

Oh Lord my God forsake me not

Be thou not far from me

Make haste to help me gracious God

My safety and my stay

This saying is from Psalm 38:21-22 

in which the words

were re-arranged somewhat.

My wee little start.

I decided I will work on night a week on this.

The vine has three different floss colors.

The flowers have two.

The big blotch of red will be a star once finished.

Am using all the called for flosses.

Stitching on 36 ct Buttermilk.

In other news,

Today is Groundhog Day.

Did you know this day started February 2, 1877,

by a group calling themselves the 

Punxsutawney Groundhog Club.

Punxsutawney Phil became the official

groundhog for the day.

Nowadays, this group calls themselves

the Inner Circle.

They speak Pennsylvania Dutch

  at Gobbler's Knob

while getting Phil's prediction.

Thus far Phil has only been 40% correct

on his predictions.

Let's hope he gives us some good news today.

Yesterday I went to the grocery store

and driving back home spotted

another eagle on the ice.

Also saw some cardinals in our back yard

and a woodpecker in the distance.

He flew to tree and started pecking away.

Well have to clean house,

do laundry and maybe make something

using fabric. Will see.

Homemade Chicken Pot Pie 

will be our dinner tonight.

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend.

Groundhog Blessings To All!

Janice

 

Whippy Wednesday

My first whippy Wednesday of 2025.

Let's start with Mary Jane Kerr 1876.

This sampler will be a homage to my grandmothers.

I will be changing up the motifs in the middle 

just a bit to reflect more of my memories

of my grandmothers.

This is what I started with.

The border had a cool color

with a warm color...and then

two warm colors for the first set of letters.

The artist in me had to make a change here. 

I changed the gold to a tan for that row.

Am now done with the alphabets.

Now onto the motifs...

which as I stated before will change up.

Left side.

Right side. 

I did add in the numbers 202

for the year...started that in 2024...

so will need to add in the number 5 now

for this year.

In front of the year is my initials.

The pattern just had initials in it,

so this was changed a bit as well.

Below these motifs I will add 

my grandmother's names.

Speaking of motifs, here is the first one.

The pattern of the morning glory was in red.

These color of morning glories were on

both of my grandparents farms...so of course 

I had to change the color.

The second motif I kept because 

both of my grammas had dogs.

I just chose my own floss colors.

The third motif will be different altogether.

I thought I had the floss for this one...

but had to order it. UGH

I don't have an LNS (local needlework store)

store close to me...

wish I did.

Hopefully it will come in before Sunday,

as I like to work on my sampler this day.

Could not do it last week.

Then I picked up Cupid's Sampler.

This is a Brenda Gervais design.

I actually started this back last April.

I only got this far, then put it away.

I am a seasonal stitcher,

so not sure why I even started this in April.

Oh well.

During my vacation I worked on this

for 2 days and cupid is finished now.

Also finished two rows of the alphabet.

The letter "C" for Cupid was a specialty stitch.

Am not a fan of specialty stitches because 

they take longer to stitch,

but I did it anyway.

This one was a Smyrna cross stitch.

Then I realized that each row of the alphabet

has one letter that had the four sided stitch. 

I could have just done these letters 

in plain cross stitch...but took the time to do them.

Am glad I did now as I actually like the look.

Finally I picked up Little Pear Pinkeep.

I was disappointed in myself

that this was not finished by 

Christmas last year.

Hopefully it will be this year.

Am almost finished now.

I just love how cute this lil bird is on the right...

holding its own little pear.

I did change the hearts from blue to orange

to compliment my un-traditional colors

for my Keeping room Christmas tree.

They look the same color as the pears, but are orange.

In other news,

I saw my first bald eagle Monday afternoon.

We only get to see them when there is ice.

They follow their food source into the river

this time of the year since the lake near us

gets frozen.

Last year we had no ice though

...therefore no ducks...

which in turn no eagles.

They are such an awesome bird.

Majestic for sure.

The ice remains in the river.

The Canadian ferry has shut down now.

The island ferry runs only during the daytime.

Plus the Polar Vortex is gone now....

however we may have a mixed storm

come in on Friday with snow, sleet, rain...

who knows??? 

Well have to get to work.

Hopefully the drive wont be bad.

Mid Week Blessings To All!

Janice