Sunday Starts

Not only am I in Fall mood,

am feeling Halloween too. 

Not sure what drew me to this Kathy Barrick pattern.

Am not really a pink person...but I wanted to

stitch this witch.

I am only going to do the center.

The floss colors were totally different from this picture.

UGH

I wanted to stitch the colors in this...

which is why I bought the pattern in the first place.

It took some time, but I chose my own colors

 by looking at the picture.

OK so here is where I first started.

Thought if I did this on a gray linen,

I could skip all of black in the pattern.

Got this far and was not feeling it

AT ALL. 

My second go round.

36 ct Crypt cloth.

Much better....even though now

I will need to stitch all of that black background,

which will take some time...

so not sure if it will be done in time for this year.

There is always next year and I am in no rush.

The colors are much darker here

 than in person though.

Next up is Penny Pumpkin.

Am using my own color conversion with

floss I have on hand.

When I make mine into a pillow,

I will make sure you can see all of the pennies.

Will also not be adding in the pinks.

Am doing this one on 28 ct Wren.

This linen has a gold and green undertone to it.

Perfect for a Autumn stitch.

I have the top border almost finished,

and started on the side.

Normally I do not do the borders all the way

around first...but wanted to this time.

I also changed up the pennies.

There were only 2 colored pennies that repeated.

I decided to make 4 different ones repeat.

The colors I chose were...

 Weeks Dye Works

 Onyx (black) & Arrowhead (white).

Classic Colorworks 

Autumn Spice (orange) & Baking Tin (gray)

DMC 781 ( gold)

In other news,

Judy asked why I did not add the letter "J"s

in Laura Vorgensen 1853. 

Well the pattern did not add them in....

which I was surprised because this sampler

pattern was a reproduction from an antique sampler.

The letter J came into the English language in 1634.

Obviously Laura herself decided to omit this

letter from each row of the alphabet she stitched.

However on the other hand....

many samplers from the 1700's to early 1800's

also omitted the letter J.

Again not sure why Laura why omitted them,

as this was her sampler the pattern designer 

created the pattern from.

Jeanie asked if Turkey Trot was a pillow.

Yes the pattern was made into a pillow,

and I intend on doing the same once finished.

A few posts back Cathy thought we sold our store.

Yes Cathy we sold our gift shop.

We had owned two stores and our parking lot was

between the two buildings. 

We still have our antique store....

however this one is for sale now too.

We would like to both retire.

When we were approached to sell the gift shop

last December, we agreed to it.

We closed at the title company in January.

The sale of this building paid off our mortgage

on both buildings.

With the cost of doing business now,

we made the right decision even though it 

was bittersweet at the time.

We still have a portion of the gift shop in our

antique store...so I still make stuff to add in there.

I hope I have answered everyone's questions.

If not, please remind me.

I so appreciate everyone taking the time to comment.

Myself am not able to get to my blog reading

daily, but I do try to catch up when I can,

because I know you all like receiving comments

as much as I do.

Off to make breakfast.

Well Chef Bob is actually making 

blueberry pancakes & breakfast sausage on the grill.

The pancakes come out so much fluffier.

Then I will finish up my house cleaning

and stitch on Laura Vorgensen some.

But I must write out my birthday invites first.

We are having a surprise 90th birthday party 

for my mom in October.

It will truly be a surprise because her birthday

is September 30th. 

Sunday Blessings To All!

Janice

Whippy Wednesday

Hoping you like my WIP's

for this month.

 

Let's start with Quaker Block.

Instead of using one color,

I chose to use three.

I changed out the crown at the top.

Inserted the date 1656.

Any clue on why I did that?

What is the significance of this date?

Let's play Final Jeopardy with the theme song.

Do Do Do Do 

Do Do Do

(Not even sure if there are words to the song) LOL

Any hoot the answer is:

What is the date the Quakers arrived in the US.

So since this is a Quaker block...why not add the date

they came to America.

Am loving the colors I chose for this stitch.

No rhyme or reason. 

Just picking as I go.

Turkey Trot is next.

When last I showed this one,

I had the first turkey finished.

Added the remaining acorns on top,

plus another motif.

Finished the top border.

Started on the last turkey.

This is my lunch stitch. 

Laura Vorgensen 1853 is the pattern

I chose to add my parents name,

and their wedding date.

while also adding the name of the church and town.

They were wed in a church on a hill.

This is where I left off the last time.

If you remember I wanted to see all of the letters.

Then when I picked it up again, did not want

it to be all of this blue.... 

So I frogged out the letters "E" and "F" 

in blue and went back

to the ghosted color.

I am only going to stitch two or three rows

 of the alphabets, instead of the six rows.

Decided this because it is such a large piece.

I need room for my personalization on this one.

Now this second row is very time consuming because

there is lots of confetti (color changes).

Each one of these letters takes me 

over an hour to complete. 

On the pattern this row is actually the last one.

Notice there are no letter "J's" in these.

The first row is the entire alphabet and numbers.

Next row I chose ends with the letter "W". 

I work on this one most Saturdays and Sundays.

Although very time consuming this piece

is very relaxing to stitch as I dont have

a timeframe on completing like the 

big Halloween one.

Speaking of Halloween...

Finally block 11 is completed on

Halloween At Hawk Run Hollow.

YAY!

I love the ghosts  coming out of

the locomotives smokestack.

I did change the color of the sign.

The pattern called for the lime green

of the grass, however the picture had

the gold color.

Me thinks this was an error in the pattern,

so I went with a gold floss that was in the mix.

This is my go to stitch nightly after dinner.

Left side.

Right side.

One more block to go.

Once this piece is finished,

I wont frame it right away...

but I do want it framed eventually.

I also have the pattern for 

Houses of Hawk Run Hollow,

but I am in no hurry to start another big

project right away.

Have something else planned for a monthly stitch.

Plan on starting this in October or November.

Just not sure yet when.

Stay tuned on that.

It will be a Sunday start at some time. ;-)

In other news,

yesterday was the worst fog ever.

I could not even see driving down my little street

to the main road it was that foggy.

I almost turned around.

Could hear the freighter in the river,

but could not see it...and they usually

turn on all of their lights in the fog.

Got better as I got closer to town which is a mile.

Hoping today is not the same.

 Chef Bob made Lamb Stew for dinner last night.

For those of you who like lamb,

this was his best recipe to date.

Bob is half Lebenese on his dad's side.

He made it just like his dad would have.

It was awesome and I am glad I have some to 

take for lunch today.

We have been going to a local meat market

monthly now to get our meat.

This market has monthly specials 

and for $100 you can pick from 5 meats.

This month one of them was lamb.

Let me tell you, the meat is always fresh

and it lasts almost a month for us on what we pick. 

We have been doing this for 4 months now.

Am spoiled now.

I dont want to go back to grocery store meat.

You order the day before and it is cut fresh.

Well have to get ready for work.

Hope everyone is enjoying their week thus far.

Please take a moment today

to remember those who lost their lives

this terrible day on 2001 when at

8:14am our great country was first attacked.

May we never forget.

God Bless The USA.

Happy Wednesday Blessings To All,

Janice

My Sidekick

 

Well looks like I forgot to show two more

items I purchased on the antique trail.

Realized it after I hit publish.

Oh well...now they get their own post. LOL

I found this rather odd looking table,

and thought hmmm it may just fit

next to my chair where I stitch.

Bob thinks it may have been a telephone

table at one time because it has an opening

on the side next to the chair...

possibly for a phone book.

Remember those? 

I also found this very old 

wrought iron candlestick.

Placed here next to the feed sack I draped

over the table.

The feedsack will protect the table

when I have a drink in my glass.

Plus there is room for my floss ring and scissors

when I stitch.

A perfect side kick for me.

In  other news,

it's suppose to be a nice day on the cool side.

Therefore am going to make a pot of chili

with some crusty bread.

Will do my usual house cleaning and laundry.

I sweep weekly and Tundra is shedding big time.

Looks like I have another puppy with all of the hair.

Also the trees are already starting to turn colors.

Me thinks Autumn is arriving before it does

on the calendar.

Well off to make us some breakfast.

Have a marvelous weekend my friends!

Janice

 

The M29 M25 Antique Trail

***WARNING***

The following pictures

 may make you drool.

You may be green with envy.

You may hate me.

You might not even care.

Today's post is what I purchased on our

antique trail that my mom and I went on.

This trail goes all the way around 

the Thumb of Michigan.

Although I do not do the entire route,

I drive enough of it to matter.

It starts on M29 where I live and continues

all around the thumb on M25.

The route starts South of where we live,

so I always pick up my mom the night before.

This year we left at 8 in the morning.

Went out to breakfast and then the hunt was on.

We stopped along the way for lunch at A&W.

Stopped again ay my mom's for a potty break.

Continued North on our..er my journey.

Ended back into her town at 4:30 and went 

directly to the restaurant to eat supper. 

Ok here goes. 

First up this dough box

in Spanish Brown paint.

I so love the smaller size of this one.

Plus I can hide small stuff in it.

This is an 18th century candle shelf.

Found the perfect make do candle to go on it.

Finally this pine cabinet just had to come 

home with me.

This would not fit in my car,

so I paid for it and we came back and picked

it up with the van.

Currently it is here in our keeping room,

but will not stay.

Bob decided now we can remodel the last room

in our house...the laundry room.

This cabinet will be swapped for a different

one that will go in the new redo room.

This is why the towels are underneath.

This is the last wall I have for a particular

cabinet I have been on the hunt for 

in over 11 years.

Some day I will find it, and it will go here.

In other news,

We had a nice long weekend.

The weather was picture perfect.

Monday night it even got cool enough so we

opened the windows.

Grilled every night.

Brats, Hot Wings, Italian sausage,

and then ribs at Bob's cousin's house

yesterday afternoon.

He lives really close to us and was telling us

that he is seeing more rattlesnakes at his house.

This worries me because it was this time

of the year that we had a juvenile one

in our back yard last year...

I dont want to see anymore.

It was my first time every seeing one 

in my lifetime and I had nightmares for weeks.

Well have to get my butt to work.

Hope everyone enjoyed their holiday weekend.

Antiques Trail Blessings To All!

Janice