Half of May-Gone?

It is the middle of May and I liked looking back at the photo gallery on my phone. Sometimes I get so involved with the things of life that I forget what I have accomplished in crafting. The first part of this post is about those things of life that took precedence over crafting and sewing.

The last weekend of April was our youngest daughter's wedding. It was wonderful to have all my siblings and nieces and nephews attend, since most of them live out of state! I had time to visit with my brother and his wife from New Mexico. We don't see them all that much. It was fun to see all the cousins dancing together that night. They come from Washington, Florida, Tennessee and Michigan. I was so pleased with my dress and hairstyle. And I was able to do some walking without my cane (no dancing). Hip surgery is coming in May!

As any good parents would, my husband and I made the card box our daughter wanted. My husband built the box (18" x 12" x 12") with a lid that locked! I painted it. I found and painted the frame and made a chalkboard inside of it. I gave my daughter a few chalkboard inserts with font styles and some blank chalkboard inserts. I was very pleased that she figured out how to get the font she wanted chalked onto the insert! Yeah! A budding crafter.

After returning home from a long wedding weekend, I found some lovely tulips in bloom in the garden. I decided to cut them to enjoy in the house. I wanted to get them before the deer got them as they did last year. The donut was a nice treat for me, too.

I took photos of the centers of the tulips. I think I will try using my Kaleidoscope Kreator program to turn them into fabric shapes for projects and add the filigree embroideries to them.





I finished two honey bee blocks for the Queen Bee of the Gridsters before I left for the wedding. This is one of them. Rachel is a beekeeper and has a tutorial to make these blocks HERE if you are interested in making any.

         

I received all of my Queen Bee blocks from my fellow Gridsters by the first week of May. I am working on a design for a pattern, so I am not revealing all of the block. But just a peek for you now. 

I can tell you that the blocks on my design wall look spectacular together. 

The builder arrived the second week of May to begin putting vinyl siding on our house along with replacement windows on the south side! It really looks nice, I have to admit. And as we age, my husband and I will be happy we don't have to stain the house every 2 years or hire it out. I have to say the hardest part was trying to find the color we both liked!

I put some of that life aside and got busy sewing. I made two placemats with hedgehog fabric for a gift. I had a fat quarter, so the fronts have strips of stash fabric that worked with the print which you can see on the backs of the placemats. 

I used the embroidery from EmbroideryIt to make some more coasters. I found with felt, it is best to use a large needle (size 14) for little thread breakage, atleast with my machine,

I skipped a few stitches and added some letters to make this dish towel. 

I used another embroidery for the applique on this potholder. 

A little basket I found at a thrift store became a pincushion. 

I sewed a sample row of my pattern for the Christmas Caroling Row Along coming this fall. I can't show the row yet, but it did sew up easily. I have to work on writing the pattern to submit in early June. 

So thankful I have sewing as a stress reliever as well as satisfying my creative tendencies. How about you?