Happy Easter!

Good Morning and Happy Easter!

I woke up feeling better this morning and decided to make chocolate chip pancakes for our breakfast as a treat.  

I just caught Hubby before he made toast for himself.  

And I had a surprise too.  

Hubby bought me a beautiful bouquet of flowers and a Keurig travel mug.  

What a sweetie pie!

I recorded a public TV PBS Great Performances special on the Dave Clark 5 and watched it yesterday.  

It was wonderful.  

Now many of you are too young to know who this band was but in the Sixies there were three fantastic Bands that came out of Britain...the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Dave Clark 5.  

Boy did they have the hits…"Glad All Over", "Catch Me If You Can", "Because",  "Bits and Pieces" and "I Like It Like That" just to name a few. 

  

I actually saw them perform live in downtown Cleveland in 1965.  Unfortunately my seat was so far from the stage they looked like little matchstick people and the audience was screaming so loudly I could barely hear them singing. 

Source:  Pinerest Left to right:  Denis Payton, Dave Clark, Mike Smith, Rick Huxley and Lenny Davidson.

Their music was so fun and made you feel happy.  

Dave Clark was the drummer and the manager of the band. 

He was very good at it.  

I never realized that he wasn't the lead singer (Mike Smith was).

  

Source:  Pinerest    Mike Smith…lead singer of the Dave Clark 5

They were such sharp dressers and all were nice looking.  

Sadly three of the group have passed (Mike Smith, Denis Payton and Rick Huxley).  

At the end of the special they told how the band decided to stop touring in 1970 (but were still friends).  

Dave Clark went on to do other things one of which was a musical called "Time".  One of the singers in the musical was a man called Freddy Mercury and he was a good singer.  I thought his name was familiar but I couldn't place him.  

Turns out he was the lead singer of "Queen".  

Duh!  

One of my Hubby's (and mine) favorite songs is "Princes of the Universe" - the theme song for the Highlander TV series.  

On to crocheting...I'm working on the edging of my throw, "Pink Delight".  

Here's a peek!

Working on the edging

I'm kind of chatty this morning.  

Guess I am feeling better.  

The back is better no more muscle spasms at least.

The cold is still lingering a little. 

Source:  Pinerest

Have a lovey and blessed Easter my dear "peeps"!

Source:  Pinerest

Somebunny loves ya!

Shadow Work

We just returned from a week in Ohio visiting family.

Hubby was recovering from a cold and I came down with one the evening we arrived in Ohio.

  

I was miserable the first three days there and really felt awful on the third day, Wednesday.  

I went to bed at 5 PM and didn't get up until 9 AM the next morning.  

Thank goodness that was the turning point and I slowly started feeling better each day.  

At the class

When we returned home I felt well enough to attend an Embroidery Club session on Sunday where we sewed a small sachet pocket in "Shadow Work" embroidery. 

  

We took two pieces of plain white semi sheer fabric, a piece of batting and then sandwiched colored fabrics where the embroidered leaves, flower and butterflies were to be stitched to create a "shadow" of the underlining colored fabrics. 

Yesterday was in the 80s here and today in the 70s.

The trees and shrubs are budding out.  

The house was too hot today so we turned on our new air conditioner for the first time!  

Weird!

So early to have A/C on.

Coming together nicely…sorry this is a little blurry.

Although I haven't had a chance to get out and buy some Soft Pink yarn yet, I did start joining together the rounds of my throw, Pink Delight.  

First I tried joining the squares matching the color of each round. 

That looked nice but didn't have the punch I wanted.  

So I "frogged" the join and started over using the gray yarn.  

With the gray yarn join

That was perfect!

I need to get some more Soft Pink yarn so I can finish the sixth round.

And then on to the edging.

So true…

One can hope!

Ick...I Ran Out of Yarn!

I know it's Murphy's Law of crocheting.  

I'm thisclose to finishing the squares and triangles of the body of my throw, 

pink delight, 

and…

... I ran out of Soft Pink yarn.  

On the last Refreshing square of Soft Pink.  

Errrrr....

Arrow points to last Refreshing square where I ran out of Soft Pink Yarn!

The good news is I finished all 24 of the Half Triangle Grannies.  

Even the ends are weaved in for all.  

Next I will join all the squares and triangles and then crochet the edging.  

I think a simple edging in white will complete my vision.  

Now to ponder how I will join the squares and triangles.  

One thought is to use the gray yarn and have the join show on top. 

Another thought is to join with pink or white and not have it show from the top.  

So...I experimented and joined the first two rounds like I did with my Sparkle Throw.  

I use the color of the first round,"Watermelon," and did

a simple join of single crochet then chain three all the way around on the back side.

But…now I'm at a standstill and can't move on to Round 3 until I purchase more of the Soft Pink yarn.

Darn!

I may frog this join and go ahead of use gray for a one color join for all squares.  

Let's move on to embroidering.  

I have to show you this.  

I have a knit top that I spilled Clorox on the front.  

I like this top and wasn't ready for it to be a work top only.

  

The bleached spot.

So I thought it would be neat to try embroidering a design on it to cover up the bleached out spot. 

I picked a TruEmbroidery design that was about the size of the spot.

You know I like Teddy Bears and it seemed this design wasn't too childish.  

The result!

Hubby said it looks like the knit top came with this design!

Isn't he sweet!

Have a lovely day!

Our Easter Decorations

Come on in…

Easter is here at Teacup Lane!

It's overcast here so the photos aren't as clear as I would like.

My inspiration.
(Source:  Pinerest)

Remember my quick and easy homemade chalkboard project?

It's my second most popular post and you can read about it (here)!

I have so much fun changing my chalkboard sign with the Seasons and Holidays.

Usually I use chalkboard paint but this time I used colored chalk. 

Mrs. Ugly (Rabbit) is front and center.

I made the Easter banner over our fireplace mantel too out of card stock and scrapbooking papers. 

I printed the designs from my Photoshop application then glued everything together and added the ribbons.

I  also glued little strips of magnets on the backs.

I used to hang the banner on my steel front door but now we have a fiberglass front door.

Bummer!

  

I love bunnies.  

The more the merrier.

This one I purchased from Michaels last year.

  

Here's our little $8 chest in our foyer all decked out in its Easter finery. 

I gathered all my machine embroidery and appliquéd projects together along with my crocheted Easter eggs (pattern link here).

What should I do with this egg carton?

Paint it or decoupage it? 

Here's my machine embroidered bunny all surrounded by a cute fabric border.

What do you think of my Bunny Ears Easter Bonnet?  

Do you decorate for Easter in your home?

Thanks for visiting!

Sew Busy!

I've been sew busy the last few days working on my Easter embroidery projects.  

First I embroidered this cute bunny from my purchased Anita Goodesign Mini Collection "Holiday Tea Towels".   

I will add a fabric border to it and frame it to hang in our foyer. 

"Which Came First" Mini Quilt

Our "Party with Patrick" March project is a mini quilt called "Which Came First".    

I'm experimenting with my digital software applications, "TruEmbroidery" to see how I can use it to enhance the embroidery designs.  

I was frustrated with the program at first because I couldn't figure out how to do anything.  But my tech guy, aka Hubby, came to my rescue and figured out how it worked to load my designs.  

Then things started to fall in place and I'll liking the program more and more everyday. 

I bought a stipple (quilting) "Free Motion Animals" Mini Mix & Match Quilting collection by Anita Goodesign.  

It has the cutest bunnies stippling. 

I stippled each square individually first and then sew the appliqués.  

I sewed each chick separately and then thought why couldn't I use my digital software, TruEmbroidery, to place the two Easter eggs centered correctly on my hoop and do both at once.  

It worked beautifully.  

I took out the chicks and reversed the eggs to the other corners.

At the same time I added the lettering selected from the TruEmbroidery fonts too.  

The digital software plays a video showing me how the design will stitch out too.  

It also will print out the design in its actual size. 

I loved this font but it wasn't the best choice for these busy fabrics.

I'm learning which fonts to use... sort of.  

I goofed and used one that I liked (above) but it didn't show up on the busy fabric backgrounds very well. 

 The first try was in pink thread.  

I went over it again in purple. 

A little better. 

But not great.

Second try in purple thread with white thread filler.

I tried free motion quilting the inside of the lettering in white thread.  

I should of hand embroidered the white to stand out better but I was lazy. 

You can read most of it - the word "first" is still a little hard to read.  

Live and learn.  

This will be a mug rug, "Easter Eggs". 

Now I'm working on my Patrick Lose March Mug Rug called "Easter Eggs".  

Both the front and back are done.  

The next step is sewing on the pink binding.

That's on my to-do list today.  

The front.

See how I cleverly positioned the lamb and flower on the pink fabric egg!!

The back.

Once is not enough…let's repeat the positioning of the lamb and flowers on the pink fabric star!

See how it is easier to read the lettering on the back then the front.

And I love how the bunnies are peeking out from behind the Easter egg.

I didn't plan that it just happened.

My DIY - fabric weights

I made my own fabric weights this week. 

Unfortunately I can't remember where I saw this on the Internet so I can't give credit where it is due.  

But apparently it's less expensive than buying them so I've read.  

We went to Lowe's and bought some heavy duty washers two each in three sizes.  

Hubby superglued two of each size together.  

Then I wrapped them in ribbon to protect my fabric when cutting it.  

Super cute and easier to use then pins. 

Sew...What have you been up to?