Rainshowers, Stitching and Pink Lemonade - A Summer Stamp Freebie

Good evening, sweet friends. I am sorry about missing my early morning post for the Summer Stamp SAL, but with the rains, we have had downed trees. But more on that later.

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You were right! You said that when I cleaned up the avalanche of fabric that came tumbling down last week that I would find some forgotten projects to work on. 

Late Sunday evening, I bustled into the quilt room determined to wrangle that "mess" into submission.

 Soon Mrs. M. ( my oldest daughter) peeked into the room. "Holy Cow what is going on here?" she said in dismay. 

"I escaped within an inch of my life as the fabric totes fell, " I laughed. 

Mrs. M. eyed the situation and shook her head.  It wasn't long after that  she and I retreated from the "avalanche room" to  visit with one another. 

Later, I returned and whipped the wild and woolly fabrics back into their totes. Several projects pranced forward  like little neighing fillies begging for my attention. I just scooped them aside and took them into the living room to study later. Two of which were Winter Checklist...

 and... low and behold , I found more wee four patches ripe for the picking and ready to be made into a teeny quilt. 

 A little stack of 4 patches ready to be made into a small quilt. 

On Monday, Mr. Pinker and I woke up early and began cooking for the Memorial Day cookout. Hamburgers, hot dogs , cornbread salad and all of the fixings . Yum Yum.😋 

By 12: 30 most of the family was here. "Where's everybody at? " I inquired. 

"Well you know, here and there and everywhere, " one family member sighed. 

"Busy, busy , busy, " I replied. Gone are the days of large family gatherings as everyone is pulled in one direction or the other, but that is alright we had a good gathering , we had loads of  fun and we stuffed ourselves full until we our bellies were as tight as ticks.

 

The boys went outside to play. Meanwhile the adults  sat back, watched TV and chatted until it was "nap time" . LOL.  Then slowly , the family sauntered home for their own recliners and couches. 😁

"I am going to go work in the garden, " I declared to Mr. Pinker after everyone left. 

"Whoa there, Nelly! " exclaimed Mr. Pinker. "Don't you hear that? The pitter patter of rain." 

I worked on Melva's Prairie Rose Block. 

"Aaw shucks, " I sighed "Well I am going to go sew. " And with that I headed to the sewing machine where I spent most of the afternoon. That is until the electricity went off. "Oh bother!  Grumble! Grumble! What am I to do now?" Well I sat and sat and sat.  With nothing else to do I  finally headed to bed for a restless night's sleep.

The electricity was off for hours. Trees had fallen in the holler knocking out power. When it did come on, we found out that we did not have cable/ Internet service either. Uggh ! Grumble! Grumble again! The cable line and box was smashed to smithereens from the fallen trees, and the cable line is currently lying in the road for all passersby to run over . Hopefully, the service will be returned tomorrow, but we shall see. 

By late night fall, Mr. Pinker figured out that I could use the Hot Spot on my phone and connect it to the computer, but only  for a limited time -just to post.  ( You know limited data and such) 

So here I am , better late than never. Right? Hee! Hee!   

But let's get to today's Summer Stamp SAL shall we. 

What do I like to drink come summertime?  Mmmm... A great big glass of freshly squeezed lemonade. But I opted for pink lemonade in my newest Summer Stamp . 

Of course, if you stitched it, you could make it plain lemonade or maybe a pitcher of  iced tea with lemons. Mmmmm- refreshing. 

Pink Lemonade Stamp was stitched on 14 count Aida. 

 Old Fashioned Pink Lemonade

Servings: 12

9 cups of water

2 cups of white sugar

2 cups of fresh lemon juice

1 cup of chilled cranberry juice

Combine  water ingredients in a large pitcher, stir until sugar dissolves. Serve in tall glasses over ice. 

Pink Lemonade Stamp was stitched with 10 DMC floss colors which includes: DMC 223, 725, 745, 815, 898, 926, 930, 3345, 3346, Blanc. 

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If you are interested in stitching this piece,  just grab , the images. For printing tips, refer to the post Tips for Printing which has loads of tips from my sweet friends. 

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If you missed any of the previous posts in respect to the Summer Stamp SAL , below is a schedule with links back to the appropriate posts.  

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SUMMER STAMP SCHEDULE

April 2nd  Summer Stamp Introduction

April 7th  Stamp Stamp Border

April 14th Summer Stamp Header

April 21st  Summer Stamp 1 "And the Garden Grows" 

April 28th Summer Stamp 2 Summer Harvest

May 5th  Summer  Stamp 3 Summertime Treat

May 12th  Summer  Stamp 4 Sunflower Strut

May 19th Summer Stamp 5 Summer Quilt Stamp

May 26th Summer Stamp 6 Pink Lemonade

June 2nd Summer Stamp 7

June 9th Summer Stamp 8

June 16th Summer Stamp  9 

June  23rd Bonus Summer Stamp 10

June 27th Final Reveal

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Alrighty, my sweet friends. I am off to sit in silence and sew. It has been a quiet and somewhat productive day here in the holler with no TV or Internet to lure me away. Hee! Hee! I hope you have had a lovely day as well.  Love ya! 😘

I have a post scheduled for Thursday, but hopefully, I will be back online if the Cable/ Internet is restored. 

As Always...

Happy  Stitching and Quilting, y'all

Melisa 

"Any day spent with you is my favorite day. So today is my new favorite day.  "- Winnie the Pooh

Hugs and Stitches!!!!🤗🧵❤

Dedicated to my dear sister, Amy who loved  the family gatherings. Amy loved to cook, especially bake for the holidays. I can imagine her making patriotic cupcakes for all to enjoy 

 I love and miss you so much.. Love you , Amo. 

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 Other Posts That Might Strike Your Fancy!

🌞Parade of Homes 2026- Early 2026 parade of home freebies.

🌞2026 Love Parade- A Parade of Previous Valentine Freebies- Valentine themed stitches up to Feb. 4, 2026.  

🌞 Root A Toot Toot Patriotic Parade Early 2024 patriotic freebies. 

🌞A Berry Nice Parade- A Look at Past Berry Freebies 2025- Early 2025 berry Freebies. 

🌞A Buzzy Bee Parade An early 2025 bee freebie parade.

🌞A Sunny Sunflower Parade for 2025 A parade of sunflower freebies up to July 24, 2025

🌞Pumpkin, Leaves and Autumn Please- A Fall Parade 2025 A parade of Fall themed stitches and doodles up to September 8, 2025.

🌞 A Parade of Stamps 2025  A parade of stamp cross stitch design freebies up to August 14, 2025

🌞Time to Dye-  2024 post on how I tea/ Coffee Dye my fabric. 

🌞Pin Pillow Tutorial - 2023 post on how I finish my pin pillows with chenille trim. 

🌞A Spooky Parade - Halloween freebies up to October  4, 2025. More Halloween pieces followed this date.

🌞Turkey Struttin' Thanksgiving Parade 2025- Thanksgiving freebies up to the date of November 3, 2025. More Thanksgiving freebies followed  this date. 

🌞Ho! Ho! Ho! Christmas Parade Of Previous Freebies- 2025- A Parade of Christmas Freebies up to the date of November 15, 2025. More Christmas Freebies followed this date. 

🌞A Chilly Parade of Winter Stitches 2025- A parade of Winter themed freebies up to the date of Dec. 21, 2025

I am making progress on Bunny Harvest Roundabout.

Lemon Squeezey Summer Hutch Tour

 I skipped the watermelons and went straight for the lemons!  

Welcome y'all.  It's that time! Yep ! Time for another Country Clutter Tour.  

Usually in July , I decorate the hutch and kitchen with  watermelons and chickens, but this year I decided blueberries and lemons were on the menu. 

Soon I cleaned off all of the tins from the "Take Me Out to the Ballgame " patriotic hutch and pulled out my lemon plates. These were new purchases from the Dollar Tree. 

Playing off the blues in the lemon plates , I pulled out a couple of thrifted ironstone dishes.  Aren't they lovely? 

 Behind my plates is a string of white Christmas lights that I  plug in to give the hutch a little more light. 

Soon the hutch was filled to the brim with "lemony goodness" ! Filling every square inch possible is just my style.  Shall we take a look?!

It is rare that anything changes on the top of the hutch. I keep my Coca Cola crates and bottles on top along with the Campbell's Soup tin which is filled with plates.  I did decide to leave the Co-Op Chicks sign out . I just love it. 🐔🐔

I also left the forsythia vine draped  from the top just because I love the color. 

On the top shelf is a couple of stitches including "Home on Berry Lane" , a stitch I have not shared and  Blueberry Basket

This gorgeous lavender sachet made from a vintage embroidery was a gift from a dear friend! I love it!!!💛💙💛 Thank you , Susan.  

An old blue pitcher completes the top shelf decor. 

Let's slide down to the 2nd shelf. 

In the vintage juicer, I added a small Hull bowl filled with thrifted faux lemons. 

 A little ceramic blueberry pie is beside it.  Isn't the graphics gorgeous on the Mendets package?  The Menndets is from the 1950's and were used to repair pots and pans- another thrifty find.

On the yellow riser is From the Heart Needleart's freebie called Floral Pinkeep.   Teetered on top of a small stack of vintage lemon cups  is Bee Berry 

Did you notice my newest vintage doily? 💚💛😀 You can see a bit of it in the photo below. I believe it is a grape design- so stinkin' cute! 

The blueberry pie dish is also recent thrifty find. It does need some touch up paint , but I turned it to its good side.  Below it is Aunt Betty's  at Blueberry Buckle Lane which is one of my favorites' of 2023. 

Vintage Fire king, a cookbook, platters, salt and pepper shakers and my scales round out the bottom shelf. 

So that is it! Now tell me are your craving lemon blueberry squares with a cold glass of lemonade right now? Hee! Hee!   I am ! 

 I am so very grateful that you dropped by to visit me today! 

I wish you a Sun Shiny Day! 

As always,

Happy Stitching and Quilting, y'all

Melisa

"Life is short , squeeze all you can out of it! "

Hugs and Stitches!!! 🤗🧵

Dedicated to my dear sister, Amy. I miss and love you so much.   ❤👼

Sunny Sunflowers are being embroidered. 

 

Gardening, Stitching and a Patriotic Freebie

Is this the last  Slow Stitching Sunday in June? By golly, I do believe it is ! Where has the month gone? 

Welcome ya'll and Happy Sunday!

Many of ya'll know that I started canning this week. Right now it is pickles . So the official tally for the week  is 9 jars of Bread and Butter, 5  jars of Dill Spears , and 4  jars of squash pickles. I am working on small batches right now, but it will add up. 

The garden has certainly been keeping me busy. The other day my oldest grandbaby inspected the  maters to see if there were any bugs and such. 

We also took off suckers and planted some of them. Soon we will be swimming in tomatoes. 😁🍅🍅🍅🍅

A little canning jar design for you. It's a choose your own colors chart. I plan to work on it today. 

If you are interested in stitching this piece,  just grab , the images. For printing tips, refer to the post Tips for Printing which has loads of tips from my sweet friends. 

OOPS- CORRECTION: I made a mistake with the jar lid symbol. It is NOT the " #" symbol nor is it the same color as the flag pole . It is the symbol "T". I used a gray color. Please choose which every floss colors that suit your fancy. I am so sorry for the mistake. 

UPDATE: I finished the Mini Patriotic Mason Jar along with Pop Goes the Fireworks Stamp. They just need to be FFOd. - July  1st. 

ANOTHER UPDATE: I FFOd  the Mini Mason Jar into a teeny cutie patootie pillow. - July 3, 2023

Of course summer time activities have cut into my stitching and quilting time. But I have accomplished a few things. 

I finished the embroidery work on "When Life Gives You Lemons". I think I will create another block to go with it soon. 

Last night I finished the nine patches and rail fence blocks for the  Summer Blues Quilt Archaeology  design by Pam Buda of Heartspun Quilts. It is a freebie only through today  Sunday June 25th.  

Joy of Days Filled with Joy has been hosting a seasonal embroidery SAL for the past year. I  have embroidered each and every one.😀🤗

 On Friday, she shared the 5th embroidery motif in the Spring SAL. 

So today my nimble fingers will be enjoying working on  this embroidery. And Eeeeh! Joy will be sharing a Summer SAL soon.  Thank you , Joy. 

Alrighty ya'll , have a beautiful and blessed day and thank you so much for dropping by for a Sunday visit. 

As always...

Happy  Stitching and Quilting, ya'll

Melisa 

Whatever makes your soul happy, do that! 

Hugs and Stitches!!!!🤗🧵❤

Dedicated to my baby sister, Amy . I love and miss you Amo.❤❤❤

I am joining these lovely ladies' link parties. I hope you check them out; they always have so many wonderful projects going on and provide the opportunity for other needle workers to meet. 

Frederique at   Quilting Patchwork Applique for Patchwork & Quilts - Saturday

Kathy at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Stitching Sunday

Kate at Life in Pieces for  Stitching Stuff ( Sunday) 

Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun Than Housework for Oh Scrap - Sunday 

Melva at Melva Loves Scraps for Sew & Tell- Sunday

The other night the youngins enjoyed running about the yard in search of lightning bugs. Do you remember doing that? They had such a good time. Of course they released them once they had a small jar full. Aaah Summer time pleasures. 

Summer Days Block 8- Lemonade

Happy , happy Thursday! Welcome. Can you believe it? This is the last day of March. 

Yesterday was a beautiful warm day, but boy was it windy. I sat outside chasing furniture and cushions all day .  In between, I worked on embroidery, and of course I played in the garden.  

I planted a Butterfly Bush in one of my rusty gardens. We will see how it does.  

These are plants waiting to be planted in pots or the ground. I am chomping at the bits to have my plants out of the greenhouse. Lol 

Hopefully today's weather will be much milder. Maybe March will leave out like a lamb. 

This is "Waiting for Easter" by Subrosa. It was a freebie on her blog posted in the March 13, 2015 post. I stitched it a few years ago , but left out the wording in the basket. 

Summer Days Block 8 is complete. 

Oh no! I was not a late bunny like I was last week. Speaking of last week. Let me show you that I did put my needle in 4th gear and went to town,  and by night's end "Summertime Treat" was complete. 

Ok , now back to Block #8. 

This week's embroidery is "Lemonade" . I have to admit that I like my lemonade sweeeeeet.  How about you? 

With all of the yellow, it is hard to see the details in the photo. I'm so sorry about that. 

 Click here for doodle. 

Note: The doodle is a tad different from my stitch. Please feel free to move the lemon slices or add as many or as few as you want. 

Previous blocks include:  Little Blue Birdie  ,Time to Plant  ,   A Bowl of Berries ,  A Basket of Blooms , Buzz Buzz  ,  Red , White, and Ewe and Summertime Treat .  

   Last year after seeing my mom's lemon Dollar Tree haul. I began a wee lemon collection for myself. This is one of the displays last summer. 

I do not have too much but I enjoy what I have.  Do you decorate with lemons during the summer? 

Now it is time for me to grab needle and thread and begin a new block. I hope you are doing something you love today. Have a wonderful day, my dears and as always...

Happy quilting, 

Melisa

         

When life gives you lemons, make orange juice and make everyone wonder how you did it. 🍋🟠😃🍹

Hugs and Stitches!!!

Dedicated to my baby sister, Amy. Miss and love you.  My summers will never be the same without you, Amo.