Whippy Wednesday

Hello friends.

Today I have lots of WIP's

to show you.

Hope you do not get bored. 

When I last showed this sampler

as a homage to my grandmothers,

I had the morning glory and dog finished.

Now the third and final motif is complete.

I wanted the third motif to reflect 

something that remined me of 

my grandmothers...not this bird.

They both had chickens on their farms...

so I purchased another pattern

called Spring Chickens Pinkeep

by Stacy Nash.

In the antique world this is called a marriage.

When you take a part of one piece

of furniture and add it to another.

So I did it to this stitched piece I am doing.

It was a perfect marriage indeed.

I also added in my paternal grandmother.

Ilda Husson 1903-1986

Working now on the final row,

then will add in my maternal grandmother,

then finally after that the bottom border.

Getting close to the finish line.

Next up is the Prairie Schooler Mini February.

Just finished up the second pane.

This is suppose to be a groundhog.

Not sure if this will be done this year though.

Taking longer than expected.

This is where I left off doing Two Hearts.

I now have one snowman holding a heart completed.

This one will also go back into hiding

until next year now.

I am tired of Winter.

Getting the urge for Spring now.

This is where I finished up 

on this pattern last year.

It is called Spring Gathering. 

Started working on it once again.

Almost finished now with the bunny.

Added in the key and a few motifs.

Working on this one during my lunch at work.

Just not sure if I should outline his tail.

What do you think?

It seems like forever that I picked up a hook.

This was Potted Plant 

before I put my hook down.

I finally picked it up and hooked a bit more.

It took me longer to try and find

 my wool than it did to hook this.

UGH

I forgot where I put the wool I had

planned out for this piece.

Still have not found it...so I re-planned

this part out again.

Finally Viola Martini.

This red sampler will include

all of my great grandmother's 

names and information for my 

heritage wall.

I finished the first set of alphabets.

In place of the crown at the far right,

I added in my initials and the two

digit year on the right.

There are no letter "J's" in this pattern,

so I had to make up my letter "J".

I took the number 25 from the numbers

in the pattern.

Am using the floss color

Cranberry by Classic Colorworks.

Although you really cannot see it,

there is a variegation to this floss.

It goes from dark to a medium color.

In other news,

these past few days we had 50 degree weather.

It was so nice...but the cold will return.

Not sure if we will get rain or freezing rain.

Our backyard is getting mushy from 

the snowmelt that even Tundra does not

want to walk on the grass.

The coast guard is back.

I believe they are monitoring the ice bridge 

in lower Lake Huron.

Once that breaks, the ice will come down

into our river.

It is already jammed down here,

so they have been cutting the ice trying

to get it moving...but with 

Lake St Clair 100% covered in ice,

not sure where it will be going.

Our St Clair river is between 

Lake Huron and Lake St Clair.

Changes are coming at work.

The job I do is being more

centralized with my peers being 

afraid our jobs will be cut.

They keep saying this Summer things

will be different....I see the writing on the wall.

I told my boss if she needs to let someone go,

she can let me go.

I would get a years severance....

and since I plan on retiring next February

anyway, I don't care if they let me go. 

If it means I can save another person's job

who needs it more than I do, then so be it.

Well off to work I go for now.

Hope everyone enjoys the rest of the week.

Wednesday Blessings To All!

Janice

 

 

It's The Love Month

I keep my Valentine's decor out 

the entire month of February. 

The month of love is almost 

over as I call it.

Not many folks I know decorate

for Valentine's, but I do.

Let's start off where I placed Eliza's French Birds.

The pears and hearts I also made over the years.

Bob brought home this red enameled milk pail.

I told him it would be perfect in one of my displays.

I also have a blue one...so now I just need 

a white one...can you guess why???

I happened to find these dark pink lights

in my laundry room back in December.

Why they were in there is beyond me....

but thought they would look pretty on my tree

for the month of February.

When they are on at night, they look more 

of a dark pink...not as light as these pics.

My snowman likes them anyway. LOL

If you noticed...I added some of my

crocheted hearts to my tree too.

Hall display.

Bedroom display.

As you can see I mostly love red.

I just purchased this heart.

It was made from an antique coverlet piece.

LOVE IT!

A few red textiles out.

My prim doll holding a Hershey's kiss.

I made yo yo's from fabric and created 

this heart pillow.

My teddys came out to enjoy the month.

I also made this wool penny mat.

Tea stained it to make it look a bit old.

In other news,

the second polar vortex is over...

lets hope it wont come back.

Thursday morning as I headed out of my

driveway early in the morning for work,

I had to stop a few houses from mine.

There was a deer in the middle

of my street.

I stopped and it finally took off.

Then another one crossed which

I did not see at first.

 Just glad I was not going fast. 

Not only was I surprised to see the deer,

I was more surprised they were out there

as it was snowing pretty hard that morning.

Then when I got to work,

as I was pulling into the parking lot,

I hit a patch of ice and almost ran into

the shrubs. 

The road in to the lot is not lit and I did not see the ice.

God was with me that morning for sure.

So I read this week that

the ice on Lake Erie is near 98% coverage

which is skewing the totals for all of

our Great Lakes total being at 33% now.

This really means that the other lakes are 

really not that much covered in ice, because

Lake Erie is making the combined numbers higher.

Our state is surrounded by 4 of the 5 lakes.

We have Lake Superior to the way North.

Lake Michigan is to the West of where I live.

Lake Huron starts an hour North of me.

Lake Erie is about 1 1/2 hours South of me.

Lake Ontario is the only lake that does not

border Michigan.

Just thinking of all that ice

is making me cold. LOL

Decided to make some chicken noodle soup

today for dinner.

Keep warm out there my friends.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Love Blessings To All!

Janice

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