A Long Overdue Finish and Machines I Love

Yes, yes, I know - it's been another month since I posted.  Where has the time gone?  Well, I am not sure where it's gone, but it blew by in a nanosecond!!  It's been like a real whirlwind around here.  DD's theater performances, my sister's visit and we're now on the home stretch in getting DS out the door for college next week.  So all things crafty have been put on the back burner to simmer.  But I do have a finish!!  Woo Hoo!

Sun and Moon

The Scarlett Letter

DMC threads and 35 ct. Edinborough PTP Legacy Linen

Now seriously, this poor piece should have been finished a month ago.  There's just not that much to it.  But, besides the time constraints lately, that border was a nightmare (many frogging issues going on with that border), and as I mentioned in my last post, if I put arrows on this thing to point out mistakes, you wouldn't be able to see the poor design.  But I'm happy with it, so to me it's a wrap - mistakes and all!!!

In my delirium of finishing something, instead of going back to something that I had been working on before (like Mary Allen - sorry Loraine!!), I started a new Adam and Eve piece since I just love those two people in Eden, so I started Ann Hall (pix flinched borrowed from the SL site):

And this is how much I've accomplished so far:

I'm loving this so far, but wonder how long it's going to take me to get burnt out on this border.  We all know that I am "She Who Hates Borders",  but so far it's been fun!

Quilting/Sewing has just about come to a dead standstill.  I did manage to get one block done for my Month 3 of the CWC quilt (and I'm at least three or four months behind).  This month I have to make four blocks (with a lot of those dreaded HSTs).  Block 1:

Block 2 in pieces because I made a mistake and the block came out too small.  Easily remedied, but still lying on the cutting table in pieces after pulling it apart:

Blocks 3 & 4 still in pieces.  What can I say?

I also started a fun project - or what I thought would be fun, but I ran into some problems with the pattern (I hate when that happens) and only have it partially put together after thumping my head against the table because I thought it was I making the mistakes, not the pattern's fault:

What is this you wonder?  Well, I'm not saying right now, but it's the beginning of a couple things - now collecting dust on the crafting table.  Sigh - how I would love some sewing time!!!  So that's it for craft things for me in the past month.  Pretty pathetic I know.  But I'm hoping that in another couple of weeks I can get back to sewing.  I really miss it.

My sister came in for a week or so and we did our normal antique/barn sale thing.  I really didn't find all that much, but something fun that did happen before she came had to do with those machines I love - sewing machines.  First a couple that I found recently, but not while my sister was here:

It's a Lindstrom Little Miss Sewing Machine.  It was made in the 30's and the little girl is suppose to be Shirley Temple.  I was so excited to find it.  It still works and is in pretty good shape.  You'll see on the hand wheel that someone wrote their name on it.  I can only make out the first name - Winoma.  Makes you wonder about the little girl that used this machine.  Then a couple weeks later, I found this tiny machine:

The hand wheel actually turns and the needle still goes up and down.  And better yet - it was only $1.00.

But the biggest and most exciting purchase was this:

A vintage 1951 Singer 301 machine!  Woo Hoo.  I've wanted one for a long time.  There is a wonderful story concerning this machine.  It involves a little bird - a little Bluebird to be exact, and a friend.  And luck was on my side in looking for things at just the right time.  I'll share that story the next time because the story still isn't over, but I was just overjoyed at my new acquisition!!  I've been so busy that I've barely gotten time to test it out (just a test run on my kitchen island of all places), but a quick run of it sounded so nice - it purred like a kitten.  And she came with a name - Samantha.  Hopefully it will be in its new home by my next post.  

Besides my sister's visit (and I'll show you my meager antique haul next time) and DD's theater performances, my son turned 18 and leaves next week for college.  To combine the two events, we celebrated both occasions with a cake.  I'd like to take credit for the decorating of the cake, but I haven't decorated a cake since my kids were young.  I left it up to the bakery:

Go Nick and Go MSU!  Actually, I was really hoping for a cake in Maize and Blue (U of M's colors), but he's going to college and that's all that matters.  Speaking of which, he still hasn't heard from U of M, so maybe there's hope in the future.  I told his sister that she really needed to give him a kiss for his birthday, and she did - notice the hand between her and her brother's cheek - so she doesn't get cooties or something:

And then her falling over after doing it laughing:

Kids - what are you going to do with them?  Anyway, I know that she's going to miss him a lot, although she did confide in me that she was going to turn his bedroom into her shoe closet!  LOL

Well, that's it for me!  Sorry that I haven't been leaving comments on everyone's blogs.  I have managed to get in and lurk around, but honestly no time to comment.  I did figure out what my blogging problems were - using another search engine.  Seems Safari decided that it didn't like blogs any longer, so I switched to Google Chrome and it works like a charm!  Anyway, after I get my DS off to college, things will settle down around here.  It's a lot of work getting these kids off to college, and my dining room looks like a disaster area with all the boxes ready to go up to school.  But he'll be gone in just 9 short days (sniff, sniff).   I'm sad and he can't wait!!  

One thing I did realize when I did have time to get into blogs, is that I'm coming up on three years of blogging!  I'm having a hard time believing that!  And now am over 600 followers!!!  Wow, where did everyone come from?  I can't wait to have some time to visit all your blogs and see what you are up to.  So in light of 3 years of blogging and the new followers, I'll probably have a giveaway to thank all of you for the wonderful comments you have left and encouragement when I've needed uplifting.  Maybe not quite on my blogoversary, but soon after.  

Hope that you have a wonderful week, and thank you for all your comments even when I do fall off the face of the earth for a while.  They do mean so much to me!!

It's a Mystery and More Darned Frogs

I want to thank everyone for their sweet comments on Elizabeth Clayton.  I'm hoping that I can get her framed soon and up on the wall.  God must have been hearing my thoughts because a 50% plus an additional 20% coupon for framing landed in my mail yesterday, so hopefully she'll be framed soon.

It's been another busy week or so with the end of the school year, but I've managed to get a little bit of stitching done.  Not as much as I would like, but a little.  I started WTN&T's Mystery sampler and it's so much fun to stitch and the colors are so pretty (pix are clickable):

Mystery Sampler

With Thy Needle & Thread

Confederate Grey Linen and GAST Threads

I'm about at the half way mark.  I can't wait to finish this up and receive the next section.

And check out those scissors!  Are those not so cool or what?  A pair of legs!  I couldn't resist these.  And I'm cursing Gabi for pointing them out to me!  LOL

I've also been working on Sarah Esch, but haven't gotten much more done than what you saw the last time:

I don't know what it is about this sampler, but I'm having all kinds of things going on with it.  First I had frogging issues last week, then I ran out of the thread that I'm using and wouldn't you know it - with all the DMC I have around this house, I didn't have another skein of it.  Then on top of it, the frogs came back in a big way.  I think that smaller samplers and I just don't get along!  Why is that?

And I've been doing a little bit of quilting here and there.  I won't tell you how long it took me to get this block done:

Month #2 - Hatchet Block

Civil War Tribute Quilt

Actually I have two of these blocks done - out of 16!!!!  This is what the rest look like:

Seems like every time I sit down to sew, I get a little bit of time and then have to run out and do something.  And I'm two months behind on the Farmer's Wife quilt!  Yikes.  The last month will be arriving soon and I would so love to get that baby together!  

Speaking of frogs, this past weekend was garage sale time in my subdivision.  I ended up stopping at a couple places and scored a new frog.  It's rather usual, but it was practically free, so it had to come home with me.  I've seen these before - it comes in two pieces - but I've always found just one piece of it and not the other, so I was thrilled to find both parts together.  And the seller also threw in an arrangement book that originally came with it!

Seeing as this one isn't as heavy as the others I have, I think that I'll be using this one strictly for arranging flowers, but maybe I'll put scissors in it once just to see how it looks.

And yesterday was a somewhat sad day for me - sad and happy at the same time.  My son's last day of high school was yesterday.  And the prom will be tomorrow.  I hope that he'll allow me to post pictures.  He's rather camera shy!  Anyway, I just can't believe that this day has arrived.  He's done so well and graduated with Honors.  He's still Wait Listed for the University of Michigan, so it looks like he'll be going to Michigan State at least for the short term.  Not his first choice, but I still think he'll be happy there.  Anyway, it made me think about how quickly he's grown.  It seems like yesterday when I had him.  Now he's out of high school and has a date for the Prom.  He's going to Spain in June and then off to college.  When he was born, I stitched this sampler for him.  When I saw it yesterday, it brought a tear to my eye, because my baby - my first born - is all grown up:

Again, thank you for all your wonderful comments on Elizabeth Clayton, and I hope that everyone has a fantastic Memorial Weekend!!

Framing and What's Your Definition of UGLY??

I don't know about where you are, but it's colder than a witch's broomstick around here!  A great weekend to hunker down and get some crafting done.  Which is exactly what I did.  A great weekend for it - too cold to venture out (at least for me), and football games on to keep the boys occupied.  So I got busy.  But first, I picked up some framing recently.  Excuse the pic - I'd take it outside for a better shot, but like I said it's cold out there:

Sarah Seifer

The Goode Huswife

36 ct. Pearled Barley and DMC Threads

I just love the frame for this and would like to use it again on something else one of these days:

Not the best pic with the flashback, but you get the idea.  

While in my craft cave this weekend, I think that I finally came across my definition of ugliness.  I spent some quality time whipping out some quilt blocks this weekend, but this block offends my senses:  

Farmer's Wife Quilt

Four Winds Block

Now, I should have realized when I started sewing this block that my first mistake was not paper piecing the thing because it has 64 pieces in it - and it's only a 6-1/2 block.  But I'm not the biggest fan of paper piecing (although Dear Jane will probably be paper pieced), but I think that the block warranted me doing that.  But this block is UGLY!  Maybe my fabric choices are wrong, I don't know.  Maybe because one of the striped pieces leans to the left and doesn't quite line up right.  I tried to tell myself that it was okay - I like the color brown, but not in this combination.  I tried to talk myself into liking the block by saying that the light color looked like an old shirting material, and the striped fabric was like a pioneer's dress material.  I tried to make up a story in my head about who would wear those types of fabric back in the Civil War days.  I tried to talk myself into liking this block.  But I don't.  And I think that at certain points members of my family heard me blabbering to myself - not a good thing!!  So maybe I'll redo it - maybe I won't.  Not all blocks have to be beautiful, do they?  And in the whole grand scheme of the quilt, no one will notice, right?  Probably not!  But the darned thing will probably laugh at me every time I look at it - so maybe I will.

But I did have some successes:

Civil War Chronicles

BOM - Month 1

Oh how I love this block!  Love, love it!  I could have made many more of these and loved every minute of it.  Love the fabrics, love the design (and Yvette, it measured exactly what it was suppose to - a shock to me!!).  I can't wait until Month Two arrives at my doorstep.  Probably soon.

After I finished that one, I went to the next BOM.  Chain pieced a lot of triangles together:

Then I whipped up this:

Civil War Tribute BOM

Month #3

I don't have months One and Two yet - the shop started me with #3 and #4 followed a couple weeks later.  I haven't gotten around to cutting out #4 yet.  Anyway, the CWT block is just one of four that I have to make for the month's requirements - 2 -18" blocks and 2 - 16" blocks.  I was going to work on those and have the whole month complete, but I realized that the Farmer's Wife monthly blocks were going to be showing up any day, so I started working on those.  The UGLY block above was the last one that I did on the FW quilt.  But before that, I did these:

I still have one more block to go in this month's BOM, but it is a pesky thing and as the UGLY block was a little too pesky in it's own right, I called it a day.  Hopefully, I can finish up the last block today.

On the stitching front, I have going full speed ahead on Ann Medd!!!  I flipped the page over the other night and what do I see???  The bottom of the chart.  OH HAPPY DAY!  Of course, before I let myself  get too excited, I realized that I still have a long way to go - that center portion has a lot of fill in, but just the fact that I saw the bottom made me giddy with excitement.  So I worked on her the past couple of nights and now only have two more lines of verse on the left and I'm into the middle again!!!  I'll post a picture in my next post.  Just seeing a lot of verse and a little bit of the center that I did wouldn't be too exciting at this point!

Well, that's about it for me this week.  Stay warm and safe.  Hopefully, it's a little bit warmer in your part of the world.  And I understand that the East Coast is in for another storm!  I can't believe how much snow you're getting there!  Stay save and warm.  And thank you once again for all your wonderful comments.  My body may not be warm lately, but your comments do warm my heart!!

First Finish in 2011 and Challenge Follies (Pix Heavy)

Happy New Year everyone!  I wanted to do a day by day posting of projects this week, but things have been a little hectic around here.  DH is recovering from shoulder surgery and following me around every minute (What are you doing now???) so that has cut into my blogging time, and then DS has been terribly sick with something that has required two doctor's visits and is still running a fever after six days!  I think another trip to the Doctor's is warranted tomorrow.  So I never got around to posting every day or commenting on blogs, but here you have what's been going on in my neck of the woods with stitching this week.

I started off the new year right - with a finish!  And then promptly started something new for a New Year's start.  Then I kept going and before I knew it, even though I said I wouldn't, I joined in on the 15 Project Challenge, or as I call it the 15 Project Follies, but with my own twist on it.   But here's my finish:

Mary's Best Handwork

With Thy Needle and Thread

30 ct. Parchment and DMC Threads

I started this piece when I was in Utah for the Shepherd's Bush retreat and can't figure out why it took me so long to finish it!  It was a really run stitch.

Now comes the fun part and the follies.  I decided to do the challenge my way, and the further I get into it I'm wondering what the heck I was thinking.  But here are the first eight days with before and after pictures (where applicable).  And on days the progress was quite pathetic have pity on me - with DH and DS home, well, you probably understand!  LOL

Day 1 - After finishing Mary since she was a WIP, I went to something new - Elizabeth Sheffield by the Scarlett letter.  She was my New Year's Day start.  I love working on this one:

Elizabeth Sheffield

The Scarlett Letter

DMC and 40 ct. Mystery fabric

Day Two - I picked up And All Was For An Appil.  In looking at my notes as to when I started it - well, as I hang my head here - it was my New Year's start last year!!!!!!!:

Before

After

Okay, let's keep chuckling to a minimum here!  Not too much progress - but I'm a slow stitcher on 40 count fabric.

Day Three - A new start and one I wanted to start last year - Ann Rayner:

Sad, but a start.  Again on 40 count fabric.

Day Four - Back to a WIP and this one I did get some progress in - Susanna Lane - I love this sampler a lot and it will probably be my next finish:

Before

After

Day 5 - A start and a disaster at the same time - Jane Atkinson by the Scarlett Letter:

Not much stitching on this one.  The light thread so closely matched the fabric (again 40 ct and I have to ask myself what I'm thinking with all these 40 ct fabrics)  that I was having a hard time seeing it, so I decided to start filling in the flower and then do the lighter color.  That's when I found that I had made a mistake in outlining the flower with the lighter color.  As you can see, I was working it in a hoop to just start it.   Not a big deal with the miscount - I hadn't gone very far, but when I took it out of the hoop I realized that I started on the selvage edge and not the top edge!  UGH!!!  I called it a night and it will be revisited later - on scroll rods - and stitched in the right direction.

Day 6 - A WIP - Angel Song - again, not much progress:

Before

After

Day 7 - A new piece - LHN's Traveler's Companion:

Is this not pitiful or what?????  But again, I don't think I sat my rear end in the stitching chair until almost 9:30 or 10:00 some nights and I go to bed about 10:30 - not much time to stitch!

Finally Day 8 - I actually got a lot of things done yesterday.  I decided to hide out in the craft cave and get some quilting things done.

Worked on a WIP - cut out this month's Farmer's Wife Blocks:

Started a new Project - cut out the first installment of Civil War Chronicles (love, love, love the fabric):

Worked on another WIP - put the next couple borders on the Red and Black quilt and cut out the next set of borders:

And started another new quilt - Civil War Tribute:

So now I'm faced with this - Piecing Happiness!!!

Later in the day I literally ran out of steam - unfortunately I think that I'm getting what my son has - finger's crossed that I'm not - but I did get in some stitching on Elizabeth Clayton:

Before

After

Again, not much stitching, but a little bit.  

So there you have it - the first week of the challenge.  Only 7 more days to go.  I'm not sure what new ones I'm going to add into the mix next week.  I find that having all these projects going on at one time has been a real challenge to organizing!  But the one great thing about all this is that I haven't bought anything new except for a few fibers to round out a project.  That's a beautiful thing.

I've also enjoyed watching what people have been doing with this challenge and the projects that they are coming up with.  Some I had forgotten about and some I've never seen before.  I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but I seem to have made quite a list of projects that I'd like to do in the future.  In the far distant future!  Very far distant future!!!  LOL  I think I have enough on my plate right now, and we're barely over the half way point on the Challenge (or Follies).

I hope that everyone has a great stitching week whether you're doing the Stitching Challenge or not.  While I haven't left many comments this week, I have been doing quick glances into everyone's blogs to see what they're doing before DH comes in and asks "What are you doing?"  LOL  He goes back on the 18th!  I love him dearly, but.................the 18th can't come soon enough!!

Have a great stitching week!