It's My Two Year Blogoversary!!!! And an Oldie Framed!

Wow!!! I can't believe that two years have gone by since I first started my blog.  Time certainly does fly when you're having fun!  I have had such a great time blogging, reading other people's blogs (although I've been hopelessly lax with that lately) and making so many friends and having so many wonderful email conversations with people that I've met.  Well, a blogoversary should have a giveaway, right?  Right!  But I'm going to hold off on that for a month because......well, I just don't have time for one.  See, one of the reasons is that life's spinning out of control lately with what I call crazy August, and getting the kids ready for school, etc.  And then I've been so fortunate to make so many wonderful friendships through blogging that I'm actually going to be meeting up with a good many of them in Utah in a few weeks at the Shepherd's Bush retreat (no, I'm not going to the actual retreat, just going out to chill), so I have lots to get ready!  Be still my heart!  Jolene, Loraine, Cathy, Cari, along with Terri and Julie, and and who knows who else.  If you're going to be there, let me know!!!  I would love to meet you.  This will be my first real get away with the girls to stitch, gab and shop since before I got married!!!!  Can you tell I'm excited?  Besides myself!!!  So, I'll have a giveaway in about one month!!  Maybe I'll pick up some goodies for the giveaway, so stay tuned!!!

Because August blew by at such a rapid pace, I don't have much to show.  Crafting and stitching has been nil!!!  Absolutely nil. Do you know how much I'm missing it?  It's making my skin itch just thinking about it.  But the kids go to school on Tuesday, so maybe, just maybe, I'll be able to get some stitching and sewing done!!  But you know, I have to show some pictures, so I'll show you a piece I recently got framed, but I'm bowing my head in shame because it's been hanging in the closet for twelve years.  Such a slacker I am!!  But with the great framing sales at Joanne's, it time to get them out of the closet!!

Meet Me At the Field

Sheepish Designs

Mystery fabric (how can I remember after 12 years?) and DMC threads

But I haven't been completely idle on the crafty front.  If you can't do anything, my motto is to accumulate more!  Good motto, huh?  LOL  So that's what I did.  While my sister was here and we were in the quilt store picking out a quilt for me to make for her, I saw one made out of these fabrics:

Can you say LOVE?????  These fabrics are just not my normal faire, but there was something about them, and the quilt that was made from them, that I just HAD to have those fabrics.  The fabric that the folded pieces are sitting on is the backing.  LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!!!   It's going to be a relatively easy quilt - kind of like a Yellow Brick Road quilt if you're familiar with that.  I can't wait to get the rotary cutter out!!!  Did I say LOVE???????????

Then I just had to pick up these because Green Fairy Quilts was having a sale - buy one layer cake, get the charm pack free - can't shake a stick at that, so............they had to be mine, and don't they have a nice fall feel to them???  Speaking of fall - it arrived here!  Wow, from 90's to 60's in what seemed like second's flat!  But it feels so good!!  Tomorrow will be in the 80's again though. But anyway, I thought that these would be great for making some of those Schibble quilts that I'm seeing all over.  They've started growing on me big time!!

Now, before you think that I've abandoned stitching forever, that's not the case.  I also picked up these just because I've seen them on blogs and had to have them.  I didn't like them so much until I actually saw them finished:

And then I heard that some Jean Hilton's needlepoint pieces were being re-released (again, another dear blogger alerted me to that fact).  So, I had to order this too - it was originally a teaching piece, but now that Jean has passed away, it's on the market again:

I've had an itching for needlepoint so this will fit the bill nicely, although I have another one of her pieces in progress, so I should probably finish that up, don't you think?  Naw, maybe not!!  I did another one of her pieces years ago - Gleneagle:

Her pieces are so wonderful to work on - intricate, but fun.  This one I did back in 1995.  I still wonder how I got it done - I was working then and my son was two!!

So that's about it for me for now.   Thank you so much for all the wonderful comments you left me on my last post, especially about Bailey.  He's doing great, although it's definitely like having another baby in the house.  He's been part of the reason I haven't had much crafty love lately.  I haven't wanted introduced him to the craft room until he's potty trained, and since my room is in the basement and a long way from the back door to carry a heavy, dribbling puppy, he hasn't been allowed down there, but I think that we're on the home stretch.  No messes if quite a few days now.  He's a terror on four paws, but such a love:

How can you not love this precious thing (sleeping with his gift from his Aunt Cindy)?

Anyway, thank you again for all your wonderful comments and friendships.  I truly cherish them.  I know that I've been hopelessly remiss in reading blogs, but bear with me - I'm trying!!!   And I hope that you're enjoying this long holiday weekend with your family and getting some stitchy time in!! 

Life is Like a Bowl of Chocolates

.....you just never know what you're going to get, do you?  This has been one of those weeks where I've gotten a lot of things, and some of those things were things that make a mom's heart sputter.  I'll get to those in a minute.

First was some framing.  I didn't know what I was going to get with this white frame.  I wanted something that would go in the room where it's intended as it's a very light room, but....

My Quaker House

Blackbird Designs

40 count French Vanilla 

I sat on this piece forever (since July 2008) and didn't know if I wanted to make a needle roll out of it or frame it.  I think I want to take the frame off and paint it and sand it down and have some of the white show through.  What do you think?  Also, the matt is not quite that color - more of a green blue - don't know what is up with the camera!

I started a new project because I was getting a little tired of Adam and Eve's, so I kitted up a few things and started on this:

Susanna Lane

The Scarlett Letter

This is really a lot of fun to stitch.  I couldn't get a closer picture of it because it's fairly wide, but I managed to get that done in the past week.  It's the one of the things that calmed my nerves.

I also got four more of the As Time Goes By quilt finished.  It helps when they're already cut out - just sit and put the pedal to the metal:

Now eight down, four more to go.

Calm nerves are just what I need right now.  It's really been a week - starting off with a visit to my front porch by the men in blue - well actually, one man and women and they were dressed in brown - Oakland Country Sheriff Deputies.  Kind of a scary thing when they come knocking at 12:30 at night.  Well, it wasn't anything too terrible.  Just an incidence of some eggs being thrown at my son's friend's neighbors and my son's car being there and the license given to the police.  Since my son didn't have the common sense to leave the scene of the crime, he's on a few days of grounding.  Now, I've been known to throw a few eggs in my time (it was always a big High School Senior Skip Day thing - rite of passage), so I kind of have to smile.  If that's the worse thing that he gets wrapped up in, I think I'm blessed.  But the grounding should serve as a gentle reminder to tow the line.  Whether he had an egg in his hand or not, throwing at people (if that's exactly what happened) is not a good thing.  He's had Physics - he knows the consequences.

But then two days later, I'm in and out of hospitals with my daughter and then my son.  Possible pneumonia with DD and possible fractured leg with my DS.  You have to love a good time, don't you?  No pneumonia for DD, but possible asthma.  UGH.  And DS - huge collision on the soccer field during his summer gym class.  Diagnosis - badly bruised and sprained ankle and leg - not broken, thank goodness.  Of course, all of this with my son has to happen while I'm sitting in a car dealership across town with my tires and brakes lying on the floor!  That's enough to frazzle a mom's hair.

So to calm my nerves in between all these fun events, I stitched and fiddled around in the craft room, unloading shelves, going through things.  Physical activity is a sure fire way to calm myself down.  And I found another pizza box treasure.  An I Spy Quilt that I started for my kids.  It was part of the reason I saved up to buy an embroidery machine just so I could embroider the words on the side.

Did I ever do that?  Of course not - this is what it looks like:

Two rows put together.  And my favorite blocks so far:

My sister and my son when he was smaller, and for some reason that zebra driving the car cracks me up. 

And, of course, we have to have a block that has something to do with sewing:

I've pulled this quilt out and am going to try to finish it up.  My kids are both older now, but I still think it will make them smile.   Everything is cut out and ready to go, so no excuse not to.

Well, that's all the news that's fit to report this week.  What a week!  Dear sister is coming in tomorrow and I can't wait.  But I've got a ton of things to do before she gets here though and haven't been a very good blog reader this week at all.  I don't know how much time I'm going to have in the next few weeks, but I'll at least look, if I don't comment.

Have a wonderful weekend!! 

  

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.

Change is Good!

Happy Friday everyone!!!  I don't know about the weather in your part of the country, but it's an absolutely beautiful day here.  Sunny, warming up, snow melting!  In the 40's all weekend!!  Definitely has to put you in a happy mood.  For some reason I keep hearing Martha Reeves and the Vandella's singing Heat Wave!  LOL   But it's also made me have Spring fever in the worst way, so I have barely spent a minute in the house the past week and when I have, all I can say is that you can see your reflection in my shower tiles - okay, maybe not, but they're clean!  LOL  I even tried to clean up my blog, but I'm not sure that I like it.  I'll just have to play with it some more.   It also made me clear out my change basket for some goodies, but I'll get to that in a bit (beware - a lot of pictures).

I didn't get a lot of stitching done this week.  Another night or two and this baby will be finished:

Margaret Pence.  I do love stitching on this, but once again, those danged frogs came out of hiding and were snipping at my tail all week!  I don't know what it is about these smaller pieces, but they are the bane of my existence.  My next piece will definitely have to be a larger piece.

Quilting is going slow too.  I've made a little bit of progress.  I went from this:

To this - kind of scary doing that:

To this:

Kind of crazy blocks, don't you think?  I have a hard time with combining all these crazy fabrics together.  As we all know, I'm anal - I like things to match up, coordintate, live in perfect harmony when finished.  This doesn't even come close - not even the circles match up because you cut them freehand!  So this is a real learning experience for me - learn not to be anal!  I hope to have the whole quilt pieced in the next couple days - that is if I stay home long enough to do it!

Yesterday, I had my rug hooking class, and I just love it.  Problem is that rug hooking doesn't seem to like me.  This is my progress or lack of progress.  Instead of going forward, I've gone completely backward.  In other words, I sheared my sheep:

Poor sheepie.  Thank goodness it's getting warmer around here because this poor thing is bare!  I don't hook high enough.  I seem to have the hang of it, but my loops aren't high enough, so I pulled the whole thing out.  I do love going to class though.  Kris is a great teacher.  Yesterday we learned about binding our rugs.  I think I'm a long way off for that!  But you may want to check our her blog.  She's posting a rug a day and her rugs are just beautiful.  So beautiful in fact, that I just had to pick up this baby:

This was the beauty that was staring out from the background in my last post.  I just have to do her, but like I said, I've got to get those loops higher!  I'm going for a make up class tomorrow, so more fun and more eye candy.

Anyway, Spring brings change, and I had a whole lot of it:

I throw all my change into this basket.  When it gets full, I roll it and start over again.  If there are a lot of quarters when this baby is full, I rake in about $100.00  I could get rich with the amount of change that my kids leave laying around, that comes out of their pants pockets on laundry, etc.  I also collect those bills that come out of pockets.  I don't keep anything over $5.00.  Unfortunately, I think my kids are catching on to my change snatching because I haven't seen a lot of it in the past couple of weeks.  So, anyway, I collect all the change, roll it, and hide it away.  But, of course, I'm not a rich woman because I go on road trips and spend it all on stash.

First stop was a quilt store that I had not been to before as it's quite a distance from my house, but near my rug hooking class, and well, you just have to kill two birds with one stone, right?  So I came home with this:

A bunch of patterns!!

And more patterns.  The fabric in the front are my first three installments of the Farmer's Wife Quilt.  But I needed the book before I can start on it, so had to pick that up along with the BBD book.

Then I had to pick these up!  Done in Civil War prints.  This store, Wendy's Simple Stitches in Howell, Michigan, had a whole room of Civil War fabrics.  Oh, be still my heart.!!! I have a funny feeling that I'm going to be burning a lot of that Goodyear rubber going out to that shop.

Then I had to make a couple trips out to my not so local LNS' to see what new Market goodies there were.  Now mind you, I wasn't going to buy a thing (yeah, famous last words):

Obviously the bad won over the good in this case and I didn't listen to me telling myself that I didn't need anything more to stitch.  And I'm still not finished.  Becky RAK'd me with a gift certificate to Down Sunshine Lane that I have to use and I did do a little bit of web surfing too.  I just had to have those scissors to add to the collection, and the sheep and tape measure just because, well, I'm a hooker now too.  And I love, love the BBD book.  So many great projects to do in that book.  I can't wait to dive into it!    Most of these goodies came from Stitches 'N Things, but I also picked up a few things at the The Rocking Horse  This store is a feast for the eyes, but the only thing lacking is that they don't carry the linens us sampler lovers love.  But here are a couple pictures:

This is the upper level (sorry for the dark picture)

Part of the lower level.  There is more behind me, but I forgot to take a picture of it.

This shop has a ton of things in it.  I forgot to take a picture of the Shepherd's Bush area, but I think you can see that it's full of eye candy.  Models are hanging all over the shop.  But they're not into the sampler things that I particularly like, but still fun to go to.

So that's been my week!  I definitely had Spring fever.  I'm exhausted.  All that shopping can really tire you out!  LOL  I do try to rationalize these purchases with the thought that my summer is really crazy with the kids and road trips are not something that usually happens.  So I need to stock up now!

Well, I'm off to catch up on everyone's blogs.  I've barely read anything in the past few days.  Tomorrow I'm going for a make-up hooking class, and I'm hoping that my sheep will look sheepy again.  And on Sunday I'm going to rest and play with all my goodies.  Okay, I lie.  I see a lot of laundry (oh, maybe more change too) and more cleaning in my future, but I can think about all the stitching goodies.  Maybe next week I can play with them - I'm not getting back in my car except for my hooking class if I can help it.

Thanks for stopping by and leaving comments when you do.  I do love hearing from everyone.  Have a wonderful weekend, and I hope that it's warming up in your part of the world too!

Today I was a Hooker

Okay, don't be shocked.  Two posts in a week - unheard of from me.  But I'm so excited!  Today was a great day.  I finally made it to my long awaited rug hooking class with Kris Miller of Spruce Ridge Studios.  It was so much fun, but I have so much to learn!   And I have to send a huge thank you to Melody for telling me about Kris!

I was the newby in the class, or I should say the newest.  A couple of the other women were new, but had a couple of weeks on me.  One woman (and forgive me that I don't remember her name) just started, had designed her own rug and was almost finished with it.  I hope that she brings it next week so that I can show a picture of it!  It was so cool!!  I don't have a lot of pictures because I didn't want to run around startling people and being aggravating.  Next week, I'll take a few more.  Kris' wool collection is to die for!  And the finished rugs she had were seriously drool-worthy!!!

In this picture, Kris is demonstrating how to do different types of eyes.  In the background, you will see a face (actually a face of an angel on a rug that I just have to do - yep, already I have the fever - LOL).  Kris had such wonderfully different methods of doing eyes depending if it's an animal's eye, a person's, etc.

These are some of the different eyes that she demonstrated.

There was just so much to see and drool over - honestly.  By the time that I watched everything, looked through kits and admired everyone's work, and Kris taught me the ropes of beginning hooking, it was almost time to leave.  This is what I ended up getting accomplished:

Not a whole heck of a lot!  Just about nothing!  I do need to trim that one piece of wool sticking up! Kris suggested that I start with something small for my first time.  The larger pieces were pulling me like a magnet.   This is a pattern that Kris adapted from Lori Brecklin's (Notforgotten Farms) Folk Art and she has a number of Lori's patterns, so you know that there is going to be huge hole in my wallet now.  I just can't wait until next week!  Kris is such a great teacher and a really nice lady, that I know that this is going to be a great learning experience.   I know that Kris was right about starting small even though I wanted to start bigger.  With any luck, I'll have this finished by next week and can move on to bigger things!

And not to have anyone think that I've abandoned everything else, I have been quilting:

On Round Two of the Bullseye Quilt.  Each row of circles takes a little bit of time because you have to cut the back out of the circles as you layer them so you don't have this thick mess underneath, so that takes a little bit of time.  One more row of circles and then I'll be ready to slice and dice them into quarters.  That's the part that scares me!  These fabrics seem kind of wonky to me, but they're what came with the kit.  I'm sure that once I do the slicing and dicing, and piece them back together,  I'm going to be happy with it.  Especially once it's been quilted and thrown in the wash so that the edges of the circles fray.  I don't think this will be the last one of these that I make.  I have some great homespuns in the stash pile and I can see them being used for one of these quilts.  And I have been stitching too - but at this point, it's just a bunch of birds on the fabric.  I should have more soon!!!  Although tonight I just want to be a hooker!

Thanks to everyone who sent me such lovely compliments on my quilt and Mary Corey!  I appreciated all the great things that you had to say about them.

Hope that everyone has a great weekend!!

Mary Corey, Stripping and Hooking

Happy Monday everyone!  It's snowing like crazy here in Michigan - up to 8" is what they're calling for.  And wouldn't you know it - everyone is home - DH and the kids!  ACK!!!!!  But they seem to be keeping to themselves which is a good thing (a very good thing if they know what's good for them that is - LOL).

I've been stitching, sewing and hooking my heart out and I'm having so much fun.  Cari left a comment about being a stripper and a whore and getting stitch ass daily!  ! I loved that!  LOL  So that makes me, what?  A stripper (quilting),  whore (scissors) and a hooker (rugs)!!!  And I do try to get my daily allotment of stitch ass in!  Just don't tell my kids or DH what I'm getting into!

I finished Mary Corey this weekend after having to frog out most of it because, well.....I just can't read a chart.  There was one symbol - a square - repeated in small, medium and large.  Obviously, I couldn't determine what was what and stitched 1/2 of it wrong which resulted in a lot of frogging!  UGH!!! I don't know why it is, but these smaller projects just befuddle me.

Mary Corey (aka Diaper Babies)

The Goode Huswife

30 ct. Apple Brown Bindy and DMC Threads

Distressed with Walnut Ink Crystals

This would have been a real quick, fun stitch if I could have read the chart!!!  I tried my hand for the first time with walnut ink crystals and really like how it turned out!  Bake in the oven for a few minutes, and TA-DA!!!  I may still add a little over to the left side - not sure yet.  I'm going to frame it pretty close to the design, so I don't think that's going to matter.  Oh, and if you'll notice, that fruit basket is just a tad too close to Eve.  I swore that I wasn't ripping out another stitch.  I decided that the basket could be close at hand so dear Eve could reach over, grab that apple, hand it to Adam and get that party started in Paradise!  

I have to thank everyone for their suggestions about the border on the quilt.  I decided to go with it since I had all the pieces cut out.  It turned out to be a biggie:

I have to thank my two helpers - Nick and Catie (whose polka dot robe you can see on the left) for holding this up for me.  I do love how it turned out even with the borders.  I was really on the fence with it and ended up staring at it for a couple of days before finally adding them.

So what to do next?  Well, I threw another sampler on the scroll rods, but haven't much to show for it.  But I did start cutting out the pieces for the Bullseye Quilt

This quilt is turning out to be so much fun.  I still have the two piles of squares in the front to cut into circles, but I can see that I'm going to have a ball with it.  I have to thank Kim for convincing me that even with my anal side, that I would have no problem cutting out circles freehand.  She was so right!!  I plan on layering this baby together this afternoon.

And speaking of quilts - you know, I just can't resist a good sale (I really need to stop trolling the internet!!!!).  Anyway, these things just somehow ended up in the UPS man's truck and into my waiting arms this week:

The bundles are for a quilt called The Farmer's Wife.  It's similar to Dear Jane, but not quite as labor intensive.  It's a BOM (Block of the Month) so I'll have a smile every time these arrive in the mail.  I don't have the book yet, but should soon and then I can get started.  I think that I'm going to have a partner in crime with this quilt (waving at ya Kim).  The tin in the back is for a Pineapple Quilt.  I have wanted to do one of these forever.  And looks what's inside:

You just have to love those rolls of Moda fabric!!!   Quilty goodness!!! This may have to be the next quilt after the Bullseye.  I don't know - it's going to derail my plans to get stash out of the way - but I'll have done two from stash, so time for something new me thinks!  LOL

This is what I accomplished in rug hooking.  I think that I have this baby crammed a little too much with wool.  I also didn't outline the pumpkin sections, which I should have done first!  But the beauty of this is that you can just pull the wool out and start over.  Which I did after I sent this picture to Melody so that she could critique my work.  She said that I've done good, but I did end up ripping this out and starting over.  But I can tell you, I'm going to love doing this!!  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that snow nor sick kids keep me from going to this week's class.  I really can't wait to get started (although I think I saw DH trying to get the credit card out of my wallet!).

One thing I forgot in my last post was to post something for Berit.  We have gotten into a small discussion about the goodies that you can find at Marshalls/Home Goods.  She liked the cabinet I got for my scissors and I told her that I found another goodie there the following week (DD's dance night and me having 2-1/2 hours of time to shop is deadly sometimes).  Anyway, I promised to post my latest find:

I liked the keys okay, maybe not so much what was behind it.  But then I saw that it opened up and that you can remove the keys and saying and that there were little hooks inside.  I still may keep the keys but line it with another fabric - or, perhaps put some scissors in the lid or some stitchy something - the possibilities are endless, I think.  And the hooks could hold fobs or small stitched pieces  (whenever I get my butt in gear to make them)!  So Berit - be on the lookout - I think it was just $14.99 - a deal in my book.

Well, that's it for me.  Everyone is off to their own pursuits.  DD's actually stitching BBD's Eiffel Tower and I hope to have pictures soon, plus she pulled out a needlepunch kit I bought her at Joanne's, so she may be giving me a lesson before the day is out.  That is one craft I haven't tried yet.  But until then,  I plan on going down to the craft room and making myself dizzy sewing circles!

Thanks for all the lovely comments and suggestions again about the border of my quilt!  It really makes me smile every time I read them.  Wishing you a wonderful, stitchy week!!