Where Do I Begin??

Sounds like the beginning of a song, doesn't it?  This morning I saw a formation of geese flying south and it hit me like a ton of bricks that Fall is about to arrive (that is after tomorrow when it's suppose to be 90+ degrees!) and that the last time I blogged was before Summer started!   I have to say first that I've missed everyone and being able to keep up with what has been going on out in Blogland.  It's been an incredibly busy summer and we had a lot of things going on.  Hopefully now that everyone is back to school, mom can have some time to catch up with everyone and everything! So anyway, where do I begin?

I guess with a finish!  Only about 5 months in the making (such a slacker), but I finished Mary Gail and she is such a pleasure to look at!  Oh and a disclaimer on pictures - some of the following pictures were taken with my iPhone as my camera is still going through bad and good days.  And I haven't gone out looking for a new one yet.  But here she is:

Mary Gail

The Scarlett Letter

40 ct. Vintage Autumn Gold and AVAS Silk

I veered off the path on the chart directions and did not fill in the entire background on this piece.  I figured that if I were to do that I'd be at it for another five or six months, and I was getting antsy for the finish line on this one.   Probably because stitching all that grass was very slow going and I was ready to add her to the Finished pile.  I understand that the silks really stand out when you fill in the background with the called for wool (according to Marsha of the Scarlett Letter), but I tried to recreate the same look with the fabric I used.

So there you have it - what I did over my summer this year.  Pretty pathetic, huh?  Well, I did work on a quilt which is far from finished:

This is what the quilt will eventually look like this (God willing):

I was going great guns on this until I started putting the thing together only to find out that the instructions for the setting squares were off and I couldn't put it together.  After sitting and staring at the thing for a day (or two, or three) and measuring every piece 14 times over, it finally dawned on me that there was a cutting error and not something that I did.   Whew that was a relief because it's usually my error and not someone else's.  I always blame myself because I'm not known for reading the instructions as well as I should.  But as luck would have it, I just get the whole thing figured out and things get crazy around here and I haven't touched it since.  I am anxious to get back to it though.

And I had my Ann Smith and a couple other samplers finally framed.  I'll show Ann Smith this time.  I look at her as my great accomplishment of the year and she is truly a favorite sampler now.

Here's a close up of the frame that I chose for her.  In real life, the blue in the frame really works well with the blues in the sampler:

So as far as crafty things that I did - that's it.  Three months and not much to show for it.  But I did have some excitement.  I was the Grand Prize Winner of a boatload of fabric compliments of Pink Castle Fabrics.  If you're a quilter or just love fabrics, you definitely have to check out her on-line shop.  She also has a shop in Ann Arbor, Michigan and it's definitely worth the visit.  Anyway, they had a contest where you would get a Golden Ticket with your order.  I went out to the shop, picked up a couple things and was given a Golden Ticket.  My first ticket was for a percentage off, which I used up pretty quickly - love collecting those quilting fabrics.  When my order came, there was another ticket.  I didn't pay any attention to it, but there was something funny about the package.  When I pulled the fabric out - it was sealed in two plastic wrappings - a lot of confetti-like fabric came out with it.  Well, I didn't even look at the ticket - saw it there, but didn't read it.  It wasn't until three hours later that I looked at the packages again and discovered this:

I had won!  What did I win?  Well, 144 fat quarters of fabric!!  Woo Hoo!!!!  I let out a whoop and my kids thought there was something wrong and were oddly disappointed that there wasn't - just mom having fits over winning a lot of fabric! They don't understand that winning that kind of fabric stash is something to Whoop over and Whoop loud!!   Like were they hoping I was having a heart attack or something? Well, I just about did when I saw that I was the winner.  The prize was the entire collection of their Stash Club for the year.  If you're in the Club you receive 12 fat quarters of fabric of each month.  But they held one bunch of it aside and now it resides in my house!! Here's some pictures:

My husband groaned when he saw that and his first question was if I was going to have to purchase another large Rubbermaid bin for those fabrics.  LOL  (I'm thinking to myself, don't complain too loudly or I'll go buy another house for me and my stash - only kidding).  But as you can imagine, I was doing a happy dance all over the house.

Hmmm, what else?  Oh - a fellow blogger came into town and we were able to get together, but I'm so lame and even with an iPhone camera at my disposal I didn't take pictures.  But Nicole from Nicole's Needleworks came into town with her family and we were able to get together.  It was a great time and so wonderful to meet her after "knowing" her for a long time.  We met up in Fenton, Michigan where her father lives and made a trip to Stitches N Things, Quilter's Garden and had a great lunch at Sagebrush - great Mexican food.  I hope that we're able to do it again the next time she's in town.

Then recently, I became the proud owner of another sewing machine compliments of my son.  The week after he went back to school he went to the Salvation Army for something (probably to buy things to make costumes or something for school - those college kids love the Salvation Army for some reason).  While he was there he sent me a picture of a sewing machine asking if I was interested.  When I saw the picture I definitely was, but I had to check it out for myself.  So last Friday I had took a ride up to see him and he took me to the SA and when I saw the machine in real life, I stopped in my tracks. Here she is:

A Singer Redeye.  And she's in wonderful shape.  Someone must have loved her very much.  She's very dusty and her table needs a good refinishing and my first urge was to get rid of all the dust, but Mr. Sewing Repair man says that I have a beauty and not to touch it for fear of dusting off the decals.  He'll have her looking as new after he cleans her and seals the outside and adds a new belt.  I looked up the Serial Number on the Singer site and she was born on January 8, 1910 making her 103! I think that she looks good for being 103, don't you?  And I won't even tell you what I paid for it, but I've spent more on the toy sewing machines that I've collected!

Well, I think that's about it - three months condensed into a few paragraphs.  I actually have some more things to show, but that will just give me an excuse to blog again soon.  I'd like to try to do that on a regular basis again.  I've missed everyone, and a big thank you to those who emailed me asking me if I was still walking around!

And I should mention that if you're on Instagram, look me up.  I'm threadgatherer there also and I tend to post a lot more things there.  Oh, the ease of the iPhone!!  And if you're on Instagram also, let me know so that I can look you up!!

Hope that everyone has a wonderful week!!