Fifty Shades of Red

Hi everyone!! Sorry for the long absence in blogging.  I have missed keeping up on what everyone has been doing.   I have to admit that I have been lurking around the blog world here and there, but have been really bad about leaving comments.  I actually thought of just leaving Smiley faces when I did manage to find some blog time so that you would know I was there, but I thought that was a little bit lame.  I guess that my lack of posting (and commenting) kind of turned into an unplanned sabbatical from blogging.  It's been a rather hectic summer and I'm just coming up for air.  But I have managed to get a few things done!!

Now, lest you think that this will be a post about a new trilogy of erotic books like Fifty Shades of Grey, put your minds at rest.  Although I wouldn't mind writing something like that!!  I could make lots of money, have liposuction (okay maybe not - the whole idea of that scares me), bury myself in tons of new stash from all the royalties from the books, and snap my fingers and say, "Here Boy", when I dropped my quilting/stitching needle or needed a little liquid refreshing, all while I'm sitting in my lounge chair looking out over the Mediterranean/Caribbean, etc.  Lovely thought, right?  Such a dream!  But no, this is a PG rated blog. But lately I've been obsessed with the color red.  Lots of shades of red - fabric that is!  I dream about them, obsess about them and this is what I'm doing with some of those fifty shades of red:

Okay, I know - this is only 15 shades of red, but I'm working on the other 35 and then some.   276 more (actually 273 more - 3 were off having coffee or something and did not make it into the photo shoot) to be exact, but I try not to think about the number that I still have to do.  And I'm working on this with Siobhan from across the pond.  Actually, I jumped on her bandwagon and when she mentioned this quilt and that she was working on it, Trick or Treat, from the Blackbird Designs book, When The Cold Wind Blows, I just knew that I had to do it.  Crazy, yes, I know, 291 basket blocks, another 48 border blocks.  Truly insane, but they are so much fun, and it's fun having a partner in crime to work on them with!!

I had tons of reds in my stash and never knew what to do with them.  But now I know.  These babies are like eating candy - addicting.  And this is my first foray into hand applique (well, okay I'm lying - I tried it a long time ago and absolutely hated it).  But times have changed - I had so wanted to make the Phebe quilt,  really didn't trust my applique skills, but knew if I wanted that quilt I had better learn how to do it.  This is a great portable project and I drag them everywhere when I have to sit waiting for the kids!  Everything is in this box and I just pick it up and go!!  So much fun!!

I also managed to machine sew one lone block on my Cotton Club quilt - poor thing.  I still have about nine to do and then I can start putting the quilt together.  It's the one on the right.  There hasn't been much time to sit behind the sewing machine this summer.  :o(

Now, in case you think that I had given up stitching during my unplanned sabbatical from blogging, that would not be the case.  I've still managed to put needle to linen and actually have a finish:

Ann Hall

The Scarlett Letter

It was good to finish up this old WIP!!  But the whole time I was working on the bird under Adam, I kept thinking that the bird was so large that he could probably swallow Adam up in two bites - ymmm:

And once dear Ann was finished, I decided to start a new one - Elizabeth Clayton:

Elizabeth  Clayton

35 ct. Meadowrue

NPI Silks

I love working on her.  I don't know if it's the silks or what, but she's a joy to stitch.  It's always a toss up what I work on at night - Elizabeth or quilt baskets. 

Like I mentioned, it's been just one of those summers where I haven't had a lot of time to myself, but I did manage to take a small break when my sister came to town.  Even though she had lived in Michigan for 20+ years before she moved to California, she had never been to Mackinaw Island, so I surprised her and arranged a couple day getaway:

 You get to the island via ferry:

You grab a bike - the only mode of transportation besides walking or horse drawn carriages:

(DD makes bike riding look good!) and you ride around:

The Grand Hotel:

On the grounds of the Grand Hotel:

Arch Rock:

On the main street:

And a trip wouldn't be complete without some fudge which the island is known for:

There were more pictures taken with a phone, but they didn't translate well when I tried to post them here.  So there is my summer!!  Not a lot accomplished as far as stitching and quilting, but I spent a lot of time with my kids and that's always a good thing.

I'm anxious to catch up with everyone!!  I've missed your posts!!  I hope that everyone has had a great summer (can you believe it's almost the end of August?) and I'm going to catch up with everyone.  I can't wait to see what I've missed!!

Gosh - Has It Almost Been a Month?

Yes, it has, and I guess it's time to make a post.  I have been so remiss the past few weeks in reading blogs and making comments and I apologize.  I think that now that summer is here (or almost here), I've been spending more time outside than I have inside.  So I've been a bad blogger.  But I do have a finish:

Martha Jones 1792

35 ct. Vintage Examplar

DMC Threads

(http://samplers-berlin.com)

I love how she came out and the colors.  What I didn't like were the tulips in the border.  For some reason they gave me headaches!  I love how the words "Paradife" and "difgrac'd" are spelled.  I've never seen that in a sampler - replacing an 's' with an 'f'.

I also liked that there were some different stitches in this piece - like the Algerian Eye baskets and the satin stitching.  There were a couple caveats in the chart though.  There were a couple colors called for that were never used - as far as I could tell.  The blue bird in the tree was suppose to be a different color, but as blue was called for in the list of threads, yet I never came across the symbol in the chart for it,  I made the bird blue.  There was also one other color called for that was never used - 407. Some of the symbols were also a little hard to differentiate also, but all in all, it was a fun stitch.

On the quilting side, I've managed to stay on top of the Cotton Club blocks, and finished up the six that I had sitting around.   Good thing too because the next month of blocks came today:

I love working on these blocks, and I think that I only have a couple more months and the quilt can be put together.

I've also been working on the Chippewa Nine Patch quilt here and there:  All the strips have been made into nine patch blocks:

And they're ready to be assembled into this - I only (yes, only) need 25 of them:

They'll all look a little different depending on how I put the individual nine patch blocks together.  I can't wait to get through these so that I can put the quilt together.  The rest of the fabric looks like this (sorry for the dark pic):

And last but not least, the Phebe quilt.  No, I really haven't started it, but I have traced out all the pieces:

Not the best picture - sorry.  But by my estimation, there are about 209 pieces in just the very center of this quilt.  You hear that Margaret and Cari????  OY!  I think that I've bitten off more than I should have with this.  Because after this, there is another border that is appliqued.  I don't know what the third month will bring, but I'm breaking out in beads of sweat just thinking about it!!

So that's what I've been up to the past month or so.  Part of the reason I haven't been parking my behind the computer so much is that last month I celebrated another birthday (thank you again to all you that remembered) and even though it wasn't a milestone (that's a couple years off), I just decided that I sit too much gazing into the wonderful world of the internet being enabled and getting myself into trouble.  So, I've been doing a lot of this:

Last week I walked 33 miles.

And a lot of this (until I blew out one of my tires):

And eating things like this - yum:

Salmon Fruit Salad w/Raspberry-Maple Vinaigrette

And I'm not going to make this into a cooking blog, but this dressing is wonderful and non-fat:

Raspberry-Maple Vinaigrette

1/2 cup raspberry vinegar

1/4 cup of maple syrup

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. fresh ground pepper

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 tsp. Worcestershire Sauce

1 Tbl. Dijon Mustard

Put it all in a lidded container and shake!  This stuff is great - low fat and big on taste - you don't need a lot!!

So that's what I've been up to and why I haven't been a good blogger.  I find that getting up and taking Bailey for his morning walk,  I don't feel like sitting down after and I then take off on my own either on foot or bike.  You can only cover so much distance or go so fast with a dog that likes to visit every mailbox in the neighborhood!  LOL  My son has also been getting me to do PX-90 with him.  We won't talk about that one!  I hope to goodness that he never makes a video of me doing it and puts it on YouTube.  I'd never be able to live it down.  So anyway, all of this is good for me, but not good for blogging obviously!  But I will get back to it and catch up with everyone.  There are some days - like today when it's going to be 95 - that unless its early morning or late evening, you don't want to be out in the heat.  So today it's catch up time.

Hope that everyone has a great week!  And thank you for all the wonderful comments that you leave.  I love hearing from everyone!

A Little of This and That

Hi everyone!  I hope that everyone is well and experiencing beautiful Spring weather and getting a lot of stitching done.  We here in Michigan are experiencing some absolutely wonderful Spring weather - although Summer weather would a more appropriate description!  We're suppose to hit the 90's this Memorial Weekend.  A little too warm for my blood, but it's better than freezing cold!

After my crazy startitis a couple weeks ago, I finally settled myself down and continued to work on Martha Jones and I'm glad that I did - I love the colors of her:

I was going to work my way down the left side of her, but I can't wait to get to the A&E so tonight I'll work down from the center.  She's a fun stitch with some algerian eyes and satin stitch.

This is what she will look like when she's finished:

If you're interested in stitching Martha, you can order her from http://samplers-berlin.com.

Quilting has just about gone by the wayside lately.  While running around like a crazy woman these past few weeks, some quilting came in that I was dying to get to:

The first month of the Phebe quilt came in and two months' worth of the Cotton Club.  I've been trying so hard to keep up with the Cotton Club when it comes in each month.  As much as I would have loved to start Phebe, I decided it best to catch up on those CC blocks:

I cut out the blocks all at one time, put them in baggies and I'm ready to go.  I still had about an hours worth of time before I had to fly out the door, so I managed to get two basket blocks together:

For some reason these didn't come out as great as I wanted to them, but I'm calling them a wrap.  I also worked more on the Chippewa Nine Patch and have a few more nine patch sets finished:

But I still have all these to put together:

Plus there are some of these also sitting on my sewing table waiting their turn.  UGH!!!  I don't know what it is about these nine patches, but I don't like doing them too much, so I do some here and there just to make a little bit of progress.

So that's all I've been up to the past couple weeks.  No time for much of anything but some stitching here and there and some sewing when I can find the time.

I did come across a great find a few months ago though.  I went up to my son's college to take him some things and I was running early.  I saw a sign that said "Barn Sale" and decided to check it out.  I'm so happy that I did because I found a gem.  And the man didn't even know it's worth.  It was his MIL's who had lived with he and his wife and she liked to sew.  But now that she was gone they decided to sell of some of her things and this is what I walked out with - for $30!!!

I also picked up a couple dinner bells that I thought were really cute - they were both a few dollars a piece.

Perhaps I could put one of these by my stitching chair and ring it when I want my servants family members to bring me a fresh margarita glass of iced tea while I sit on the deck stitching.  Okay, nice dream, right?  I never get time to stitch on the deck and I certainly couldn't count on anyone answering that bell!  LOL

Well, that's it for me.  Again I'm flying out the door - dance just ended two weeks ago and now we're off to auditions for next Fall's dance lines.  It never ends!!!

I hope that everyone has a wonderful week and a fantastic Memorial weekend!!  Make it stitchy!!

I've been at a Loss and a Traveling Fool

Hi everyone.  I want to start out first and thank everyone for all the wonderful comments you left about Ann Rayner.  Thank you, thank you!  I did have so much fun with her (except for those darned little sheep)!   I haven't had time to take her to the framers though.  A blogging friend sent me a wonderful coupon for Michaels, and life got away from me (as usual) and I never found the time to take her in.  Hopefully another coupon will come out soon as I'd love to see her hanging on the wall.

After I finished Ann I didn't know where to turn.  Going through my stash I couldn't come up with any one thing that remotely made my heart sing like Ann.  How could that happen?  I have stash coming out of my ears.  And realistically, I should have pulled out a WIP, but those didn't appeal to me either.  So, since I couldn't come up with that one thing that screamed to be stitched,  I ended up coming up with four things!  Truly pathetic, but here is a run down - and don't laugh - there isn't much done on any of these.

First off is Mary Emmes:

Lots of progress, right?  NOT!  I got into the yellow portion and stopped.  Don't ask me why - just one of those things that defies explanation.

Next up is Janet Harris.  I saw this sampler on a blog and fell head over heels in love with it:

Well, I was in love with her for a while and had quite a bit stitched before I realized that I didn't love the colors.  The stitched piece I saw on a blog had warmer, more primitive tones.  This sampler chart has been out since the 1980s (I recently saw a picture of it in an old 1984 JCS issue), and we all know how color choices change over time - let alone almost 30 years.  But I didn't think about that when I started her and had the entire vine across finished with the flower buds and all the alphabet to the point where I am now and then realized that the red was too red, the blues too blue and the pink too pink, so some color changes were necessary.  You can see where I frogged out the berries in the border (clicking on the picture will make it more visible) and haven't replaced them yet with the new red.   But I came up with some other colors that I think are working.  But after all that frogging, I put her down.  Shame on me.

Next up was E. Traill:

This one is fun, narrow and I love the colors, BUT, I'm not loving the color of that angel on the side, so I think that it's going to have to come out.  UGH!!  More frogging.  I don't have the patience.  Maybe I'll learn to love him - maybe after I get the eyes and mouth in.

So on we go to number 4 - Martha Jones:

Now I'm kind of liking this one and so far the frogs have been kept at bay.  But as luck would have it - no time to work on it once I got to this point.  This is about two nights' work and then all things started hopping and there was no time to stitch.

DD had numerous dance rehearsals and recitals last week and weekend and will have more this weekend.  While at dance recitals, my husband moved my son home from college and as I wasn't here to direct traffic and the mess (like why didn't they put it in the basement, or the garage?) it was dumped all the living room.  It was worse, but I managed to get most of the dirty clothes out of the picture and into the laundry room and a couple loads started.  Everything he owned, and I do mean everything, was dirty!!

But before I could even think of doing anything but pulling the dirty clothes out of the mess, I was running to catch a plane to here - New Orleans:

I spent a great couple of days there and just about walked my butt off (well, not really, but at times it felt like it) and had to try some of these - the famous beignets.  Thank goodness I walked a lot (and no, I didn't eat all three of them - only one).

It was a great time, but went so quickly.  There were a few places that I didn't have time to check out - like a ton of antique stores - they'll be there for the next time.  But I did manage to get through the French Quarter, Garden District and seeing the Mississippi and a few other things.  What amazed me in the Garden District was all the trees on St. Charles Avenue (and other places) had the beads hanging down from them (you can click on the picture to see them better).  I thought they'd only be around during Mardi Gras, but I suppose once you throw them in the trees, you're not going to climb up and get them out!!

So that has been my past fews weeks or so since I finished Ann.  Not all that productive, but hopefully things will settle down soon and I'll have some progress that looks a little better than all of this in the near future.  My quilting is piling up and Phebe finally arrived.  I can't wait to get my hands on her once all things calm down.

Once again, thank you for all the wonderful comments on Ann Rayner and I hope that everyone has a great week!

Ann Rayner is Finished

Hot off the scroll rods - here's Ann!  I just had a little bit more to do on her and decided to sit down and finish her up.  I love her!!   And I'm amazed at myself!!!  I finished this one up without pushing her aside half way through which is my Standard Operating Procedure because I always get bored.  I never finish anything up all at one time - something else is always calling me.  But I challenged myself (this was my Challenge piece for this year, after all) and to tell the truth, there wasn't a boring moment with Ann - some over ones that drove me nuts - I'm not a huge fan of those at all - but there nothing boring about her. (pictures are clickable)!!

Ann Rayner from Threads Thru Time

32 ct. Cafe Au Lait fabric

DMC threads

And some more pics - a little deviation from the called for hairdo's - I didn't want straight stitched hair so I improvised, and I changed the skin from white to DMC 950:

Some sheepies (those little ones were stinkers being that they were over one):

And another shot - just because - (because I'm so darned tickled that she's done):

I just love her.  I think that she'll look wonderful hanging above the Phebe quilt, don't you?  I know I'm being overly optimistic that I'll even finish that quilt, but I can see this hanging above the bed in the guest room when Phebe is finished.  But now I'm feeling stitcher's remorse.  I'm going to miss her and I don't know what to stitch next!!!   I guess I'll have to do some stash diving tonight.  Well, maybe not - I heard that little voice in my head that says I should go back to a WIP - darned that voice!!  Maybe I just won't listen (smile).

I had a wonderful surprise this week, too.  I won a giveaway on Jeanne's blog - Willow Tree Stitcher - a beautiful needlebook!!  The outside:

The inside:

Isn't it gorgeous?  I think it's beautiful and just love it and am so happy that I received it.  The stitching and finishing are both just exquisite!!!  Thank you Jeanne!

Well, this is short and sweet because dinner is brewing on the stove (well, not really - there is a chicken in the crock pot) but it's time to get everything else going.  Then I need a long walk.  I'm not used to sitting in the stitching chair during the day.  I've got a good case of stitch butt going on right now, so a long walk is definitely in order!!!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful week!!

And The Winner is.......

Happy Sunday Morning!  Just a quick post to announce the winner of the flower frog.

Mr. Random Generator picked:

NUMBER 19

And Number 19 is NANCY M.  

Congratulations Nancy!!  Woo Hoo!!!  Send me your snail mail address and I'll send this right out to you.

Thank you to everyone that entered.  I wish that I had a flower frog to send to each one of you!  I hope that everyone has a wonderful week!!

Kind of a Quickie Post and a Giveaway!

Hi everyone.  I hope that you had a great Easter!  Ours was good although a little different with MIL still in the hospital.  Since my husband's family is Polish they have certain traditions that they follow as far as food.  With MIL not able to cook, it was left up to the rest of us to try to carry the tradition.  I'm not sure how well we did (I don't have a drop of Polish blood in my body so I'm not the best person to cook those things), but we were all fed (it definitely didn't taste as good as my MIL's food though).   BTW, thank you for your wishes for my MIL.  Her wrist surgery went well, although they also found that she broke her thumb on the other hand.  She's in physical therapy, and if her x-rays look good this Friday, they'll change the cast and send her home.

Since it's been so busy the past couple weeks with trips out to the in-laws and my DD being home for spring break, I haven't had a lot of time for my crafty pursuits, but I've gotten a little bit more of Ann done.  Are you tired of seeing her yet?

I'm on the home stretch - I finally made it to the final portion!  Although with all the grass at the bottom it's going to take me a while.  And you'll notice that my people don't seem to have heads (pictures are clickable)!  Since the parts to be filled in are over one thread, I decided to tackle that at the end.  I have a hard time getting any rhythm switching from over two to over one.  I hope to be finished with this by the end of next week, but I think that I'm being a little overly optimistic on that score!!  I know that I'm getting restless for her to be finished though as I've been rooting around in the overflowing stash for my next stitching victim.

I've also managed to get a little bit of quilting in.  Remember these strips:

Well, I managed to get them cut into even smaller strips:

And from there managed to get a few nine patches done.  I started with the colors I didn't like  - brown and green.  Not my favorite combination, but I wanted to get them out of the way:

This is going to be a very scrappy looking quilt.

Then I put together this month's blocks for the Cotton Club.  These are such fun little blocks to make and take no time at all.  I wish that I could get all the blocks at once because they're like potato chips - you don't want to stop sewing them!

So that's about all I've accomplished in the past couple of weeks.  Not as much as I'd like, but life gets in the way sometimes.  I'm anxiously awaiting my Phebe BOM to show up and it seems that I have managed to get a couple other people on board to do the quilt also.  This should be a lot of fun!!

I did have a surprise last week and won a giveaway on Kelly's blog.   I won the cutest pincushion from her:

Her blog is called Undeniably Domestic if you want to take a look.  She has a really cute blog and has the cutest curtains hanging in her kitchen window made out of aprons!  Thank you Kelly!!

I've noticed that I've picked up quite a few new followers and I wanted to say Welcome to all of you and have a giveaway.  I also feel a little bad because I haven't had much time to comment on everyone's blogs with all the things going on with my MIL the past couple of weeks.  I've been lurking but haven't had time to leave comments.  About a month or so ago, I passed by the Salvation Army.  Well, I really didn't pass by, I dropped off donations and ran inside to see what I could find.  While in there I found this:

A flower frog.  Sitting there all by its lonesome.  I already have one like this, but I couldn't just leave it on the shelf, could I?  So I brought it home and would love to send it to one of my followers.  I do have to warn that the base does need some cleaning up which I'm not sure how to do, but it's in really great shape otherwise.  And it needs a new home.  All you have to do is leave a comment that you'd like a chance to win it.  I'll probably include something to be put into it also!  What's a flower (scissor) frog without scissors?  I'll pick a winner next Sunday, April 15th.

Oh, and before I forget, Joanne at Serendipitous Stitching is have an Easter Treasure Hunt.  Follow the link to her blog for all the details.  I took part in the treasure hunt and you can see my clue in the post before this one.

I hope that everyone has a great week!!