An Early Happy New Year and Reflecting on the Past Year

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!!!

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?

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!

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!!

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

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

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!!