Happy New Years and a Year in Review

I know that I have been the worst blogger lately, but there is no time like the present to try to rectify that, right?  I thought that one of the best ways to get back on the blogging wagon was to just start off with posting the Stitching/Quilting Year in Review.  2012 wasn't the best for accomplishing much, let alone blogging, but it was filled with other great things that ended up taking up my time.  Sometimes stitching tends to take a back seat.  If I tried to talk about my two month absence from blogging we'd be here all day!!  (Wow, where did that time go type of thing).  But 2013 is a new year and hopefully I'll get back into the blogging and stitching swing for 2013.  I'd make it a Resolution, but I stink at Resolutions, so I'll just say that I'll try my best!!

I recently had a couple finishes so I'll start with those and work my way down the list.  As I said, this hasn't been a stellar year for finishes, but at the same time, it's still been a good year.

Like a lot of other people, I joined Nicola's Scarlett Letter Challenge.  As most of you know, she's celebrating a milestone birthday and wanted to make it memorable.  I don't think that she realized what a overwhelming response she would get to her challenge.  If you're interested in joining, walk don't run.  There are some wonderful prizes each month and what I'm sure will be a wonderful gallery of finishes as the year goes along.  How fun this is going to be!  It is so exciting to see all the projects that people are working on while celebrating Nicola's birthday.  Being a huge fan of The Scarlett Letter, I knew that I had to jump on board (and the fact that when I went through my SL charts to pick out a "few", I discovered that I had a ridiculous number of their charts)!  And no time like the present to start actually stitching some of those babies!!  The first piece that I chose was Abigail Gould's Sampler of 1796.  A small one (what a concept - I actually stitched something small), but so much fun to work on:

Scarlett Letter's Abigail Gould's Sampler of 1796

DMC threads and 35 ct. Mystery Linen

This is what the original sampler looks like:

At first I was a little concerned about the colors of mine, but Marsha of the Scarlett Letter commented on my post on the SL Challenge blog that she charted from the back of the sampler where the colors haven't been affected by sunlight and the elements.  I love how dear Abigail ended up.  I've already picked out a "few" that I want to work on in the coming year and one of them will be my New Year's start.

The only deviation from the pattern that I made was to not stitch in the background with wool.  I like to stay true to a reproduction and not change things up too much, but the thought of filling in that background kind of threw me over the edge, so I chose a linen that I thought would be closest to the color of the wool.  She was such a quick stitch.

Next up - Charlotte Clayton - how I love her (those cats look like they could make a snack out of dear Adam and Eve):

Charlotte Clayton by the Northwest Sampler Guild

36 count Meadowrue and NPI Threads

Ann Hall by The Scarlett Letter

35 count Legacy Linen and DMC Threads

Martha Jones 1972

36 ct. Vintage Examplar and DMC Threads

And last, but not least, probably my favorite of the whole year:

Ann Rayner

32 Count Legacy Cafe Au Lait Linen and DMC threads

I love Ann - and even with those over one sheep, I loved every minute of stitching her.  Seems that I've had a real Adam and Eve theme going on this year.  Just to mix things up, I've pulled some non-A&E themed samplers for 2013.

On the quilting end - even though I have a few projects in the works, I only finished one - The Farmer's Wife.  The Cotton Club is waiting for borders and that's it.  Hopefully, that one will make an appearance in the next couple of weeks.

The Farmer's Wife Quilt

For all the headaches this quilt sometimes gave me, I love it so much!!

There were a lot of projects that I didn't finish this year - I'm a great one for WIPs, but I'm going to try to make 2013 also a year of finishing up those WIPs.  We'll see how that goes.  I always have grand ideas as the New Year starts and flounder by the end of January.  But it's a goal to shoot for - mainly to finish up these babies:

Trick or Treat Quilt

Blackbird Designs

(need to give this another name - it doesn't look like Trick or Treat to me)

Only 39 in the photo, but actually 46 finished.  This project was going to be my take along project while my daughter danced.  Her broken foot put a kabosh on that idea, but I think that she'll be starting up again in January, so there is hope for making a huge dent in these beauties.  I have about 100 of them prepped and ready to go.  Just have to take needle and thread to them.

And there are a couple cross stitch projects that I'd like to finish up this year - both Scarlett Letter pieces:

And All Was For An Appil

I don't know why I put this one down, but I'm going to try what Margaret did with hers and stitch the outlines of the motifs first and then do the fill in.  I was green with envy when I saw Margaret's finish.

Susanna Lane

I don't know why I ever put this one down either - probably due to the fact that I'm a Gemini and am constantly getting bored with things.  But she is so pretty in real life that I have to finish her up this year.

So there you have it!!  2012 in review.  I have to admit that I've missed everyone and their posts.  I've tried to keep up here and there, but since the time of my last post it seems like we've gotten from the end of October to the end of December at the speed of light!!  I hope to do much better in the coming year.

Thank you for stopping by and I hope that everyone has a happy, healthy and wonderful New Year's!!

Gosh - Has It Almost Been a Month?

Yes, it has, and I guess it's time to make a post.  I have been so remiss the past few weeks in reading blogs and making comments and I apologize.  I think that now that summer is here (or almost here), I've been spending more time outside than I have inside.  So I've been a bad blogger.  But I do have a finish:

Martha Jones 1792

35 ct. Vintage Examplar

DMC Threads

(http://samplers-berlin.com)

I love how she came out and the colors.  What I didn't like were the tulips in the border.  For some reason they gave me headaches!  I love how the words "Paradife" and "difgrac'd" are spelled.  I've never seen that in a sampler - replacing an 's' with an 'f'.

I also liked that there were some different stitches in this piece - like the Algerian Eye baskets and the satin stitching.  There were a couple caveats in the chart though.  There were a couple colors called for that were never used - as far as I could tell.  The blue bird in the tree was suppose to be a different color, but as blue was called for in the list of threads, yet I never came across the symbol in the chart for it,  I made the bird blue.  There was also one other color called for that was never used - 407. Some of the symbols were also a little hard to differentiate also, but all in all, it was a fun stitch.

On the quilting side, I've managed to stay on top of the Cotton Club blocks, and finished up the six that I had sitting around.   Good thing too because the next month of blocks came today:

I love working on these blocks, and I think that I only have a couple more months and the quilt can be put together.

I've also been working on the Chippewa Nine Patch quilt here and there:  All the strips have been made into nine patch blocks:

And they're ready to be assembled into this - I only (yes, only) need 25 of them:

They'll all look a little different depending on how I put the individual nine patch blocks together.  I can't wait to get through these so that I can put the quilt together.  The rest of the fabric looks like this (sorry for the dark pic):

And last but not least, the Phebe quilt.  No, I really haven't started it, but I have traced out all the pieces:

Not the best picture - sorry.  But by my estimation, there are about 209 pieces in just the very center of this quilt.  You hear that Margaret and Cari????  OY!  I think that I've bitten off more than I should have with this.  Because after this, there is another border that is appliqued.  I don't know what the third month will bring, but I'm breaking out in beads of sweat just thinking about it!!

So that's what I've been up to the past month or so.  Part of the reason I haven't been parking my behind the computer so much is that last month I celebrated another birthday (thank you again to all you that remembered) and even though it wasn't a milestone (that's a couple years off), I just decided that I sit too much gazing into the wonderful world of the internet being enabled and getting myself into trouble.  So, I've been doing a lot of this:

Last week I walked 33 miles.

And a lot of this (until I blew out one of my tires):

And eating things like this - yum:

Salmon Fruit Salad w/Raspberry-Maple Vinaigrette

And I'm not going to make this into a cooking blog, but this dressing is wonderful and non-fat:

Raspberry-Maple Vinaigrette

1/2 cup raspberry vinegar

1/4 cup of maple syrup

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. fresh ground pepper

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 tsp. Worcestershire Sauce

1 Tbl. Dijon Mustard

Put it all in a lidded container and shake!  This stuff is great - low fat and big on taste - you don't need a lot!!

So that's what I've been up to and why I haven't been a good blogger.  I find that getting up and taking Bailey for his morning walk,  I don't feel like sitting down after and I then take off on my own either on foot or bike.  You can only cover so much distance or go so fast with a dog that likes to visit every mailbox in the neighborhood!  LOL  My son has also been getting me to do PX-90 with him.  We won't talk about that one!  I hope to goodness that he never makes a video of me doing it and puts it on YouTube.  I'd never be able to live it down.  So anyway, all of this is good for me, but not good for blogging obviously!  But I will get back to it and catch up with everyone.  There are some days - like today when it's going to be 95 - that unless its early morning or late evening, you don't want to be out in the heat.  So today it's catch up time.

Hope that everyone has a great week!  And thank you for all the wonderful comments that you leave.  I love hearing from everyone!