Wool FFO - “God Bless America”

This wool appliqué pillow is God Bless America from The Little Red Hen.   I saw someone on flosstube showing the kit for this piece that she had recently purchased, and before I knew it, I was ordering one, too! My plan was to have it stitched by the Fourth of July, and so it is. . . well, that is . . . it’s ready for July 4, 2022. If you have seen this pattern, you might notice that I have eliminated the vines and tiny button berries. As it is a small (8.5" x8.5") piece, I decided to simplify the design a bit.

I’m feeling pretty relieved this afternoon as we had been bracing for hurricane Henri. A hurricane has not made landfall in Massachusetts in thirty years, and we had been expected to be hammered by this storm. I had spent Friday morning removing hanging pots and garden items in preparation for the projected high winds and torrential periods of rain, but the storm was downgraded to a tropical storm, and it changed course. The folks along the south coast and those in the western part of the state took the brunt of this  storm. With the unprecedented amount of rain that we have had in July and August, the fear was that flooding would be a major concern. Also, the ground is so sodden that the winds could easily cause trees to topple and major power outages to occur. [The meteorologists explained that when we have northeasters, the trees have generally by that time lost all their leaves, and the trees can then withstand the gale force winds, not so when the trees are covered in leaves and the ground is so wet.] The rain has stopped and the winds have died down where I live about twelve miles south of Boston; I can only hope that those areas of New York and New England in its path have fared well.

My other dish plate hibiscus has come into bloom. 

I have added two small cross stitch pieces to the summer farm-themed tiered tray on my kitchen table. Though small, they each took about eight to nine hours to stitch. Cross stitchers will recognize these as pieces from Lori Holt’s stitch cards. Maybe next year I will add the cow and pig! :-)

One last thing, if you have ever thought of purchasing an HQ Sweet Sixteen, you should check out the latest Quilt Roadies video, Demo of the Sweet Sixteen and Some Quilt Talk.  For those readers who are not quilters, a Sweet Sixteen is a midsize quilting machine. . . bigger than a regular machine but smaller than a longarm. And in case you were wondering, no, I am not interested in a quilting machine; heck, I can barely get myself to sit down at my regular machine. I had hoped that returning to guild meetings in the fall would motivate me to get busy quilting, but with the variant spreading, I do not know whether or not I will feel comfortable attending guild meeting.

On that cheery note, I will bid you adieu until the next time. Yesterday, I painted a frame to display “Sail Away,” a cross stitch pattern from the Fat Quarter Shop, and I am eager to FFO it.

One really and truly last thing . . . when I went to publish this post, I noticed that this is post # 1001!!! Can you believe that? Wow!!!  Thank you to all who continue to read these sometimes random ramblings. :-)

Stay safe everyone. Have a good week.