Threadgatherer

Such a Lackluster Month!

2012-01-30T05:00:00.000-08:00

I looked at the calendar today and asked myself, "Self - what the heck happened to January?" I think I said that last month and the month before too! OY! So little progress on anything and I've been trying like the devil. My mojo is back, but there definitely seems to be a lack of time due to all that life stuff. So before the end of the month hits us and we're into February, I figured I'd make a post on my rather lackluster doings in the craft world the past few weeks. Finger's crossed February will be a more productive month.

First off, stitching on AWFAA has been really bad. I went great guns on this sampler and then peetered out on the fill in - but I've loving the colors:

I was warned about how intensive that fill in can be, but I like fill-in stitching when I feel like being mindless and not having to refer to a chart much. Obviously, I didn't have a lot of time to be mindless this month.

But there was other stitching. I joined Becky's challenge and promptly picked out a piece to stitch. But I changed my mind. I really didn't want to start something "brand" new. My goal this year is to finish up WIPs and work on stash where things are kitted and ready to go. The operative phrase this year is, "Do not spend money - you own a small craft shop in the basement"!!! Anyway, last year I had started Ann Rayner and got all of this far on my one day of stitching:

Wow! Leaves you breathless by all I got done, doesn't it? LOL Anyway, this was on 40 count linen and I just knew that when I came to the over one stitching, I would not be a happy camper. So I restarted it:

This time I'm working it on 32 count Cafe au Lait and liking it much better. Excuse the wrinkle marks. For some reason, the fabric relaxed back and now I have wrinkles! UGH! Anyway, while I'm sure that it's a travesty to do this sampler on a whiter and larger larger count linen, it's a welcome break from working on the 40 count fabric that AAWFAA is on (and a lot of my other starts from last year also). So this will be my challenge piece - it's a new start for the new year.

I also finally tamed the savage beast with the knitting and got those YO's down pat and started on my daughter's scarf. I had quite a bit of yarn left over from the Guernsey scarf and DD picked out a pattern, asked for a gray scarf and this is where I am - probably 1/3 finished - she wants a long scarf:

It goes rather quickly with repeats of eight rows. I'm almost loving it so much, I might have to make one for myself!!

Then I've been doing some quilting. In that attempt to get rid of WIPs both in stitching and quilting, I went back to the Farmer's Wife and was able to attach three more rows of blocks. I really, really wanted to start working on the Cotton Club (a BOM that I started receiving last year), but I just knew that if I did that, the Farmer's Wife would just remain a pile of blocks (you can click on the picture for a close-up, but please excuse any stray threads).

I love this quilt more and more as I get each row attached. When I got to the next row of blocks, I hit a road block and in trimming down the blocks to prepare them for the sashing, I found that one block - if I trimmed it down to the correct size, I would be sewing too far into the block and not have points! UGH! So that is a block that I will have to redo. At that point, I stopped putting rows together until I could remake that block. Then I realized that I didn't have to follow the book exactly and line my blocks up like the designers. No, this is my quilt and I could do what I want! (why am I suddenly hearing Leslie Gore's song, "It's My Party and I'll Cry If I Want To" in my head?????) Anyway, I'll leave that block until the end and put it there. There is one other block that I have to redo because - well, it looked like a volcano at the end of putting it together - so when I'm in the piecing mood I'll make those two blocks over again.

And last but not least, I did a little bit of handwork. Now, normally I hate handwork. I used to do it all the time when I made dresses and costumes for my daughter, but ask me today to sew on a button or anything like that, and I run in the other direction. I don't seem to have the patience for it (probably why I don't hand applique). But I had a couple small kits for scissor fobs that I had received from my Guild and we're to receive another one next month, so since it's a good thing to clean out some stash, and the fact that my bazillon pairs of scissors mostly do not have fobs, I made up the couple kits that I had - a watermelon and strawberry:

And you know, I so enjoyed doing them, that I searched around for some more things to do. Maybe there is hope for an applique quilt yet.

And I'll leave you with this picture:

Now what's so interesting about this picture you ask? Well, it snowed yesterday. Why was I excited? It was coming down in huge flakes and the ground was covered! We here in Michigan have been snow starved this year. We'll get a little bit and then it warms up and melts, and I don't think that the ground has been covered yet this year. In fact, it's been so unseasonably warm here that Ice Festivals and tournaments that are held on the lakes have been postponed for a month, hoping that February will be more seasonable. So the snow is a beautiful thing to see. Even my daughter smiled when she saw the snow. Alas, I understand that it will be short lived. I hear temps are rising again in a day or two!

So that's the report this time around. Not much for 20 days of work. But all those little bits of progress will eventually end up in a finish, right? I've managed to find a couple new things to add to the craft room (yes, one or two more sewing machines among other things), and some vintage things from my grandmother that I discovered in a box in addition to some things I had as a child. It's always a delight to find those things especially when they are from family.

Hope that everyone has a great week!

Getting Back to My Routine???

2012-01-09T08:33:00.000-08:00

The kids are all back to school (DS went back yesterday - YAHOO) and maybe now I can get back to my routine!! Okay, you probably think I'm a horrible mother. I love my son!! But I don't love all the extra laundry, constant piles of dishes in the sink and the basement looking like a frat house and him thinking that noon is too early to get up! But I'll be missing him. A lot! He's always so much fun. But now that everyone is back to their respective routines, I can get back to mine and the more crafty things in life - like stitching. I haven't done a lot of that.

But as each new year arrives, I think we all think about starting something new. That was my first thought as we all know that I love starting new things. But I decided that after my severely lackluster performance in the January Challenge last year (starting 15 projects) - of which I completed a big fat goose egg - I decided to go a different route, and make 2012 the year of the WIPS. Why not - there are all those projects started from last year. Makes sense, right? So I joined Measi's WIPocalypse. Get those WIPS all off my plate (well, maybe not all - that would take about 10 years!!!).

So I picked up AAWFAA. When we last left this sampler at the beginning of last year, this was where I was - did I happen to mention that I HATED this cloud?

And this is where I am now (I'm loving the colors):

Not a huge amount finished, but not too bad for the first week of the new year. There's a lot of backstitching on this puppy, and on 40 ct. fabric no less. My eyes are having a hard time adjusting, but since I'm about to get a new pair of glasses, I think that it will be a lot easier to see and I won't get out of my chair cross-eyed.

Then, as usual, within a few days I was dreaming about starting something new. Figures, right? Well, a solution presented itself. I happened to be reading blogs one day and saw Becky's challenge for the year - start something new, post updates during the year, and win a prize! Okay, I'm all in for that!! What's ONE new project? Just one little project? Well, it has to be 10 x 12, so not that little, but absolutely doable!! So I've got my project picked out, but can't decide on the fabric - I've had two false starts as I didn't like my fabric choices, so I'll reveal it in my next post. But I'm giddy about starting something new.

On other needles, I've been doing knitting. After I finished the Guernsey shawl, I proceed to start a scarf for my daughter. Could I get the pattern? Could I make the yarn overs right? NO!!!! I sat there pulling out my hair wondering why I couldn't do it. It's not like I haven't knit before. But the correct way of yarn overs eluded me. Even with YouTube videos. I kept telling myself I've done this before, but it just wasn't working. To prove my point that I can knit, I pulled a couple out of my son's drawer that I made for him when he was a little boy:

So there's your proof. I once knew how to knit. But those skills have flown out the window it seems. So I have been knitting, but simple things - no yarn overs.

Gathered Scarf

Crazy Zauberball yarn

Combined Patterns

Boneyard Shawl and So Easy I Can't Even Stand it Triangular Scarf

The Gathered Shawl is my "take with" project when I take my daughter to dance because there isn't too much you can mess up on something that is just stockinette stitch. Well, I shouldn't say that. I was a lot further along on that scarf and did mess it up and had to take a good portion of it out, but I think that I'm back on track now!

Oh, and I have to mention that a couple nights ago I was laying in bed and it came to me how to do those yarn overs the right way!! Figures. So once one of these projects is finished, I can get on with something a little more elaborate.

So that's my first week of January. Not tons, but a good start. Now I need to get some quilting in!!!

How are you doing on your goals so far? Do you have any? Did you join a Challenge or WIPocalypse?

An Early Happy New Year and Reflecting on the Past Year

2011-12-27T14:05:00.000-08:00

I know that it's been almost two months since I've posted (where has the time gone???) and I hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas and will have a Happy, Stitchy New Year.

I figured now was a good time to climb out of my hole and reflect on what I've accomplished in the past year and get on the blogging bandwagon again. I know that I've missed tons and hope to catch up in the next weeks. I've missed all of you and all the projects that you've been working on. I think that I went through some kind of slump in the crafty arena, (well, I don't think - I know), but it's time to brush off those needles (whether they be stitching or knitting needles) and get the show on the road.

Many things have gone on the past couple of months - mostly for the good. I took my annual trip to New York (I just love that place) and finally managed to get into the Tinsel Trading Company (note here: if you plan on going to NYC, call the shop, don't rely on the website - the hours are wrong!!!). What a fantastic store. Truly overwhelming with all the buttons, trims and miscellaneous things. I could have spent hours there! I picked up the cutest angel (among other things) while I was there:

Isn't she the sweetest? The weather was fantastic (almost mid-70's by the time I left) and I had a wonderful time with my sister! It's always fun to spend time with her.

In reflecting on the year in stitching - this hasn't been a stellar year. I seem to be a "Jack of All Trades, Master of None" as they say (read "Crafters ADD). So here's what I accomplished in the last year. It's always fun to see what the past twelve months have produced:

Row 1: Turning Twenty Quilt, Yellow Brick Road Quilt, Ann Medd (five years in the making)

Row 2: Elizabeth Clayton Sampler, Sarah Esh Sampler, Blackbird Designs Pincushion

Row 3: Tumbler Quilt, Farmer's Wife Blocks (all 111 even of them), Sun and Moon Sampler

Row 4: Mirabilia Deepest Love, Schibbles Recess Quilt, Guersney Shawl

As you can see, I got my hands into a little bit of everything! And no, the Farmer's Wife Quilt is not completely put together, but I figured that finishing 111 blocks was a feat unto itself, and counted as a finish!! And there's not a lot of stitching here. Now, that's not to say that I haven't done more stitching than you see, it's just that they're not finished - because as we all know I'm a habitual starter (remember I was one of those crazed people that started those 15 projects last January, of which I don't think that I finished one). Well, I've pulled a couple of those out and plan on finishing them up in 2012. Not all 15 mind you, but a few.

Knitting has seemed to have taken me over by storm. The Guernsey shawl was so much fun to work on (thanks Di for pointing me in this direction). I should note that the shawl is a darker grey then shows up here, but I overexposed it somewhat so that you can see the pattern. Once it's blocked, I'll have my daughter model it. That has kind of set the stage for more knitting, but I'll save those for the next post.

One piece that I've done a little bit of stitching on is this:

I finally got Adam and Eve into Ann Hall! Now that I see this picture, I think that I need to put the knitting down and put a little bit more into this sampler. I still have tons of room on the sampler wall.

Other than that - not too much else is going on! I did some antiquing on Long Island with my sister and we found some great shops, but the sweetest thing I've picked up recently was another machine for the ever growing small sewing machine collection.

I think that I'm up to 12 machines now. One day I'll have to take a picture of all of them. My husband lifts an eyebrow every time he walks into the craft room (which is seldom) and asks, "Is that new"? And I answer him no, it's been there - it's old. Because, in fact, it really is old - so that doesn't count as a lie, does it? LOL

So that's just about been it for me the past two months. Like I mentioned, I went through a slump of gigantic magnitudes, but I think that I'm back now.

I want to thank those that sent me notes of kind words while I was kind of off the blogging path. They've meant a lot to me - knowing that you were wondering what I was up to. I've made some wonderful friendships through blogging and I cherish each and every one - so hearing from you really made me smile and kind of got me back on the path again. I do have to admit that I've been lurking in the background here and there, but haven't really had time to make comments. But I know that comments are what drives us to do what we do and I plan to get back to that. Call it a New Year's Resolution! I dare not make those for my stitching progress, however. I've learned my lesson with making stitching resolutions! We know that I always break those!!

I wish all of you a very Happy, Prosperous and Stitchy New Year!!!

Seriously Bad Blogger!!!

2011-10-31T11:05:00.000-07:00

Well, October was just about a wash around here for getting much of anything done and I have been such a bad blogger - I apologize! Things have just been so busy that I honestly haven't spent much time on the computer. I thought that life was suppose to get easier once you got one child off to college and the other one was old enough to take care of herself (for the most part). But that doesn't seem to be!! I hope that you didn't come to see what I was up to expecting grand finishes! This has been such a wild month that not a thing has been finished - not a stinkin' thing. But as we all love finishes, in keeping with the time of the year, I present this:

Witches Brew

No, this just didn't come hot off my sewing machine. I haven't had a finish in what seems like months! So pathetic. So I have to show something that I made a long time ago and since today is Halloween, I thought it would be perfect. Actually, this was a model that I made for a shop quite a few years ago, and I always got to keep the models I made. I never quilted it as I actually don't hang it up. I suppose I should - so today it's hanging from my craft room door.

And it reminded me of another quilt that I made around the same for my son when he was little. I'm sure I'll probably see one or two Pokemon characters trick or treating for candy tonight. Is Pokemon still popular? I'm not sure if it is, but when my son was little he lived and breathed Pokemon:

I remember being so excited to see this quilt in a magazine while I was grocery shopping. I ran home and ordered the fabric and had it finished within a week after receiving the material. Which poses the question. Now that my kids are older, why don't I get more things done??? Hmmmmm.

So what have I accomplished this month? Well, not much. As I said it's been one of those months. DD sprained her foot quite severely so that Pointe ballet is something that she can't do at the moment - tap and jazz she seems to manage now that a couple weeks have passed, but getting on her toes doesn't seem obtainable right now. DS came down with Pneumonia while at school (I knew this would happen because he doesn't know when to slow down) which meant some trips up to see him. I broke a tooth eating of all things, a peanut butter sandwich, which necessitated a trip to the dentist. Well, more than one trip - a few trips. Actually quite a few - for two crowns as one tooth broke and a filling was cracked in another. I wonder where the dentist is planning on going on vacation this year - on my dime???

Then on top of that, I had an incredibly busy day one day a couple weeks ago - in and out of the house all day. The final trip was to DD's dance class. Just before we left she told me that she needed pink hair spray for something at school the next day - Pink Day if I remember right for Breast Cancer Awareness. We were running late for dance as it was and having to make an unexpected stop at the Halloween store was something I hadn't planned on. Well, it true scattered form, I fly out of the driveway and BAM!!! Straight into my husband's car!!! Can you say OUCH! Two cars with smashed parts! Not just a scrape, but major league damage!! My husband's worse than mine. Did I mention that a couple days prior we had really high winds and something flew through the air and shattered my son's windshield in the driveway? OY! And as you can imagine my husband was oh, so pleased that I decided to play bumper cars! Oh well, he'll get over it! LOL

So what have I accomplished? I knew you'd ask!! I'm still working on my sister's mermaid. I've got 20 days to get this baby finished. I thought I'd be done with it last week! HA! What was I thinking?

She's coming along and she's quite pretty, but I still have a lot to do on her. For some reason I thought that I could just whip this out! I guess not! LOL Notice the little crab needle holder? That was a gift from Terri that she picked up when she was in Georgia. I figured it was the perfect needle holder to use with this mermaid. I think that it's become my favorite because the magnet is incredibly strong.

I have managed to get a little quilting done. I abandoned the Civil War Chronicles quilt for a while as I was getting tired of making a million half-square triangles - those things just drive me nuts!! So I went with something easy:

Recess

Miss Rosie's Quilts - Schnibbles

This one is a lot of fun and almost a non-brainer since my brain seems to be in some scrambled mode lately. Just exactly what I needed. I've never made a Schnibbles quilt before just because the size is so small, but it's been a lot of fun to work on.

Then because of my crazy fascination with Pinterest as of late and pinning all things crafty, I got the urge to do some crocheting and managed to make a couple blocks for a afghan that will probably be done, in my normal slow fashion, in about 5 years.

This afghan is comprised of 63 different blocks. Two down - only 61 more to go! It makes a great carry-along project when DD dances since the lighting in the studio isn't conductive to stitching even with my little scroll light.

Then because the knitting/crocheting thing is just calling my name, I had to indulge in these:

I've never been attracted to Granny squares all that much, but for some reason this afghan is just calling my name! No, I haven't started and probably won't for a few weeks, but I think that the afghan is just so pretty (and also is the same colorway of one the quilts that I use on the beds).

And last but not least, I discovered another sewing machine for my sewing room. No, not a big one - just a small one discovered at a local flea market that was held a week or so ago:

I'm starting to accumulate a lot of these. I'm going to run out of room soon, but it's so hard to resist buying them when you find them for the right price

Well, there you have it - the month in review! I'm hoping that the next month is better, but it's going to be another busy one with my DD's confirmation coming up and my annual trip to NY. I can't wait for that. I'm hoping the weather holds up and they're not hit by a snowstorm like this weekend. How freaky is that? But with fingers crossed, the mermaid will be done and I can go on to finish up (or start) other things.

Happy Stitching (and if you can, send some stitching time to me)!! :o)

Is it the Change in the Season?

2011-10-01T11:59:00.000-07:00

Gosh guys, I've missed you!!! I've been so remiss on reading blogs lately. I think that the changes of the season must do things to people, right? Well, it definitely has done something to me. I've been in the worse stitching/quilting slump that you can imagine! I have a million things that I want to make and then I look at them and walk away. Probably because after the crazy summer we had around here, I'm still playing catchup. But it also usually means that I need to look for a change of pace, and I think that I've found it, but I'll get to that in a bit.

Since I last posted anything of substance (which was over a month), I've made some progress on Ann Hall:

I was happily stitching along on dear Ann and then I got bored! How could I go that when I was getting to the part where I could stitch in Adam and Eve? Well, I don't know what came over me, but I went on to And All Was For An Appil (another Adam and Eve). But you're not going to see a picture of that one because after a few nights it dawned on me that in less than two months is my annual trip to New York (insert a Woo Hoo here) to see my sister. Now I've been promising my sister that I'd make her another Mirabilia mermaid, and being the procrastinator that I am I've been putting it off and putting it off, but I figured that I better get going on it. So I dumped AAWFAA like a hot potato and picked up Deepest Love by Mirabilia. Not my normal stitching fare, but I do like her:

Then I worked a little bit on a scarf that I started last year and hopefully I'll finish it this year:

An entrelac scarf using Noro Taiyo yarn. It's fun to work on but I've only gotten that last row on in the past few weeks. I figured this would be a great "take-with" project while my daughter dances now that her dance hours are later and I can't get into too much trouble in the malls (darned it!). Another thing that has really caught my fancy are these babies and I think these are the change of pace I needed:

Photo curtesy of Ravelry (Love!!!)

Cute pincushions (More Love!!)

Crocheted Hexie Afghan (Even more love)

About the hexie afghan - yes, yes, I know - I was working on some quilted ones a while ago and they're still here, but there is something so soothing to me lately about the thought of crocheting. You know, cooler weather, football game on the TV and the warm feel of wool. So obviously I'm going through some changes like the seasons.

Oh, before I forget, my friend Di, who is the most fantastic stitcher, quilter and just about everything else person, set up a new blog and you have got to see her hand pieced hexi quilt (among other things), so check out her new blog and say "Hi Ya" when you have a chance: On My Needle. She does some remarkable things.

And I have to make a confession right here and now - all those pictures of knitting/crocheting are courtesy of Pinterest. Have you taken a look at that sight? Have you been sucked into the vortex of pages and pages of things to do, decorating ideas, food, photography? Unfortunately, I have to confess that I have and I couldn't be happier that I've found all those wonderful things. If you haven't taken a look, you're in for a lot of inspiration and a lot of time sucking! Believe me on the time sucking thing!!! I have a link on my sidebar (I think it will take you there or to the general site). Take a look, and then put the coffee pot beside you and some provisions - you'll be there for a while!!!

Okay - back to reality!! When I've been wandering around trying to figure out what I wanted to do, but couldn't get myself to sit down, I messed around in the craft room a little bit. In fact, I'm changing the whole room around once again (enough already you say - get to sewing and quit messing around! LOL). I finally got a quilt rack up after trying to figure out how to do it (the wall was bowed in the middle - basement walls are not always the flattest) and this is the result:

A few of my children's vintage sewing machines and pincushions. The quilt still needs to be quilted, but thought I'd just hang it up for effect. I'm working on the last wall in my room as we speak, but it's going to take a while as one piece of the necessary furniture won't be here for a week or so.

In the antiquing finds category, I'll show you the frogs I've accumulated since the summer up to about now:

The amber frog on the top right was a gift from Terri for my birthday, and the other ones I found here and there. I was surprised to find the pink one in the lower middle, as I've usually only seen them clear like the one on the bottom left. Here's a better picture of the two latest:

And last but not least, I got two surprises in the mail last month and I was just tickled. These were from Mindi who had just started a blog. I was her first follower and she sent me these absolutely wonderful things for being her first follower:

I was so surprised when the package appeared in the mail. Thank you so much Mindi and I'm glad that I was your first follower! And I just realized that there was a fob that matched the pillow that I didn't take a picture of.

There is it - and on the back is the initial "D".

And my dear friend Loraine sent me this package:

An adorable Welcome pillow which will hang from my craft room door, a marking pen that disappears (perfect for quilting) and The Angler 2. I was complaining to her about the millions of half-square triangles I had to make for the Civil War quilts and she said that she had just the thing!! I can't wait to try it out. And she also sent a piece of wonderful fabric.

Well, I think that's about all for me today. My son came home from school again this weekend. I'm not sure if he came to see us or came home because the football game was away and he needed clothes washed (probably the latter reason), and DD is getting ready for the Homecoming Dance at her school this evening. I'm still having a hard time believing that she's in high school, but I think that we've all experienced that feeling before.

I hope that everyone is having a great weekend, and I promise not to be a stranger now. I've really missed reading blogs and seeing what everyone is doing!

Winner of My Giveaway!

2011-09-14T06:30:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone that entered my blogoversary giveaway! I can't believe how many entries there were. It was fun reading the comments and finding out what people were working on. Many are working on the same things and probably don't even know it. And some people were working on things that I had completely forgotten about which made me going through my stash looking at them - funny how you forget some things that are in your stash!!

So without further ado, the winner is:

#40

MOUSE

Woo Hoo! Email me with you snail mail addy and I'll get these in the mail to you ASAP!

And thank you to everyone who entered the drawing!!

Third Blogoversary Giveaway!!! And It Must Have Been Fate!!

2011-09-04T17:06:00.000-07:00

Actually tomorrow is my true 3rd Blogoversary, but why not start the celebration early, right? I can't believe that I have been blogging three years, have 600 followers, been enabled by all of you so much (my husband definitely doesn't thank you!), and met so many wonderful people (some of them in person). It truly has been a great three years! So I think that it's time for a giveaway, don't you? But first a little bit of other things and if you don't want to read about that, then scroll down to the frog! Otherwise, here's what's been happening this week.

Actually a ton of things have been going on, but if I wrote about them, we'd be here all day. Some of them happened during the summer when I was such a slacker in posting and commenting, so I'll slowly get to those over time. Will give me something to talk about when my life if I don't get as much done now as I hope.

After stitching more on Ann Hall, I switched gears for a little bit and worked on Mary Allen as I'm suppose to be working on this with Loraine. As much as I love, love this piece, she hasn't been fun to work on probably due to my fabric choice, so I've picked it up here and there and this is where I am to date:

Before:

As of today:

Certainly not stellar progress, but at least it's a little bit. I should have been much further than this by the end of August, but that month was pretty much a bust as far as me getting a lot of stitching done, so I'm hoping to have my August installment done by the end of September. The good part is coming with some of the center portion. I can't wait to get to that.

Now, do you believe in fate? Well, I do and I'm becoming more of a believer the older I get. Remember this sewing machine that I bought?

It's a vintage Singer 301A sewing machine! And thanks to Cyndi this baby became mine. Seems that Cyndi just loves vintage sewing machines and she had more than she needed (and is probably adding more as we speak, right Cyndi? LOL). Anyway, I bought this from Cyndi and it sews like an absolute dream - the most beautiful stitches I've ever seen and it's in what appears to be in a case original to the machine. Only problem is that I didn't have a table for this baby and I hate just sitting a machine on a table and trying to sew - it doesn't work. This is where the fate comes in. My baby, affectionately named Samatha (actually Cyndi named the machine and to prevent the poor machine from being confused I kept the name) has a new home!!

Isn't it a beautiful table? It's gorgeous - in just the most beautiful shape!! But wait - that machine isn't Samatha! What's going on here? Samatha is two toned!!!

Gosh, are you seeing double? No, you're not. Samantha is now residing in her new home and Rebecca is sitting next to her. Seems that I've acquired ANOTHER machine. And this is where fate comes in.

One day I was contemplating how I would find a table for Samantha. I really wanted to start using her, but it didn't feel right sewing on her if she was sitting on a table and not in one. Craig's List didn't have any for sale and who knew how many garage sales, estate sales, etc., I would have to go to in order to find one. Then the light bulb went off (it doesn't happen much, believe me), and it dawned on me that Terri, lover of all things antiquey and estate saley might come across one in her travels. So I sent her a text asking her if she came across to let me know. Now I hit my fair share of these sales myself, but Terri gets out to a lot more of them than I do, so her chances were better.

Not a half hour later, Terri is on the phone telling me that she saw one at a sale she just left and has to go back later, it was a beautiful table and did I want it? Well, yes I do, but there is a slight caveat - the table was $120 and included a machine. I didn't need another machine. And I didn't want to pay that price. Well, she went back to the sale later and called me again and told me that the table was in really good shape and the sewing machine looked to be as well, AND, the price had come down to $70.00. Well, much better, but I was still hemming and hawing about the machine. While I'm trying to make up my indecisive mind, the person lowered the price another $10, so now it's $60 for both. After the briefest of hesitation, I told her SOLD! I figure $30 for the table (bargain as it's so beautiful) and $30 for the machine (that I didn't have a clue as to what I'd do with it). And I'm so glad that I told her yes!!! The table is beautiful, and so is the other machine, now known as Rebecca, although she's in need of a little TLC from my friendly sewing machine repairman. But what to do with her? Sell her, put her in a corner?? What??

Well, that problem has worked itself out. DD has wanted to learn how to sew so problem solved. She will have her own vintage sewing machine - one made very well and hopefully will last her for a long time. Now.......I need another table! Oh Terri, can you find me another one? Please??? Preferably without another machine this time! LOL I can't believe that it happened the way it did! Thank you Terri!!!

Now the frog! Cute little guy, isn't he? But this isn't the frog that I'm giving away in celebration of my third blogoversary. This is the frog:

And along with the frog, I'll include a pair of Gingher Alicia scissors:

I heard mention that these are limited edition. I thought they all were limited edition as they seem to come out and are gone before you know it. I know that Gingher planned to have another pair come out next month, so these were a totally unexpected find at Joanne's. And they can be yours, along with the frog and I may have a few other goodies to throw into the mix (undetermined at this point). So to win, just be a follower and tell me what project you're working on right now! That's it. Very simple. I'll draw for the winner on Wednesday, September 14th!!

So that's it for me except that, as much as I love having the kids home during the summer, Tuesday marks the beginning of Happy Dance time for me! DD will be back in school and I'll be able to get back to sewing and doing all the things I love. And a lot of catching up. Seems that during the wild summer that we've had around here, my craft room looks like a hurricane went through it. In spending one day down there I realized that I have way too much stuff and it's time to get rid of some of it, so in a week or two I'm going to set up a sale blog and off some of this stuff. Some you will laugh at some of the things (they're pretty old charts) and probably not want to touch any of them with a ten foot pole, but someone may want it. You know, one man's trash is another man's treasure. If no one wants some of what I post - at least the charts - my local library will be happy to have them for their book sales. Might as well help out the community right? So in a couple weeks I hope to have a sale blog up and running.

It's really hard to to describe how much I value all the comments and friendships that I've made over the three years of blogging. Your comments have lifted me up when I've been down, encouraged me when I needed encouraging on a project (like Ann Medd), and made me smile over your posts and I've Ooooh and Aaaah over all your beautiful projects and you've enabled me to no end. I really feel blessed to have "met" so many wonderful people and I hope to hear from you for years to come.

Hope that everyone has a wonderful Labor Day!!

Some Stitching, The Wall(s) of A&E and This and That

2011-08-29T11:38:00.000-07:00

Fall is definitely in the air here in Michigan. The days are beautiful, at least lately, and it's so cool at night that you sleep like a baby. I hear that it's going to come to an end by the weekend and heat up again, but you know that Fall is coming soon. My favorite time of the year - football games, the smell of fires in the air AND the fact that I can go back to my regular scheduled programming - sewing, reading blogs, getting things done. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE, LOVE summer, but I like each season for various reasons. Summer for the beautiful weather and being able to be outside more, my kids being home and things like that. But Fall, Winter and Summer are when I get the fun things done. I don't get much sewing and stitching done in the summer, so I'm looking forward to getting back to everything now that the kids are back in school and I have a little more time to myself.

Stitching wise I managed not to jump ship on Ann Hall and got, what I think, is a fair amount done on her considering everything:

Not bad, but not great either. Love the cherub, and he's going to have a little belly button when I manage to get it in. I think he's sweet!

Sewing wise - there has been nothing - absolutely nothing in that department and I so long to get down there and work on some quilts. I hoped to do some today because today was the first day I've had time to myself in what seems like forever. Everyone is off and while I wanted to sew, I decided to tackle a job on the very long To Do List and finally got around to hanging all my A & E samplers. Well, not all of them - I still have a couple to be framed, but what's framed to date. This is still a work in progress as there is a lot of wall space, but I have a lot of A&E's still lurking in the stash basket. The pictures aren't the greatest as I'm trying to shoot up and down stairs, and the lighting isn't the best because the ceiling is very high in this area, but here you go (the pictures are clickable so that you can see them better):

Looking up the stairs we have the infamous Ann Medd, Adam Alone, Sarah Esh, Adam and Eve by The City Stitcher and Mary Corey and there's still room for a few more.

The stairs has an L-bend, so next is the view going down the stairs:

Yellow House Sampler, Sarah Seifer, Margaret Pence, Apple Tree Sampler, Elizabeth Clayton, Adam and Eve by Goode Huswife, and And They Sinned.

Here's a view of the one wall from the bottom of the stairs. Looks like I better keep stitching those A&E's - there's a lot of space left.

And one from the top!

So that is the extent of what I've gotten done the past couple weeks in the world of stitching. I'm anxiously awaiting the reaction from DH when he sees all those samplers on the wall. He'll probably go nuts - you know, he's the one that's anal about putting holes in the wall. Oh well, he'll get over it! LOL

While my sister was here last month, I managed to add a couple flower frogs to my collection and here's one of them:

Isn't it sweet? I had seen one of these going on Ebay a while ago for a ridiculous amount of money (well, at least more than I would pay). While we were out on our annual antique rides, I found this hidden in the back of a low shelf and knew that it had to come home with me. It needs a little cleaning up but I think it's so different.

Other than that the only other thing that's been going on is that we got Nick up to college and from all reports he's loving it.

Looks like pretty close quarters to me. I don't know how three boys are going to survive in this room (they overbooked the room and eventually one will be moved, but until that time, I think it's going to be real close). Anyway, I think he's having fun, but I don't think that he's getting too much sleep. One night he was up at 4:00 a.m. doing wash.

Before we left for the ride up to the campus, he presented me with these, thanking me for getting him to this place in his life. I don't think I had all that much to do with it (well, maybe a little) - it was his hard work that paid off:

And that's about it for me for now. Well, there's more but I'll save that for next time. Maybe I can get myself to start posting every week again! Hopefully, I'll really have things back to normal again in the next couple of days and can get some more stitching and quilting done! Hope everyone has a great week, and make it a stitchy one!

A Long Overdue Finish and Machines I Love

2011-08-14T12:28:00.000-07:00

Yes, yes, I know - it's been another month since I posted. Where has the time gone? Well, I am not sure where it's gone, but it blew by in a nanosecond!! It's been like a real whirlwind around here. DD's theater performances, my sister's visit and we're now on the home stretch in getting DS out the door for college next week. So all things crafty have been put on the back burner to simmer. But I do have a finish!! Woo Hoo!

Sun and Moon

The Scarlett Letter

DMC threads and 35 ct. Edinborough PTP Legacy Linen

Now seriously, this poor piece should have been finished a month ago. There's just not that much to it. But, besides the time constraints lately, that border was a nightmare (many frogging issues going on with that border), and as I mentioned in my last post, if I put arrows on this thing to point out mistakes, you wouldn't be able to see the poor design. But I'm happy with it, so to me it's a wrap - mistakes and all!!!

In my delirium of finishing something, instead of going back to something that I had been working on before (like Mary Allen - sorry Loraine!!), I started a new Adam and Eve piece since I just love those two people in Eden, so I started Ann Hall (pix ~~flinched~~ borrowed from the SL site):

And this is how much I've accomplished so far:

I'm loving this so far, but wonder how long it's going to take me to get burnt out on this border. We all know that I am "She Who Hates Borders", but so far it's been fun!

Quilting/Sewing has just about come to a dead standstill. I did manage to get one block done for my Month 3 of the CWC quilt (and I'm at least three or four months behind). This month I have to make four blocks (with a lot of those dreaded HSTs). Block 1:

Block 2 in pieces because I made a mistake and the block came out too small. Easily remedied, but still lying on the cutting table in pieces after pulling it apart:

Blocks 3 & 4 still in pieces. What can I say?

I also started a fun project - or what I thought would be fun, but I ran into some problems with the pattern (I hate when that happens) and only have it partially put together after thumping my head against the table because I thought it was I making the mistakes, not the pattern's fault:

What is this you wonder? Well, I'm not saying right now, but it's the beginning of a couple things - now collecting dust on the crafting table. Sigh - how I would love some sewing time!!! So that's it for craft things for me in the past month. Pretty pathetic I know. But I'm hoping that in another couple of weeks I can get back to sewing. I really miss it.

My sister came in for a week or so and we did our normal antique/barn sale thing. I really didn't find all that much, but something fun that did happen before she came had to do with those machines I love - sewing machines. First a couple that I found recently, but not while my sister was here:

It's a Lindstrom Little Miss Sewing Machine. It was made in the 30's and the little girl is suppose to be Shirley Temple. I was so excited to find it. It still works and is in pretty good shape. You'll see on the hand wheel that someone wrote their name on it. I can only make out the first name - Winoma. Makes you wonder about the little girl that used this machine. Then a couple weeks later, I found this tiny machine:

The hand wheel actually turns and the needle still goes up and down. And better yet - it was only $1.00.

But the biggest and most exciting purchase was this:

A vintage 1951 Singer 301 machine! Woo Hoo. I've wanted one for a long time. There is a wonderful story concerning this machine. It involves a little bird - a little Bluebird to be exact, and a friend. And luck was on my side in looking for things at just the right time. I'll share that story the next time because the story still isn't over, but I was just overjoyed at my new acquisition!! I've been so busy that I've barely gotten time to test it out (just a test run on my kitchen island of all places), but a quick run of it sounded so nice - it purred like a kitten. And she came with a name - Samantha. Hopefully it will be in its new home by my next post.

Besides my sister's visit (and I'll show you my meager antique haul next time) and DD's theater performances, my son turned 18 and leaves next week for college. To combine the two events, we celebrated both occasions with a cake. I'd like to take credit for the decorating of the cake, but I haven't decorated a cake since my kids were young. I left it up to the bakery:

Go Nick and Go MSU! Actually, I was really hoping for a cake in Maize and Blue (U of M's colors), but he's going to college and that's all that matters. Speaking of which, he still hasn't heard from U of M, so maybe there's hope in the future. I told his sister that she really needed to give him a kiss for his birthday, and she did - notice the hand between her and her brother's cheek - so she doesn't get cooties or something:

And then her falling over after doing it laughing:

Kids - what are you going to do with them? Anyway, I know that she's going to miss him a lot, although she did confide in me that she was going to turn his bedroom into her shoe closet! LOL

Well, that's it for me! Sorry that I haven't been leaving comments on everyone's blogs. I have managed to get in and lurk around, but honestly no time to comment. I did figure out what my blogging problems were - using another search engine. Seems Safari decided that it didn't like blogs any longer, so I switched to Google Chrome and it works like a charm! Anyway, after I get my DS off to college, things will settle down around here. It's a lot of work getting these kids off to college, and my dining room looks like a disaster area with all the boxes ready to go up to school. But he'll be gone in just 9 short days (sniff, sniff). I'm sad and he can't wait!!

One thing I did realize when I did have time to get into blogs, is that I'm coming up on three years of blogging! I'm having a hard time believing that! And now am over 600 followers!!! Wow, where did everyone come from? I can't wait to have some time to visit all your blogs and see what you are up to. So in light of 3 years of blogging and the new followers, I'll probably have a giveaway to thank all of you for the wonderful comments you have left and encouragement when I've needed uplifting. Maybe not quite on my blogoversary, but soon after.

Hope that you have a wonderful week, and thank you for all your comments even when I do fall off the face of the earth for a while. They do mean so much to me!!

Back to Business (Lots of Pics)

2011-07-17T07:40:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that it's been almost a month since I posted a stitching update. But I haven't stitched much in the past month, so maybe having the Accquilt giveaway was a blessing in disguise. It's been a busy month (when isn't it busy?), but I have gotten a little bit done here and there.

I've been working on Sun and Moon:

Sun and Moon

The Scarlett Letter

Not too much accomplished for a month, is there? I have to tell you that this sampler has been giving me all kinds of fits. I was going to take another picture and put arrows all over it where I've made mistakes, but then you wouldn't be able to see the sampler! Seriously!! It's been one mistake after another - like putting that border in on the left five times! Yep, five times and it's still not right. Well, I know my limits and I'll just do some fudging somewhere along the line. Like I've said before - small samplers and I don't play well together. I just don't know what it is. I've been also working on the Mary Allen sampler, but it's just more words and just words are boring for a photo op, so I'll show a picture of that next time around. And no mistakes on her so far - but she's a bigger sampler. I don't understand that!!

And I've been doing some quilting - and - I FINISHED THE FARMER'S WIFE BLOCKS!! Ya Hoo!! Here are the last ones in all their glory:

Whirlpool and Windblown Square look suspiciously similar, don't they? Well, they're the same block just different fabric. I don't know why there two of the same pattern, but the quilt is big enough that you'll probably never notice them. But, do you know how excited I am about this? At least 18 months in the making and they're finally finished.

I was so excited that I snuck down to the sewing cave and started putting them together. I couldn't wait (helps that the weather is hotter than Hades around here and it's cool down in the cave). This quilt is going to take a long time to put together, but this is how far I managed to get:

Four blocks pieced out of 111. Yes, 111 blocks! And you know what? I want to do another one! Sick, I know!!! This quilt is going to be huge - well, maybe not huge, but Queen sized!! I can't wait to get this one finished, but I have a funny feeling that it's not going to be until fall sometime.

Other fun things that have happened is that my son came home from Spain. He had a wonderful time and can't wait to go back again (hopefully, on his dime)! And sweetheart that he is, he brought me back some goodies:

Three pair of scissors from Toledo (the tape measure is an antique find)! Was I excited? You bet! I only asked for one pair, but he knows how much I love scissors so he brought me three. He also brought me a Matador spoon:

I don't collect spoons, but if my son is going to become a world traveler, I guess that I will!

The same day that Nick got home from Spain, a dear friend came into town - Robin. We met up last year and decided to meet up again. Her mother lives up in my neck of the woods, and she drives all the way from Maryland to bring her daughter up to stay with her. We had a great time quilt shopping and antique shopping, and in my usual fashion I forgot to take my camera, but I did get one of her with my cell phone:

Not the best picture Robin!! Sorry! But we had a wonderful time and she came bearing gifts:

A vintage spool holder, a jar of vintage thimbles and Stitcher Girl socks!! Love them all, Robin!! We did have a great time and she'll be coming back up at the end of the month and is going to bring her daughter (who is 6) to see the play my daughter will be performing in - Suessical The Musical.

Anyway, we had a great day together, but I didn't find anything antiquey, although Robin came out of the shops with her arms loaded. I wish I had taken my camera - she got some great things!

Last weekend, I spent a wonderful couple of days in Chicago! I had the best time! Unfortunately, no real pictures here either. Well, there is one with me in it, but I'll spare you - I looked like something the cat dragged in - it was a hot day and my hair goes all beserk in heat and humidity (you get the picture), so I'm not going to show that one, but I do have one of this - All Saints:

Not the best picture. I had heard of this store in New York, but had never seen it, so it was fun to see this one in Chicago. Hard to get a good picture with the sunshine! You know any store with a lot of sewing machines in the window will grab my attention. And you're probably thinking I've lost it - with all the beautiful things in Chicago - like the shoreline and parks - I take a picture of sewing machines!

And speaking of sewing machines - I found another cute one a couple months ago at an antique mall that I had never been to before. I keep telling myself that I don't need more than a couple....but, well, you know.....they're like potato chips and I couldn't pass it up - I love these little things:

A little nicked up, but I had to bring it home. The needle is still in it and an old spool of thread on top.

The big antique find recently was a new flower frog. I had gone to an antique market a couple months ago and saw it and wanted it so bad, but the price.....well, it was a little high and I couldn't justify it. But all I thought about after was that darned flower frog. The market comes around every two months, so I woke up bright and early to be there when it opened last Saturday (envision one of those Christmas commercials with the women with their noses pressed against the store door waiting for the sales saying OPEN, OPEN, OPEN - that was me). I found the booth, but no frog on the tables. I was so disheartened. But it pays to ask, right? So I asked the woman who ran the booth and she told me she had sold it. Again, my heart fell. But then I asked again, trying to draw a picture of it. A smile came over her face and she said that she did have it, in a bin, under a table. She didn't have enough room to put it out because it was large. So she went through the bins and in the very last bin there it was!! COME TO MAMA!!

LOVE! I also found the tape measure for a mere $2.00. But can you say LOVE??? Now I won't use this for scissors, although I probably could. The frog is in two pieces:

The larger bowl measures about 14" and the frog itself measures 8" and both pieces are stamped on the bottom "Made in England".

So I could use it for scissors:

Or use it for it's intended purpose - Flowers:

I think this will be used for flowers! Maybe!

Well, that's all that's been going on this month. I'll start posting on a more regular basis soon! I have a lot of blog reading to do and hope to catch up with everyone soon and visit the blogs of my new followers. I love finding people with the same interests! And I want to thank everyone who entered the Accuquilt contest. It was fun to have it and I was thrilled that Blu won (although I wish I had one for everyone who entered).

I hope that you're having a wonderful weekend and if you weather is anything like ours (HOT!), you're inside stitching!

And The Winner of the Accuquilt Go! Baby Is.......

2011-07-14T05:27:00.000-07:00

First off, I have to thank everyone for entering!! I'm so excited to finally be able to annouce the winner. There were 209 entries (well, actually quite a bit more, but I had to weed out some extra comments - like types of dies people would pick - those didn't count for an extra chance) and it was so exciting for me to hold this giveaway. So without further ado, the winner of the Accuquilt Go! Baby is:

#77

BLU

CONGRATULATIONS BLU!!!

Please contact me with your address and also let me know what three dies you would like. I will notify Accquilt right away and have them send you your very own Go! Baby!!!

And a huge thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway and became a follower! I'm enjoying visiting all your blogs (I still have quite a few to visit though!) And more exciting news - I'll be having another giveaway from another wonderful company in about the next month or so, and I think that you'll be excited to see what I'll be giving away this time around!! So stayed tuned!

Again, a huge CONGRATULATIONS BLU!!!! I know you're going to love this machine!!

I'll be back with a newsy, stitching post soon!!

Go! Baby Giveaway Time!!!

2011-07-05T06:46:00.000-07:00

It's time for my giveaway for a Go! Baby all for your very own compliments of the wonderful people at Accuquilt. This great machine can be yours:

And you don't have to be a quilter to appreciate this machine! With all the dies available, I know that you will find something that will fit into whatever crafty projects you get into. So all you have to do to enter is this:

1. Be a Follower for one chance to win

2. In your comment, please tell me know what three dies you would love. Take a look at the Accquilt site and check out all the dies that are available. Just make sure you pick three that are compatible with the Go! Baby. Also, make sure that there is a way I can contact you if you do not have a blog (i.e., email address)

3. If you post this giveaway on your blog or site, you will have another chance to win, but please make a separate comment telling me that you have done so - makes it easier for me to keep track.

That's all there is to it! Easy Peasy! And Accquilt will ship Internationally!! So sign up for your chance to win this wonderful machine. You will be so happy you did.

I'll pick a winner next Thursday, July 14th!! Good luck everyone!!

Fun With The Go! Baby (Lots of Pics)

2011-06-30T08:01:00.000-07:00

I have to tell you that I've been having so much fun playing around with my Go! Baby and have managed to crank out a couple projects in short order! This machine is addicting!

The first project (well really the second project - I'll get to that in a minute) is a fun baby quilt that I made out of Riley Blake Designs, Quite Contrary line. I used the Go! Baby Tumbler die:

Excuse the folds - I didn't have anyone here to hold it up for me! This was so much fun and easy to do with the Go! Baby.

Here's a brief tutorial of what I did. First I placed a layer of fabric on the die (you can layer up to six layers - I was doing a test run):

Placed the cutting board on top:

Then I gave the handle on the side a crank so that the die goes from one side of the Baby Go! to the other, and look what I ended up with:

And TA-DA!

Simple, huh? And in about 15 minutes, I had this:

Enough Tumbler blocks for my quilt - about 168 Tumblers! Amazing! Do you know how long this would have taken me the "old fashioned way? Hours of tracing and cutting!

So now it's time to sew and it was so easy! Because the corners are notched the pieces fit together perfectly:

Which results in such perfect piecing:

You just gotta love when your seams match up so well!

From there it was just making rows:

Sew the rows together, add some borders and you have a great quilt.

I also cut out some repros! I have a ton of left over fabric from my Farmer's Wife quilt:

I'm not done with the quilt yet, but I couldn't resist putting a few repro tumblers together. Woo Hoo! I'm well on my way to the Tumbler quilt that I kept putting off because I didn't want to cut out (by hand) all those Tumblers! With the Baby Go! it was so fast and I'm well on my way to having the quilt I've wanted for a long time.

The first project I actually did was a pincushion. I know that you've all seen them here and there. I did them with the Hexagon Die, and again, it was short work! Unfortunately, the pictures flew into cyberspace somewhere due to operator error (thank goodness the Go! Baby has no blades that could cut me because I don't do well with some devices sometimes - LOL), so I recreated a little bit of it. Anyway, here's the pincushion. I know that if you're a fan of Blackbird Designs you've probably seen them:

Isn't it sweet: I used the Go Baby! Hexagon die. The die comes with three different sizes, 2", 3" and 5" - the seam allowances are built in (sorry for the glare in the picture):

For my purposes, I used the middle size - 3". Using one size out of the three is not hard to do at all. I simply laid my pieces of fabric over the die area and cut. There was no shifting of fabric and the pieces came out perfect. I had some 2-1/2" hexagon papers and turned the edges over the papers and pressed. You can also baste your seam allowances down in a more traditional way, but for my purposes with this being a smaller project, I just used the papers and pressed my seam allowance to the inside. Then I zig zagged the edges together:

When I came to the end of the seam I added another hexagon, swiveled the needle and continued on:

It was so quick and easy. As I mentioned I don't have pictures of the original one due to operator error, but I just continued adding layers to the piece for a total of three rows. Here's a partial row just set together:

Once your three rows are completely put together, you cut a circle for the back (this is where the Baby Go! Circle die would have come in handy), trim the edges of the hexies to match the circle, sew right sides together - leaving the seam open enough to turn right side out - stuff your piece and you're pretty much done. I added thin twine and a cute vintage button and it's finished:

I think these would be cute using all three of the sizes that come with the die and using different orange fabrics, making some cute pumpkins for the Fall season - make one of each size and stack them. How cute would that be?

So there you have it! A couple projects made with the Go! Baby Tumbler and Hexagon dies. I still have another die to play with and I'm in the process of figuring out what to do with that one - I'll have that to show when I announce the giveaway!!

I can't say enough about how much time this Go! Baby saves. And you don't have to be a quilter to make use out of this machine. There are dies for squares - perfect for pin pillow backings, circles for pincushions like the one above, yo-yo's or a circle qult like the one I made a while ago:

Or flowers or stars - all sorts of things that quilters and non-quilters would get a variety of uses from. The possibilities are endless. So while you're waiting for the giveaway, take a look at all the dies available for the Go! Baby at Accuquilt and pick out three that you think you'd love. And who knows, you may even get hit by the quilting bug. Cutting out all those shapes for a quilt or whatever project you do would be fast work with a Go! Baby!!!

Have a wonderful 4th weekend!

Go! Baby Go!

2011-06-27T17:47:00.000-07:00

In my last post, I mentioned that I had something exciting to share. Well, now's the time to spill the beans! I received an email a week or so ago from Carolyn of Accuquilt telling me that my blog was chosen to receive one of these wonderful machines:

Woo Hoo! I was so excited! I've wanted one of these for a while, stalked blogs entering contests hoping to win, but it never happened. But then luck did happen, and now one has arrived at my door.

In Carolyn's email, she told me that I could pick three dies to go with the machine. After my head stopped spinning, I finally settled on Tumblers, Hexagons and a Value Die pack with squares and half square triangles. I'm so excited. The Tumblers are going to be perfect for using up all that leftover fabric from my Civil War quilts, don't you think? And is going to save hours upon hours of cutting those little Tumblers out by hand. Woo Hoo! And Hexagons - who doesn't love a Hexagon quilt? But oh, the hours that would be spent on cutting those babies out. I've given my Go! Baby a test run and I can't even tell you how fast it is to cut these shapes out! So fast and the shapes are just perfect!!

And what's even more exciting? I get to give one away - a Go! Baby Cutter and three dies - to one of you out there in blogland! I'm so excited about the whole thing. So while I'm finishing up my cutting and putting a little something together, why don't you check out the Accuquilt site and look at what dies would tickle your fancy! And while you're at it, sign up for their newsletter at this link - Accuquilt Newsletter and find out all the exciting information about this great machine!

After I get my project together, I'll announce my giveaway! So stay tuned!!

Stress Relief and Framing (Lots of Pics)

2011-06-20T12:15:00.000-07:00

It's been another couple crazy weeks around the old homestead - drama, stress, you name it! But in times like that, I seem to get things done. Why is that? There are times when I don't feel like sleeping as my brain is going 100 mph and having your mind focus on something that you enjoy doing really helps you not think about the stress and drama! So, I started two new pieces. Yes, I know that I should continue with the January Challenge, but after knocking out Sarah (and I did want to knock her out, remember - or burn her?), I pulled out two that I've been wanting to stitch. Not a lot of progress, but some:

Mary Allen Sampler - Samplers Remembered

32 count French Vanilla

NPI Silk Thread

I've been wanting to start this piece for a long time. I am having a lot of fun with it being on 32 count. I wanted it to fit into a specific space on a wall so 32 ct. fabric fit the bill. Finally, after some back and forth about what sampler to stitch together, my dear friend Loraine and I decided to start on it. We're going for a page of month (think I'll make it - me who never finishes a SAL?). Loraine and I met last year at the Shepherd's Bush retreat and she has become a very, very dear friend to me.

Then, when I got tired of playing around with words, I started another A&E (always need to have one of those in the fire):

Sun & Moon Sampler - The Scarlett Letter

36 ct. Edinborough Sand

DMC Threads

This one is working up so quickly - except those pesky frogs came again. The border is a little bit of a PITA as it's in two colors. Where my needle is - well, I have to "frog" out all of what I already stitched below because it's one stitch off! AUGHHH!! But, as I've said before - I can't stitch a small sampler without those frogs coming to visit.

Then for those nights when I couldn't sleep, I did some slicing and dicing (luckily I stopped before I sliced and diced myself with the rotary cutter):

Oh, those little pieces in the Farmer's Wife quilt are going to be the death of me!!! But, out of the 15 blocks that I needed to cut out so that I was closer to the Grande Finale, I only have two more to go! Woo Hoo!! Then I can start putting this baby together. It's been a fun 18 month journey with this quilt, but I think that I'll be doing a happy dance when I'm finally finished. I still have the sashing to cut out, but the blocks are what takes so long with all the template cutting.

And I managed to pick up some framing and Mr. Tom the Framer didn't disappoint:

Elizabeth Clayton

I was hesitant about this frame, but Framer Tom assured me that I'd love it - and he was right - I do!! And I also picked up Sarah:

Sarah Esh

I think the frame is perfect!

So, why all the stress and drama? Well, I won't bore you with the drama. And I guess it wasn't really stress - maybe more apprehension. I was just being a typical mom and realizing that my son is grown up - my first born. My baby! Not such a baby anymore. He graduated from high school with Honors:

The baby picture is one of my favorites because that huge smile (actually looks like a lion roaring to me) is how I have seen him throughout his life. Always with a big smile and a great sense of humor.

I'm so proud of this young man! He has worked so hard, taken so many AP classes (although the AP Bio about killed him), and he never flinched. Just kept going and never complained even with all the late nights of homework (but teens are definitely used to late nights - right? Although I think he'd rather have been playing Xbox). He set goals and achieved them! And he has barely given me a bit of trouble over all his 17 years (well...there was that one time........LOL). As you can imagine, it was one of those emotional days seeing him walk across the stage to receive his diploma. Then not two weeks later, it was time to put him on a plane to Spain:

All of the students seemed so excited to go - and who can blame them? Me? I was so anxious for him, but I survived (obviously if I'm writing this!). It was hard making sure he had everything he needed especially when he assures me that he only needed to take a t-shirt and shorts - oh, and a change of underwear and deordrant. For two weeks? I know that men tend to be minimalists, but that was taking it a little far! First reports from Spain - the plane ride was way too long and all the buildings in Madrid are so close to each other! That's all I got out of him - he's a minimalist when he talks too. He didn't sleep on the plane and had been up for quite a while and he was ready for a shower and to hit the hay. He's got a busy couple of weeks ahead of him visiting museums and cathedrals and a five day stay with a family there. Such a chance in a lifetime! But all of this is just a precursor to be sending him off to college! I guess it's time for mom to realize that he's not a baby any more!

Well, I think that's all the news that's fit to report today. With all the ups and downs of the past coulple weeks, I've also had some exciting news, but I'll share that with you next time! I think I've posted enough today! Oh, and before I forget - I'm still having some problems with Blogger and commenting and my wireless cutting out. Now that all the end of the year stuff and getting my son off to Spain is over with, I guess I'll have to hunt down a new wireless. It only happens when I go into blogs, but this router is getting on in years, so it's time. It's the only thing I can think of that could be causing my issues - beside the occasional Blogger blips that we all seem to be encountering. So just so that you know, I have been reading, just unable to comment at times.

Hope that everyone has a great week. And thank you again for all your wonderful comments and emails!!

A Crazy Time of the Year and Some Finishes

2011-06-09T11:03:00.000-07:00

I want to thank every one who left such sweet comments and emails regarding my last post about the Top 55 Blogs for 2011. I can think of so many other blogs that are much more deserving, but I'll take those 15 minutes of fame - I was just tickled (or gobsmacked, really) and your comments just added the frosting on the cake. Thank you so, so much!!!

As most of you are experiencing, it's a busy time of the year. The kids are ending their school year and many are going through proms, graduations, parties and the like. We've been going through that too (more on that in a moment), but I've actually managed to get some things done. I can't figure out how, but why question, right?

I finally finished the sampler that I've now named Sarah Esh's Frogs. I probably should have found a little frog pattern and stitched it sitting on the grass (although that frog would probably look like snake fodder if I did that)! This little piece just about drove me to distraction. I don't know why something so small throws me for a loop, but I can't seem to stitch a straight line with these things - frogs all over the place. Perhaps I have a mindset that since it's small, I don't need to really turn the brain on. Obviously, I better keep it switched on at all times. Anyway, here is Sarah:

Sarah Esh 1926

Barrick Samplers

DMC threads and Mystery Fabric (lightly tea stained)

The linen color is better represented by the first picture. The only change I made to Sarah were the eyes on Adam and Eve. The chart called for a blue that made them look like some kind of aliens with glowing eyes, so I switched them to brown. The blue just unnerved me for some reason. Sarah, along with Elizabeth Clayton are currently visiting Framer Tom and I hope that I'll have them back next week.

I have also managed, around all the mayhem and fun times lately, to finish up another real problem child. The pesky Hatchet blocks for the Civil War Chronicles Quilt. I can't tell you how many times, once again, I wanted to fling these blocks against the wall, run over them with my car, or sacrifice them to the bar-b-que gods! Or yes, take a Hatchet to them. I would keep telling myself that I couldn't sew anything else until they were done. So I'd go down into the sewing cave, look at them and walk out. Not the way to get anything accomplished. But I had to get them done - because what appears in the mail - the last installment of the Farmer's Wife Quilt - Woo Hoo!! Month 17 and 18 just waiting so that the quilt can finally be put together. That spurred me along.

Farmer's Wife Goodies

So I'm happy to annouce that the Hatchet blocks are done!! Not absolutely perfect by any means, but they're good enough for me. After making 16 of these:

I now have four of these:

Civil War Chronicles

Month #2

(shot far enough way so that you hopefully don't see that my points don't all match up)

I can't tell you what a mind burp I had on these blocks which is too bad because I am now four months behind on this quilt. But they were a royal pain. Partially because I had to make approximately 138 Half Square Triangles. And wouldn't you know, that of all 138, I think that only 5 were totally squared when I sewed them together. So there was a lot of trimming going on. I have now learned my lesson. Instead of thinking that I'm invincible and can perfectly piece these little devils by the line method, I will resort to other methods. Below is the line method:

Line Method - Draw a line from corner to corner, put two squares together right sides facing and stitch 1/4" on both sides of the line and then cut apart on the drawn line. This just didn't work, so I will now use those tools that are out there on the market. I was just too lazy to think of ripping off little pieces of paper, but that could have been mindless work in front of the TV, saved me a lot of time trimming all those buggers down and I would happily be working on something. So in the future I will be using these:

There are a lot of HST's in the entire quilt, so these are going to become my best friends in short order.

I've also managed to start another new sampler, but I'll hold off on showing that this time around because it's just border and borders are boring.

Now for a little family stuff (and you can exit out if you aren't into the family thing). My son, as most of you know is a Senior in High School (or should I say was - he graduates tonight). With the end of his high school years coming to a close, there are a lot of things that go on this time of the year. One was the Prom. Here's a picture of the whole group and I show this because I loved the girl's dresses - much fancier then when I went to the Prom:

The whole group (my son is second from the left and his date, Mackenzie, is in front of him).

And the two of them together! I felt so sorry for them because the weather was absolutely horrible that night - driving rain and it was about 46 degrees, but they didn't let the weather get them down. The limo came and they were off to a great evening.

Last night, Mackenzie (who is a Junior) came over, saw us outside and asked if she could surprise Nick and decorate his car for his graduation. Here are a couple pics - not the best as it was getting dark:

Needless to say, Nick was a little taken back to see this all over his car. LOL

Yesterday, also marked the day that my daughter graduated from middle school. Time sure flies and it's a little bit hard for me to take it all in. But here she is before her commencement:

It's hard for me to imagine her at this stage in her life. I still think of her as sitting on the kitchen floor with a Tupperware bowl on her head. Her favorite cupboard and the only one she could get into was the one that held the Tupperware! Now she's off to high school (why does that make me shiver????).

So that's about it for me this time around. As I mentioned, my son has his graduation commencement tonight, a Senior All Night Party and then next Saturday leaves for Spain. It's hard for me to imagine him going off to a foreign country at this age. A friend today emailed me to congratulate me on his graduating and said that she was sure that I would shed a few tears. I probably will, but I think that I'll be blubbering like a baby when he leaves for Spain. For some reason that makes the fact that he's growing up hit home all that much more. I know that he will have a wonderful time and it will be wonderful experience for him. And he has instructions to bring me back a pair of sewing scissors from Toledo!!!

Once again, thanks to all of you for your wonderful comments on my last post, and I hope that you have a wonderful weekend!

My 15 Minutes of Fame

2011-05-30T07:18:00.000-07:00

A couple blogging buddies sent me emails this morning with some wonderful news! My blog is featured in Quilter's Home Magazine as one of the 55 Best Quilting Blogs! Now we all know that I'm not the greatest quilter in the world, nor is it the only thing I do, but just to see my blog's name in print gave me a huge rush.

All I can say is WOW! What a great thing to wake up to in the morning!! Now, I better get off this computer and get my shower and pick up my own copy (or two or three) of the magazine. I'm just so tickled. Listed right above me, is a quilting buddy, Wendy. If you haven't visited her blog, please do. It's filled with quilty goodness!

(copied from Wendy's site since I don't have the magazine)

Here's the link to the entire article if you don't get the magazine. But grab a cup of coffee (or tea), you'll find some great blogs listed: PDF

Back soon with stitching, and yes, some quilting updates. After I run to the store for my copies of the magazine!!

It's a Mystery and More Darned Frogs

2011-05-25T11:21:00.000-07:00

I want to thank everyone for their sweet comments on Elizabeth Clayton. I'm hoping that I can get her framed soon and up on the wall. God must have been hearing my thoughts because a 50% plus an additional 20% coupon for framing landed in my mail yesterday, so hopefully she'll be framed soon.

It's been another busy week or so with the end of the school year, but I've managed to get a little bit of stitching done. Not as much as I would like, but a little. I started WTN&T's Mystery sampler and it's so much fun to stitch and the colors are so pretty (pix are clickable):

Mystery Sampler

With Thy Needle & Thread

Confederate Grey Linen and GAST Threads

I'm about at the half way mark. I can't wait to finish this up and receive the next section.

And check out those scissors! Are those not so cool or what? A pair of legs! I couldn't resist these. And I'm cursing Gabi for pointing them out to me! LOL

I've also been working on Sarah Esch, but haven't gotten much more done than what you saw the last time:

I don't know what it is about this sampler, but I'm having all kinds of things going on with it. First I had frogging issues last week, then I ran out of the thread that I'm using and wouldn't you know it - with all the DMC I have around this house, I didn't have another skein of it. Then on top of it, the frogs came back in a big way. I think that smaller samplers and I just don't get along! Why is that?

And I've been doing a little bit of quilting here and there. I won't tell you how long it took me to get this block done:

Month #2 - Hatchet Block

Civil War Tribute Quilt

Actually I have two of these blocks done - out of 16!!!! This is what the rest look like:

Seems like every time I sit down to sew, I get a little bit of time and then have to run out and do something. And I'm two months behind on the Farmer's Wife quilt! Yikes. The last month will be arriving soon and I would so love to get that baby together!

Speaking of frogs, this past weekend was garage sale time in my subdivision. I ended up stopping at a couple places and scored a new frog. It's rather usual, but it was practically free, so it had to come home with me. I've seen these before - it comes in two pieces - but I've always found just one piece of it and not the other, so I was thrilled to find both parts together. And the seller also threw in an arrangement book that originally came with it!

Seeing as this one isn't as heavy as the others I have, I think that I'll be using this one strictly for arranging flowers, but maybe I'll put scissors in it once just to see how it looks.

And yesterday was a somewhat sad day for me - sad and happy at the same time. My son's last day of high school was yesterday. And the prom will be tomorrow. I hope that he'll allow me to post pictures. He's rather camera shy! Anyway, I just can't believe that this day has arrived. He's done so well and graduated with Honors. He's still Wait Listed for the University of Michigan, so it looks like he'll be going to Michigan State at least for the short term. Not his first choice, but I still think he'll be happy there. Anyway, it made me think about how quickly he's grown. It seems like yesterday when I had him. Now he's out of high school and has a date for the Prom. He's going to Spain in June and then off to college. When he was born, I stitched this sampler for him. When I saw it yesterday, it brought a tear to my eye, because my baby - my first born - is all grown up:

Again, thank you for all your wonderful comments on Elizabeth Clayton, and I hope that everyone has a fantastic Memorial Weekend!!

Elizabeth Clayton is a Wrap

2011-05-16T10:34:00.000-07:00

Woo Hoo! Another one off the To-Do list - finally! I don't know what took me so long on dear Elizabeth, but I put the final stitches into her last week! I love her, although I look at Adam and Eve as being rather ghostly beings - they're so light!

Elizabeth Clayton

Handwork Samplers

36 ct. Legacy Linen and DMC threads

Top of Elizabeth:

Bottom of Elizabeth:

Sorry these aren't the best pictures. Michigan has been having the worst weather the past few days. 80 one day - rainy and cold for three days, so taking good pictures is a hit or miss proposition. Anyway, back in the day, when something didn't stand out all that well on a piece, we'd outline it. But that was back in the day, so no outlining on Adam &Eve - I'm just going to leave them ghost-like. Actually they look better in real life. Another one crossed off that crazy January Challenge and another one for the A&E wall. Me thinks that at the rate I'm going, I won't be completing 15 projects this year. Oh well, it's all about the journey, right?

And where is the A&E wall, you ask? Well, it's coming along. I want to get Elizabeth framed and then I'll unveil the wall. I have templates stuck all over the wall and no matter how I arrange them, I know that I need Elizabeth framed before I start pounding nails. You have to remember that my husband is anal about holes in the wall, so I don't want to make mistakes! LOL

After finishing Elizabeth, I went back to another January challenge piece, Sarah Esch. But we have very pitiful progress - pitiful because those pesky frogs visited:

Not only are these letters boring as all get out, I got to the end of the second line and realized that I had left too many spaces between the "N" and the "O". Instead of frogging at that point, I just kept going with the next line and then went back and frogged out the O, P,Q & R - you can probably see a little bit of thread droppings - or frog droppings - where I did that. Not loving stitching these letters at all, after I frogged out those letters, I picked up another WIP - Ann Grant - but I didn't make much progress on it:

Not much done from the last time, but I'm just loving the colors of this one.

Things have been in high gear around here with the end of the year things - dance recitals, track meets, AP exams and all the cramming and my son's upcoming graduation. So it's been busy and that's probably why Elizabeth took me forever. Last weekend was the normal round of recitals and would you believe it - I have no pictures! Well, I do, but they're on the other camera which is not digital, so no great costumes to show this year. But while DD was at one of her recitals, I took a little hike to an Antiques Market that was being held nearby and scored another frog - but the kind I love - not the frogs involved with threads:

A cut crystal one this time. The woman I bought this from had the most amazing flower frog, but with also an amazing price tag. I wish that I had taken a picture of it! It was really something else. The little pincushion doll I found at one of the other booths there. I thought that she was sweet!

Well, once again, there isn't much else to talk about unless you want to her about my son grumbling about AP exams, or the normal trials and tribulations of life. I did have a shock this week though. My son informed me that he asked a girl to the Prom - and even more shocking - she accepted!! LOL Not really, my son is a great kid, but this is the first I've heard of a girl in the picture. I guess it's time - he's going off to Spain this summer and then college in the fall, so it's about time a girl showed up in the picture somewhere. But oh dear, does it make me feel OLD!!

Thanks so much for stopping by and leaving me the wonderful comments that you do. I'm still having a bit of trouble commenting on blogs. The Geek Squad can't figure out what it is unless it has something to do with Blogger. Some times of the day I can get in and make comments with no problem and then other times, I can't - the wireless modem shuts down. So bear with me - I'm reading everyone's blogs, just not able to comment all the time.

Hope you have a wonderful week, and make it a stitchy one!!

A Drive By Post - Literally

2011-05-09T08:30:00.000-07:00

Not much stitching has been going on around here lately. I'm within a hair's breath of being finished with Elizabeth Clayton - but not quite there! Dance rehearsals, recitals and just the normal things that usually go on around here have really cut into my stitching and blogging time. It doesn't help that our wireless modem is on its last legs and every time I try to get into blogs it shuts me out. So far it hasn't kicked me out here, so I'll try to post this and see what happens. But if you haven't seen me comment, blame it on the modem. I'm going to try to get out today and get a new one.

Anyway, because it's been so busy, I decided to get out of Dodge last Saturday, go for a drive and take in some of the local culture. Rochester Hills has some wonderful historic places to visit. I've lived here for almost six years and have been to the school house (it's a right of passage for the school children to spend a couple days there in prairie dress with hornbooks and being put into the corner with a dunce cap on your head when bad). But they also have a lot of exhibits. So I finally went to one - a rug exhibit at the Van Hoosen Farm.

I just fell in love with this Alice in Wonderland rug. To see it in person was breathtaking. It was done with a 3 cut for those who are in the know about rug hooking. And a couple more:

The lighting wasn't the best, but you get the idea. The rug exhibit was held at the Van Hoosen Farm in the reconstructed cattle barn. If you want to read a little bit about the history of the Van Hoosen farm you can click on the link: www.thebarnjournal/org/stories/story014/index.html (well, the link is not clickable no matter what I do, but if you are interested you can do a copy and paste to read a little history of the farm).

The original barn burned down in 1968 when two boys were playing with matches. A new barn was reconstructed and in one of the pictures below, is a picture of what is left of the original barn and the cattle area. Sarah Van Hoosen Jones took over the farm from her grandfather and enlarged the home and barn. She had built a new dairy unit and bred her own stock of cattle. She graduated with a doctorate degree in genetics from the University of Wisconsin and her aunt, Dr. Bertha Van Hoosen, did important research in cattle diseases.

The Village encompasses a small community - schoolhouse, cemetery, and various buildings. I didn't get a picture of the school house or the cemetery - I'll do those on another trip, but here are a few others:

I don't know if you can read the sign, but the name of the building is The Sign of the Black and White Cow. This used to be the Dairy Store for the Van Hoosen Dairy Farm. It's now a private residence, but the owners have to keep it up to City requirements.

1850's Red House:

The Farmhouse:

The reconstructed barn and museum:

What is left of the original barn:

One of my favorite houses which sits across the road (heavily traveled) is this one and I can't get the best picture of it because of the traffic. All homes in this area are kept to strict standards as to how they are maintained.

From there I went to a quilt show held in Romeo, Michigan. Romeo is probably best known for peaches. Here are a couple quilts:

I'm usually into the more primitive style of quilting, but I thought that these two were pretty:

Romeo is also known for antiques. And what would be a good days drive, if I didn't stop into the antique store??? You know how my car just can't pass up one of those places. Romeo tends to be a bit pricey, but I lucked out and walked away with a new addition to the sewing room:

It needs a bit of cleaning, but I loved the graphics on it.

Well, that's about it for me. Sorry there are no stitchy pictures, but there will be soon. Thanks for stopping by and even though there are no pictures of cross stitch, I hope you liked seeing a little part of my world.

Ann Medd Framed and an Easter Surprise

2011-04-25T06:47:00.000-07:00

Woo Hoo! Ann Medd is finally framed! Actually, she was done last week, but between our not so perfect weather around here and getting ready for Easter, I didn't have time to take a picture of her! So here she is in all her glory:

The frame I chose for her is a very simple one. After spending an almost an hour throwing frames on her, I kept coming back to this one - simple with not a lot of foo-foo. I didn't think that Ann needed a lot of fussing. I suppose I figured that in the 1700's things would be simple, so that's what I did.

Just a little bit of distressing so that it looked a little old and slightly beat up. I think that it works very well. Now to get her on the wall with ATS and all the others that I've been working on over the past few years.

No stitching to show this time around, but I am making somewhat good progress on Elizabeth Clayton and should have a finish on her soon. I've been playing with stash to figure out what the next victim of stitching will be! It's a hard choice.

But something exciting happened yesterday (at least for me). The Easter Bunny came to our house. He comes every year and leaves baskets for the kids. Even though the biggest kid is getting ready to head off to college, he still wants a basket. Mom never gets a basket. I think the Easter Bunny thinks that either Mom is too old or seriously doesn't need the chocolate!! You know "a moment on your lips, forever on your hips" thing! Well, I manage to eat a couple things while the Bunny's assistant (me) makes those baskets. But after the hunt was over, the kids told me that I had to hunt for something. That perhaps one of the Bunny's assistant's had left something for me. Of course, the kids can't keep quiet and just make me look for it, they have to hint that it's near something that I had recently done. So, of course, my first thought is Ann, who was propped up against the wall in the dining room:

So I looked behind Ann.............

And what do I see???????

OMG, OMG, OMG..................

An Ipad!! The latest one!!!! I have only wanted one of these since they came out. Dreamed of one, hinted for one. I see people working on them at Starbucks, people reading books on them and wanted one......oh, did I want one. But I never asked. Seems that with having two kids around and their need to be technologically "with it", I never asked. But I wanted one so bad!!! And as you can imagine, when I found this I cried.........cried like a baby, I'll tell you!! I couldn't get it out of the box fast enough!!! And what do you think I did????

Yep, you guessed it. Hit the blogs since I'm so behind on reading. And what do I see, but Becky talking about an abundance of frogs - flower frogs that is!! That got my attention wouldn't you know!! Love, love all those frogs you found Becky!!

So now Mom is "with it". I can read blogs, emails and troll the net from anywhere. I can download books, figure out where I'm going with GPS. It was a little eerie when GPS pinpointed us to the back of our house - kind of like Big Brother watching. Now, I don't have to spend endless hours at dance lessons staring at four walls when it's too cold to get myself into trouble shopping. I am just beside myself!! I was informed by the other Easter Bunny's assistant (that would be my DH) that this would just about cover all those gift giving occasions this year (Mother's Day, my birthday, etc.). But that's good in my book. I'm now going to be technologically "with it" like my kids.

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Easter and has a great week. We're in for some heavy rain this week, but that's okay in my book. I'm taking the Ipad into the craft room and watching a tutorial on sewing! Oh happy day!!!!

What Do You Do After Finishing Up a BAP?????

2011-04-21T07:49:00.000-07:00

That is what I've been asking myself the past couple weeks. What do I do after Ann Medd? But first, I have to thank everyone for all the wonderful comments you made concerning Ann's finish. I was absolutely overwhelmed! All your comments made it so worth me finally finishing her up and I thank you so much for each and every one of them. I was just blown away! And I hope that maybe one of you will have your own Ann Medd adventure too. Even though she's large, she was an easy and fun stitch. I do have her back from the framers, but I can't get a good picture of her and will do that as soon as our crazy, overcast skies clear up and the sun's at the right angle!! My husband, sampler enthusiast that he is (NOT) asked me where I was going to put her. HA! Do you know what I was thinking at that point about where to put her??? You probably do so I won't say it. LOL Seriously, she WILL be residing in the stairway with ATS. Finally some company for ATS!!

After I was finished with Ann, I didn't know what to do. It's just like reading a really good book, and you don't know what you want to read next. I really felt like starting something new - I thought that I deserved it!! Going back to a WIP for me felt like trying to get my kids to eat vegetables - I don't wanna do it. But I did and picked up Ann Grant. She lasted a night. I picked up Susanna Lane. She also lasted a night. Then I picked up Elizabeth Clayton, and she whispered softly and said, "Pick me - Finish Me!" So I have worked on Elizabeth. She's not quite done, but I'm getting to the fun part - Adam and Eve:

Not a lot of progress for a couple weeks - just a lot of wording and the borders. But now comes the fun part - a little more lettering and then that fun couple in Eden and the scene around them. Shouldn't take me too long (I hope)!

No sewing has really taken place, unfortunately, - well a little, but I've only completed two blocks out of the 16 required for my Civil War Chronicles BOM, and nothing on the Farmer's Wife. But a little bit of antiquing has. A while ago, Terri posted a little sewing machine that she had found in an antique shop. This made me remember that when I was young I had a small Singer sewing machine, but didn't know where it was. So the hunt was on. Did I find it? No. I'm sure that it's packed in a box somewhere. I thought it was in a couple trunks that I had brought from my father's, but I didn't have the keys. I eventually found the keys stuffed in the back of my husband's workbench (where else?). But no sewing machine - some cool vintage things that I'll show at some other time, but no sewing machine. So during this time of trying to figure out where the machine was, I hit the antique store and score!!!!

Not in too bad condition and a good price. The shop was having Thrifty Tuesdays and 20% off any purchase!! So this baby came home with me. Since that time, I've found three more through various places and I'll post those at a later date. But I thought it would be so much fun to have a variety of these machines lined up in.....where else?? My sewing room!!

I also found another flower frog:

Another amber frog. This one joins two others in my collection:

My husband just shakes his head every time I come home with another one.

The only other crafty thing that I've come across lately is some wonderful things I found on a blog. The blog is Me and My Stitches, and the girl that makes these wonderful things is named Julie. Being a sucker for anything stitchy or quilty, I had to purchase a couple of her things and I love them:

The pendant and earrings I bought for myself, and Julie, sweetheart that she is, sent me the scissor fob as a gift. There is a link on her blog to her jewelry website and I know that she would love to hear from you. She has some wonderful things and some quilt patterns too, so give her blog and website a look!! Julie and I have struck up an internet friendship of sorts. She calls me Satan! The reason for that is that now I have her on the hunt for little sewing machines! With her living in Iowa, at least we won't be fighting each other at the antique stores!!

The only other thing that has been going on worth mentioning (you don't want to hear about all the errands I run all the time), is that my daughter finally has been able to give up her glasses (she had a lazy eye which was corrected with glasses) and got her braces off. This was a monumental day for her because she feels that she is no longer - in her terms - a geek. I think that she looks so beautiful (and way too old - sigh):

Ignore her attempt at trying to look like she's one of Eminem's possee! Just look at the smile. I think it's a gorgeous one!! And one more picture of her and her favorite canine:

They are great buddies! He follows her around like a shadow. And he is looking much better now that his hair has finally grown out a little bit.

Well, that's all I have for now. Not too much. But thank you all once again for the wonderful comments you left me. It really warmed my heart and I think it was because of some of you cheering me on, that finally got me to finish Ann.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Easter!!

Ann Medd Finish - Five Years in the Making (Lots of Pics)

2011-04-02T10:28:00.000-07:00

WOO HOO! There is some happy dancing going on around here!! Ann Medd is finally finished - after five years! I started her on January 1, 2006 and finished her March 30, 2011. Better late than never, right? I would have posted this yesterday, but I was down for the count with a cold/flu/general feeling of crappiness, so here she is! This qualifies for Finish #2 in the Crazy January Challenge! Hopefully, I never pick anything this big ever again! Yeah, like that's going to happen!! I love me those BAPs!! I've been eyeballing Dutch Beauty! Anyway, here she is in all her glory. Sorry that some of the pictures are not the best, but the light just isn't cooperating and she hasn't been ironed:

Ann Medd

The Scarlett Letter

35 count Elegant Bean and DMC Threads

My daughter (who wished not to have her picture shown due to hair issues, etc. - you know those teens) is about 5'4", so this shows you the size of dear Ann. Ann Medd has been described as the "Mother of all Samplers" and I would think that description aptly applies. She's a big one!! What amazes me is that Ann Medd was 10 years old when this sampler was finished. If she finished it when she was 10 years old, when exactly did she start it? I'm sure that she wasn't a slacker like I was in stitching this, but I wonder when she did start it. The whole sampler consists of basically four samplers - each different in their own ways.

Anyway, here are more pictures - I'll let them do most of the talking:

In this first portion there was eyelet stitch, over one, four sided back and a couple other stitches. I took some creative license and put in the initials of my family in place of Ann's.

In the second section, we have my two favorite people - Adam and Eve:

The next section is described as whimsical with stylized flower-trees and a very fashionably attired couple with their pet, dog, squirrel and deer.

And the last section is considered non-traditional and curious. A fisherman engaged in hooking a large fish (looks like a salmon to me) while a shepherdess/mermaid tends a flock of sheep.

I liked the notation that Ann made about her teacher, Ann Smith, at the bottom.

All the verses were done in back stitch starting with the letter A and working down through Z. Although Ann added a little surprise and decided to add in an extra Y. You probably heard a loud groan in your part of the world when I thought I was going to be stitching the Z and ended up stitching another "Y".

There were a few changes I made to the sampler. I guess you would call them cheating. There was a lot of tent stitching done on the faces and a few other places - like the animals. Most of that I did as charted, but when it came to the last portion, I ended up doing them in regular cross stitch just because I liked the look better. The gold satin stitch border I also cheated on. Laying two threads in a satin stitch is hard when on scroll rods, so I substituted a pearl cotton for those stitches and it worked out well.

So there you have her - five years in the making and a labor of love - I think. Actually, this was a very easy sampler to work on - just very time consuming.

Now, I have no idea what I want to work on now. Isn't that the way? We get so caught up in working on something that when it's over - like a really good book - we don't know what direction to go. So I think that I'm going to take my sniffly self into the craft room and see what else I can come up with. Just something a little smaller - at least for now!!!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope that you have a great weekend!

Nothin' Shaking Here

2011-03-24T09:00:00.000-07:00

It's been a pretty uneventful couple of weeks around the old homestead - busy, but uneventful. A little stitching, a little quilting, and a lot of running. The stitching....well, I'm going to save that for next week (fingers crossed) as I'm hoping that my oldest WIP (well, actually the second oldest) will finally be finished, released from its scroll rods and I can display the sampler in all its full glory. But we'll see.....I'm not known for being the quickest stitcher. So in lieu of any in progress stitching, I'll show you one that I picked up from the framers not too long ago:

The Apple Tree Sampler

Hawkins House

DMC threads and 36 ct. Buttercream Linen

This one was another fun one with the funky colors. When I look at it I wonder why I can't seem to stitch more of the smaller pieces because it's so nice to have a quicker finish and then you can move on to something else. But truth be told I do more frogging on a smaller piece than I do on a BAP. I don't know why that happens, but I do!!!

I did manage to get the last Farmer's Wife blocks done and probably just in a knick of time because I'm sure the next batch will be showing up any day:

Seasons, Rosebud, Railroad, Shooting Star

That Shooting Star block was a real persnickety one and I'm not sure that I'm all that happy with it because my points aren't the best, but I think that I may be calling that one a wrap. We'll see.

One of the things that has been keeping me busy this past couple weeks are all the errands and things that us moms (and non-moms, too) do. One of those errands was to take Mr. Bailey to the groomers. He's never been before. Probably not a good thing. I didn't realize that a dog needed to be groomed as often as they recommend. Live and learn, and this was a real learning experience. But I had been holding out on taking him in because it was so darned cold around here and if that dog could, he'd spend his entire day menacing squirrels, birds, dogs, etc., outside. So I held off, but it was time. This is my canine dust mop before his grooming (holding one of his favorite treats):

Looks a little shabby, doesn't he? I can't tell you the number of times I had to cut that hair over his eyes. But he was getting difficult to brush and we had a rather warm day last week and he looked miserable, so it was time. Unfortunately, I didn't recognize the poor boy when he was finished! This is what I was shocked to see after his wash, cut (no color), manicure and whatever else they do at an appointment at the Urban Dog Spa:

Seriously, it this the same dog? OMG! I was positive that they had given me the wrong dog. From going to a fluffy furball, to something that when he's standing, looks like a greyhound with a poodle's head! Although as you look at that picture don't you get the thought that he knows that he looks pretty dapper and is ready to show his new coiffure off to the ladies in the neighborhood??? Either that or he's thinking, "What the heck did you do to me?" Unfortunately, it's so short that I have to dress him in my daughter's sweaters to take him for a walk so his lady friends can't see his handsome self. But seriously, it's taken me a couple days to realize he's my dog. I know he is because he comes to the name Bailey, loves to chase me around with his toys and when my back is turned he's helping himself to treats in the pantry. So I know he's mine, but it's just such a shock to see him!!

The only other interesting things that have happened around here was that I picked up a couple more pincushion dolls in the past couple weeks. One was a doll that Terri had brought as an auction item for the Kindred Spirit's Guild annual auction. Seems that whenever she brings one of these things for some of our different Guild events, I ~~fight other women~~ walk away with it:

Isn't she pretty?

Then a couple days later I took some things over the Salvation Army to donate and for some reason can never withhold making a quick dash through to see what they have. Imagine my surprise when I came across this pretty box:

And inside the box was this:

How could I pass it up? The lace around its neck looks like someone replaced what used to be there with some more run-of-the-mill type lace, but somewhere in my stash I have some old lace from my other antique jaunts that I can put around it to keep it more authentic. Anyway, a very surprising score from the SA!!

Well, that's about it for me. It's been busy and not real crafty. Maybe I'll have more time this weekend. My son is off once again to Grand Rapids for the Business Professionals State Competition, and having one less body around usually means a little less hectic weekend. Fingers crossed his team does well.

Thanks to everyone who leave such wonderful comments and a big welcome to some new people that have become followers. I'm so glad you stopped by, and whether you leave a comment or not, it's wonderful to see you and to discover your blogs (if you have one). Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!!

Two Timing Ann (Lots of Pics)

2011-03-09T09:23:00.000-08:00

Yes, it's true. I've been two timing Ann Medd. Two timing her with another Ann. With all the market things that came out, I couldn't resist - just blew my resolution to stitch only WIPs this year with a reckless abandon. I picked up a few things from Market and had a real dilemna as Ms. Medd was constantly calling me, but I finally blocked my ears and started another Ann - Ann Grant:

Beautiful Ann Grant. The colors are so pretty. Unfortunately I can't get the best picture of this loveliness because it's so miserable with rain and overcast skies today, but trust me - the reds, the pinks - beautiful!!

Ann Grant

Shakespeare's Peddler

32 ct. Vintage Sand Dune

Silks as called for

This is really a joy to work on and I've gone out of my element with this one. She's stitched on 32 ct. which I haven't touched in years, and with all the recommended silks. They are so wonderful to work with. So wonderful, in fact, that I think that I'm hooked. Not a good thing. But so hooked, I kitted up two more -

The stunning Susan Rambo - love those reds and greens:

And the wonderful Elizabeth Mears. I saw this on Ellen Chester's site finished and I swooned.

The only bad thing about these projects is that they're all BAPS!! Why can't I pick something small? Why? Anyway, before you think that I've abandoned Ann Medd, I have not. I have made some progress on her and she will be picked up again in a day or so. I just needed a slight break from all that fill in, but I do want Ann Medd done - it just won't be by the end of March.

On the quilting front, I've gotten a little bit done. I wonder where the hours in the days go sometimes, but I managed to get nine of the Farmer's Wife blocks finished (six from last month and three from March's installment). Four more and I'll be caught up for the month. And then - only three more months to go!! I can't wait to put all the blocks together. But these are the blocks I've finished this month so far:

All these blocks were fun and went together without a hitch, but in my true fashion I left the harder ones for the end. Why do I do that?

Other than that - as I said - I don't know where the time goes and there isn't much more happening around my neck of the woods. I did make another acquisition for my craft room yesterday. Purely by accident, mind you. I ran into Joanne's for a new rotary cutter. Mine is on its last legs and I'm afraid that I'm going to slice and dice myself one of these days. But I had a little time to kill so meandered around the store and found something that I had to have. Why? I already have one, but what's another one:

Yep, another mannequin. I actually walked out of the store with my rotary cutter in hand and started to leave, but I couldn't leave - I had to have it! What's one more, right?

I took some pictures of my room now that it's coming along a little better - still a work in process, but since I don't have much else to talk about, I'll show you how it looks going full circle around the room. Behind the door - the shelves are finally getting full. Although the vast majority of my fabric is still in Rubbermaid bins in the workroom (which DH needs to clean out so I can get to them).

The cutting and work table (ignore the glare off the door jam - I'm not the best photographer).

Part of my antique findings and gifts and giveaway wins from fellow bloggers:

The sewing area and all the ~~junk~~ stuff I put on the shelves:

The baskets on the top shelf hold my BOM projects - the extra fabric and blocks as they're made. I'm going to reline the baskets with a pretty red polka dot fabric and put garden tags painted with chalk board paint on the baskets so that I can write the names on them. The jars hold selvages, pieces of scrap fabric I may be able to use, fabric for my hexies and batik squares that my friend Diane gave me for my own Batik hexie quilt. The boxes hold some of my threads - Gloriana's, etc. And another view:

Looking down toward the closet (which I left closed because it's a mess in there). The quilt rack is suppose to be hung over the other mannequin with my recently finished red and white quilt, but when my son and I tried to put it on the wall, we discovered after we got the anchors in that the wall was bowed in the middle, so we have to come up with some creative thinking (probably building up the wall with wood on the two ends) to get it up.

My bookcase area - still a work in process. Most of my books and charts are in two cabinets in the workroom which is probably where they'll stay unless I commandeer the other basement bedroom into another work area (which is going to become a reality I think). At some point the bookcase will be removed and I'll get one of those huge hutches from Ikea to fill the entire wall.

And then the sitting area - this chair definitely needs a slipcover or something but I haven't been able to find what I want. Either that or I'll take it out and put up my other sewing machine. Time will tell. Right now it kind of gets the brunt of what I'm working on - like the quilt slung over the back and my cross stitch chart filing on the footstool.

So there you have it. I can't think of a week that goes by where I don't think of something else to drag out and put in there. But I love having things I love around me. Maybe when I finally get the hutch I can display all the flower frogs there.

I hope that everyone has a great week and weekend. And I have to apologize that as of late I've been really bad with commenting on blogs. Too many things going on - like emergency room visits for my daughter, my son being sick - AGAIN - and not a lot of time. I don't want to miss a thing so I lurk but don't comment. I'll be back to doing that soon!! I love seeing everything that you do!!

BAPs are Not Conducive to Blogging

2011-02-27T09:39:00.000-08:00

Trying to work on a BAP (big a$$ed project for those who don't know the lingo), is not conducive to blogging at all. I stitch and stitch and don't see much progress at all. So therefore, not much to show. It's not like I can stitch little motifs here and there filling up the linen. No, I've been toiling with fill-in and back stitching and lettering (have I ever mentioned that I hate backstitching?). My needle flies, but not fast enough. But I'm getting closer - little by little.

When we last left Ann (sounds like a Soap Opera, doesn't it?), she looked like this:

She is now looking like this:

She finally has some facial expression (I think she's eyeballing the fisherman), and her body is almost complete (although there is - yes - more backstitching to look like folds in her gown), and there was a lot of catch up wording done on the verses on the right. You can imagine my excitement when I got to the letter "Y" which is what is showing on the right (minus the beginning letters of each word - they're done in a different color). I was excited. I was doing a happy dance!! Imagine Snoppy with his head pointed to the heavens, his arms flung wide and a smile on his face - that was me!! Until I flipped over the page and discovered..........horror of horrors...............Miss Ann Medd - stinker that she is, or should I say, was - decided that she needed to put two Y's in her sampler!!!! One just wasn't enough. Well, quite honestly it wasn't because the wording wouldn't have made it to the bottom if she didn't do something. With that discovery, I gently put her down and left the room. My elation deflated!

I've been dreaming of doing other samplers - ones that have caught my eye - Susanna Rambo, Ann Grant and the list goes on and on..........but they're going to have wait. I see many bloggers starting these beauties and I'm jealous. Insanely jealous. But I continue on. I love you Ann - I truly do - but you're a stinker!! I'm being cautiously optimistic though and am thinking that she can be finished by the time Spring arrives. Very cautiously optimistic. That's about three weeks - can I do it??

So to console myself I buried myself and my sorrows in my craft room. So many unfinished projects. We do all know that I'm a habitual starter, but the basket with all things cut out was overflowing, so I finally decided that I needed to make space so I could cut out more (like those pesky FW and CW blocks that keep arriving in my mailbox). So I finally put together the Basket Case quilt:

Basket Case

Pattern by Cluck, Cluck, Sew

Bliss Fabrics

Then I went back to the red and white quilt since the border fabric finally showed up (sorry for the less than perfect photo set up with the folds in it):

Yellow Brick Road Pattern

Mostly Moda and French General Fabrics

I really love this quilt a lot and think that it will hang from a rack in my craft room.

Then I finally finished up the quilt for my daughter:

Not the best picture as the wind was blowing just a little too much and kept throwing it off the holly bush. Here's a better one (somewhat):

Turning Twenty Pattern

Pillow and Maxfield Whimsy Fabric

All these of these were a welcome relief from the Farmer's Wife blocks and the Civil War blocks. Basket Case was made from a jelly roll (most of the cutting done for you), and the other two were just cutting different sized blocks! A lot of fun, but now I need to get them off to the quilters and get down to business on all those tiny FW blocks!!

So that's all the news that fit to report right now. The weather is being its typical Michigan self. Almost a foot of snow last weekend with more during the week here and there, and now we're in for heavy rain and thunderstorms! Crazy! But you should have heard the birds singing this morning. They know that Spring is just around the corner - and for that I'm very thankful!!!

Thank you for all your great comments on my last post. I'm always tickled to receive them. They definitely keep me going - and with Ann I need all the cheering on I can get!!

Framing, Stitching and Quilting

2011-02-10T11:01:00.000-08:00

As usual, I've got my hands in both the stitching and quilting, and can't seem to make much headway with either of them. But something is done. I picked up Mary's Best Handworke from the framer's yesterday and here she is:

I was on the fence about how to frame her, but I love this frame even though, now that I'm looking at it, I'm almost wondering if I should have gone with something even simpler. The design in the frame seems to be fighting the scroll work in the border. Is it just me? Anyway, I love how she came out and the colors are a much better representation than my finish pic of a couple posts ago. Daylight always makes a piece look great - even though I fell off the porch into three feet of snow while taking it! LOL

I've been trudging along on Ann Medd and it just amazes me how long this is taking me to stitch. Fill-in isn't hard, just so time consuming. Then there were the sheep. Let's talk sheep, shall we? The sheep in this section - well, there was a point when I was ready to throw this ole girl onto the bar-b-que (yes, we grill in the dead cold of winter). The sheep were driving me absolutely nuts!!! Making me crazy!! I think that it took me all of four, maybe five, days to get them in. And then one sheep had a leg that was all crazy and I discovered that I was going over three threads instead of two. So a frogging we go!! But, I seriously had mad moments just relishing the thought of this sampler going up in flames!! Bar-b-qued sheep!! But common sense took over and I trudged along.

Last post:

Are we getting bored yet??? I'll tell you - there are days when I long to work on something else. But I told myself that she has to be done - and I want her done - but there are just some days. But those nasty sheep are done, so maybe things will be fine. Anyway, there's some progress - the fish and fisherman are now outlined, the sheep are in, although not all outlined and a wee bit of progress on the Shepherdess/Mermaid. The sheep were about the death of me though.

On the quilting front - lots done!! Well, kind of. I took advantage of that big storm we had last week. The kids had two days off and in the true fashion of teenagers, slept in late so I headed down to the craft room and took rotary cutter in hand and cut out all my BOMs and some extra:

All my civil war BOMs, the red and black quilt and Farmer's Wife blocks for the month. In the background is the Bliss quilt that I so optimistically thought that I'd have put together. Didn't get there! I was on a cutting tear, so instead I cut out some others and almost have them finished:

Remember those red and white fabrics! Well, here's just a peek!! I'd show the whole quilt, but it's not done. Reason why? Well, the kit included fabric for the borders - a great polka dot fabric, but it was upholstery fabric! Say what? Just too heavy to border the quilt with so I'm waiting for the correct fabric to show up. But this really brightens my day to look at it. Reminds me of a quilt that you would sit on when you're having a picnic. I used the Yellow Brick Road pattern for this one. Quick and easy!

So because I couldn't go any further with that quilt, I started on this:

Another similar quilt, but with bigger blocks made from the pattern Turning Twenty, and Pillow and Maxfield's Whimsy fabric! This is for my daughter - the crazier the fabric the better she likes it. Just have to sew these rows together, slap on borders and it's a WRAP!!! I loved making both of these - quick cutting and piecing. A welcome break from all those tiny pieces that are in the Farmer's Wife and Civil War quilts. But now the fun is over and time to go back to my other pieces. Although I was kind of thinking of cutting out that Marsha McCloskey pattern............hmmmmm.

And to leave on a note appropriate for the season, I thought I'd show a little wallhanging that I did years ago in honor of Valentine's Day. This is an old Thimbleberries pattern - if I remember right they used to have monthly kits that you could purchase and this was one of them. This is also my first machine quilting project. It was small so I managed to get through it. Probably the last one I will ever do myself though!

So that's what's been happening in my part of the world. The weather is absolutely frigid today - probably about 4 degrees with below zero temps with the wind chill. But maybe the groundhog was right - it's warming up into the 30's next week. Ya hoo!!!! Better get that red and white quilt finished. We may have to do a picnic!!

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend!!

No Title Post

2011-01-30T12:48:00.000-08:00

Okay, I didn't know what to come up with as a blog post title today because it's a little bit of a mixed bag - well, really only a couple things, but like, what do I title it?

I've been good on my projects for the 15 Day Challenge - well, specifically good on one project - poor ole Ann Medd. This poor ole girl is going to be the death of me. I want her finished - I want her on the wall. But she's a big ole girl and obviously this isn't going to happen overnight.

When I started back on her, she looked like this (obviously there was something on my camera lens when I took this picture a couple weeks ago:

Now she looks like this:

I got through the verses K through N and you know what, that N verse with just those two words is the bottom of the sampler - OH HAPPY DAY!!! But all that fill in - UGH. It's not hard - it's just time consuming. Same with the verses - not hard, just time consuming. And I have a lot of backstitching to do in this. Right now the fish looks like a blob. Funny thing is as I'm working on this and looking at this fish (looks like a salmon to me), I'm singing this song in my head about fishies having fun - makes me think of a song that was on one of my kids tapes when they were younger and seemed to play non-stop in the car! "Hey, little fishies - we're having some fun, we're going to swim 'til the day is done". OY - that keeps going over and over in my head! I need to get off this part so I can sing Baa Baa Black Sheep because the next portion is filled with sheep! But we'll change that to Baa Baa White Sheep because the sheep are all white.

Part of the reason for my lackluster stitching accomplishments this week or so was because I finally got hit hard with the bug the kids had. Even though I didn't feel good at all and slept most of three days, I figured I'd try to take advantage of having no steam in my body and sit and stitch. Problem was, every time I'd sit, I'd doze off, so no stellar accomplishments this week. It also resulted me in being way behind in blog reading this week - my eyes always seems too tired to stay on the computer too long.

Nothing really exciting going on around here besides the Ann accomplishments (or lack there of). I finally escaped for a day to myself yesterday. I started feeling like myself and even though we got about four inches of snow, I didn't let that stop me and I went for a drive. Not a good thing as my car ended up taking me to some new quilt stores. And because you all know how I need more stash (yeah, right), I came out with this stuff - had to take advantage of the end of the month 20% off sale:

A whole lot of repro fat quarters. Actually these came from two different stores but I decided to show what lovely surprise was put in the bag at Jennifer's - CHOCOLATE. Her shop was the second store I went into, but thought I would give her credit for raising my blood sugar up a bit. Shopping is hard work, I'll tell ya and the chocolate hit the spot. Especially after the damage I did in the first store - I SAW RED!!:

Yummy, yummy red and white fabrics!!! Actually this is a kit made up for the Yellow Brick Road pattern, but when I saw it hanging in the store, I swooned. I had to have it. And luck was with me - they had just one left!!! Rotary cutter - here I come.

I met a wonderful woman in this shop - Lake St. Mercantile - who does a lot of Marsha McCloskey quilts and it just so happened that I brought one of my Marsha patterns in with me to look for fabrics. When she saw it in my hand, she started pulling out fabrics like a crazy woman and this is what I ended up with - some more red fabrics:

I should have spread all the fabrics out, but I'm trying to get this post in before everyone comes home and finds out that I've done nothing but playing with fabrics all day! LOL But it's lots of reds and creams and browns - it's going to be wonderful. And the charge card is in ashes!! Just crumbly bits in the wallet!! There was more, but I'll save that stuff for another time. Let's just say if I keep going like this, my poor son will be going to community college! I'm also thinking that my husband may be seeing red when he sees the bill. Oh well, he'll get over it! He usually does!

To add insult to injury, I went by a couple antique places, so I thought I'd stop in. Not a good thing. Actually didn't find too much but a couple things - another flower frog. Actually this was a real deal. They had one with the top and bottom for $19.00, but I found the base for $4 and the top for $5 so saved myself $10 - had to save somewhere after that card burning in the quilt stores.

And a pin cushion - is there a particular name for these?:

I'm getting quite a collection of these. I thought that she was very sweet.

So that's it for me. I understand that we're in for a heck of a snow storm here on Tuesday into Wednesday. Late report - double digit snowfall. Means a day where I won't venture out of the house and maybe can have some quilty love. The kids will be home too I'm sure, but they're teenagers and want to sleep until noon - and guess what? I'm going to let them!!!

Thank you again for all your wonderful comments especially on my UGLY block last time. I think that at this point I'm going to keep it in the quilt. Not all blocks are beautiful, and it will probably look fine. If not, it will be destined to be a pincushion. I would never throw it away.

Have a wonderful week!!

Framing and What's Your Definition of UGLY??

2011-01-24T06:48:00.000-08:00

I don't know about where you are, but it's colder than a witch's broomstick around here! A great weekend to hunker down and get some crafting done. Which is exactly what I did. A great weekend for it - too cold to venture out (at least for me), and football games on to keep the boys occupied. So I got busy. But first, I picked up some framing recently. Excuse the pic - I'd take it outside for a better shot, but like I said it's cold out there:

Sarah Seifer

The Goode Huswife

36 ct. Pearled Barley and DMC Threads

I just love the frame for this and would like to use it again on something else one of these days:

Not the best pic with the flashback, but you get the idea.

While in my craft cave this weekend, I think that I finally came across my definition of ugliness. I spent some quality time whipping out some quilt blocks this weekend, but this block offends my senses:

Farmer's Wife Quilt

Four Winds Block

Now, I should have realized when I started sewing this block that my first mistake was not paper piecing the thing because it has 64 pieces in it - and it's only a 6-1/2 block. But I'm not the biggest fan of paper piecing (although Dear Jane will probably be paper pieced), but I think that the block warranted me doing that. But this block is UGLY! Maybe my fabric choices are wrong, I don't know. Maybe because one of the striped pieces leans to the left and doesn't quite line up right. I tried to tell myself that it was okay - I like the color brown, but not in this combination. I tried to talk myself into liking the block by saying that the light color looked like an old shirting material, and the striped fabric was like a pioneer's dress material. I tried to make up a story in my head about who would wear those types of fabric back in the Civil War days. I tried to talk myself into liking this block. But I don't. And I think that at certain points members of my family heard me blabbering to myself - not a good thing!! So maybe I'll redo it - maybe I won't. Not all blocks have to be beautiful, do they? And in the whole grand scheme of the quilt, no one will notice, right? Probably not! But the darned thing will probably laugh at me every time I look at it - so maybe I will.

But I did have some successes:

Civil War Chronicles

BOM - Month 1

Oh how I love this block! Love, love it! I could have made many more of these and loved every minute of it. Love the fabrics, love the design (and Yvette, it measured exactly what it was suppose to - a shock to me!!). I can't wait until Month Two arrives at my doorstep. Probably soon.

After I finished that one, I went to the next BOM. Chain pieced a lot of triangles together:

Then I whipped up this:

Civil War Tribute BOM

Month #3

I don't have months One and Two yet - the shop started me with #3 and #4 followed a couple weeks later. I haven't gotten around to cutting out #4 yet. Anyway, the CWT block is just one of four that I have to make for the month's requirements - 2 -18" blocks and 2 - 16" blocks. I was going to work on those and have the whole month complete, but I realized that the Farmer's Wife monthly blocks were going to be showing up any day, so I started working on those. The UGLY block above was the last one that I did on the FW quilt. But before that, I did these:

I still have one more block to go in this month's BOM, but it is a pesky thing and as the UGLY block was a little too pesky in it's own right, I called it a day. Hopefully, I can finish up the last block today.

On the stitching front, I have going full speed ahead on Ann Medd!!! I flipped the page over the other night and what do I see??? The bottom of the chart. OH HAPPY DAY! Of course, before I let myself get too excited, I realized that I still have a long way to go - that center portion has a lot of fill in, but just the fact that I saw the bottom made me giddy with excitement. So I worked on her the past couple of nights and now only have two more lines of verse on the left and I'm into the middle again!!! I'll post a picture in my next post. Just seeing a lot of verse and a little bit of the center that I did wouldn't be too exciting at this point!

Well, that's about it for me this week. Stay warm and safe. Hopefully, it's a little bit warmer in your part of the world. And I understand that the East Coast is in for another storm! I can't believe how much snow you're getting there! Stay save and warm. And thank you once again for all your wonderful comments. My body may not be warm lately, but your comments do warm my heart!!

On the 16th Day I'm Resting.

2011-01-16T07:38:00.000-08:00

Happy Sunday everyone! Well, the 15 Project Challenge is over and I don't know if I'm sad or happy to get back to some regularly scheduled stitching. Quite frankly, I breathed a sigh of relief yesterday knowing that now I can just get back to stitching one thing. Well, at least stitch on one thing for a little while - I am known to be a project jumper!! LOL But in going through my stash, I found a bazillion other things that I would love to stitch, so in a rather sick way, I wanted to keep going - adding new projects with reckless abandon. But I decided to just stop before I drove myself crazy. I have come to the realization that I don't need to ever buy another thing EVER (yeah, like that's going to happen!!!!!).

Anyway, here are Projects 9 through 15. And again, before you chuckle over my miserable progress on anything just remember I have had a husband trailing me around and Mr. Bailey went for his little operation this week and is sporting what is known as the Cone of Shame (pic to follow).

Last Sunday, Day 9, was a new start - Sarah Esch - I just had to get something that was a realistic size into this crazy mix. You know, something that I'd was sure that I could finish before the New Year rolls around again:

Day 10 was back to a WIP and it was Hannah Lancaster day. I was suppose to be stitching this with Sandra, but in my true slacker fashion, I took a different road and went sight-seeing by myself. Sandra's been barreling along on hers, and me - well, I've been driving in the slow lane:

Before:

After:

Again, not a lot of progress, but now that I have a little bit more color in this piece, I'm really loving it. It seemed rather drab on the cover, but is so much prettier in real life.

Say 11 was a new start day and I picked Miriam Chilvers:

Now, I'm really on the fence with this one. I have seen this sampler done on this fabric - Vintage Meadowrue, I think - on another blog, but I'm not sure that I'm going to like it. It actually photographed better than what it looks like to the naked eye. I may have to revisit the fabric on this one.

Day 12 was back to an oldie - Frances Eden:

Before:

After:

Okay, no chuckling here - not too much accomplished!!!

Day 13 was a new piece - Sovine Palphreyman:

I like this one a lot. The colors are funky!!! And fun. On 34 ct. Cafe au Lait linen. I just realized as I was typing that, that three of my new pieces are single women - not the traditional A&E's. Hannah, Sovine and Miriam are all women alone. I think that I'd like a wall devoted to samplers with just women in them.

Day 14 - well, I was suppose to go back to a WIP and finish on Day 15 with a new piece, but I decided to reverse that because I wanted to spend some time on my last WIP in the challenge, so I went to another new piece - Stories to Live By - Eve. Another smaller project that should work up fast.

I think that if I had this one and Sovine on scroll rods I would have made a lot more progress on both of them. Working on a hoop or in hand really slows me down.

So now we come to Day 15 and I wanted to end it with a bang - with the piece that I really, really hope that I can get finished this year - Ann Medd. When I last took a good picture of her, she looked like this - like a darned bedspread:

Then I worked on her some more here and there:

And on the fifteenth day, I got almost the entire verse done on the left:

Doing the verse is actually a lot of fun. Unfortunately, there are twenty six verses in total (I think) divided between both sides of the sampler - the first verse starts with the letter "A" and each verse works it's way through the alphabet. This is "I" and the next one will be "K" The letter "J" is skipped as it wasn't used in older samplers for various reasons. This is going to be my focus piece for a while. Poor Ann was my New Year's start back in 2006 so I think that I really should give it the old college try here.

On the quilting front, I didn't do too much so don't have pictures. Which is unfortunate because another Block in my Civil War Tribute showed up this week. UGH - I can't sew fast enough!!! I hope to spend some time today and tomorrow, while I have a dog sitters around, to put the pedal to the metal and get some sewing done. But I did add another stash project into the pile (thanks Loraine!!!!). Many years ago, I joined a BOM for the Dear Jane quilt and then right after that life just got too darned busy and I stopped quilting. These little bundles have been waiting for me for over eight years. With the encouragement of Loraine, who is working on this with her mother and SIL, I'm biting the bullet. No time like the present, right?

You would think after working on the Farmer's Wife quilt I'd be tired of little blocks. Well, not so, and these are even smaller - 4-1/2"! I guess I'm just a glutton for punishment. But how fun this is going to be?

Well, with the aftermath of the past 15 days, this is what my stitching area looks like. DH has raised his eyebrows a few time and DD asked numerous times what I'm pulling out now:

24 project envelopes full of Challenge projects, a couple new ones and few others that are WIPs (yes, Michelle, Provence is in there!!!):

And a huge mess around the stitching chair.

But now I'm breathing a sigh of relief! But it's been a lot of fun and made me go through stash and, of course, I made a huge list of other things I'd like to stitch and quilt this year. Although, truth be told, I'll be one happy camper if I can get through half the things that I've put into this challenge. (Oh, and a note to my sister Cindy who I know stalks this blog - the Mermaid isn't part of the challenge even though I probably should have added it as one. She's on her own and I haven't forgotten about her. She is seeing some stitchy love too!!)

On the home front - everyone will be out of my hair next Tuesday! Ya Hoo. Well, that is if we don't get a winter storm that they've been predicting for Monday. Fingers crossed it misses us! DH is doing well with his shoulder, DS is recuperated although still coughing to beat the band - he's had one vicious bug!! The only caveat to this whole thing is Mr. Bailey. He had his "little" surgery this week and is none too happy about it, but would you be happy if you had to wear this?

Yes, the Cone of Shame and it's driving him absolutely nuts. This dog usually runs on high octane, but that cone has really hampered him. But he'll be able to get it off on Wednesday. I can only imagine how he's going to be when it's taken off. He'll probably be bouncing off of walls! LOL

I have to say that I've had a great time following everyone's challenges these past couple weeks and again, have only had time for a few hit or miss comments. Hopefully, my life will return to normal this coming week. But, it's been a lot of fun watching what things people have pulled out of their stash to do, and unfortunately, reminded me of things that I have in my stash! LOL But that's a good thing!

I want to thank everyone for your wonderful comments to my post on first half of this challenge. They truly mean a lot to me and do keep me going!!! I hope that everyone has a wonderful week and can make great progress on their own Challenge pieces!

First Finish in 2011 and Challenge Follies (Pix Heavy)

2011-01-09T10:42:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everyone! I wanted to do a day by day posting of projects this week, but things have been a little hectic around here. DH is recovering from shoulder surgery and following me around every minute (What are you doing now???) so that has cut into my blogging time, and then DS has been terribly sick with something that has required two doctor's visits and is still running a fever after six days! I think another trip to the Doctor's is warranted tomorrow. So I never got around to posting every day or commenting on blogs, but here you have what's been going on in my neck of the woods with stitching this week.

I started off the new year right - with a finish! And then promptly started something new for a New Year's start. Then I kept going and before I knew it, even though I said I wouldn't, I joined in on the 15 Project Challenge, or as I call it the 15 Project Follies, but with my own twist on it. But here's my finish:

Mary's Best Handwork

With Thy Needle and Thread

30 ct. Parchment and DMC Threads

I started this piece when I was in Utah for the Shepherd's Bush retreat and can't figure out why it took me so long to finish it! It was a really run stitch.

Now comes the fun part and the follies. I decided to do the challenge my way, and the further I get into it I'm wondering what the heck I was thinking. But here are the first eight days with before and after pictures (where applicable). And on days the progress was quite pathetic have pity on me - with DH and DS home, well, you probably understand! LOL

Day 1 - After finishing Mary since she was a WIP, I went to something new - Elizabeth Sheffield by the Scarlett letter. She was my New Year's Day start. I love working on this one:

Elizabeth Sheffield

The Scarlett Letter

DMC and 40 ct. Mystery fabric

Day Two - I picked up And All Was For An Appil. In looking at my notes as to when I started it - well, as I hang my head here - it was my New Year's start last year!!!!!!!:

Before

After

Okay, let's keep chuckling to a minimum here! Not too much progress - but I'm a slow stitcher on 40 count fabric.

Day Three - A new start and one I wanted to start last year - Ann Rayner:

Sad, but a start. Again on 40 count fabric.

Day Four - Back to a WIP and this one I did get some progress in - Susanna Lane - I love this sampler a lot and it will probably be my next finish:

Before

After

Day 5 - A start and a disaster at the same time - Jane Atkinson by the Scarlett Letter:

Not much stitching on this one. The light thread so closely matched the fabric (again 40 ct and I have to ask myself what I'm thinking with all these 40 ct fabrics) that I was having a hard time seeing it, so I decided to start filling in the flower and then do the lighter color. That's when I found that I had made a mistake in outlining the flower with the lighter color. As you can see, I was working it in a hoop to just start it. Not a big deal with the miscount - I hadn't gone very far, but when I took it out of the hoop I realized that I started on the selvage edge and not the top edge! UGH!!! I called it a night and it will be revisited later - on scroll rods - and stitched in the right direction.

Day 6 - A WIP - Angel Song - again, not much progress:

Before

After

Day 7 - A new piece - LHN's Traveler's Companion:

Is this not pitiful or what????? But again, I don't think I sat my rear end in the stitching chair until almost 9:30 or 10:00 some nights and I go to bed about 10:30 - not much time to stitch!

Finally Day 8 - I actually got a lot of things done yesterday. I decided to hide out in the craft cave and get some quilting things done.

Worked on a WIP - cut out this month's Farmer's Wife Blocks:

Started a new Project - cut out the first installment of Civil War Chronicles (love, love, love the fabric):

Worked on another WIP - put the next couple borders on the Red and Black quilt and cut out the next set of borders:

And started another new quilt - Civil War Tribute:

So now I'm faced with this - Piecing Happiness!!!

Later in the day I literally ran out of steam - unfortunately I think that I'm getting what my son has - finger's crossed that I'm not - but I did get in some stitching on Elizabeth Clayton:

Before

After

Again, not much stitching, but a little bit.

So there you have it - the first week of the challenge. Only 7 more days to go. I'm not sure what new ones I'm going to add into the mix next week. I find that having all these projects going on at one time has been a real challenge to organizing! But the one great thing about all this is that I haven't bought anything new except for a few fibers to round out a project. That's a beautiful thing.

I've also enjoyed watching what people have been doing with this challenge and the projects that they are coming up with. Some I had forgotten about and some I've never seen before. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but I seem to have made quite a list of projects that I'd like to do in the future. In the far distant future! Very far distant future!!! LOL I think I have enough on my plate right now, and we're barely over the half way point on the Challenge (or Follies).

I hope that everyone has a great stitching week whether you're doing the Stitching Challenge or not. While I haven't left many comments this week, I have been doing quick glances into everyone's blogs to see what they're doing before DH comes in and asks "What are you doing?" LOL He goes back on the 18th! I love him dearly, but.................the 18th can't come soon enough!!

Have a great stitching week!

AND THE WINNER IS......................

2011-01-04T05:20:00.000-08:00

JOANIE FROM JOANIE'S WORLD BLOG!!!

Congratulations Joanie!!!! - Send me an email with your snail mail and I'll get the package out to you!!!!

Thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway. I wish that I had sometime to give to everyone who commented.

Hope everyone has been able to get a lot of stitching done during the New Year. I'm doing my best and I'll post pictures soon!!!

Goodbye 2010 - A Quick Recap and A Quick Look Forward

2010-12-31T14:58:00.000-08:00

I can't believe that in a few short hours it's going to be 2011, can you? Where has this year gone? I can remember looking back when I was in high school and thinking that reaching this point in life would make me so old!!! 2011!!! I think that we all thought that the world was going to end by this point! LOL Well, the world hasn't ended, but I've definitely gotten older - but I'm not old - at least in my mind!!!

Are you doing any celebrating tonight? We're playing it real low key around here. DH had shoulder surgery earlier this week, and as anyone knows who has had that type surgery, it's no walk in the park! He's not the best patient sometimes though!!!

Anyway, I thought that I would do a quick look back at the year and a quick look forward - kind of. So if you aren't into the year in review and hopes for the new year, you can go to the next blog. But I thought it would be fun to look back at my blog someday and see what I accomplished this year. Here's what I came up with:

Hoppin' Bunny, 20th Century Bullseye Quilt, Sarah Seifer, Quilt (I forgot the name)

Mary Corey, Buttons and Blooms for a Cure, Evil Serpent Sampler, Margaret Pence

Jenny Bean's Pincushion, Les Petite Lettres Rouge, Mary Little, Apple Tree Sampler

Yellow House Sample, Adam Alone, Sailboat Quilt, Farmer's Wife

I was a little startled by what I had accomplished as the later part of this year felt like I had been in the middle of a train wreck, but also a little disappointed by what I didn't get done this year. You'll note that in the far right corner is Bailey sitting on the Farmer's Wife quilt pieces. No, it's not done, but yet I feel like I had about 59 little finishes up to that point as some of those blocks were monsters!!!

I had so many good intentions of finishing up some of my WIPs. Unfortunately I didn't get there, but I'm making them a priority this year! Instead of trying to start 15 new projects in 15 days during January as some people are doing, I decided that I would have some new starts, but my priority was to finish some of these: (This is the part where I embarrass myself):

The Farmer's Wife, Susanna Lane, Sarah Pope, And All Was For an Appil

Ann Medd, Hannah Lancaster, Bliss Quilt, Angel Song, Frances Eden

And there's more:

Marquoir de Justine, Mary's Best Handwork, Convent's Herbal Garden Shores of HRH, Elizabeth Clayton

Houses of Hawk Run Hollow, Provence, Village of HRH, Women's Voices Quilt, Red and Black Quilt

So now I've publicly embarrassed myself with showing the results of being a serial starter (and there may even be a few more lurking around here somewhere). And I'd really like to get these cleaned up. So no new 15 projects for me. I wanted to join that challenge - I really did, but let's be realistic! I've got more than enough going on here! Now before you think that I'm not going to start anything, I do have to have my New Year's Day start (in fact, I'm going to have two - don't tell! LOL) - Elizabeth Sheffield and Jane Atkinson. Big ones. I really wish that I'd learn to stitch smaller things! And I'll add new ones during the year as I finish up some of the old ones. I think that's what keeps us happy stitchers - having new things to start (and in my case - not finish)!!!

And I do have a couple things that really want to accomplish in the coming year:

Mirabilia Mermaid for my sister

Civil War Tribute Quilt (BOM) (will not be finished during the year)

Civil War Chronicles Quilt (BOM) (will not be finished during the year)

Sylvia's Bridal Quilt (BOM) (will not be finished during the year)

Ann Medd - the poor girl needs to be finished and framed - she's been lurking around here for FIVE years!

Start the Dear Jane Quilt (will definitely not be finished in the new year)

Start the Nearly Insane (yeah, this definitely fits my character)

Ann Hicks Sampler

Mary Allen Sampler

And about 100 other samplers!!! LOL I have a list, but I'm not going to publish it.

So there you have it - no real big commitments - just try to finish up what I can. I'm hoping to get half those WIPs finished (both stitching and quilting), but I'm not going to kill myself doing it. I know that things will pop up during the year and I'll go back to my hopeless starting of new projects. But you know what? That's what keeps it fun. But it will also be fun to see actually how many of these projects I can complete during the year.

Have you made resolutions for the New Year? I've made not a one except to finish up some of these things. Like my stitching, I procrastinate on resolutions so I've found it's best not to even make them. But how about you? Have you made any resolutions?

Well, this is a quick post and I want to wish everyone a happy, healthy and peaceful New Year and thank you for all your friendships, kind comments and words of encouragement throughout the year. They have truly meant a lot of to me.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!

(and don't forget about my giveaway. I'll draw a winner on Tuesday!!!)

Bad Blogger, Taking a Breath and a Giveaway

2010-12-19T10:09:00.000-08:00

I know, I know - I've been a bad blogger. I'm so sorry! When I got into my Reader yesterday, I almost fell over by the amount of posts that I'm behind on!!! Oh my goodness - all the fun that I've missed out on reading. But bear with me - I'm going to try to catch up. Since I got back from NY it seems like the days have just flown by with preparations for Christmas and the shopping. It seems like it's just zoomed by. But now that the kids are home and the shopping is done, I can finally catch up.

Is everyone ready for Christmas? I think I am. I say that because I know that in a day or two I'm going to remember something that I have forgotten. No matter how many lists I make, I always forget something. But I think I'm ready! Presents are wrapped. Shopping done (I think). So now I can take a breath. I always get anxious that I won't find what I want or they'll be sold out of the thing my kids always seem to ask for that is this year's "got to have it" thing that everyone else is looking for. But I think I'm done.

In all the hustle and bustle of trying to get ready for the holidays, I managed to get a little more stitching done on Susanna.

Susanna Lane

The Scarlett Letter

I really love working on her with the bright colors and the satin stitch portions, but the fabric is a little hard to stitch on. I'm using unbleached linen and some of the colors are a little difficult to see on the fabric.

You can see some of the satin stitching in the flower in the border. The colors are a little off on this as it's cloudy here today as usual. But I think that all the pictures are clickable to get a better look at it. I also figured out one of the reasons why my stitching has been so slow lately. Mr. Bailey. Before he came into our household, I could get up early on the weekends and get a good three hours of stitching in the mornings. But since he's been here - the minute you get up - he's up too and he won't leave you alone. But this morning, low and behold, I got a couple hours of stitching in without him bothering me. Do you think it will last? I'll keep my finger's crossed!!!

There was no quilting this week! Hopefully next week when everything slows down after Christmas and the kids are sleeping in. I know that the Farmer's Wife blocks are due to show up soon, so maybe I'll be able to knock those off.

Before all the shopping this week, our Guild had it's annual Christmas Party last Sunday and it was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, the weather was not. It dumped a good 8" inches in my part of the world and driving there and back (about 100 miles round trip) was not the easiest drive I've been on. It still looks like this around here today as it's been so cold the snow hasn't had a chance to melt. And another 2-4" are predicted on Tuesday. I think we'll definitely have a White Christmas around here!!

And of course, they don't plow our street, so it's always fun trying to drive around. Anyway, at our Guild Luncheon we had what my daughter calls a White Elephant. Is that what it's called? Everyone brings a gift - in this case it was to be a vintage item. Then everyone picks a number and you start at Number 1. That person picks a gift. Then Number 2 goes and can either take Number 1's pick or pick a new one. I'm sure everyone has played this at some time. Well, this is what I came home with - Happy Dance:

This was the gift that Terri brought to the party. Someone had picked her gift and it was sitting in their hot little hands. Now mind you, there were some very nice gifts there and many more to be opened, but I had to have it. I didn't think that I had a snowballs chance in you-know-where of holding on to her, but no one took her so I came home with her. I just love her - and she's blue - what's not to like?????

Then as luck would have it, when I wasn't even looking, I scored a major find for my craft room. I've wanted one, but then again, if I put more things in my craft room, I'm not going to have any room to move. But I went up to strip mall to pick up some things for my husband for Christmas (so I'm blaming this on him, don't you know), and in that strip mall is a Home Goods. Yes, one of those stores that I just can't stay out of. Well, actually, I was looking for something in there, but then I came around the aisle and not really watching where I was going - you know - head in one direction and body going in the other direction - I almost knocked this over:

So it came home with me. I told DH this was my Christmas present since I put it on his charge! LOL

I've been trying to put together a list of things that I want to accomplish in 2011. I don't know if I'm going to stick with this list, but I'm sure going to give it a try. I'd publish the list, but since I've never been known to stick to a list I won't post it here. Maybe in my sidebar at some point. I made up a list of 15 projects that I want to get finished this year. Seven projects are WIPs and eight of them are new - but ones that I have the supplies for. No buying new things (yeah right!). My main focus is Ann Medd though. She was my New Year's start in 2005 and I think her time has come. I won't post a picture of it now because I've done that before. I'll post a pic and a progress pic when I pick her up again. But I will have a New Year's start. It was hard to figure out which one to do, but I ended up deciding on another Adam and Eve of the Rhode Island kind:

Elizabeth Sheffield

The Scarlett Letter

I don't think that this picture does it justice because when I pulled the colors I was in love. I also noticed that this sampler is on exhibit at the American Folk Art Museum in New York. I would love to see it in person, but that's one of the museums that always seems to be closed on Mondays. Maybe next year.

Anyway, in making my lists of what I'd like to get accomplished next year - WIPs and new things, I started digging around. I keep a tote bag next to my chair with small projects in it hoping that this year I'll do some smaller things:

Okay, now I know that I collect a lot of stitching stuff, but when I went through the bag I found two Tombstone Angels by Kelmscott Designs, so I decided to have a giveaway since it's the Season of Giving. The giveaway is for the pattern which comes with the hornbook and the trim. I'll add in the fabric, batting and Belle Soie silk. I'll also add the pincushion/scissor keep that's sitting next to the pattern.

Besides the pincushion/scissor keep (scissors included), I'll add in a bunch of other things to make it fun - I'm not sure what they'll be yet, so it will be a surprise even to me! I'll pick a name on TUESDAY, JANUARY 4TH and the giveaway is open to all my followers no matter where they live. Just leave a comment that you would like to win and also, let me know what your favorite on-line needlework store is. :o)

I still have a tiny bit of decorating to do - no heavy lifting - just some things I want to put out. One was my feather tree that I've collected little ornaments for. Well, those ornaments won't go on this year - my darling daughter has decided to decorate it in her own style:

Yes, a Barbie Tree. Not quite what I had in mind, but the ornaments fit on it perfectly! And speaking of my daughter, she's still asleep and I need to wake her up. We have some major baking to do this afternoon:

If you ever come across this cookbook- run, don't walk to buy it. I don't know if it's in print any longer, but it's got the best cookie recipes I've ever found. Not a bad recipe in it! Ymmmm!

On the College front, DS found out that he has been placed on the Deferred list for the University of Michigan. You can imagine his disappointment, but as I told him, it's not a Rejection - they do see the potential in him. So now it's decision time for him - does he want to wait until April to hear for sure, or take one of the other schools' offers? Time will tell!!

So that's it from my part of the snowy woods. I can't wait to catch up on all of your blogs, see what you're doing for your holidays and your decorating. And your stitching and projects, of course!

This time of year always makes me reflect on the year past and with blogging, all the wonderful people that I've "met" or actually have met, the friendships I've formed and the emails of friendship and gifts that I've received. I am so happy that I have met so many of you and hope that in the coming year and years, I can have the opportunity to get to know more of you better. It truly amazes me that there are so many people out there who share their love of stitching through their blogs and who share their words of encouragement. And I thank you for your comments and words of encouragement. They do mean so much to me! Now I need to be a good blogger and return those encouraging words to you.

I wish everyone a safe, healthy, peaceful and blessed holiday!!

Some Framing, Some Stitching and Some Quilting - But Not a Lot!!

2010-12-07T08:09:00.000-08:00

Don't you find that this time of year puts a real cramp on all things crafty? It seems to for me - so much shopping, decorating, etc. I usually love the holidays, but this year it's like trying to drag a cat to water to get me in the holiday spirit. Perhaps I need a trip to the mall to see decorations or hear the music, but it's been so cold around here I hate even sticking my head out the door!! Maybe part of it is that now that my kids are older, their Christmas lists are smaller (although not necessarily cheaper), and they don't hold Christmas in awe like they used to. I honestly miss those days!!

Anyway, a while ago I picked up some framing and forgot to post it. I don't know how that happened, but the past couple months have been rather crazy with family things and my trip, so without further ado:

The Yellow House Sampler

Sheepish Designs

I went with a very simple frame for this one and I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out, although I think that I would have liked the frame to come a little closer to the design. Anyway, another step closer to the A&E wall. I was going to try to take a picture of this outside for a real artsy fartsy shot, but like I said, it's cold out there and the wind is blowing like crazy!

I worked a little more on Frances Eden:

Not the best pictures because it's draped over the scroll rods and when I took the picture it was one of those cloudy days. I was getting a little worried though and went a little further down along the house because as you can see, I'm getting dangerously close to the bottom edge. There is still a few more stitches to go to the bottom of the house and then wording underneath it. I think that I'm going to make it though with about 1-1/2 inches to spare. Whew!! I usually leave 3 inches.

But in my true fashion, Frances just wasn't holding my attention any longer so I jumped back to this:

Susanna Lane

The Scarlett Letter

I don't know why she's been calling to me so much, but I am loving working on this again.

Have you been reading about the 15 Project Challenge - work on a new project each day for the first 15 days of January? Oh my gosh, pure lunacy! LOL I've got at least 16 WIPs in the pile and I can't imagine adding 15 more! But, I've kind of gotten myself caught up in the 15 Project Challenge. I'm not going to do it in the normal way though - I picked 7 WIPs to work on during the year, and picked 8 newer projects (most smaller that the BAPs I work on) to hopefully complete or get near completion by the end of the year. And the newer projects I can't buy things for - it's got to be in my stash - okay, maybe a thread or two if I run out, BUT, no kitting of new projects! That in itself is a challenge for me - not to buy anything! LOL I'm still working my way through my list picking out my challenges for the year and I'll post it when I've got it figured out.

On the quilting front, I'm caught up once again with the Farmer's Wife blocks! Yahoo! These were so easy peasy that I almost cried in relief after the past few months of blocks:

Please excuse any sneaker threads that made their way into the pictures. But I'm doing such a happy dance. Only six more installments to go!!!! I can't wait to get this baby together!!

From there I was going to start cutting out something new, but then common sense came over me (wow, that doesn't happen very often), and I decided to go back to one already in progress - actually two.

Remember this:

Well, I decided that I should finish this one up, along with my Women's Voices Civil War Quilt to get a couple quilt WIPs out of the way too (and yes, I do have a Challenge List for those also for next year). But anyway, this is as far as I got:

The first borders fussy cut out and not a rotary cutter in sight for the next blocks to go around the quilt. Sheesh! I was also going to cut out the remainder of these:

Never got there. But both these are on the top of my 2011 quilting hit list (along with three BOM's that I signed up that are starting next year - but we won't talk about those!). :o)

So besides a little stitching and quilting and trying to get ready for the holidays, that's been about it. I did find a couple little somethings at one of my favorite haunts - Home Goods. I was suppose to be shopping at the mall across the street, but like quilt shops, antique stores and cross stitch stores, my car has a mind of it's own and I end up going where I'm not suppose to. But I found a couple cute things:

A cute birdcage inspired rack for hanging miscellaneous things from with clothespins. I had seen one of these in Utah when Jolene and I were wandering around and I wanted it, but it wasn't for sale. This one is a little smaller, but it will do the trick.

This mannequin. I thought it was different from the usual ones I see so I snatched it up. I think that I'm going to put a coat of white paint on it and then rough it up a little to make it look more vintage.

So that's it for me this time around. I'm off to check blogs now. I was doing so, so well for a few days, and then life got in the way and I've fallen way far behind again. But I hate missing out on anything. I see so many wonderful things that everyone is working on. That's probably why I'm having a hard time coming up with my challenge list. Each and every day I see something, like Cari's recently framed June Morning - it's gorgeous!!! - (check it out along with the rest of the framing she recently had done) - and I know that I have to add it to the list.

Until next time, take care and I hope that everyone has a wonderful week!

Where Has This Month Gone?

2010-11-26T09:43:00.000-08:00

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are not chastising themselves for eating too much! Hard not to do, isn't it? Then you get to face the leftovers the next day. Ymmm! But I hit the treadmill full speed running today. Between Thanksgiving and my trip to New York and all the food I ate there, I feel like a whale!

I realized today that I've only made one post this month, but there has been so much going on!! And none of it really stitchy. This time of year is always busy. I went on my annual trip to New York:

No, I didn't see the Statue of Liberty this year, but if you can believe this - I didn't take one picture!!! I think that I was just running around too much with my sister and then running all over the city, that I didn't take a single picture! Oh, maybe one of my sister's cat, but I'll spare you that one. The doll was sent to me by my mother - another Barbie to add to the collection!

Sis and I had a wonderful time. The weather was wonderful while I was there - in the 60's. I only had two days with her, but we combed the North and South Forks of Long Island for antique treasures. Treasures are not the same there as in Michigan, but I did come up with a couple things:

Another flower frog to add to my collection. This one is quite large, made in England and perfect for all the little things I have around my sewing machine and keep misplacing while I'm sewing - like being knocked down on the floor or hidden under what I'm sewing. Now they have a home.

I also found the wooden spools, cheap I might add, for putting lace on, a half doll to make a pincushion out of, and the angel plate. Not huge scores, but antique shops aren't quite the same in LI as they are here in Michigan, and these came from the North Fork (the less affluent side of LI). But we had a wonderful time driving around, eating calamari and seeing the sights. I always hate leaving, but look forward to the next year.

After that I spent a couple days in the City and those are always wonderful times too. The weather again was perfect - 65 and you didn't really need a coat! I can never get enough being there and all of the great sites to see, and the things to do. If you have some money you'll never starve or have a hard time finding things to buy in New York. But I never go into stores and shop - I just love wandering the city and seeing the sites - like the window displays, all the billboards and the people. I did go into St. Patrick's Cathedral - beautiful - and a few other places, but mainly just walked around. I can't wait to go again.

A few weeks before I left, I made a trip to my not so local LNS and on the way home stopped in the town of Holly for a quick run through in one of the shops and walked out with these:

These were all from one store and ridiculously cheap! I always love a good find.

Because of all the activity over the past few weeks, I haven't made much progress on Frances Eden:

Pretty pathetic! I'm starting to get used to the colors of this though, but as always happens when I've been away from stitching for a week or so, my mind starts to wander around for something else to work on. I'm trying to be good, but I have this bad desire to dig through stash and see what else I can come up with.

And of course, like a pesky relative, my Farmer's Wife blocks showed up for this month!!!

I guess I have my work cut out for me, although reading through the directions, there doesn't seem to be any template cutting, so maybe I can make short work of these.

So that's it - a rather boring post! Hopefully, I can get back into the swing of things now that I've recuperated from my trip. I always come home exhausted, over fed, but smiling!!

I haven't even looked in my Blog reader to see how far I'm behind on reading - I think that I have a lot of catching up to do! Thank you so much for your comments on my last post and for the congratulations to my son for his college acceptances. We're still waiting on the coveted U of M letter, but I think that we have another week or so before we hear anything. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!! And thank you to all my new followers! I came back from my trip and saw that I now have 407!!!! Wow! I'm shocked, but also humbled that you stop by to see what I've been up to. Thank you all so much!! I hope that the rest of your holiday weekend is great!!!

Friday Finishes (Lots of Pics)

2010-11-12T07:03:00.000-08:00

No, this isn't going to be a weekly event - Friday Finishes. I'd love to do something like that - like Kim's Thrifty Thursdays, etc., but in the real world, I'm lucky to get a finish a month or so. But it so happened that this week I have Friday finishes - three of them! Woo Hoo!!!!

First up, I finally finished one of the samplers that I've been working on here and there - not a biggie, a small one, but a finish is a finish, right?

The Apple Tree Sampler

Hawkins House

DMC Threads and 36 ct. Buttercream

I didn't know what I felt about this sampler as I was stitching it. All I can say is that stitching the tree was a PITA. I made so many mistakes on it and frogged so much that I'm surprised to see it finished. But here it is. I think I'm going to do something different with this one and make it into a pillow instead of framing it because it's not very large. I'm still sitting on the fence about that.

The rest of my time has been spent putting pedal to the metal in the sewing room and trying to catch up those pesky Farmer's Wife blocks!! And I'm all caught up!! I really have to learn not to leave the trickier ones until last because they just about drove me nuts. But I'm all caught up (at least until the end of the month when one day I'll open the mailbox and that crazy Psycho music will start up again). The first batch:

If you blow the picture up, that block in the upper left - well, that one may be a redo. When I was finished with it, it stood up like a cone! AUGHHH!! A lot of pressing got it to settle down, and it measures the right size, but I'll probably redo it.

Second batch:

The block in the lower right still is not completely finished. I have to miter the points of the red strips, but that's hand work. I tried to cheat on the machine and that didn't work out too well. It's also the only block that I've paper pieced so far because the first one looked like a train wreck when I finished it.

All stacked up and waiting for the next month. Only seven more months to go!!

Once those blocks were done, I felt like I had a huge load off my back and finally, after having a few problems with the instructions, whipped off my sister's quilt:

If the instructions hadn't been so poorly written this would have been done a long time ago. But in my usual fashion, I got a little too frisky with this one and cut the striped border wrong. The stripes were suppose to go lengthwise, not from center to edge. But I like it so much more this way - I think that it gives the quilt more character (and I'm hoping my sister thinks so too - well, there's not much she can do about it now, is there? LOL). It won't be completely finished by the time I see her (next week), but it will be at the shop being quilted.

Then it was time to move to something else. I finally started on the Bliss quilt and managed to get sixteen blocks done. Here are just a couple of them:

This is a really fun and easy quilt to work on. It will look like this when it's finished:

(courtesy of Cluck, Cluck, Sew)

I should have these blocks done in no time. They work up really fast. So, what should I work on next? I picked a couple things and I hope that I can get them done. But with my trip to NY coming up next week and the holidays, who knows. But I picked one new and one old project:

The new project is another jelly roll project (I'm just loving these jelly rolls) with fabric by Three Sisters. This one should work up fast.

Then I picked another one that I've had in my stash for years. This one will take some time, but I figure that if I work on one old project and one new project, then I'm not only having the joy of working with new fabrics, but I'm also cleaning up stash at the same time. Years ago I made a Jinny Beyer quilt, Mirage, as a shop model. It's hanging on my staircase now with the hopes that DH will hang in in our foyer (I'm probably dreaming on that one):

I think this would look much better hanging it's full length on the wall (someone poke DH for me please). LOL This is one of my favorite quilts - I love Ms. Beyer's quilts, so I decided to start working on this one:

I'm doing the pink version since that fits in more with the decor where I'd like to use it. This one is going to take me a while, but it will be so worth it in the end. I hate fussy cutting border fabric!!

And then I went back to an oldie stitching project:

Frances Eden. I laid her down quite a while ago because the colors were just so wonky to me. But I've been seeing this pop up here and there on blogs like Laurie's, and decided to give it a whirl because I love how hers looks.

I have to thank everyone for your comments on my trusty assistant! He is a handful. But he did actually come downstairs the other day with me, plopped himself on the couch and asked me to turn on Animal Planet!! No, not really, but I did and he seemed to enjoy it for a while until he fell asleep. Good Dog!!

You'd think with the bazillion toys in the house that paper he found blowing in the yard would be the last thing he'd want. But he's like a kid and toys - give them a paper box and they're happy!!

In other news that's not stitching or quilting related, my son got early acceptance to two universities! Indiana University and Michigan State University. He's still waiting for two more responses. I'm thrilled, but secretly hope that he picks an in-state college (if U of of M doesn't accept him, he tells me that Green (MSU's colors), don't necessarily suit him. He's a diehard U of M fan and he has all fingers and toes crossed in the hopes that they accept him. But you know, mom and dad would love that In State tuition - more crafting money for mom! LOL No, not really, whatever he decides is fine - I'm just thrilled for him.

Once again, thank you so much for all your wonderful comments. They mean the world to me. Hope that everyone has a wonderful weekend!!

Where Would I Be Without My Trusty Assistant?

2010-10-27T10:07:00.000-07:00

I'd probably not be pulling every hair out of my head!

Lately I've been in a real quilting tear! I can't get enough of it. But do I get what I want done? No!! The reason for not getting done what I'd like to is this:

Yes, Mr. Bailey. He silently snuck into the living room while I was laying out these blocks (where he isn't allowed - I thought he was sleeping) to get in on the photo shoot. He's so sweet, so cute, but WHAT A TERROR! A terror on four paws. Huge paws!!! But how can you do anything but love him with a face like that???

But Mr. Bailey doesn't like me doing the things that I like to do. Try to clean during the day? Oh no, he's not up for that. Trying to sew during the day - nope - not up for that either. If I take him downstairs with me, he's after something - biting on the iron cord is not a good thing. If he asks to go outside, I put him out, but he must have some kind of radar that alerts him to the minute I put one foot on the basement stairs or try to run the vacuum. He barks like a fool to come in. My neighbors don't say anything, but.......... So I've been resigned to sewing after dinner, making nocturnal visits to the basement and hoping that the stairs don't creak. I know that he's going through his toddler stage, but what a bunch of work. And what a sweetheart!!

He's growing like a weed - about 40 pounds. Here's a couple more pictures and then I'll get on to what else is up:

Excuse the laundry - it's wash day, but DD decided to see how Bailey's sleeping accommodations are. And then while Bailey looks small, he's growing like a weed. My daughter's 5'4", so he's getting pretty big. He has so much energy!!!!

And trying to look innocent (but don't let the face fool you):

Anyway, I've been on a real tear with the quilting. I've finished off about 13 of the 18 blocks that were backed up on the Farmer's Wife quilt. It took me three days to cut those blocks out, and one day to put them together. Intensive cutting!

I still have a few more to go - the harder ones. Some of these have so many small pieces! UGH. But I'm making progress - doing the happy dance and then..........cue in the Psycho shower scene music............ this arrives:

Next months' fabric. OY!!!! Is there no rest for the wicked? But I now have 59 out of 111 blocks finished (refer to first picture with Mr. Bailey), so I'm doing a happy dance. Hopefully in a few days I will be completely caught up!

In stitching news - not much at all - a little progress on Mary (that I'll post another time) and a little bit on Elizabeth Clayton:

The letters are taking me soooooo long. Of course some of the letters and borders are in eyelet stitch, which I like to do, but seem to take me a long time.

In other news - not that much. Still playing around in the craft room trying to see what works best for the things that I do. I realized one day that I was wasting a perfectly good wall for some storage - a wall behind a door in which Mr. Santa resides until the holiday season. As all my fabric is packed in those huge Rubbermaid bins, getting to it is a chore, so I went from this:

To this:

Cheap bookcase from Walmart to store just a small part of my fabrics. DH made the observation that I needed about 10 of these to store all my fabric. Unfortunately he's right, but at least it's a start!!! Once I fill this baby up, it will be a beautiful thing!!! DH actually L-bracketed the bookcase to the wall because he's sure that it will topple over once I pile the fabric into it!!

Well, it sounds like Mr. Bailey has wound himself around the basketball post again so I need to rescue him! Pray for me that DH finally springs for the electronic fence!

Thanks again for all your wonderful comments. I truly love receiving them. And even if I haven't left a comment on your blog recently, I have been ~~stalking~~ lurking and I'll get back to commenting soon.

What A Slump!!!

2010-10-18T07:36:00.000-07:00

Have you ever been in a real stitching slump - no mojo, nothing interests you? Well, that's about what's happened to me the past few months. I looked at my blog this weekend and realized that I haven't really had anything stitching related to say or show in the past few months. I haven't been reading blogs either. Just in a huge slump! Well, I think I finally got out of it. I guess they call it "Life Gets In the Way". It happens - we all go through it - one thing after another - some good, some bad, but enough to just throw you off your mark. When I get like that I retreat and just be. I also tend to pull things apart - organize, throw out - it's calming. While I'm throwing out the unnecessary items in my cleaning, I also seem to deal better with what's going on at the time. Anyway, one day after weeks of purging both material and mental things, I decided to completely tear apart my stash and catalogue it. What a process!!! But the spark came back and I finally got the itch to stitch again! It was like finding an old friend.

I started with Mary's Best Handwork that I began in Utah:

I still wasn't ready to start stitching again when I picked this up, but it seemed like the path of least resistance. I had to stitch on something at the SB retreat get-together. Ya just can't go to a stitching retreat and not stitch! But my heart wasn't in it. I didn't even put her on scroll rods - my favorite way to stitch. But I worked on her for a while and now she'll get attention when DD dances on Wednesday. So then I started Angel's Song with Loraine:

Not a lot of progress, but some - this is one night's worth.

In all my sorting and cataloging, I realized that I am a sufferer from startitis. Going through all my things made me want to start something new, but I decided that I needed to get rid of some WIPs I thought about going back to an HRH piece because I'm so lame I have three going and have the perfect wall for them:

But instead, I went back to Elizabeth Clayton:

I stopped working on her originally because I got bored after I finished the left side and the house. I didn't feel like stitching the trees, etc., on the right side. Lame!!!

Then one thing leads to another. I start putting my craft room back together, which has laid in a state of upheaval since my sister left in August!!! Once everything was back in the closet and things rearranged (pictures another time), I started getting more of an itch to create - do something. Which made me look at all the quilting goodness laying around in there. So I picked up the rotary cutter and had at it - I caught myself up on cutting out my Farmer's Wife blocks - all three months of them:

Cut off the selvages - still don't know what I'll do with these.

Cut out the blocks (all 18 or so of them - and a huge process because a lot have to be template cut).

And put them between the pages of the book. This only took me three days of work because if you notice, the fabric is marked for template piecing - not my favorite thing to do. And I better remember to be careful when I pick up the book. Last time my mind went blank, forgot all the pieces were in the book and they flew all over the craft room. Took me hours to get all the pieces together again.

Then before I know it, I'm on to another quilt - Sheer Bliss!

I could not resist getting started on this quilt when I saw it on Cluck, Cluck, Sew. I know it's springy, but a little spring never hurts in the fall. And since I had this Jelly Roll of Bliss fabric, it was a no brainer. I cut out my sister's quilt too in the hopes of having it finished by the time I go visit her next month - finger's crossed (but don't hold your breath Cin!! :o)

So my mojo is back and I have a ton of catching up to do on blogs. I know that I've missed so much. I had some comments last time about stash that I picked up in Utah. I didn't pick up that much. Common sense was probably telling me that I didn't need anything (and if you saw my Excel spreadsheet of stash you would have to agree with me), but I picked up a little:

Not too much actually, although now that I look at the picture, there may be more things around here. The fabric at the top I picked up because SB made the cutest pillows out of Ewe Eye & Friends Petite Examplaries that I've had in my stash forever, and I thought they were adorable:

So another thing to add to my to do list!

So that's what's been going on with me. It feels good to crawl out of that dark hole I've been living in for the past couple of months!!! Thank you for all your comments and emails that you left on my last post. It always gives me a smile to see them, and I will catch up on everyone's blogs soon. I know that I've missed tons!!!

The Rewards of Blogging

2010-09-28T10:01:00.000-07:00

If it wasn't for blogging, I think that I would have missed out on meeting some of the most wonderful people on earth! I'm truly amazed at the people I meet - mainly just through the internet, and not in person. But then an opportunity arises to meet some of these people in person. I had such good fortune in May when I met Robin who I consider a special friend, and now once again, I've been truly blessed with meeting more friends that I've become acquainted with through blogging. Where the world seems so huge, blogging has pulled that world together and introduced me to some fantastic people.

Last week I spent five wonderful days in Utah, meeting people who I knew, but didn't know. Had left comments for on their blog, and they on mine, had an occasional email with, etc., but had never met them in person. They each shared the same love I did - stitching and things crafty. You wonder about those people sometimes - what they're really like, what their voice sounds like - you smile when you read their comments, and eagerly await their blog updates. You find that they have other interests that are like yours. You wonder about them, wish that you could meet them, but in the course of everyday life you know that you live too far away and have schedules that conflict. So you email and follow their blogs and never meet them, but yet, because of the shared interests, you feel like they're part of your heart and soul. Well, I had the most wonderful opportunity to finally meet up with some of these very special people and find out what they're like. We all met up at the Canyons in Utah - a truly beautiful place (all pictures are clickable I think).

Some of the girls flew out for the Shepherd's Bush Retreat. Others like myself, just went along for the heck of it. To meet, eat, stitch and have a great time!

I met up with Julie, Loraine, Terri and Jolene and we had a wonderful time. Loraine's friend Kathryn was also there and was our resident cook. What outstanding meals we had - Salmon in Parchment, Blackberry Chicken, Pecan Chicken to name just a few. I am definitely not exaggerating when I say that we ate better than we would have if we had eaten out. And Kathryn was wonderful enough to give us the recipes.

We also met up with Cathi, Cari, Joan and their friend Karen:

Karen, Joan, Cari, Loraine and Cathi. What a hoot these ladies are!

And the whole group at lunch:

Jolene, Terri, Karen, Cari, Cathi, Joan, Loraine, Kathryn and Julie at Bandit's Restaurant! What fun! A lot of good laughs and good food.

And these ladies spoiled us! From Loraine and Jolene we were presented with these wonderful gifts:

Such wonderful talent both these women have. These bags were stuffed with patterns that Loraine had designed, a bag with scissors and floss winders and Jolene also made this wonderful pinkeep:

Jolene and Loraine are just about the sweetest, kindest and most generous people you would ever hope to meet! I am so happy that I now can consider you friends and I'll cherish that friendship forever.

Cari, Cathi and Joan also are so talented and so much fun to be around! They gave each of us these goodies:

Such wonderful goodies and special momentos of our time together. I'll treasure these forever!! I wish that we could have spent more time together! I think that my stomach would be killing me from all the laughing! And I'm amazed that with all the noise and bustle that night when we were all together, that Joan could still keep the pedal to the metal and keep sewing! LOL

It was such a great time - just the best. We did some sightseeing, and what would a trip be to Utah without going to Shepherd's Bush?

Moi outside Shepherd's Bush

We had a lot of fun there - shopping, spending money (big time) and meeting some more people. I wish I had taken pictures, but I met Katrina and her friend Karin, and Val at Shepherd's Bush! Such a great time. We had lunch in Ogden while we were there. The street are lined with painted horses:

We also toured Salt Lake City and visited Temple Square, Brigham Young's House - The Bee Hive House and the Lion House:

Beautiful gardens around the house and around Temple Square

The Lion House

And a couple samplers located in the house:

And I know that the next picture is rather odd, but I had to snap a picture of the Sinclair Gasoline sign. We used to have them in Michigan and it was like a trip down memory lane seeing one of them. I remember watching the Flintstones and always thinking of Dino the Dinosaur whenever I'd see one of them.

Jolene and I went out one morning and tried to rustle up some trouble in a quilt store (and we did do a little bit of damage), and then we went to the cutest antique store where Jolene scored an excellent deal on a pincushion. I wish I had a picture of it, but let's say, it was a steal at $6.00. Way to go Jolene!!! And I thought the building was adorable!!

I can't say enough about what a wonderful time I had and how wonderful it was to finally meet and finally get to know Loraine, Jolene and Kathryn, Cari, Cathi and Joan, and their friends Kathryn and Karen. And to meet Katrina, Karin and Val. I hope that our paths cross again and I will cherish the memories of this week forever! You are all such wonderful, sweet and generous souls, and I count myself blessed to have met each and every one of you!!

Now, should we all do it again next year? I'm in!!!!!!

Oh, and after a two month hiatus on stitching, I finally was able to park my rear in a chair and get a slight case of stitch butt! It felt so good!!! I have to thank you girls for finally getting me out of the stitching rut!

I know that I've been absent from commenting lately and I apologize, but things were really crazy up until I went on the trip, but I plan on rectifying that situation ASAP. I have missed seeing what everyone is working on and can't wait to catch up!!!

It's My Two Year Blogoversary!!!! And an Oldie Framed!

2010-09-05T09:45:00.000-07:00

Wow!!! I can't believe that two years have gone by since I first started my blog. Time certainly does fly when you're having fun! I have had such a great time blogging, reading other people's blogs (although I've been hopelessly lax with that lately) and making so many friends and having so many wonderful email conversations with people that I've met. Well, a blogoversary should have a giveaway, right? Right! But I'm going to hold off on that for a month because......well, I just don't have time for one. See, one of the reasons is that life's spinning out of control lately with what I call crazy August, and getting the kids ready for school, etc. And then I've been so fortunate to make so many wonderful friendships through blogging that I'm actually going to be meeting up with a good many of them in Utah in a few weeks at the Shepherd's Bush retreat (no, I'm not going to the actual retreat, just going out to chill), so I have lots to get ready! Be still my heart! Jolene, Loraine, Cathy, Cari, along with Terri and Julie, and and who knows who else. If you're going to be there, let me know!!! I would love to meet you. This will be my first real get away with the girls to stitch, gab and shop since before I got married!!!! Can you tell I'm excited? Besides myself!!! So, I'll have a giveaway in about one month!! Maybe I'll pick up some goodies for the giveaway, so stay tuned!!!

Because August blew by at such a rapid pace, I don't have much to show. Crafting and stitching has been nil!!! Absolutely nil. Do you know how much I'm missing it? It's making my skin itch just thinking about it. But the kids go to school on Tuesday, so maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to get some stitching and sewing done!! But you know, I have to show some pictures, so I'll show you a piece I recently got framed, but I'm bowing my head in shame because it's been hanging in the closet for twelve years. Such a slacker I am!! But with the great framing sales at Joanne's, it time to get them out of the closet!!

Meet Me At the Field

Sheepish Designs

Mystery fabric (how can I remember after 12 years?) and DMC threads

But I haven't been completely idle on the crafty front. If you can't do anything, my motto is to accumulate more! Good motto, huh? LOL So that's what I did. While my sister was here and we were in the quilt store picking out a quilt for me to make for her, I saw one made out of these fabrics:

Can you say LOVE????? These fabrics are just not my normal faire, but there was something about them, and the quilt that was made from them, that I just HAD to have those fabrics. The fabric that the folded pieces are sitting on is the backing. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!!! It's going to be a relatively easy quilt - kind of like a Yellow Brick Road quilt if you're familiar with that. I can't wait to get the rotary cutter out!!! Did I say LOVE???????????

Then I just had to pick up these because Green Fairy Quilts was having a sale - buy one layer cake, get the charm pack free - can't shake a stick at that, so............they had to be mine, and don't they have a nice fall feel to them??? Speaking of fall - it arrived here! Wow, from 90's to 60's in what seemed like second's flat! But it feels so good!! Tomorrow will be in the 80's again though. But anyway, I thought that these would be great for making some of those Schibble quilts that I'm seeing all over. They've started growing on me big time!!

Now, before you think that I've abandoned stitching forever, that's not the case. I also picked up these just because I've seen them on blogs and had to have them. I didn't like them so much until I actually saw them finished:

And then I heard that some Jean Hilton's needlepoint pieces were being re-released (again, another dear blogger alerted me to that fact). So, I had to order this too - it was originally a teaching piece, but now that Jean has passed away, it's on the market again:

I've had an itching for needlepoint so this will fit the bill nicely, although I have another one of her pieces in progress, so I should probably finish that up, don't you think? Naw, maybe not!! I did another one of her pieces years ago - Gleneagle:

Her pieces are so wonderful to work on - intricate, but fun. This one I did back in 1995. I still wonder how I got it done - I was working then and my son was two!!

So that's about it for me for now. Thank you so much for all the wonderful comments you left me on my last post, especially about Bailey. He's doing great, although it's definitely like having another baby in the house. He's been part of the reason I haven't had much crafty love lately. I haven't wanted introduced him to the craft room until he's potty trained, and since my room is in the basement and a long way from the back door to carry a heavy, dribbling puppy, he hasn't been allowed down there, but I think that we're on the home stretch. No messes if quite a few days now. He's a terror on four paws, but such a love:

How can you not love this precious thing (sleeping with his gift from his Aunt Cindy)?

Anyway, thank you again for all your wonderful comments and friendships. I truly cherish them. I know that I've been hopelessly remiss in reading blogs, but bear with me - I'm trying!!! And I hope that you're enjoying this long holiday weekend with your family and getting some stitchy time in!!