A Quilt Show, and Stitching A Long on Sunday

Yesterday I attend the Busy Bees Quilters Quilt Show held at a local church a few blocks from my house.

They haven't done a quilt show since the outbreak or Covid I was thrilled to see the flyer on Facebook earlier in the week and so happy to learn the Bees were Back. I will share a few photos here.  I was feeling under the weather and had to leave early but I did manage to see all the quilts in the show.

My favorite quilt in the show is this Bra Quilt, each block has a different printed fabric and a necklace, the backing fabric was a perfect choice.

My spiral piece is coming along nicely, stitching it is so meditative I lose all track of time. 

The week 6 piece for the K3n.clothtales SAL prompt was Tricksy fabrics, those hard to hold onto and stitch fabrics we have all dealt with at one time or another.  

The Tricksy fabrics I used white lace, satin tan, wool white, the purple brocade which kept fraying the entire time I stitched it, a wool blend felt with lace stitched over it (yellow). yellow tulle which I folded over several times and stitched over a fussy cut. Organza is orange and a bit of orange satin ribbon. I let the fabrics speak to the placement of each piece. I enjoyed stitching this, in fact, with each passing week I find myself looking forward to the next week's piece.

This morning I hung up the Valentine's Day banner I made a few years ago and found it when I was looking for scraps for the week 6 piece.

I am also stitching the moth piece from the Cozy Blue stitch club, it's from a few months ago. I may

just stitch the moth and make it into a little brooch.   I'm adding my post to Kathy's Quilts here: 

https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2024/02/slow-sunday-stitching.html  Why not pop over and see what other bloggers are slow stitching this Sunday.

I'll leave you with a few more lovely quilts from the Quilt Show

Slow Sunday Stitching, And a Bit of This and That!

 Apparently the L4 has moved out of alignment and is causing all the pain, and I have quite a arthritis in the spine as well. An MRI is scheduled for Tuesday the 27th, in the meantime it's a round of steroids to hopefully reduce the swelling and relieve some of the pain. Anyway it has a fancy name spondylolisthesis.

If the doctor would have listened better a few months ago when I saw him for my knee pain and I described everything that was going on he could have addressed this much sooner and I could have had less pain filled days. I had already told him about a previous back surgery for the L5 for the same reason and this is a pattern with the condition.

On the up side the steroids have helped with the pain and I am hoping that possibly physical therapy could be an option before another surgery, but I know I have been suffering with this for over 2 years so that may not be an option.

My progress on the Goddess Morrigan is moving along slowly when I hit a stand still when I ran out of the Black Crow wool floss I was using for the wings. I had thought I bought the wool floss at

Brick City Stitches, out local needlework shop, unfortunately they don't sell the wool floss.  I did recall ordering from 123Stitch when I ordered a few items for another project.  I was only using the wool floss for texture so I may continue on with just cotton floss in the same colorway by the same manufacturer.   In the meantime I have other project to work on. I joined the Stitch Club via Cozy Blue and have 2 pieces to start, I'm going to iron them today and start on the July Kit 1st which is a lovely floral crescent moon.

I also have the June kit to stitch which in a lovely Moth

I harvested a few basil leaves a few days ago, with the heat and humidity here in Florida basil tends to struggle during the summer so I have been moving the potted plants into the sun every few days and so far it's helping

I chopped a few leaves to toss into a salad yesterday and have the remaining leave in a bag in the fridge to use on some fish tomorrow.  It's a small plant that I haven't transplanted to a large pot yet which probably won't happen until it gets cooler and I can bend better.  I have been thinking about buying one of these raised bed boxes so I can start some plants for a fall garden.  This would give me the chance to get my hands in soil and not have to worry about hurting my back any worse then it is now. I miss having a garden.

Some photos pop up in my Facebook feed to remind me I can actually grow a garden but it's been so long.

This little garden bed I planted a few years ago before I moved into my current house in June 2019, I had a little rose garden along the side of the house.

I do miss gardening, I learned over the years not to plant to late in the season so that I don't lose everything to the July rains and heat.  Now is the time to start some seeds for the autumn and a good time to sit with a sketch book to plan out the next spring garden.  I can dream of getting my hands in the soil, filling up my empty pots and containers and preparing the beds for the winter where I plan to plant a nice raised bed.

I am currently reading Kitchen Witch by Sarah Robinson, a friend gifted me for my birthday, it's a lovely look into folklore and history and a bit of fairytale, I am enjoying it quite a bit.

There are no recipes in the book however, there is a companion cookbook coming out in September which will have recipes. 

I finished reading Soil by Camille T. Dungy, it was a lovely read and really moved me in ways I didn't expect.

Here is a link to Cozy Blue where I joined the Stitch Club I mentioned above.  She also sells some wonderful patterns and kits.

https://cozybluehandmade.com/

I am also linking my post to Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching

https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2023/07/slow-sunday-stitching_01634929282.html

Happy Spring and Slow Sunday Stitching

 Spring arrived in north central Florida with sunny skies, clear cool air and birdsong from the early hours of dawn to my walk in the park and home to sit outside with a cup of tea and my newest hand embroidery project. 

I began stitching the Greenman with Weeks Dye Works floss in Monkey Grass 2158,  for me the greenman has always been a symbol of Spring and nature so beginning him on the Vernal Equinox seemed like a good idea.

I like using Weeks Dye Works floss for my greenman/greenwoman pieces because of the shades of green in each skein, and the names are herbs and other vegetation.  I may also use a few Gentle Arts floss.

I am also working on the Moon Flow piece by Cozy Blue, I bought the kit planning to have it stitched by today unfortunately I had a few days where I didn't feel like stitching.

I love the kits from Cozy Blue, I'm partial to Moon Phase patterns so I bought the kit and the pattern, I made this one in 2017 called Lunar Blossom I also bought the pattern and an iron on pattern to use.

I like to have a kit or two to stitch especially when the pattern is pre-printed on the fabric it takes care  of tracing the pattern.  A friend of mine suggested a company called Avlea and I bought a kit from there called Aegean Sunrise.

Here is my progress on the Moon Flow kit,  I started with the flowers and now I'm working the center leaves then I'll move on to the small flowers then the moons and the leaves on the outer rim.

The bright yellow fabric is what attracted me to the kit, I bought the pattern too so I could make it on a different background.

I'm linking my post to Kathy's Quilts https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/2022/03/slow-sunday-stitching_0188912250.html

Check the link to see what other bloggers are slow stitching today and perhaps add your link to what you are slow stitching this fine Spring day.

 Here are the links for the 2 kits I mentioned Cozy Blue has an Etsy shop and a Website to shop on.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/cozyblue

https://cozybluehandmade.com/

https://www.avleaembroidery.com/

And Spring rose on the garden fair,

Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere;

And Each flower and herb on Earth’s dark breast

rose from the dreams of it’s wintry rest.

-Percy Bysshe Shelley

Art Janie Olsen