1. My new sewing machine my hubby bought me.
2. Block of the month from Quilting is my Therapy. I have 3 months in the box to catch up on. Surely, I thought, one a month I could keep up on. Nope… Apparently the summer heat said don’t cut fabric now. I need to break that reaction to the disease.
3. I decided to take up needle tatting. Yes, I tried shuttle tatting many years ago. But using a long needle looks so much easier. I have the needles now and books and thread… For some reason during a feverish moment, I decided this was a good idea. Never let a fever take control.
4. Oh, I still have the yarn to knit stuffed animals. I am waiting for the knitting gloves which I ordered a month ago to come in the mail. Well, that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it!
5. Alice’s Country Diary quilt embroidery gets done every now and then. I am on block A7 of the embroidery.
6. My Advent EPP quilt blocks are here beside me. I have 4 to go…Maybe by Christmas I will have it done.
7. And the list goes on and on…

I did find one relief from this… It is called a Necessary Adult Pause… otherwise known as a NAP.

So what am I working on? I think I need a craft bowl to put my ideas in. Then I can pick one a day and work on that… Unless something shiny comes along and calls my name.

But now I need to find the floss container that I put all my floss for Alice Country Diary quilt in so that I can prepare for the next block (8). Boy, I hope that I didn’t put it in with my other collection of floss. I did keep it separate for a reason. But when I get on a roll, who knows that happened…

Till then, My friends, please join me in battling this condition. I hate to think I am alone in this battle. Let me know what you are working on.

Have an awesome crafting day!

Maybe I took too much time enjoying the hummingbirds in the morning or doing the laundry. I didn’t get anything finished this week.

I did try.

• Miss Paula or Mr. Paul the Polar Bear that I am knitting has a head with eyes, nose and a mouth. It also has an unstuffed body. The gender will be determined by the outfit it is wearing. (Little Cotton Rabbits on etsy and from the website)
• I have the mini double wedding ring block cut out and glue based to fabric. I think I may switch to thread basting these pieces. They are Tiny! Each piece will fit on a 1.5 inch square of fabric. My fingers were sticky from the glue! (Elise Baek website)
• I traced Oh Tannenbaum pattern for embroidery for a christmas pillow. (Kathy Schmitz website)
• Joy pillow embroidery done and the sticky paper I used to stitch it is rinsed off. Now it is drying on the kitchen counter.

The Oh Tannenbaum and Joy pillow tops are from Kathy Schmitz’s website. They are part of her Merry Minis Workshop. Besides these two patterns, there are motifs that are about 1.5 inches high to stitch individually. Kathy also has in the workshop videos on how do to the stitching and instructions to make the Joy pillow and turn the Oh Tannenbaum into a wall hanging if desired. I am making mine into a large pillow for the holidays.

I used my light box to trace the tree. TIP: Put the on/off switch in the upper left hand corner if you are right handed. This way you aren’t always turning it off and on with your arm. I traced the pattern on plain fabric with a Fine Point Smooth marker (01). I am using Sulky Cotton 12 weight Blenders in Color 4051 (Forever Green Varigated) as my embroidery thread. It has the same thickness as 2 strands of DMC embroidery floss and is colorfast. Now the 8 year old critic I showed the work to yesterday said “Grandma, you should make it more colorful!” Who is stitching this buddy? Would you like me to get you a pattern to stitch?

I also used the Sulky Cotton Thread in red to stitch the Joy embroidery. I printed the pattern on Sticky Water Soluble stabilizer. When I finished, I trimmed away as much of the stabilizer as I could and soaked it in lukewarm water while I went out for my morning coffee. Rinsed and rolled up in towels to remove the excess water.

The stitches I used are the stem stitch, backstitch and some French knots for the Joy. I will be using the same stitches on Oh Tannenbaum.

I have pillow forms from Amazon for these projects because I’m not trying to stuff poly-fil… Nope, not happening.

Hopefully, next week I will have finished projects to show. I think I need to quit sleeping, laundry, cooking and cleaning.