Sit n Stitch and Homely Houseplants Stitch Along

I've been working on a stitch along by Stitchonomy called Homely Houseplants. It ended a few days ago and I'm almost done. I've just got two more plants to go. I missed the sign up for the free patterns on her page by a day because I didn't get the Facebook notification till the next day. I decided to join her patreon to get into this one and I'm really happy I did.

She had some very pretty and easy designs. I say easy because she doesn't do half stitches or put in the backstitching. So if you don't like either of those then your good to go. I will sometimes add it in depending on if I want to emphasize or smooth out details. She's also supportive of using different colors.

Her next one is colorful critters and the colors in the kits look exciting. I'm not ordering a kit because I have such an enormous selection of floss I'm going to see what I have first. These projects have become my sit and stitch projects. On Tuesdays, I meet a group at the local quilt shop for sit and stitch. A lot of them knit or crochet, but a few of us are doing other types of hand projects.

Sit and stitch inspired me to put an unusual drink as my spotlight. It uses tea to make it, but it's not tea. One of the ladies grew up in the Seattle area and has family in Victoria, British Colombia. She often visited family there and has had the tea blend that the Empress Hotel created. She was talking about one of the shops there she would buy tea from. That reminded me of a recommendation for a fantastic Gin I got at the beginning of February. It was the Empress 1908 Gin. This was also crafted at the hotel. The gin is made with botanicals that include rose petals, Grapefruit peel, purple pea blossoms, and the Empress Hotel's tea blend. I can not tell you how much of love this gin and it's my favorite color in the world, purple. The flowers give it such a vibrant color that even making a gin and tonic does not dull it very much. I hope to one day try the tea.

2020 Projects!

It's already March and I've not posted anything on what I've been working on. I've been distracted and then at the end of January and the first of February I had a friend visit from out of town. I didn't get anything done while he was here.  So I've had several small projects I finished for February and January.

January I did the first Saturday fiber Review for Fiberology Labs. I didn't have much extra to show for it. I did have the Christmas Tree Table Runner I showed in my last post. I also finished my Winter 2019 cross stitch along with Stitchonomy. It came out so pretty. I'm going to leave it in the wooden frame to hang it. I have started another cross stitch along with her group. It's called Homely Houseplants. She ended that one recently I just have to finish the last few plants on mine. She has a free sign up for her next stitch along Colorful Critters. You have until April 15th to sign up for the free patterns.

February for the Fiber review we got a pattern for a heart coster. I've finished the coster but haven't taken a photo of it yet. It was a small fast project. I'm going to make more for presents later with different fabrics. It's pretty easy all you need is a few charm squares. I will have a photo of the finished one with March's fiber review meeting.

I started a temperature quilt for my father. One of the lady's that meet at our local quilt shop/yarn shop has been doing a temperature scarf as part of The National Park Tempestry Project. This got me researching different types of temperature blankets etc. I don't knit or crochet. I have attempted it in the past and it is just not one of my talents. I do, however, quilt a lot. So I thought I could do one as a present.

January and February temperature quilt for 1954 WIP

My father's birth year was chosen because I haven't done anything specifically for him yet. I thought he would like this type of quilt the most. I did research on the daily highs and lows for the entire year. I had taken the range and assigned fabric colors to equal the temperatures in 5-degree increments. The lower two ranges are in 10-degree increments because of not having data reflecting certain ranges. I cut brown squares to mark where the months change and made 365 half-square triangle blocks. I have been a bit slower on this project then I hoped I would be and only have 5 rows together giving us a snapshot of the first two months of the year.

January Block

February block

Another project I am working on has been a Murder Mystery Quilt along. They are dropping a block a month with a bit of a story. When you post a picture of your block you get a clue to help you figure out the mystery. I've enjoyed this one so far. Seeing everyone else's blocks posted on Instagram has been fun.

This month for tea I'm going to spotlight a tea room I went to in Chattanooga recently. One of the places my friend wanted to go to was Two Ten Jacks in Chattanooga for Ramen. Since it's almost a two-hour drive for us, we decided to do a day trip and hit a few places. We stopped at Chattanooga Mercantile and spent several hours wandering through the store. It was lots of fun. In the building, there is a tea room called Mammie Carlotta's tucked in the back. We stopped for a snack and some tea for a bit before wandering around the shop more.

October projects done

So I'm eternally writing about what I did last month or something like that because sometimes my ADHD interferes with getting everything documented. I know I get a few views but I do treat this blog as more of a timeline for the starting and finishing of projects.

October wasn't my busiest month but I did have a lot to do. My cousin always throws a Halloween party and I always enjoy making something Halloween inspired. I decorated my office with my Halloween Bunting I made last year and a small pumpkin table topper/wall hanging.

I also started two cross-stitch along's. The first one by Cunning Cross Stitch is a Harry Potter Themed project that they call a stitch your own adventure. I figured this would be a good hand stitch project to do since they give us almost two months between pattern releases. The second was a shorter more pattern of the day stitch along by Stitchonomy based on the Drawlloween prompts for October. Both stitch along's are on facebook and I found the prompts and Stitchonomy's daily patterns on Instagram. She does sell the pattern as a whole in her pattern club on patreon. I do encourage you to check her out because her work is fantastic. I started that one about mid-October so I have the most of it done. Just some decorations outside my frame to finish and cleaning. She also has a winter stitch along coming up you can sign up for.

The other big project I did was a Halloween Wallhanging. I used my ruler I got at the beginning of the month for the witch hats. I didn't have a pattern for any of it. A lot of it was guessing and when that didn't work just add more fabric around it. I did get the ghost pattern online for free. In the end, I got tired of piecing and started the cross stitch projects. I reminded myself none of this had to be complicated and cut out extra squares of the Halloween fabric to fill in the spots. Most of the fabric is from Joann's and I tried to use some stash fabrics. A few are from my Row by Row winnings this year.

Speaking of winnings I wanted to show you what I got. I took some photos of the fat quarters laid out. I love the colors and variety I am itching to do more with them.

Tea for today is actually from me and my brother hanging out last month. We had stopped at the grocery store and got drinks before starting out and he got a Mango Snapple which he wholeheartedly endorses, and I got a green tea. I love matcha and this is the first unsweetened tea I ever got myself use to drinking. I don't drink my tea unsweetened often. Usually, I do add artificial sweeteners. This one is nostalgic for me to drink. It reminds me of the first time I had sushi.