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!

Where Has This Month Gone?

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and are not chastising themselves for eating too much! Hard not to do, isn't it?  Then you get to face the leftovers the next day.  Ymmm!  But I hit the treadmill full speed running today.  Between Thanksgiving and my trip to New York and all the food I ate there, I feel like a whale!

I realized today that I've only made one post this month, but there has been so much going on!!  And none of it really stitchy.  This time of year is always busy.  I went on my annual trip to New York:

No, I didn't see the Statue of Liberty this year, but if you can believe this - I didn't take one picture!!!  I think that I was just running around too much with my sister and then running all over the city, that I didn't take a single picture!  Oh, maybe one of my sister's cat, but I'll spare you that one.  The doll was sent to me by my mother - another Barbie to add to the collection!

Sis and I had a wonderful time.  The weather was wonderful while I was there - in the 60's.  I only had two days with her, but we combed the North and South Forks of Long Island for antique treasures.  Treasures are not the same there as in Michigan, but I did come up with a couple things:

Another flower frog to add to my collection.  This one is quite large, made in England and perfect for all the little things I have around my sewing machine and keep misplacing while I'm sewing - like being knocked down on the floor or hidden under what I'm sewing.  Now they have a home.

I also found the wooden spools, cheap I might add, for putting lace on, a half doll to make a pincushion out of, and the angel plate.  Not huge scores, but antique shops aren't quite the same in LI as they are here in Michigan, and these came from the North Fork (the less affluent side of LI).  But we had a wonderful time driving around, eating calamari and seeing the sights.  I always hate leaving, but look forward to the next year.

After that I spent a couple days in the City and those are always wonderful times too.  The weather again was perfect - 65 and you didn't really need a coat!  I can never get enough being there and all of the great sites to see, and the things to do.  If you have some money you'll never starve or have a hard time finding things to buy in New York.  But I never go into stores and shop - I just love wandering the city and seeing the sites - like the window displays, all the billboards and the people.  I did go into St. Patrick's Cathedral - beautiful - and a few other places, but mainly just walked around.  I can't wait to go again.

A few weeks before I left, I made a trip to my not so local LNS and on the way home stopped in the town of Holly for a quick run through in one of the shops and walked out with these:

These were all from one store and ridiculously cheap!  I always love a good find.

Because of all the activity over the past few weeks, I haven't made much progress on Frances Eden:

Pretty pathetic!  I'm starting to get used to the colors of this though, but as always happens when I've been away from stitching for a week or so, my mind starts to wander around for something else to work on.  I'm trying to be good, but I have this bad desire to dig through stash and see what else I can come up with.

And of course, like a pesky relative, my Farmer's Wife blocks showed up for this month!!!

I guess I have my work cut out for me, although reading through the directions, there doesn't seem to be any template cutting, so maybe I can make short work of these.

So that's it - a rather boring post!  Hopefully, I can get back into the swing of things now that I've recuperated from my trip.  I always come home exhausted, over fed, but smiling!!

I haven't even looked in my Blog reader to see how far I'm behind on reading - I think that I have a lot of catching up to do!  Thank you so much for your comments on my last post and for the congratulations to my son for his college acceptances.  We're still waiting on the coveted U of M letter, but I think that we have another week or so before we hear anything.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed!!  And thank you to all my new followers!  I came back from my trip and saw that I now have 407!!!!  Wow!  I'm shocked, but also humbled that you stop by to see what I've been up to.  Thank you all so much!!  I hope that the rest of your holiday weekend is great!!!

Friday Finishes (Lots of Pics)

No, this isn't going to be a weekly event - Friday Finishes.  I'd love to do something like that - like Kim's Thrifty Thursdays, etc., but in the real world, I'm lucky to get a finish a month or so.  But it so happened that this week I have Friday finishes - three of them!  Woo Hoo!!!!

First up, I finally finished one of the samplers that I've been working on here and there - not a biggie, a small one, but a finish is a finish, right?

The Apple Tree Sampler

Hawkins House

DMC Threads and 36 ct. Buttercream

I didn't know what I felt about this sampler as I was stitching it.  All I can say is that stitching the tree was a PITA.  I made so many mistakes on it and frogged so much that I'm surprised to see it finished.  But here it is.  I think I'm going to do something different with this one and make it into a pillow instead of framing it because it's not very large.  I'm still sitting on the fence about that.

The rest of my time has been spent putting pedal to the metal in the sewing room and trying to catch up those pesky Farmer's Wife blocks!!  And I'm all caught up!!   I really have to learn not to leave the trickier ones until last because they just about drove me nuts.  But I'm all caught up (at least until the end of the month when one day I'll open the mailbox and that crazy Psycho music will start up again).  The first batch:

If you blow the picture up, that block in the upper left - well, that one may be a redo.  When I was finished with it, it stood up like a cone!  AUGHHH!!  A lot of pressing got it to settle down, and it measures the right size, but I'll probably redo it.

Second batch:

The block in the lower right still is not completely finished.  I have to miter the points of the red strips, but that's hand work.  I tried to cheat on the machine and that didn't work out too well.  It's also the only block that I've paper pieced so far because the first one looked like a train wreck when I finished it.

All stacked up and waiting for the next month.  Only seven more months to go!!

Once those blocks were done, I felt like I had a huge load off my back and finally, after having a few problems with the instructions, whipped off my sister's quilt:

If the instructions hadn't been so poorly written this would have been done a long time ago.  But in my usual fashion, I got a little too frisky with this one and cut the striped border wrong.  The stripes were suppose to go lengthwise, not from center to edge.  But I like it so much more this way - I think that it gives the quilt more character (and I'm hoping my sister thinks so too - well, there's not much she can do about it now, is there?  LOL).  It won't be completely finished by the time I see her (next week), but it will be at the shop being quilted.

Then it was time to move to something else.  I finally started on the Bliss quilt and managed to get sixteen blocks done.  Here are just a couple of them:

This is a really fun and easy quilt to work on.  It will look like this when it's finished:

(courtesy of Cluck, Cluck, Sew)

I should have these blocks done in no time.  They work up really fast.  So, what should I work on next?  I picked a couple things and I hope that I can get them done.  But with my trip to NY coming up next week and the holidays, who knows.  But I picked one new and one old project:

The new project is another jelly roll project (I'm just loving these jelly rolls) with fabric by Three Sisters. This one should work up fast.

Then I picked another one that I've had in my stash for years.  This one will take some time, but I figure that if I work on one old project and one new project, then I'm not only having the joy of working with new fabrics, but I'm also cleaning up stash at the same time.  Years ago I made a Jinny Beyer quilt, Mirage, as a shop model.  It's hanging on my staircase now with the hopes that DH will hang in in our foyer (I'm probably dreaming on that one):

I think this would look much better hanging it's full length on the wall (someone poke DH for me please).  LOL  This is one of my favorite quilts - I love Ms. Beyer's quilts, so I decided to start working on this one:

I'm doing the pink version since that fits in more with the decor where I'd like to use it.  This one is going to take me a while, but it will be so worth it in the end.  I hate fussy cutting border fabric!!

And then I went back to an oldie stitching project:

Frances Eden.  I laid her down quite a while ago because the colors were just so wonky to me.  But I've been seeing this pop up here and there on blogs like Laurie's, and decided to give it a whirl because I love how hers looks.  

I have to thank everyone for your comments on my trusty assistant!  He is a handful.  But he did actually come downstairs the other day with me, plopped himself on the couch and asked me to turn on Animal Planet!!  No, not really, but I did and he seemed to enjoy it for a while until he fell asleep.  Good Dog!!

You'd think with the bazillion toys in the house that paper he found blowing in the yard would be the last thing he'd want.  But he's like a kid and toys - give them a paper box and they're happy!!

In other news that's not stitching or quilting related, my son got early acceptance to two universities!  Indiana University and Michigan State University.  He's still waiting for two more responses.  I'm thrilled, but secretly hope that he picks an in-state college (if U of of M doesn't accept him, he tells me that Green (MSU's colors), don't necessarily suit him.  He's a diehard U of M fan and he has all fingers and toes crossed in the hopes that they accept him.  But you know, mom and dad would love that In State tuition - more crafting money for mom!  LOL  No, not really, whatever he decides is fine - I'm just thrilled for him.  

Once again, thank you so much for all your wonderful comments.  They mean the world to me.  Hope that everyone has a wonderful weekend!!  

Where Would I Be Without My Trusty Assistant?

I'd probably not be pulling every hair out of my head!

Lately I've been in a real quilting tear!  I can't get enough of it.  But do I get what I want done?  No!!  The reason for not getting done what I'd like to is this:

Yes, Mr. Bailey.  He silently snuck into the living room while I was laying out these blocks (where he isn't allowed - I thought he was sleeping) to get in on the photo shoot.  He's so sweet, so cute, but WHAT A TERROR!  A terror on four paws.  Huge paws!!! But how can you do anything but love him with a face like that???

But Mr. Bailey doesn't like me doing the things that I like to do.  Try to clean during the day?  Oh no, he's not up for that.  Trying to sew during the day - nope - not up for that either.  If I take him downstairs with me, he's after something - biting on the iron cord is not a good thing.  If he asks to go outside, I put him out, but he must have some kind of radar that alerts him to the minute I put one foot on the basement stairs or try to run the vacuum.  He barks like a fool to come in.  My neighbors don't say anything, but..........  So I've been resigned to sewing after dinner, making nocturnal visits to the basement and hoping that the stairs don't creak.  I know that he's going through his toddler stage, but what a bunch of work.  And what a sweetheart!!

He's growing like a weed - about 40 pounds.  Here's a couple more pictures and then I'll get on to what else is up:

Excuse the laundry - it's wash day, but DD decided to see how Bailey's sleeping accommodations are.  And then while Bailey looks small, he's growing like a weed.  My daughter's 5'4", so he's getting pretty big.  He has so much energy!!!!

And trying to look innocent (but don't let the face fool you):

Anyway, I've been on a real tear with the quilting.  I've finished off about 13 of the 18 blocks that were backed up on the Farmer's Wife quilt.  It took me three days to cut those blocks out, and one day to put them together.  Intensive cutting!

I still have a few more to go - the harder ones.  Some of these have so many small pieces!  UGH.  But I'm making progress - doing the happy dance and then..........cue in the Psycho shower scene music............ this arrives:

Next months' fabric.  OY!!!!  Is there no rest for the wicked?  But I now have 59 out of 111 blocks finished (refer to first picture with Mr. Bailey), so I'm doing a happy dance.  Hopefully in a few days I will be completely caught up!

In stitching news - not much at all - a little progress on Mary (that I'll post another time) and a little bit on Elizabeth Clayton:

The letters are taking me soooooo long.  Of course some of the letters and borders are in eyelet stitch, which I like to do, but seem to take me a long time.

In other news - not that much.  Still playing around in the craft room trying to see what works best for the things that I do.  I realized one day that I was wasting a perfectly good wall for some storage - a wall behind a door in which Mr. Santa resides until the holiday season.  As all my fabric is packed in those huge Rubbermaid bins, getting to it is a chore, so I went from this:

To this:

Cheap bookcase from Walmart to store just a small part of my fabrics.  DH made the observation that I needed about 10 of these to store all my fabric.  Unfortunately he's right, but at least it's a start!!!  Once I fill this baby up, it will be a beautiful thing!!!  DH actually L-bracketed the bookcase to the wall because he's sure that it will topple over once I pile the fabric into it!!

Well, it sounds like Mr. Bailey has wound himself around the basketball post again so I need to rescue him!  Pray for me that DH finally springs for the electronic fence!

Thanks again for all your wonderful comments.  I truly love receiving them.  And even if I haven't left a comment on your blog recently, I have been stalking lurking and I'll get back to commenting soon.

What A Slump!!!

Have you ever been in a real stitching slump - no mojo, nothing interests you?  Well, that's about what's happened to me the past few months.  I looked at my blog this weekend and realized that I haven't really had anything stitching related to say or show in the past few months.  I haven't been reading blogs either.  Just in a huge slump!  Well, I think I finally got out of it.  I guess they call it "Life Gets In the Way".  It happens - we all go through it - one thing after another - some good, some bad, but enough to just throw you off your mark.  When I get like that I retreat and just be.  I also tend to pull things apart - organize, throw out - it's calming.  While I'm throwing out the unnecessary items in my cleaning, I also seem to deal better with what's going on at the time.   Anyway, one day after weeks of purging both material and mental things, I decided to completely tear apart my stash and catalogue it.  What a process!!!  But the spark came back and I finally got the itch to stitch again!  It was like finding an old friend.

I started with Mary's Best Handwork that I began in Utah:

I still wasn't ready to start stitching again when I picked this up, but it seemed like the path of least resistance.  I had to stitch on something at the SB retreat get-together.  Ya just can't go to a stitching retreat and not stitch!  But my heart wasn't in it.  I didn't even put her on scroll rods - my favorite way to stitch.  But I worked on her for a while and now she'll get attention when DD dances on Wednesday.  So then I started Angel's Song with Loraine:

Not a lot of progress, but some - this is one night's worth.

In all my sorting and cataloging, I realized that I am a sufferer from startitis.  Going through all my things made me want to start something new, but I decided that I needed to get rid of some WIPs  I thought about going back to an HRH piece because I'm so lame I have three going and have the perfect wall for them:

But instead, I went back to Elizabeth Clayton:

I stopped working on her originally because I got bored after I finished the left side and the house.  I didn't feel like stitching the trees, etc., on the right side.  Lame!!!

Then one thing leads to another.  I start putting my craft room back together, which has laid in a state of upheaval since my sister left in August!!!  Once everything was back in the closet and things rearranged (pictures another time), I started getting more of an itch to create - do something.  Which made me look at all the quilting goodness laying around in there.  So I picked up the rotary cutter and had at it - I caught myself up on cutting out my Farmer's Wife blocks - all three months of them:

Cut off the selvages - still don't know what I'll do with these.

Cut out the blocks (all 18 or so of them - and a huge process because a lot have to be template cut).

And put them between the pages of the book.  This only took me three days of work because if you notice, the fabric is marked for template piecing - not my favorite thing to do. And I better remember to be careful when I pick up the book.  Last time my mind went blank, forgot all the pieces were in the book and they flew all over the craft room.  Took me hours to get all the pieces together again.

Then before I know it, I'm on to another quilt - Sheer Bliss!

I could not resist getting started on this quilt when I saw it on Cluck, Cluck, Sew.  I know it's springy, but a little spring never hurts in the fall.  And since I had this Jelly Roll of Bliss fabric, it was a no brainer.  I cut out my sister's quilt too in the hopes of having it finished by the time I go visit her next month - finger's crossed (but don't hold your breath Cin!! :o)

So my mojo is back and I have a ton of catching up to do on blogs.  I know that I've missed so much.  I had some comments last time about stash that I picked up in Utah.  I didn't pick up that much.  Common sense was probably telling me that I didn't need anything (and if you saw my Excel spreadsheet of stash you would have to agree with me), but I picked up a little:

Not too much actually, although now that I look at the picture, there may be more things around here.  The fabric at the top I picked up because SB made the cutest pillows out of Ewe Eye & Friends Petite Examplaries that I've had in my stash forever, and I thought they were adorable:

So another thing to add to my to do list!

So that's what's been going on with me.  It feels good to crawl out of that dark hole I've been living in for the past couple of months!!!  Thank you for all your comments and emails that you left on my last post.  It always gives me a smile to see them, and I will catch up on everyone's blogs soon.  I know that I've missed tons!!!