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!!