Some Stripping, Stitching & a Possible Head Exam

Hi everyone!!  I have to thank all of you for your wonderful comments on the Farmer's Wife quilt.  I still look at it and can't believe that it's finished.  I'm almost sad that journey is over.  One little thing I didn't mention when I posted last time was that when I sat down at the machine to clean it up, oil her and start on a new project - the foot pedal took off like a demon with its tail on fire!  I don't know what I did -   I must have been pushing it too hard, but that foot pedal is shot.  Thank goodness I had another one from the other 301A that I have, and a totally new one arrived this week.  Can't be caught without a foot pedal!  But again, thank you for all your wonderful comments and encouragement while I was working on it.  But again I'm kind of sad it's finished - so sad that I decided to get myself into another mess - and this may be the reason I need to have my head examined:

The Phebe Quilt!!!  I have lusted (okay, maybe not lusted) but have have really, really wanted to do this quilt when I first spied it a couple years ago.  I know - truly crazy right?  I don't really know how to hand applique either (I have an inkling, but I haven't done it in quite a number of years - like when the dinosaurs roamed the earth according to my kids - so let's say I know nothing about it, shall we?).  But the quilt reminds me so much of a sampler in the middle that I just had to go for it.  How could I not?  So I ordered the pattern when I saw it and there is sat for the past couple years.  But the Gods must have been shining on me because I found a BOM program and it starts next month!  I can't wait, but I think I'm going to need a lot of encouragement on this one (and probably that head examination - this is one large project)!!  And don't look for any quick finishes on this one either - I have a funny feeling the applique part won't be until the fall when I have time to sit down with it.

Even though the weather has been beautiful and my trusty companion Bailey and I have gone on more walks and field runs than I can count, I did manage to get a little stitching in:

I'm making slow but sure progress on Ann Rayner.  Still loving the colors and can't wait to have her finished.  Although I think that is going to take a while.  I'm barely past the half-way mark on her and there is a lot of grass at the bottom, but with the absolutely stupendous weather that we've been having here the past couple weeks, I've been hard pressed to sit down and stitch!  I did find that I made a mistake counting in the right hand border so that's something I'm going to have to address soon (ugh-FROGS), but she is a joy to work on.

Now the stripping - no, nothing offensive here - this is a PG-rated blog, but I have been stripping - with fabric:

I had to keep myself occupied while waiting for Phebe so on a couple days when it wasn't that great out, I started stripping.  I only have to make about a bazillion of these things.  They will be cut up and made into Nine Patch blocks something like this:

This is a scrappy quilt and you're suppose to cut the strips into new strips and then put them together in a random order to make scrappy nine patches.  I'm still sewing strips, but maybe this week I'll get those finished up.

We've been enjoying the most unseasonable weather that we've ever seen in Michigan for March - like can you say 86 degrees on Thursday and temperature records broken all over the place?  It's been wonderful, and things have blooming right and left:

The bright side of all this weather is seeing everything bloom and green up and it was still winter!  The down side is that we're in for frost this week.  Not good and could play havoc with our fruit producers in the state.  Our state is big on apples, cherries and peaches, among other things.  Fingers crossed that they're very mild frosts.

And on another note, please send thoughts and prayers for my MIL.  She's almost 85 and took a tumble down her stairs this week.  Actually this is the second time she's done this.  The first time she was just scraped up a little, but on Friday she took another tumble and fractured her pelvis (hairline, thank goodness), fractured her shoulder and her wrist in five places.  She's in good spirits and will have surgery on her wrist on Tuesday.  That woman is a little spitfire and can run circles around me.  She's going to hate having to take it easy for a while.

Well, that's it for me this week.  I hope that everyone has a great week and gets a lot of stitching in and some great weather too, and thank you again for all your comments on the FW quilt.

And now I think I need to get back outside.  I just mentioned to Bailey that it might be time for another walk:

Is he smilin' or what???

A BAP Wrap - The Farmer's Wife and a Little Stitching

It's a rainy, dreary day around here, but as far as I'm concerned the sun is shining because.....drumroll please!!!!!.............. The Farmer's Wife quilt is finally finished.  Woo Hoo!!!  After two years of stitching, ripping out seams, throwing pieces around the room (yes, that happened here and there - oh, and some swearing - did I mention that?) and countless bobbins of thread, she is finished.  Please excuse any wrinkles, threads, etc.  She hasn't had her final cleaning up or pressing, but I couldn't wait to show pictures of her.  So if you click to enlarge the pictures, just pretend you don't see the stray threads or wrinkles.

And a birds eye view:

She's a big one.  I can't tell you how hard it was to manipulate her through the final row of sewing.  I would have loved to get a picture of her outside, but it's raining buckets!!  Perhaps in the future I'll take her out and shoot some more pictures of her.

As there are 111 blocks in this quilt, I can't show all of them, but I'll show a few that stand out.

The Block from Hell - yes, this one gave me lots of problems - it was the one that originally came out looking like a volcano.  After cutting out and piecing another block, it's still not absolutely flat, but it's going to have to do.  It also doesn't have points that are defined.  Why sweat the small stuff, right?

The Fun Block - again, the points aren't sharp, but after 110 of these little babies, I was happy to have it finished.  This was the last block that I finished up.  In the instructions I had from the shop who supplied the Block of the Month, they omitted this block - they had instructions for a different block included twice.  Once I figured out which one had been omitted, I sewed it together and breathed a sigh of relief - and also had a glass of wine in celebration (okay - I had two glasses, but whose counting)??  One hundred and eleven blocks finished.  This one was fun and quick.

The Pointless Block - yes, I kept it and didn't do it over again.  I tried - I honestly did - by paper piecing - but paper piecing and I don't get along on a good day, so here it is:

And a Basket block - what would a quilt like this be without a basket block?

I learned a lot working on this quilt.  It was quite an experience sewing blocks that finish up to 6" inches compared to most of the quilts that I've worked on where the blocks finished up double in size.  There were a lot of small pieces - and some blocks - like the Pointless Block had at least 50 pieces.  And you know what is so funny?  Is that after all the cutting, ironing, swearing, ripping, etc., I want to make another one - or one similar!  I truly must be ill!  LOL

Because I've been spending so much time on the Farmer's Wife Quilt, I haven't had a lot of time for stitching, but I have made some progress on Ann Rayner.  I'm working on this piece for Becky's Challenge:

I finally managed to get off the alphabets and on to some of the fun stuff.  Don't you find that alphabets seem to take forever???  Ann is such a fun stitch - maybe because I'm using a 32 count fabric for her.  It's been easy and relaxing to work on.

So there you have what I've been up to the past couple weeks.  I'm noticed that I've picked up a few more followers in the past couple weeks!  Welcome!  And I'll check on your blogs soon.  I've been having problems with my gadgets and can't seem to add or delete people, so I think that I'm going to have to work on a complete blog overhaul here in the near future when I can find some time.  And I want to thank everyone for all your wonderful comments on my last post on Sun and Moon!  I tickles me to read them and I truly appreciate all your kind words.

And one final shot - guess who decided to make my quilt his own:

My buddy Bailey.  You can tell by the expression on his face he knows that he's not suppose to be sitting on that quilt!  LOL

Hope you have a wonderful week!

Framing, Quilting and Misc. Stuff (Lots of Pics)

Happy Sunday everyone!!  After a taste of winter last Friday (one of the few that we've seen), it's a beautiful sunny day here.  Makes you realize that Spring is just around the corner!!

It's been a busy couple of weeks around Chez Roman recently.  Nothing earth shattering, but more that while trying to recuperate from this vicious bug, I took it easy - a lot of sleeping and a lot of sewing!  I've been so tired with this!!  But, I'm feeling much better now (thank you to all that left comments)!!  I know that I'm not the only one that has been hit by some kind of malady recently.

First, I finally took Sun and Moon to be framed and had it back in three days!!  That's record service.  It was sitting around here collecting dust and then one day a coupon for 60% off plus an additional $10 came in the mail, so there was certainly no reason to let it continue to collect dust! (Note: there is some white thing on the right hand cherub.  It's not there in real life but just may be a reflection of something - it's very bright here today).

The frame is just a simple one and slightly distressed, but I thought that it was perfect for the piece:

I managed to get a little more done on Ann Rayner.  I just have a little bit more of the four sided alphabet and the Greek styled border underneath and I get to the good parts!!

Because I haven't had a ton of energy (although it's starting to return now - just wish I could get rid of the plugged head and coughing), I decided to tackle a couple quilting projects.  One is a quilt called the Cotton Club that I had been receiving as a BOM:

Every month a blogging friend, Julie would tell me how she was caught up with the current month's blocks, and I was just staring at mine.  So I took action and cranked those babies out:

All 25 done!  I'm all caught up!!!!  But what do I see - Oh no, a problem block?  Do you see it?  Look on the lower right hand side.

Obviously I got a little over zealous in my pursuit to get these blocks caught up and wasn't paying attention to detail.  It's been fixed now!

Then I worked on the Farmer's Wife Quilt a little bit more:

Three more rows almost put together.  You'll notice that one row is shy of being finished.  That's because I have to redo a couple blocks which seems a shame.  One of the blocks looks almost perfect except that if I sew it onto the next row there won't be points on the side:

There's about 56 pieces in this darned block, but if you notice, the points at the bottom will be completely cut off when I attach it to the sashing that is between the rows of blocks!  UGH!!!  So I'm going to redo it.  I've been putting it off, but I really need to bite the bullet.  I've love to have this quilt completely finished.

Now that I'm caught up with the Cotton Club and because working on the Farmer's Wife consistently drives me up the wall sometimes (meaning I still suffer from Crafter's ADD), I picked my next project.  I had put this kit together last year and then got caught up in other things, so this is the next quilting victim:

I've already started slicing and dicing the fabric and I can't wait to put the pedal to the medal and start cranking this baby out!  I'm anxious to have this one finished before the nicer weather gets here.  I don't tend to sew much once the weather breaks and starts to really warm up.

Recently, I came across sewing article that is very much dear to my heart in one of the boxes I've been going through.  It's a sewing kit - owned by a WWII veteran.  That veteran was my father.  He was a Canadian (at the time - he later became a US citizen) and in the Canadian Navy.  I tried to find a picture of him in uniform, but they're somewhere buried in a box that I haven't gone through yet.

I do think that it's rather funny - if you click on the picture to make it larger, you will notice that the bobbins of thread and the large spool of thread are all made in the USA.  I suppose that I thought that they would have been made by a Canadian or English company.  Perhaps these kits were supplied by the US.  I guess that would be a good thing to investigate one of these days.

And last but not least, Nicola recently asked for pics of Fur Babies sleeping.  I didn't get around to taking pictures in time for her contest, but realized that I haven't posted pics of my Fur Baby in quite a while, so here are just a few:

The lion that roared at bath time (don't tell him I posted this - I doubt that he would love pictures during his toilette splashed over the internet - to be viewed by a bunch of stitchers):

Such a cute face.  And what a pink nose!!  Poodles and poodle mixes have a tendency for their noses to turn pink in the colder weather.  And notice those long eye lashes!!

Bailey with Catie:

And sleeping next to my stitching chair on his favorite old bedspread.  He's such a sweetheart and my buddy.

I know that there is a lot of talk about the evil word verification thing going on.  I've jumped back and forth about taking it off.  I think that it's off now.  I had turned it off and within three hours I got a lot of silly Anonymous comments.  I thought that they were actually appearing in my Comments section on my blog so I turned it back on.  But then I realized that they are being sent to SPAM so I've turned it off again.  If you comment and notice that it's still on, let me know and I'll make sure that it's turned off.

That's it for me.  I hope that everyone has a wonderful week!!  And again, thank you for all your comments.  I really love hearing from you!!

This Will Thrill You!

Okay, I lied - nothing is going to thrill you on this post.  I've had a miserable cold the past couple weeks and am just now starting to feel a little bit better - at least right now.  Ask me again in an hour and I might be sleeping again!  I think that I'm right in there with about a million other people running around with something, but this cold/flu thing has really kicked my butt!

So stitching progress as been minimal and also haphazard.  There was a little bit of knitting thrown in and a little quilting, but mainly cutting out pieces with the quilting in my more lucid moments.   When I'd sit down to stitch or knit, I seemed to fall asleep at the drop of a hat.

Ann Rayner is coming along slowly:

This sampler is much more colorful than I thought it would be.  Happy colors and I do like that I used a lighter fabric for her.  I would have been much further along with her, but a rather large frog came to visit and I had to rip out about half of the first alphabet and the golden dividing border because - well, let's just say that I didn't pay attention to detail and dear Ann added an extra stitch between one of the flower buds going across the top.  But I wasn't going to tear out the bud border, so....and of course, no one will be wiser (except people who read my blog)......I'm just extending the top border over one stitch and problem solved. I posted the second picture because there wasn't a stitch marked right under the left corner, and the more I look at it, I'm put off by it, so I'm going to put in a stitch there when I pull the color again.  I must really have an anal side to me because I like everything to be even.

After realizing that I had to frog out so much on Miss Rayner, I put her down in disgust and picked up another Ann - Ann Hall, although I didn't get much done on her either:

I just managed to get some of the grass in, the star-like motifs next to Adam and Eve, the dogs (except the collars) and most of the deer.  For some reason I got bored with that, and picked up a new one - well not really new, I've had it in stash for a while, but it kind of broke my resolution of working on WIPs - Janet Gibson:

Thrilling, huh?  NOT!  The only reason I haven't gone further on this is that I can't decide whether I should use two strands (the block is in two strands) or one strand (the vine is in one strand).  I know that a lot of stitchers will cringe at the thought of using two strands on 35 count, but that is my standard operating procedure.  But I'm using NPIs on this one and even though you can't tell by the picture, the fabric is rather dark (Meadowrue) so I'd like the design to pop from the fabric.  So decisions, decisions.  One strand or two?

So there you have it - two weeks of work.  As I said, I've been spending a lot of time either sleeping or just lazing.  But hopefully things will improve from this point on.  The only other thing that's really happened is  that my poor tired eyes have finally reached the stage of needing enhancement for distance.  Yes, I need glasses!  I've worn them for stitching, but never for distance.  Me, being a brave sole, decided that I'm too vain to wear glasses and need contacts.

Now, promise you won't laugh.  I went through the exam with flying colors - only took me 5 minutes to figure out how to put the contacts in and take them out.  Went joyfully skipping out of the doctors office finding everything to be so sharp - I could see everything so well.  Wow, does that red sign really say STOP?  Okay, I wasn't that bad, but I could definitely see an improvement.

Fast forward 5 hours and it was time to take them out.  No problem!  Or so I think.  I couldn't get them out!!!  I'm panicking - am I going to have to make a trip to the emergency room (I should note here that my eye doctor is an hour away so I couldn't just jump in my car and go down the street)?  What the heck am I going to do?  Okay, I tell myself to calm down and walk away and come back.  You whipped those babies in and out at the Doctor's office, you can certainly do it now.  I sit down ready to do battle and I still can't get them out!  OY!  Now I should mention that this was the day that my cold was rearing it's ugly head - my eyes were tired, scratchy, watery and I - well, I was at a loss.

But the problem was solved in short order.  My daughter had a friend over who wore contacts.  She washed her hands and whipped them out of my eyes in a nano-second.  I was embarrassed, but she tried to reassure me that it happens to a lot of people (yeah right - I swear I heard her comment to my daughter that it never happened to her.  They probably both had a good laugh)!  Anyway, I haven't put them in since.  Yes, just call me chicken!!!  Maybe when the cold is completely gone........

And last but not least, I have a new member of the sewing machine family.  One day when I went out on a quick errand, I passed an estate sale.  Even though I wasn't feeling my best, I decided to just stop in - you just never know what you'll find.  Well, I guess the Gods were shining on me trying to make me feel better because I have another addition:

This little machine is a tiny one.  And sitting next to her was a small spinning wheel.  I couldn't resist either one, and the price was so reasonable for both of them, I just couldn't pass them up.  I need to spend a little time today cleaning them up.  These sewing machines and I are going to have to stop meeting like this because I'm running out of room!

Well, that's it for me!  I'm going to try to slowly catch up on blogs today - as long as my eyes stay open.  I think that I've missed a lot over the past couple week or so!!  Hope everyone has a stitchy week - and stays well!

Such a Lackluster Month!

I looked at the calendar today and asked myself, "Self - what the heck happened to January?"  I think I said that last month and the month before too!  OY!  So little progress on anything and I've been trying like the devil.  My mojo is back, but there definitely seems to be a lack of time due to all that life stuff.  So before the end of the month hits us and we're into February, I figured I'd make a post on my rather lackluster doings in the craft world the past few weeks.  Finger's crossed February will be a more productive month.

First off, stitching on AWFAA has been really bad.  I went great guns on this sampler and then peetered out on the fill in - but I've loving the colors:

I was warned about how intensive that fill in can be, but I like fill-in stitching when I feel like being mindless and not having to refer to a chart much.  Obviously, I didn't have a lot of time to be mindless this month.

But there was other stitching.  I joined Becky's challenge and promptly picked out a piece to stitch.  But I changed my mind.  I really didn't want to start something "brand" new.  My goal this year is to finish up WIPs and work on stash where things are kitted and ready to go.  The operative phrase this year is, "Do not spend money - you own a small craft shop in the basement"!!!  Anyway, last year I had started Ann Rayner and got all of this far on my one day of stitching:

Wow! Leaves you breathless by all I got done, doesn't it?  LOL  Anyway, this was on 40 count linen and I just knew that when I came to the over one stitching, I would not be a happy camper.  So I restarted it:

This time I'm working it on 32 count Cafe au Lait and liking it much better.  Excuse the wrinkle marks.  For some reason, the fabric relaxed back and now I have wrinkles!  UGH!  Anyway, while I'm sure that it's a travesty to do this sampler on a whiter and larger larger count linen, it's a welcome break from working on the 40 count fabric that AAWFAA is on (and a lot of my other starts from last year also).  So this will be my challenge piece - it's a new start for the new year.

I also finally tamed the savage beast with the knitting and got those YO's down pat and started on my daughter's scarf.  I had quite a bit of yarn left over from the Guernsey scarf and DD picked out a pattern, asked for a gray scarf and this is where I am - probably 1/3 finished - she wants a long scarf:

It goes rather quickly with repeats of eight rows.  I'm almost loving it so much, I might have to make one for myself!!

Then I've been doing some quilting.  In that attempt to get rid of WIPs both in stitching and quilting, I went back to the Farmer's Wife and was able to attach three more rows of blocks.  I really, really wanted to start working on the Cotton Club (a BOM that I started receiving last year), but I just knew that if I did that, the Farmer's Wife would just remain a pile of blocks (you can click on the picture for a close-up, but please excuse any stray threads).

I love this quilt more and more as I get each row attached.  When I got to the next row of blocks, I hit a road block and in trimming down the blocks to prepare them for the sashing, I found that one block - if I trimmed it down to the correct size, I would be sewing too far into the block and not have points!  UGH!  So that is a block that I will have to redo.  At that point, I stopped putting rows together until I could remake that block.  Then I realized that I didn't have to follow the book exactly and line my blocks up like the designers.  No, this is my quilt and I could do what I want! (why am I suddenly hearing Leslie Gore's song, "It's My Party and I'll Cry If I Want To" in my head?????)  Anyway, I'll leave that block until the end and put it there.  There is one other block that I have to redo because - well, it looked like a volcano at the end of putting it together - so when I'm in the piecing mood I'll make those two blocks over again.

And last but not least, I did a little bit of handwork.  Now, normally I hate handwork.  I used to do it all the time when I made dresses and costumes for my daughter, but ask me today to sew on a button or anything like that, and I run in the other direction.  I don't seem to have the patience for it (probably why I don't hand applique).  But I had a couple small kits for scissor fobs that I had received from my Guild and we're to receive another one next month, so since it's a good thing to clean out some stash, and the fact that my bazillon pairs of scissors mostly do not have fobs, I made up the couple kits that I had - a watermelon and strawberry:

And you know, I so enjoyed doing them, that I searched around for some more things to do.  Maybe there is hope for an applique quilt yet.

And I'll leave you with this picture:

Now what's so interesting about this picture you ask?  Well, it snowed yesterday.  Why was I excited?  It was coming down in huge flakes and the ground was covered!  We here in Michigan have been snow starved this year.  We'll get a little bit and then it warms up and melts, and I don't think that the ground has been covered yet this year.  In fact, it's been so unseasonably warm here that Ice Festivals and tournaments that are held on the lakes have been postponed for a month, hoping that February will be more seasonable.  So the snow is a beautiful thing to see.  Even my daughter smiled when she saw the snow.  Alas, I understand that it will be short lived.  I hear temps are rising again in a day or two!

So that's the report this time around.  Not much for 20 days of work.  But all those little bits of progress will eventually end up in a finish, right? I've managed to find a couple new things to add to the craft room (yes, one or two more sewing machines among other things), and some vintage things from my grandmother that I discovered in a box in addition to some things I had as a child.  It's always a delight to find those things especially when they are from family.

Hope that everyone has a great week!

Getting Back to My Routine???

The kids are all back to school (DS went back yesterday - YAHOO) and maybe now I can get back to my routine!!  Okay, you probably think I'm a horrible mother.  I love my son!!  But I don't love all the extra laundry, constant piles of dishes in the sink and the basement looking like a frat house and him thinking that noon is too early to get up!  But I'll be missing him.  A lot!  He's always so much fun.   But now that everyone is back to their respective routines, I can get back to mine and the more crafty things in life - like stitching.  I haven't done a lot of that.

But as each new year arrives, I think we all think about starting something new.  That was my first thought as we all know that I love starting new things.  But I decided that after my severely lackluster performance in the January Challenge last year (starting 15 projects) - of which I completed a big fat goose egg - I decided to go a different route, and make 2012 the year of the WIPS.  Why not - there are all those projects started from last year.  Makes sense, right?  So I joined Measi's WIPocalypse.  Get those WIPS all off my plate (well, maybe not all - that would take about 10 years!!!).

So I picked up AAWFAA.  When we last left this sampler at the beginning of last year, this was where I was - did I happen to mention that I HATED this cloud?

And this is where I am now (I'm loving the colors):

Not a huge amount finished, but not too bad for the first week of the new year.  There's a lot of backstitching on this puppy, and on 40 ct. fabric no less.  My eyes are having a hard time adjusting, but since I'm about to get a new pair of glasses, I think that it will be a lot easier to see and I won't get out of my chair cross-eyed.

Then, as usual, within a few days I was dreaming about starting something new.  Figures, right?  Well, a solution presented itself.  I happened to be reading blogs one day and saw Becky's challenge for the year - start something new, post updates during the year, and win a prize!  Okay, I'm all in for that!!  What's ONE new project?  Just one little project?  Well, it has to be 10 x 12, so not that little, but absolutely doable!!  So I've got my project picked out, but can't decide on the fabric - I've had two false starts as I didn't like my fabric choices, so I'll reveal it in my next post.  But I'm giddy about starting something new.

On other needles, I've been doing knitting.  After I finished the Guernsey shawl, I proceed to start a scarf for my daughter.  Could I get the pattern?  Could I make the yarn overs right?  NO!!!!  I sat there pulling out my hair wondering why I couldn't do it.  It's not like I haven't knit before.  But the correct way of yarn overs eluded me.  Even with YouTube videos.  I kept telling myself I've done this before, but it just wasn't working.  To prove my point that I can knit, I pulled a couple out of my son's drawer that I made for him when he was a little boy:

So there's your proof.  I once knew how to knit.  But those skills have flown out the window it seems.  So I have been knitting, but simple things - no yarn overs.

Gathered Scarf

Crazy Zauberball yarn

Combined Patterns

Boneyard Shawl and So Easy I Can't Even Stand it Triangular Scarf

The Gathered Shawl is my "take with" project when I take my daughter to dance because there isn't too much you can mess up on something that is just stockinette stitch.  Well, I shouldn't say that.  I was a lot further along on that scarf and did mess it up and had to take a good portion of it out, but I think that I'm back on track now!

Oh, and I have to mention that a couple nights ago I was laying in bed and it came to me how to do those yarn overs the right way!!  Figures.  So once one of these projects is finished, I can get on with something a little more elaborate.  

So that's my first week of January.  Not tons, but a good start.  Now I need to get some quilting in!!!

How are you doing on your goals so far?  Do you have any?  Did you join a Challenge or WIPocalypse?

An Early Happy New Year and Reflecting on the Past Year

I know that it's been almost two months since I've posted (where has the time gone???) and I hope that everyone had a very Merry Christmas and will have a Happy, Stitchy New Year.

I figured now was a good time to climb out of my hole and reflect on what I've accomplished in the past year and get on the blogging bandwagon again.  I know that I've missed tons and hope to catch up in the next weeks.  I've missed all of you and all the projects that you've been working on.  I think that I went through some kind of slump in the crafty arena, (well, I don't think - I know), but it's time to brush off those needles (whether they be stitching or knitting needles) and get the show on the road.

Many things have gone on the past couple of months - mostly for the good.  I took my annual trip to New York (I just love that place) and finally managed to get into the Tinsel Trading Company (note here:  if you plan on going to NYC, call the shop, don't rely on the website - the hours are wrong!!!).  What a fantastic store.  Truly overwhelming with all the buttons, trims and miscellaneous things.  I could have spent hours there!  I picked up the cutest angel (among other things) while I was there:

Isn't she the sweetest?  The weather was fantastic (almost mid-70's by the time I left) and I had a wonderful time with my sister!  It's always fun to spend time with her.

In reflecting on the year in stitching - this hasn't been a stellar year.  I seem to be a "Jack of All Trades, Master of None" as they say (read "Crafters ADD).  So here's what I accomplished in the last year.  It's always fun to see what the past twelve months have produced:

Row 1: Turning Twenty Quilt, Yellow Brick Road Quilt, Ann Medd (five years in the making)

Row 2: Elizabeth Clayton Sampler, Sarah Esh Sampler, Blackbird Designs Pincushion

Row 3: Tumbler Quilt, Farmer's Wife Blocks (all 111 even of them), Sun and Moon Sampler

Row 4: Mirabilia Deepest Love, Schibbles Recess Quilt, Guersney Shawl

As you can see, I got my hands into a little bit of everything!  And no, the Farmer's Wife Quilt is not completely put together, but I figured that finishing 111 blocks was a feat unto itself, and counted as a finish!!  And there's not a lot of stitching here.  Now, that's not to say that I haven't done more stitching than you see, it's just that they're not finished - because as we all know I'm a habitual starter (remember I was one of those crazed people that started those 15 projects last January, of which I don't think that I finished one).  Well, I've pulled a couple of those out and plan on finishing them up in 2012.  Not all 15 mind you, but a few.

Knitting has seemed to have taken me over by storm.  The Guernsey shawl was so much fun to work on (thanks Di for pointing me in this direction).  I should note that the shawl is a darker grey then shows up here, but I overexposed it somewhat so that you can see the pattern.  Once it's blocked, I'll have my daughter model it.  That has kind of set the stage for more knitting, but I'll save those for the next post.

One piece that I've done a little bit of stitching on is this:

I finally got Adam and Eve into Ann Hall!  Now that I see this picture, I think that I need to put the knitting down and put a little bit more into this sampler.  I still have tons of room on the sampler wall.

Other than that - not too much else is going on!  I did some antiquing on Long Island with my sister and we found some great shops, but the sweetest thing I've picked up recently was another machine for the ever growing small sewing machine collection.

I think that I'm up to 12 machines now.  One day I'll have to take a picture of all of them.  My husband lifts an eyebrow every time he walks into the craft room (which is seldom) and asks, "Is that new"?  And I answer him no, it's been there - it's old.  Because, in fact, it really is old - so that doesn't count as a lie, does it?  LOL

So that's just about been it for me the past two months.  Like I mentioned, I went through a slump of gigantic magnitudes, but I think that I'm back now.

I want to thank those that sent me notes of kind words while I was kind of off the blogging path.  They've meant a lot to me - knowing that you were wondering what I was up to.  I've made some wonderful friendships through blogging and I cherish each and every one - so hearing from you really made me smile and kind of got me back on the path again.  I do have to admit that I've been lurking in the background here and there, but haven't really had time to make comments. But I know that comments are what drives us to do what we do and I plan to get back to that.  Call it a New Year's Resolution!  I dare not make those for my stitching progress, however.  I've learned my lesson with making stitching resolutions! We know that I always break those!! 

I wish all of you a very Happy, Prosperous and Stitchy New Year!!!