Where Has This Month Gone?

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are not chastising themselves for eating too much! Hard not to do, isn't it?  Then you get to face the leftovers the next day.  Ymmm!  But I hit the treadmill full speed running today.  Between Thanksgiving and my trip to New York and all the food I ate there, I feel like a whale!

I realized today that I've only made one post this month, but there has been so much going on!!  And none of it really stitchy.  This time of year is always busy.  I went on my annual trip to New York:

No, I didn't see the Statue of Liberty this year, but if you can believe this - I didn't take one picture!!!  I think that I was just running around too much with my sister and then running all over the city, that I didn't take a single picture!  Oh, maybe one of my sister's cat, but I'll spare you that one.  The doll was sent to me by my mother - another Barbie to add to the collection!

Sis and I had a wonderful time.  The weather was wonderful while I was there - in the 60's.  I only had two days with her, but we combed the North and South Forks of Long Island for antique treasures.  Treasures are not the same there as in Michigan, but I did come up with a couple things:

Another flower frog to add to my collection.  This one is quite large, made in England and perfect for all the little things I have around my sewing machine and keep misplacing while I'm sewing - like being knocked down on the floor or hidden under what I'm sewing.  Now they have a home.

I also found the wooden spools, cheap I might add, for putting lace on, a half doll to make a pincushion out of, and the angel plate.  Not huge scores, but antique shops aren't quite the same in LI as they are here in Michigan, and these came from the North Fork (the less affluent side of LI).  But we had a wonderful time driving around, eating calamari and seeing the sights.  I always hate leaving, but look forward to the next year.

After that I spent a couple days in the City and those are always wonderful times too.  The weather again was perfect - 65 and you didn't really need a coat!  I can never get enough being there and all of the great sites to see, and the things to do.  If you have some money you'll never starve or have a hard time finding things to buy in New York.  But I never go into stores and shop - I just love wandering the city and seeing the sites - like the window displays, all the billboards and the people.  I did go into St. Patrick's Cathedral - beautiful - and a few other places, but mainly just walked around.  I can't wait to go again.

A few weeks before I left, I made a trip to my not so local LNS and on the way home stopped in the town of Holly for a quick run through in one of the shops and walked out with these:

These were all from one store and ridiculously cheap!  I always love a good find.

Because of all the activity over the past few weeks, I haven't made much progress on Frances Eden:

Pretty pathetic!  I'm starting to get used to the colors of this though, but as always happens when I've been away from stitching for a week or so, my mind starts to wander around for something else to work on.  I'm trying to be good, but I have this bad desire to dig through stash and see what else I can come up with.

And of course, like a pesky relative, my Farmer's Wife blocks showed up for this month!!!

I guess I have my work cut out for me, although reading through the directions, there doesn't seem to be any template cutting, so maybe I can make short work of these.

So that's it - a rather boring post!  Hopefully, I can get back into the swing of things now that I've recuperated from my trip.  I always come home exhausted, over fed, but smiling!!

I haven't even looked in my Blog reader to see how far I'm behind on reading - I think that I have a lot of catching up to do!  Thank you so much for your comments on my last post and for the congratulations to my son for his college acceptances.  We're still waiting on the coveted U of M letter, but I think that we have another week or so before we hear anything.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed!!  And thank you to all my new followers!  I came back from my trip and saw that I now have 407!!!!  Wow!  I'm shocked, but also humbled that you stop by to see what I've been up to.  Thank you all so much!!  I hope that the rest of your holiday weekend is great!!!

Giveaway Reminder, My 100th Post and Not Much Else

I really don't have much to say, but wanted to remind everyone about my giveaway.  If you haven't signed up, just leave a comment on my previous post.  I'll be pulling a name first thing on Monday, July 19th.  I'm really taken back by all the new followers that have jumped on board.  I'm so happy to meet all of you and if I haven't visited your blog yet (if you have one), I will soon.

And yes, this is my 100th post!  Woo Hoo!  I can't believe that it snuck up me.  I feel like there should be balloons and dancing boys!  A champagne bottle uncorking or at least some sparkling water.  Well, maybe not on the dancing boys - my DH may not approve!  LOL  But I'm having a hard time believing that I've made this many posts.  I promised a giveaway when I reached that point and it will happen.  I think that I'll combine that and my 2 year blogging milestone together.  Or maybe not.  Maybe I'll sneak in another giveaway after the current one.   Aw, two more giveaways would be better, right?

Not much has been going on around here.   Not much stitching and not much quilting either.  But I do have a small finish that I had framed:

Petites Lettres Rouges

Freebie from Blackbird Designs

I sat on this piece for the longest time trying to figure out what to do with it.  A pincushion, a flat fold, what?  I finally decided to get it framed because I need some small things for my craft room.  The matt color looks too pink in this picture - IRL it looks more like the lighter letters of the sampler.  I think it came out sweet and will look great in the craft room.

The reason there hasn't been much going on is that our air conditioning died.  Boy, this has been a year - first our furnace earlier in the year, then the appliances and now the A/C.  I guess that's what happens when the house reaches the 20 year mark.  We've been without it for a week.  Long story on that one - one company not diagnosing the problem and giving us freon we didn't need.  The condensor was blown - so it's been a back and forth thing trying to get it fixed - by another company.  The new A/C is being put in as I write this, but it's been rather hot to do much of anything.  Sitting under my Ott Light and stitching was just not something that I wanted to do.  But that should be the last it, hopefully, as far as major expenses.  I think we're going to be living on hot dogs and beans for a while!  LOL

The basement has been relatively cool (thankfully), so I did get in a little quilting, but not much - it's hot standing around an ironing board too.  I worked on the Marti Michell quilt.  There are six of these blocks.

Why is this one not totally put together (nor the other five)?  Well, I pulled a stupid human trick and sewed the corner blocks the wrong way (and there were specific instructions to watch orientation which I obviously ignored - DUH), so the green and white squares have to be all taken off (all 24 of them) and put back on correctly.  UGH!!!  The more I work with this quilt, the less I like it.  The fabric has to be some of the thinnest I've ever worked with, stretches like crazy and so having to rip out anything is a tedious process.  So on to Plan B:

The Farmer's Wife Quilt - Two more down and one to go and I'm caught up for the month!  The one on the right, Corn and Beans, gave me headaches.  It's not perfect, but I'm happy.  And I see a wrinkle in the black and white one - I'll have to investigate that - probably an ironing error.  The third one would have been done, but the rotary cutting instructions that came with the BOM didn't jive with the templates so I have to cut out a whole new block.

I haven't posted any thrifty finds lately - probably because there hasn't been much, but I do have a few.  I found this glove mold one day while I was out and about at an antique store I had never seen before:

I've never come across a glove mold in any of the stores I had been in before and it was a pretty good price I think - $10 so it came home with me.

This weekend I was on a secret mission.  I can't disclose any details right now, but will next month.  Anyway, I drove to Ohio and my destination was really close to Sauder Village, so I stopped in.  I had the T-Bag pattern, but had to pick up these fabrics.  I just love pink and black:

Then another sign for my craft room:

The sign seemed fitting because I feel at times that I'm going at this quilting like a crazy fool.

Ohio has a ton of antique shops, thrift stores, etc.  I wish that I could have stopped at every one that I saw during my journey, but I only ended up stopping at one.  I'll try to stop at more when I go back in a couple of weeks.  But I did find a couple things all for under $10.  A deal to me:

The je t'aime ribbons came from the quilt store, but I came away with yards of pretty laces, a jar full of buttons, and the large glass jar filled with crochet cottons and hankies that someone was edging.

Pure Irish linen:

I was a happy camper.  Hopefully when I go back in a couple weeks (with sister in tow), we'll get a really early start, do what we have to do and mindlessly drift our way back home via all the antique stores.  Speaking of  my sister coming in - she's all geared up for our annual antique tour, touristy dinner at Frankenmuth and all the other crazy things we got into while she was here last year.  Her price of admission: putting up the shelves in my craft room.  I'm the crafty one (although she paints), but she could appear on an episode of This Old House for all the things that she knows how to do.

Thank you so much for your response to my giveaway and don't forget to sign up on my previous post if you haven't yet.  I wish that I had enough flower frogs to send one to everyone.  But I guess the best I can do is find them and give them away.  But thanks again for being a regular follower, a new follower or a lurker.  Your comments mean the world to me.

What I did on Easter Vacation (Lots of Pics)

It's been another busy week around here.  DH and kids home for eleven days (I need to insert a picture of a frazzled cat here), relatives in from out of town for five of those days, college campus tours for my son (University of Michigan and Michigan State University - he can't be that old, can he?), some antiquing and very little stitching.   I always think that nothing is really going on - that I have just about the most boring life on earth - but when I take a step back from what I posted last time, I realize that there is something always going on.  If there's not, then I have to get in my car and make trouble at the antique/thrifty/quilt stores. LOL  But, if I haven't visited your blog this week, it's not because I didn't want to.  It's because of lack of time!!  I'll catch up.

Stitching progress on Elizabeth Clayton has been slow this week :

I started going down the side and then got bored with that and went into the house.  I'm bored with that too, but I'm almost done.  I do see a stitch that I'm going to have to go in and fix on the house though.  UGH.  I love the bright colors in this piece.  I still have some things to do on the trees, but figured I'd catch those up when I got to the trees on the other side of the house.

I also started Hannah Lancaster.  This poor chart has been in the stash pile for years, and I decided that it was time that she got some daylight:

Not too much stitching on this piece.  I am actually doing this as a SAL!  Yes, you read right!  Me - who absolutely stinks at SALs - is going for the gusto and trying to do this.  I'm stitching this on Sundays with Sandra and Tawny (no blog).  It's going to take me a long, long time, but at least the dust is off her now! This is a good compliment piece to Elizabeth above, because the colors are much drabber.  I'd probably have a hard time working on Hannah day after day.

I received some wonderful packages in the mail the past week or so.  From Ranae I received the cutest ornament.  Don't you just love it!!!  I think that it's absolutely adorable.  So perfect for the time of the year it came around - Easter, but so sweet it will be displayed all year round.  Thank you so much Ranae - I just love it!!

On Diane's blog, I won a giveaway that she recently had.  I think that great things come in small, sweetly wrapped packages:

Mausimom Freebie

32 ct. Natural Linen w/ NPI Silk

Diane's stitching and finishing is absolutely beautiful.  I just love it Diane.  Thank you so much for picking my name (she also put her initials and date on the back).

Okay, one more.  For someone who was barely home this week and unable to stalk the mailman (and he was probably very happy about that), he was busy delivering things.  I also won a giveaway on Terrie's blog.  She is the owner of The Stitch Store (formerly the Dogwood Patch) and is just the sweetest person to talk to.

Terrie had emailed me and told me that I had won her giveaway, but also left her phone number.  I thought it would be great fun to actually call a person that I had won something from.  Email is nice, but to actually hear the voice of the person was wonderful.  We both had a few minutes of chuckling over our different accents - she being southern and having the voice to prove it, and me with my hard Northern talk.  But she is a sweet, sweet lady and I think that if you're looking for stitching supplies, you should give her a shout.

On Saturday, Terri and I met up at a high school that was having an antique show.  From there we went to a few different antiques shops.  We actually had a little route that I kind of planned out.  Although at one point my routing skills went awry and we almost ended up lost.  Stopping at a convenience store in a very small town is sometimes a scary thing!!!  Anyway, we had a great time and we did have an encounter with a small homeless dog.  I'm going to leave that story to Terri, but it has a wonderful ending.  Anyway, I found a few goodies:

This beautiful blue bowl.  I love, love the color blue and I just had to have it.  I'm almost kicking myself now because one of the booths we visited had a lot of plates that matched this.  I wish that I had gotten them now or at least a place setting of it.  I love tables with different place settings.  But I thought that perhaps this bowl may be frog-worthy....and it is.  I happened to have a top that fits perfectly into it.  But to tell you the truth, I almost like this bowl without the frog.

Then I found this old lunch pail - it does need some cleaning:

Actually, I wasn't going to buy this, but Terri convinced me that I needed it!!  Like a hole in the head!  LOL  But I'm glad that I got it.  

Some sewing supplies (except for the key).  The scissors are supposedly from the 1880's.  They look like it with the dull patina.  Never can turn down a pretty pair of scissors.  And I love the scene on the tape measure - and it actually still works.

I loved this thimble.  One booth had it for double the price I paid for this one, so I couldn't pass it up.

Then some pincushions.  Actually the only one from the antique show/shops is the one on the right.  The backing fabric is very faded - you can tell that it was a wonderful blue at one point.  The other two pincushions are ones that I found at an antique barn that we discovered - although they're definitely not antique.

Along the way, we stopped into a quilt store.  Now, even though I keep telling myself that I don't need a darned thing, that I'm in a crafting slump and don't need more stuff, I caved.  

I just couldn't resist.  I've seen a lot of these Schnibble's patterns on different blogs, and finally decided to buy a couple.  Along with the Tuffit pattern and a needle case pattern.  Now, will someone get a prod under me and get me down to the sewing room?????

Then to top it all off I had to buy these - the newest Gingher scissors (and of course, I've forgotten the name and I'm too lazy to talk downstairs for the case).  The teacup and saucer was my grandmothers.  Just gotta love those 50% off coupons at Joanne's.

 

Well, like I said, I think that I never really have anything to blog about, but then I discover that I do.  But I wish someone could shake me and get me out of the crafting slump.  I think the weather has just been too nice here in Michigan for me to want to stay inside much!!  Which means - more antique shopping.  I still have more pictures to show from my previous jaunts but I'll save them for another time.  Have to fill up my posts with something since stitching is at a minimum.

Thanks everyone for stopping by and leaving what wonderful comments that you do.  I truly feel blessed at having met so many wonderful people through blogging.  And thank you again Ranae, Terrie and Diane for the wonderful goodies that arrived in my mail this week.  I hope that everyone has a happy and stitchy week.

Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Stitching

Happy Weekend everyone! Hope the weather is great where you are. Spring finally came to Michigan! It's about time. 82 degrees!!! And wouldn't you know it, I have to sit inside and watch my niece make her First Holy Communion today! I shouldn't complain though - she's going to have a beautiful day for this blessed event! And after the service and dinner, I'm stitching while everyone sits around and gabs!!

I did get some stitching done which surprises me. I'm trying to get the Spring housecleaning done and get in some more time organizing my craft room. The craft room took a backseat because the rest of the house needed it more. Like almost everyone I see on the blogs lately (or ones that I watch) , I jumped on the bandwagon and stitched BBD's freebie, Petites Lettres Rouge. I kind of felt like a lemming going to the sea because of so many people I see doing this. But stitching this really got me over my fear of stitching one-over-one.

Petites Lettres Rouge
1 over 1 on 32 Ct. Cream Belfast Linen
Crescent Colors Clay Pot, GAST Mulberry, GAST Raspberry Parfait

I was going to put a family name into it besides my own, but then decided that I'd just put mine in as I've put family into others that I've done. I probably should have put my grandmother's name - Olive Kaupp - into it because she was the person who taught me to embroider when I was about 10 years old. We used to call her Olive Oyl behind her back. I think she knew though and got a chuckle out of it. But she was tall and thin, so the name kind of fit her. BTW, the pitcher in the background was hers. She liked collecting things like that and some of it became mine when she passed away. I'm going on the hunt now for a small frame or may make it into a needlebook of some sort and display it amongst my red transferware.

After I got that done, I went back to Shores and made a little progress. I'm dreading all the fill-in I'm going to come across with the grass and the water. But I'll keep plugging along and as incentive have picked out my next piece to do. I should pick up Cape Cod Girls again, but you know, I seem to have another case of startitis (or crafting ADD) and am using the new project as incentive to get this fill-in done on Block #3. We've got to do what we can to keep ourselves going, right?

Not too much else went on this week. I did make another road trip (well, actually was doing stuff I had to do and stumbled on a few sales out in the country). My periodontist appointment was cancelled on Wednesday, they prescribed more antibotics (I should be immune from anything for a while) and have an appointment next Tuesday. Nothing like putting off the agony! Anyway, in my travels this week I came across a couple things. I think I'm going to have to do this more often because I live right on the border of the country and there always seems to be some estate sale, some farm closure or just plain old garage sales going on. Of course, what was suppose to be a maybe one hour errand run, turned into an all day affair!

These pictures are kind of washed out. Probably should have shot the pics outside because this really is a deep black. This old plate shelf (at least that was how it was described to me) was a must have when I saw it. Not only was it black, but will fit perfectly in what little wall space I have in my kitchen. And it's in pretty good shape so I don't think I'll have to do anything to it. Just find a plate. I love the knobs on the drawers.

Then I found this little piece. I think that I may paint this another color as I'd like to use it in my craft room for hanging smalls (of which I'll probably do a lot more of now that I've gotten over my fear of one-over-one!).


I also found a great map print that I'll post another time. It will look great in our family room. I can't seem to get a good picture of it because it's framed. I don't like the frame, so it needs to be taken out of that and put into something else. A project for this week!
I stopped myself there. DH has been lifting his eyebrow at me a lot with all these purchases. He knows I've been on the hunt for an antique sideboard for my dining room, but I keep coming home with all this other stuff! Oh well, it's fun!
That's about it. Have to get ready for my niece's communion! Hope you have a great weekend and week and thanks again for all the comments! I really like hearing from everyone.