Some Stitching, The Wall(s) of A&E and This and That

Fall is definitely in the air here in Michigan.  The days are beautiful, at least lately, and it's so cool at night that you sleep like a baby.  I hear that it's going to come to an end by the weekend and heat up again, but you know that Fall is coming soon.  My favorite time of the year - football games, the smell of fires in the air AND the fact that I can go back to my regular scheduled programming - sewing, reading blogs, getting things done.  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE, LOVE summer, but I like each season for various reasons.  Summer for the beautiful weather and being able to be outside more, my kids being home and things like that.  But Fall, Winter and Summer are when I get the fun things done.  I don't get much sewing and stitching done in the summer, so I'm looking forward to getting back to everything now that the kids are back in school and I have a little more time to myself.

Stitching wise I managed not to jump ship on Ann Hall and got, what I think, is a fair amount done on her considering everything:

Not bad, but not great either.  Love the cherub, and he's going to have a little belly button when I manage to get it in.  I think he's sweet!

Sewing wise - there has been nothing - absolutely nothing in that department and I so long to get down there and work on some quilts.  I hoped to do some today because today was the first day I've had time to myself in what seems like forever.  Everyone is off and while I wanted to sew, I decided to tackle a job on the very long To Do List and finally got around to hanging all my A & E samplers.  Well, not all of them - I still have a couple to be framed, but what's framed to date.  This is still a work in progress as there is a lot of wall space, but I have a lot of A&E's still lurking in the stash basket.  The pictures aren't the greatest as I'm trying to shoot up and down stairs, and the lighting isn't the best because the ceiling is very high in this area, but here you go (the pictures are clickable so that you can see them better):

Looking up the stairs we have the infamous Ann Medd, Adam Alone, Sarah Esh, Adam and Eve by The City Stitcher and Mary Corey and there's still room for a few more.

The stairs has an L-bend, so next is the view going down the stairs:

Yellow House Sampler, Sarah Seifer, Margaret Pence, Apple Tree Sampler, Elizabeth Clayton, Adam and Eve by Goode Huswife, and And They Sinned.  

Here's a view of the one wall from the bottom of the stairs.  Looks like I better keep stitching those A&E's - there's a lot of space left.

And one from the top!

So that is the extent of what I've gotten done the past couple weeks in the world of stitching.  I'm anxiously awaiting the reaction from DH when he sees all those samplers on the wall.  He'll probably go nuts - you know, he's the one that's anal about putting holes in the wall.  Oh well, he'll get over it!  LOL

While my sister was here last month, I managed to add a couple flower frogs to my collection and here's one of them:

Isn't it sweet?  I had seen one of these going on Ebay a while ago for a ridiculous amount of money (well, at least more than I would pay).  While we were out on our annual antique rides, I found this hidden in the back of a low shelf and knew that it had to come home with me.  It needs a little cleaning up but I think it's so different.

Other than that the only other thing that's been going on is that we got Nick up to college and from all reports he's loving it. 

Looks like pretty close quarters to me.  I don't know how three boys are going to survive in this room (they overbooked the room and eventually one will be moved, but until that time, I think it's going to be real close).  Anyway, I think he's having fun, but I don't think that he's getting too much sleep.  One night he was up at 4:00 a.m. doing wash.

Before we left for the ride up to the campus, he presented me with these, thanking me for getting him to this place in his life.  I don't think I had all that much to do with it (well, maybe a little) - it was his hard work that paid off:

And that's about it for me for now.  Well, there's more but I'll save that for next time.  Maybe I can get myself to start posting every week again!  Hopefully,  I'll really have things back to normal again in the next couple of days and can get some more stitching and quilting done!  Hope everyone has a great week, and make it a stitchy one!

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!

And The Winner of the Accuquilt Go! Baby Is.......

First off,  I have to thank everyone for entering!!  I'm so excited to finally be able to annouce the winner.  There were 209 entries (well, actually quite a bit more, but I had to weed out some extra comments - like types of dies people would pick - those didn't count for an extra chance) and it was so exciting for me to hold this giveaway.  So without further ado, the winner of the Accuquilt Go! Baby is:

#77

BLU

CONGRATULATIONS BLU!!!

Please contact me with your address and also let me know what three dies you would like.  I will notify Accquilt right away and have them send you your very own Go! Baby!!!

And a huge thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway and became a follower!  I'm enjoying visiting all your blogs (I still have quite a few to visit though!)  And more exciting news - I'll be having another giveaway from another wonderful company in about the next month or so, and I think that you'll be excited to see what I'll be giving away this time around!!  So stayed tuned!

Again, a huge CONGRATULATIONS BLU!!!!  I know you're going to love this machine!!

I'll be back with a newsy, stitching post soon!!

Go! Baby Giveaway Time!!!

It's time for my giveaway for a Go! Baby all for your very own compliments of the wonderful people at Accuquilt.  This great machine can be yours:

And you don't have to be a quilter to appreciate this machine!  With all the dies available, I know that you will find something that will fit into whatever crafty projects you get into.  So all you have to do to enter is this:

1.  Be a Follower for one chance to win

2.  In your comment, please tell me know what three dies you would love.  Take a look at the Accquilt site and check out all the dies that are available.  Just make sure you pick three that are compatible with the Go! Baby.  Also, make sure that there is a way I can contact you if you do not have a blog (i.e., email address)

3.  If you post this giveaway on your blog or site, you will have another chance to win, but please make a separate comment telling me that you have done so - makes it easier for me to keep track.

That's all there is to it!  Easy Peasy!  And Accquilt will ship Internationally!!  So sign up for your chance to win this wonderful machine.  You will be so happy you did.

I'll pick a winner next Thursday, July 14th!!  Good luck everyone!!

Fun With The Go! Baby (Lots of Pics)

I have to tell you that I've been having so much fun playing around with my Go! Baby and have managed to crank out a couple projects in short order!  This machine is addicting!

The first project (well really the second project - I'll get to that in a minute) is a fun baby quilt that I made out of Riley Blake Designs, Quite Contrary line.  I used the Go! Baby Tumbler die:

Excuse the folds - I didn't have anyone here to hold it up for me!  This was so much fun and easy to do with the Go! Baby.

Here's a brief tutorial of what I did.  First I placed a layer of fabric on the die (you can layer up to six layers - I was doing a test run):

Placed the cutting board on top:

Then I gave the handle on the side a crank so that the die goes from one side of the Baby Go! to the other,  and look what I ended up with:

And TA-DA!

Simple, huh?  And in about 15 minutes, I had this:

Enough Tumbler blocks for my quilt - about 168 Tumblers!  Amazing!  Do you know how long this would have taken me the "old fashioned way?  Hours of tracing and cutting!

So now it's time to sew and it was so easy!  Because the corners are notched the pieces fit together perfectly:

Which results in such perfect piecing:

You just gotta love when your seams match up so well!

From there it was just making rows:

Sew the rows together, add some borders and you have a great quilt.

I also cut out some repros!  I have a ton of left over fabric from my Farmer's Wife quilt:

I'm not done with the quilt yet, but I couldn't resist putting a few repro tumblers together.  Woo Hoo!  I'm well on my way to the Tumbler quilt that I kept putting off because I didn't want to cut out (by hand) all those Tumblers!  With the Baby Go! it was so fast and I'm well on my way to having the quilt I've wanted for a long time.

The first project I actually did was a pincushion.  I know that you've all seen them here and there.  I did them with the Hexagon Die, and again, it was short work!  Unfortunately, the pictures flew into cyberspace somewhere due to operator error (thank goodness the Go! Baby has no blades that could cut me because I don't do well with some devices sometimes - LOL), so I recreated a little bit of it.  Anyway, here's the pincushion.  I know that if you're a fan of Blackbird Designs you've probably seen them:

Isn't it sweet:  I used the Go Baby! Hexagon die.  The die comes with three different sizes, 2", 3" and 5" - the seam allowances are built in (sorry for the glare in the picture):

For my purposes, I used the middle size - 3".  Using one size out of the three is not hard to do at all.  I simply laid my pieces of fabric over the die area and cut.  There was no shifting of fabric and the pieces came out perfect.  I had some 2-1/2" hexagon papers and turned the edges over the papers and pressed.  You can also baste your seam allowances down in a more traditional way, but for my purposes with this being a smaller project, I just used the papers and pressed my seam allowance to the inside.  Then I zig zagged the edges together:

When I came to the end of the seam I added another hexagon, swiveled the needle and continued on:

It was so quick and easy.  As I mentioned I don't have pictures of the original one due to operator error, but I just continued adding layers to the piece for a total of three rows.  Here's a partial row just set together:

Once your three rows are completely put together, you cut a circle for the back (this is where the Baby Go! Circle die would have come in handy), trim the edges of the hexies to match the circle, sew right sides together - leaving the seam open enough to turn right side out - stuff your piece and you're pretty much done. I added thin twine and a cute vintage button and it's finished:

I think these would be cute using all three of the sizes that come with the die and using different orange fabrics, making some cute pumpkins for the Fall season - make one of each size and stack them.  How cute would that be?

So there you have it!  A couple projects made with the Go! Baby Tumbler and Hexagon dies.  I still have another die to play with and I'm in the process of figuring out what to do with that one - I'll have that to show when I announce the giveaway!!

I can't say enough about how much time this Go! Baby saves.  And you don't have to be a quilter to make use out of this machine.  There are dies for squares - perfect for pin pillow backings, circles for pincushions like the one above, yo-yo's or a circle qult like the one I made a while ago:

Or flowers or stars - all sorts of things that quilters and non-quilters would get a variety of uses from.  The possibilities are endless.  So while you're waiting for the giveaway, take a look at all the dies available for the Go! Baby at Accuquilt and pick out three that you think you'd love.  And who knows, you may even get hit by the quilting bug.  Cutting out all those shapes for a quilt or whatever project you do would be fast work with a Go! Baby!!!

Have a wonderful 4th weekend!