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Monday, January 29, 2018

Dreaming of Spring

Cold rainy days are not good for autoinflammatory illnesses. Despite the achey stiff joints... so thankfully I managed to get laundry done, just a couple of loads that were pending. Dinner is done too; Savory Herb Chicken with carrots, potatoes (in the electric multi-cooker pot done in less than 20 minutes) also added broccoli and a side of  rice. 
 Cold rainy weather is perfect for stews, and hearty soups... but I'm so looking forward to warmer weather and all the pretty blooms in spring! In the meantime I leave you with some eye candy from one of my Japanese embroidery books in my collection. My apologies if already posted about it... can't remember.
 This book is by Kazuko Aoki. Her specialty is on the embroidery of plants you may find in a flower or vegetable garden. This particular book is all about flowers, embroidered using common stitches.
 Perhaps in the future I'll post other tiny peeks of some of the other books in my collection by Kazuko Aoki. In fact there have been some already translated to English, I got one from Amazon, if you do a search you'll be able to preview it. It is entitled The Embroidered Garden... on one of my old posts (here) there is a peek of it.
 As I've mentioned in the past, I love Japanese embroidery books! A basic knowledge of embroidery is all you need in order to understand the well illustrated diagrams/pictures. The art of needlework transcends multi-cultural, international barriers!
Well, I better get dinner on the table! Until next time!

Saturday, January 20, 2018

Snow Days (Updated)

Believe it or not, this little guy was the only progress I was able to make this weekend (so far).

We ended up getting 7 inches of snow. There was a lot going on here (2 sick kids), wasn't able to stitch as much.

Although snowed in, which normally will make you crave hot beverages, I was craving a virgin piña colada. Didn't have cream of coconut in my pantry (not the same as coconut milk), so I improvised. Threw in the blender some: crushed ice, pineapple juice, 2 bananas, a bit of agave nectar, and a delicious banana colada was the result! Enough for 4 generous servings.

What is your favorite beverage? 

Anyhow,  need to go and finish the laundry today instead of waiting for Monday... yippee, so exciting... :-/ Not! Vacuuming done, thankfully. More homeschool work to scan and upload tonight. Powder room done, bathrooms tomorrow. Sorry to be discouraging, but there are days that I'm full of energy and all up for it. Then I have days that I'm just dragging around, but still need to get things done.  If not I start seeing tumbleweeds instead of dust bunnies. Today was a draggy day, throw sick kids on top of that and... you know what I mean.

The positive of it is, if I'm done with all of it between today & tomorrow I'll have a less chore-y Monday!  
Will take a break from posting for some time. Enjoy what is left of the weekend and may the weeks ahead prove to be great for you!

PS: The goodies I ordered arrived today (delayed USPS delivery do to the storm), here's a peek:

Tuesday, January 16, 2018

A Couple of Vintage Embroidery Designs

Stopping briefly to share a couple of vintage embroidery designs from my collection.  I'm still learning the photo editing application on my cellphone, so hopefully these are clear enough for you to save, print, and stitch. Enjoy!
Use your favorite method for transferring it to your fabric and have some therapeutic down time with needle and thread! 

We might be snowed in for a day or two, besides catching up with uploading homeschool work and house chores, I might stitch a bit. Don't think I'll start one of these cuties, most likely will continue working on one of my current embroidery projects.

OH... before I forget! There is a clearance sale at Colonial Patterns (makers/distributors of Aunt Martha's embroidery transfers I talked about on previous post), and sadly somethings will not be offered any longer (like the pre-printed quilt tops). I'm not affiliated with the company, but a happy customer and needlework enthusiast giving a heads up on a good sale in case you will like to check it out! Must admit I already placed an order ;-). I'm a bit disappointed that once the quilt tops are gone they will not be offered any longer, so naturally I ordered two among other goodies... before they are all gone.
Well, I think this post turned out a bit longer than expected... until next time!

Friday, January 12, 2018

Back On The Saddle... Sort Of


While listening to upbuilding material I felt the desire to pick back up one of my projects that's been on stand by for some time.
Start of it posted here, and these are the designs I've stitched on it so far:
(above: out of print vintage, Puppy Fashion Show no.3262)
(above: Busy Bee no.3681 and below: Dottie the Duck no.3400... both still in print)
So those three designs are the ones already embroidered on my quilt top... by the way, I really love the pre-printed blocks on this quilt top. Thinking of using those pre-printed dotted lines as hand quilting pattern guide once the quilt top is done, most likely using perle cotton no. 8 or 5. Here is a link and picture of it in case some of you may want to check it out (non-affiliated link).  
AUNT MARTHA'S QUILTING FABRIC - RETRO FLOWER PRINT
I'm also trying to keep my selection of designs to be embroidered from my Aunt Martha's transfer collection. Easy going, no deadline, no stress stitching.
This last design is a vintage one, re-printed and found in the Aunt Martha's Vault section of their website (patterns in that section come without the envelope).
(above: Donny the Donkey no.3876)
I think this cute donkey is mesmerized by the singing of his tiny friend! My plan is to embroider every other block, and then appliqué squares of fabric from my stash on the rest of the blocks. I'll end up with a cheery lap top that will bring to mind fond memories.
Until later! Have a nice weekend!