Love Birds Ready to be Framed

 And just like that, Love Birds is done!  I took a picture of me making the last stitch in the Bride bird's hat. 

The fabric is white but the lighting in my sewing room tonight was not the best for taking a picture of the entire wreath with the Love Birds in the middle.  This project was stitched on 14 count white Aida cloth and took 6 months to complete.  I will be washing it and then taking it to the framers sometime in the next couple of weeks. I am going to take pictures of the framing options and text them to the newlyweds to see which one they like the best.  Next up, I have a couple of embroidery kits to stitch and a knitting project to do as well...I'm going to take a break from cross stitching for a while.

I did some paper piecing for the 12th Modern BOM that I have been working on since September. Here is one quadrant of the block. I made the outside edge of each quadrant a bit bigger so that I could trim it down to the right size after sewing them together. 

Here is my finished block. There is one more optional block to make and I think I am going to make my own version of it.  I may use it as a label or on the front of the quilt...I'm not sure yet. I used the glasses fabric in every block and then pulled out my orange and navy striped and polka dot fabrics to add to the quilt blocks. The background is Michael Miller Hashdots in gray. 

The pineapple blocks are sewn together--this involved some rather intense pinning to make sure all of the seams intersected at the right spots.  I was successful in most cases!  I will be quilting this one myself when my sewing machine is back from repair. 

My husband and I spent a couple of days this past week mulching the gardens with a truckload of mulch that was in a big pile in our driveway.  There is still a bit more to do but it has been raining the last couple of days so finishing it will have to wait until we have a dry day.  We have lots more blooms in the garden this week including hydrangea:

Shasta Daisies

Prickly Pear Cactus

Purple Cone Flower

Butterfly Weed

The other activity that ate into my sewing time this week was genealogy.  I went to town looking for documents that told my family story.  My father always told me I inherited my sewing skills from his mother who was a "tailoress".  This week, I dug into her predecessors and found three dressmakers and a tailor!  I guess you could say sewing is in my genes!  

Some of the handwriting on these old records is challenging to decipher and some of the words they used to describe occupations involve googling to figure out what they actually did to earn a living!

Our daughter's cityscape stitching is coming along.  She is stitching it on 18 count Aida cloth. Finn wants you to know that it belongs to him and you can't have it!  LOL.  He has an appointment in two weeks for a haircut.  I'm not sure how he sees with all that hair in his eyes!

I will link up with the Slow Sunday Stitchers at Kathy's blog tomorrow.