The Color Blue, a Finish and HEXED!!

Happy Friday everyone!!  I don't know about you, but I'm glad that's it Friday.  It's going to be a hot one around here too - kind of crazy weather we've been having in Michigan - but I'll take it - at least it's not snowing.

I love the color blue - it's my favorite - maybe because it's so calming - laying in a chair watching clouds go across a blue sky, the ocean.  It's a color that makes me happy.  So I'm smiling this week because I acquired something blue - such a gorgeous shade of blue that it makes me smile every time I look at it and makes me smile to think of Jolene who sent it to me:

I JUST LOVE IT!!!

Jolene wrote in her card "since you love blue & frogs & scissors......you may need a 'new' dish to display your future scissor purchases".  Well, she was right - I love all those things and I just happen to have a frog lid and a pair of blue scissors (why is no one surprised?)!!!!

I just love this so much Jolene - the color is sooooooooo pretty!  I will treasure it forever!!!  Thank you so, so much!!

It's been another one of those weeks where things have gone not according to plan.  Do they ever?  But I did have a little finish this week - something that I've been dragging around with me to put stitches in here and there:

This was really a fun stitch.  I put the pins that I recently received from Faye's giveaway into it and I think that they're perfect!  Not a big finish, but a finish nonetheless.

I did manage to work on Sarah Seifer this week, but didn't make too much progress on it.  It's a smaller piece, but I haven't had a lot of opportunity to park my butt in the happy stitching chair:

I've managed to get a little bit of quilting done this week, but not enough to really show.  Sometimes I think that I get my hands in too many pots with these crafts so I work on everything a little bit, but by the end of the week, there's not much to show.  But part of that is because now I've been bitten by the hexie bug.

I've got hexies hanging from my trees:

I've got hexies laying on the floor!!!!!

But not a flower put together!!  Well, one, but I'm still trying to find the right needle for putting them together, so I've been experimenting.  But I know of someone else who has been hit by the bug!!!!  My friend Diane.  She is not a quilter.  Well, she's made a couple quilts, but then decided that machine quilting wasn't for her.  But then I told her about hexies and she loves to hand sew.  She was interested, she looked online - she became more interested - so much so that she made me take her to the quilt store.  She bought some fabric - quite a bit of fabric.  I gave her some out of my stash.  SHE BECAME OBSESSED!!!  And this is what she's done:

Okay, I can't get this picture to rotate since I took it with my picture phone.  We met at a Coney Island for breakfast (yes, a strange place to meet, but they do have good breakfasts) and hexies started growing on the table!

Look at these wonderful hexies Di made out of batiks.  Be still my heart.  Are these not the prettiest flowers?  I think that I've created a monster!  Oh, it's such a happy world to enable others!!   Now she's making me want to do batik hexies!  Now she's enabling me - I guess the saying "What goes around, comes around" is true!!

Well, that all I have to report this week.  I spent most of it running around to appliance stores.  If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know that I've been cooking on appliances from hell.  Original stuff from when the house was built 20 years ago.  We've been here five years and nothing has ever worked right - burners from hell, double ovens that didn't heat right, refrigerator with drawers on their last legs.  Well, last weekend the ovens blew up (no, I didn't purposely do something to them, although it has been a thought).  The oven started making screeching noises and error messages began appearing on the control panel and the ovens shut off.  Since I don't have the manuals, who knew what was going on (and even if I had those manuals, they wouldn't have made an appearance - no way Jose').  Did you think that I was secretly smiling at this development???  You bet 'cha!!   I could not contain my excitement because I knew that the time had come!!  So, I spent my week buying all new appliances!  YAHOOO!   DH had to lay down after I was done - I told him NO to just replacing the stove and ovens, but I had to have a refrigerator and microwave too - they all had to match (the dishwasher I had already replaced last year).  The kitchen is my second workroom!!  We got home after placing the order and DH had to retire to the man chair and put an ice pack on his head.  HA!  Me, well, I was dancing all over the house.  It's the small things in life that make you happy right?  That's what I told DH.  His answer, "That da#$ed bill isn't going to be small!"  Oh well, he'll get over it right?

Hope that everyone has a wonderful weekend and that you have some quality time with your father and/or husband.  I'm going to just make sure that the ice packs are at the ready for DH's headache!  It's the least I can do!!  I have a funny feeling he's going to be laying in the prone position for most of the weekend with those ice packs on his head!  LOL

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!

I am Just Speechless

It's very rare that I will post three times in a week, but something arrived in yesterday's mail that has me just speechless.  It was late when I got the mail last night - eye appointment for me, orthodontist appointment for my daughter, picked up my DH's new car, a track banquet - busy day, so I didn't pick up the mail until late.  A package arrived - a purple and white package from overseas.  I am speechless.  A beautiful needlework book from Isabella all the way from France.  And I am speechless.  I'll let the pictures do the talking.

The front:

The side:

The back:

The inside:

The package held some sweet goodies:

A rooster waxer and three luscious skeins of AVAS silks.

Mere words cannot describe how much I love this needlework box.  The finishing is exquisite.  I am in awe.  This box has brought tears to my eyes and joy to my heart and even while posting these pictures tears well up in my eyes.

Thank you Isabella, my dear friend.  This will be treasured for the rest of my life!

Isabella has posted pictures on her blog also, so please take a look and let her know what wonderful work she does!!

Another Fun and Productive Week

Happy Monday!  Wow, after trying all day to get into Blogger, it finally worked.  I don't know if anyone else had problems, but I couldn't post or comment since yesterday afternoon.  Thank goodness they got the problem taken care of.  I probably would go through withdrawals if I couldn't read everyone's blogs!  LOL


Last week on my birthday, I read Faye's blog and found out that I had won her giveaway.  What a great birthday present, don't you think?  And what Faye sent is wonderful (all pictures are clickable):

Look at these great things that she sent.  The pincushion is a work of art and I say that because I'm finishing-challenged and admire people that can make such wonderful things.  This pincushion is beautiful and it feels so good.  I asked Faye what she used and she said crushed walnut shells.  I love both the charts so much and that red floss is such a luscious shade of red I can't wait to stitch with it.  I think that Quaker pattern would be perfect, don't you?  Thank you, thank you Faye, I love everything.


Then another piece of birthday fun was a present that I ordered for myself.  Can't have a birthday without buying yourself something, can you?

This is from Eldreth Pottery and someone that I know talked about this plate and before I could run over and scarf the thing up, another "Sister" friend (you know who you are) snatched the plate and it was gone.  But thank goodness the great people at Eldreth Pottery said that they would gladly make another one.  I think this will look good with the A&E Samplers don't you???


Then a mystery package came in the mail.  Just a note telling me thank you for my generosity.  Now I don't have a clue who sent it or what I was so generous with, but look at these goodies:

Oh my goodness am I going to have fun with these or what?  The sender said that she noted that I liked hornbooks and so two of these are hornbooks.  And the other charts I didn't have.  Woo Hoo.  But now I need to know who the sender is.  It's going to bug me unless I find out - I will get to the bottom of the mystery!!!  But thank you, thank you whoever you are!!!


I've been busy in the stitching/quilting area this week too.  I had to put Ann down before she drove me up the wall.  I'm still working on her - putting a thread a night into her.  The background is just a killer - or maybe not - maybe I'm just not in the mood.  So I started two projects - one is almost done so I'll wait until it's finished to show you, but I also started Sarah Seifer by the Goode Huswife:

This is a fun stitch and I got all this done in about two nights - pretty good for me.  Although lately at night I've been burning the midnight oil doing these:

Yep, a whole lot of quilt blocks!  Love, love them.  For some reason I'm going through one of those stages where I don't want to go to sleep at night, so why waste the time!  I'm now caught up through May.  June's arrived right before the holiday weekend so I've got some cutting out to do, but it felt good to get these done!!!
Here's a better picture:

One block among these has to be torn apart because I sewed one square upside down - I think it was about 2:00 a.m. when I was trying to finish it up - the red, green and yellow one in the second row, and one block came out so bad that I'm going to do it over again.  But woo hoo was I glad to get caught up!  I think I've done about 33 blocks so far.  Only 78 more to go!!


Last weekend while I was out with the girls antique/quilt shopping, I picked up a few things and thought that I'd post them now before I forget:

Not much but a few fun things (couldn't afford much - I spent so much at the quilt stores I had to restrain myself somewhere!!!) - a jar of buttons, a cute plate and some thimbles, the two mannequins (although the wire one came from the Salvation Army), some great old spools of thread that I think someone wound newer thread around, but the ends are stamped with some old companies.  And the little toile piece - it has a candle inside, but thought that it would make a good holder for a pin cushion when I burn the candle out.

Then this little beaten set of drawers.  I think someone just slapped a coat of white paint over it, but it works for me!


So it was another great week.  And you know what else was great about it?  Well, look at these pictures - it does a mother's heart proud:

DD wasn't feeling too well yesterday (can you tell by that messy hair?), and she was just moping around the house so I got her stitching.  Pulled out the Ott light, grabbed a chart out of stash, she picked the floss and away she went.  She decided on BBD's Souvenier de France and this is the progress she made:

You go girl!  Does this make a stitchy mother proud, or what?  She's doing a great job!  I told her that we'd sew it together into a pin pillow with a beaded edge.   By the end of the evening she was completely done with the Eiffel Tower and starting on some of the motifs.  She says she loves it.  Oh my happy heart!!!  Now I know that my stash will be in good hands in the future!!


Well that's it for me except for this picture.  Everyone is posting pictures of their gardens and so thought I'd show a couple pictures of my clematis as of last week:

The flowers were just huge this year.  But they're no more.  We had some bad storms come through here this weekend (and tornados south of us) and the winds and rain just blew all those petals off.  But there are still a lot of buds so hopefully it will look like this again.


Oh, and before I forget.  I mentioned Barbie dolls in my last post and was amazed at how many people commented or emailed about those dolls and that they had theirs from when they were young or collected them too.  I'll try to pull some out this week and post them on my next post.


That's about it for me!  I'm hoping to get a lot more quilting and stitching in during the next week.  I'm kind of taking it off for myself before the kids get out of school and the summer games begin!


Thanks so much for stopping by and leaving all your wonderful comments once again.  Now I'm off to try to catch up on two days' worth of posts by all of you.  I can't wait to see what everyone has been up to!!!


Have a wonderful week.

Words That Start with "F"

I know that I've been so remiss with blogging lately and I'm going to try to do better. Every time I turn around I realize that it's been two weeks or so since I last posted.  Always busy, but this past week has been filled with words that start with "F": - Friends, Fun, Fabric, Festivities and Framing!  It's been a great week!!!


I'll start with the framing:

Adam & Eve

The Goode Huswife

40 ct. Daily Grind & DMC Threads

Woo Hoo - another finish for the A&E Wall! I just love the frame for this one - really picks up the blues in the piece - what little there are!!

Last Saturday was a really special day.  Terri and I got to meet up with a dear blogging friend, Robin.  We had such a great time.  You know how it is when you first meet someone - you're nervous, wonder if you'll have things to talk about.  Well, no fears here - Robin got in the car, our mouths started going and we spent the rest of the day jawing to beat the band - I don't think we ever stopped talking - well, except when we were all lost in the antique mall.  We had such a great time!  We hit up two little antique stores, two quilting stores and then a large antique mall.  Such great fun!!!  It was about an hour's drive, but we stocked up with breakfast sandwiches and sweet tea and we hit the road!!

I managed to get a couple pictures of the girls at lunch:

Here's Robin holding up the gift that Terri gave her.  Aren't they cute?  Or for that matter, isn't Robin cute?

And here's Terri showing off the wonderful pincushion that Robin had made her.  Sorry for the glare behind you, Terri. We stopped for a quick lunch at Arby's (a wonder of fine dining) and Terri was sitting near the window.    I think we were going to try for a little fancier place to eat, but we spent so much time shopping, that we had to do a quick lunch.

This is the pinkeep that Robin made for me:

Isn't is wonderful?  I love it Robin and how did you know that blue is my favorite color?  Thank you so much dear friend!!

Now, no pictures of me.  I'm camera shy you see.  I don't like having my picture taken.  Ask anyone that knows me - I run from cameras.  Even my wedding photographer had a lot of issues with me.  I blink, I scowl or just plain close my eyes and grimace.  Both Terri and Robin wanted to post a picture of me and I told them no.  Well, Robin was a little bit concerned about that because if there wasn't a picture of me, then it wouldn't look like I went on this trip.  She asked if she could put a smiley face over my head.  I told her that was fine - or how about someone like Heidi Klum?  Well, I was just kidding, of course.  But lo and behold, Robin came up with my picture:

Okay girls, there I am in startling proportions!  Heidi Klum!  LOL  Is this picture not a riot?  I've been told I have a big head........hmmmmm!!  When I saw this posted on Robin's blog this morning I couldn't stop laughing.  Not good because I had a dentist appointment and all my makeup came completely off and I had to run quick like a bunny and repair it before I left.  I was just about crying I was laughing so hard!  Great job Robin!  

Now truly, I don't look anything like Heidi.  Heck, if I was Heidi Klum I wouldn't have a blog about stitching.  No way!  I'd have a blog telling you all about the new benefits and youthful appearance your breasts would have in the latest Victoria's Secret underwear - how your "girls" would kiss the sunshine, five times bigger than what they are, and your rear would look like two beautifully risen loaves of bread.  All the while telling you how Seal and I are going to have our 15th child tomorrow, and then the next day I'm going to be back into shape prancing down the runway for a VS fashion show!  LOL   Of course, I suppose that I could stitch some cute designs on the backs of the underwear or perhaps come out with a quilted bra!  Can you tell that Robin has a wonderful sense of humor?  I can't wait until I can meet up with her again.

Now, there was some buying going on that day and the charge card was melted - or semi melted.  It melted the rest of the way a couple days later.  Anyway, look at all this wonderful goodness:

For a black, red and white quilt that I want to make.  I forgot to take a picture of the pattern - OOPS.

Some cute trims - the toile box came from another shopping trip I did a couple days later with my girlfriend Diane (more on that later).  It's another one of those wonderful Moda kits I couldn't resist.  I don't know if it was the fabric and pattern (again no pic) or the cute toile box that got me.

More beautiful Moda fabrics - ymmmmm!!

Sorry for the dark photo - but some new patterns which I need like another hole in the head - and some hexagons.  I'd like to try my hand at that one of these days....soon.

And more beautiful fabrics that I still haven't unpacked yet (or at least weren't unpacked at picture time).
We had such a wonderful time.  I did pick up some antiquey finds, but I'll post them later.  

Since Saturday things have been really fast paced.  Monday was my birthday and I'll post one of the highlights.  The cake my kids and DH got me was beautiful, but the camera with the picture in it is nowhere to be seen - probably my daughter took it to school since it's nearing the end of the year.  But one of the gifts that I got that was very special to me was this:

This gift was from my sister.  She loves to paint and she painted this picture for me and I love it.  It reminds me of her place on Long Island that I love to visit.  Not her house exactly, but when you walk out her back yard to the Sound, there is a house to the side that reminds me of this picture.  Then she also sent me a bottle of Ice Wine since Long Island has quite a few vineyards on it - pop that baby in the freezer for a while and enjoy!  Pure heaven.  She also sent me a copy of Barbie Collector.  Yes, I collect Barbies.  Haven't bought any new ones in a while but I have tons of them - from the very first one that came out in the striped bathing suit, to all my dolls and their clothes from when I was growing up.  My collection grew over the years - I guess it helps that my mom used to work for Mattel toys.  But this catalog gives the news on the latest dolls.  And for you Twilight fans - feast your eyes on this:

Yes, now you too can have dolls from the Twilight series.  My daughter's already got her wish list put together!!!

Well, I have a million other things to yak about, but I'll save them for later.  There were more gifts, thrifty purchases and antique finds from last weekend, and of course, dear old Ann Medd and quilt blocks.  I managed to get almost caught up sewing those on by birthday.  That was one of the gifts to myself - spending the day sewing away, plus I bought myself a little present (shhhh, don't tell and I'll post that next time too).  

Thank you again for all your wonderful comments - they truly make me happy.  And I am thankful for all the friendships that I've made through blogging.  I thought it was so wonderful to actually meet a blogging friend this past week, and I hope that I have the opportunity to meet more of you in the future. 

Happy Stitching!