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!!

Where Would I Be Without My Trusty Assistant?

I'd probably not be pulling every hair out of my head!

Lately I've been in a real quilting tear!  I can't get enough of it.  But do I get what I want done?  No!!  The reason for not getting done what I'd like to is this:

Yes, Mr. Bailey.  He silently snuck into the living room while I was laying out these blocks (where he isn't allowed - I thought he was sleeping) to get in on the photo shoot.  He's so sweet, so cute, but WHAT A TERROR!  A terror on four paws.  Huge paws!!! But how can you do anything but love him with a face like that???

But Mr. Bailey doesn't like me doing the things that I like to do.  Try to clean during the day?  Oh no, he's not up for that.  Trying to sew during the day - nope - not up for that either.  If I take him downstairs with me, he's after something - biting on the iron cord is not a good thing.  If he asks to go outside, I put him out, but he must have some kind of radar that alerts him to the minute I put one foot on the basement stairs or try to run the vacuum.  He barks like a fool to come in.  My neighbors don't say anything, but..........  So I've been resigned to sewing after dinner, making nocturnal visits to the basement and hoping that the stairs don't creak.  I know that he's going through his toddler stage, but what a bunch of work.  And what a sweetheart!!

He's growing like a weed - about 40 pounds.  Here's a couple more pictures and then I'll get on to what else is up:

Excuse the laundry - it's wash day, but DD decided to see how Bailey's sleeping accommodations are.  And then while Bailey looks small, he's growing like a weed.  My daughter's 5'4", so he's getting pretty big.  He has so much energy!!!!

And trying to look innocent (but don't let the face fool you):

Anyway, I've been on a real tear with the quilting.  I've finished off about 13 of the 18 blocks that were backed up on the Farmer's Wife quilt.  It took me three days to cut those blocks out, and one day to put them together.  Intensive cutting!

I still have a few more to go - the harder ones.  Some of these have so many small pieces!  UGH.  But I'm making progress - doing the happy dance and then..........cue in the Psycho shower scene music............ this arrives:

Next months' fabric.  OY!!!!  Is there no rest for the wicked?  But I now have 59 out of 111 blocks finished (refer to first picture with Mr. Bailey), so I'm doing a happy dance.  Hopefully in a few days I will be completely caught up!

In stitching news - not much at all - a little progress on Mary (that I'll post another time) and a little bit on Elizabeth Clayton:

The letters are taking me soooooo long.  Of course some of the letters and borders are in eyelet stitch, which I like to do, but seem to take me a long time.

In other news - not that much.  Still playing around in the craft room trying to see what works best for the things that I do.  I realized one day that I was wasting a perfectly good wall for some storage - a wall behind a door in which Mr. Santa resides until the holiday season.  As all my fabric is packed in those huge Rubbermaid bins, getting to it is a chore, so I went from this:

To this:

Cheap bookcase from Walmart to store just a small part of my fabrics.  DH made the observation that I needed about 10 of these to store all my fabric.  Unfortunately he's right, but at least it's a start!!!  Once I fill this baby up, it will be a beautiful thing!!!  DH actually L-bracketed the bookcase to the wall because he's sure that it will topple over once I pile the fabric into it!!

Well, it sounds like Mr. Bailey has wound himself around the basketball post again so I need to rescue him!  Pray for me that DH finally springs for the electronic fence!

Thanks again for all your wonderful comments.  I truly love receiving them.  And even if I haven't left a comment on your blog recently, I have been stalking lurking and I'll get back to commenting soon.

Stitching & Craft Room (Lots of pics)

Happy Tuesday everyone!  Hope the sun is shining is your neck of the woods.  It is here today, but it's getting rather brisk.  I heard that we may actually see some snow (hopefully very little) this week!  Probably snow flurries, but heck, snow is snow, right?

Since a couple people guessed the name of the sampler I started, I can reveal it now.  I was going to wait and see if someone could identify it before I posted the name (Cari and Siobhan guessed it right, so a little surprise could end up in the mail soon!!!). 

This is the progress I've made this week:

Adam Alone

Sheepish Designs - Second Examplary

DMC Threads

WDW Parchment 35 ct. linen

I seem to have been struck by the Adam and Eve craze that's going around and I'm bound and determined to get that A&E wall filled.  I am so loving this piece.  The colors are brighter than I anticipated, but there is a lot going on with this.  Queen Stitches (those things actually used to make me tear out my hair), over one (which still does make me want to pull out my hair), and Florentine Stitch!   I have to admit though that after I snapped this picture, and then sat down again to stitch some more, I realized that I was off a thread on the dark blue portion of the Florentine Stitch, which proved to be something that I couldn't fudge without it looking hopelessly lopsided.  So I had to frog it out almost to the center.  GRRRR!!!  I was not happy!   So far it's holding my attention enough that I haven't given in to the urge to slap another piece on some scroll rods.  But I have to admit that doing that Florentine Stitch made me start yearning for a needlepoint piece that I have upstairs that I've barely started.  So don't be surprised if you see that pop up in the near future.  Since I've put Ann down I feel like having a stitch free-for-all!

I was pleased as anything to win one of Missy'sThirteen Days of Halloween.  I thought this was such a fun giveaway:

Isn't that a great package?  I love, love, love the crypt with the scissors (since we all know that I've become a scissors whore).  But I'm keeping these babies in the crypt and displaying them all year!  Thanks Missy!

And finally, I've gotten my craft room into some semblance of order.  It's not finished by a long shot, but here's a short tour.  Ignore pieces you see on the floor - I still have painting to do on them.  This room is a little wonky because it has 7 walls and three doorways.  Makes it a little hard to arrange things.

My craft table made by my wonderful FIL.  He did such a fantastic job and I'm just tickled pink over it.  The shelves on the sides are removable so I can arrange them as I please.  I found the little shelf on the table a while ago in a thrift shop and thought that it was perfect for displaying some of my pincushions (I still haven't found the rest of them). 

My daughter added her decorative touches with the wreath on the door.  I'll leave it up for a while, but it's covering my DMC thread sign.

 

To the left of that table is a very long wall where my sewing machine sits.  I didn't want to run rampant through the house and rip samplers off the walls, so this wall is going to be filled with different things.  In the meantime, this arrangement will have to do.  I still have some small cupboards and things to paint that will go on this wall.  And samplers when I can get them stitched.

At the end of the wall is my walk-in closet and a slight alcove-type of thing.  On the right is the closet - on the left is the entrance to the bathroom.  Convenient set up!  The people who previously owned the house had a ton of kids and built two bedrooms in the basement with a Jack and Jill bath and small walk in closets.  All I need is a refrigerator in this room and I could camp out for a long time!!

The closet definitely does need some help.  I basically moved everything from the other room to this one and didn't go through it:

Pretty bad, huh?  Obviously, I need to do some work in here and obviously I need to really sort through this stuff.  I dream of having a cleaning woman, cook and chauffeur so that all I'd have to worry about every day is playing with my stuff (yeah, what was I sniffing this morning - LOL!).   Anyway, the pizza boxes hold cut- up quilts that I have every intention of sewing one of these days.

More pizza boxes, and bins holding kits, fabric and needlepoint pieces.  I definitely need to sort all this out.  Especially now that I've embarrassed myself with my slovenly closet habits.

Another shot - the closet doesn't seem so messy from this view (or maybe it does!).  You can see a couple pieces I still haven't put up on the floor waiting for paint jobs.

Another wall and an empty bookcase.  The shelving piece I found at a shop in my travels recently.

And then my favorite place! 

The stitchy area!  The chair and ottoman are from our old house and I'm glad we kept it because it's perfect to stitch in.  Actually, I stitched in this chair before we moved.  The table is just a folding table I covered with a quilt for the time being (actually it made a great paper-piecing table when I was doing a lot of quilting).  I'm still trying to find something suitable.  The bookcase I just bought this weekend and I couldn't be more pleased with it.  I looked high and low for something that was bigger than usual because I have a lot of books (still in boxes at press time).  I saw it in a shop recently and the owner was going to distress it all up.  She said that her brother made it and it had been sitting on the floor for a while so to move it she was going to make it look old and get rid of it.  Well, she did get rid of it - right into the back of my van (it was a push to get it in there).  It's solid oak!  I can't imagine distressing this!  And because she wanted to get rid of it, I got a fantastic deal on it!  I can't wait to get all my books on it.

So that's the tour!  Still definitely a work in progress.  And that's about all that's going on this week.  DD's basketball team had a real nail biter of a game last night with a team that they had lost to earlier in the season by one point.  Well, they lost by a point again, even with double overtime.  If you wanted to see a very long, sad face last night, it definitely would have been my daughter's!! 

Thanks so much for stopping by and thanks even more for the wonderful comments you leave.  Have a wonderful week and make a lot of X's.

Giveaway Reminder and This and That

Happy Wednesday morning everyone! I thought I'd do a quick post before the kids got up and we continued our adventures with the school shopping! Whew, can that wear you out quick. This is school supply day (read: credit card on fire day - although it was smoldering after some clothes shopping yesterday). The supplies they need makes your hair stand on end.

First off, if you haven't entered the giveaway for the flower flog (see previous post), sign up now! The drawing will be next Tuesday, September 8th! If you want to enter the drawing, please leave a comment under that post ONLY!!

On the stitching front: shock of shocks, I've stuck to my rotation!!! It's been hard - very hard!!! I can't tell you how many times this week I wanted to pull out something else, but I stuck to it. I put in a week on Marquoir de Justine:






This is really a difficult one to photograph because of the colors used and the fabric (Vintage Nutmeg). I toyed with changing out the brown that the church is stitched with and some of the lettering, but in real life, you can see it and between the mottled fabric and how the brown looks on it, it does give it an old feeling so I'm going to stick with it.

Last Tuesday, I switched out projects and started back on Ann Medd - if you're not familiar with her, here's her pic:


Described as the "Mother of all Samplers"! Well, I think I have to go along with that. It's not a bad stitch at all - straightforward, very few specialty stitches - but it's just so big and those verses on the side can get you.



This is the progress I've made in a week - the C and D verses (or what's done of them), the flowers and leaves where my thread is and those two dogs facing each other (which were causing me all the headaches because the pattern only had them facing one way - oh and ignore that fifth leg on the dog on the left - I have to frog that out.) Not a lot of progress, but some.

This is what I've accomplished so far on the whole sampler - if I get through this section, I'll be almost half way:


And my favorite part - Adam and Eve, of course:

I'm going to stitch another week on it and maybe just try to finish up the whole section so that I can say I'm half way done with it. It may be a stretch though - the week before school is always a busy one. I have been itching to start on something else, but even though the stitching time has been at a premium this week, I see progress every time I put it down and that's encouraging!!!

A couple exciting things happened this week. I won Jan's giveaway of the premier chart for her new design endeavor!! I'm so excited to win and I'm also so excited for her. I know that we're all going to love her designs! I also know that I'm going to have to work this into the rotation. Yes, I know, I know - it's not in stash!! Well, some rules are meant to be bent, right?

The second exciting thing is that my room finally is finished - well, the painting part is. I have moved a loveseat and my sewing table into the room, but have to wait for the table from my father-in-law for the final arrangement and hanging of pictures, etc.

DS is in the closet learning how to install shelves and putting the vent covers back on. The color is Scottish Road by Behr and I love how it came out. I always have a hard time picking out colors because even when you bring the swatches home to look at them in your own light, it still comes out different. But I'm a happy camper. The white box on the wall, unfortunately, has to stay. It houses our power box and I guess we can't do without that! Estimated time of arrival for the table is this weekend so I can finally arrange the furniture in the room. I can't wait - and just in time for the kids to go back to school. Yahoo!!! Although, I think I have a good week of scrubbing down this house before I can play in the room. DRAT!!!

I'm bruised from head to toe from moving around two rooms of furniture! And all the unpacking of things afterwards. UGH! But I really had a chance to go through all my charts, quilt books, etc., and found that there are a lot of things that I no longer need or want, so I may set up a separate Sale/Trade blog to get rid of some of this stuff!! Stay tuned!

Well, I'm off to look through blogs. I haven't been able do to that for three days or so and I know there is a of catching up to do (and probably some enabling).

Thanks for all your comments, especially for the Giveway, that have come in so far. I was glad to see that there were many from blogs that I've never seen before and I know that I'm going to have a lot of fun looking at all of them.

Have a great week and holiday and make a lot of X's.

Cape Cod Girls and My Achin' Back

Happy Sunday evening everyone (well, it's evening here)! Hope that everyone had a great and stitchy weekend.

I had another finish this week which totally amazes me given my lack of attention span to any one project (although as usual, I didn't do this all in one sweep):

Cape Cod Girls

The Primitive Needle

36 Ct. Highland fabric

Weeks Dye Works threads

I didn't have the recommended 40 ct. fabric, and was a little worried about the coverage, but it came out pretty good. Because I also have an attention problem with following a chart, I did the entire top band in basil instead of how it should have been with the Basil and Cinnabar, but I kept forging ahead and I think that it's fine. I like following the Amish philosophy that nothing is perfect except for God (works for me - LOL).

As I mentioned in my last post, I've been really having a hard time with the amount of WIPs that are languishing around the house. So I've some up with kind of a half-assed plan. Probably because I know that I'll break every rule that I set down for myself if I make this too difficult. So my process of WIP elimination is going to be pretty loose. I think that I'll work on a WIP for one week, if I still love it I can keep going for another week or until I scream "Uncle" and go to something else.

The something else can be either another WIP or something that is already in stash and preferably a small project. It can be a small project that I have not started yet. If I need a thread or two, I can buy them, but the pattern and fabric and most of the threads have to be in stash. I'm stressing the smaller type of project because most of the WIPs I have going are pretty big:

1. Marquoir de Justine
2. Houses of Hawk Run Hollow
3. Village of Hawk Run Hollow
4. Shores of Hawk Run Hollow
5. Frances Eden
6. Ann Medd
7. Convent's Herbal Garden
8. Provence
9. Altegamme
10. Sarah Pope
11. The Ideal Landscape Sampler
12. Crystal Christmas (this really isn't on the radar screen right now, but it's a biggie)

(there are about another 20 projects laying around, plus three needlepoint projects and about 15 quilts in various stages of work, but I decided to spare everyone the agony of reading about all the WIPs laying around - just wanted to list the ones that I'm pretty sure that I will work on now).

As far as buying any new stash - well, after that junket last week, I think I can resist for a while. Market is coming, but I'm really going to try to hold off and only reward myself when I get something finished (Cape Cod Girls doesn't count as a rewarded finish, darned it.) I was going to come up with all kinds of rules and regulations for myself - like I can't buy anything even a few threads or can't buy anything until I've finished two projects -not going to happen. I think that I'm a rebel at heart and I knew that it just wasn't going to work. So to begin the attack of the WIPs, this week I picked up Marquoir de Justine:


This is where I left the poor girl when I started her in 2007. The reason I didn't get far is because I couldn't see the darned holes to stitch. I think that the fabric must have shrunk down quite a bit in the dyeing process and it was painful to work on. Well, since that time I've purchased the Mighty Bright light and I can see great with it and Justine is now fun to work on. I'll post a progress pic after my week is up (Tuesday). I haven't picked out my new project to work on. I'm leaning toward a smaller Scarlett Letter piece, but I don't want to make a decision now because Tuesday is two days away and my mood could change! LOL Actually, it may be another WIP - Ann Medd - she's been calling to me in my sleep, so I may just go back to her. I've got two days - who knows what will happen.

This week I found another flower frog at a garage sale that I passed by. I wasn't going to stop, but, well, you know how that is. I see the sign Garage Sale or Estate Sale, and I almost always have to stop. Of course, my kids love going to them as much as I do, so it's fun for all of us:

I think that I'm going to put myself on a diet with these things too. DH keeps asking me what I going to do with all of these things. Well, the other day I did put flowers into one (didn't take a pic) and it looked lovely. So they do have a purpose besides holding scissors. But I think I need to rein myself in before I'm overrun by these things.

And the most exciting news of all - my FIL is almost done with my table for my craft room. YAHOO! We were over at his house yesterday and he had some finishing questions for me. Even my DH was impressed by the way it looked. It may be another couple of weeks before it's delivered here, but I'm so excited. In anticipation of the big event, I ended up finishing up the packing (that I've only been working on, for what now, three months?), and moving everything out so that DH can paint the room (he took this week off) and this is what I'm facing now:

If I have to find something, I think I'm going to be up a creek without a paddle. I should have taken a birds-eye picture for the true impact to be seen. It's just total mayhem in the center of the main room in the basement. And my back is aching. My DH thought that he could move my two cabinets with all my patterns, books, etc., on some dollys, but not the case, so I had to empty them. Back breaking work! My DH also was amazed at the amount of stuff I had crammed in that room. Quite frankly, it was perfectly organized, but I was a little shocked myself. I must have arranged things pretty well, but I was amazed. Definitely time to start sending some of this stuff to a good home. Actually, I had to clean out both the basement bedrooms - the one I'm vacating and the one I'm moving into - so this was kind of a double whammy.

Well, that's about it for me. I'm going to take a Motrin for my aching back and sit and put some stitches into Justine. Thanks for all the wonderful comments last week. I can't believe all the excitement that stash purchases have on everyone. Of course, I think that I get just as giddy seeing everyone elses purchases (and it's gotten me into a lot of trouble)! LOL Have a wonderful week and get some stitching done.