secret stitching sweetheart blog hop 2024

Happy St. Valentine's Day!

This post is all about the L O V E!  Jo, from Serendipitous Stitching, hosts the Secret Stitching Sweetheart Blog Hop every year, and it's such good fun, I couldn't resist.

Here's how it works: all of the participants send Jo a photo of a stitched Valentine . . . and then once she's collected them all, she mixes them all up and sends you someone else's Valentine to post ... and that's your Secret Stitching Sweetheart! Doesn't that sound like fun?! Here's the Valentine from my Secret Stitching Sweetheart:

Awwww!  Be still my Valentine heart!  Such a beautiful piece!

Now I'll go visit the list of hop participants (posted on Jo's blog, here), and check in with the recipient of *my* stitched Valentine!  Plus see all the other beautiful Valentine love out there!

You should definitely check it out, too ... see if you can find my Valentine! ♥

:)

secret stitching sweetheart blog hop . . .

Happy St. Valentine's Day!

I know, I know ... it's been a hot minute (or would it make more sense to say 'a cold minute'?) since I posted . . . I'll get into that in another post.  

This post is all about the L O V E!  Jo, from Serendipitous Stitching, hosts the Secret Stitching Sweetheart Blog Hop every year, and when she asked if I wanted to participate, I knew it was the nudge I needed!

Here's how it works: all of the participants send Jo a photo of a stitched Valentine . . . and then once she's collected them all, she mixes them all up and sends you someone else's Valentine to post ... and that's your Secret Stitching Sweetheart! Doesn't that sound like fun?! Here's the Valentine from my Secret Stitching Sweetheart:

Isn't that darling?!

Now I'll go visit the list of hop participants (posted on Jo's blog, here), and check in with the recipient of *my* stitched Valentine!  Plus see all the other beautiful Valentine love out there!  You should definitely check it out, too ... see if you can find my Valentine! ♥

:)

hearts and more hearts . . .

Backposted (because how ever many years from now I'd regret not having posted these pictures along with their stories)!

What's red and white and pink all over?

My living room! With a little purple thrown in for good measure.  ♥

Y'all know I enjoy decorating for the season.  Valentine's is no exception!  I'm even doing a little heart hand stitching . . .

Like, literally.  :)

And here's my little Valentine wearing his sweet onesie!

I did a little tail stitching (again, literally), too!

Because if you're dancing as a sheep, your tail needs to be secured to your ballet skirt. :)

Have a very Happy Valentine's Day!

:)

bits and more bits . . .

It's been a lovely weekend so far.  Todd surprised me with a "gourmet dining experience" on Valentine's Day.  

It was a privately catered event and the food was excellent!  The chef classified his style as 'sophisticated southern.' We were served a four course meal which included a deconstructed Southern Greek salad, seared scallops, braised short ribs, and for dessert . . . 

Red velvet cake with a cheesecake center, topped with white chocolate ganache.  YUM!

Backing up a bit, I spent Thursday evening with the grandgirls and gifted them with their Valentines.

Edith was particularly enthralled with hers and went through her 'goodies' very carefully, several times!  ♥

I've gotten some stitching in, too. I worked up Block 40--Art Square--from Grandmother's Choice.

It went together fairly easily, and I should probably do more than one of these every couple of weeks if I want to actually finish it!  I've got SO much of the fabric.  I really need to do something with it!

I played around with the new Kathy Schmitz heart printed embroidery I got earlier this week, too . . .

This is really fun to stitch on!  For some reason I first thought there was just outline or straight stitching on it, but there are actually quite a few different types of stitches to work out, and I like that!

Finally, I've continued to work on the Peppermint Purple Blackwork SAL piece.  Since  I had finished week 7's block, I decided to go ahead and work out the block outlines for the rest of the year.

Nine rows down and four rows to go; then I need to decide on borders.  It's fun, easy stitching and probably what I'll work on this afternoon for my slow Sunday stitching!

Wrapping it up ... be sure to head over to Kathy's Quilts to check out what other slow stitching is happening today!

Happy Sunday ... I hope you get to enjoy a holiday Monday--I know I sure will!

:) 

heartily stitching along . . .

I've had to work all four (10-hour) days this week.  It's been long!  LOL!

I made just a little progress on my Love Sampler project.  It's really so sweet to stitch on . . . 

But not as much progress as I had planned. Scrolling through Instagram on Sunday, I stumbled upon a Blackwork SAL hosted by Peppermint Purple, and I chased that squirrel down.  I have been fascinated by blackwork for some time, but hadn't ever tried it.  This seemed to be the perfect opportunity to give it a go.

At first I though starting six weeks behind might be a problem, but it stitches quickly and I'm caught up through week #7.  

Go me! (It was really easy to catch up.  Each block represents one week.)  I'm using Cosmos Seasonal floss (1 over 1) in 8056.  I really love the subtle movement of color!

In other stitching news, I got some happy mail . . .

Kathy Schmitz was running a special:  spend a certain amount and get the heart stitchery free.  So I got the birdie stitchery and the black floss.  

They're really cute.  Pre-printed ... you just outline stitch in black and frame!  Voila!  I thought it would be fun (and now I have two to play with)!

Been having fun getting Valentines together for the local grandgirls. They stopped by for a quick visit at work yesterday . . .

They're so fun!  And they all MATCH!  Even mama matches!  ♥  I found some really cute vintage cards to gift the girls . . .

And made some heart-themed baskets filled with goodies . . .

Just simple things.  But sweet!  And speaking of sweet, look what *my* Valentine sent me!

Aren't they beautiful!  Gives me lots of reasons to stop and smell the flowers!

Signing out ... have a great weekend and a Happy Valentine's Day!

:)

in and out and again . . .

I had high hopes for February, but they didn't carry me very far, huh? And then I went and had surgery on my left shoulder yesterday, which means March will be very hit or miss . . . 

one day post-op...huge, football-like shoulder pad

the rotator cuff tear, halfway repaired

Because I don't enjoy typing one-handed, and my laptop doesn't auto-correct or do speech-to-text!  LOL!  I know, I know, first world problems!  :)

I purposely scheduled my surgery for the end of February so that I could attend our Stitcher's retreat on the 20th.  What a glorious long weekend!  I love the group of ladies that attends, and particularly love the women--dear friends--I'm grouped with.  The five of us are a group of introverts, so we don't stress each other out!

I worked mostly on handwork. I felt productive at just the right level.  ;)

mug rug sample for April's 'Spring" theme

the third of these sweet little dresses I've embellished with embroidery!

I finished (finally) whipping together my Mod Flower Fall quilt.  What's funny is that I started this quilt at retreat 2018!  

the tables are 5' tables...yikes!

I really hope to have it finished by October of this year for the Fanfare Quilt Show, but I just don't know how realistic that is!

Earlier in the month, Joc and the girls joined me at work for a Valentine's Day tea party . . .

I was solo that day at the office, so it was just them and me, and we had a glorious time!

We also had a guild meeting in there somewhere . . . February was a mug rug swap month,  This was my offering: 

hand-quilted!

And this is the one I received:

It's such fun! The theme was "Think Pink."

This is the sampling of the rest of the mug rugs that were turned in for swap.  HQH membership is so talented and creative!

Our guild's overall theme for the year is collaboration.  To that end, members who collaborate on projects will be able to share their collaborations at the July meeting, and be eligible for prizes!  My friend Gail and I decided to collaborate on a patriotic version of the twisted pole runner, modified!

We're both very excited about working on the project!

Okay, enough for now.  I'm tired of typing!  LOL!

Happy March, happy Spring, happy weekend! 

:)

bustin' a move . . .

Y'all.  There's nothing like a deadline to get me *moving* on a project.  That's how I can come before you now and say I have not one, but TWO complete finishes (quilting, binding, labeling and sleeves) this week!  Whoohoo! And what's even nicer?  I'm two months in-a-row complete on the #APQresolution challenge.  This month they drew project number five . . .

Which for me, was the faux ruched flowers project!

It now has a name . . . Larla's Pocket Full of Posies.  A little birthday happy for my baby sister.

And I also finished the antique rose topper . . .

Which also has a formal name . . . Desert Roses After the Frost.  This one's a birthday happy for my sister who's joining me in the 50's this month!

Two finishes . . . sheesh, it's about time! Two that are UFOnomos!  :)

I also managed to get all the pieces cut for Evey's quilt . . .

This is going to be fun to work with -- and I'm thinking I'll either embroider or quilt an alphabet in some of the white squares, along with flowers or something.  That'll keep me busy for while! Between getting that cut and prepped and labels and sleeves for the finished pieces, my stash report is looking pretty nice this week!

Of course, I realized that I didn't have enough of the Kona white to use for the back of my blocks, so I'll be adding more in the relatively near future, but it'll go out again quickly, so that's okay.

If I get some slow stitching time in today, this will be what I'm working on . . .

My go-to project when I'm not working on other stuff!  I have three more 'pairs' to baste to the base piece, and then I'll be ready to start a new block. Linking up today to Patchwork Times and Kathy's Quilts.

Our church is memorizing a passage of Scripture together each month this year. February's verse is one of my favorites and I made up a graphic for it.  Thought I'd share it with y'all . . .

Happy Valentine's Day! Feel free to right click and save it, if you'd like.  

Enjoy a blessing-filled day!

:)