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!

Some Framing, Some Stitching and Some Quilting - But Not a Lot!!

Don't you find that this time of year puts a real cramp on all things crafty?  It seems to for me - so much shopping, decorating, etc.  I usually love the holidays, but this year it's like trying to drag a cat to water to get me in the holiday spirit.  Perhaps I need a trip to the mall to see decorations or hear the music, but it's been so cold around here I hate even sticking my head out the door!!   Maybe part of it is that now that my kids are older, their Christmas lists are smaller (although not necessarily cheaper), and they don't hold Christmas in awe like they used to.  I honestly miss those days!!

Anyway, a while ago I picked up some framing and forgot to post it.  I don't know how that happened, but the past couple months have been rather crazy with family things and my trip, so without further ado:

The Yellow House Sampler

Sheepish Designs

I went with a very simple frame for this one and I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out, although I think that I would have liked the frame to come a little closer to the design.  Anyway, another step closer to the A&E wall.  I was going to try to take a picture of this outside for a real artsy fartsy shot, but like I said, it's cold out there and the wind is blowing like crazy!

I worked a little more on Frances Eden:

Not the best pictures because it's draped over the scroll rods and when I took the picture it was one of those cloudy days.  I was getting a little worried though and went a little further down along the house because as you can see, I'm getting dangerously close to the bottom edge.  There is still a few more stitches to go to the bottom of the house and then wording underneath it.  I think that I'm going to make it though with about 1-1/2 inches to spare.  Whew!!  I usually leave 3 inches.

But in my true fashion, Frances just wasn't holding my attention any longer so I jumped back to this:

Susanna Lane

The Scarlett Letter

I don't know why she's been calling to me so much, but I am loving working on this again.  

Have you been reading about the 15 Project Challenge - work on a new project each day for the first 15 days of January?  Oh my gosh, pure lunacy!  LOL  I've got at least 16 WIPs in the pile and I can't imagine adding 15 more!  But, I've kind of gotten myself caught up in the 15 Project Challenge.  I'm not going to do it in the normal way though - I picked 7 WIPs to work on during the year, and picked 8 newer projects (most smaller that the BAPs I work on) to hopefully complete or get near completion by the end of the year.  And the newer projects I can't buy things for - it's got to be in my stash - okay, maybe a thread or two if I run out, BUT, no kitting of new projects!  That in itself is a challenge for me - not to buy anything!  LOL  I'm still working my way through my list picking out my challenges for the year and I'll post it when I've got it figured out.

On the quilting front, I'm caught up once again with the Farmer's Wife blocks!  Yahoo!  These were so easy peasy that I almost cried in relief after the past few months of blocks:

Please excuse any sneaker threads that made their way into the pictures.  But I'm doing such a happy dance.  Only six more installments to go!!!!  I can't wait to get this baby together!!

From there I was going to start cutting out something new, but then common sense came over me (wow, that doesn't happen very often), and I decided to go back to one already in progress - actually two.

Remember this:

Well, I decided that I should finish this one up, along with my Women's Voices Civil War Quilt to get a couple quilt WIPs out of the way too (and yes, I do have a Challenge List for those also for next year).  But anyway, this is as far as I got:

The first borders fussy cut out and not a rotary cutter in sight for the next blocks to go around the quilt.  Sheesh!  I was also going to cut out the remainder of these:

Never got there.  But both these are on the top of my 2011 quilting hit list (along with three BOM's that I signed up that are starting next year - but we won't talk about those!).  :o)

So besides a little stitching and quilting and trying to get ready for the holidays, that's been about it.  I did find a couple little somethings at one of my favorite haunts - Home Goods.  I was suppose to be shopping at the mall across the street, but like quilt shops, antique stores and cross stitch stores, my car has a mind of it's own and I end up going where I'm not suppose to.  But I found a couple cute things:

A cute birdcage inspired rack for hanging miscellaneous things from with clothespins.  I had seen one of these in Utah when Jolene and I were wandering around and I wanted it, but it wasn't for sale.  This one is a little smaller, but it will do the trick.

This mannequin.  I thought it was different from the usual ones I see so I snatched it up.  I think that I'm going to put a coat of white paint on it and then rough it up a little to make it look more vintage.

So that's it for me this time around.  I'm off to check blogs now.  I was doing so, so well for a few days, and then life got in the way and I've fallen way far behind again.  But I hate missing out on anything.  I see so many wonderful things that everyone is working on.  That's probably why I'm having a hard time coming up with my challenge list.  Each and every day I see something, like Cari's recently framed June Morning - it's gorgeous!!! - (check it out along with the rest of the framing she recently had done) - and I know that I have to add it to the list.

Until next time, take care and I hope that everyone has a wonderful week!

What Happens When My ADD Rears Its Head

I have to give a shout out again to Valerie once again for winning my giveaway.  I'm so thrilled you won!  Actually I wish that everyone could have won, but I don't think I could find enough flower frogs.  Perhaps in the future!

I have made so little progress on stitching.  I don't know what it is - summer?  And I notice a lot of my blogging buddies are experiencing the same thing.  I know that I have a hard time sitting down at night.  But I got a little more done on my A&E sampler:

Not much since the last picture.  It's been too hot to sit under the Ott light even after the A/C was fixed.  I even started a new stitching project although there's not much to show - a non A&E!!  Hopefully, I'll have a progress picture next time.  All I have now is a lot of green!!

All this weekend, I had a song going through my head - Let's Go Crazy by Prince.  Not my most favorite songs by him, but I couldn't get it out of my head.  My intentions were to get into my craft room and clean out the closet for my sister's arrival so that we could put the shelving in.  Well, one thing led to another - resulting in a huge mess.  I know, my blog started off as a stitching blog, but bear with me - you just gotta go with the flow, right?

All the Farmer's Wife blocks done for the month.  The pink and green one at the bottom was the one I had to recut and piece over.  Now I'm caught up and awaiting next months!!

Next part done on the red, black and white quilt!!!

Two more Civil War blocks.  Although the one on the left seems to have a serious problem that I didn't notice until I went to iron it out.  I know what I did and have since ripped it out to resew, along with those blocks from my last post - UGH, I hate ripping things out.

Now this is where the ADD comes in.  Those pictures above were done here and there during the week when I could catch an hour or so. Then I thought it was time to get into the closet and clean it out for the anticipated shelving, but what resides in the closet?  Well, pizza boxes with quilts in some form of cutting, or finishing - along with a multitude of other things that catch my attention.  I've posted a picture of the infamous pizza boxes before.  They're just the right size for holding my projects.  Anyway, I start peeking into the pizza boxes (even though they're all labeled) and I come across projects all cut out and ready to sew.  I have a tendency to go through marathon cutting sessions so that I can sew to my hearts content when I have the time.  Now my mind is much more into sewing than clearing out the closet, so ADD kicks in and this results:

Four blocks from a quilt called As Time Goes By.  Aren't the colors wonderful?  Do you see why I just had to sew and not clean???  They were all cut out - calling my name!

And if that wasn't enough, more ADD kicked in and I decided to now start on something else.  I posted these blocks a while ago:

At the time I posted them, I had good intentions of moving right along with the quilt.  But I think that was when I painted the room and packed everything up.  Well, I couldn't find the blocks after.  Not anywhere.  Well, they made an appearance in the closet cleaning (in an unmarked box), so I started on the next section:

Nothing much to see here except 12 blocks in progress with the next row pinned on and ready to sew!  The quilt will look like this when it's finished although that will be awhile seeing as I have some kind of problem sticking to just one quilt at a time.  But variety is the spice of life, isn't it?

All this quilting craziness resulted in this mess - it looks like a bomb hit this chair:

Now surely you can see the garbage bag to the left side - I honestly was trying to clean - honest!  LOL  Well, it has been cleaned, but that's what everything ended up looking like when I was finished for the day.

And then to add to the craziness I had to purchase these - like I don't have enough going on, right?  I couldn't resist - I saw them on Amazon and had to have them.  Just love Amazon for those great prices:

I just love working on the Farmer's Wife quilt so much that I want more!!!  I think I have to be totally certifiable with the Nearly Insane quilt though.  I've seen it done in red and white fabrics.  Stunning.  I'd post a picture, but hate to snatch a picture from someone's blog that I don't know.  Just let me say, that my heart did a thunk when I saw it.  So in addition to starting on Dear Jane here in the near future, I'd say I'm set.  Or perhaps crazy!  Crazy is good, don't you think?

Well, that's been my week.  I'm off now to string lights into a huge (stage sized) piece of fabric to replicate a night sky for my DD's play.  I can't believe the performances are next week.  This summer certainly is flying by.  The next couple weeks are going to be crazy ones with my sister coming in and a small vacation, but hopefully I'll find time to keep up with blogs and maybe some stitching and quilting too.

Thanks again to everyone that entered my giveaway and to all the new followers - I was overwhelmed how many new ones I saw.  I'll be tracking down your blogs soon and  I hope that you'll stop and say hello every once in a while.  I love reading your comments!  Have a great week!