Last of the List

When Cyrus arrived almost a month ago, she had a list of ‘most wanted’ things to see and do.

We’ve worked her way through most of them - 

going to the Strawberry Festival, SB Zoo, LA Natural History Museum, SB wharf, Sea Center and a bunch of local thrift stores, plus working on crochet, embroidery, 

Cyrus’ second finished Wildflower. Hoping to make them into pillows before Saturday.

acquiring new plants and acclimating Coco Chai to her new home. (We didn’t get to weaving and spinning. Guess she’ll have to come back again!)

Today we knocked a couple more off the list - 

walking on the beach and watching the sun set over the ocean. 

Thursday we’re going to Gardens of the World in Thousand Oaks and taking one of her (beautiful!) thrifted dresses to Pop’s favorite tailor for alterations. 

Friday she’s packing (she’s going to need a second suitcase! 😜😂) and Saturday she flies home. 

This month has gone too fast!

On A Roll

Cyrus was on a roll today, finishing her first Wildflower embroidery piece and starting the second. 

She originally planned to make a quilted wallhanging using all 4 stick-and-stitch patterns but then I mentioned making a pillow(s)… we’ll see what she decides as we get closer to her goodbye date. 

Coco is helping…

I’d planned to work just a short time on Wildflower, maybe get the horizontal sashing sewn on, but we were talking and stitching and having fun so I kept going. 

I have a hard time lining up vertical sashings across edge-to-edge horizontal strips. This time I measured each section and drew corresponding lines on the long strips, then carefully pinned it together like I was matching seams. It worked! 

It might not be exactly-exact but it’s closer than I’ve ever gotten before. Hooray! (Am I the last person to figure this out? Does everyone already do this?? 😂)

This is going to be a wallhanging and at 42.5” it’s as big as it needs to be, so I’m leaving off the outer border and calling it done. Ish. Hoping to start the embroidered critters tomorrow.

Who Reads Directions??

Decided to actually read the Wildflower instructions, a day after I trimmed all 16 blocks to the wrong size. Oops! Fortunately I made them too big rather than too small, so it was an easy, but time-consuming fix.

My second favorite Stripology ruler

Also remembered I had a (much!) better square-up tool. The embroidery’s knots make the block surface uneven and yesterday’s ruler wobbled like crazy. Definitely not fun while cutting. The Stripology ruler made it much safer and easier. 

Cyrus helped me put these in order before I sewed the first round of sashing. Hoping to finish the horizontal sashing, and maybe the outer borders, tomorrow.

Speaking of Cyrus - I think she’s hooked on embroidery again. (She did a lot when she was younger.) I gave her one of the leftover stick-and-stitch patterns, then let her rummage through my two bins of embroidery stuff for thread and tools. She worked on this one most of the evening and wants us to spend tomorrow stitching together. I can definitely do that!*

* Found several partially finished stitchery projects during the rummage, so now I have more things to work on during TV time. 

Wildflowers

Got the bug to work on this again, 

so trimmed all the squares to 9.5” - some were too wonky to fit the original 10” goal. 

Planning to cut the sashing tomorrow and start putting it all together. 

Not much left over! Looking forward to seeing how the little garden critters look on the cornerstones. 

Another Finish

Way back in 2021, my pal Debbie and I made 4 (5?) National Parks quilts for the women in our crochet group. The plan for mine was to embroider around the block of each park hubby and I have been to together. 

Dark clouds but no rain for us.

We’ve used it on several of our trips and it’s been back-burnered often. I’d stitch a little here and there when I didn’t have another tv-watching project. Five years later, the 100 Days project has finally pushed it over the finish line.

 The embroidery is more noticeable in person.

At least until we visit another park…

Wildflowers #16

This block might be my favorite - definitely top 5 - and not just because it’s the last one. 

Decided the finished quilt should be wall-hanging-size, so 16 blocks are better than the original project’s 20. 

Tap or click the picture to open a better quality pic with lots more detail.

Next is squaring up the blocks and deciding on fabric for sashing around the squares. Have embroidery on the sashing? Still thinking ‘yes’, although I haven’t found the right design yet. Maybe bees? Or dragonflies? Bees and dragonflies?? Discovered I have a package of printable stick-and-stitch fabric in the stash so that opens up more design possibilities. Gotta think about it on the trip to Cambria. Suggestions welcome!

Double Up #2

March’s second Birdwatchers pattern, a Cerulean Warbler, is done. There’s a slight oopsie but I decided it “adds to the character” so I’m leaving it. (Can you spot it?) Still two birds behind but April’s pattern is cut, color-coded and ready to sew. 

10.5 x 10.5”

Also finished Wildflowers #15. Only one more to go before it’s time to trim the blocks and start on the sashing. 

10.5 x 10

Very happy with the progress. 

Double Up

The next Birdwatchers Project pattern comes out Thursday, so I was motivated to get one finished so I’d be (almost) caught up.

This is the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, one of 2 patterns released in March. Fast, easy pattern except for that tiny black bill. I sewed and ripped and sewed again at least 8 times trying to get the edges to align. Finally accepted that this was as close as I was going to get before the fabric frayed apart. The second March pattern - Cerulean Warbler - is cut, folded, color-coded and ready to sew, hopefully tomorrow.

Also finished Wildflower #14 tonight. TV marathons are really good for getting projects done. 

Here’s the first 13 blocks, in no particular order. I’ll square these up before adding a slightly different blue for sashing. Getting close to done!

100 Days - Newcomer

I don’t think Cyrus has officially joined the 100 Days challenge but she sent me this pic of her freshly finished pomegranate. Gorgeous! I’m envious of people who can do counted cross stitch, especially at this tiny-stitch level. I’ve tried, it’s just not in my skill set. 

Rachel is ready to do the borders on her project. I’m wondering what she’s going to work on next since we still have lots of Days until we hit 100 in June. 

Wildflower #13 is done! And thanks to a new bingable tv series (Tracker) #14 is almost halfway finished too.

100 Days Update - #12 is Done!

Rachel’s 100 days of cross-stitch project is moving right along. It’s going to be spectacular.

Finished #12 on my 100 days project. Only 8 to go (or 4, depending on how big I want the finished quilt to be). 

Been thinking more about how I want to sew this together and quilt it. 

The pattern that came with the kit has sashing between the blocks, which I like. But maybe add embroidery on the sashing? Or on the cornerstones? I think there’s time before 100 days ends… Time to go window shopping for more stick-on embroidery ideas.

Horse Camp

First up - this is block #10 of 20 for the wildflower 100 days project. Halfway done!

Donovan went to horse camp this week and loved it.

The temps were so low he had to keep his heavy-duty jacket on all day but it didn’t faze him.

Now there’s talk of him having weekly lessons 

and stable chores at a place near their house. 

So exciting.

100 Days Update

I missed 2 days of embroidery when we traveled to and from SC, but I’m still moving along on my wildflowers.

Tonight’s finish is #9 of…. I need to look up the pattern and see how many total blocks I need. Still enjoying it!

Rachel is making good progress on her cross-stitch project, 

still a bit more to go though. Such gorgeous colors. 

It’s not part of 100 Days but all the windmill quilt blocks are done and the first 2 rows (of 7) are sewn together. It’s so much prettier in real life where you can see the metallic sparkles.

This will probably go to the quilt guild for donation unless someone claims it beforehand.

Lots of Progress

So much progress today… block #7 for the 100 Days project is done. 

Donovan and I did a couple of science-y things tonight - watched the embroidery background paper dissolve and disappear in a bowl of water (he was fascinated and is a lot more interested in my sewing project now 😁) 

 I told him to ‘smile like you’re going to see Mom’. Much bigger energy. 

and the ever popular soda/vinegar volcano to clean a (very) burnt baking dish. Good thing baking soda (he used a whole box) and white vinegar (only used half a gallon jug…) are inexpensive and easily replaced! Worth every penny to see how much fun he had.

Matt and Mary made it from wake-up in Albuquerque NM to somewhere in Arkansas tonight. 

OK clouds

Mary said OK is pretty but she wasn’t a fan of the Texas panhandle. Still planning to be in SC by tomorrow night. 

Donovan finished Lego project #2 (of 3). Mary said she’s having more kits delivered. Sure hope so or somebody is gong to be verrrrrrrry bored. Still 10 days to go before we fly out to SC.

 Tap/click the pic for a closeup view of the sparkles!

I’m just over halfway done making blocks for the windmill quilt. 

I goofed and cut the first batch of pieces to size before sewing them together, rather than sewing long strips together, then cutting to size. It probably doubled the time I’ve spent on this project. Note to self: think it through next time!