A Little of This and That

Hi everyone!  I hope that everyone is well and experiencing beautiful Spring weather and getting a lot of stitching done.  We here in Michigan are experiencing some absolutely wonderful Spring weather - although Summer weather would a more appropriate description!  We're suppose to hit the 90's this Memorial Weekend.  A little too warm for my blood, but it's better than freezing cold!

After my crazy startitis a couple weeks ago, I finally settled myself down and continued to work on Martha Jones and I'm glad that I did - I love the colors of her:

I was going to work my way down the left side of her, but I can't wait to get to the A&E so tonight I'll work down from the center.  She's a fun stitch with some algerian eyes and satin stitch.

This is what she will look like when she's finished:

If you're interested in stitching Martha, you can order her from http://samplers-berlin.com.

Quilting has just about gone by the wayside lately.  While running around like a crazy woman these past few weeks, some quilting came in that I was dying to get to:

The first month of the Phebe quilt came in and two months' worth of the Cotton Club.  I've been trying so hard to keep up with the Cotton Club when it comes in each month.  As much as I would have loved to start Phebe, I decided it best to catch up on those CC blocks:

I cut out the blocks all at one time, put them in baggies and I'm ready to go.  I still had about an hours worth of time before I had to fly out the door, so I managed to get two basket blocks together:

For some reason these didn't come out as great as I wanted to them, but I'm calling them a wrap.  I also worked more on the Chippewa Nine Patch and have a few more nine patch sets finished:

But I still have all these to put together:

Plus there are some of these also sitting on my sewing table waiting their turn.  UGH!!!  I don't know what it is about these nine patches, but I don't like doing them too much, so I do some here and there just to make a little bit of progress.

So that's all I've been up to the past couple weeks.  No time for much of anything but some stitching here and there and some sewing when I can find the time.

I did come across a great find a few months ago though.  I went up to my son's college to take him some things and I was running early.  I saw a sign that said "Barn Sale" and decided to check it out.  I'm so happy that I did because I found a gem.  And the man didn't even know it's worth.  It was his MIL's who had lived with he and his wife and she liked to sew.  But now that she was gone they decided to sell of some of her things and this is what I walked out with - for $30!!!

I also picked up a couple dinner bells that I thought were really cute - they were both a few dollars a piece.

Perhaps I could put one of these by my stitching chair and ring it when I want my servants family members to bring me a fresh margarita glass of iced tea while I sit on the deck stitching.  Okay, nice dream, right?  I never get time to stitch on the deck and I certainly couldn't count on anyone answering that bell!  LOL

Well, that's it for me.  Again I'm flying out the door - dance just ended two weeks ago and now we're off to auditions for next Fall's dance lines.  It never ends!!!

I hope that everyone has a wonderful week and a fantastic Memorial weekend!!  Make it stitchy!!

I've been at a Loss and a Traveling Fool

Hi everyone.  I want to start out first and thank everyone for all the wonderful comments you left about Ann Rayner.  Thank you, thank you!  I did have so much fun with her (except for those darned little sheep)!   I haven't had time to take her to the framers though.  A blogging friend sent me a wonderful coupon for Michaels, and life got away from me (as usual) and I never found the time to take her in.  Hopefully another coupon will come out soon as I'd love to see her hanging on the wall.

After I finished Ann I didn't know where to turn.  Going through my stash I couldn't come up with any one thing that remotely made my heart sing like Ann.  How could that happen?  I have stash coming out of my ears.  And realistically, I should have pulled out a WIP, but those didn't appeal to me either.  So, since I couldn't come up with that one thing that screamed to be stitched,  I ended up coming up with four things!  Truly pathetic, but here is a run down - and don't laugh - there isn't much done on any of these.

First off is Mary Emmes:

Lots of progress, right?  NOT!  I got into the yellow portion and stopped.  Don't ask me why - just one of those things that defies explanation.

Next up is Janet Harris.  I saw this sampler on a blog and fell head over heels in love with it:

Well, I was in love with her for a while and had quite a bit stitched before I realized that I didn't love the colors.  The stitched piece I saw on a blog had warmer, more primitive tones.  This sampler chart has been out since the 1980s (I recently saw a picture of it in an old 1984 JCS issue), and we all know how color choices change over time - let alone almost 30 years.  But I didn't think about that when I started her and had the entire vine across finished with the flower buds and all the alphabet to the point where I am now and then realized that the red was too red, the blues too blue and the pink too pink, so some color changes were necessary.  You can see where I frogged out the berries in the border (clicking on the picture will make it more visible) and haven't replaced them yet with the new red.   But I came up with some other colors that I think are working.  But after all that frogging, I put her down.  Shame on me.

Next up was E. Traill:

This one is fun, narrow and I love the colors, BUT, I'm not loving the color of that angel on the side, so I think that it's going to have to come out.  UGH!!  More frogging.  I don't have the patience.  Maybe I'll learn to love him - maybe after I get the eyes and mouth in.

So on we go to number 4 - Martha Jones:

Now I'm kind of liking this one and so far the frogs have been kept at bay.  But as luck would have it - no time to work on it once I got to this point.  This is about two nights' work and then all things started hopping and there was no time to stitch.

DD had numerous dance rehearsals and recitals last week and weekend and will have more this weekend.  While at dance recitals, my husband moved my son home from college and as I wasn't here to direct traffic and the mess (like why didn't they put it in the basement, or the garage?) it was dumped all the living room.  It was worse, but I managed to get most of the dirty clothes out of the picture and into the laundry room and a couple loads started.  Everything he owned, and I do mean everything, was dirty!!

But before I could even think of doing anything but pulling the dirty clothes out of the mess, I was running to catch a plane to here - New Orleans:

I spent a great couple of days there and just about walked my butt off (well, not really, but at times it felt like it) and had to try some of these - the famous beignets.  Thank goodness I walked a lot (and no, I didn't eat all three of them - only one).

It was a great time, but went so quickly.  There were a few places that I didn't have time to check out - like a ton of antique stores - they'll be there for the next time.  But I did manage to get through the French Quarter, Garden District and seeing the Mississippi and a few other things.  What amazed me in the Garden District was all the trees on St. Charles Avenue (and other places) had the beads hanging down from them (you can click on the picture to see them better).  I thought they'd only be around during Mardi Gras, but I suppose once you throw them in the trees, you're not going to climb up and get them out!!

So that has been my past fews weeks or so since I finished Ann.  Not all that productive, but hopefully things will settle down soon and I'll have some progress that looks a little better than all of this in the near future.  My quilting is piling up and Phebe finally arrived.  I can't wait to get my hands on her once all things calm down.

Once again, thank you for all the wonderful comments on Ann Rayner and I hope that everyone has a great week!