Some Stitching, The Wall(s) of A&E and This and That

Fall is definitely in the air here in Michigan.  The days are beautiful, at least lately, and it's so cool at night that you sleep like a baby.  I hear that it's going to come to an end by the weekend and heat up again, but you know that Fall is coming soon.  My favorite time of the year - football games, the smell of fires in the air AND the fact that I can go back to my regular scheduled programming - sewing, reading blogs, getting things done.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE, LOVE summer, but I like each season for various reasons.  Summer for the beautiful weather and being able to be outside more, my kids being home and things like that.  But Fall, Winter and Summer are when I get the fun things done.  I don't get much sewing and stitching done in the summer, so I'm looking forward to getting back to everything now that the kids are back in school and I have a little more time to myself.

Stitching wise I managed not to jump ship on Ann Hall and got, what I think, is a fair amount done on her considering everything:

Not bad, but not great either.  Love the cherub, and he's going to have a little belly button when I manage to get it in.  I think he's sweet!

Sewing wise - there has been nothing - absolutely nothing in that department and I so long to get down there and work on some quilts.  I hoped to do some today because today was the first day I've had time to myself in what seems like forever.  Everyone is off and while I wanted to sew, I decided to tackle a job on the very long To Do List and finally got around to hanging all my A & E samplers.  Well, not all of them - I still have a couple to be framed, but what's framed to date.  This is still a work in progress as there is a lot of wall space, but I have a lot of A&E's still lurking in the stash basket.  The pictures aren't the greatest as I'm trying to shoot up and down stairs, and the lighting isn't the best because the ceiling is very high in this area, but here you go (the pictures are clickable so that you can see them better):

Looking up the stairs we have the infamous Ann Medd, Adam Alone, Sarah Esh, Adam and Eve by The City Stitcher and Mary Corey and there's still room for a few more.

The stairs has an L-bend, so next is the view going down the stairs:

Yellow House Sampler, Sarah Seifer, Margaret Pence, Apple Tree Sampler, Elizabeth Clayton, Adam and Eve by Goode Huswife, and And They Sinned.  

Here's a view of the one wall from the bottom of the stairs.  Looks like I better keep stitching those A&E's - there's a lot of space left.

And one from the top!

So that is the extent of what I've gotten done the past couple weeks in the world of stitching.  I'm anxiously awaiting the reaction from DH when he sees all those samplers on the wall.  He'll probably go nuts - you know, he's the one that's anal about putting holes in the wall.  Oh well, he'll get over it!  LOL

While my sister was here last month, I managed to add a couple flower frogs to my collection and here's one of them:

Isn't it sweet?  I had seen one of these going on Ebay a while ago for a ridiculous amount of money (well, at least more than I would pay).  While we were out on our annual antique rides, I found this hidden in the back of a low shelf and knew that it had to come home with me.  It needs a little cleaning up but I think it's so different.

Other than that the only other thing that's been going on is that we got Nick up to college and from all reports he's loving it. 

Looks like pretty close quarters to me.  I don't know how three boys are going to survive in this room (they overbooked the room and eventually one will be moved, but until that time, I think it's going to be real close).  Anyway, I think he's having fun, but I don't think that he's getting too much sleep.  One night he was up at 4:00 a.m. doing wash.

Before we left for the ride up to the campus, he presented me with these, thanking me for getting him to this place in his life.  I don't think I had all that much to do with it (well, maybe a little) - it was his hard work that paid off:

And that's about it for me for now.  Well, there's more but I'll save that for next time.  Maybe I can get myself to start posting every week again!  Hopefully,  I'll really have things back to normal again in the next couple of days and can get some more stitching and quilting done!  Hope everyone has a great week, and make it a stitchy one!

Friday Finishes (Lots of Pics)

No, this isn't going to be a weekly event - Friday Finishes.  I'd love to do something like that - like Kim's Thrifty Thursdays, etc., but in the real world, I'm lucky to get a finish a month or so.  But it so happened that this week I have Friday finishes - three of them!  Woo Hoo!!!!

First up, I finally finished one of the samplers that I've been working on here and there - not a biggie, a small one, but a finish is a finish, right?

The Apple Tree Sampler

Hawkins House

DMC Threads and 36 ct. Buttercream

I didn't know what I felt about this sampler as I was stitching it.  All I can say is that stitching the tree was a PITA.  I made so many mistakes on it and frogged so much that I'm surprised to see it finished.  But here it is.  I think I'm going to do something different with this one and make it into a pillow instead of framing it because it's not very large.  I'm still sitting on the fence about that.

The rest of my time has been spent putting pedal to the metal in the sewing room and trying to catch up those pesky Farmer's Wife blocks!!  And I'm all caught up!!   I really have to learn not to leave the trickier ones until last because they just about drove me nuts.  But I'm all caught up (at least until the end of the month when one day I'll open the mailbox and that crazy Psycho music will start up again).  The first batch:

If you blow the picture up, that block in the upper left - well, that one may be a redo.  When I was finished with it, it stood up like a cone!  AUGHHH!!  A lot of pressing got it to settle down, and it measures the right size, but I'll probably redo it.

Second batch:

The block in the lower right still is not completely finished.  I have to miter the points of the red strips, but that's hand work.  I tried to cheat on the machine and that didn't work out too well.  It's also the only block that I've paper pieced so far because the first one looked like a train wreck when I finished it.

All stacked up and waiting for the next month.  Only seven more months to go!!

Once those blocks were done, I felt like I had a huge load off my back and finally, after having a few problems with the instructions, whipped off my sister's quilt:

If the instructions hadn't been so poorly written this would have been done a long time ago.  But in my usual fashion, I got a little too frisky with this one and cut the striped border wrong.  The stripes were suppose to go lengthwise, not from center to edge.  But I like it so much more this way - I think that it gives the quilt more character (and I'm hoping my sister thinks so too - well, there's not much she can do about it now, is there?  LOL).  It won't be completely finished by the time I see her (next week), but it will be at the shop being quilted.

Then it was time to move to something else.  I finally started on the Bliss quilt and managed to get sixteen blocks done.  Here are just a couple of them:

This is a really fun and easy quilt to work on.  It will look like this when it's finished:

(courtesy of Cluck, Cluck, Sew)

I should have these blocks done in no time.  They work up really fast.  So, what should I work on next?  I picked a couple things and I hope that I can get them done.  But with my trip to NY coming up next week and the holidays, who knows.  But I picked one new and one old project:

The new project is another jelly roll project (I'm just loving these jelly rolls) with fabric by Three Sisters. This one should work up fast.

Then I picked another one that I've had in my stash for years.  This one will take some time, but I figure that if I work on one old project and one new project, then I'm not only having the joy of working with new fabrics, but I'm also cleaning up stash at the same time.  Years ago I made a Jinny Beyer quilt, Mirage, as a shop model.  It's hanging on my staircase now with the hopes that DH will hang in in our foyer (I'm probably dreaming on that one):

I think this would look much better hanging it's full length on the wall (someone poke DH for me please).  LOL  This is one of my favorite quilts - I love Ms. Beyer's quilts, so I decided to start working on this one:

I'm doing the pink version since that fits in more with the decor where I'd like to use it.  This one is going to take me a while, but it will be so worth it in the end.  I hate fussy cutting border fabric!!

And then I went back to an oldie stitching project:

Frances Eden.  I laid her down quite a while ago because the colors were just so wonky to me.  But I've been seeing this pop up here and there on blogs like Laurie's, and decided to give it a whirl because I love how hers looks.  

I have to thank everyone for your comments on my trusty assistant!  He is a handful.  But he did actually come downstairs the other day with me, plopped himself on the couch and asked me to turn on Animal Planet!!  No, not really, but I did and he seemed to enjoy it for a while until he fell asleep.  Good Dog!!

You'd think with the bazillion toys in the house that paper he found blowing in the yard would be the last thing he'd want.  But he's like a kid and toys - give them a paper box and they're happy!!

In other news that's not stitching or quilting related, my son got early acceptance to two universities!  Indiana University and Michigan State University.  He's still waiting for two more responses.  I'm thrilled, but secretly hope that he picks an in-state college (if U of of M doesn't accept him, he tells me that Green (MSU's colors), don't necessarily suit him.  He's a diehard U of M fan and he has all fingers and toes crossed in the hopes that they accept him.  But you know, mom and dad would love that In State tuition - more crafting money for mom!  LOL  No, not really, whatever he decides is fine - I'm just thrilled for him.  

Once again, thank you so much for all your wonderful comments.  They mean the world to me.  Hope that everyone has a wonderful weekend!!