A Start, A Finish and a Stupid Human Trick

Hello again everyone!  There must be something wrong here - two blog posts in such a short amount of time?  But I have another finish and a start so figured that now was as good of a time as any before things really start getting busy around here.  DS is going to be coming home from College on Friday (I can't believe that Year 2 is done - and a 4.0 in his major - yahoo!) so things are going to slow down once again on the project completion.  Although he has a job for the summer - it starts on Monday - at the wonderful time of 7:00 a.m.  Can you just hear his grumbling now?  LOL  It's good for him though, don't you think?  I just told him, "Welcome to the real world!"

First off the start:

Mary Gail

The Scarlett Letter

40ct Vintage Autumn Gold and AVAS 

I decided to keep going with the Scarlett Letter theme since I have so many of their charts that have been languishing around here for quite a long time.  After finishing Ann I wanted something else with some bright colors and I think that I've found the one - Mary Gail.  You can see a picture here:  http://www.scarlet-letter.com/samplers/gail.php  And notice the scissors?  A beautiful pair of Sajou scissors that I won on the Scarlett Letter Year blog.  I was so excited and a huge thank you to Nicola for picking my name.  I love them and they'll be a wonderful reminder through the years of Nicola and her fantastic idea to set up these Scarlett Letter blogs to commemorate her year.  It is so much fun seeing all the different Scarlett Letter samplers.  I think that it makes you more aware of their beauty when you see them actually being stitched!

Now, you will notice that there are some empty spots in the flower?  Well, that's where the Stupid Human Trick (SHT) comes in.  I know that on a few trips to the LNS I slowly picked up the AVAS threads.  I thought that I had all of them, but when I went to use a color the other night I didn't have it, nor did I have the next color.  This resulted in me pulling everything apart searching for the threads.  Well, I think I know what happened.  Head smack!!  I usually visit the quilt store near the LNS, probably bought something at the quilt store, put everything into one bag, came home, emptied the bag of the quilting things and then promptly threw out the bag forgetting the threads.  Definitely a Stupid Human Trick and one that I am sad to admit has happened before!  UGH!!  Hopefully my new order (which I will attach to my body with Velco) will show up today and I can get a move on!

And the finish?  Well, it's the Chippewa Nine Patch quilt - Finally!!  I was excited to wrap this one up!

Ahem!!  Here we go again.  Mr. Bailey claiming whatever is on the floor as his own.  He does this every time!!  I hope there isn't mud on his paws!  But here are a couple other shots.  I have to say that my lame camera isn't capturing the real beauty of this quilt.  I really love it!

Outside shot:

Inside shot:

I can't wait to get this quilted and the binding on it.  I think that it will go well in the family room since the room is predominately reds, golds and browns.  

After I finished with Ann Smith and this quilt, I've felt at some kind of loss as to what to work on.  Have I picked up the Sylvia blocks?  No - ironed the fabric and prepared the foundation piecing sheets, but nothing past that.  Talked to Dear Jane?  Not a whisper!  Do you ever feel at a loss when you finish something?  So I've been digging around to see what else I could come up with and this is what I have somewhat settled on - always subject to change - I change my mind about 5 times a day.  If you saw all the projects that I'm planning you'd probably have me committed:

The fabric triangles are left over pieces from the Snowball blocks in the Chippewa Nine Patch that I thought I would sew together and make a table runner for the family room.  And a Tilda doll.  I've been wanting to make one for the longest time.  And then a scrappy quilt.  I''ve been digging through my fabrics to see if I have enough for the look I want and I think that I do.  I was going to start working on a Pineapple quilt, but I'm holding off a little bit waiting to see if I'm going to need to use some of the fabrics I had thought of using on another quilt.  This quilt:

Evening Bloom by Blackbird Designs

Isn't it beautiful?  I have lusted after this quilt for a long time.  It's a Blackbird Designs quilt done in French General fabrics.  I have seen this quilt made before, but in a different color way.  This weekend I was in one of my favorite quilt stores and saw this hanging on the wall.  I loved this version of it so much.  I stood there drooling over it for the longest time and the shop owner must have known that I was in some kind of lust zone because she came over and whispered in my ear that kits would be available in about three weeks!!!  I almost kissed her!!  Do you think that it took me long to say "Sold"???  Happy Dance.  Now this is the reason why I'm not going to start the Pineapple quilt just yet.  I want to see exactly what fabrics are going to be used for this quilt and pull those from my bundles because.....well, I pull more Stupid Human Tricks than just throwing out floss and tend to make a "few" mistakes when I quilt, so I'll pull the fabrics from my bundles that match this quilt, and make the Pineapple out of the rest of them.  I can't wait to get started on this quilt!!

So that is it for me this week.  Now I better get cracking on working on something.  Problem is that the weather has taken a glorious turn for the better and it's hard staying inside.  I knew that this would happen, but I'm so happy to see green grass and flowers coming up and trees budding.  I just know that I won't be sewing as much for a while.  

Thank you everyone for your kind comments on Ann and to more new followers!!  I'm so happy to "meet" you.  I hope that Spring has finally arrived where you are, although I think that some of you in the west are getting another snow storm.  My heart goes out to you.  I'm sure that all of you have said "Enough already!"

Have a wonderful week!

More Things to Leave Me Speechless

Today was a really great and fun day.  Terri and Julie (no blog), took me out to lunch at Panera (yummmm) for a late birthday celebration.  They both outdid themselves and I'm so thrilled with the wonderful things they gave me - just about speechless again!!  

Terri gave me the greatest Vera Bradley bag.  She must have been embarrassed for me because of the pitiful excuse of a bag that I hauled back and forth to our Sampler Guild - Kindred Spirits.  But now I'm definitely styling:

I don't know which side I like better.  They're definitely my colors and what's so great is that the bag is reversible, so whatever mood I'm in, I'm all set.  Then in the bottom of the bag all wrapped up were three small presents:

Yahoo - I'm the recipient of her famous strawberries.  Have you seen these turning up all over blog land?  Well, I was coveting some because I'm too lazy to make my own!  LOL  These are just the cutest things.  She made them out of felted sweaters!  Cute, cute, cute!!  Then a wonderful pincushion made out of the same fabric (and there are some buttons hidden underneath - I haven't taken the pretty bow off yet), and a wonderful pair of Girly Scissors with one of Terri's famous beaded fobs.  Love, love them.  Actually love, love all of it!  Thank you so much Terri!!

From Julie I received this:

 A Tilda doll!  I can't believe that she made one for me!  I've wanted to make one for myself for the longest time, but you know how that goes - what you want to do and what you actually do are two different things.  But isn't she absolutely adorable?

Does she not have the sweetest face!  And I don't know if Julie reads my blog, but thank you, thank you so much!!  I know that these are not easy to make so I am just thrilled that she will be keeping me company in my craft room.

After lunch we had our Guild meeting and today's speaker was Kathy Barrick from Carriage House Samplings.  She came to look at our year-long class project - one of the Hawk Run Hollow pieces.

Here's a few of them:

I'm sorry that the pictures aren't better, but I was afraid that the flash would glare off those that were framed.  The two unfinished ones in the front are mine - such a slacker.

This one was so pretty - the stitcher added a wavey border all around the piece.  I think if you click on the picture it will enlarge.

One stitcher (and heaven help me I don't remember her name) took blocks of Shores and made into a Wedding album.  Here's the inside:

Here's the outside:

This was truly a stunning piece in person.

And a couple more:

It was so much fun to see these finished.  A lot of people added their own things into the pieces - renaming buildings around their lives or ancestors lives.  It was so nice to see all of them.  Kind of got me sparked to put needle to one of mine again.

Now you would think that I would have a picture of Kathy, right?  Well, I took a couple, but neither one of them came out worth beans.  Teaches me to use my son's camera instead of my own.  But Kathy brought some of her charts to sell, and in addition, just for our Guild, brought a new chart for us.  I love, love it!!!!

Do you not love it?  I do!!  And I think that as soon as I'm done with Sarah Seifer it's going on the scroll rods!

Well, that's it for me.  DH has steaks on the grill and corn on the cob boiling away.  I love those days when I don't have to cook dinner.

I've been up to no good in the sewing room and I'll post those pics in a few days.  Thanks for stopping by and leaving all your wonderful comments.  I truly love receiving them.  And Terri and Julie - thank you so much for your wonderful presents.  I just love them!!!!  Well, more than love them - I'll treasure them!