Last but not least for the year

The last few months have flown by like 5 minutes and I know exactly where they went. But instead of going into all of that, lets dive right into fun!  I havent stitched much in the last months, but it has been over 6 weeks since I have stitched.  Its a shame right??  Well, what can you do.  An update on this blog is seriously overdue :(
Working on Roses de Mai from Reflets de Soie, changed all the colors (of course) and really like the way it is turning out.

I have to continue working on her, she is really something.  But, of course my wandering eye.... LOL.
Since I havent stitched since who knows when, I decided I needed to start something new :)
So, I went into the basement and found a box of stash, rummaged through and found Mary Ann Farmer from Scarlet House and WOW!  I love her!!

Stitching her on a gorgeous piece of 45ct Vintage Navy Bean Lakeside Linen with a silk conversion, she is a winner.  I sure do enjoy stitching on the 45ct!!  Roses is 40ct due to the specialty stitches, but it is not the same!!  So another wip to the list.

I know several bloggers do a year in review, and it is so much fun to recap what was accomplished-- and I enjoy reading your blogs.  I don't think I will find time to do another post this year.  So for me, not so much on the stitching/quilting front, but it has been a super year non the less.  A wonderful year has been had-- full of hard work, laughter and tears.   I look forward to the new year with a ton of silver bells.  A new year with new beginnings and so much excitement and of course hard work-- isn't there always hard work involved in great things??  Hopefully there will be a few blog posts!!  LOL.  I look forward to this excitement with my family and friends.

May your Christmas Season continue to be wonderful and bright.  Full of hope and love.  Remember the real reason for the season, born to us on Christmas day :)   

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!

Where has it gone?

This summer has flown by faster then I could have imagined, but when you are having tons of fun, how can you really complain?
I have 2 pics to share with you, both are of finished items completed at the end of last month.

Birds of a Feather OOP Spring; 1 of 4 in a seasonal series.  I stitched her on Vintage Maritime White 45ct with a silk conversion, she is approximately 14 x 18 in size which is a great deal smaller then the charted version of 20 x 24!  Yikes!! 

Next up is the Lattice Quilt, hard to get the whole picture in with the borders etc., but you can see the colors on the top, another job done :)  I love the way it turned out and to think that I had 756 pieces to sew all back together!  Funny concept of cutting perfectly good fabric into a bunch of small shapes and re-sewing them all back together.  Crazy huh?!!!
Summer is a great time to catch up on so many things, it is always hard to find time to blog about our experiences, but as long as we are having fun, that is all that matters!!

Until next time :)

Its been quiet here

I have been soo distracted by other things these days, blogging obviously hasn't been top priority.  Its fun to look at the blogs, however its been kind of quiet these last few months.
Life has been quite busy these days, so many things to do, so many people to visit with and places to see.  I have made great progress with my Spring Birds of a Feather project, no picture to share, its a wrinkled mess and I would be most embarrassed to show her in the state that she is in :(  So, maybe next time.  I am almost finished with it, maybe in the next few days??

I have been obsessed these days with quilting though, sewing, sewing, sewing and collecting beautiful cottons for quilts, I have visions of these quilts piled high!  Someday I know I will accomplish this!!  Everyone has to start from the beginning right??  For now, each beautiful chosen fabric is collected-- a stash of cottons like we have oodles and oodles of cross stitch stash (well not even close to that high pile!!  LOL). 

My MIL several months back told me of this great quilting place that was recently featured on the nightly news.  Said that this woman had saved a small town from ruins with her quilting.  What?  So out came the ipad to find out about this fantastic place called the Missouri Quilt Company in Hamilton, MO.  This woman has made her business grow with several dozen folks helping her spread quilting everywhere-- quilting is not hard!!!  I was fortunate to learn the basics from a fantastic quilter about 2 years ago, and wow, what a blessing (and a curse in the pocket book!!) it was to spend time with her.  She is a spitfire of a woman and I have her on my shoulder each and every time I am quilting :) 

I was fortunate enough to be able to visit the Missouri Quilt Company a few weeks back and wow, what a stop this should be on every quilters list!! As of right now, there are 5 shops--each dedicated to specific fabrics.  Ie, the main shop, reproductions, batiks, seasonal and solids.  You walk from one end of the street to the other, looking at all these beautiful fabrics, with ladies and gentleman going out of their way to help you with every thing you might need.  There are restaurants and a bakery, places to stay.  Even the birth place of JC Penny!!  One of the shops-- the solids shop is in the location of his first JC Penny Store!!  (There is a JC Penny museum and you can see where he went to school!)

This gal in MO, has made many tutorials to teach quilting to everyone.   No, you don't need a sewing degree to make quilts!!  I did sign up for her bi-monthly magazine called Block, each magazine is filled with 10 beautiful designs all with easy to use instructions and if I am not mistaken, all have tutorials online?  The year subscription I believe is 36 bucks.

Sign up for her daily door buster email!! 
In the burgundy issue of Block, I am making the Lattice Quilt.  I fell in love with the pattern and knew I had to sew it :)

So here goes nothing!!  I bought the fabric and knew that I wanted to make it bigger then it called for, so away I went.  The mailman has had a hay-day with the deliveries for this quilt, and who doesnt love packages of fabric??  The fabric is from Jan Patek called Front Porch.  The line is older, so piecing it together was a fun task.   I love a good hunt :)

I started out with a layer cake and a charm pack to make it 1 1/2 times bigger then called for and I now have 252 of these blocks sewn together, pressed and ready to go.

Trimming up the corners

There are far more then shown in the above pic, but I had all of them on the floor, chosen to the best they would be without going crazy!!  I have 18 rows of 14.  So today I had some time to spare so I fired up my featherweight and completed 3 of the 18 rows.  Not to bad, 15 to go.  I am hoping to have the top done this month, I am adding a couple of borders to it and ta-da!  It will be ready to be dropped off at the quilt shop for quilting!!

Hopefully next time I will have a finish of 2 kinds, Spring girl and the Lattice quilt!  I hope each and everyone of you is enjoying your summers, doing everything you want and more!!!

So many options

It has been a little over a week since I finished SDW and what a big decision it is to decide on what to stitch next!  So I pulled out a bunch and really stitched on 2 this week.  First up is Birds of  Feather Le Printemps (OOP), one of four in a series of seasons. 

She is so bright and colorful-- so far out of the box which is fun to do once in a while :)  I am stitching her on 45ct Vintage Maritime white (one of my very favorites) along with a silk conversion a few years back.  I have 1 more flower to go on the top left page, then 3 pages to go.  Then the thought is, do I continue on with this series?  I have L'Hiver (winter) started........
But easily sidetracked, I also have picked Peace by A Stitchers Hands back up.  When this pattern was first released in 2008, 3 of us kitted it up immediately.  Well, needless to say, all 3 of us still have it has the largest WIP in our baskets.  Well, its high time to invest some stitching time in it.  

Stitching it on 40ct Lakeside Sienna Night, 1 over 2 threads, with a overdyed silk conversion.  Yes, you are reading correct, it is a BAP.  I love the colors I chose for it.  The best part is, each of the original 3 that kitted it up, we each chose 40ct linen, but each a different color.  I LOVE this idea and each one is just so gorgeous.  I hope to keep my momentum going on this one, I would love to actually see it finished :)  Someone mentioned there has been some stitchers on Facebook that have been working on it; I am not on Facebook so I havent seen their progress.  But its kind of fun there are others stitching on it also!!
I would love to see that list of WIPs get smaller, but it is so hard as you all know.  It is terrible.  You finish one and want to start 5!!  LOL.  Time to get stitching on one of these great projects, so until next time!  Thank for stopping by and have a super week!!

Oh Happy Day!

There are many reasons why today is a great day!!  First it is my brothers birthday-- so Happy Birthday to you!!  The sun is shining, the weather is nice and warm.  Fun with friends and family.  Lots of activity!!  I cant believe it is June 2nd already, where the time is going I dont know.  So many things have happened since the last time I have blogged (almost 2 months ago?????), its unreal.  My nephew turns 1 this month.  ONE??!!!!!!!  Holy smokes!  He was just born!!!  Time is out of control these days.  I wish we could slow it down quite a bit, but I know that is like hitting the mega millions or power ball.  Not going to happen.

The last time I posted was about my SDW German Band sampler, and I must tell you, I have been trying my best to finish it.  I really wanted to have it done by the 1st of this month, but I was a bit short.  It has been so busy, I havent really had too much time to think, I have forgotten things I normally dont forget :(  But, I did make huge progress on the sampler, in fact, last night I put the deadline into effect.  Yesterday was the day I was going to finish it.  Oh sure.  With 5 1/2 bands to go on the lower left side, I was trying my best to be positive.   I ran over on time yesterday-- (what else is new) and didnt start stitching until 8pm.  Oh man, I dont know what I am going to do.  I was determined though.  Yesterday morning I chose the remaining colors for these bands, wrote them down and was ready to get right into it last night.  With several old episodes of Fringe and Law and Order SVU, I was down to the last row at 3am this morning.  I wasnt really tired, but knew the busy day I was going to have today, I figured I better hit it.  So back up at 8:30, and after a cup of tea, I had the final row complete and SDW German Band Sampler was complete at 10am.

YEAH!!!!!!!!!  I did it!!!!!  So without any further rambling, here she is :)))

(no the last rows do not curve up, just a slip of the linen)

To achieve this look on my SDW, I chose to stitch on Lakeside Linen Vintage Fawn 45ct along with my conversion of NPI and AVS.  It measures 8" wide x 31 1/2" long.  When I first saw this sampler I was drawn to the variety of motifs, and the colors.  After pulling the called for colors, I knew there was going to be another massive undertaking to recreate this sampler.  But, the long and the short of it, it is completed and I am over the moon to have it done.  It was a long time in coming, but worth it for sure.
What is next?  I have a few ideas in mind, but you know what this means, a bit of digging in the basement to do a bit of stash diving :)))))))
Thanks for stopping by and I hope you all are having a great start to your week!!!!

Spring is here!

Spring has been around for many folks all around the country almost since last spring, but for those who experienced an abundance of below normal temperatures, snow, cold, ice, etc., etc., spring has finally arrived.   Thank goodness our snow shovels and snow blowers are on timeout-- hopefully for many many months to come.   It was announced yesterday that the Cherry Blossoms in Washington D.C. reached there full bloom; the latest date in history.  WOW!  If you have ever seen these trees you know that they are just gorgeous!!  All those beautiful pink and white petals falling all over the place, like a flowergirl walking down the aisle at a wedding :)  Or like a blizzard of pink and white flakes!!  It is very exciting to see this beautiful world we live in, full of color and wonderful springtime smells. 
I ran out of time this week to post earlier, but I thought it would be fun to show my next section finished off on SDW.

I love the subtle colors for the alphabet and this is pretty much the palette for the rest of the sampler.  The alphabet stitched up rather quickly which surprised me, I am not really a fan of stitching letters (on any sampler).  They next row group of small motifs are super cute, but I am looking forward to stitching the peacock.... maybe this weekend I will get to him :))))

Until next time, enjoy this weather!!!!!

Interesting :)

In the US, when driving on many of our roads or highways, there is usually something to look at, whether it is a bunch of business-- retail or office buildings, shopping malls, restaurants, even houses.... Sometimes there is vacant land for what seems like hundreds of miles--literally just farming, desert, grass fields with animals grazing, trees, what else can you think of on nothing??  LOL.  But in the US, we often have a variety of what some may call ART.  In Amarillo, Texas; there is a strange place called Cadillac Ranch where you can pull over on the side of the road and in the distance maybe several hundred feet off you see this:

10 real Cadillac's buried nose first in some vacant land.  Created in 1974 on a different field and relocated.  It is a variety of different years.  You many walk up to the cars, take your picture next to them; but it is now customary to mark your visit with spray paint, you may sometimes see the cars covered in solid pink, or white.  Just kind of fun!  (photo borrowed from RoadsideAmerica.com- I have been there but cant find my own pics as of this minute!) 
While in Florida I spotted something similar on the side of the road near Tampa. These Airstream trailers also buried nose first in a field on the side of the road.  You may not pull over and spray paint on these (private property) but it also resembles a variety of sizes, years and styles.

I cut the small Bambi off on the left side, but you can see it in the top pic, also, pretty good while riding in a car going 70+ mph right?!!  I think its pretty cool, that we have these crazy things on the sides of our roads.   Gives us something to talk about to our friends all over the world right?  Has anyone seen either of these 2 things?
What is the strangest/interesting thing you have seen on the side of the road?  I can think of sooo many different things!!!

On the stitching front, I have filled in the church on SDW German Band sampler!  On Jane Tindall, I spent forever filling in the grass located on the bottom of that sampler and I knew I didnt look forward to filling in the church on SDW but it has to get done.  Unfortunately I knew I had kicked all of my stitching elves out of my house so it was not going to get done without me :(.

I am soo close to being halfway with this piece it is very exciting!  It should start flying now that the solid filling in is complete :)))  YEAH!!!!!  LOL.  I cant wait to start stitching again later tonight. 
A while back I had a birthday and I wanted to share a very special gift I received from my good friend :)  She did such an amazing job that I had to share it with all of you!

Tiny little pin cushion with a patchwork back on 40ct. You can see how sweet it is next to my scissors, soo stinkin cute!!!!!  Thank you so much, it means the world to me having this from you :)  I love it!!
Still a bit chilly, but I think we are in for some spring like weather, alot of rain has been coming, but its better then snow right??!!!!!  Thanks for stopping by and have a fantastic week!!

Fun was had by all!

A great time was had last week while visiting my good friend.  We accomplished alot of fun little projects, stitched, laughed, watched old movies, and even finished her quilt!  The men were having a great time doing all kinds of manly things, fishing, gardening, going to the home improvement store, and lots of other fun things.

We made this quilt top last fall, had it quilted over the Holidays, and this week, the binding was complete.  Do you love it?!!! She did a fabulous job and I am so excited to see this beauty in her house!!

Even this fellow loves it!!!!!!!! 

I had this furry friend sitting next to me all week on the couch while stitching and sewing.  Just likes lounging next to you, keeps you warm :)
I purchased a piece of 52/60 Lakeside linen in Vintage Sand Dune over at the Attic a few weeks back and started the new Traveling Stitcher Ane Kirstine Larsen-- you know the one with the fabulous rooster???  Boy, I have never used the tudor silks or this count linen, but I tell you what, it is fabulous!!!  I am hooked!!!!  LOL

Not much to show, but its something, the border color is almost tone on tone, but in certain lights, it really pops.  The letter M is so tiny!!   I think the entire sampler is going to be something like 6 x 8".  Can you just imagine?!!!!!  It is sooo stinkin cute!!  The Attic had a few models hanging on the wall in this 52/60 and I am so crazy (you can take that statement either way!!  LOL)  about how small they really are!!!  I know for the few of you that have been working on this linen, you know exactly what I mean!!!
Now stitching on 45ct, its almost burlap!!!!  LOL.  Not quite like the 40ct, but its a really big difference.  Even the feel of the linen is different.  I really want to get SDW complete, which is a good thing, it has been long enough!

So the bottom pic is where I left off last night, and I can feel the final stretch of the church approaching this week.  I want to get to those trees!!! LOL.  Its something how this project is now all I want to focus on, its about time.
Thanks for stopping by, have a wonderful week :)

Happy St. Patricks Day!

What a fun day it is today right?  Fun is when the Chicago river is green, beer is green, there are parades and a great reason to where a shade of green when you normally dont!!  LOL.
Happy Birthday to my friend, you know who you are!!!  Sorry the cookies werent what they were supposed to be, but looks arent everything! Taste is!! 
I missed posting last week for just the simple fact that I really ran out of time.  I didnt stitch at all on SDW sampler last week, I worked on a couple other things, but now I am back in full swing.

and finally a full length of what it looks like so far, almost at the halfway mark. 

I even got the iron out for a nice presentation, after all, you cant really see much in a wrinkled mess :(  I really love it, and I cant wait to get the church complete, so I can work on those trees!! 
Enjoy Green today!!

A bit more

Anyone watch the Oscars last night?  I watched the last 3 hours worth and I am always excited to see everyone all dressed up.  Who was your favorite?  We don't go and watch movies in the theaters so I didnt really know much about them. The actors up for the Oscars are always popular names and you secretly wish for a specific individual to win. I still think Marty should win and Leo.  I was glad to see Matthew win for best actor. And Cate Blanchett!  Beautiful as always.  I think Ellen did a great job hosting, pretty funny and that pizza stint was pretty good right?!  Talk about audience participation!!
Each night over the last week I was able to find some me time, whether it was a few hours or just 1, I stitched on SDW.  Can you believe it?!  I am committed to finishing this next and I am surprisingly really enjoying it too!

I was hoping to finish the motif on the right side but almost there!  Those little curly ques involved sure slow down my 'sewing' method of stitching.  But, they will be soon a thing of the past :)
I look forward to another busy week-- (on so many levels!) 
Sun is shining today, hopefully it is where you live, I know its been super cold-- great time to stitch under a nice warm quilt, along with a roaring fire!!!!!  Have a good one :)

Next up.....

This past weekend while stitching madly on Jane Tindall, I had the urge to do a little stash diving and see what I wanted to work on next.... what would call me the loudest.  So pulling some out of the basement, I had it all over the floor.  Would I start something new or continue on with another WIP? 
After seeing Krista's gorgeous finish of her SDW German Band Sampler on her blog last week, the thought of pulling mine out was quite tempting.  I haven't been in the stash bin in a while and looking at all these beautiful projects all waiting patiently to come out and play, I pulled out a few and layed them next to me on the couch.  When I completed Jane I knew I had to choose just 1 :))
So SDW did pull out on top!!! Yeah!!  With a few wonderfully encouraging emails from friends all over the world, I knew I was making the right decision!  I actually am excited to work on this... which is a very good thing.  Last year, I finished Dutch Beauty which was by far the largest project I have ever worked on; even more so when I didnt follow the symbols on the chart.  I chose to stitch her by the picture of the chart-- which is what drew me in to love DB.  This too was the case with the SDW sampler, (alot of the samplers I choose I do this too)-- I know its crazy, but in my mind I see it a specific way and when I see the colors chosen, I make adjustments.
With all of that said, I started working on the SDW with a few gals right after my DB days last year and I just couldn't get into it.  I felt so bad, simply because they were all sooo excited!  Choosing the colors charted for in the sampler were not the ones in my head, so I again would spend more time choosing the colors then stitching, which I just had gotten done with doing on DB.  I so didnt want to do that again!  ARRGHH!!!!
I am ready to do it again, just about a year later, I have pulled it out and layed the colors next to me.  I have pulled out the colors for the motifs I will work on and it seems to be going alot more smoothly.
This is where I left off last year on SDW-

I call this section 1 of 4 sections to be completed, and with just the lower left hand motif to go in this section, I was determined!  Enough already!!!  LOL.

This is where I stopped last night in the picture below, choosing to start the church in the 2nd section.  Since I am on a filling in a boat load roll, I thought I might get it out of the way.

I am stitching SDW on 45ct Vintage Fawn with my crazy conversion of NPI and AVS silks.   I know there is not a way to duplicate this, so don't even ask.  LOL. 
When I was putting Janes silks back into the storage file, the dyelots are soo different from same color number next to it in the bin.  AVS the most different, so beware, if you are using AVS, make sure to buy enough when working on 1 project, otherwise you might be disappointed.  I was lucky to have been told ahead of time that more then a few skeins were needed for the grass on Jane, so I bought a hank instead and didnt worry a bit.
I am looking forward to seeing what gets accomplished on this WIP this week, and I look forward to sharing more pics with all of you next week!!!
Thank you for all your kind words on Jane, it is so fun to hear them!!

Have a great week :)

The Sun is Shining on this Beautiful Day!

With the sounds of gun fire blazing inside and out last night, enough so that even Quentin Tarantino would blush.  With that happening, I was still able to power out Jane Tindall.  I have had a serious case of stitch-a** the last 3 nights, I was so determined that today was the day to finish this eternal stitching of grass.  A great gift right?!!
So, without further rambling, here she is!

Stitched on 40ct Birds of a Feather Sandpiper with the called for Silk colors--with a few minor color changes she is my first WIP finished and first finish of 2014!!
With the sun shining brightly today, it is a beautiful day to go out and enjoy it :)  I hope all of you have had a great weekend, and have a fantastic week!!