Happy Memorial Day

What I have been doing while recovering

It has been a few rough weeks but finally I am on the other side of a nasty bug that hit me in early March and held on and lingered for weeks. Now in the second week of May I can finally say I am feeling myself again.

Here are a few photos of what I have be working on over the past few weeks. These are the Hocuspocusville blocks I worked on while ill.

block four

block five

block six

This wonderful piece came out nicely I used a new method of printing the paper on a washable material that wasn't too difficult to stitch through, though it did not adhere well to the fabric.

triple moon

Hamsa Hand

The Hamsa Hand piece was from a kit and while I like the design I wasn't thrilled with the fabric, it is a polyester blend and pulls and snags easily so you have to be careful not to pull the thread to tight.  I and going to use the hand as an applique so I decided not to do the words.

Yoga Tree Pose

The Yoga tree pose piece is a work in progress so while most of the embroidery is done I am still planning the rest of the design.

I did get out and about a bit on days when I was feeling better and Mother's Day weekend was spent in Georgia at the Renaissance Faire

jousting

some vendor shops

garden art

Green Man tree

The Georgia Renaissance fair is a dedicated space and all of the stages and vendor shops are permanent building.  This is the 30th year of the fair and my first visit.

A few weeks ago I was having a good day and my son and I went shopping for a few plants for the front of the house, we were in the process of trimming down the over grown shrubs in the front and I decided we needed to cut them way down to near ground level because previous owners just added new shrubs night to the current plant and what resulted was a tangle mess of several shruubs all fight for room to grow.

over grown shrubs

pruning in progress

New plants for the front

Books I have read while recovering, the books on the Camino de Santiago really peaked my interest I love walking and hiking so I wouldn't be surprised if I attempt it some time in the near future.

Camino walking

ordered myself a copy

A few trips to the library on the days I was feeling up to driving yielded some interesting reads and added to my book challenge numbers.
Well that's my update for the past several weeks. I hope you have a magical day

Happy Easter

Happy Valentine's Day

What I have been doing so far this month.

Time is moving so quickly,  it seems just yesterday I was turning the page on the calendar and here we are ten days into the month.

Last weekend I attended the Hoggetowne Medieval Faire in Gainesville, its been a few years since I attended the Faire so I was curious to see what was new and I have to say despite the cold gray day and muddy grounds the Faire was well attended.  In fact, the gray, cold misty day had many fair goers commenting it was like being in England which was cool since this year the theme was King Arthur. I didn't bring my camera so I don't have a single photo to post.

There were several new vendors in the marketplace, I love browsing the vendors almost as much as I like watching a good jousting match.  One vendor was selling herbs and such, when I walked buy the most intoxicating scent drew me back, the price was great at $2.00 per cup or three cups for $5.00, I purchased a cup each of lavendar, rose buds and heather. I haven't taken them out of the bag and the entire area where the bag is stashed has a lovely aroma of flowers.

On Friday the day before the medieval fair I attend the Busy Bees of Belleview Quilt Show, always  lovely display of quilts and this year in keeping with the theme there were some lovely vintage quilts on display.

Program

Sunbonnet Sue and Overall Sam

Fan 

show label

Dresden Plate

I love the old traditional quilt patterns the Fan and Dresden plate are two of my favorite quilt patterns. The one disappointment was the absence of any vendor booths, aside from a scissor vendor and the guild boutique there was one quilt shop represented. Half the fun of attending a quilt show is browsing the vendor stalls to see whats new in the quilting world.

I did win a door prize this nifty new ruler and I did manage to buy two books from the guild boutique

my door prize

I have completed the hand emboridery on block number 4 and have made good progress on block five of the Hocuspocusville Quilt.

block 5 in progress

block 4

Block 5 is coming along faster that I thought considering the size of the block  I guess its all the straight lines on the house.
Well thats about all I have been up to this month so far, there are other Renaissance and Medieval Fairs coming up in the next few weeks I'll try to remember the camera.

Warm Wished for a Happy Imbolc

Imbolc is one of four major pagan sabbats or holidays, along with Beltane, Lughnasadh and Samhain. In between these sabbats, many pagans celebrate the seasonal solstices and equinoxes. Imbolc falls on the midway point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox.

Also called Brigid's Day, Imbolc honors the Celtic goddess of fire, fertility, midwifery and the young. Many Pagans will pay tribute to Brigid by arranging an altar and 'invoking' the goddess through prayer.

Imbolc observes the waning of winter and approach of spring. Many Pagans often use fire and other forms of light to encourage the lengthening of day. Seed and bud imagery may be used, as well, to promote the growth of new life ensured by springtime.

Imbolc is a time for Spring cleaning some of us clean our homes, take ritual baths and de-clutter our lives in other ways. This is believed to create space for the goddess to come into people's live and for new seeds to take root in the coming spring.

  

What I am working on this month

Winter has finally arrived to central Florida this week with brisk cool mornings and chilly afternoons and today sunshine instead of those dismal gray clouds that have been hanging over us nearly all last week.

With the New Year in full swing I have a few new projects I am working on for the coming year, I joined an online quilt challenge, Project 48 Quilt and have made the first block for this mysterious quilt.

This is the Churn Dash block and somehow the center piece of the block is just not working for me but I'm going to leave it for now, this was machine pieced.  I am going to make a hand pieced block too.

I am still hand embroidering the Hocuspocusville Quilt, I am currently stitching block number 4 out of 12.

I am also working this Celtic knot Triple Moon hand embroidery piece, I'm using a new product so I don't have to trace the piece, Stitch and Wash Away, it works well enough, doesn't make the needle sticky the only drawback is it pulls away from the fabric so nect time I will baste it down.

I joined a few new reading challenges for 2016, I did well with last year's challenges so I thought I'd try again.

For the I Love Libraries challenge currently I am reading: