Jeanne's March WIPocolypse Update

Don't you love the photo of Ireland in my header?   Oh just imagine living in a cute little rowhouse like that with lace curtains. :)   I can almost smell the fresh clean air after the rain! 

Things have been hopping around my house lately - visitors from out of state, lots of work issues and the usual stuff.  Can't believe it's time again for a WIPocolypse update!   I've been looking online at the new things from Market but nothing has really blown my socks off (which I'm secretly glad about).  Wonder if I'm starting to reach some sort of stash threshold?  Probably not...I'm sure in no time at all I'll have another episode of internet shopping!  My wish list is never empty that's for sure.

Here's my progress on American Sampler...I'm finally getting 'in the groove' on this old project. It took me some time to re-orient myself back in January  after letting it sit a few years...some of my threads had been pulled out for other projects, I had changed some threads and not written it down (note to self:  never do that again!), I had to repurchase the chart, etc etc.  However, things are going well now....I made progress this month with the border on the right  - adding another queen-stitch carnation and some smaller flowers, finished the top verse and got a good start on the house.  I love the house and am enjoying stitching it.   The only thing is I wish I had picked a darker fabric ......back when I took a class for this project (circa 2006) the shop brought in a selection of fabric cuts and I just picked one and went with it.  However, there are parts stitched in white like the railing on the top of the house that aren't showing up well on my linen....oh well - I'm sure not starting over so will have to live with it.

I also am trying to finish up my March ornament - I'm close - still working on the darn backstitching.  This ornament is taking awhile....it's one of those projects that doesn't look at all good until you get all the stitching and backstitching done.   Lots of half-stitches, metallic fibers, etc. I stitched this years ago for a gift - I love it but I'll also be glad when I'm done with it. 

I'm working on a little LHN project too - Poinsettia House for the 2012 Year of Smalls blog.  This was the January project but I'm just now getting time for it.   I'm stitching the house in overdyes and not doing it one-stitch-at-a-time.....hoping to avoid an excessively  'stripey' look but it's not working out entirely.  I love overdyes for lettering and small motifs but on big blocks of stitching I don't like the striped effect you sometimes get.

Two weeks ago I was able to get away for a weekend quilting retreat which was wonderful for the soul.   I don't have any big finishes to show you...I worked on lots of different things. I did complete a little top that I'm going to put on my dining room table this fall - it's all apple fabrics I collected years ago (not sure why but I was in an apple-mood apparently).  I still need to do the quilting and binding.  Unfortunately it barely made a dent in the apple fabrics!  That's the trouble when you've collected quilting fabric for almost 20 years  - using it up is almost impossible.  You make something and then you have loads of leftovers and scraps that you can't just throw away...the stuff multiplies like rabbits!  Also pictured is a wool folk-art heart - I saw this in a vendor booth at some show a few years ago so finally getting it made...it's going to be a pillow soon.  It's all done with buttonhole stitching.  

Lastly, I got started on making some padded bags to store my stitched pieces in - I have lots of seasonal things that aren't always on display and have been stacked on the floor of my guest room closet.  I've cleared a shelf in an armoire I have - my goal is to be able to stack all these projects there in bags.  I hate wrapping them up in tissue paper all the time. It's a good way to use up excess fabric too - each one has a Velcro flap and a place for a label on the front. I got 3 done at the retreat but still need about 10 more.  They're easy and fairly quick to do.

Well now you know what I've been up to.   I'm  anxiously waiting on 2 of my quilts to come back from the machine-quilter and then I'll have lots of binding to do on them.  When I pick them up I have 2 more quilt tops to drop off and then my backlog of quilt tops will be gone!  For years I've had tops hanging in the closets....it's a great feeling to be getting caught up.  I recently gathered all my finished quilts together in one place and my husband could not believe I had that many.   I wish I had more room for displaying them but maybe someday...in the meantime they keep each other company in the closet LOL.

Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to stop by and read my blog - so many of you are doing fantastic things, I only wish I could do all your projects!

Boxes for needlework at Hallmark (and Amazon too!)

P.S.  (3-3-12)  I bought another larger one today and got the brand name this time -"Cottage Garden"  I Googled the brand and found that many of them are carried on Amazon.com.       Here is a link:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dgarden&field-keywords=%22cottage+garden%22+boxes

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Hey readers just wanted to tip you off to some cool boxes I found at my Hallmark store yesterday. I don't know if all the Hallmark stores have these or not but I was excited to find them.   I was in picking up some birthday cards and my store has a big display of all sorts of boxes that can be used for needlework.  They had round ones in cream, black, and wood grain.  In fact I have seen the same cream and black ones in my LNS, I think Shepherd's Bush has charted some designs that fit them. They are really nicely made.  There are a variety of wood grain rectangular boxes in different sizes - the larger ones contain a music box as well. They also had some smaller heart-shaped ones.  Each box is lined and comes with a window in the hinged lid into which you can insert your mounted needlework. I tested it out by adding a piece of matboard covered with padding and linen and there is plenty of room. (the boxes come with a glass insert which you can leave in or take out).

I bought a small one (about 3.5 X 4.5") for $12.95.  I plan on buying more in various sizes for gifts.  As you probably already know, sometimes buying boxes from the needlework accessory companies can be pretty pricey.  While these aren't exactly cheap they are reasonably priced I think.   

Here's a photo of the store display I took with my cell phone and a closeup of the one  I purchased.

That's all for today....I had a great time at my quilting weekend but no time to do further updates today.

WIPocolypse 2012 - February update

Well I'm a couple of days late I think but that's okay.   I've still only worked on one of my WIPocolypse projects, the American Sampler. I got a little further along.  I unrolled it from the scroll bars to photograph and discovered I didn't finish a little flower along the top way back when I stitched that part a few years ago - oops!  I finished the two trees in the middle, got most of the column stitched on the left side of the center, and did one more line of the over-1 verse.  I almost finished the lavender queen-stitch flower but I need to get one more shade of lavender thread to fill in 4 stitches and that requires a trip to the LNS.  The pattern calls for 3 shades of lavender but when stitching you couldn't tell the 'medium' much from the 'light' so I am altering a bit. 

I have a couple small finishes this week.   This is from one of those Just Another Button Co pincushion kits.  It's called "Stuck on You".  I took it with me to my monthly meeting with quilting friends and did the whole thing in about 2 hours.    My pincushion collection keeps growing but I can't help myself. I think it came out really cute and perfect for February.  The bottom box portion comes with the kit but it seems to be from those Whitman's little candy packs they have out this month for about $1.29.  I bought a couple at the grocery store in case I ever want to make more of these as gifts.   The kit included wool roving to use to stuff the 'chocolates' and it was so much nicer to use than the polyester stuffing.  I may try that in future for stuffing other smalls, it seemed to be less lumpy.

And, I am ahead of schedule and finished my February ornament last night.  I might even get 2 stitched for February (!) but I probably should work more on my WIPs this month.  I love the peppermint tree in this one!

We just purchased some tickets for spring training baseball games for next month (spring is coming already!)  and tomorrow we're headed out with friends to a fair Phoenix is putting on to celebrate Arizona's 100th year of statehood.   Yes we're one of  the 'youngsters' when it comes to the 50 states - Arizona was the 48th state (last on the mainland) to join the union on February 14th, 1912.  Happy Birthday Arizona!

Thanks for stopping in to read my blog, I treasure each and every comment.  I have added about 100 more blogs to my list in Google, I just need to find more time to visit everyone!

Bravo Queen Elizabeth - 60 years!

Monday marks 60 years on the throne for Queen Elizabeth.   You have to admire her still doing her duties at 85!  I think she's in the running for breaking Queen Victoria's record as the longest-reigning British monarch.  Considering her mother the "Queen Mum" lived to be over a 100 she's got a good chance I'd say.  I've always been a bit of a royal watcher even from 'across the pond'.  Here's one of my favorite photos of the Queen - looking every bit the 'royal'.

HRH Queen Elizabeth II

Ascended to the throne Feb 6, 1952
   

In stitching news, I finished up "Dog Lessons" last week.  I hope to get it dropped off to be framed sometime this week - it's a gift for a family member.  I modified the colors a bit to add a third color to the lettering as I thought it needed a little more 'life'. 

"Dog Lessons for People" by Lizzie Kate. 

Stitched with cotton overdyes on 32-ct Light Mocha linen.

I posted the finish below on the '2012 Year of Smalls' blog already but here it is again.  This is 'Garden of Love", our February smalls project.  It stitched up really quick with a kit I purchased from Inspired Needle in Illinois. Luckily I had the perfect fabric in my quilting stash to make it into a little flange-style pillow.    In the photo is a teacup from a little china set I had as a child. I was thrilled a few years ago when my mom unearthed them in storage.   In it is sitting a 'red hat' bear my husband got me as a joke when I turned 50 a few years ago.  (what's so funny about turning 50 I really don't know!)    Anyway,  I swore I would never be a red hat lady but my little bear is kind of cute.
   

"Garden of Love" by Citrouille Designs

Stitched with Belle Soie Silks on 36-ct LL linen

I'm working on my February ornament which is a LHN pattern this time, and I'm almost done with the stitching part.    I'm frantically trying to make some progress on American Sampler because it's almost time again for  a WIPocolypse update!  Didn't we just do that??

Wow - I have reached 200 followers - thank you so much friends!  I will have a giveaway a little later this month to celebrate, but I need a little time to get my act together.  Stay tuned.............

A couple small finishes.........

Well so far I got 2 of  my January goals done.   Where is the month going so fast?  I still need to finish up Lizzie-Kate's "Dog Lessons" before the end of the month.  Maybe I should go back to pulling "all-nighters" like I was famous for back in college LOL.

This is my Quaker Hornbook which I purchased about 4 years ago with a group on the Legacy bulletin board.  This pattern is only available when you have a group order of 10 or more so that's why we did it that way and we purchased the wooden hornbooks as well.   I have no excuse for why it sat in my stash this long but finally here it is!   I'm going to get some of my smalls done this year no matter what, somehow, someway.

"Quaker Hornbook" by With My Needle Designs

stitched 1-over-1 on 32-ct linen with silk threads

 

I also finished my first ornament of the year this week as part of my goal to stitch one per month at least.  There are so many ornaments I want to stitch!  I did a few Prairie Schoolers and some from magazines back in the late 80's/early 90's but then I wasn't too interested in them for a long time.  Over the past couple years I've fallen in love with so many of your wonderful ornaments posted on your blogs that I now have a long list to do!  I joined the LHN ornament blog and will try to slip in one of those maybe every other ornament. 

This is "Winter Joy" from Little by Little Designs. It was in the 2006 JCS ornament issue.   I'm going back through my issues and pulling favorites out.

Not too much else going on here in Willowtree Land.....I signed up for a quilting retreat the end of February and am already looking forward to it. I plan to spend half of my time quilting and the other half stitching.   We can work on whatever we want at the retreats  - there are no classes or planned projects - so it will be a good mix.     Yesterday hubby and I  booked a trip to Hawaii in April  - it's been a long time since we took a 'big' vacation - it sure will be wonderful to get away and see the ocean (you get a little water-crazed here in the desert).   Does anyone else get frustrated trying to read through those reviews on TripAdvisor??  You don't know what to think  - one person writes a glowing review then the next person trashes the place.   I'm having information overload!

Thanks to all the kind readers for their comments on my projects and especially the American Sampler.  I am going to give it my undivided attention for a bit the beginning of February and see I can make some more progress.   I am continually amazed at how some of you crank out huge projects so quickly!  Do you have the Keebler Elves helping you while you're sleeping?

January WIPocolypse progress

Well I brushed off the cobwebs from my American Sampler and worked on it this week a bit.  Sadly, it hasn't been out of its project bag in a few years! It's overwhelming me a bit to see how much there is to do but I will keep plugging away at it.   I got most of the lavender flower on the right border done and started the tree in the middle.  Those border flowers take forever - this one is not even done yet but it has well over 100 queen stitches in it so far - I worked on the tree in the center of the sampler just to get a break from queen stitching - they get a little tiresome especially when stitching at night.  

I only picked 6 of my projects to be part of the WIPocolypse project - old UFO's that have been years in the works.  Only worked on the one this month so far but hope to maybe get another out later in January.   Other projects I worked on this month below are recent starts but I made some progress on them too.   Hoping to get most of them done this month so I can do some more new starts in February!

This is Blackbird Designs' Home of the Brave.  I'm not enjoying this one very much....like the pattern but having a tough time for some reason with the 40-ct stitching even though it's over-2 threads.  I'll be glad to put this one behind me but I'm only about halfway.

I bought the supplies for a lovely hornbook years ago and finally got working on it this month - this is Quaker Hornbook by With My Needle. It's a shame I let this sit in my stash so long!  I have a row of numbers to do under the alphabet and then can work on the little Quaker motifs which will be more fun.  This is being stitched over-1 on 32-ct linen and it's giving me less trouble than Home of the Brave for some reason  - go figure!

Lastly I'm still working on Lizzie Kate's Dog Rules for People that I started the end of December. This is a gift for our nephew so I'd like to get it to the framer by February.  It's a quick stitch for the most part, just juggling it while I work on all the other projects. 

I joined up to the 2012 Year of Smalls blog that Laura is running and looking forward to starting the February project as soon as they announce it and I get it ordered.    I picked out an ornament to get started on too as I want to do one per month this year. 

Being back at work after the holidays is such a drag!  All I want to do is sit home and stitch!   I'm loving seeing all the new starts and what everyone is working on.  I did some January organizing in my sewing room this past weekend, I always seem to be needing more room so was shifting things around and sorting out a few things for a craft yard sale later this year.  

Good-bye 2011.......

Yes I'm ready to say good-bye to 2011....it was a year of hardship or sadness for many of my friends and family it seems and I'm not too sad to say "so long".  Here's hoping 2012 brings good things to everyone!

I hope you all got some crafty goodness for Christmas.   I put some items on a wish list at 123 Stitch and DH went and bought ALL of it!  I got "Joyeux Noel" from Blackbird Designs which has been on my list for a long time, and lots of those Mill Hill kits.  I now have more than a dozen of these from the village and winter series.  I don't plan on stitching them on the perforated paper, I will use linen instead but need to get a plan together.  I would like to do a Christmas "neighborhood" with some of them at least. 

Christmas Stash

I was too lazy to find all of my photos to do a year in review of all my finished projects, but I'm happy with what I accomplished.  I have worked hard over the past 2-3 years to get my quilting projects under control.  At one time I had over 25 projects going (!)  and I'm happy to say I'm down to just 2 now which are quite old.  I'm not starting any new ones until those are done!    I got a fair amount of stitching done this year too although not as much as I'd like of course.  Since I've had some vacation time over the holidays I squeezed in 3 more finishes for this year.

I got Tanya's "Jingle" pillow stitched and finished the week before Christmas - this was fun to do. Since I used a red thread instead of the rusty shade called for I painted my bell to match.  I'm glad I got it done to display for Christmas!

"Jingle All the Way" by The Scarlett House

stitched on WDW Scuppernong linen

Next up is a little Just Nan kit has been lying around a few years and I finally got it done to sit in my sewing room.   It took longer than I thought it would to stitch because it's sort of 'confetti' stitching with lots of different colors.    I have no idea what I'll do with this but I'm enjoying having it done just the same!

Just Nan "Sizzle" tin

stitched on Morning Mist Cashel linen with DMC

I had so many expectations of getting a lot of ornaments done this year but sadly it didn't happen.  As part of my plan to do better in 2012 I got this one done in the last 2 days.  It was a freebie pattern from Midsummer Night Designs a couple of years ago.  I still struggle with sewing on cording to pillow-style ornaments - maybe I'll get better if I do more ornies this year!

What's up for 2012........

I've joined Measi's 2012 WIPocolypse and will be keeping track of my progress on a separate blog tab I've set up for that.  I have 6 or 7 big WIPs I'd like to make some progress on and maybe get one or two finishes!  I'm not making any special list of projects to stitch this year...I'm going to do whatever I feel like doing and try not to stress about how much others are getting done!  (I tend to do that to myself).  I have enough stress with my job and other aspects of my life and don't need to make goals I realistically can't keep for myself.

I do have 3 or 4 samplers I kitted up last year I'll probably start at some point - Jenny Bean Humble Servant Sampler, Jenny Bean Halloween Sampler, The Garden Glade by Carriage House Samplings, and Halloween Rules by Lizzie-Kate.    I did some organizing in one of my stash cabinets a bit this past week.    Most of my patterns I keep in hanging folders in a file cabinet but I have a couple plastic bins filled with kits and other "miscellany".  I really want to focus on getting some of these done!  Some things have been waiting years and years to get stitched - pincushion kits, tins (LOTS of tins!), hornbooks, fob kits,  etc.    It's so overwhelming!

I also am going to try to limit my stash buying this year and focus on working from what I have plus forging ahead with more framing.  I am down to about 6 or 7 pieces still waiting to be framed.   I don't know about the rest of you but I have a big pile of stitched & framed pieces in one of my closets - things that aren't on display all the time such as Christmas or Easter pieces. I want to make some padded bags to store them in - I figure it will be a good way to use up some of the fabric in my quilting stash!

Like so many others, both the husband and I have been ill this week. We had to cancel out on a birthday party Friday and cancel New Year's Eve plans tonite with friends.   Luckily our doctor's office had urgent care hours this morning so we both went and are now armed with antibiotics and assorted other prescriptions.  Our dogs alternate between visiting me in our bedroom and the husband who's camped out in the guest room.    Hoping the meds kick in soon as we both need to be ready to go back to work next week.  This is the second time for me this month and I am sick of being sick!

I wish all of you a great 2012 with good health, good fortune, and time to work on lots of great projects!