Elizabeth Clayton is a Wrap

Woo Hoo!  Another one off the To-Do list - finally!  I don't know what took me so long on dear Elizabeth, but I put the final stitches into her last week!  I love her, although I look at Adam and Eve as being rather ghostly beings - they're so light!

Elizabeth Clayton

Handwork Samplers

36 ct. Legacy Linen and DMC threads

Top of Elizabeth:

Bottom of Elizabeth:

Sorry these aren't the best pictures.  Michigan has been having the worst weather the past few days.  80 one day - rainy and cold for three days, so taking good pictures is a hit or miss proposition.  Anyway, back in the day, when something didn't stand out all that well on a piece, we'd outline it.  But that was back in the day, so no outlining on Adam &Eve - I'm just going to leave them ghost-like.  Actually they look better in real life.  Another one crossed off that crazy January Challenge and another one for the A&E wall.  Me thinks that at the rate I'm going,  I won't be completing 15 projects this year.  Oh well, it's all about the journey, right?

And where is the A&E wall, you ask?  Well, it's coming along.  I want to get Elizabeth framed and then I'll unveil the wall.  I have templates stuck all over the wall and no matter how I arrange them, I know that I need Elizabeth framed before I start pounding nails.  You have to remember that my husband is anal about holes in the wall, so I don't want to make mistakes!  LOL

After finishing Elizabeth, I went back to another January challenge piece, Sarah Esch.  But we have very pitiful progress - pitiful because those pesky frogs visited:

Not only are these letters boring as all get out, I got to the end of the second line and realized that I had left too many spaces between the "N" and the "O".  Instead of frogging at that point, I just kept going with the next line and then went back and frogged out the O, P,Q & R - you can probably see a little bit of thread droppings - or frog droppings - where I did that.  Not loving stitching these letters at all, after I frogged out those letters, I picked up another WIP - Ann Grant - but I didn't make much progress on it:

Not much done from the last time, but I'm just loving the colors of this one.

Things have been in high gear around here with the end of the year things - dance recitals, track meets, AP exams and all the cramming and my son's upcoming graduation.  So it's been busy and that's probably why Elizabeth took me forever.  Last weekend was the normal round of recitals and would you believe it - I have no pictures!  Well, I do, but they're on the other camera which is not digital, so no great costumes to show this year.  But while DD was at one of her recitals, I took a little hike to an Antiques Market that was being held nearby and scored another frog - but the kind I love - not the frogs involved with threads:

A cut crystal one this time.  The woman I bought this from had the most amazing flower frog, but with also an amazing price tag.  I wish that I had taken a picture of it!  It was really something else.  The little pincushion doll I found at one of the other booths there.  I thought that she was sweet!

Well, once again, there isn't much else to talk about unless you want to her about my son grumbling about AP exams, or the normal trials and tribulations of life.  I did have a shock this week though.  My son informed me that he asked a girl to the Prom - and even more shocking - she accepted!!  LOL  Not really, my son is a great kid, but this is the first I've heard of a girl in the picture.  I guess it's time - he's going off to Spain this summer and then college in the fall, so it's about time a girl showed up in the picture somewhere.  But oh dear, does it make me feel OLD!!

Thanks so much for stopping by and leaving me the wonderful comments that you do.  I'm still having a bit of trouble commenting on blogs.  The Geek Squad can't figure out what it is unless it has something to do with Blogger.  Some times of the day I can get in and make comments with no problem and then other times, I can't - the wireless modem shuts down.  So bear with me - I'm reading everyone's blogs, just not able to comment all the time.

Hope you have a wonderful week, and make it a stitchy one!!

Two Timing Ann (Lots of Pics)

Yes, it's true.  I've been two timing Ann Medd.  Two timing her with another Ann.  With all the market things that came out, I couldn't resist - just blew my resolution to stitch only WIPs this year with a reckless abandon.  I picked up a few things from Market and had a real dilemna as Ms. Medd was constantly calling me, but I finally blocked my ears and started another Ann - Ann Grant:

Beautiful Ann Grant.  The colors are so pretty.  Unfortunately I can't get the best picture of this loveliness because it's so miserable with rain and overcast skies today, but trust me - the reds, the pinks - beautiful!!

Ann Grant

Shakespeare's Peddler

32 ct. Vintage Sand Dune

 Silks as called for

This is really a joy to work on and I've gone out of my element with this one.  She's stitched on 32 ct. which I haven't touched in years, and with all the recommended silks.  They are so wonderful to work with.  So wonderful, in fact, that I think that I'm hooked.  Not a good thing.  But so hooked, I kitted up two more -

The stunning Susan Rambo - love those reds and greens:

And the wonderful Elizabeth Mears.  I saw this on Ellen Chester's site finished and I swooned.  

The only bad thing about these projects is that they're all BAPS!!  Why can't I pick something small?  Why?  Anyway, before you think that I've abandoned Ann Medd, I have not.  I have made some progress on her and she will be picked up again in a day or so.  I just needed a slight break from all that fill in, but I do want Ann Medd done - it just won't be by the end of March.

On the quilting front, I've gotten a little bit done.  I wonder where the hours in the days go sometimes, but I managed to get nine of the Farmer's Wife blocks finished (six from last month and three from March's installment).  Four more and I'll be caught up for the month.  And then - only three more months to go!!  I can't wait to put all the blocks together.  But these are the blocks I've finished this month so far:

All these blocks were fun and went together without a hitch, but in my true fashion I left the harder ones for the end.  Why do I do that?

Other than that - as I said - I don't know where the time goes and there isn't much more happening around my neck of the woods.  I did make another acquisition for my craft room yesterday.  Purely by accident, mind you.  I ran into Joanne's for a new rotary cutter.  Mine is on its last legs and I'm afraid that I'm going to slice and dice myself one of these days.  But I had a little time to kill so meandered around the store and found something that I had to have.  Why?  I already have one, but what's another one:

Yep, another mannequin.  I actually walked out of the store with my rotary cutter in hand and started to leave, but I couldn't leave - I had to have it!  What's one more, right?  

I took some pictures of my room now that it's coming along a little better - still a work in process, but since I don't have much else to talk about, I'll show you how it looks going full circle around the room.  Behind the door - the shelves are finally getting full.  Although the vast majority of my fabric is still in Rubbermaid bins in the workroom (which DH needs to clean out so I can get to them).

The cutting and work table (ignore the glare off the door jam - I'm not the best photographer).  

Part of my antique findings and gifts and giveaway wins from fellow bloggers:

The sewing area and all the junk stuff I put on the shelves:

The baskets on the top shelf hold my BOM projects - the extra fabric and blocks as they're made.  I'm going to reline the baskets with a pretty red polka dot fabric and put garden tags painted with chalk board paint on the baskets so that I can write the names on them.  The jars hold selvages, pieces of scrap fabric I may be able to use, fabric for my hexies and batik squares that my friend Diane gave me for my own Batik hexie quilt.  The boxes hold some of my threads - Gloriana's, etc.   And another view:

Looking down toward the closet (which I left closed because it's a mess in there).  The quilt rack is suppose to be hung over the other mannequin with my recently finished red and white quilt, but when my son and I tried to put it on the wall, we discovered after we got the anchors in that the wall was bowed in the middle, so we have to come up with some creative thinking (probably building up the wall with wood on the two ends) to get it up.

My bookcase area - still a work in process.  Most of my books and charts are in two cabinets in the workroom which is probably where they'll stay unless I commandeer the other basement bedroom into another work area (which is going to become a reality I think).  At some point the bookcase will be removed and I'll get one of those huge hutches from Ikea to fill the entire wall.

And then the sitting area - this chair definitely needs a slipcover or something but I haven't been able to find what I want.  Either that or I'll take it out and put up my other sewing machine.  Time will tell.  Right now it kind of gets the brunt of what I'm working on - like the quilt slung over the back and my cross stitch chart filing on the footstool.

So there you have it.  I can't think of a week that goes by where I don't think of something else to drag out and put in there.  But I love having things I love around me.  Maybe when I finally get the hutch I can display all the flower frogs there.  

I hope that everyone has a great week and weekend.  And I have to apologize that as of late I've been really bad with commenting on blogs.  Too many things going on - like emergency room visits for my daughter, my son being sick - AGAIN -  and not a lot of time.  I don't want to miss a thing so I lurk but don't comment.  I'll be back to doing that soon!!  I love seeing everything that you do!!