Third Blogoversary Giveaway!!! And It Must Have Been Fate!!

Actually tomorrow is my true 3rd Blogoversary, but why not start the celebration early, right?  I can't believe that I have been blogging three years, have 600 followers, been enabled by all of you so much (my husband definitely doesn't thank you!), and met so many wonderful people (some of them in person).  It truly has been a great three years!   So I think that it's time for a giveaway, don't you?   But first a little bit of other things and if you don't want to read about that, then scroll down to the frog!  Otherwise, here's what's been happening this week.

Actually a ton of things have been going on, but if I wrote about them, we'd be here all day.  Some of them happened during the summer when I was such a slacker in posting and commenting, so I'll slowly get to those over time.  Will give me something to talk about when my life if I don't get as much done now as I hope.

After stitching more on Ann Hall, I switched gears for a little bit and worked on Mary Allen as I'm suppose to be working on this with Loraine.  As much as I love, love this piece, she hasn't been fun to work on probably due to my fabric choice, so I've picked it up here and there and this is where I am to date:

Before:

As of today:

Certainly not stellar progress, but at least it's a little bit.  I should have been much further than this by the end of August, but that month was pretty much a bust as far as me getting a lot of stitching done, so I'm hoping to have my August installment done by the end of September.  The good part is coming with some of the center portion.  I can't wait to get to that.

Now, do you believe in fate?  Well, I do and I'm becoming more of a believer the older I get.  Remember this sewing machine that I bought?

It's a vintage Singer 301A sewing machine!  And thanks to Cyndi this baby became mine.  Seems that Cyndi just loves vintage sewing machines and she had more than she needed (and is probably adding more as we speak, right Cyndi?  LOL).  Anyway, I bought this from Cyndi and it sews like an absolute dream - the most beautiful stitches I've ever seen and it's in what appears to be in a case original to the machine.  Only problem is that I didn't have a table for this baby and I hate just sitting a machine on a table and trying to sew - it doesn't work.  This is where the fate comes in.  My baby, affectionately named Samatha (actually Cyndi named the machine and to prevent the poor machine from being confused I kept the name) has a new home!!

Isn't it a beautiful table?  It's gorgeous - in just the most beautiful shape!!  But wait - that machine isn't Samatha!  What's going on here?  Samatha is two toned!!!

Gosh, are you seeing double?  No, you're not.  Samantha is now residing in her new home and Rebecca is sitting next to her.  Seems that I've acquired ANOTHER machine.  And this is where fate comes in.

One day I was contemplating how I would find a table for Samantha.  I really wanted to start using her, but it didn't feel right sewing on her if she was sitting on a table and not in one.  Craig's List didn't have any for sale and who knew how many garage sales, estate sales, etc., I would have to go to in order to find one.  Then the light bulb went off (it doesn't happen much, believe me), and it dawned on me that Terri, lover of all things antiquey and estate saley might come across one in her travels.  So I sent her a text asking her if she came across to let me know.  Now I hit my fair share of these sales myself, but Terri gets out to a lot more of them than I do, so her chances were better.

Not a half hour later, Terri is on the phone telling me that she saw one at a sale she just left and has to go back later, it was a beautiful table and did I want it?  Well, yes I do, but there is a slight caveat - the table was $120 and included a machine.  I didn't need another machine.  And I didn't want to pay that price.  Well, she went back to the sale later and called me again and told me that the table was in really good shape and the sewing machine looked to be as well, AND, the price had come down to $70.00.  Well, much better, but I was still hemming and hawing about the machine.  While I'm trying to make up my indecisive mind, the person lowered the price another $10, so now it's $60 for both.  After the briefest of hesitation, I told her SOLD!  I figure $30 for the table (bargain as it's so beautiful) and $30 for the machine (that I didn't have a clue as to what I'd do with it).  And I'm so glad that I told her yes!!!  The table is beautiful, and so is the other machine, now known as Rebecca, although she's in need of a little TLC from my friendly sewing machine repairman.  But what to do with her?  Sell her, put her in a corner??  What??

Well, that problem has worked itself out.  DD has wanted to learn how to sew so problem solved.  She will have her own vintage sewing machine - one made very well and hopefully will last her for a long time.  Now.......I need another table!  Oh Terri, can you find me another one?  Please???  Preferably without another machine this time!  LOL  I can't believe that it happened the way it did!  Thank you Terri!!!

Now the frog!  Cute little guy, isn't he?  But this isn't the frog that I'm giving away in celebration of my third blogoversary.  This is the frog:

And along with the frog, I'll include a pair of Gingher Alicia scissors:

I heard mention that these are limited edition.  I thought they all were limited edition as they seem to come out and are gone before you know it.  I know that Gingher planned to have another pair come out next month, so these were a totally unexpected find at Joanne's.  And they can be yours, along with the frog and I may have a few other goodies to throw into the mix (undetermined at this point).  So to win, just be a follower and tell me what project you're working on right now!  That's it.  Very simple.  I'll draw for the winner on Wednesday, September 14th!!

So that's it for me except that, as much as I love having the kids home during the summer, Tuesday marks the beginning of Happy Dance time for me!  DD will be back in school and I'll be able to get back to sewing and doing all the things I love.  And a lot of catching up.  Seems that during the wild summer that we've had around here, my craft room looks like a hurricane went through it.  In spending one day down there I realized that I have way too much stuff and it's time to get rid of some of it, so in a week or two I'm going to set up a sale blog and off some of this stuff.  Some you will laugh at some of the things (they're pretty old charts) and probably not want to touch any of them with a ten foot pole, but someone may want it.  You know, one man's trash is another man's treasure.  If no one wants some of what I post - at least the charts - my local library will be happy to have them for their book sales.  Might as well help out the community right?  So in a couple weeks I hope to have a sale blog up and running.

It's really hard to to describe how much I value all the comments and friendships that I've made over the three years of blogging.  Your comments have lifted me up when I've been down, encouraged me when I needed encouraging on a project (like Ann Medd), and made me smile over your posts and I've Ooooh and Aaaah over all your beautiful projects and you've enabled me to no end. I really feel blessed to have "met" so many wonderful people and I hope to hear from you for years to come.

Hope that everyone has a wonderful Labor Day!!

A Long Overdue Finish and Machines I Love

Yes, yes, I know - it's been another month since I posted.  Where has the time gone?  Well, I am not sure where it's gone, but it blew by in a nanosecond!!  It's been like a real whirlwind around here.  DD's theater performances, my sister's visit and we're now on the home stretch in getting DS out the door for college next week.  So all things crafty have been put on the back burner to simmer.  But I do have a finish!!  Woo Hoo!

Sun and Moon

The Scarlett Letter

DMC threads and 35 ct. Edinborough PTP Legacy Linen

Now seriously, this poor piece should have been finished a month ago.  There's just not that much to it.  But, besides the time constraints lately, that border was a nightmare (many frogging issues going on with that border), and as I mentioned in my last post, if I put arrows on this thing to point out mistakes, you wouldn't be able to see the poor design.  But I'm happy with it, so to me it's a wrap - mistakes and all!!!

In my delirium of finishing something, instead of going back to something that I had been working on before (like Mary Allen - sorry Loraine!!), I started a new Adam and Eve piece since I just love those two people in Eden, so I started Ann Hall (pix flinched borrowed from the SL site):

And this is how much I've accomplished so far:

I'm loving this so far, but wonder how long it's going to take me to get burnt out on this border.  We all know that I am "She Who Hates Borders",  but so far it's been fun!

Quilting/Sewing has just about come to a dead standstill.  I did manage to get one block done for my Month 3 of the CWC quilt (and I'm at least three or four months behind).  This month I have to make four blocks (with a lot of those dreaded HSTs).  Block 1:

Block 2 in pieces because I made a mistake and the block came out too small.  Easily remedied, but still lying on the cutting table in pieces after pulling it apart:

Blocks 3 & 4 still in pieces.  What can I say?

I also started a fun project - or what I thought would be fun, but I ran into some problems with the pattern (I hate when that happens) and only have it partially put together after thumping my head against the table because I thought it was I making the mistakes, not the pattern's fault:

What is this you wonder?  Well, I'm not saying right now, but it's the beginning of a couple things - now collecting dust on the crafting table.  Sigh - how I would love some sewing time!!!  So that's it for craft things for me in the past month.  Pretty pathetic I know.  But I'm hoping that in another couple of weeks I can get back to sewing.  I really miss it.

My sister came in for a week or so and we did our normal antique/barn sale thing.  I really didn't find all that much, but something fun that did happen before she came had to do with those machines I love - sewing machines.  First a couple that I found recently, but not while my sister was here:

It's a Lindstrom Little Miss Sewing Machine.  It was made in the 30's and the little girl is suppose to be Shirley Temple.  I was so excited to find it.  It still works and is in pretty good shape.  You'll see on the hand wheel that someone wrote their name on it.  I can only make out the first name - Winoma.  Makes you wonder about the little girl that used this machine.  Then a couple weeks later, I found this tiny machine:

The hand wheel actually turns and the needle still goes up and down.  And better yet - it was only $1.00.

But the biggest and most exciting purchase was this:

A vintage 1951 Singer 301 machine!  Woo Hoo.  I've wanted one for a long time.  There is a wonderful story concerning this machine.  It involves a little bird - a little Bluebird to be exact, and a friend.  And luck was on my side in looking for things at just the right time.  I'll share that story the next time because the story still isn't over, but I was just overjoyed at my new acquisition!!  I've been so busy that I've barely gotten time to test it out (just a test run on my kitchen island of all places), but a quick run of it sounded so nice - it purred like a kitten.  And she came with a name - Samantha.  Hopefully it will be in its new home by my next post.  

Besides my sister's visit (and I'll show you my meager antique haul next time) and DD's theater performances, my son turned 18 and leaves next week for college.  To combine the two events, we celebrated both occasions with a cake.  I'd like to take credit for the decorating of the cake, but I haven't decorated a cake since my kids were young.  I left it up to the bakery:

Go Nick and Go MSU!  Actually, I was really hoping for a cake in Maize and Blue (U of M's colors), but he's going to college and that's all that matters.  Speaking of which, he still hasn't heard from U of M, so maybe there's hope in the future.  I told his sister that she really needed to give him a kiss for his birthday, and she did - notice the hand between her and her brother's cheek - so she doesn't get cooties or something:

And then her falling over after doing it laughing:

Kids - what are you going to do with them?  Anyway, I know that she's going to miss him a lot, although she did confide in me that she was going to turn his bedroom into her shoe closet!  LOL

Well, that's it for me!  Sorry that I haven't been leaving comments on everyone's blogs.  I have managed to get in and lurk around, but honestly no time to comment.  I did figure out what my blogging problems were - using another search engine.  Seems Safari decided that it didn't like blogs any longer, so I switched to Google Chrome and it works like a charm!  Anyway, after I get my DS off to college, things will settle down around here.  It's a lot of work getting these kids off to college, and my dining room looks like a disaster area with all the boxes ready to go up to school.  But he'll be gone in just 9 short days (sniff, sniff).   I'm sad and he can't wait!!  

One thing I did realize when I did have time to get into blogs, is that I'm coming up on three years of blogging!  I'm having a hard time believing that!  And now am over 600 followers!!!  Wow, where did everyone come from?  I can't wait to have some time to visit all your blogs and see what you are up to.  So in light of 3 years of blogging and the new followers, I'll probably have a giveaway to thank all of you for the wonderful comments you have left and encouragement when I've needed uplifting.  Maybe not quite on my blogoversary, but soon after.  

Hope that you have a wonderful week, and thank you for all your comments even when I do fall off the face of the earth for a while.  They do mean so much to me!!

Back to Business (Lots of Pics)

I can't believe that it's been almost a month since I posted a stitching update.  But I haven't stitched much in the past month, so maybe having the Accquilt giveaway was a blessing in disguise.  It's been a busy month (when isn't it busy?), but I have gotten a little bit done here and there.

I've been working on Sun and Moon:

Sun and Moon

The Scarlett Letter

Not too much accomplished for a month, is there?  I have to tell you that this sampler has been giving me all kinds of fits.  I was going to take another picture and put arrows all over it where I've made mistakes, but then you wouldn't be able to see the sampler!  Seriously!!  It's been one mistake after another - like putting that border in on the left five times!  Yep, five times and it's still not right.  Well, I know my limits and I'll just do some fudging somewhere along the line.  Like I've said before - small samplers and I don't play well together.  I just don't know what it is.  I've been also working on the Mary Allen sampler, but it's just more words and just words are boring for a photo op, so I'll show a picture of that next time around.  And no mistakes on her so far - but she's a bigger sampler.  I don't understand that!!

And I've been doing some quilting - and - I FINISHED THE FARMER'S WIFE BLOCKS!!  Ya Hoo!!  Here are the last ones in all their glory:

Whirlpool and Windblown Square look suspiciously similar, don't they?  Well, they're the same block just different fabric.  I don't know why there two of the same pattern, but the quilt is big enough that you'll probably never notice them.  But, do you know how excited I am about this?  At least 18 months in the making and they're finally finished.

I was so excited that I snuck down to the sewing cave and started putting them together.  I couldn't wait (helps that the weather is hotter than Hades around here and it's cool down in the cave). This quilt is going to take a long time to put together, but this is how far I managed to get:

Four blocks pieced out of 111.  Yes, 111 blocks!  And you know what?  I want to do another one!  Sick, I know!!!  This quilt is going to be huge - well, maybe not huge, but Queen sized!! I can't wait to get this one finished, but I have a funny feeling that it's not going to be until fall sometime.

Other fun things that have happened is that my son came home from Spain.  He had a wonderful time and can't wait to go back again (hopefully, on his dime)!  And sweetheart that he is, he brought me back some goodies:

Three pair of scissors from Toledo (the tape measure is an antique find)!  Was I excited?  You bet!  I only asked for one pair, but he knows how much I love scissors so he brought me three.  He also brought me a Matador spoon:

I don't collect spoons, but if my son is going to become a world traveler, I guess that I will!

The same day that Nick got home from Spain, a dear friend came into town - Robin.  We met up last year and decided to meet up again.  Her mother lives up in my neck of the woods, and she drives all the way from Maryland to bring her daughter up to stay with her.  We had a great time quilt shopping and antique shopping, and in my usual fashion I forgot to take my camera, but I did get one of her with my cell phone:

Not the best picture Robin!!  Sorry!  But we had a wonderful time and she came bearing gifts:

A vintage spool holder, a jar of vintage thimbles and Stitcher Girl socks!!  Love them all, Robin!!  We did have a great time and she'll be coming back up at the end of the month and is going to bring her daughter (who is 6) to see the play my daughter will be performing in - Suessical The Musical.

Anyway, we had a great day together, but I didn't find anything antiquey, although Robin came out of the shops with her arms loaded.  I wish I had taken my camera - she got some great things!

Last weekend, I spent a wonderful couple of days in Chicago!  I had the best time!  Unfortunately, no real pictures here either.  Well, there is one with me in it, but I'll spare you - I looked like something the cat dragged in - it was a hot day and my hair goes all beserk in heat and humidity (you get the picture), so I'm not going to show that one, but I do have one of this - All Saints:

Not the best picture.  I had heard of this store in New York, but had never seen it, so it was fun to see this one in Chicago.  Hard to get a good picture with the sunshine!  You know any store with a lot of sewing machines in the window will grab my attention.  And you're probably thinking I've lost it - with all the beautiful things in Chicago - like the shoreline and parks - I take a picture of sewing machines!

And speaking of sewing machines - I found another cute one a couple months ago at an antique mall that I had never been to before.  I keep telling myself that I don't need more than a couple....but, well, you know.....they're like potato chips and I couldn't pass it up - I love these little things:

A little nicked up, but I had to bring it home.  The needle is still in it and an old spool of thread on top.  

The big antique find recently was a new flower frog.  I had gone to an antique market a couple months ago and saw it and wanted it so bad, but the price.....well, it was a little high and I couldn't justify it.  But all I thought about after was that darned flower frog.  The market comes around every two months, so I woke up bright and early to be there when it opened last Saturday (envision one of those Christmas commercials with the women with their noses pressed against the store door waiting for the sales saying OPEN, OPEN, OPEN - that was me).  I found the booth, but no frog on the tables.  I was so disheartened.  But it pays to ask, right?  So I asked the woman who ran the booth and she told me she had sold it.  Again, my heart fell.  But then I asked again, trying to draw a picture of it.  A smile came over her face and she said that she did have it, in a bin, under a table.  She didn't have enough room to put it out because it was large.  So she went through the bins and in the very last bin there it was!!  COME TO MAMA!!  

LOVE!  I also found the tape measure for a mere $2.00.  But can you say LOVE???  Now I won't use this for scissors, although I probably could.  The frog is in two pieces:

The larger bowl measures about 14" and the frog itself measures 8" and both pieces are stamped on the bottom "Made in England".

So I could use it for scissors:

Or use it for it's intended purpose - Flowers:

I think this will be used for flowers!  Maybe!  

Well, that's all that's been going on this month.  I'll start posting on a more regular basis soon!  I have a lot of blog reading to do and hope to catch up with everyone soon and visit the blogs of my new followers.  I love finding people with the same interests!  And I want to thank everyone who entered the Accuquilt contest.  It was fun to have it and I was thrilled that Blu won (although I wish I had one for everyone who entered).

I  hope that you're having a wonderful weekend and if you weather is anything like ours (HOT!), you're inside stitching!

A Drive By Post - Literally

Not much stitching has been going on around here lately.  I'm within a hair's breath of being finished with Elizabeth Clayton - but not quite there!  Dance rehearsals, recitals and just the normal things that usually go on around here have really cut into my stitching and blogging time.  It doesn't help that our wireless modem is on its last legs and every time I try to get into blogs it shuts me out.  So far it hasn't kicked me out here, so I'll try to post this and see what happens.  But if you haven't seen me comment, blame it on the modem.  I'm going to try to get out today and get a new one.

Anyway, because it's been so busy, I decided to get out of Dodge last Saturday, go for a drive and take in some of the local culture.  Rochester Hills has some wonderful historic places to visit.  I've lived here for almost six years and have been to the school house (it's a right of passage for the school children to spend a couple days there in prairie dress with hornbooks and being put into the corner with a dunce cap on your head when bad).  But they also have a lot of exhibits.  So I finally went to one -  a rug exhibit at the Van Hoosen Farm.

I just fell in love with this Alice in Wonderland rug.  To see it in person was breathtaking.  It was done with a 3 cut for those who are in the know about rug hooking.  And a couple more:

The lighting wasn't the best, but you get the idea.  The rug exhibit was held at the Van Hoosen Farm in the reconstructed cattle barn.  If you want to read a little bit about the history of the Van Hoosen farm you can click on the link: www.thebarnjournal/org/stories/story014/index.html (well, the link is not clickable no matter what I do, but if you are interested you can do a copy and paste to read a little history of the farm).


The original barn burned down in 1968 when two boys were playing with matches.  A new barn was reconstructed and in one of the pictures below, is a picture of what is left of the original barn and the cattle area.  Sarah Van Hoosen Jones took over the farm from her grandfather and enlarged the home and barn.  She had built a new dairy unit and bred her own stock of cattle.  She graduated with a doctorate degree in genetics from the University of Wisconsin and her aunt, Dr. Bertha Van Hoosen, did important research in cattle diseases.

The Village encompasses a small community - schoolhouse, cemetery, and various buildings.  I didn't get a picture of the school house or the cemetery - I'll do those on another trip, but here are a few others:

I don't know if you can read the sign, but the name of the building is The Sign of the Black and White Cow.  This used to be the Dairy Store for the Van Hoosen Dairy Farm.  It's now a private residence, but the owners have to keep it up to City requirements.

1850's Red House:

The Farmhouse:

The reconstructed barn and museum:

What is left of the original barn:

One of my favorite houses which sits across the road (heavily traveled) is this one and I can't get the best picture of it because of the traffic.  All homes in this area are kept to strict standards as to how they are maintained.

From there I went to a quilt show held in Romeo, Michigan.  Romeo is probably best known for peaches.  Here are a couple quilts:

I'm usually into the more primitive style of quilting, but I thought that these two were pretty:

Romeo is also known for antiques.  And what would be a good days drive, if I didn't stop into the antique store???  You know how my car just can't pass up one of those places.  Romeo tends to be a bit pricey, but I lucked out and walked away with a new addition to the sewing room:

It needs a bit of cleaning, but I loved the graphics on it.

Well, that's about it for me.  Sorry there are no stitchy pictures, but there will be soon.  Thanks for stopping by and even though there are no pictures of cross stitch, I hope you liked seeing a little part of my world.