Seriously????

Hello Dear Friends - I feel like I'm confessing to the Priest when I say that it's been a month and a half since my last blog post!!  I can't believe it!!  Seriously!!  It seems like it was May 1st just last week!!  The month of May went by like a blink of an eye.  And it went by so fast that I didn't get all that much accomplished.  But between my son coming home from college and the weather finally starting to warm up, it seems that the days have just slipped by.  As a result, not a whole heck of a lot to report on the stitching or quilting scene around here.

After my last blog post it seemed that the house not only was invaded with my dear son coming home, but with a rash of viruses and nastiness.  UGH!!  I was down for the count for about two weeks and doing much of anything definitely didn't float my boat.  I kept wondering why that didn't happen during the winter when you can snuggle up with a blanket and watch old movies instead of wishing that you could get outside and do something.  But whatever - I'm better now and I've managed to get a little accomplished.

First off Mary Gail - she is such a joy to stitch!

A large flower - the whole time I was stitching this I kept singing The Star Spangled Banner with the line, "the bombs bursting in air", because it reminded me of fireworks (and excuse some of these pictures -  I still haven't purchased a new camera yet).

A pretty red/pink flower.  I wasn't singing anything with this - I was gnashing my teeth because I kept counting wrong.

Love this vine, but again gnashing teeth because I kept putting the leaves in the wrong places.

And the whole piece so far.

Mary Gail

40 ct. Vintage Autumn Gold and AVAS silks

Not a lot of stitching for the past month or so, but seriously, it was hard to wrap my head around this when I wasn't feeling good.  I should mention that the fabric is a much warmer looking fabric.   I should also mention that this pattern was charted so that the entire background is filled in.  I chose not to do that and used the Vintage Autumn Gold.  A better representation of the fabric is in the picture below from my last blog post:

On the quilting side, after finishing the Chippewa Nine Patch, I didn't know what to work on.  Well, I did, but everything that I wanted to work on needed to be cut out and with my head feeling like it was going to explode and not thinking that I could wrap my head around cutting something out without slicing myself to bits with the rotary cutter or cutting things out totally wrong, I thanked the Quilting Gods that I'm one of those people with Startitis!!  Sometimes it does pay to start things and not finish them (sometimes I think I could be the Queen of Startitis - don't know if that's a good thing or not).  So I dug around in the craft room and pulled out a box with a quilt that was already cut out.  Although with the project that I picked up, it was a serious WIP.  Over 10 years ago I started this quilt for my children - thinking back it might have even been 12 years.  But no matter - it's done now!  Everything was cut out and so it was just a matter of sewing it together.  Doesn't take too much brainpower to do that!

I Spy Quilt

from the book, P.S. I Love You Too

You should be able to click on the picture to enlarge it, but some of my favorite blocks are below.  I ran pictures through the printer and put them on transfer fabric to include in the quilt.  And ignore the seams that don't line up quite right in the pictures.  Some of this was a bear - probably the product of using two different sewing machines to piece this and I swear that the 1/4" feet are never true from one machine to another.  But as Brenda Papadakis of Dear Jane fame says, "It doesn't have to be perfect, it just has to be done"!  I like her way of thinking!  I should probably cross stitch that saying and put it over my sewing machine!

My son celebrating a birthday (bad pic, I know).

My daughter trying to look like her father going to work with glasses and holding one of my son's little boy ties under her chin - upside down I might add.

Me and the kids on the beach near the Mackinaw Bridge.  Please ignore the crazy permed hair on me!

Then some fun blocks - a hog on a hog:

And we can't forget a Pokemon character - my son's favorite when he was little.  And a pig eating pizza!

Since my children are now 16 and 20, I guess this quilt will now be awaiting the first grandchild!!  Although both my children are calling dibs on the thing, so I might have to make another.  With the rate I go, hopefully they won't give me a grandchild for another 10 years or so!  

Now what should I work on?  

I seem to have a few things to choose from.  Ms. Sylvia's Bridal Quilt is going to get the attention first as I'm down 20 blocks and the next installment of the quilt is probably on its way to me now, so I need to do some serious catching up.  The other things are projects that I'm finally taking the bull by the horns and doing something with all the pre-cuts that I have.  I love buying those pre-cuts!!

But then, of course, while I wasn't feeling well, I had to do a little shopping.  It doesn't take a lot of effort to troll around on the computer!!

(Disclaimer:  not all stash purchased during illness, but you would all think I had a serious problem if you saw the entire pile of stuff that seemed to find its way through the postal service to me)

I'm so excited with all these patterns!!  Di Ford's book in the upper right is a true gem and I can't wait to make something from the book.  And darned Instagram for seeing pictures of the Steampunk Quilt (in the center).  Totally not the type of quilt that normally floats my boat, but now I have to make one!!  

In other news, I had a wonderful Mother's Day.  Not only did my son come home from school for the summer, but he presented me with a wonderful surprise.  My husband did also, but I think that my son's surprise topped my husband's, if that's possible.

My husband presented me with a dozen roses and a beautiful pearl necklace - something that I have been wanting for a long time.  Of course, you know I'm going to look stunning wearing them with my workout gear and sweats!  LOL  But the true surprise is that my son presented me with his acceptance email to Business School at Michigan State University.  That, in itself, was the best thing that I could have received.  I'm so proud of him.  A perfect Mother's Day!

And speaking of my son, he's doing landscaping work for one of the larger nurseries around here.  He's lost almost 20 pounds in just a few weeks and comes home filthy dirty and tired!!  Some weeks he works seven days - great for the paycheck, but it's exhausting work.  Or so he says.  Seems that one of his co-workers took a picture of Nick on the job:

Looks like he's working real hard, doesn't it?  LOL

Well, that about does it for me.  I have a lot of other things like finally some framing, etc., but I'll save it for the next post.  It will inspire me to try to make blog posts a little more often.

Thank you for all your lovely comments and thank you for keeping up with me when I've been such a bad blogger.  I truly love reading each and every comment you send!!

Have a wonderful week!