tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-49718143620181591192024-02-28T15:42:15.162-08:00ThreadgathererDebhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00792171420098351093noreply@blogger.comBlogger174125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4971814362018159119.post-28892031951451405392014-01-29T09:44:00.000-08:002014-01-29T09:44:36.778-08:00Frozen in MichiganHello Everyone!!<div>
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I hope that all of you are staying warm considering that most of the country (with the exception of my sister in California who I'm thinking evil thoughts about as it's warm there) is experiencing some pretty bizarre weather. Global warming?? I think quite the reverse. It's been miserable around here - lot of missed school days, subzero temperatures, snow, but the big thing is the miserable cold - days and days of it!! We've already hit an all time record for snowfall for January and I wouldn't be surprised if we don't hit the coldest month on record either. Spring just can't get here fast enough. I've barely left the house, but instead of having cabin fever, I've been having crafting fever.</div>
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I finished up the Hitchhiker Scarf and I'm really pleased with the way that it finished up. I was concerned about the yarn, but I love the end result:</div>
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<b>Hitch Hiker Scarf</b></div>
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<b>Crystal Palace Salsalito Yarn</b></div>
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And if anyone is interested, the quilt hanging behind it is a Schibbles Pattern called Recess that I made a while ago (and it still has to be quilted).</div>
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I also managed to get a couple quilts finished!! The first one is an older quilt that I started a while ago and then ditched in pursuit of something else (I have a bad tendency of doing that). But it's finally finished:</div>
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<b>Wisdom of the Heart</b></div>
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<b>Sophia Collection Fabric, Windham Fabrics</b></div>
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I'm not sure why the pattern is called Wisdom of the Heart as I don't see hearts in the pattern, but that's the name. You will also notice my trusty pal, Bailey, waiting for me to turn my back so that he can lay on it! He thinks that the things that I make are for him!!</div>
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I also finished up my Peaks and Valley's quilt:</div>
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<b>Peaks and Valleys</b></div>
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<b>Pattern in American Patchwork & Quilting - October 2013 issue</b></div>
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<b>Arcadia Fabric</b></div>
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<b>Pattern and Fabric by Tula Pink</b></div>
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This was really a quick quilt to make - although as usual I dragged my feet with it. I'm deciding if I should add a border or leave it as is. The finished quilt in AP&Q didn't have a border, but I'm still on the fence.</div>
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Stitching still isn't happening around here - <i>Sigh!!</i> I think about it, look at the few things that I have on rods, but it's just not calling my name yet. I seem to still have my knitting mojo going on and have been working on the Rococo Shawl:</div>
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<b>Rococo Shawl</b></div>
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<b>Pattern on Ravelry</b></div>
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<b>Crystal Palace Merino 5 </b></div>
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It's growing slowly. There are a lot of stitches in those rows. I also started another scarf - the Linen Stitch Scarf - but as you will see there is no picture. I've been having one problem after another so no picture unless you want to see a tangled mess of yarn. After three attempts (dropping cast on stitches and not getting them back on right), someone pulling half the row off the needles (I won't mention names), I really got going on it only to discover that something was off on the gauge. Well, a lesson learned - while I thought I was using the correct needle - and the package said it was the right needle - it wasn't. Seems that needle companies aren't uniform with their needles, and what I thought was a Size 6 was really a Size 5. And a trip to the knitting store confirmed this after we tested a half dozen needles. So advice here - check your needles! So now I'll cast on again - the darned thing isn't going to defeat me!!</div>
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So that's been my January. Maybe I should be happy that it's been so cold around here and I've stuck around the house more. The winds are still blowing and the temps are still miserable (all of 14 degrees with a windchill of -4), so I think I'll tackle something else. Up next - cutting out these lovelies!! </div>
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<b>Left - Vanilla & Blooms w/Fig Tree Breakfast at Tiffany fabric</b></div>
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<b>Right - Nantucket by Minick & Simpson with Midwinter Reds fabric</b></div>
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The Midwinter Reds fabrics seem appropriate for this time of year, don't they? Vanilla and Blooms makes me think of Spring, so I think I've got some fun quilting time ahead of me. Maybe it shouldn't warm up after all! </div>
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Hope you're all staying warm and thank you for stopping by and for your wonderful comments! I always love hearing from you!!</div>
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Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00792171420098351093noreply@blogger.com35tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4971814362018159119.post-78825908565991415802014-01-06T13:11:00.000-08:002014-01-06T14:19:46.791-08:00Almost Four Months to the DayHello Dear Friends:<br />
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Yep, it's been almost four months to the day since I last posted! In September it was 90 degrees, and today - well, it's been a crazy few days with huge snowfalls and currently the temperature is 2 degrees! And with the winds whipping like they are, I don't even know what the real feel temperature is. I don't think that I want to know. We got at least a foot of snow yesterday and it's still coming down. Such a difference from when I last posted. I don't know where the time goes - but I've missed blogging, keeping up with blogs and I'm going to try to be better - promise! <br />
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Although to tell the truth, I haven't gotten much done in the past four months - sad, but true! Not for lack of trying mind you, but for lack of time it seems! It's been a busy past four months, but I think that things are finally calming down (knock on wood). It doesn't help that for a month (during the Christmas season, no less) I was almost flat on my back from the flu, but things are better now. Seems that I caught a little bit of a bug from a wonderful young man that was sitting next to me on a flight back home from New York in late November. Nice boy - bad cough - nasty bug. And the bug decided to come home with me! Figures!<br />
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But my trip was great nonetheless (I visited Purl Soho and City Quilter among quite a few other places) and I came home with a some really unneeded stash from both them (although we all need stash right?), but also came home with a wonderful surprise! My wonderful surprise was acquired at a Tag Sale on Long Island. Now I've always heard of Tag Sales and equate them to what we call Estate Sales here, although things are taken a step further there. Like sell the contents of the home - everything that you can remove from it - doors, windows, floors, kitchen cupboards - and then tear the house down. Why? Because the owners are bored with the house! Must be nice to have money, right? And the antiques! OMG, are there a lot of them!! I plan on going again in the summer with my van and loading up! Anyway, my Sister and her SIL's are avid Tag Sale shoppers and they dragged me out in the wee hours to stand in line at a Tag Sale (in 20 degree weather for a good hour) as my one SIL was eyeing a dresser. Well, thank goodness she did that as we were 2, 3, and 4 in line. And what did I find? There were a lot of wonderful things, but one was this sampler:<br />
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She's Charlotte Kinsley, Aged 7, stitched in the year of 1800!! I can't tell you how thrilled I was to come across her! Poor Charlotte needs a little bit of work. I need to take her out of the frame and unmount her (a scary proposition) and then I received the name of a person at The Henry Ford that I'm going to have look at her. See about cleaning her up and whatever else I can find out about her. I've been trying to track down her information, but haven't come up with anything yet. From what I understand she's a New York Sampler in the federal/biblical genre, but need to get that confirmed. It appears to be though by referencing Betty Ring's two volume set of books on samplers. I'm anxious to look at the back of her to see what colors were actually used as I think that I would like to chart her sometime down the road. From this picture it's hard to tell, but there are a lot of pinks that are faded, but I should be able to see them better when I look at the other side.<br />
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As far as getting things done in the past four months, I haven't had one finish! Well, I had one and I'll show that in a minute. I've had a lot of starts though. After I finished off Mary Gail, I was kind of at a loss as to what to do. Don't we all go through that? Have tons of stash and then don't know what to work on? But I decided to start on Jane Atkinson:<br />
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Jane Atkinson</div>
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The Scarlett Letter</div>
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DMC threads and mystery fabric</div>
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I worked on some quilting and managed to knock out blocks on some of the BOM's that I've had around here:<br />
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These blocks are for four different BOM's that I've been working on over time - Civil War Tribute, Women's Voices Civil War Quilt, Harvest Song and one other BOM whose name escapes me right now. Tells me I have too many things that I need to finish if I can't remember the names of them! LOL<br />
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And just because I love confusion and also a new project, I started on Tula Pink's Peaks & Valley's quilt:<br />
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And have a few blocks done:<br />
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I got about this far before I went to New York, and then came down with the flu two days after I got home and somehow working all that over one wording on Jane and messing around with quilt blocks just didn't appeal to me. What did appeal to me for some reason was knitting and crocheting. I started an afghan for my daughter:<br />
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Flowers in a Row</div>
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Free pattern on Red Heart Yarns</div>
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Then I started a Wiggle Wrap and actually finished it:<br />
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Kauni Wiggle Wrap</div>
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Done in two color ways</div>
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On Ravelry</div>
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A little closer shot:<br />
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This shawl was so much fun to work on! And loved, loved the yarn!! It was the perfect thing to work on when I wasn't feeling well. Sit in a chair with a cup of tea, a blanket over you and the TV on a good movie - doesn't get much better than that!! Although I think that I ended up falling asleep more than I knit for most of those days. And I never sit during the day, so I almost felt like I was getting away with a crime doing that! The shawl needs to be blocked, but I'd almost like to make another one in another color way. Well, maybe not - this shawl has been called the Never-Ending Shawl by a lot of people, but it was so fun to watch the colors emerge and I have another project using similar yarn in the knitting queue!<br />
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From there I went to the Hitch Hiker scarf:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie7hbvALPOiXPR7ppPV9JRlVJuZXkEwdTHC2b70FVwmaVqF1tnAhoPXGsTXXq71m8uCGHhHmPtpfK9IbZmS2ODTCLiYDwDmdy1sEPhvKEOaV25G7xPXQEBpRMtN61S7GCDezyp_V92SQY/s1600/103_1879.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie7hbvALPOiXPR7ppPV9JRlVJuZXkEwdTHC2b70FVwmaVqF1tnAhoPXGsTXXq71m8uCGHhHmPtpfK9IbZmS2ODTCLiYDwDmdy1sEPhvKEOaV25G7xPXQEBpRMtN61S7GCDezyp_V92SQY/s1600/103_1879.JPG" height="400" width="308" /></a></div>
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Hitch Hiker Scarf</div>
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Sausilito Yarn by Crystal Palace Yarns</div>
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On Ravelry</div>
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This one is so much fun also, although I still have quite a ways to go. I'm about half way by the number of "teeth" at the side, but it increases in size as you knit it width-wise so I still have a ways to go.<br />
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Then if this wasn't enough, I decided that I needed to start something for New Year's, so instead of one project, I started two:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhip_rIyTqW_WQh8Xt6_eSKYwqML9ULq0jwdd761SBeRbK6WYa6NvX13qKgrSTIyj5HwP56zR1KCjGv1b4abodNJyGwx3yngaPlJv5OsI6xAvTHs1xKQ06gVAW_hulYbhDAQUiYyefAjGk/s1600/103_1877.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhip_rIyTqW_WQh8Xt6_eSKYwqML9ULq0jwdd761SBeRbK6WYa6NvX13qKgrSTIyj5HwP56zR1KCjGv1b4abodNJyGwx3yngaPlJv5OsI6xAvTHs1xKQ06gVAW_hulYbhDAQUiYyefAjGk/s1600/103_1877.JPG" height="263" width="400" /></a></div>
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Mary Gibson</div>
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Haslemere Museum</div>
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done in a variety of silks - mainly AVAS</div>
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And then the Rococo Shawl:</div>
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Rococo Shawl</div>
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Merino 5 yarn by Crystal Palace</div>
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on Ravelry</div>
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So there you have it. The last four months of my life in review. At least with the crafty side of things. There is more, but I'll save that for another time!</div>
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Thank you for stopping by and leaving a comment if you do. I have missed blogging, not only because I feel that I've missed so much, but also that I love to use my blog as kind of a diary of the things that I do over time. It's fun to look back over the pictures and see what you finished or didn't finish during a year (in my case, what I didn't finish!). I hope to get a little better about posting and commenting in this new year. Sometimes it's hard though with so much going on. I never realized that a 16 year old daughter could be so much work. And also, on a more serious note, my FIL was diagnosed with bladder cancer a few months back so that has been a big concern. He's gone through treatment and we're now waiting for the results. Prayers for him would be much appreciated.</div>
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Hope that you're surviving the cold where you are. I understand that a great portion of the US is shivering in their boots right now!! Good reason to stay inside and stitch!! Or knit! Or quilt!!</div>
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Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00792171420098351093noreply@blogger.com36tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4971814362018159119.post-70285408070245562002013-09-09T18:13:00.000-07:002013-09-09T18:19:04.871-07:00Where 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?<br />
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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:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivKdOoluiTaWtmIPx9knb-Nhrfytbm_TYpbIcIw_ZdWCbI-kWgWtORoSrhnxeQLPolhjMwI9boBF80HdNhKqUYd2wkSDakDWIztemRrDRuRKC82i4q_Nwgr3S2lTK7SgnO_VGPhFWfzFs/s1600/103_1829.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivKdOoluiTaWtmIPx9knb-Nhrfytbm_TYpbIcIw_ZdWCbI-kWgWtORoSrhnxeQLPolhjMwI9boBF80HdNhKqUYd2wkSDakDWIztemRrDRuRKC82i4q_Nwgr3S2lTK7SgnO_VGPhFWfzFs/s400/103_1829.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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Mary Gail</div>
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The Scarlett Letter</div>
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40 ct. Vintage Autumn Gold and AVAS Silk</div>
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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.<br />
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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:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigPYxMSiZYIGEPMTC3t4_CM_hTSWUnznAd6gIdwRL1irGxqkKQNgTt3d6cRTMBjB8u36xNoXG_fTXP_96M5j9_9ERFgVoTGhzULXK4h2ng83Cvlt2XRV7HUyaLqyfakD4Wusk5E5Bfye4/s1600/photo-37.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigPYxMSiZYIGEPMTC3t4_CM_hTSWUnznAd6gIdwRL1irGxqkKQNgTt3d6cRTMBjB8u36xNoXG_fTXP_96M5j9_9ERFgVoTGhzULXK4h2ng83Cvlt2XRV7HUyaLqyfakD4Wusk5E5Bfye4/s400/photo-37.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
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This is what the quilt will eventually look like this (God willing):<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF0wuOjK0Ba_3jDyNB5jPmqLQOKN3Ts-II2GUZaiRoFjQewoDiTKKML8bDwQHA-FW_vunHOgcpZ5fBdGBCrPiUA5quXn4rFmLuQQrjIniTX1Ttlep8GvJUxCeyaazXrZ_T2_WQKV1nq8U/s1600/photo-38.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF0wuOjK0Ba_3jDyNB5jPmqLQOKN3Ts-II2GUZaiRoFjQewoDiTKKML8bDwQHA-FW_vunHOgcpZ5fBdGBCrPiUA5quXn4rFmLuQQrjIniTX1Ttlep8GvJUxCeyaazXrZ_T2_WQKV1nq8U/s400/photo-38.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
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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.<br />
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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. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVgYYlnN4PEmGL7KjS8TDJUP5d2K-I1yYwkYQ6J6m9FqU6zsWQpTV7i4_GlF8hyphenhyphenJxFiWAmXBMpgeLB06Q-WRvFREpaQNONw20iXHBA7tK-SUvkte8XBPJTWP9gwgQ2NOPWRlnqeGyCAFI/s1600/photo-39.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVgYYlnN4PEmGL7KjS8TDJUP5d2K-I1yYwkYQ6J6m9FqU6zsWQpTV7i4_GlF8hyphenhyphenJxFiWAmXBMpgeLB06Q-WRvFREpaQNONw20iXHBA7tK-SUvkte8XBPJTWP9gwgQ2NOPWRlnqeGyCAFI/s400/photo-39.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
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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:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitUT_NGLpdAURsm0NvbjMh8Lb_bLYqRqbWRG_DGRVspkG8E2-a89W4UwU8gx22GXqEsGGZD2EMfmITs5hy5J2xpcslRuMUum4_t_4C_engt0QE4CgiTfzVTHbFDhrnm4UHcSHM6l7dsuk/s1600/photo-47.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitUT_NGLpdAURsm0NvbjMh8Lb_bLYqRqbWRG_DGRVspkG8E2-a89W4UwU8gx22GXqEsGGZD2EMfmITs5hy5J2xpcslRuMUum4_t_4C_engt0QE4CgiTfzVTHbFDhrnm4UHcSHM6l7dsuk/s400/photo-47.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
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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 <a href="http://www.pinkcastlefabrics.com/">Pink Castle Fabrics</a>. 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:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8PrHGDAcr7dZfq3HEY_6XF24EKlsW-IKzNwu6kUBHcV1SsnroAXlJMOQJmmoi2xVYnV2j1_B0aCUWS2mCT4TFxMw8bIqkWoBY0bs7VxJsdGkQdoNy6RgX93Ko1bMbRrxuqhyphenhyphenjcsitKH0/s1600/photo-40.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8PrHGDAcr7dZfq3HEY_6XF24EKlsW-IKzNwu6kUBHcV1SsnroAXlJMOQJmmoi2xVYnV2j1_B0aCUWS2mCT4TFxMw8bIqkWoBY0bs7VxJsdGkQdoNy6RgX93Ko1bMbRrxuqhyphenhyphenjcsitKH0/s400/photo-40.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
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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:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsbP8UqO9mM5MwETp_dMnTZ230TxK3PrprUCvkH3eOl05LYBca5PXXp4tnK7ZO0pDILXmjVetvRfkTkRSLJlGb987OlEpAJ8-GGMiXnXm8W5U9FX88qIzKvn3EpOyzjIJodMgTxpO9Xk4/s1600/photo-41.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsbP8UqO9mM5MwETp_dMnTZ230TxK3PrprUCvkH3eOl05LYBca5PXXp4tnK7ZO0pDILXmjVetvRfkTkRSLJlGb987OlEpAJ8-GGMiXnXm8W5U9FX88qIzKvn3EpOyzjIJodMgTxpO9Xk4/s400/photo-41.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA9kD5-kcaC1IATfqysgSWJcRdTv4O73sMxcng1q2a-Sa69CG2cny0GAlZus2ynqge_4upeHckhAeQbL6Nw49I04YUjrK_2LXLP9LwAzMZzV4xEeeQZObE4dDjwY57DpvU9RNoKUdAzZc/s1600/photo-42.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhA9kD5-kcaC1IATfqysgSWJcRdTv4O73sMxcng1q2a-Sa69CG2cny0GAlZus2ynqge_4upeHckhAeQbL6Nw49I04YUjrK_2LXLP9LwAzMZzV4xEeeQZObE4dDjwY57DpvU9RNoKUdAzZc/s400/photo-42.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLW9FYiI0SkIooBSHBzR1qalS5gkBX3atXdTw0vWb8w3P13I3WjV2ufwv8DaInsG2XYB9DV41bDglfbjDqMGRF3zkIek5CFyB4rHJNQV2rEVIdQb2Ov57kebp6NpT5mDrchna8HvgOihU/s1600/photo-43.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLW9FYiI0SkIooBSHBzR1qalS5gkBX3atXdTw0vWb8w3P13I3WjV2ufwv8DaInsG2XYB9DV41bDglfbjDqMGRF3zkIek5CFyB4rHJNQV2rEVIdQb2Ov57kebp6NpT5mDrchna8HvgOihU/s400/photo-43.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
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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.<br />
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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 <a href="http://nicolesneedlework.blogspot.com/">Nicole</a> 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.<br />
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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:<br />
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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!<br />
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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! <br />
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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!!<br />
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Hope that everyone has a wonderful week!!<br />
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<br />Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00792171420098351093noreply@blogger.com34tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4971814362018159119.post-89636836698294535422013-06-10T09:11:00.000-07:002013-06-19T09:24:44.684-07:00Seriously???? 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.<br />
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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.<br />
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First off Mary Gail - she is such a joy to stitch!<br />
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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).<br />
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A pretty red/pink flower. I wasn't singing anything with this - I was gnashing my teeth because I kept counting wrong.<br />
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Love this vine, but again gnashing teeth because I kept putting the leaves in the wrong places.<br />
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And the whole piece so far.<br />
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Mary Gail</div>
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40 ct. Vintage Autumn Gold and AVAS silks</div>
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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:<br />
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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!<br />
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I Spy Quilt</div>
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from the book, P.S. I Love You Too</div>
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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!</div>
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My son celebrating a birthday (bad pic, I know).</div>
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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.</div>
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Me and the kids on the beach near the Mackinaw Bridge. Please ignore the crazy permed hair on me!</div>
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Then some fun blocks - a hog on a hog:</div>
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And we can't forget a Pokemon character - my son's favorite when he was little. And a pig eating pizza!</div>
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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! </div>
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Now what should I work on? </div>
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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!!</div>
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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!!</div>
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<i>(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></div>
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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!! </div>
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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.</div>
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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!</div>
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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:</div>
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Looks like he's working real hard, doesn't it? LOL</div>
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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.</div>
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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!!</div>
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Have a wonderful week!</div>
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Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00792171420098351093noreply@blogger.com36tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4971814362018159119.post-84159317879517251032013-05-01T10:51:00.000-07:002013-05-01T14:58:18.794-07:00A Start, A Finish and a Stupid Human TrickHello again everyone! There must be something wrong here - two blog posts in such a short amount of time? But I have another finish and a start so figured that now was as good of a time as any before things really start getting busy around here. DS is going to be coming home from College on Friday (I can't believe that Year 2 is done - and a 4.0 in his major - yahoo!) so things are going to slow down once again on the project completion. Although he has a job for the summer - it starts on Monday - at the wonderful time of 7:00 a.m. Can you just hear his grumbling now? LOL It's good for him though, don't you think? I just told him, "Welcome to the real world!"<br />
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First off the start:<br />
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Mary Gail</div>
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The Scarlett Letter</div>
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40ct Vintage Autumn Gold and AVAS </div>
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I decided to keep going with the Scarlett Letter theme since I have so many of their charts that have been languishing around here for quite a long time. After finishing Ann I wanted something else with some bright colors and I think that I've found the one - Mary Gail. You can see a picture here: <a href="http://www.scarlet-letter.com/samplers/gail.php">http://www.scarlet-letter.com/samplers/gail.php</a> And notice the scissors? A beautiful pair of Sajou scissors that I won on the Scarlett Letter Year blog. I was so excited and a huge thank you to Nicola for picking my name. I love them and they'll be a wonderful reminder through the years of Nicola and her fantastic idea to set up these Scarlett Letter blogs to commemorate her year. It is so much fun seeing all the different Scarlett Letter samplers. I think that it makes you more aware of their beauty when you see them actually being stitched!</div>
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Now, you will notice that there are some empty spots in the flower? Well, that's where the Stupid Human Trick (SHT) comes in. I know that on a few trips to the LNS I slowly picked up the AVAS threads. I thought that I had all of them, but when I went to use a color the other night I didn't have it, nor did I have the next color. This resulted in me pulling everything apart searching for the threads. Well, I think I know what happened. Head smack!! I usually visit the quilt store near the LNS, probably bought something at the quilt store, put everything into one bag, came home, emptied the bag of the quilting things and then promptly threw out the bag forgetting the threads. Definitely a Stupid Human Trick and one that I am sad to admit has happened before! UGH!! Hopefully my new order (which I will attach to my body with Velco) will show up today and I can get a move on!</div>
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And the finish? Well, it's the Chippewa Nine Patch quilt - Finally!! I was excited to wrap this one up!</div>
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Ahem!! Here we go again. Mr. Bailey claiming whatever is on the floor as his own. He does this every time!! I hope there isn't mud on his paws! But here are a couple other shots. I have to say that my lame camera isn't capturing the real beauty of this quilt. I really love it!</div>
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Outside shot:</div>
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Inside shot:</div>
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I can't wait to get this quilted and the binding on it. I think that it will go well in the family room since the room is predominately reds, golds and browns. </div>
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After I finished with Ann Smith and this quilt, I've felt at some kind of loss as to what to work on. Have I picked up the Sylvia blocks? No - ironed the fabric and prepared the foundation piecing sheets, but nothing past that. Talked to Dear Jane? Not a whisper! Do you ever feel at a loss when you finish something? So I've been digging around to see what else I could come up with and this is what I have somewhat settled on - always subject to change - I change my mind about 5 times a day. If you saw all the projects that I'm planning you'd probably have me committed:</div>
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The fabric triangles are left over pieces from the Snowball blocks in the Chippewa Nine Patch that I thought I would sew together and make a table runner for the family room. And a Tilda doll. I've been wanting to make one for the longest time. And then a scrappy quilt. I''ve been digging through my fabrics to see if I have enough for the look I want and I think that I do. I was going to start working on a Pineapple quilt, but I'm holding off a little bit waiting to see if I'm going to need to use some of the fabrics I had thought of using on another quilt. This quilt:<br />
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Evening Bloom by Blackbird Designs</div>
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Isn't it beautiful? I have lusted after this quilt for a long time. It's a Blackbird Designs quilt done in French General fabrics. I have seen this quilt made before, but in a different color way. This weekend I was in one of my favorite quilt stores and saw this hanging on the wall. I loved this version of it so much. I stood there drooling over it for the longest time and the shop owner must have known that I was in some kind of lust zone because she came over and whispered in my ear that kits would be available in about three weeks!!! I almost kissed her!! Do you think that it took me long to say "Sold"??? Happy Dance. Now this is the reason why I'm not going to start the Pineapple quilt just yet. I want to see exactly what fabrics are going to be used for this quilt and pull those from my bundles because.....well, I pull more Stupid Human Tricks than just throwing out floss and tend to make a "few" mistakes when I quilt, so I'll pull the fabrics from my bundles that match this quilt, and make the Pineapple out of the rest of them. I can't wait to get started on this quilt!!</div>
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So that is it for me this week. Now I better get cracking on working on something. Problem is that the weather has taken a glorious turn for the better and it's hard staying inside. I knew that this would happen, but I'm so happy to see green grass and flowers coming up and trees budding. I just know that I won't be sewing as much for a while. </div>
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Thank you everyone for your kind comments on Ann and to more new followers!! I'm so happy to "meet" you. I hope that Spring has finally arrived where you are, although I think that some of you in the west are getting another snow storm. My heart goes out to you. I'm sure that all of you have said "Enough already!"</div>
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Have a wonderful week!</div>
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Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00792171420098351093noreply@blogger.com55tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4971814362018159119.post-28537330315224583302013-04-24T06:00:00.000-07:002013-04-24T06:00:13.413-07:00Ann Smith is Finished!! Hello everyone. I know that once again I've been a bad blogger and seemed to have managed to disappear for another month. Shameful, I know! But the weather here in Michigan has left a lot to be desired over the past month (like it actually snowed on Saturday and Sunday - hopefully for the last time) and that meant that if the weather isn't good, then what better place to be than home getting into trouble with fabric and threads. I know - I could be home and blogging right? But doing crafty things has really won out over the past month. And also there have been some family issues and being hit with that nasty virus going around and feeling like some kind of walking zombie for a while, so I've been AWOL. I have been lurking through blogs though and am inspired by everything that you're working on (and even left some comments!). <br />
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Ann Smith, the sampler that I almost threw in the corner a few times (okay, maybe more than a few) is finally finished. Woo Hoo! She took me just short of four months to finish! For me, she was somewhat of a challenge because I don't like doing over one, and especially over one on 35 count fabric. And I hate using a magnifier - or did hate it. Now the magnifier and I have become close friends so I don't think that over one is going to be a deal buster on future samplers that I pick out. And I couldn't get the tension right on my scroll rods making the over one a PITA! Luckily my DH did a wonderful thing and ordered me a Millenium frame and it should be here any day. Didn't help for Ann but will help for my next sampler. The DH knows how to get himself out of the dog house! And he was in the dog house, but I'll spare you the details! LOL Actually it's an early birthday present and I'm hoping it will show up any day for my next SL project. But, anyway here is Ann in all her glory - and the pictures are not the best - I think that my camera is doing a slow death act <i>(pictures are clickable)</i>:<br />
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Ann Smith</div>
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The Scarlett Letter</div>
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AVAS Silk Threads and 36 ct. Magnolia </div>
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She's such a colorful girl and I'm so happy that she's finished. She was worth every moment of wanting to throw her in the corner, feed her to the dog or run over her with my car. Every swear word (yep, I toss a few of those around at times) when I had to pick out over one threads. Here are a couple more shots:</div>
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Over one words and over one birds</div>
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The over one Adam and Eve scene which almost caused me to pull my hair out, feed it to Bailey, run over it with the car - you name it, I wanted to do it.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYwdLNROaMR34ZOBgum_IhLaJtifbPO_dI3rn-vxYXdinvqWomb4v7ozY91Tc3u7V2F8rt_56mW8qND9QcCjC5WdHWgrONw2azB181tfNmn_Vlwz_W1GSax3GGsRzAIgweDg7IzoLyJfQ/s1600/101_1774.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYwdLNROaMR34ZOBgum_IhLaJtifbPO_dI3rn-vxYXdinvqWomb4v7ozY91Tc3u7V2F8rt_56mW8qND9QcCjC5WdHWgrONw2azB181tfNmn_Vlwz_W1GSax3GGsRzAIgweDg7IzoLyJfQ/s400/101_1774.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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A majestic lion (more over one) and a colorful bird!</div>
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I love, love this sampler!! But now I feel lost!! Every night, whether she was acting up or not, I wanted to stitch her - it was like some obsession. I got over my fear of over one and actually (well, most of the time) enjoyed working on her. I can't wait to get her into a new frame.</div>
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And the other thing that has been keeping me busy and has become an obsession is quilting. I'm blaming my friends Di and <a href="http://bluehenhollow.blogspot.com/">Siobhan</a> for this. Well, you have to blame someone, right? But, I can't seem to get enough of it for some reason. I know that now that the weather is warming up I probably won't spend as much time on it - that and with having the kids home for the summer and things that we have planned to do, but for the time being I'm in quilting heaven. I get up in the morning, exercise, take Mr. Bailey for a walk, shower and then hit the sewing machine or cutting table. Oh yeah, there are those pesky errands and heaven forbid that the family has to be fed, but I've been like a crazed woman! That's a good thing sometimes. </div>
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I pulled out a kit that I had picked up on one of my quilt runs that was easy. Made from Blackbird Designs Antique Fair line. I needed something easy after working on the other three quilts that were more difficult and time consuming. With this quilt you basically cut out three shapes and put them together and made a scrappy kind of quilt:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8Z9kG4NnLOrp99Taq_YEMr4SXT1pL4b02L5mIqhH_vwk5U59vLjFk6JQALVirXvA_2MOpb8yaMgXVpQKn00ii5wslTxxOBpIZBatODFa3QMbHHcGr-gtcSmOlLHRpHvEioJjH7NFM8Oc/s1600/101_1765.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="361" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8Z9kG4NnLOrp99Taq_YEMr4SXT1pL4b02L5mIqhH_vwk5U59vLjFk6JQALVirXvA_2MOpb8yaMgXVpQKn00ii5wslTxxOBpIZBatODFa3QMbHHcGr-gtcSmOlLHRpHvEioJjH7NFM8Oc/s400/101_1765.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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Antique Fair by Blackbird Designs Fabric</div>
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No pattern name</div>
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I thought that this quilt would be great for snuggling up with while I'm stitching at night in the winter and if we have a winter like what we had this past year, I'm going to need it.</div>
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Then I worked on my Sylvia blocks for the month. I love working on these, but at times the directions are a little challenging:</div>
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And here are all the ones that I've done so far:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_MTspdJ4-h73Gtp_uZU3vRifQBWWZzPZ0zqoDFKtVYPmgADELQQzwpXBs7yyQr2P3vR5kpnPpigR5CkteHnp_OaXhSZiGtUZJsFoIwc9SPDYKLNje1Mu-Tdr4PAXWiw25S9mJFBrf0uY/s1600/101_1776.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="332" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_MTspdJ4-h73Gtp_uZU3vRifQBWWZzPZ0zqoDFKtVYPmgADELQQzwpXBs7yyQr2P3vR5kpnPpigR5CkteHnp_OaXhSZiGtUZJsFoIwc9SPDYKLNje1Mu-Tdr4PAXWiw25S9mJFBrf0uY/s400/101_1776.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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Sylvia's Bridal Quilt</div>
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The next months' worth of blocks showed up on Friday so I guess I'm going to have to get cutting. I want to stay on track so that when the last blocks show up in about 8 months, the quilt will be ready for quilting and not languishing around in a drawer.</div>
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Then I did some work on the Dear Jane blocks:</div>
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Actually I have five more of these blocks in some form of finish. They have applique work on them and since I've been so wrapped up with Ann Smith I haven't done the handwork needed, but now that Ann is done, I can get those finished soon. This is another quilt that is really a challenge. I've had to refer to the That Quilt site a few times:</div>
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Looks pretty bad, doesn't it? Actually the block just needs some corners appliqued down on it and it will look fine. You can see where my scissors are is the edge that I have to applique down.<br />
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But these blocks certainly can prove fussy and challenging. But it's so good to have an online reference to help me out. Thank goodness for the Internet and Ipads. And while I should probably be pulling my hair out with these blocks, I have to admit that I'm loving the challenge of doing them!</div>
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And then I finally got my rear end going on the Chippewa Nine Patch:</div>
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I sat on those nine patch blocks for the longest time. Actually, I was procrastinating because I had 19 of the blocks done out of 25 and ran out of some of the fabrics due to width variances on the pieces of fabric that I had. Most of the fabrics used for this quilt are from French General lines. I love me some French General!! Since I hate working hard on anything and didn't feel like trying to figure out how to piece the rest of the nine patch blocks, I shoved them in the drawer, but finally decided to pull them out again. As you can see I needed a little bit of chocolate to get me through the whole process. I love those Pretzel M&M's! LOL Actually a margarita or a glass of wine might have gone well with the piecing, but I settled for the M&M's! The quilt is finished now, but I'm still clipping threads and making sure that all the seams are going the right way. Seems that not matter how hard I try when you're sewing nine patches some of the seams get sewn the wrong way, so I'll post the finish next time.</div>
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Now I'm scrambling for the next quilt to make around Dear Jane and Sylvia. Did I mention that I love French General fabrics? Well, I'm a French General fabric whore (doesn't sound too good, does it?) and every time a line comes out I have to buy a bundle of the stuff. Seems that I have a few bundles:</div>
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And that's not all of it, but I don't want to embarass myself. I love these fabrics (yes, I know that I already said that) and have feared cutting into these babies, but I finally found the quilt that I want to make out of some of them - actually two quilts, but one is all applique so that one will have to wait for a little bit. I found the quilt that I want to make on a blog and since I haven't asked the blog owner for permission to talk about her quilt, I don't have a picture for now, but it's a Pineapple quilt and I'm giddy with excitement. I'll try to get her permission and post it the next time!! <br />
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And since I didn't get the normal picture of Bailey hogging the new BBD quilt, I thought I'd post a picture of him since it's been awhile. Ignore the mess in the background. I lay out a bedspread for him so that dirt isn't all over the carpet. I hate bringing out the vacuum if I don't have to. Why vacuum? There's quilting to do! And the washcloth in the background - well, his favorite thing to do is raid the laundry basket! What a face, uh?<br />
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So that is what I've been up to!! Seems that I'm walking around these days with threads hanging all over me - certainly living up to the Threadgatherer blog name. My DD says that she always knows what I've been doing during the day when I pick her up. One glance at my shirt and the threads and she knows!! She makes me pull them off if we go anywhere so that she's not embarrassed! <br />
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I want to give a warm welcome to some new followers that have contacted me lately and thank you to all of you that leave me such nice comments and emails. I truly love receiving them!! And I hope that you have a wonderful week and that Spring is finally making an appearance where you live. For a lot of us, it's been a long, long winter!!</div>
Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00792171420098351093noreply@blogger.com48tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4971814362018159119.post-18256756749347737972013-03-20T11:17:00.000-07:002013-03-20T11:19:04.231-07:00Hanging with Ann, Sylvia and JaneHey kids - I figured that I should make a blog post before another month ends. Who knows, I might be able to squeeze in another one before the end of the month. Although that's probably a lofty idea with the way I've been blogging lately. <br />
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I've been furiously working on one thing and another, and not a lot of results in any of them. I'm still mired in the over-one land of Ann Smith. Oh, how I love this sampler, but oh, how I hate me those over ones!!! Well, I guess I don't really hate them as I love the results, I just hate that it takes so much time to do and leaves me each evening with eyes that don't want to focus for a hour or so.<br />
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Adam and Eve are finally in! What a relief! After that point, things went downhill quickly as far as stitching time. I only stitch at night and had my son home for a week on his Spring break, so things were a little hectic. Add to that the fact that frogs visited a couple nights to reek havoc in the Garden, and I didn't get too much further:<br />
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I've had a bit of trouble with the leaves on the right-hand tree. So much so that a couple nights were lost as far as stitching goes - lots of frogging. And I kept making mistakes, wised up and just fudged the whole thing. I want this over one section done so that I can move forward. Stitching over two is going to feel like I'm stitching on 14 count Aida after all this over one stuff! But the end is in sight - maybe another week? <br />
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When not hanging with Ann, I've been hanging with Sylvia and Jane. Those two girls have a few tricks up their sleeves also. <br />
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Now when you look at these Sylvia blocks, please don't look close (of course, with me saying that you're all going to clicking away like crazy to get the picture to enlarge, so please ignore threads). Whether you enlarge the picture or not, put your hand over the one on the bottom right. That block was like some kind of unruly kid and it's going to be done over. It involved a lot of Y-seams which I'm not knowledgeable about at all. I did use Y-seams on the flower basket block next to it without too much of a hitch, but what happened with that one on the right is only one's guess. Could help if I went out into the land of YouTube before I tried to put the block together. Okay, that would be too easy and so I just went for it. That was a mistake and I ended up going into YouTube after and then it all became crystal clear. Still doesn't explain why the flower block came out fine (whatever!!). I guess I'm like a guy whose lost that won't ask directions sometimes. Or I get a smart-assed attitude and think that I can do it, and prove myself really wrong! LOL<br />
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Then because I love to give myself headaches (not really) we decided to have a visit with Jane. She's another ornery one too:<br />
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Four blocks and two rectangles. Some blocks I'm just sewing, others I'm using foundation paper for them. Or actually tracing paper. Makes it so much easier to see your guidelines through the back side of the paper. Those rectangles practically left me with a bald spot on the side of my head! Fiddly little things, but I'm bound and determined to make this quilt. I've only been sitting on the fabrics for this quilt for ten years. It was a BOM and each month I have five blocks and one or two border triangles to do. As much as it gives me long moments of pause trying to figure out what I'm doing and then making sure that I'm doing it right (or wrong and it still looks good - I'm not picky here), I am really excited to be working on this quilt. I still have another block to do, but it's applique and I haven't sat down with it to sew it together. One thing that I found with some of these fabrics - there are fabrics out on the current market that are just like these fabrics that I received 10+ years ago only in different colors. I was kind of stunned by that, but I guess that what they about everything that goes around, comes around is true - at least in this case.<br />
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After that I decided that I needed a break and just make something easy and fun. I spied these kits at a quilt store not long ago and picked them up. I sit on a pillow when I stitch and I thought that these would make the perfect covers for the pillow:<br />
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While the kits came with instructions, I found it much easier to do them following a video that I discovered on Pinterest (yep, finally got the clue about the benefits of videos). I think it took an hour to knock out both of these!!<br />
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And last, but not least, I don't do the TUSAL, but the threads were piling up in the ORT basket, so it was time to dump them again. <br />
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That's a lot of thread. But just in time for Spring. I like to put this out on one of our bushes and let the birds make their nests out of them (no metallics in this pile). Of course, that is if the birds start making their nests. We're still in a deep freeze here in Michigan with no end in sight. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it warms up soon!!<br />
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So that's it for me!! Thanks for stopping and paying me a visit. I love receiving your comments!! Hope that it's warmer in your part of the world and that you get lots of stitching time in!!<br />
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<br />Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00792171420098351093noreply@blogger.com38tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4971814362018159119.post-9573672458612031272013-03-14T10:00:00.000-07:002013-03-14T10:00:06.029-07:00Google Reader is Going AwayGoogle Reader is going away soon (July 1st) so I've switched to BlogLovin and you can also follow me there. <br />
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I hope to have a blog update soon!!Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00792171420098351093noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4971814362018159119.post-2643470706074501252013-02-25T10:00:00.000-08:002013-02-25T10:00:04.347-08:00Before February Ends......I thought that I'd make a quick update about what's been going on around here!! Seems that my plan to post every two weeks isn't working!! But this is what I've accomplished the past few weeks. <br />
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Work on Ann Smith is progressing at a slow pace. I'm working on the over one scene and while not hard to do at all, it is very time-consuming. I'm not fond of working with a magnifier, but one-over-one on 35 count calls for it:<br />
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It's very easy (at least for me) to get off count when working over one. So I've found that I have to make adjustments here and there. I stitched all of what there is of Adam last night. It's amazing how much you can get done if you can find two interrupted hours for stitching. Around here, unfortunately, that doesn't happen very often.<br />
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This is where I was at the time of my last blog post:<br />
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And how it looks today. I managed to get in some of the section above the red verse, the red verse, sky and scene below that is all over one. Slow progress:<br />
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In the quilting arena, I have managed to get quite a few things done. When I've found a half hour or so during the day (not every day unfortunately) I've been working along on the Sylvia Bridal quilt and managed to get all 10 blocks for the month done before the next set of blocks arrived. Although, I got them done two days before - just in a nick of time. These blocks are what I finished since my last blog post:<br />
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And here's the whole group so far - I still have six more to go before the next month of blocks show up here about mid-March or so:<br />
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I love these blocks and I've learned a lot working on them. Probably more than I did with the Farmer's Wife blocks. Although if anyone has worked on this quilt before, you probably know that the directions for these blocks - or some of them - leave something to be desired. Blocks with five pieces are given directions to be foundation pieced, while blocks with 65 pieces are instructed to be pieced in the traditional way. A little wonky if you ask me! But still fun nonetheless.<br />
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If wrestling with those blocks and instructions weren't enough, I decided to finally make a journey into the land of Dear Jane and actually got one block finished! Woo Hoo! This project will take me years to finish as Jane is kind of a fill-in project, but one block down, only 224 more to go. Yes, I know - the men with the white coats will probably be arriving at my door shortly!!<br />
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Considering that these blocks are 4-1/2 inches at this point (4 inches finished), I think it came out pretty good. I won't mention how long it took me to put this block together though! This was foundation pieced and I should mention that it took me far longer to put together than it should have. I must learn to put the pieces on the foundation paper in the order that they are listed - not back-asswards like I did! LOL<br />
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And seeing as I don't have enough to keep me busy, I also jumped on the Scarlett Letter Manifesto SAL that some of us are participating in, although I didn't make much progress on it. I'm working on this on Wednesday nights when I have time. The past two Wednesdays have not worked well for stitching, but I got a little stitched the first night:<br />
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Another one of those BAP's, but I love it, and I've really enjoyed working on it when I've been able to pick it up (okay, it was only one night - but I liked it!!). I'm stitching it on 25 count Jobelan. Not a fabric that people use much from what I've seen, but it works well with this piece (and it's a way to use up 10 year old stash!!). I had actually thought of stitching this on 40 ct silk gauze. The idea being that you would do it in tent stitch and it would progress faster. But I decided that I don't necessarily want to go blind, so I shoved that idea in the drawer and I'll just continue with the 25 ct. Jobelan.<br />
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Then I joined in on the Sunday Santa SAL on Instagram (#sundaysantaxs). If you are on Instagram, look me up - I'm Threadgatherer (makes sense, right?). I didn't get much done on it at all, although I do have the star and part of Santa's face in at this point - just too lazy to take a picture. For a couple nights of stitching you would think that I would have more done, but unfortunately my brain seems to have a hard time wrapping itself around the thought of doing something small - like something that could be finished in a few days. If it's not a BAP, then my mind rebels and forgets how to count! I don't know why that is.<br />
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Red Santa</div>
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BOAF Designs</div>
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Mystery Linen and DMC</div>
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And last but not least - Baskets:<br />
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Nice, huh? Look closely. Do you see what I see? They're not done, they're just pinned waiting for me to pick up needle and thread and get going on these again. I hear that <a href="http://bluehenhollow.blogspot.com/">Siobhan</a> is wiping my butt in the dirt with the baskets. I think that she's has over 90 finished and I'm still hovering around the 50 basket count. These were suppose to be my stitching project when DD did her three nights of dance - I would usually spend one night walking around the mall (exercise with some shopping thrown in - I walk fast around that mall, but not fast enough to miss a good bargain), one night of Zumba (conveniently located next door to the dance studio) and one night of stitching - but since she didn't dance this year, that idea got squashed. But now it's time to pick them up again!! The picture above shows about 50 of them prepped for stitching, so I better get moving!<br />
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Well, that has been my past few weeks!! I hope that everyone has had a great month for accomplishing projects and have managed to stay warm. We're still in the deep freeze here with another storm possibly predicted for tomorrow. I'd love one last big dump of snow, and then the sun can come out and it can warm up. I am going to be so happy when Spring gets here.<br />
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Thanks for stopping by and for your comments and emails. I love hearing from you!!<br />
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<br />Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00792171420098351093noreply@blogger.com37tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4971814362018159119.post-668322759195512352013-02-04T06:30:00.000-08:002013-02-04T06:30:01.981-08:00A Finish and Other WhatnotsHi everyone!! I hope that you all had a great weekend! And that you're staying warm! We've been colder than anything around here lately. I'm hoping that the groundhog is right this year and Spring comes early. In my book, it can't come early enough. I'm sick of all this cold!!<br />
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I finally tamed the beast in the form of the mitered borders on the Cotton Club and it's finished. After months of putting the thing together and then another month (or two... or three) of stressing over the darned mitered border, I finally took myself by the arm, forced myself into the sewing chair and decided it was time to get it off the quilting WIP list once and for all. So thanks to those wonderful videos on YouTube, here it is:<br />
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Ahem...Bailey, do you think that you could move?<br />
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Hello? Bailey? Do you hear me? Hmmm, not listening, are you??? Darned dog!! No surprise there - just like my kids when they were little (well, they're still that way - who am I kidding?). Oh well, the lighting isn't good for a photo op anyway. So a couple hours later the lighting got better and I convinced Bailey to go outside (I told him that there was a kitty cat in his yard), and here is my finish:<br />
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The Cotton Club</div>
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(mitered borders and all)</div>
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I don't know what my big fear was with mitering those borders - it turned out to be so easy (although you'll notice the fabric tails at the corners that I can't bring myself to cut off until the quilt has its final pressing just in case). I'm so happy that it's finally done!!</div>
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In stitching news, Ann Smith is coming along although not as quickly as I had hoped. A few nights where stitching time was a big fat zero. But this is where I was last time I posted:</div>
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And this is where I was a couple days ago - Dear Son came home for a visit along with four friends from college this weekend and they camped out in our basement. Can you say Dorm party? Lots of cooking and washing (DS couldn't let an opportunity pass by without having mom do his wash) and laughing because of all the funny college stories they told and yes, there were a couple that I had to plug my ears - kind of - LOL):</div>
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The over one lettering and the sky just below that were the real time killers. That took so long!! But I'm loving her with her bright colors. Although by my next post I may be hating her. After this section, I have a whole section of over one. If you hear some screaming and a car furiously gunning its engine and the squealing of tires (that is if our roads aren't all iced over as they have been here for a while, otherwise you can envision me furiously doing donuts in the street), you can rest assured that it will be me trying to run it over!!</div>
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After finishing up the Cotton Club I decided to start on one of the quilting projects I picked for this year. Well, I lied. I actually started two projects. I started on Sylvia's Bridal quilt and got the first four blocks done. Dear Jane will wait a little bit as I think that I'm learning a lot with these blocks that will serve me well when it comes time for Jane. These are persnickety blocks - a little more detailed than the Farmer's Wife blocks. Or maybe not - I think that with these blocks I'm given less fabric to work with than with previous Block of the Month programs, so I have to really take my time in cutting out the pieces. The blocks will be a finished size of 6 inches.</div>
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Sylvia's Bridal Quilt BOM</div>
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I decided that since these blocks were rather time consuming I would also work on another quilt. One that doesn't require a lot of brain power and can go together easily. This was a kit from a local quilt store that I picked up during the summer and because of the fabrics - Blackbird Designs Antique Fair, I just had to have it. I only have three blocks together at this point:</div>
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Easy peasy blocks that I can practically do blindfolded....well, maybe not.<br />
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So there you have it. A little bit about what I've been up to since my last post.</div>
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And I have an apology too. One of my plans (not a resolution, but a plan) was to post more and also comment more in 2013. I have seriously lagged in the commenting department and I'm sorry for that. It seems that I've needed a slight break from commenting because of things that have been going on around here - nothing bad at all, just the kind of thing where you need to put attention to other things for a while. Seems that once I got through my craft room, I proceeded to go through the house with reckless abandon cleaning out things. I don't know about other people, but I get a huge sense of "Ahhhh" when I get things cleaned out. I'm happy, the Salvation Army is happy, but it hasn't left me with much time to comment - and when I've had time, I put it into sewing as a reward for cleaning things out. We're also gearing up to do some inside home improvements which means I'm driving around in my car looking for paint colors, bathroom vanities, etc. BTW, did I mention that I hate looking for paint colors!!</div>
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So, I'm sorry and hopefully I'll be back to commenting more soon. I think that my husband is getting a little worried that I'm going to empty out the entire house and buy all new things! Well, it's been a thought! Not really - maybe some new stash - but definitely not a whole house of goods.</div>
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Have a wonderful week and thank you so much for your comments!! They truly mean a lot to me!!</div>
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Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00792171420098351093noreply@blogger.com46tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4971814362018159119.post-81639436310376333792013-01-21T10:00:00.000-08:002013-01-21T10:00:01.942-08:00Just a Quickie PostHi everyone. I hope that everyone's New Year's has gotten off to a great start!! I did not make Resolutions this year, but I had a Plan (those are easily changed) to try to blog more frequently. Well, we're looking at January 21st today, so that makes it three weeks. I was going to try for two weeks - that was the Plan. Obviously I didn't stick to that very well. <br />
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One of my plans though was to join Nicola's Scarlett Letter Challenge this year. I felt that it was a great reason to finally stitch one or two of the samplers that I had hidden in stash. I've done them before (like Ann Medd), but seemed to pass Scarlett Letter pieces over for other things. This time I'm glad I didn't because I'm in love with this sampler. This was my New Year's start (<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">pics are clickable</span></i>). I'm a little further than this, but the camera is dead and I didn't feel like fooling around with the phone camera:<br />
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<i>Ann Smith</i></div>
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<i>The Scarlett Letter</i></div>
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<i>AVAS and 35 count Magnolia linen</i></div>
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I love the bright happy colors of her. What I don't like is all the over one. I usually avoid over one like the plague, but finally broke out the magnifier and I'm so happy that I did. The magnifier and I have become good friends. The letters are full cross over one and the sky below that is tent stitch over one.</div>
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The Cotton Club isn't finished yet. Just the borders now and it will be a wrap. My 'plan' was to have it finished last week, but then I had forgotten that my daughter only had half days for most of the week due to semester finals, so that cut into my sewing machine time. And I also got into a huge stash room clean out. But while thinking about the end of the Cotton Club, I went back and forth about what to start next and it came down to two quilts. In going through my stash, I decided to work on one old stash piece and one new piece. And yes, I should have my head examined because in addition to trying to make progress on my basket blocks with Siobhan, I'm going to work on these two:</div>
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I have had this quilt in my stash for about 10 years. Just about the time I stopped quilting for a while when I became busy with PTA activities at my children's school, this BOM starting showing up in the mailbox. I just filed them away and didn't look at them again until last year. This one will be a challenge, but for some reason working on those baskets with Siobhan and actually appliquing has given me the courage to work on this. There will no fast results with this one - it's going to be slow going as a lot of it is not only appliqueing, but also paper piecing and I'm not the quickest nor best paper piecer in the world. I'm planning for two blocks a month - not a lot, but we'll see how it goes. Maybe a block a week....maybe!!</div>
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The other quilt will be more straightforward, but another one that I've loved for a long time:</div>
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I don't know what my obsession is with quilts like this - it's very reminiscent of the Farmer's Wife, but I'm really looking forward to working on this one. The colors are different than the Farmer's Wife and I think that is what I like about it - different blocks and different colors. The BOM has 10 blocks each month so between the two of these quilts I've got my work cut out for me. And besides these two, I want to get working on Phebe - I actually have a couple pieces ready to go, just have to applique them down. So it looks like I'm going to have my quilting work cut out for me (well, no, I'll do the cutting - LOL) for the next year or so.</div>
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New Year's started off on a really great note for me. I won a couple of giveaways and wanted to post to thank each of the girls that sponsored them. Before the New Year even started I won a giveaway from<a href="http://misplacedinmichigan.blogspot.com/"> Lisa</a> from a Southern Bell Misplaced in Michigan. I found out that Lisa lives not all that far from me and hope that I'll be able to meet with her soon:</div>
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The red fabrics immediately went into the pile of reds for my baskets and you can't see them, but there were two stitching wallets - one plastic and one mesh that I'm already using. And the pillow (a favorite of mine) is backed with a Fleur de Lis charm. UGH, I can't find the picture I took and the camera battery is dead. But it was so sweet and thank you so much Lisa. I hope that we can meet up soon.</div>
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Right after the New Year I won another giveaway from <a href="http://shelly-anarizonastitcher.blogspot.com/">Shelly</a> of the Arizona Stitcher:</div>
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The box was full of so many goodies, the Little House Needleworks chart and the linen, ribbon trims, a stitcher's mug, some wonderful Christmas far quarters, chenille trims, a needle minder, note cards, tissues, a christmas towel, prickly pear jelly (yum) and chocolate! Thank you so much Shelly.</div>
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The next giveaway I won was from was <a href="http://beckysc.blogspot.com/">Becky</a>. She held a stitching challenge last year and I won! The prize is a $100 dollar gift certificate to the LNS of her choice. I can't wait to get that in my hot little hands and have some fun spending it.</div>
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Which means that I will acquire more stash. But quite frankly I need to get rid of some stash. Right after the New Year, I got on some kind of cleaning tear and really went at my craft room. The closet is so clean and organized right now:</div>
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Everything in it's place (well almost, I just noticed the green top of the thread keeper system laying not where it should be) and things labeled, but.........this isn't the only closet that my stash is in. It's also in two other closets, three cupboards and quite a few Rubbermaid bins in the workroom. You can accumulate a lot of stash when you stitch, quilt and knit. I think that I could easily be shown on an episode of The Hoarders. My husband definitely thinks so and you probably would too if you saw pictures of the complete mess. So I'm thinking of posting some of my stash on this blog or another one. I actually thought of doing this a year or so ago, but hesitated thinking that people wouldn't want half of the things that I would get rid of. And they might not, but I thought it was worth a try seeing what people would want and the rest I could possibly donate. So stay tuned. I hope to get a new camera battery tomorrow and have things put together by the next time I post.<br />
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So that's it in my part of the woods!! It's cold and snowy here today - a great day to hunker down sew and put a pot of soup on the stove. Hope everyone has a wonderful week!!<br />
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Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00792171420098351093noreply@blogger.com35tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4971814362018159119.post-10673822407109843722012-12-31T10:02:00.000-08:002012-12-31T10:02:04.952-08:00Happy New Years and a Year in ReviewI know that I have been the worst blogger lately, but there is no time like the present to try to rectify that, right? I thought that one of the best ways to get back on the blogging wagon was to just start off with posting the Stitching/Quilting Year in Review. 2012 wasn't the best for accomplishing much, let alone blogging, but it was filled with other great things that ended up taking up my time. Sometimes stitching tends to take a back seat. If I tried to talk about my two month absence from blogging we'd be here all day!! (Wow, where did that time go type of thing). But 2013 is a new year and hopefully I'll get back into the blogging and stitching swing for 2013. I'd make it a Resolution, but I stink at Resolutions, so I'll just say that I'll try my best!!<br />
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I recently had a couple finishes so I'll start with those and work my way down the list. As I said, this hasn't been a stellar year for finishes, but at the same time, it's still been a good year. <br />
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Like a lot of other people, I joined <a href="http://scarletletteryear.blogspot.com/">Nicola's</a> Scarlett Letter Challenge. As most of you know, she's celebrating a milestone birthday and wanted to make it memorable. I don't think that she realized what a overwhelming response she would get to her challenge. If you're interested in joining, walk don't run. There are some wonderful prizes each month and what I'm sure will be a wonderful gallery of finishes as the year goes along. How fun this is going to be! It is so exciting to see all the projects that people are working on while celebrating Nicola's birthday. Being a huge fan of The Scarlett Letter, I knew that I had to jump on board (and the fact that when I went through my SL charts to pick out a "few", I discovered that I had a ridiculous number of their charts)! And no time like the present to start actually stitching some of those babies!! The first piece that I chose was Abigail Gould's Sampler of 1796. A small one (what a concept - I actually stitched something small), but so much fun to work on:<br />
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Scarlett Letter's Abigail Gould's Sampler of 1796</div>
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DMC threads and 35 ct. Mystery Linen</div>
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This is what the original sampler looks like:<br />
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At first I was a little concerned about the colors of mine, but Marsha of the Scarlett Letter commented on my post on the SL Challenge blog that she charted from the back of the sampler where the colors haven't been affected by sunlight and the elements. I love how dear Abigail ended up. I've already picked out a "few" that I want to work on in the coming year and one of them will be my New Year's start.<br />
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The only deviation from the pattern that I made was to not stitch in the background with wool. I like to stay true to a reproduction and not change things up too much, but the thought of filling in that background kind of threw me over the edge, so I chose a linen that I thought would be closest to the color of the wool. She was such a quick stitch.<br />
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Next up - Charlotte Clayton - how I love her (those cats look like they could make a snack out of dear Adam and Eve):<br />
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Charlotte Clayton by the Northwest Sampler Guild</div>
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36 count Meadowrue and NPI Threads</div>
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Ann Hall by The Scarlett Letter</div>
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35 count Legacy Linen and DMC Threads</div>
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Martha Jones 1972</div>
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36 ct. Vintage Examplar and DMC Threads</div>
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And last, but not least, probably my favorite of the whole year:<br />
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Ann Rayner</div>
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32 Count Legacy Cafe Au Lait Linen and DMC threads</div>
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I love Ann - and even with those over one sheep, I loved every minute of stitching her. Seems that I've had a real Adam and Eve theme going on this year. Just to mix things up, I've pulled some non-A&E themed samplers for 2013.<br />
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On the quilting end - even though I have a few projects in the works, I only finished one - The Farmer's Wife. The Cotton Club is waiting for borders and that's it. Hopefully, that one will make an appearance in the next couple of weeks. <br />
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The Farmer's Wife Quilt</div>
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For all the headaches this quilt sometimes gave me, I love it so much!!<br />
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There were a lot of projects that I didn't finish this year - I'm a great one for WIPs, but I'm going to try to make 2013 also a year of finishing up those WIPs. We'll see how that goes. I always have grand ideas as the New Year starts and flounder by the end of January. But it's a goal to shoot for - mainly to finish up these babies:<br />
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Trick or Treat Quilt</div>
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Blackbird Designs</div>
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(need to give this another name - it doesn't look like Trick or Treat to me)</div>
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Only 39 in the photo, but actually 46 finished. This project was going to be my take along project while my daughter danced. Her broken foot put a kabosh on that idea, but I think that she'll be starting up again in January, so there is hope for making a huge dent in these beauties. I have about 100 of them prepped and ready to go. Just have to take needle and thread to them.<br />
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And there are a couple cross stitch projects that I'd like to finish up this year - both Scarlett Letter pieces:<br />
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And All Was For An Appil</div>
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I don't know why I put this one down, but I'm going to try what <a href="http://daysofasamplerlover.blogspot.com/">Margaret</a> did with hers and stitch the outlines of the motifs first and then do the fill in. I was green with envy when I saw Margaret's finish.</div>
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Susanna Lane</div>
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I don't know why I ever put this one down either - probably due to the fact that I'm a Gemini and am constantly getting bored with things. But she is so pretty in real life that I have to finish her up this year.</div>
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So there you have it!! 2012 in review. I have to admit that I've missed everyone and their posts. I've tried to keep up here and there, but since the time of my last post it seems like we've gotten from the end of October to the end of December at the speed of light!! I hope to do much better in the coming year.</div>
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Thank you for stopping by and I hope that everyone has a happy, healthy and wonderful New Year's!!</div>
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Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00792171420098351093noreply@blogger.com49tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4971814362018159119.post-9279607031443739372012-10-26T11:02:00.002-07:002012-10-26T11:02:32.127-07:00Stitchy Stuff and HomecomingThank you so much for treading your way through my last post!! I never thought people would make it through my rantings! I can't believe some of the comments and emails I got on that one! But being as most of us are moms, I know that we can all relate to those crazy moments where we want to slap someone, choke someone or lay ourselves under a bus. It happens - it's part of the territory, right? But it passed and all is well (at least until the next doctor's appointment in two weeks), and I'm not typing this with tire tracks across my body. And of course, Catie opted for the new dress over the dress that caused so much freaking out! Figures!<br />
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The Homecoming dance went well except for the fact that it rained cats, dogs and small children that day and night so we couldn't get pictures of the event outside with all the beautiful fall colors. But here are a couple of the cute couple taken at Max's house where everyone met. Catie had a wonderful time even with the boot and I think that it definitely was a time to remember. They didn't go to any parties after as seems to be the norm these days (praise the heavens above), but opted to play X-box instead. Gotta love them.<br />
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I didn't get the best pictures, but here are just a couple. The pinning of the boutonniere - get a load of that tongue. Reminds me of when she was so little sitting in the kitchen chair deep in concentration when coloring (<i>when did you get so grown up?</i>):<br />
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The boot doesn't look too bad, does it? She decided not to decorate it as she felt there was enough bling on the bodice of the dress - probably a good choice.<br />
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And Catie acting the fool, as always. Max has a look like, "Here she goes again!"<br />
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In other news around here - well not much - sad, but true. I honestly don't know where time goes sometimes. But once I got over my feelings of choking or doing someone bodily harm and felt that I could be trusted with sharp implements like scissors, needles, rotary cutters and the like, I accomplished a little bit on what seems to be the three never ending projects. Are you getting bored of these yet? But I'm having fun with all of them and haven't tossed them aside yet. Not that I'm not dreaming of what comes next and having moments filled with thoughts of starting new things, but I'm actually restraining myself - for once!!<br />
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First up - the Cotton Club - three rows down, two to go:<br />
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Oops - I shot this picture from the wrong end and it looks like I've got upside down basket blocks. Well you get the picture anyway. I thought that I'd fly through these rows, but not the case. Trying to put these rows together and then get them to match up where the red and brown meets the tan and pieced block is hard even on a good day. Don't know what is up with that. <br />
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Charlotte is moving along at a slow pace. Don't know what's up with that either. Well, yes I do, I haven't been putting as much time into her as I would like too. The only nights I seemed to get much done was during the Championship games and World Series games with our beloved Tigers!! Unfortunately, they lost the first two games in the World Series against San Francisco, but I've stayed up until the bitter end. Fingers crossed - there are more games to be played!! And while watching the games I made it to the half way point on Charlotte (with the exception of the over one words - I need to be in the mood to have my eyes cross for half the night putting those in).<br />
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I love that couple in Eden:<br />
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In fact, I love working on entire this piece, but made a major boo-boo. Am I fixing it - NOPE!!<br />
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It's the vase - it's levitating - and it's not suppose to. Guess I've been out of school too long and no longer seem to be able to count! When I got down to the bottom of the vase it wasn't sitting on the grass as charted. BUT, would you have known that unless I told you? Probably not (except for those of you who have stitched it), so this is my spin on being creative and making the piece my own. Sounds good, doesn't it?? And Charlotte will never know, will she? I just have to remember to do the vase on the other side of the tree the same way - better write a post it note so that I don't forget!<br />
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And then there are the baskets - the never ending baskets. I managed to get a few finished up over the past few weeks - only 16 blocks - but better than nothing. This tends to be my carry along project when I'm waiting on something - like doctors - so I don't get as many finished in a week that I had hoped to.<br />
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And all the blocks so far:<br />
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46 baskets out of......gulp..........about 300.......I guess I better get my you-know-what moving. But there are more waiting in the wings. I have about 40 baskets on backgrounds, probably 100 ironed onto fabric (maybe more) and some more waiting to be starched - it's quite a process, but so much fun:<br />
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I don't think I'll ever get sick of this quilt - I am just loving all the red fabrics!!<br />
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So that's about all that is going on around here. I did manage to get out for one of my fall road trips this week and spent a wonderful time at a new quilt store and antiquing, but you know, I can't seem to get the pictures to come over from my phone to the computer. Well, I can, but then I seem to be at a loss as to posting them on the blog. I'll have to wait for one of the kids to be around to post them. They've told me how to before, but you know.........must have lost some brain cells with my rage of a couple weeks ago!! LOL I'll save them for next time.<br />
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Again, thank you for all your wonderful comments. I truly thought that you would get bogged down in a quagmire of words! But I truly enjoyed reading each and every one of them. And I see that I have some new followers! Welcome! So happy to "meet" you and I have enjoyed making my way around to see your blogs. Always so much inspiration. <br />
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Well, the pork roast is in the crock pot, blog post done and house clean (somewhat), so I think that I'm going to go sew. I hope that everyone has a great weekend!!!<br />
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<br />Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00792171420098351093noreply@blogger.com36tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4971814362018159119.post-65297867976326922662012-10-11T13:44:00.000-07:002012-10-12T14:43:29.616-07:00A Different Kind of Post (Mother Rage)Okay, I just had to vent! You don't have to read this if you don't want to. But, the older I get the more crazed I become at the irresponsibility of businesses and doctors. But, just so you can see something creative, I'll show you my second Cotton Club row almost put together. I've been working on it today to calm myself down from all the stress of yesterday. But see the block second from the bottom - well, it's set going the wrong way. Am I changing it? NOPE! And just pretend I didn't say anything, okay?<br />
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So here goes the rant. See this dress - beautiful dress right (it's really beautiful on)? Well, getting this dress was an exhausting exercise. This is DD's Homecoming dress. Homecoming is two days away. Why are we getting a Homecoming Dress three days before the event? Well, this dress wasn't her first choice. And here's the story.<br />
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About a month or so ago DD borrowed another dress from a friend. She didn't want a new dress, she wanted to wear her friend's dress. It looked darling on her and I'm thinking I don't have to buy a dress - score!!. So I took it to the cleaners. It was due back Friday. I go in Friday and dress is not ready - hasn't been touched in all the time it's been sitting there. They say that it has to be spot cleaned. Please pick up Tuesday. Okay, but why wasn't I called about this? And why haven't you started on the dress??? No answers. Just some mumbling. I tell them that I have to have the dress on Tuesday. If there is a problem please call me. <br />
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So yesterday I pull my body out of bed (I've been fighting some kind of stomach virus thing and just wanted to sleep in yesterday) and I run to do a couple errands - produce market for reinforcements for the troops and lunchmeat for DD because she hates school lunches. I'm on a tight schedule that morning and my foot is tapping because I swear they could have sliced up a cow in the time it took to give me three packets of lunchmeat. I run and collect other things, but I think that the senior citizen bus had their weekly drop off and I'm dodging people all over the place - it takes me forever . Okay, I do the yoga calming breaths and just keep going! The scanner acts up in the check-out line - more deep breaths! I leave there - stop and fill up my gas tank (where I have to wait in line some more and take more breaths), and then drive to the dry cleaners only to be told that the dress can't be cleaned or even spot cleaned. Okay, now I'm having trouble doing those cleansing breaths. I'm starting to hyperventilate!! WE'RE FOUR DAYS BEFORE HOMECOMING PEOPLE!!! AND MAY I ASK WHY YOU DIDN'T CALL ME ABOUT THIS??? WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME THAT LAST WEEK??? IS YOUR PHONE BROKEN??? (yes, I actually said that). I feel some kind of rage within me. Mr. Dry Cleaner says he'll try washing it if I sign off on it. I sign off, telling him I MUST have the dress like yesterday!! He tells me to call at 4:00 and I'm back in the car (with thoughts of driving through his storefront), fly into the house and am tossing lunchmeat and produce in all directions in the refrigerator because I have to pick up DD for her foot doctor appointment like five minutes ago. <br />
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DD and I drive to the doctors and I tell her about the dress. She starts freaking out. And I'm freaking out watching her freak out! This is her first real date - I want it to be perfect. We get to the doctors where we promptly wait ONE AND ONE HALF HOURS!!! We're both sitting there freaking out about the dress, mad at the doctor for taking so long and she's starving. We decide she won't go back to school (for which she was happy) and we would get something to eat and try to calm ourselves down. After waiting for ONE AND A HALF HOURS, I walk to the door, fling it open, take a step out and am ready to confront the first person that walks by the door with my teeth bared and an arthritic joint model in my hand (not really) only to just about knock the doctor to the floor. Neither one of are pleased at this event. There are no apologies on his part and I'm about ready to pick up one of those joint models and sock him with it (I must mention that I did pick it up a couple times and swung it around just to test the heft and weight while waiting for him in case I snapped and used it on someone).<br />
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Dr. Slower-than-Molasses shows us the MRI and it definitely indicates that DD has broken her foot. Prognosis - 4 more weeks in the boot and crutches. Her face falls because now she has to sport a boot for Homecoming. Her assistant at school who carried her books had thrown her a "BOOT the BOOT" party for heaven's sake. Tears form in her eyes. We leave there both upset and are still freaking out about the dress. And she's starving and I have a flipping headache. <br />
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We drive to a fast food place (no endorsements here because I HATE fast food) and the food calms her down. The Mountain Dew she drinks sparks her back up and she's freaking about the dress again. So, we drive to the nearest mall because, you know, if we don't find something, that darned friend's dress is going to disintegrate at the dry cleaners (law of averages, right?). Now the closest mall - well, it's about a mile long if you go the whole circuit - which we do - because we can't find anything. She's worn out - a mile on crutches is not a good thing, and my headache is about at maximum velocity. Did I mention that this dress had to be either black, white or a combination of the two? Because the other dress was black and white? We found a lot of wonderful things in other colors, but her date had already ordered her corsage - they were going to be color coordinated - they had ideas as to how they wanted to look - so only black and white would do. OY!<br />
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DD is disappointed and hesitantly asked if we can go to another store. I basically want to lay in the parking lot and let someone run over me before I drive to another store - preferably one of the shuttle buses - but I tell her okay as we really have no other choice, so we get in the car and start driving across town. While on the way her friend that owns the original dress calls and while talking to Catie tells us that the store that we're driving to is closed. OMG, OMG!!! But there is one down Hall Road. Well, Hall Road is like taking your life in your hands during rush hour. But what are you going to do?<br />
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So we brave the traffic, get to the store, look all over and can't find anything. But wait - mom is digging into this ridicuously stuffed rack of dresses and I find one. DD screws up her nose. I say PLEASE, TRY IT ON, PLEASE. <i>(please try this dress on before I start overturning racks in here and completely embarrass you and get myself arrested for going on some kind of crazed rage).</i> She does, and she opens the dressing room door and there is a big smile on her face - brighter than the beads on the dress. She loves it. And I'm almost on my knees thanking the Gods above. She looks so pretty. We actually get 20% off the dress because I'm cranky, really cranky at this point because 1) no, they won't hold the dress and 2) no, the dress is not returnable! I'm about ready to go for the poor clerk's throat. Do we leave and hope Dress #1 made it through the cleaning process and if not, Dress #2 will be there tomorrow? No, I'm not taking that chance, so I point out two beads that are loose - one hanging by a thread (which I can easily fix but you don't tell them that), they give me the discount and then we're out the door. <br />
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I'm both breathing a sigh of relief and girding my loins for the harrowing trip back home. For the past six hours we've been on the go - we're tired and worn out. But wait - then DD reminds me that it's Spirit Week all week at school and tomorrow is Yellow day and we have to go to Joanne's for yellow things and we need Bedazzle stuff to spiff up her boot and......well, you get the picture. Joanne's was basically in the same parking lot so I said yes. She gets her things and while standing in the check out line I think that the whole ordeal caught up with us because she spotted a pair of those wax fangs in the checkout line at Joanne's and started laughing - laughing so hard that tears were coming to her eyes. I asked her what was so funny, and when she could finally calm down she said that she wished that I had a pair of those at the doctors office. She said that she had a vision of me baring those things when I opened the door and almost knocked the doctor over. Well, we ended up laughing so much over that people were looking at us quite strangely, but it certainly relieved the stress and made the whole day kind of laughable. <br />
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I collapse in a chair later and wondered why I ever signed up for this mom thing. While DD and DH are eating leftovers (I cooked way too much food the day before, thank goodness) and I'm eating a plain omelet and dry toast to make up for the bazillion calories I ingested with that fast food lunch, my headache finally eases, but I'm still kind of crazed over the doctor visit and the stupid dry cleaners not making a simple phone call. But then after dinner DD puts the dress on to model it and everything is okay. She looks beautiful, she's happy, and the boot doesn't look bad after all - kind of a cute fashion statement. And I realize then why I signed up for the mom gig! Seeing her smiling face in that black dress was worth every exhausting minute. So I'm calm now.<br />
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But we see the doctor in a few weeks - I don't forget easily! LOL And of course, as luck would have it, we picked up Dress #1 the dress from the dry cleaners a short time ago and it came out perfect:<br />
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Now she doesn't know which one to wear. I vote for the black and white, but both are cute on her.<br />
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So rant over. We'll return to our regularly scheduled programming in a couple days. I know that this isn't my normal post, but I thought that it would be fun to record this on my blog and look back on this time at some point- a big time in my daughter's life - and smile again about the whole thing. A big thank you if you made it this far! I'll post pictures of her all dressed up and made up next week. I'll also have some more stitching and quilting things too. But I just had to rant!!!<br />
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<br />Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00792171420098351093noreply@blogger.com56tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4971814362018159119.post-87473828294987377082012-09-30T14:28:00.000-07:002012-10-01T16:47:57.255-07:00The End of SeptemberOkay, I know that this sounds lame - but what the heck happened to September??? Seems to me that I just made a blog post and was just getting the kids back up to school. Now I'm seeing Halloween (and in some cases, Christmas decorations - what's up with that?) in the stores, and October starts tomorrow!! I thought that with school starting and everyone back to their respective jobs and school, my life would be free - free to quilt and stitch with reckless abandon. Guess it didn't happen that way. I had such good intentions on posting on a more regular basis. Didn't happen. But maybe things will get better, right? <br />
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There has been very little stitching going on - at least that I can show. My progress on Charlotte Clayton (excuse the folds - too lazy to press) has been really lackluster:<br />
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Not a heck of a lot for the month of September or since my last blog post. Mr. (or Mrs) Kitty Cat is in and so is Mr (Mrs). Rooster/Peacock - I'm not sure what that's suppose to be. I would have been much further along, but I met with an unfortunate incident of "I can't count" (happens more than I care to admit) and I had to frog out an entire nights worth of stitching:<br />
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He's missing his whiskers, but the thread just came for those, so I will have to add them in.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-RJOM0CPHPhukaLY5XTLokcrhOEPxZTmtzDi1iJvlcYNq1N2NdR1l4icX32atNOmJiE0m8CQ5KEdTHc9ctJl7DxqmBU8ywcLMwMM8TBKxI0yZ64hAdCJKH3SiCPb4rXvdtMdJTTahBa4/s1600/101_1646.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-RJOM0CPHPhukaLY5XTLokcrhOEPxZTmtzDi1iJvlcYNq1N2NdR1l4icX32atNOmJiE0m8CQ5KEdTHc9ctJl7DxqmBU8ywcLMwMM8TBKxI0yZ64hAdCJKH3SiCPb4rXvdtMdJTTahBa4/s400/101_1646.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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I've also been stitching a little bit here and there on the Susan Singleton SAL which I can't show pictures until December, but we've had a new addition to the SAL list - <a href="http://eefsneedle.blogspot.com.au/">Evelyne</a> from Eef's Needle. I think that we're now up to 8 participants. Welcome Evelyne!!! The rest of the participants are listed in my previous blog post and if you'd like to jump on the SAL bandwagon - don't hesitate - the more the merrier! Here's Susan just to refresh your memory - an ambitious project to say the least - but we're breaking it down over a two year span - plenty of time to finish the sampler (so I say with hesitant confidence):<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEYKoJLidW3oUfV9SpmNuWIg_wMXpBlI77kcNG3jZS4b8MKWGgCoqCStA_2fCf6nRh1FU-7Tnh8fo0Uo1r5P9y7TqEhEXO8ZTmUL0PI2WYTrt-Jr4n63eqMXCetYykGiDtoSBw_df9AZ8/s1600/101_1635.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEYKoJLidW3oUfV9SpmNuWIg_wMXpBlI77kcNG3jZS4b8MKWGgCoqCStA_2fCf6nRh1FU-7Tnh8fo0Uo1r5P9y7TqEhEXO8ZTmUL0PI2WYTrt-Jr4n63eqMXCetYykGiDtoSBw_df9AZ8/s400/101_1635.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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So what has been happening besides my mediocre stitching? Well, DD had a little mishap in walking one day. Actually, not her fault - Mr. Bailey decided to bury a bone under his blanket, DD walked across the blanket, turned her ankle - and ended up fracturing her foot (see Bailey looking a little sheepish?). So she's sporting this most attractive form of footwear and using crutches. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjszM5GFObBKiXLe5YmpwgkbdLVFnYbjaQ8pEJXLtKQmXlJsc8C8HlZsI4WHHIAVmdahg94bm_Td0BtEKYNNB9lwcFZ4bJJI25RHNYBTtclCLk2avkALW3jYo14f2BOQmviQX1MUzeU-JA/s1600/photo-11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjszM5GFObBKiXLe5YmpwgkbdLVFnYbjaQ8pEJXLtKQmXlJsc8C8HlZsI4WHHIAVmdahg94bm_Td0BtEKYNNB9lwcFZ4bJJI25RHNYBTtclCLk2avkALW3jYo14f2BOQmviQX1MUzeU-JA/s400/photo-11.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
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Not good as it will affect her dancing for another month or two. But for all bad things, a good thing happens and yesterday was her birthday - her 15th Birthday - when did she get this old?<br />
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And her friend Max came over the house bearing a stuffed ladybug and a cup of her favorite Starbucks - Pumpkin Spice Latte - ymmm:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyZkFWZtmPyGGNhENcLLrLSTw0QWzIoGRlDFdh8lLa1nnWZFWAOG5ef1z-Wh0clHZonKE9nrgGMcXepyFT1lhWQsT_IxxObcpllDnJSx1aljJWO4h4BAf9kxOIscW-J4l5EXLiDpOn0uY/s1600/photo-12.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyZkFWZtmPyGGNhENcLLrLSTw0QWzIoGRlDFdh8lLa1nnWZFWAOG5ef1z-Wh0clHZonKE9nrgGMcXepyFT1lhWQsT_IxxObcpllDnJSx1aljJWO4h4BAf9kxOIscW-J4l5EXLiDpOn0uY/s400/photo-12.jpg" width="312" /></a></div>
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Aren't they cute?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgttEmHbsLxENbTJuxjr1m6cAAkJXRrp7VwXMBxVnkxtuj8y781V45U6tOsWxu6IqVzB9R2vVmkomySqzahkDAPHTGcm21A3Obe4UHsP-6KtL1qZzn6QYO-L_ubKSLfEr0BSmAPL_7mN9o/s1600/photo-9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgttEmHbsLxENbTJuxjr1m6cAAkJXRrp7VwXMBxVnkxtuj8y781V45U6tOsWxu6IqVzB9R2vVmkomySqzahkDAPHTGcm21A3Obe4UHsP-6KtL1qZzn6QYO-L_ubKSLfEr0BSmAPL_7mN9o/s400/photo-9.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
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See the HC on the lid of the cup? That was his way of asking her to the Homecoming Dance. So sweet! He is a real sweetheart, although my heart goes into spasms thinking that she's old enough for a a boy to like her - I mean really like her!!! He's even offered to come over and help decorate her boot as she'll still be wearing it when Homecoming happens. Like I said - he's sweet!<br />
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I have managed to get a little bit of quilting done! I'm still lovin' on some baskets and I managed to get 7 of them made in the past few weeks. Working on this QAL with <a href="http://bluehenhollow.blogspot.com/">Siobhan</a> has been so much fun. She keeps me excited about working on these babies! She's beating the pants off me though - I think 55 to my 30, but I'll catch up. And some progress is good progress, right (excuse those threads you see - LOL)?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij5ZZDeBk4NzS9mEL2izwbK2PVmzFvavIkKHm-PWluFjuGaYDbbrHgETpKPSmIvBLhl4llNy8GbWabjgofqThvwqz4nEM1-a9_qgGegc4Chf_hyphenhyphenVwl-Dj1O2_nUpxUXqdbuzXEvO-hyYA/s1600/101_1641.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij5ZZDeBk4NzS9mEL2izwbK2PVmzFvavIkKHm-PWluFjuGaYDbbrHgETpKPSmIvBLhl4llNy8GbWabjgofqThvwqz4nEM1-a9_qgGegc4Chf_hyphenhyphenVwl-Dj1O2_nUpxUXqdbuzXEvO-hyYA/s400/101_1641.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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But there are more baskets waiting in the wings - about 60 templates pressed on fabric:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYpjsdRxUuTr0FwO6UIlp9OfcXtkk1LbKK_uZDdVqxWreHAyZ8auTpCepid7AwByvk6qSZcTI_G71QzeOlJRYzfb-rh_WXiIpYT_Px37EfNffmcuWHe1UJvRw0ocJj-frTUBTKhBy0i8g/s1600/101_1640.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYpjsdRxUuTr0FwO6UIlp9OfcXtkk1LbKK_uZDdVqxWreHAyZ8auTpCepid7AwByvk6qSZcTI_G71QzeOlJRYzfb-rh_WXiIpYT_Px37EfNffmcuWHe1UJvRw0ocJj-frTUBTKhBy0i8g/s400/101_1640.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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And more fabric waiting for some template love:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuyex6inlT034ej-gORZPSayVbD1liTRdVv9tHF52aILToJdP5NegXEwPo5MS4D3SX8R56wly5bCxeOUn3Wj0uZOAeUaNuV1YhAy35yi4VWnUaJ7_ihFED6MKYX2ZutUjJQ1lIvN-QbH8/s1600/101_1639.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuyex6inlT034ej-gORZPSayVbD1liTRdVv9tHF52aILToJdP5NegXEwPo5MS4D3SX8R56wly5bCxeOUn3Wj0uZOAeUaNuV1YhAy35yi4VWnUaJ7_ihFED6MKYX2ZutUjJQ1lIvN-QbH8/s400/101_1639.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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Did I mention that I love these little baskets? <br />
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And finally late last week I had room to breathe and I had missed sewing so much, so I took the bull by the horns determined to get the Cotton Club quilt knocked off the list of things to do. I managed to get five blocks finished:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLt-7UzVGYesGh-iCGrGE291gboWwSl3ldcyzvJ6f-Gw7RkMfdTA2rH-iBLQz8jDxSq_Y279zDPejJwj8mst-jMRTID5VBEDB6N_PcF8lTh6ih-gXs8F9cHYEJEymW4QDzTYK-c5846IM/s1600/101_1643.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="332" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLt-7UzVGYesGh-iCGrGE291gboWwSl3ldcyzvJ6f-Gw7RkMfdTA2rH-iBLQz8jDxSq_Y279zDPejJwj8mst-jMRTID5VBEDB6N_PcF8lTh6ih-gXs8F9cHYEJEymW4QDzTYK-c5846IM/s400/101_1643.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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Which now only leaves two more blocks - Woo Hoo!!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYohAqy_OhX6Kwy_7WFWDFovvn9U26_2p093nN7JmMAeHwVTVzwdzup8_0NT0yTYs0quuajbP1AEpCIn4e-kyynlg2xdUxrVu1NJGaTFiRg1EFcTVHJg-tRL4Ridu_nksTwsNmoGwpGm8/s1600/101_1644.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="340" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYohAqy_OhX6Kwy_7WFWDFovvn9U26_2p093nN7JmMAeHwVTVzwdzup8_0NT0yTYs0quuajbP1AEpCIn4e-kyynlg2xdUxrVu1NJGaTFiRg1EFcTVHJg-tRL4Ridu_nksTwsNmoGwpGm8/s400/101_1644.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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So there's my month of September for you. Not a lot accomplished, but October is looking really, really good!!<br />
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One last thing that has taken up some of my time this month was continuing to track my genealogy. The large document that I found was a wealth of information and a lot of the month of September was spent building my family tree. And a lot of Google Translator as a good portion of the front end of the document has events and information all in French. Time consuming and I'm still working on the translating. I finally managed to get the tree finished up at least as far as the document goes. Mundia, which is the site I'm using to build the tree - tends to give you a lot of hints towards other things - you can see the little leaves at the top corners of each person. So now it's a matter of checking out all the hints and start digging. Because my family was so involved in things that happened in Detroit during the 1700's I've found that there are a lot of books that record a lot of their lives and so I need to start trying to track those down.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaZfteLVo3zFDEo7pLFzFenxkrKNJj_r4lhqE_5IUaXL9Vol6gjcTutUYVEjjHYwXLR_Mmgg9Utl62DHpLE0mTj32VZHFEGBw3rjfqDEghyphenhyphenK6Ct-RTGfSk7uz9k9ThXBRhR0zAGRIpIys/s1600/101_1638.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaZfteLVo3zFDEo7pLFzFenxkrKNJj_r4lhqE_5IUaXL9Vol6gjcTutUYVEjjHYwXLR_Mmgg9Utl62DHpLE0mTj32VZHFEGBw3rjfqDEghyphenhyphenK6Ct-RTGfSk7uz9k9ThXBRhR0zAGRIpIys/s400/101_1638.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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One funny story that I did find in the document (and there are a lot of stories pulled from newspapers and documents from the day) was that one of the houses of a relative started on fire and the woman in the house ran out in hysterics and on the way out the front door grabbed a gun that was sitting on a table. Well, she ran out of the house screaming and waving the gun around, got so hysterical that when she got outside and her neighbor came to see what all the uproar was about, my relation pulled the trigger and shot the neighbor dead! Not good!! I've managed to track my family down 28 generations. I'm the 28th. Now I'm in the process of tracking up from the first person that appeared and see how much further I can go back. It's a lot of work, but so exciting!!<br />
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So that was my month of September. Thank you for the comments you left on my last blog post, and I've tried to do a good job of keeping up with everyone (for once) and have really enjoyed seeing what everyone is working on! I really missed that during the summer! Take care and stitch a lot!!<br />
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<br />Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00792171420098351093noreply@blogger.com42tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4971814362018159119.post-70012562766932192402012-09-05T06:00:00.000-07:002012-09-05T08:36:55.894-07:00It's My Blogoversary, Some Stitching and Tree ClimbingHi Dear Friends. It looks like I slid off the blogging wagon again for the past couple weeks, but I'm going to do better from this point out. Promise. The past couple weeks (or three) have been filled with getting DS back up to college, DD registered for school and all the related shopping (you know how those teenage girls love to shop), and my DH's beloved Aunt passed away after a long battle with Alzheimers. So we've had a lot going on the past couple weeks.<br />
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With that said, it's my 4th Blogoversary today!! I can't believe I've been blogging (sometimes rather sporadically) for four years. I've met so many wonderful people, some in person, and I truly love the friendships that I have made through this blog. I hope to blog for another four years and continue the friendships that have really grown close to my heart. Blogging has also brought me an unexpected surprise - but I'll get to that a little later. And yes, I'll have a giveaway. I'm not sure when - soon - once I get the mayhem cleared up from a very busy summer!!<br />
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So what have I been doing the past few weeks besides the above? Well, I've gotten a little more stitched on Elizabeth Clayton, although the progress has been slow. I love working on her with the NPI's and think I'll have to use more silks in the future:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGHVqoRRBpVR0q3uXiAEFuWTprC1-geSooqpxBNW2JnMEqLtB7imKkgt7Ke0O1a-_XYNSznKZrohxkfLWxnGaCS-BacASg3MF3QYeWgRjIdP0mkKYMnaTZh2DJSY1vP942hbfjGGzh8iQ/s1600/101_1626.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="366" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGHVqoRRBpVR0q3uXiAEFuWTprC1-geSooqpxBNW2JnMEqLtB7imKkgt7Ke0O1a-_XYNSznKZrohxkfLWxnGaCS-BacASg3MF3QYeWgRjIdP0mkKYMnaTZh2DJSY1vP942hbfjGGzh8iQ/s400/101_1626.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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I had hoped to be finished with the entire side, but that didn't happen.<br />
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I managed to get a few more basket blocks finished with my QAL with <a href="http://bluehenhollow.blogspot.com/">Siobhan</a> - 8 as a matter of fact. They are the perfect thing to carry around with me.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggugq54T4VHAYAK7BwbsfQ9nGHULlrkhGN__S-PIB9zhdUzh222V4XT4bTwPP35RtyLQabDeyeWzBirdlQp5rGGo3VwctnkTjS96k84c9T9RBtPT0RtQb2k2J43_gBqiaadbfak1f-JBM/s1600/101_1631.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="393" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggugq54T4VHAYAK7BwbsfQ9nGHULlrkhGN__S-PIB9zhdUzh222V4XT4bTwPP35RtyLQabDeyeWzBirdlQp5rGGo3VwctnkTjS96k84c9T9RBtPT0RtQb2k2J43_gBqiaadbfak1f-JBM/s400/101_1631.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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And here are all the baskets that I've finished so far:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXR9t37YYaA47LpNAOYCujGqkA8V5jeRkuzbRrVeyN86BUig5tIJ474Pkfy0jjDQXqzRQ5MxZyKXKChLiYnXGeUAeyIL0GJWjBHSrCK8S3mwuPxsXhhfnumPewOjyTiael5X9xMSUjPRU/s1600/101_1633.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="303" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXR9t37YYaA47LpNAOYCujGqkA8V5jeRkuzbRrVeyN86BUig5tIJ474Pkfy0jjDQXqzRQ5MxZyKXKChLiYnXGeUAeyIL0GJWjBHSrCK8S3mwuPxsXhhfnumPewOjyTiael5X9xMSUjPRU/s400/101_1633.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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23 blocks total with more waiting in the wings! I don't want to think of how many more I have to sew!!<br />
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So there you have it - not too much really. But wait - there's more!! I seem to have gotten myself into another mess with some stitching. I've joined a SAL with<a href="http://chocolates4breakfast.blogspot.com/"> Terri</a>, <a href="http://everybodylovesclark.blogspot.com/">Marsha</a>, and <a href="http://samplerloversblog.blogspot.com/">Sandra</a>. Although I should call her Cousin Sandra, but I'll get to that in a minute. The four of us are going to be working on Susanna Singleton by the Scarlett Letter:<br />
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This will be a lot of fun. Although, truth be told, I totally stink at SALs. We're all doing it over a two year schedule and will post every three months, so maybe there will be hope for me. I've had this in my stash forever, so it will be fun to finally work on her. I don't know where I'm going to find the time, but I'll give it the ole college try. <i>(Edited to add: It seems that since Terri's and Sandra's posts - we've acquired three more SAL girls - <a href="http://ladyofthefloss.blogspot.com/">Gabi</a>, <a href="http://squaziandthechicken.blogspot.com/">Suzanne</a>, and <a href="http://daysofasamplerlover.blogspot.com/">Margaret</a>! Woo Hoo!!) </i>This is going to be so much fun!!<br />
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I also noticed that <a href="http://samplerloversblog.blogspot.com/">Sandra</a> recently posted some beautiful WIPs that she has going on, so you need to look at her most recent post. Since I'm so bad at SALs, I hang my head in shame because the two of us were going to work on Marquoir de Justine together. Take a look at her picture on her blog of her Justine and then look at my progress:<br />
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Shameful, I know. But it's the linen - I'm not loving the linen, so I'm going to have to start it over. This is also not a very good picture of it. It doesn't photograph well! But after seeing Sandra's beauty, I know that I have to stitch it with new linen!<br />
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Now, here comes the Cousin part with Sandra and I and what I meant about Tree Climbing in my post title. That referred to Family Tree Climbing. And if you get bored with reading family stuff, then skip to the bottom!! But I'll try to make it as brief as possible.<br />
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When my husband's aunt died, I stood in the cemetery and started thinking about all the people and what their lives were like. Sometimes we know so little about our relatives. I've even thought about people and their lives when I've gone into an antique store and made a purchase - who owned what I was buying and what were they like. Well, I decided to trace my roots with encouragement from Sandra.<br />
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Here's some of my immediate family - on the left my Great Grandmother, in the middle my Grandfather in his WWI uniform, and my Grandmother, and to the right is my Great Grandmother when she was small. In the middle is my father when he was little. I have a ton of pictures of relatives, but now I'll have some history. Sandra has encouraged me time and time again to trace my roots and I started with my father's side of the family - actually his mother's side of the family - the one in the middle picture. And what a mother lode I found.<br />
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I found out that my Great-Great-Great Grandfather married a woman named Victorie Pelletier (which makes me think of Anne Pelletier who charted Marquoir de Justine - are we related)? Victorie's father was Charles Stanislaus Dagneau de Quindre dit Fortenay. Victorie's mother was a Shawnee Indian. His second wife (or 1st - there is no proof he married the Shawnee woman) was Marie Catherine Chene. Both Dequindre and Chene are well known street names in Detroit. And it appears that good ole Charles had Indian blood in him too (denoted by the use of Fortenay in his name). Oh this is getting good - the black sheep in the family type of thing - skeletons in the closet. Well, it seems that Charles and his family were very prominent and instrumental in the history of Detroit in the 1700's. Are you bored yet?<br />
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If not, there's more. In some articles I came across it was noted that Charles' family (who came from Quebec and France) was key in surrendering Detroit to the British in 1760 (although one article says it was his uncle - Francois Marie Picote and another article said it was Charles - more investigation is needed, but since the records are in Detroit, I should be able to clear up that mystery). And that Charles was instrumental in the capture of Daniel Boone in Blue Lick, Kentucky. Okay, this is cool. But then I came across documents - one after the other and then the mother lode - a 294 page document about the Dagneaux/DeQuindre family beginning with a Henry D'Agneaux (I shortened the name) in 1068!!! Thank goodness for the internet. My direct family started showing up down the line at item 95 and at item 138 appears my GGG Grandmother and Grandfather, and further down the list there are more relatives. I'm thrilled and some documents also tell me where they are buried in Detroit and Windsor. <br />
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In my excitement, I emailed the document to Sandra - not to read - heaven forbid, but just to see what I came across. She glanced through a little of it and discovered another name, DeGrey, on the list that she thought I should investigate further. A quick search on that name takes me back to some Queen in Denmark in the 600's (still investigating that one also). But along the line what else do we find - that we're both related to William the Conqueror and that Sandra's line comes up and converges and she is my Cousin!! To quote Sandra:<br />
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<i><b>"We are related to William the Conq. through his Grandfather Fulbert of Falaise and William's Uncle and Fulbert's Son Reynar. William's Mother was the Daughter of one and the Sister of the other. So that makes William our Cousin many many many times removed. To make things easier, you could say that we all share the same Grandparents". </b></i><br />
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So there you have it. How cool is that?<br />
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So, not only has blogging brought me so many great and new friends, it's also brought me in contact with someone who helped me find my past and is also related. And who knows, a lot of us are probably related somewhere done the line. I'm sure that we've all heard the term ,"We're all related"!<br />
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Now, what I'd love to do is find a sampler that one of my relatives stitched! There are a lot of names in that big document. Maybe I'll find one. Wouldn't that be great??<br />
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If you're still reading this after the brief history of my family and you haven't bolted for the next blog out of boredom, thank you for following my blog, thank you for being a friend, and I hope that our relationships continue for years to come!!! And I hope that we all share another four years of inspiration!!<br />
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<br />Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00792171420098351093noreply@blogger.com52tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4971814362018159119.post-13241988611610050822012-08-21T12:53:00.000-07:002012-08-21T16:40:41.095-07:00Fifty Shades of RedHi everyone!! Sorry for the long absence in blogging. I have missed keeping up on what everyone has been doing. I have to admit that I have been lurking around the blog world here and there, but have been really bad about leaving comments. I actually thought of just leaving Smiley faces when I did manage to find some blog time so that you would know I was there, but I thought that was a little bit lame. I guess that my lack of posting (and commenting) kind of turned into an unplanned sabbatical from blogging. It's been a rather hectic summer and I'm just coming up for air. But I have managed to get a few things done!!<br />
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Now, lest you think that this will be a post about a new trilogy of erotic books like<i> <u>Fifty Shades of Grey</u></i>, put your minds at rest. Although I wouldn't mind writing something like that!! I could make lots of money, have liposuction (okay maybe not - the whole idea of that scares me), bury myself in tons of new stash from all the royalties from the books, and snap my fingers and say, "Here Boy", when I dropped my quilting/stitching needle or needed a little liquid refreshing, all while I'm sitting in my lounge chair looking out over the Mediterranean/Caribbean, etc. Lovely thought, right? Such a dream! But no, this is a PG rated blog. But lately I've been obsessed with the color red. Lots of shades of red - fabric that is! I dream about them, obsess about them and this is what I'm doing with some of those fifty shades of red:<br />
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Okay, I know - this is only 15 shades of red, but I'm working on the other 35 and then some. 276 more (actually 273 more - 3 were off having coffee or something and did not make it into the photo shoot) to be exact, but I try not to think about the number that I still have to do. And I'm working on this with <a href="http://bluehenhollow.blogspot.com/">Siobhan</a> from across the pond. Actually, I jumped on her bandwagon and when she mentioned this quilt and that she was working on it, Trick or Treat, from the Blackbird Designs book, <u><i>When The Cold Wind Blows</i></u>, I just knew that I had to do it. Crazy, yes, I know, 291 basket blocks, another 48 border blocks. Truly insane, but they are so much fun, and it's fun having a partner in crime to work on them with!!<br />
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I had tons of reds in my stash and never knew what to do with them. But now I know. These babies are like eating candy - addicting. And this is my first foray into hand applique (well, okay I'm lying - I tried it a long time ago and absolutely hated it). But times have changed - I had so wanted to make the Phebe quilt, really didn't trust my applique skills, but knew if I wanted that quilt I had better learn how to do it. This is a great portable project and I drag them everywhere when I have to sit waiting for the kids! Everything is in this box and I just pick it up and go!! So much fun!!<br />
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I also managed to machine sew one lone block on my Cotton Club quilt - poor thing. I still have about nine to do and then I can start putting the quilt together. It's the one on the right. There hasn't been much time to sit behind the sewing machine this summer. :o(<br />
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Now, in case you think that I had given up stitching during my unplanned sabbatical from blogging, that would not be the case. I've still managed to put needle to linen and actually have a finish:<br />
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Ann Hall</div>
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The Scarlett Letter</div>
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It was good to finish up this old WIP!! But the whole time I was working on the bird under Adam, I kept thinking that the bird was so large that he could probably swallow Adam up in two bites - ymmm:</div>
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And once dear Ann was finished, I decided to start a new one - Elizabeth Clayton:<br />
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Elizabeth Clayton</div>
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35 ct. Meadowrue</div>
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NPI Silks</div>
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I love working on her. I don't know if it's the silks or what, but she's a joy to stitch. It's always a toss up what I work on at night - Elizabeth or quilt baskets. </div>
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Like I mentioned, it's been just one of those summers where I haven't had a lot of time to myself, but I did manage to take a small break when my sister came to town. Even though she had lived in Michigan for 20+ years before she moved to California, she had never been to Mackinaw Island, so I surprised her and arranged a couple day getaway:</div>
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You get to the island via ferry:</div>
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You grab a bike - the only mode of transportation besides walking or horse drawn carriages:</div>
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(DD makes bike riding look good!) and you ride around:</div>
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The Grand Hotel:</div>
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On the grounds of the Grand Hotel:<br />
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Arch Rock:<br />
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On the main street:</div>
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And a trip wouldn't be complete without some fudge which the island is known for:</div>
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There were more pictures taken with a phone, but they didn't translate well when I tried to post them here. So there is my summer!! Not a lot accomplished as far as stitching and quilting, but I spent a lot of time with my kids and that's always a good thing.<br />
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I'm anxious to catch up with everyone!! I've missed your posts!! I hope that everyone has had a great summer (can you believe it's almost the end of August?) and I'm going to catch up with everyone. I can't wait to see what I've missed!!<br />
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<br />Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00792171420098351093noreply@blogger.com40tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4971814362018159119.post-79883887839840977312012-06-19T10:43:00.000-07:002012-06-19T12:22:40.386-07:00Gosh - Has It Almost Been a Month?Yes, it has, and I guess it's time to make a post. I have been so remiss the past few weeks in reading blogs and making comments and I apologize. I think that now that summer is here (or almost here), I've been spending more time outside than I have inside. So I've been a bad blogger. But I do have a finish:<br />
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Martha Jones 1792</div>
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35 ct. Vintage Examplar</div>
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DMC Threads</div>
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(http://samplers-berlin.com)<br />
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I love how she came out and the colors. What I didn't like were the tulips in the border. For some reason they gave me headaches! I love how the words "Paradife" and "difgrac'd" are spelled. I've never seen that in a sampler - replacing an 's' with an 'f'.</div>
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I also liked that there were some different stitches in this piece - like the Algerian Eye baskets and the satin stitching. There were a couple caveats in the chart though. There were a couple colors called for that were never used - as far as I could tell. The blue bird in the tree was suppose to be a different color, but as blue was called for in the list of threads, yet I never came across the symbol in the chart for it, I made the bird blue. There was also one other color called for that was never used - 407. Some of the symbols were also a little hard to differentiate also, but all in all, it was a fun stitch.</div>
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On the quilting side, I've managed to stay on top of the Cotton Club blocks, and finished up the six that I had sitting around. Good thing too because the next month of blocks came today:</div>
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I love working on these blocks, and I think that I only have a couple more months and the quilt can be put together.</div>
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I've also been working on the Chippewa Nine Patch quilt here and there: All the strips have been made into nine patch blocks:</div>
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And they're ready to be assembled into this - I only (yes, only) need 25 of them:</div>
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They'll all look a little different depending on how I put the individual nine patch blocks together. I can't wait to get through these so that I can put the quilt together. The rest of the fabric looks like this (sorry for the dark pic):</div>
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And last but not least, the Phebe quilt. No, I really haven't started it, but I have traced out all the pieces:</div>
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Not the best picture - sorry. But by my estimation, there are about 209 pieces in just the very center of this quilt. You hear that <a href="http://daysofasamplerlover.blogspot.com/">Margaret</a> and <a href="http://fabulous-cari.blogspot.com/">Cari</a>???? OY! I think that I've bitten off more than I should have with this. Because after this, there is another border that is appliqued. I don't know what the third month will bring, but I'm breaking out in beads of sweat just thinking about it!!</div>
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So that's what I've been up to the past month or so. Part of the reason I haven't been parking my behind the computer so much is that last month I celebrated another birthday (thank you again to all you that remembered) and even though it wasn't a milestone (that's a couple years off), I just decided that I sit too much gazing into the wonderful world of the internet being enabled and getting myself into trouble. So, I've been doing a lot of this:</div>
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Last week I walked 33 miles.</div>
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And a lot of this (until I blew out one of my tires):</div>
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And eating things like this - yum:</div>
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Salmon Fruit Salad w/Raspberry-Maple Vinaigrette</div>
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And I'm not going to make this into a cooking blog, but this dressing is wonderful and non-fat:</div>
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Raspberry-Maple Vinaigrette</div>
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1/2 cup raspberry vinegar</div>
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1/4 cup of maple syrup</div>
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1/4 tsp. salt</div>
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1/4 tsp. fresh ground pepper</div>
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2 garlic cloves, minced</div>
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2 tsp. Worcestershire Sauce</div>
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1 Tbl. Dijon Mustard</div>
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Put it all in a lidded container and shake! This stuff is great - low fat and big on taste - you don't need a lot!!</div>
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So that's what I've been up to and why I haven't been a good blogger. I find that getting up and taking Bailey for his morning walk, I don't feel like sitting down after and I then take off on my own either on foot or bike. You can only cover so much distance or go so fast with a dog that likes to visit every mailbox in the neighborhood! LOL My son has also been getting me to do PX-90 with him. We won't talk about that one! I hope to goodness that he never makes a video of me doing it and puts it on YouTube. I'd never be able to live it down. So anyway, all of this is good for me, but not good for blogging obviously! But I will get back to it and catch up with everyone. There are some days - like today when it's going to be 95 - that unless its early morning or late evening, you don't want to be out in the heat. So today it's catch up time.</div>
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Hope that everyone has a great week! And thank you for all the wonderful comments that you leave. I love hearing from everyone!</div>
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<br /></div>Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00792171420098351093noreply@blogger.com60tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4971814362018159119.post-44931374978395670852012-05-23T12:31:00.001-07:002012-05-23T12:37:23.816-07:00A Little of This and ThatHi 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!<br />
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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:<br />
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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.<br />
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This is what she will look like when she's finished:<br />
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If you're interested in stitching Martha, you can order her from http://samplers-berlin.com.<br />
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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:<br />
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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:<br />
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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:<br />
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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:<br />
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But I still have all these to put together:<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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!!!<br />
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I also picked up a couple dinner bells that I thought were really cute - they were both a few dollars a piece. <br />
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Perhaps I could put one of these by my stitching chair and ring it when I want my <strike>servants</strike> family members to bring me a fresh <strike>margarita</strike> 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<br />
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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!!!<br />
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I hope that everyone has a wonderful week and a fantastic Memorial weekend!! Make it stitchy!!<br />
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<br />Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00792171420098351093noreply@blogger.com52tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4971814362018159119.post-59754367186739289182012-05-09T17:43:00.000-07:002012-05-09T17:43:02.324-07:00I've been at a Loss and a Traveling FoolHi 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.<br />
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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.<br />
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First off is Mary Emmes:<br />
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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.<br />
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Next up is Janet Harris. I saw this sampler on a blog and fell head over heels in love with it:<br />
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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.<br />
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Next up was E. Traill:<br />
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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.<br />
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So on we go to number 4 - Martha Jones:<br />
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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.<br />
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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!!<br />
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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:<br />
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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).<br />
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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!!<br />
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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.<br />
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Once again, thank you for all the wonderful comments on Ann Rayner and I hope that everyone has a great week!Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00792171420098351093noreply@blogger.com32tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4971814362018159119.post-6958442085417032842012-04-18T14:02:00.000-07:002012-04-18T14:02:13.354-07:00Ann Rayner is FinishedHot off the scroll rods - here's Ann! I just had a little bit more to do on her and decided to sit down and finish her up. I love her!! And I'm amazed at myself!!! I finished this one up without pushing her aside half way through which is my Standard Operating Procedure because I always get bored. I never finish anything up all at one time - something else is always calling me. But I challenged myself (this was my Challenge piece for this year, after all) and to tell the truth, there wasn't a boring moment with Ann - some over ones that drove me nuts - I'm not a huge fan of those at all - but there nothing boring about her. (<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>pictures are clickable)</i></span>!!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAeDi2U2ZZ5xhk-YDmn7lyvkFUgFaxIndhqhpv9IpvhDlXI7XNtotvgoYOZtSw_NKpbQB4fUznhFW4-dCP_bUyQOP9QXN126nH6AwvY3kQ8XP2adFn4p354TMyDwDAdlgaLpAhYRztDX0/s1600/101_1494.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAeDi2U2ZZ5xhk-YDmn7lyvkFUgFaxIndhqhpv9IpvhDlXI7XNtotvgoYOZtSw_NKpbQB4fUznhFW4-dCP_bUyQOP9QXN126nH6AwvY3kQ8XP2adFn4p354TMyDwDAdlgaLpAhYRztDX0/s400/101_1494.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;">Ann Rayner from Threads Thru Time</div><div style="text-align: center;">32 ct. Cafe Au Lait fabric</div><div style="text-align: center;">DMC threads</div><br />
And some more pics - a little deviation from the called for hairdo's - I didn't want straight stitched hair so I improvised, and I changed the skin from white to DMC 950:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW4PLE-8qYY1_PMjO-T20UPaEiwL0JBxrPWzEnRkaccdaMzUa_F1tYoxC_u7l344eQ36ij3RHF8e16kiyULPUWHy2FJ4q7Oo47oQIqT1IGNWrkzvLsbFWbuEGDxI_flBSBKzqKl3tSI1w/s1600/101_1496.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjW4PLE-8qYY1_PMjO-T20UPaEiwL0JBxrPWzEnRkaccdaMzUa_F1tYoxC_u7l344eQ36ij3RHF8e16kiyULPUWHy2FJ4q7Oo47oQIqT1IGNWrkzvLsbFWbuEGDxI_flBSBKzqKl3tSI1w/s400/101_1496.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Some sheepies (those little ones were stinkers being that they were over one):<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrY7OU0tkqlXzEWEtlW38VbBfSyX2UkKvujpi4RpaCd7G3V51IbxiRrFPq6P9mNz2lm3haC-hJS5pScWQ_BdVe81-36v_QCSfmeiPBvBRah6DWjwUbgNBmcMAPVIhgUN1CPx94a6mqoIc/s1600/101_1491.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrY7OU0tkqlXzEWEtlW38VbBfSyX2UkKvujpi4RpaCd7G3V51IbxiRrFPq6P9mNz2lm3haC-hJS5pScWQ_BdVe81-36v_QCSfmeiPBvBRah6DWjwUbgNBmcMAPVIhgUN1CPx94a6mqoIc/s400/101_1491.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
And another shot - just because - (<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>because I'm so darned tickled that she's done):</i></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb-OQ99Qr5IFT6Owts-X0hfGhFoKhZlJ_0ca0IvTToDe-MpXcH_37a0Q1mBgSmMGzSVeu_ceaZ7wz5gHAon2y0jMNnHIdpXb3O4qOr13fGEW8-50vv_yxHJHYLLeSoHK3hiNkurRieogo/s1600/101_1503.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="524" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjb-OQ99Qr5IFT6Owts-X0hfGhFoKhZlJ_0ca0IvTToDe-MpXcH_37a0Q1mBgSmMGzSVeu_ceaZ7wz5gHAon2y0jMNnHIdpXb3O4qOr13fGEW8-50vv_yxHJHYLLeSoHK3hiNkurRieogo/s640/101_1503.JPG" width="640" /></a></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i><br />
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I just love her. I think that she'll look wonderful hanging above the Phebe quilt, don't you? I know I'm being overly optimistic that I'll even finish that quilt, but I can see this hanging above the bed in the guest room when Phebe is finished. But now I'm feeling stitcher's remorse. I'm going to miss her and I don't know what to stitch next!!! I guess I'll have to do some stash diving tonight. Well, maybe not - I heard that little voice in my head that says I should go back to a WIP - darned that voice!! Maybe I just won't listen (<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>smile)</i></span>.<br />
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I had a wonderful surprise this week, too. I won a giveaway on Jeanne's blog - <a href="http://willowtreestitcher.blogspot.com/">Willow Tree Stitcher</a> - a beautiful needlebook!! The outside:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2wVgH-Bt2qtTLbeNIH1MCN3N_xyX8V5cuTohx5ugu_wbZRDIKbiQybUaNMWAwVc0gjn8l0lEyWLGmPpSSlvOpeGCgeoNH1XkM4-_IdVgDTk0FeZLG_5SunQkqzkwW5wm_0qWwwBqm7aQ/s1600/101_1499.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2wVgH-Bt2qtTLbeNIH1MCN3N_xyX8V5cuTohx5ugu_wbZRDIKbiQybUaNMWAwVc0gjn8l0lEyWLGmPpSSlvOpeGCgeoNH1XkM4-_IdVgDTk0FeZLG_5SunQkqzkwW5wm_0qWwwBqm7aQ/s400/101_1499.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
The inside:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNsme6ucdjTgzRg8O8LPOMt9-uxkjjl1ykOlJop7IXxtsavDU0soB_Wphc26sQ0UhZLPYoAisQUlTmx0YpoG4lQMUh52a2eVGrQ1CrY1WeDPA_4nhUYg2mJgbr4KzmYn9C7WnwkSxGrrc/s1600/101_1501.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNsme6ucdjTgzRg8O8LPOMt9-uxkjjl1ykOlJop7IXxtsavDU0soB_Wphc26sQ0UhZLPYoAisQUlTmx0YpoG4lQMUh52a2eVGrQ1CrY1WeDPA_4nhUYg2mJgbr4KzmYn9C7WnwkSxGrrc/s400/101_1501.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
Isn't it gorgeous? I think it's beautiful and just love it and am so happy that I received it. The stitching and finishing are both just exquisite!!! Thank you Jeanne!<br />
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Well, this is short and sweet because dinner is brewing on the stove (well, not really - there is a chicken in the crock pot) but it's time to get everything else going. Then I need a long walk. I'm not used to sitting in the stitching chair during the day. I've got a good case of stitch butt going on right now, so a long walk is definitely in order!!!<br />
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Hope everyone is having a wonderful week!!Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00792171420098351093noreply@blogger.com82tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4971814362018159119.post-77077456757232492322012-04-15T07:56:00.000-07:002012-04-15T07:56:20.607-07:00And The Winner is.......Happy Sunday Morning! Just a quick post to announce the winner of the flower frog.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRbExD3QJH1FRbl2lDhOrWCkvkC4_51ijUg3YO27hIm6jRf2EgPtP_RoADbVCzWl68neutexd8kCxoc2M0-MBYhvD4zIHIqTDnXFsKVtxzmiWxh1CPejQXeMh0ii-6_4VJgCYE0y_NTRE/s1600/101_1482.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRbExD3QJH1FRbl2lDhOrWCkvkC4_51ijUg3YO27hIm6jRf2EgPtP_RoADbVCzWl68neutexd8kCxoc2M0-MBYhvD4zIHIqTDnXFsKVtxzmiWxh1CPejQXeMh0ii-6_4VJgCYE0y_NTRE/s320/101_1482.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
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Mr. Random Generator picked:<br />
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<h2 style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;">NUMBER 19</span></h2><h2 style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">And Number 19 is <span style="color: red;">NANCY M. </span></span></h2><div><span style="color: red;"><br />
</span></div><div>Congratulations Nancy!! Woo Hoo!!! Send me your snail mail address and I'll send this right out to you.</div><div><br />
</div><div>Thank you to everyone that entered. I wish that I had a flower frog to send to each one of you! I hope that everyone has a wonderful week!!</div><div><span style="color: red;"><br />
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</span></div>Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00792171420098351093noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4971814362018159119.post-67598327384385796012012-04-08T17:56:00.000-07:002012-04-08T17:56:12.175-07:00Kind of a Quickie Post and a Giveaway!Hi everyone. I hope that you had a great Easter! Ours was good although a little different with MIL still in the hospital. Since my husband's family is Polish they have certain traditions that they follow as far as food. With MIL not able to cook, it was left up to the rest of us to try to carry the tradition. I'm not sure how well we did (I don't have a drop of Polish blood in my body so I'm not the best person to cook those things), but we were all fed (<i>it definitely didn't taste as good as my MIL's food though</i>). BTW, thank you for your wishes for my MIL. Her wrist surgery went well, although they also found that she broke her thumb on the other hand. She's in physical therapy, and if her x-rays look good this Friday, they'll change the cast and send her home. <br />
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Since it's been so busy the past couple weeks with trips out to the in-laws and my DD being home for spring break, I haven't had a lot of time for my crafty pursuits, but I've gotten a little bit more of Ann done. Are you tired of seeing her yet?<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4WIN4BJVtiu6jiRj_opQBCBe9mVq31Bql0dSlFbeO7Zbt8LPWdvN4YI34kwQqBPg4AfVZjVlAAzdTjuSypoaDgotQglowCjqMJlMYJmNGgeVg3QlJQS_VpVVoaeVhBLIjlVrVpPemCXU/s1600/101_1478.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4WIN4BJVtiu6jiRj_opQBCBe9mVq31Bql0dSlFbeO7Zbt8LPWdvN4YI34kwQqBPg4AfVZjVlAAzdTjuSypoaDgotQglowCjqMJlMYJmNGgeVg3QlJQS_VpVVoaeVhBLIjlVrVpPemCXU/s640/101_1478.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>I'm on the home stretch - I finally made it to the final portion! Although with all the grass at the bottom it's going to take me a while. And you'll notice that my people don't seem to have heads (<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">pictures are clickable</span></i>)! Since the parts to be filled in are over one thread, I decided to tackle that at the end. I have a hard time getting any rhythm switching from over two to over one. I hope to be finished with this by the end of next week, but I think that I'm being a little overly optimistic on that score!! I know that I'm getting restless for her to be finished though as I've been rooting around in the overflowing stash for my next stitching victim.<br />
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I've also managed to get a little bit of quilting in. Remember these strips:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjijK3TN7haaT8hyphenhyphenooJL5sYVhpeqV56GNuGk506xNEeDA-7vztCh8fx2RpvZdQbKurSdEHtyUY0PRjZ5rSH0_I-zxVr8JRAAMWDLnWJGOkHaNtzuq-SY4Cz4di7f1HtjP-zTh2NwGN2wDU/s1600/101_1467.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjijK3TN7haaT8hyphenhyphenooJL5sYVhpeqV56GNuGk506xNEeDA-7vztCh8fx2RpvZdQbKurSdEHtyUY0PRjZ5rSH0_I-zxVr8JRAAMWDLnWJGOkHaNtzuq-SY4Cz4di7f1HtjP-zTh2NwGN2wDU/s400/101_1467.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
Well, I managed to get them cut into even smaller strips:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis9OJ8UU50SLuJ5hdLZRqvjW94EgfAnWqbVI9097kXPtBKD65yDb1AeuYfMRtM1rR6lGIr8g9KnQeOI0r-kGhACfjiZbnoi5uto0n4TyE-yuCPTkU1kIMS7GcyICLXv9RqDnD-X26GY8U/s1600/101_1485.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="356" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis9OJ8UU50SLuJ5hdLZRqvjW94EgfAnWqbVI9097kXPtBKD65yDb1AeuYfMRtM1rR6lGIr8g9KnQeOI0r-kGhACfjiZbnoi5uto0n4TyE-yuCPTkU1kIMS7GcyICLXv9RqDnD-X26GY8U/s400/101_1485.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
And from there managed to get a few nine patches done. I started with the colors I didn't like - brown and green. Not my favorite combination, but I wanted to get them out of the way:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYfoHicsI88UwaiU9oolf6z9fAG5Htn90AUASTwe78Cyw2IFEdJidu4WVu4KGYicx-F8BHM9zft3qJxIWwE5E5NMCERncJ5Ezt9GQyzyUQNHHUXtH58Rk5cuXJAxYNNTI4A6gkUHC9VWw/s1600/101_1479.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYfoHicsI88UwaiU9oolf6z9fAG5Htn90AUASTwe78Cyw2IFEdJidu4WVu4KGYicx-F8BHM9zft3qJxIWwE5E5NMCERncJ5Ezt9GQyzyUQNHHUXtH58Rk5cuXJAxYNNTI4A6gkUHC9VWw/s400/101_1479.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>This is going to be a very scrappy looking quilt.<br />
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Then I put together this month's blocks for the Cotton Club. These are such fun little blocks to make and take no time at all. I wish that I could get all the blocks at once because they're like potato chips - you don't want to stop sewing them!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC_HShRH9UI05wV1sVQZMIGTqwc04VPd3qMr1bXQFFhzmzubGdYFLcyiyvBcQrKIW8hB8KWZsBNO5I-eOz1xJDPmU2Bkm92j4CW1Zv5fnLfMIUVj6nEcYSHwGxyKt0IDWbRSyGDCsSS4c/s1600/101_1486.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC_HShRH9UI05wV1sVQZMIGTqwc04VPd3qMr1bXQFFhzmzubGdYFLcyiyvBcQrKIW8hB8KWZsBNO5I-eOz1xJDPmU2Bkm92j4CW1Zv5fnLfMIUVj6nEcYSHwGxyKt0IDWbRSyGDCsSS4c/s400/101_1486.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
So that's about all I've accomplished in the past couple of weeks. Not as much as I'd like, but life gets in the way sometimes. I'm anxiously awaiting my Phebe BOM to show up and it seems that I have managed to get a couple other people on board to do the quilt also. This should be a lot of fun!!<br />
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I did have a surprise last week and won a giveaway on <a href="http://www.deniablydomestic.com/">Kelly's blog</a>. I won the cutest pincushion from her:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_gsmPmotTzM8YSjHPfFlLHUhL1CltYFvN3yslfj_Q280bTEeqiZcCUADukkLK5Khs6ltOC4jbPQVURaqENOn6I-b4iYSfTt6BHKXoZd2YJ6n-I6Y3zYaKEHYY3ZLeyNhNkl5sXdCcNmg/s1600/101_1484.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_gsmPmotTzM8YSjHPfFlLHUhL1CltYFvN3yslfj_Q280bTEeqiZcCUADukkLK5Khs6ltOC4jbPQVURaqENOn6I-b4iYSfTt6BHKXoZd2YJ6n-I6Y3zYaKEHYY3ZLeyNhNkl5sXdCcNmg/s400/101_1484.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
Her blog is called Undeniably Domestic if you want to take a look. She has a really cute blog and has the cutest curtains hanging in her kitchen window made out of aprons! Thank you Kelly!!<br />
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I've noticed that I've picked up quite a few new followers and I wanted to say Welcome to all of you and have a giveaway. I also feel a little bad because I haven't had much time to comment on everyone's blogs with all the things going on with my MIL the past couple of weeks. I've been lurking but haven't had time to leave comments. About a month or so ago, I passed by the Salvation Army. Well, I really didn't pass by, I dropped off donations and ran inside to see what I could find. While in there I found this:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimTsVcqPExKNEpJCX-B8wN9EDjBuNX6esAZ6lMakcuBeLFd3wJzwLkP6OGFf3aIDdRWWJZ-vukUq1cIOBtDa_I3r97WEReNuziGCZp1MwyHlj8AS5ZUzFN-VxvfiLFYfGFf0stuSOYNbs/s1600/101_1482.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimTsVcqPExKNEpJCX-B8wN9EDjBuNX6esAZ6lMakcuBeLFd3wJzwLkP6OGFf3aIDdRWWJZ-vukUq1cIOBtDa_I3r97WEReNuziGCZp1MwyHlj8AS5ZUzFN-VxvfiLFYfGFf0stuSOYNbs/s320/101_1482.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>A flower frog. Sitting there all by its lonesome. I already have one like this, but I couldn't just leave it on the shelf, could I? So I brought it home and would love to send it to one of my followers. I do have to warn that the base does need some cleaning up which I'm not sure how to do, but it's in really great shape otherwise. And it needs a new home. All you have to do is leave a comment that you'd like a chance to win it. I'll probably include something to be put into it also! What's a flower (scissor) frog without scissors? I'll pick a winner next Sunday, April 15th.<br />
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Oh, and before I forget, <a href="http://serendipitousstitching.blogspot.com/">Joanne</a> at Serendipitous Stitching is have an Easter Treasure Hunt. Follow the link to her blog for all the details. I took part in the treasure hunt and you can see my clue in the post before this one.<br />
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I hope that everyone has a great week!!Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00792171420098351093noreply@blogger.com70tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4971814362018159119.post-8735443831215781052012-04-08T05:54:00.003-07:002012-04-08T05:57:36.666-07:00Easter Treasure Hunt<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Jo over at <a href="http://serendipitousstitching.blogspot.com/">Serendipitous Stitching</a> is sponsoring an Easter Treasure Hunt. Just collect the letters by visiting the different participating blogs. Jo's blog will have complete details. If you get them in the correct order, that's easier for you, but if you have to unscramble them, you shouldn't have much problem either. My letter is:</div><h2 style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;">N</span></h2><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjboJfubPcS-MfzpIV1yIZXv7FTdgatlyniVya4h0qVNNpuEVv7QAjX7CSHNVdIcfqB46y9t0wtjeWcbqs0Feo7Hta5D4VzXrjolCDMQ5ZiIN5QnkdycfhC5PIK_AXGIUNSLsuY4256Au8/s1600/000_1120.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjboJfubPcS-MfzpIV1yIZXv7FTdgatlyniVya4h0qVNNpuEVv7QAjX7CSHNVdIcfqB46y9t0wtjeWcbqs0Feo7Hta5D4VzXrjolCDMQ5ZiIN5QnkdycfhC5PIK_AXGIUNSLsuY4256Au8/s400/000_1120.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>This piece is from With Thy Needle and Thread and called Hop Along Bunny.<br />
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</span></div><div style="text-align: left;">To continue with the hunt, next visit Mouse over at<span style="color: red;"> <a href="http://talesofastitchingmouse.blogspot.com/">Tales of a Stitching Mouse</a>.</span><br />
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I hope that everyone is having a Happy Easter!</div>Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00792171420098351093noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4971814362018159119.post-21513365153536303632012-04-05T11:53:00.002-07:002013-06-19T06:23:33.511-07:00Yiota's Xstitch Kit ReviewI was recently contacted by Yiota Christodoulou of Yiota's Xstitch asking if I would be willing to review one of her kits. Yiota and her husband have started a company specializing in cross stitch kits and would like to get the word out on the wonderful kits and charts that they provide. I told Yiota that I would be more than happy to review one of her kits:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl-uSRFhi9hJX8MjtISyX-CgbHM-1P5V6wTyPqBs497HXrOWIZfp5n7KsmkaW-Jv-SsJVW8nXnNdXvRuhIFyepmv0VYEZg3thi8hAL89VR160b47IlKRSUHqnkl2KJ1Is1L0ZtDryY7bs/s1600/101_1474.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl-uSRFhi9hJX8MjtISyX-CgbHM-1P5V6wTyPqBs497HXrOWIZfp5n7KsmkaW-Jv-SsJVW8nXnNdXvRuhIFyepmv0VYEZg3thi8hAL89VR160b47IlKRSUHqnkl2KJ1Is1L0ZtDryY7bs/s400/101_1474.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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After going through her site I chose the Strawberry Thief. You can blow up the pictures to see the design better. I have always loved William Morris' works and thought that this would be the perfect thing to stitch.<br />
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The kit came very quickly - quicker than most things that I have ordered from the United States. That was surprising and a Big Plus in my book. It came in a study cardboard backed envelope and arrived in perfect condition. The kit was packaged wonderfully as well. The Maderia floss is wound around numbered cards that have holes punched in the tops of them for putting on a ring. I liked that. The fabric is Zweigart even weave and will be perfect for this design as the entire piece of fabric is covered.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzTqkE9zogchf4VPqMV1R_atqjNf4RMNi4pjjJFv8E951k5C7QzbcohNv43_TX_qHUnvj5Y3qNmRunchs_b4SR9Vo-YQMf3BS9VE1XLGFjVVZem9Ko-gSrp7W5WUpmhODWbHb45bDnwx4/s1600/101_1476.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzTqkE9zogchf4VPqMV1R_atqjNf4RMNi4pjjJFv8E951k5C7QzbcohNv43_TX_qHUnvj5Y3qNmRunchs_b4SR9Vo-YQMf3BS9VE1XLGFjVVZem9Ko-gSrp7W5WUpmhODWbHb45bDnwx4/s400/101_1476.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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The chart, while probably a little daunting to some as it's completely filled in, is very clear and the symbols very easy to read. She also includes very clear instructions. Another thing I really liked, is that she also includes the DMC conversion (for those that order the charts only). Listed over to the right is the amount of each color that you will need. I thought that was an excellent thing to include as you would know exactly how much thread you would need to complete the design. If doing the piece in DMC, it's nice to know that if I have 1/2 of a skein of a certain color in my stash - or even less - I wouldn't have to go out and necessarily buy all the flosses called for in the piece. I may find that what I have in my stash is more than enough. From the key, I would know exactly how much I needed. So I found that to be a very big plus!!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQHg79iDW2gVbs4_XjWHOUQI8PG1Ar_xK03KFdcopQZYf-v8Yip2mZQBT5Lj1TNt0eeE9yRJgJAovIDyCTC-SLEe6_EY0thX0ELUPXtYpjIofqShzf9YH3gOYY14TGLTxF07QMsAhYH6g/s1600/101_1477.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQHg79iDW2gVbs4_XjWHOUQI8PG1Ar_xK03KFdcopQZYf-v8Yip2mZQBT5Lj1TNt0eeE9yRJgJAovIDyCTC-SLEe6_EY0thX0ELUPXtYpjIofqShzf9YH3gOYY14TGLTxF07QMsAhYH6g/s400/101_1477.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
Yiota's kits come in either DMC or Maderia, and you have your choice of 14 count Aida or 28 Zweigart even weave - although all kits may not be available in even weave as I write this. I believe she is starting to add even weave to her kits as time allows. A needle is also included. Everything you need to start stitching right away.<br />
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One other nice thing about her site and the pieces that she offers is that you can receive charts via email, if you like to kit up your own pieces and also save some postage, via snail mail, or you can receive a whole kit.<br />
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I haven't started stitching this piece, but I know that when I'm ready everything is available and beautifully put together. I would highly recommend her pieces because not only was her delivery very fast, but the kit was put together in a really nice way. There is nothing worse than getting a kit with the threads in a mess.<br />
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Stop by when you have a chance and look at what Yiota has to offer. She has some beautiful charts!Debhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00792171420098351093noreply@blogger.com12