Framing, Quilting and Misc. Stuff (Lots of Pics)

Happy Sunday everyone!!  After a taste of winter last Friday (one of the few that we've seen), it's a beautiful sunny day here.  Makes you realize that Spring is just around the corner!!

It's been a busy couple of weeks around Chez Roman recently.  Nothing earth shattering, but more that while trying to recuperate from this vicious bug, I took it easy - a lot of sleeping and a lot of sewing!  I've been so tired with this!!  But, I'm feeling much better now (thank you to all that left comments)!!  I know that I'm not the only one that has been hit by some kind of malady recently.

First, I finally took Sun and Moon to be framed and had it back in three days!!  That's record service.  It was sitting around here collecting dust and then one day a coupon for 60% off plus an additional $10 came in the mail, so there was certainly no reason to let it continue to collect dust! (Note: there is some white thing on the right hand cherub.  It's not there in real life but just may be a reflection of something - it's very bright here today).

The frame is just a simple one and slightly distressed, but I thought that it was perfect for the piece:

I managed to get a little more done on Ann Rayner.  I just have a little bit more of the four sided alphabet and the Greek styled border underneath and I get to the good parts!!

Because I haven't had a ton of energy (although it's starting to return now - just wish I could get rid of the plugged head and coughing), I decided to tackle a couple quilting projects.  One is a quilt called the Cotton Club that I had been receiving as a BOM:

Every month a blogging friend, Julie would tell me how she was caught up with the current month's blocks, and I was just staring at mine.  So I took action and cranked those babies out:

All 25 done!  I'm all caught up!!!!  But what do I see - Oh no, a problem block?  Do you see it?  Look on the lower right hand side.

Obviously I got a little over zealous in my pursuit to get these blocks caught up and wasn't paying attention to detail.  It's been fixed now!

Then I worked on the Farmer's Wife Quilt a little bit more:

Three more rows almost put together.  You'll notice that one row is shy of being finished.  That's because I have to redo a couple blocks which seems a shame.  One of the blocks looks almost perfect except that if I sew it onto the next row there won't be points on the side:

There's about 56 pieces in this darned block, but if you notice, the points at the bottom will be completely cut off when I attach it to the sashing that is between the rows of blocks!  UGH!!!  So I'm going to redo it.  I've been putting it off, but I really need to bite the bullet.  I've love to have this quilt completely finished.

Now that I'm caught up with the Cotton Club and because working on the Farmer's Wife consistently drives me up the wall sometimes (meaning I still suffer from Crafter's ADD), I picked my next project.  I had put this kit together last year and then got caught up in other things, so this is the next quilting victim:

I've already started slicing and dicing the fabric and I can't wait to put the pedal to the medal and start cranking this baby out!  I'm anxious to have this one finished before the nicer weather gets here.  I don't tend to sew much once the weather breaks and starts to really warm up.

Recently, I came across sewing article that is very much dear to my heart in one of the boxes I've been going through.  It's a sewing kit - owned by a WWII veteran.  That veteran was my father.  He was a Canadian (at the time - he later became a US citizen) and in the Canadian Navy.  I tried to find a picture of him in uniform, but they're somewhere buried in a box that I haven't gone through yet.

I do think that it's rather funny - if you click on the picture to make it larger, you will notice that the bobbins of thread and the large spool of thread are all made in the USA.  I suppose that I thought that they would have been made by a Canadian or English company.  Perhaps these kits were supplied by the US.  I guess that would be a good thing to investigate one of these days.

And last but not least, Nicola recently asked for pics of Fur Babies sleeping.  I didn't get around to taking pictures in time for her contest, but realized that I haven't posted pics of my Fur Baby in quite a while, so here are just a few:

The lion that roared at bath time (don't tell him I posted this - I doubt that he would love pictures during his toilette splashed over the internet - to be viewed by a bunch of stitchers):

Such a cute face.  And what a pink nose!!  Poodles and poodle mixes have a tendency for their noses to turn pink in the colder weather.  And notice those long eye lashes!!

Bailey with Catie:

And sleeping next to my stitching chair on his favorite old bedspread.  He's such a sweetheart and my buddy.

I know that there is a lot of talk about the evil word verification thing going on.  I've jumped back and forth about taking it off.  I think that it's off now.  I had turned it off and within three hours I got a lot of silly Anonymous comments.  I thought that they were actually appearing in my Comments section on my blog so I turned it back on.  But then I realized that they are being sent to SPAM so I've turned it off again.  If you comment and notice that it's still on, let me know and I'll make sure that it's turned off.

That's it for me.  I hope that everyone has a wonderful week!!  And again, thank you for all your comments.  I really love hearing from you!!

This Will Thrill You!

Okay, I lied - nothing is going to thrill you on this post.  I've had a miserable cold the past couple weeks and am just now starting to feel a little bit better - at least right now.  Ask me again in an hour and I might be sleeping again!  I think that I'm right in there with about a million other people running around with something, but this cold/flu thing has really kicked my butt!

So stitching progress as been minimal and also haphazard.  There was a little bit of knitting thrown in and a little quilting, but mainly cutting out pieces with the quilting in my more lucid moments.   When I'd sit down to stitch or knit, I seemed to fall asleep at the drop of a hat.

Ann Rayner is coming along slowly:

This sampler is much more colorful than I thought it would be.  Happy colors and I do like that I used a lighter fabric for her.  I would have been much further along with her, but a rather large frog came to visit and I had to rip out about half of the first alphabet and the golden dividing border because - well, let's just say that I didn't pay attention to detail and dear Ann added an extra stitch between one of the flower buds going across the top.  But I wasn't going to tear out the bud border, so....and of course, no one will be wiser (except people who read my blog)......I'm just extending the top border over one stitch and problem solved. I posted the second picture because there wasn't a stitch marked right under the left corner, and the more I look at it, I'm put off by it, so I'm going to put in a stitch there when I pull the color again.  I must really have an anal side to me because I like everything to be even.

After realizing that I had to frog out so much on Miss Rayner, I put her down in disgust and picked up another Ann - Ann Hall, although I didn't get much done on her either:

I just managed to get some of the grass in, the star-like motifs next to Adam and Eve, the dogs (except the collars) and most of the deer.  For some reason I got bored with that, and picked up a new one - well not really new, I've had it in stash for a while, but it kind of broke my resolution of working on WIPs - Janet Gibson:

Thrilling, huh?  NOT!  The only reason I haven't gone further on this is that I can't decide whether I should use two strands (the block is in two strands) or one strand (the vine is in one strand).  I know that a lot of stitchers will cringe at the thought of using two strands on 35 count, but that is my standard operating procedure.  But I'm using NPIs on this one and even though you can't tell by the picture, the fabric is rather dark (Meadowrue) so I'd like the design to pop from the fabric.  So decisions, decisions.  One strand or two?

So there you have it - two weeks of work.  As I said, I've been spending a lot of time either sleeping or just lazing.  But hopefully things will improve from this point on.  The only other thing that's really happened is  that my poor tired eyes have finally reached the stage of needing enhancement for distance.  Yes, I need glasses!  I've worn them for stitching, but never for distance.  Me, being a brave sole, decided that I'm too vain to wear glasses and need contacts.

Now, promise you won't laugh.  I went through the exam with flying colors - only took me 5 minutes to figure out how to put the contacts in and take them out.  Went joyfully skipping out of the doctors office finding everything to be so sharp - I could see everything so well.  Wow, does that red sign really say STOP?  Okay, I wasn't that bad, but I could definitely see an improvement.

Fast forward 5 hours and it was time to take them out.  No problem!  Or so I think.  I couldn't get them out!!!  I'm panicking - am I going to have to make a trip to the emergency room (I should note here that my eye doctor is an hour away so I couldn't just jump in my car and go down the street)?  What the heck am I going to do?  Okay, I tell myself to calm down and walk away and come back.  You whipped those babies in and out at the Doctor's office, you can certainly do it now.  I sit down ready to do battle and I still can't get them out!  OY!  Now I should mention that this was the day that my cold was rearing it's ugly head - my eyes were tired, scratchy, watery and I - well, I was at a loss.

But the problem was solved in short order.  My daughter had a friend over who wore contacts.  She washed her hands and whipped them out of my eyes in a nano-second.  I was embarrassed, but she tried to reassure me that it happens to a lot of people (yeah right - I swear I heard her comment to my daughter that it never happened to her.  They probably both had a good laugh)!  Anyway, I haven't put them in since.  Yes, just call me chicken!!!  Maybe when the cold is completely gone........

And last but not least, I have a new member of the sewing machine family.  One day when I went out on a quick errand, I passed an estate sale.  Even though I wasn't feeling my best, I decided to just stop in - you just never know what you'll find.  Well, I guess the Gods were shining on me trying to make me feel better because I have another addition:

This little machine is a tiny one.  And sitting next to her was a small spinning wheel.  I couldn't resist either one, and the price was so reasonable for both of them, I just couldn't pass them up.  I need to spend a little time today cleaning them up.  These sewing machines and I are going to have to stop meeting like this because I'm running out of room!

Well, that's it for me!  I'm going to try to slowly catch up on blogs today - as long as my eyes stay open.  I think that I've missed a lot over the past couple week or so!!  Hope everyone has a stitchy week - and stays well!