Porch Stitching and a Trifle

Happy Sunday, ya'll and welcome! I am so happy you stopped by for a Sunday visit and a little porch stitching.

                       

 I have been able to sit on the porch for the last 2 days . Woo Hoo! It has been in the low 70's today with a  slight breeze. I hope it is warming up in your area.  Not much going on in the garden so I will give an update on that next week if weather allows. I did clean out some flower pots, but they are not very pretty to look at all. Lol.

 I have several projects to share with you today. I was so delighted when my friend Jane sent me a link last night  to a sweet freebie called "Lydia the Garden Angel" by Leslie Davis of One of a Kind Heirlooms.

                        

 I whipped her up in just a few hours finishing her up today. I left off "Happy Easter" and some swirls and changed her colors to make her look more like an Annie. I am so excited to add her to my Raggedy Ann collection. I look forward to FFOing her soon. 

Thought I would share some of my country toy clutter. I love little toys, wooden pieces and of course Annie and Andy. 

                           

What else have I been up too?  Still plugging away on my Easter quilt.

                                   

 It will not be completed by Easter time, but that is ok. A few more stitches will go into it tonight. When I take it off the hoop , I will share a better view of it. 

                           

 The quilt on the swing is an Around the World quilt. I got the top at the Goodwill and quilted it a couple of years ago. 

 I pulled out my Little House Needleworks "Sampler Stitchers" . I love this design, and it does need some attention. I hope to work on it tonight and tomorrow. 

 I have my cookies all baked/ stitched.

 I have added a new trifle for you to  enjoy if you so choose. Please take a little cookie.  The new one is called Strawberry Picker-  a little robin enjoying a small berry.   Of course , I have it plated up with all of the other trifles.

 I thought I would share how I make my little cookies  though they are really ornaments or fobs. 

This is  an itty bitty stitch measuring 16 x 21. I put it next to a quarter to show you how small it is on 14 count tea dyed aida.  

After I stitch my design, I gather my supplies. I need a piece of cardboard, my votive candle (to draw out the circles the size that I want my cookie to be), backing fabric for the cookie, thread, needle, batting and a bit of glue.

 I draw 2 circles on the cardboard using the votive candle as a template. I cut the cardboard circles out- one will be for the back and the other for the stitched piece.

 I cut 2 pieces of batting the size of the circle and add a dab of glue to the batting and cardboard and let dry. I then cut out a piece of backing fabric for the back of the cookie larger than the circle. I also  trim my stitched piece into a large circle- it is  larger than my cardboard circle.

 I  start with the back or bottom part of the cookie and stitch a running stitch around the backing fabric.

                                        

 I then draw it closed and tie it off. 

                        

 I then repeat the same process with the stitched piece with the batting between the stitching and the cardboard. 

                     

 Next step, whip stitch these two pieces together at the seams using thread the same color. There are several videos on youtube that show how to whipstitch.  Now my cookie is complete.

 But I wanted to add trim and make it into an ornament/fob too. So I used ric rac that is 17 inches long. I start at the bottom of the cookie. I  start with one end and stitch up to the top of the cookie. I use a whip stitch going in and out of the peaks and valleys of the ric rac going back and forth from front side to back side. 

                   

Once I got to the top, I wove my thread underneath my stitching to the bottom of the cookie  and started stitching the other end of the ric rac to the side until the ric rac met at the top.  I made  sure there were no twists in my ric rac as I went.

                                           

  I stitched the ric rac closed once it met at the top. My  sewing was complete.  

                     

I then tied a knot in the ric rac and settled it against the stitched piece.  I hope that helps on how I finished mine.  Vonna Pfeiffer The Twisted Stitcher has all kinds of great tutorials.   This is just how I do it. 😊

                    

Click here if you would like to stitch Stawberry Picker. 

I was also asked  what pattern was my chicken quilt.     

               

 This is one of my applique patterns which  I would love to share. I am  appliqueing mine to a 10 1/2"  unfinished background block using needleturn applique.  One of the amazing quilters that I love to watch demonstrate  needleturn applique' is Jan Patek. She has a number of videos on Youtube. Click here to see her work on Eagle Wings and Rooster Tails

Click here if you would like the Chicken applique pattern. 

                              

Well, I am off to enjoy the last few hours of sunshine and hopefully get a little more porch stitching done. Thank you for keeping me company; it is always a joy .

Have a very blessed week and as always...

Happy quilting and stitching, ya'll

Melisa

I am joining these lovely ladies in their link parties as they come available. I know they would love for you to visit. You will find lots of inspiration. 

Kathy at Kathy's Quilts  for Slow Stitching Sunday

Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun Than Housework for Oh Scrap

Beth at Love Laugh Quilt  for Monday Making

Judy at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts for Design Wall Monday

Doing the Bunny Hop

Happy, happy Saturday and welcome ya'll. Are you ready for an awesome weekend? Oh , boy I am ! My weekend started last night when I joined Wendy at Sugarlane Designs for Friday Night Sew In. Do you want to see some of the projects I worked on? 

A little green hen is the start of a new chicken quilt. It is going to be a small quilt. One block done ; eleven more to go. 

I then worked on one of my  Spring Chick embroidery blocks. 

This is a freebie that I posted Wednesday. Click here if you missed it; I would love for you to join me. I was going to embroider these 4 little chicks in red , but changed my mind to black. I am going to make a quilt. 

Did you see my Spring on the Farm cross stitch this week. It was a freebie that I am in love with right now. Click here if you missed it. 

I had the urge to start a new saltbox on Monday. 

This one has a little orange kitty on the roof and a porch swing - a perfect spot to sit , relax and stitch the day away. I worked more on this stitch last night as well. 

See I think that is a great start for my weekend.  Now to continue the fun how about let's do a little dance- A Bunny Hop. You want to try? Well, we all got to get in a line first. Do you remember doing this dance as a child? Lol.

I created a little prim  bunny stitch using only 3 floss colors. It is called 1869 Bunny Hop. 

I made mine into a little pin pillow and added some tea dyed chenille trim and a gourd pin with buttons for embellishment. 

If you would like to stitch it, please check out the pdfs below. You know I am not a professional designer so each page is on its own download. 

Click here for instruction page. 

Click here for the colored chart. 

Click here for the black and white chart. 

I would love to share with you some other things I have been doing this week.

 I  worked on a few green rail fence blocks since I am participating in Angela's of So Scrappy Rainbow Scrap Challenge. 

I worked a little more on my strawberry quilt. I shared 3 blocks last week which were Bowl of Berries, Strawberry Jam and Strawberry Pie. 

 This week I have a Chocolate Covered Strawberry . Yum yum. 

We used to sell chocolate covered strawberries at a local fair years ago. We also sold strawberry shortcake and strawberry cornbread. 

Recently, I Rit dyed some 14 count aida a lovely mint green. 

It was an experiment with mixture of Emerald Green and a dash of Lemon Yellow. I knew exactly what project this minty green fabric was going to be used on - Val's Little Stuff "Spring's a Buzzin " .

 This chart was a sweet gift from a stitching friend. I just used  random flosses from my "Basket of Tangles"  ( My floss basket- no organization going on here. Lol) .

Doesn't it look so cute paired up with a jadeite saucer and my mini Pink Lemonade quilt? 

  I also worked on another Easter stitch called "Easter Peeps" by Helen Daily. It is a freebie available on her Flosstube channel #77  posted March, 2, 2021 video.

So do you have any stitching or quilting on your agenda for the day? I hope so if not I hope you are doing something that brings you a lot of joy.  Thank you so much for visiting; it is always such a delight .  I wish you many blessings and as always...

Happy quilting and stitching, ya'll

Melisa

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. 

Angela of So Scrappy  for Scrap Happy Saturday

Alycia of Alycia Quilts   For Finished or Not Friday

Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Can I Get a Whoop Whoop

Michelle  at  From Bolt to Beauty for Beauty Pageant 121

Wendy at Wendy's Quilts for Peacock Party

                                 

The wise bunny knows the carrot will not hop to him. -  Krista Lester

All you need to do is hop to it with love. 

Hugs and Stitches

Messin and a Gommin, Correction and a Doodle

Happy Thursday  and welcome, ya'll. How has your week been so far? Mine has been very soggy. Lots and lots of rain since Monday and more rain through the day is expected. But on the plus side that is good stitching weather. 

I have been working on a new saltbox.  Here is a sneak peek. 

Speaking of saltboxes, I made a little oops on Spring Green Saltbox. I  have seen many stitchers working  on it, and many have finished it. I  believe many stitched right through  the mistake probably knowing what I meant to  chart. Lol. But I wanted to point it out  and make the correction. 

In my first photo, I have my scissors pointed to an area which uses  DMC 937 and uses the symbol $   . There were a couple of squares that were accidently charted with the symbol " 3". They were supposed to be charted with the symbol $ for 937. 

The 2nd photo has my scissors pointed to the top of the flower leaf. There was the symbol •  ( which is 310) . It was supposed to be the symbol  3 which is for DMC 3345 the same as the rest of the leaf . 

I have corrected both the colored and black charts. You can click here to go to the original post or you may want to make a note on your copy.  I am so sorry about that, and hope it has not caused too much inconvenience or confusion.   Please if you ever see anything that seems off  in a chart, let me know. It is truly appreciated. 

Well, what else have I been up too - a little messin and gommin. That's what we say in the south when we are making a mess. Do you want to come along with me and see?  We are off to the kitchen. 

I was recently asked about how I dyed my aida. There are a lot of wonderful tutorials out there, but I will tell you how I do mine probably not much different than you do. 

First, I know you might be wondering do I actually cook with all that stuff on my the stove. Yep I do , but I am always right with it . Usually I cook on my other  stove though. 

First, I cut a hunk of 14 count aida and gather up my supplies. I used coffee, family size tea bags and sometimes cinnamon . Sometimes I also add black walnuts  but not this time though.

Usually, I use about 4 or 5 tea bags, a cup of coffee grounds and a couple of tablespoons of cinnamon- I like the smell. This time hubby saved me some used tea bags so I have those to add in too. 

 I dampen my aida so it is easy to put in the pot. Sometimes I use a big stock pot, but today it is a small pot. 

I place the coffee, tea bags, cinnamon and water in the pot. Now I am a bit messy when I am dyeing. I would suggest putting your coffee grounds in a little cloth bag tied off. I just threw mine in . Eeek - I bet you are saying- "She is  a gommin" .  Lol. ( More about that later.)  

I bring my fabric to a boil, and then I reduce the heat to low and let it sit on the stove for a few hours checking it often.  I keep a pitcher of water by the stove to add to the dye when the water gets low. I ended up cutting off the heat when I went to bed but left the fabric in the mixture. 

Now sometimes I immediately take it out of the pot and then bake it for about 20 minutes in a pyrex dish at 180 degrees,  but I watch it carefully. Other times I do not bake it at all. 

This time after letting the fabric sit overnight, I took the pot outside and hung the fabric on the swing to dry. Once the fabric was dried, I shook out the coffee grounds- messin again.  Since I liked the color of my fabric , I went ahead and discarded  the tea /coffee dye into my garden ( tea bags and all). I broke down the tea bags with a garden shovel and buried them among the garden dirt. They will be gone in no time. Plus the mixture is good for my plants. 

This is how my fabric looks in comparison to beforehand. It is pretty dark. I like it!! Now it is time to stitch. 

 

Oh, I hope you are not cringing too much after reading this. I am sure you do not mess and gom like I do but boy is it fun. 

It has been awhile since I gifted you a doodle. I am all into my chickens right now. So I was working on some Spring Chick doodles last night. I haven't got to stitch them yet, but they are on my agenda for this weekend. I am going to embroider mine using a back stitch and create a little quilt. 

Click here for the Spring Chick Doodles. 

Thank you so much for coming to visit me today. Bring some fabric next time, and we will mess and gom together. I will promise not to be too messy. Lol.   As always...

Happy Stitching, ya'll

Melisa

This weekend I am joining Wendy at Sugarlane Designs for a Friday Night Sew In. Hope you will pop over and check her out and perhaps sign up and check out the others who are participating.

A creative mess is better than tidy idleness. 

Hugs and Stitches!!!

 

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Top of the Mornin' to you and Happy St. Patrick's Day! Do you have your green on? I am all decked out in green.  Oh, no I am not going to be pinched. 

 This is just a quick post to wish you many blessings today and to do a little tour of greens in the house.  Not much chit chat - just photos today. 

A little green quilt. 

 

A wee leprechaun. Where's that pot of gold? 

 A little green saltbox with lots of sheep. 

My little green rooster table is all decked out in sheep and greens. 

Green fabric waiting to be made into something pretty. 

The hutch is sporting its greens for just a few more hours. 

Lots of stitching. 

Cabbage decor

My grandson's little handprint on a wool applique pillow. Oh,  so precious. 

So I have to say my house has "it's green on" . 

Thank you for the sweet holiday visit. Have a beautiful day, my dear friends. And as always...

Happy Quilting and stitching, 

Melisa

YOu are the pot of gold at the end of my rainbow!