BAPs are Not Conducive to Blogging

Trying to work on a BAP (big a$$ed project for those who don't know the lingo), is not conducive to blogging at all.  I stitch and stitch and don't see much progress at all.   So therefore, not much to show.  It's not like I can stitch little motifs here and there filling up the linen.  No, I've been toiling with fill-in and back stitching and lettering (have I ever mentioned that I hate backstitching?).  My needle flies, but not fast enough.  But I'm getting closer - little by little.

When we last left Ann (sounds like a Soap Opera, doesn't it?), she looked like this:

She is now looking like this:

She finally has some facial expression (I think she's eyeballing the fisherman), and her body is almost complete (although there is - yes - more backstitching to look like folds in her gown), and there was a lot of catch up wording done on the verses on the right.  You can imagine my excitement when I got to the letter "Y" which is what is showing on the right (minus the beginning letters of each word - they're done in a different color).  I was excited.  I was doing a happy dance!!  Imagine Snoppy with his head pointed to the heavens, his arms flung wide and a smile on his face -  that was me!!  Until I flipped over the page and discovered..........horror of horrors...............Miss Ann Medd - stinker that she is, or should I say, was - decided that she needed to put two Y's in her sampler!!!!  One just wasn't enough.  Well, quite honestly it wasn't because the wording wouldn't have made it to the bottom if she didn't do something.  With that discovery, I gently put her down and left the room.  My elation deflated!

I've been dreaming of doing other samplers - ones that have caught my eye - Susanna Rambo, Ann Grant and the list goes on and on..........but they're going to have wait.  I see many bloggers starting these beauties and I'm jealous.  Insanely jealous.  But I continue on.  I love you Ann - I truly do - but you're a stinker!!  I'm being cautiously optimistic though and am thinking that she can be finished by the time Spring arrives.  Very cautiously optimistic.  That's about three weeks - can I do it??

So to console myself I buried myself and my sorrows in my craft room.  So many unfinished projects.  We do all know that I'm a habitual starter, but the basket with all things cut out was overflowing, so I finally decided that I needed to make space so I could cut out more (like those pesky FW and CW blocks that keep arriving in my mailbox).  So I finally put together the Basket Case quilt:

 Basket Case

Pattern by Cluck, Cluck, Sew

Bliss Fabrics

Then I went back to the red and white quilt since the border fabric finally showed up (sorry for the less than perfect photo set up with the folds in it):

Yellow Brick Road Pattern

Mostly Moda and French General Fabrics

I really love this quilt a lot and think that it will hang from a rack in my craft room.

Then I finally finished up the quilt for my daughter:

Not the best picture as the wind was blowing just a little too much and kept throwing it off the holly bush.  Here's a better one (somewhat):

Turning Twenty Pattern

Pillow and Maxfield Whimsy Fabric

All these of these were a welcome relief from the Farmer's Wife blocks and the Civil War blocks.  Basket Case was made from a jelly roll (most of the cutting done for you), and the other two were just cutting different sized blocks!  A lot of fun, but now I need to get them off to the quilters and get down to business on all those tiny FW blocks!!

So that's all the news that fit to report right now.  The weather is being its typical Michigan self.  Almost a foot of snow last weekend with more during the week here and there, and now we're in for heavy rain and thunderstorms!  Crazy!  But you should have heard the birds singing this morning.  They know that Spring is just around the corner - and for that I'm very thankful!!!

Thank you for all your great comments on my last post.  I'm always tickled to receive them.  They definitely keep me going - and with Ann I need all the cheering on I can get!!

Framing, Stitching and Quilting

As usual, I've got my hands in both the stitching and quilting, and can't seem to make much headway with either of them.  But something is done.  I picked up Mary's Best Handworke from the framer's yesterday and here she is:

I was on the fence about how to frame her, but I love this frame even though, now that I'm looking at it, I'm almost wondering if I should have gone with something even simpler.  The design in the frame seems to be fighting the scroll work in the border.  Is it just me?  Anyway, I love how she came out and the colors are a much better representation than my finish pic of a couple posts ago.  Daylight always makes a piece look great - even though I fell off the porch into three feet of snow while taking it!  LOL

I've been trudging along on Ann Medd and it just amazes me how long this is taking me to stitch.  Fill-in isn't hard, just so time consuming.  Then there were the sheep.  Let's talk sheep, shall we?  The sheep in this section - well, there was a point when I was ready to throw this ole girl onto the bar-b-que (yes, we grill in the dead cold of winter).  The sheep were driving me absolutely nuts!!!  Making me crazy!!  I think that it took me all of four, maybe five, days to get them in.    And then one sheep had a leg that was all crazy and I discovered that I was going over three threads instead of two.  So a frogging we go!!  But, I seriously had mad moments just relishing the thought of this sampler going up in flames!!  Bar-b-qued sheep!!  But common sense took over and I trudged along.  

Last post:

Are we getting bored yet???  I'll tell you - there are days when I long to work on something else.  But I told myself that she has to be done - and I want her done - but there are just some days.  But those nasty sheep are done, so maybe things will be fine.  Anyway, there's some progress - the fish and fisherman are now outlined, the sheep are in, although not all outlined and a wee bit of progress on the Shepherdess/Mermaid.  The sheep were about the death of me though.   

On the quilting front - lots done!!  Well, kind of.  I took advantage of that big storm we had last week.  The kids had two days off and in the true fashion of teenagers, slept in late so I headed down to the craft room and took rotary cutter in hand and cut out all my BOMs and some extra:

All my civil war BOMs, the red and black quilt and Farmer's Wife blocks for the month.  In the background is the Bliss quilt that I so optimistically thought that I'd have put together.  Didn't get there!  I was on a cutting tear, so instead I cut out some others and almost have them finished:

Remember those red and white fabrics!  Well, here's just a peek!!  I'd show the whole quilt, but it's not done.  Reason why?  Well, the kit included fabric for the borders - a great polka dot fabric, but it was upholstery fabric!  Say what?  Just too heavy to border the quilt with so I'm waiting for the correct fabric to show up.  But this really brightens my day to look at it.  Reminds me of a quilt that you would sit on when you're having a picnic.  I used the Yellow Brick Road pattern for this one.  Quick and easy!

So because I couldn't go any further with that quilt, I started on this:

Another similar quilt, but with bigger blocks made from the pattern Turning Twenty, and Pillow and Maxfield's Whimsy fabric!  This is for my daughter - the crazier the fabric the better she likes it.  Just have to sew these rows together, slap on borders and it's a WRAP!!!  I loved making both of these - quick cutting and piecing.  A welcome break from all those tiny pieces that are in the Farmer's Wife and Civil War quilts.  But now the fun is over and time to go back to my other pieces.  Although I was kind of thinking of cutting out that Marsha McCloskey pattern............hmmmmm.

And to leave on a note appropriate for the season, I thought I'd show a little wallhanging that I did years ago in honor of Valentine's Day.  This is an old Thimbleberries pattern - if I remember right they used to have monthly kits that you could purchase and this was one of them.  This is also my first machine quilting project.  It was small so I managed to get through it.  Probably the last one I will ever do myself though!

So that's what's been happening in my part of the world.  The weather is absolutely frigid today - probably about 4 degrees with below zero temps with the wind chill.  But maybe the groundhog was right - it's warming up into the 30's next week.  Ya hoo!!!!  Better get that red and white quilt finished.  We may have to do a picnic!!

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful weekend!!  

No Title Post

Okay, I didn't know what to come up with as a blog post title today because it's a little bit of a mixed bag - well, really only a couple things, but like, what do I title it?

I've been good on my projects for the 15 Day Challenge - well, specifically good on one project - poor ole Ann Medd.  This poor ole girl is going to be the death of me.  I want her finished - I want her on the wall.  But she's a big ole girl and obviously this isn't going to happen overnight.

When I started back on her, she looked like this (obviously there was something on my camera lens when I took this picture a couple weeks ago:

Now she looks like this:

I got through the verses K through N and you know what, that N verse with just those two words is the bottom of the sampler - OH HAPPY DAY!!!  But all that fill in - UGH.  It's not hard - it's just time consuming.  Same with the verses - not hard, just time consuming.  And I have a lot of backstitching to do in this.  Right now the fish looks like a blob.  Funny thing is as I'm working on this and looking at this fish (looks like a salmon to me), I'm singing this song in my head about fishies having fun - makes me think of a song that was on one of my kids tapes when they were younger and seemed to play non-stop in the car!  "Hey, little fishies - we're having some fun, we're going to swim 'til the day is done".  OY - that keeps going over and over in my head!  I need to get off this part so I can sing Baa Baa Black Sheep because the next portion is filled with sheep!  But we'll change that to Baa Baa White Sheep because the sheep are all white.

Part of the reason for my lackluster stitching accomplishments this week or so was because I finally got hit hard with the bug the kids had.  Even though I didn't feel good at all and slept most of three days, I figured I'd try to take advantage of having no steam in my body and sit and stitch.  Problem was, every time I'd sit, I'd doze off, so no stellar accomplishments this week.  It also resulted me in being way behind in blog reading this week - my eyes always seems too tired to stay on the computer too long.

Nothing really exciting going on around here besides the Ann accomplishments (or lack there of).  I finally escaped for a day to myself yesterday.  I started feeling like myself and even though we got about four inches of snow, I didn't let that stop me and I went for a drive.  Not a good thing as my car ended up taking me to some new quilt stores.  And because you all know how I need more stash (yeah, right), I came out with this stuff - had to take advantage of the end of the month 20% off sale:

A whole lot of repro fat quarters.  Actually these came from two different stores but I decided to show what lovely surprise was put in the bag at Jennifer's - CHOCOLATE.  Her shop was the second store I went into, but thought I would give her credit for raising my blood sugar up a bit.  Shopping is hard work, I'll tell ya and the chocolate hit the spot.  Especially after the damage I did in the first store - I SAW RED!!:

Yummy, yummy red and white fabrics!!!  Actually this is a kit made up for the Yellow Brick Road pattern, but when I saw it hanging in the store, I swooned.  I had to have it.  And luck was with me - they had just one left!!!  Rotary cutter - here I come.

I met a wonderful woman in this shop - Lake St. Mercantile - who does a lot of Marsha McCloskey quilts and it just so happened that I brought one of my Marsha patterns in with me to look for fabrics.  When she saw it in my hand, she started pulling out fabrics like a crazy woman and this is what I ended up with - some more red fabrics:

I should have spread all the fabrics out, but I'm trying to get this post in before everyone comes home and finds out that I've done nothing but playing with fabrics all day!  LOL  But it's lots of reds and creams and browns - it's going to be wonderful.  And the charge card is in ashes!!  Just crumbly bits in the wallet!!  There was more, but I'll save that stuff for another time.  Let's just say if I keep going like this, my poor son will be going to community college!  I'm also thinking that my husband may be seeing red when he sees the bill.  Oh well, he'll get over it!  He usually does!

To add insult to injury, I went by a couple antique places, so I thought I'd stop in.  Not a good thing.  Actually didn't find too much but a couple things - another flower frog.  Actually this was a real deal.  They had one with the top and bottom for $19.00, but I found the base for $4 and the top for $5 so saved myself $10 - had to save somewhere after that card burning in the quilt stores.

And a pin cushion - is there a particular name for these?:

I'm getting quite a collection of these.  I thought that she was very sweet.

So that's it for me.  I understand that we're in for a heck of a snow storm here on Tuesday into Wednesday.  Late report - double digit snowfall.  Means a day where I won't venture out of the house and maybe can have some quilty love.  The kids will be home too I'm sure, but they're teenagers and want to sleep until noon - and guess what?  I'm going to let them!!!

Thank you again for all your wonderful comments especially on my UGLY block last time.  I think that at this point I'm going to keep it in the quilt.  Not all blocks are beautiful, and it will probably look fine.  If not, it will be destined to be a pincushion.  I would never throw it away.

Have a wonderful week!!