Stitchin' & Sneezin'

Well it's spring here in Arizona and everything is blooming! Claritin and I are best friends and although everything is beautiful right now I'm looking a little forward to when the pollen dies down and I don't have a continuous sore throat and spend a half hour every morning clearing my head.

Things are moving along with my stitching. I passed the halfway point with Plymouth Sampler - woohoo! I think the second half will go faster as the stitching is not as solid as the first half and a little more interesting. Frankly, I was getting a bit tired of houses and windows. In case you're rusty on your Roman Numerals - MDCXX translates to 1620 which is the year the Mayflower set sail for America.
I sort of set aside Plymouth Sampler for a week or so and worked on With My Needle. I got 3 lines of the verse done but wasn't happy with the coverage of the silk. I'm really picky about coverage and hate when it looks 'sparse'. Mostly this happens with dark colors - I don't like when I can clearly see the X's for some reason. This doesn't happen on 40-ct but I'm using 36-ct so it makes a little difference. Anyway, I experimented with adding an additional half-stitch on top and it looked better so I went back over the 3 lines I had done. It is taking me longer to stitch now with the extra cross but I'm happier with the results so all is good. I'm getting anxious to finish the verse and get to the more enjoyable part of the lady and flowers.
I got back the two quilts I had sent off to be quilted. I tried a new person to do the longarm quilting and she did a great job. She did swirls on my nine-patch quilt which I really liked.

It's now on the guest bed and I need to go shopping to find some nice fabric to make a new bedskirt. Most of what I have seen in stores I don't like - they seem to be making them cheaper all the time and most often it's just straight fabric without any pleating or ruffling - it's like how cheap can we make it instead of how nice it looks. So I plan to make my own and some matching pillow shams when I get the time. The other quilt below was quilted in a beautiful variegated thread of pinks and yellows - perfect choice for these fabrics.

This quilt has joined the stack in the linen closet - I have no more room to hang quilts and we only have 2 beds in our house, but I keep making more quilts anyway! I really need to find a quilt ladder or a piece of furniture where I can display them.

Over the weekend I got out my French Alphabet Sampler and put in a few hours on it. I have so much guilt over this sampler - I don't really like the linen or the threads...and it's so big...but I spent a lot on the pattern ($45 was a lot for a pattern back in 2003) and the supplies so I feel obligated to finish it. The Gloriana thread fuzzes and leaves a little shadow of red fuzz on the fabric. It will get finished someday but no time soon!

As far as stashing - I've been stocking up on Carriage House Samplings patterns - so bummed to hear she is going to quit designing but when you look at the volume she has produced it's no wonder she needs a change. I already had many of her patterns but have been picking up some more here and there to make sure I get all the ones I want to stitch before they are unavailable. As I tell the husband - I'm actually SAVING money because later I'll have to pay high prices on eBay, right?

I'll leave you with some photos of our backyard in bloom. My dog Abby is always watching the pool vacuum - she thinks it's possessed. Hope spring is arriving soon to all of you as well - thank you so much for stopping by!

New start....finally!

Well I'd held off on any new starts since November but I finally caved in! I have had "With My Needle" by The Goode Huswif kitted up for a couple of months. When I saw Heidi was kitting up the same pattern I thought it would be fun for us to do an SAL together. I absolutely love this pattern and fell in love with Terri's last year. (Terri of Chocolates for Breakfast). I think Heidi will surely get done before me but I am enjoying it so far even though I've only got the top band done.

"With My Needle" by Goode Huswife

Stitched on 36-ct R&R Antique Cotton with Needlepoint Silks

I'm making progress on my latest applique quilt too called "Winter Memories". Now that I've got it up on my design board I can see how it's starting to come together. It's a subtle quilt but I'm really liking it. That's the border fabric hanging on the right side.

And look at my latest purchase below!

I have been looking for some sort of curio cabinet to hang on the wall in my sewing room for awhile with no success. I have way too many little knick-knacks and tsotchkes I've gathered here and there and nowhere to put them. When I got my latest Pottery Barn catalog I finally found it! It was a bit too expensive but I had to have it. It's supposed to look like the cubbyholes they used to have in hotels years ago where they would keep the keys and messages for the guests. The funny thing is, when it came it had a little ding in one side and the varnish wasn't as nice as it should be, so I called up Pottery Barn and they gave me a 25% refund. Woohoo! Mr. Helpful Husband hung it up over my cutting table and I put some scrapbook paper that looks like antique postcards in half of the cubbies. Now I need to get busy and finish up some more pinkeeps to display in the empty spaces. You can see in the closeup my very first pincushion - the orange/brown/yellow one. I was into needlepoint for a bit in high school and I made this for my grandmother and stuffed it with sawdust from Dad's table saw. When my grandmother passed away it came back home with me and I've had it ever since. (If you're old enough you'll recognize the decade when I made it from the colors I used! LOL)

I've reached the halfway point with Plymouth Sampler and will get a picture of it up soon. It's so exciting to turn to the second page of the pattern!

A little of this and that..........

I finished the new baby quilt and am getting ready to mail it out - yahoo - another thing off the list! It doesn't look as feminine as I would like for a girl baby but the nursey has a jungle animal theme and the colors were right so I went with it. I quilted it myself this time with a swirly design. (click for bigger view). I'll machine quilt small quilts just not bed-size ones - it's too much work.

I've also been making progress with Plymouth Sampler - I've started construction on the third house, advanced a little on the wharf, and made it halfway through the bottom border. I had to do some frogging because one day as I was admiring my progress and looking at the photo on the pattern I realized I had done the water upside down! The dark portion should be on the bottom and the lighter blue on top -DOH! For a split second I considered leaving it that way but it would've bothered me so I had to take it all out and re-stitch it. Somehow when I wrote in the silk conversion threads on the pattern I got the 2 blues mixed up. For some reason I haven't felt like working much on Quakers & Quilts lately so no progress to report on that.

Finally made it the LNS to take a look at new stuff from Market. I didn't buy much this time....not sure why. I already have several patterns for smalls I want to stitch so I wasn't really tempted to buy any more and that seems to still be big with all the designers. I looked through the new Blackbird Designs book - nice but I wasn't tempted as it didn't seem like anything really new and different than what I already have. This isn't like me - usually I am ooh-ing and ahh-ing over everything. I just picked up the Loose Feathers pattern that had been waiting for me awhile (Winter Wonderland), some Crescent Colours floss and the LHN "Needle & Thread" pattern. Maybe it was the fact that last week I dropped off 2 quilts to be machine quilted by a longarm quilter, and while at the LNS on Saturday I dropped off 3 samplers to be framed. Just putting the deposits down was painful enough and I don't even want to think about the total bill! And that only makes a small dent in my framing pile I'm afraid but I'm committed to making progress this year with it no matter what! I guess because it's so expensive I tend to keep buying more stash instead of getting my finished things framed. (or it could be that I don't have much wall space either LOL)

Hope you all have a great stitch-y week!

I'm the Pincushion Queen...........

Hi people! Yes I've been absent awhile again but I've been busy as the proverbial bee. In January I finally finished up an old UFO - I'm so thrilled! I started this with a class taken at my LNS in 2005 I'm ashamed to say. I finally got my rear in gear and got it finished in January. I'm very happy with 90% of it- but the lacis work was a little frustrating. It was my first time doing it and I'm not thrilled with the results. I didn't have any trouble following the directions or actually doing it, but it was very very time-consuming and I think it takes practice to get consistent tension with the dove's eyes and woven bars. (although seriously I'm not sure I'll want to do it again!)
Anyway, here it is and soon to head off to the framer. Click on the photos of course to see a better view. I shot a closeup of the whitework and lacis band -I put some fabric behind the open work to be able to photograph it better.


Earlier this month I went on quilting retreat weekend which is always a blast. I was running all over the week before getting all my projects together, packing up, and making runs to quilt stores and JoAnn's to get assorted supplies. I decided to work on several pincushions while I was there and each pattern had a different set of supplies. I am addicted to pincushions I guess! I got several made as you can see but I still have a couple of wool kits that I haven't gotten around to yet. My friends are now calling me The Pincushion Queen. :) They're all hinting about birthday pincushions now LOL.

This is probably my favorite one - it's from a pattern by Cindy Taylor Oates. I LOVE it. I was worried about it being too hard to do. It had a lot of steps but the instructions were good and just taking my time seemed to work out fine. Now I need to find a cute antique plate to keep it on.

Below, the slice of watermelon is from Miss Rosie's Quilt Company and the pear is from a pattern by Heather Bailey. I would like to make some more watermelon slices - but a bit smaller as this is sort of a big pincushion. I use the ground walnut stuffing in most of my pincushions and love the weight and feel of it.

These little round ones are called "Petite Gateau" (Little Cakes) and they're from a pattern by Fig Tree Quilts. I used up squares from some of my fabric charm packs. The only aggravating part was making covered buttons. I had picked up the little covered button kits at JoAnn's - evidently the manufacturers have decided you no longer need the little apparatus that helps you cover the button. It used to be so easy - you draped a little piece of fabric over the mold, then inserted the button form and snapped on the bottom piece. Voila- you could do them in no time. Now they just give you metal button forms with a serrated edge and expect you somehow wreck your fingers getting the fabric on it. Why can't they leave a good thing alone and quit trying to cut costs and make it aggravating?? I'd rather pay more and have it work right! GRRRR

Next up we have 3 'tuffets' from another pattern by Miss Rosie's Quilt Company. These were really fun and quite easy compared to some of the other pincushions. A friend turned me onto a great website source for wool bundles of fat quarters - its' called Dorr Mills. I see more pincushions in my future in different colors- I love using wool for the backings. Even after making all of these, I still have a couple of kits for wool pincushions I didn't even get to and I'm waiting for Shakespeare's Peddlar's "Jenny Bean Pin Tuffet" pattern and matching pins to arrive. I have no idea what I'm going to with all of these pincushions - I think I need to get to Ikea and find some kind of shelf or display box.

Not only did we sew 16-18 hours a day at our retreat but we had delicious food served to us, got to bird-watch all day and even enjoyed a light snowfall - that's a treat for us desert-dwellers. The best part is I'm going again in March. I feel so decadent!
In the midst of all this sewing, I have been sneaking in stitching time on Quakers & Quilts and Plymouth Sampler. I may be slow but I'm inching along.

This week I'm gtrying to finish up a baby quilt for our newest great-niece. She's a cutie and we can't wait to go back east to meet her. I'm trying to catch as much as I can of the Olympics - great TV for stitchin' & sewin' time.

Thank you for stopping by and taking the time to visit!

Dusting off the cobwebs - welcome 2010!

Yes I had to get the broom out and clean up around here – update the background and figure out what I’ve been doing the last 2+ months. I had a work crisis that started last November and took up a huge amount of my time (and sanity) up until the middle of December when I went out on vacation/holiday/unpaid furlough for a total of a month! It was WONDERFUL excepting that I had to work an hour or two each day I was on vacation or holiday. During a week of unpaid furlough the first week of January (cost cutting measure by the company) the company was not allowed to call me for anything so not being paid for one week didn’t faze me a bit – it was worth the peace of mind!

A month away from the office is the longest break I’ve had in 25 years and I took full advantage of it. There were Christmas preparations and shopping and baking of cookies. DH and I had a nice Christmas and New Years and celebrated some family birthdays as well along the way. DH surprised me with a lovely amethyst-pendant necklace for Christmas which I love. I did a lot of sewing after the holidays….I rested…I watched DVD’s…I started reading a biography of Andrew Jackson…..I spent some gift certificates….I went to see ‘Young Victoria’ at the movie theatre….I cleaned my sewing room and generally had a lovely time! I really didn’t stitch all that much as I tend to have trouble with my hands in the winter and didn’t want a repeat of last January’s arthritis flare-up.

Drum roll please……….I finished several quilt tops ready to go the long-arm quilter! A few of them had been sitting almost done for some years so I got them out and finished up the borders or whatever needed doing, made up the backings and bindings for all of them and they are hanging neatly on hangers until I start sending them out to be quilted.


I no longer want to attempt machine-quilting my own quilts unless they’re small things. The last one I did took me forever. I would rather pay the money for someone else to do them - they look better and I can spend my limited time on something I enjoy more. My recently finished tops are below - it's hard to photograph quilts - either they need to be hung up, on a bed, or you need someone with arms the size of Michael Jordan to hold them for you! I laid all these on my guest bed to photograph them.

This scrappy nine-patch below resulted from a year’s worth of exchanging nine-patch blocks with friends. I really like how it turned out and it’s destined for the bed in the guest bedroom.

Next up is an applique Christmas quilt whose applique work I did some years back but never got around to putting on the borders. This design is called “Christmas Memories”: and it was published some years ago by Barb & Alma at Blackbird Designs. I hope to send them a photo of the finished quilt once it’s quilted. I had forgotten how BIG this quilt is – it’s queen sized but it should look nice hanging on the red accent wall in the family room. Sometimes I can’t believe I actually did all that hand applique! I love the border fabric.

Next we have a flannel redwork quilt that was started many years ago. I don’t know why I never got around to finishing it. The redwork embroidery doesn't show up real well in the photograph but they are all animal-themed weather vanes from a book by a local quilt-store owner. I made up my own block with the dog outline to represent the Sheltie we used to have named Elvis. He died 6 years ago and he was so dear to my husband and I maybe that’s why I put the quilt away for awhile. Anyway, it is going to get quilted and displayed finally this year!

The quilt below is a design called "Radio Flyer". It's by Carrie Nelson of Rosie’s Quilts and “Schnibbles” fame. I started it a few years ago but I must say it was not fun to make – a lot of work and too many seams to match up. It was made from a Moda fabric collection but I'm not liking the fabrics as much as I did when I purchased them a few years back. But….at least it’s done.

This last top below ("Jane Street") I had already finished last year but I needed to get a backing & binding together for it which I finally did. I love the feminine colors and it should go nicely in my aqua & pink sewing room.

What thrills me the most is I have my list of WIP/UFO quilting projects down to FOUR! A few years ago I had about 20. Two of the four left I just started last year so that’s not bad, and another one is a Christmas wall-quilt that I am hand-quilting. I’m about 70% done with the quilting on it so hope to have it finished soon. I vow from here on that I am not having more than THREE quilting projects going at any one time. I hate having stacks of UFO’s and WIPs around – it stresses me out and makes me feel guilty.

On the stitching front, I am almost done with my 'English Sampler' that I started FIVE years ago when I took at class for it at Attic Needlework. I had planned to finish it in 2008 and then 2009….and well…here it is 2010 but I’ve already stitched in the month and year of completion so it WILL be done this month no matter what! I am just finishing up the lacis work which is slow going for me and not very enjoyable. I hope to post finished photos later this month.

I’ve picked up my Plymouth Sampler again. I never really got going on it very well last year – it seemed that top border would NEVER get done. Once I got past that things seemed to go a lot better and I’m enjoying it now. My WIP/UFO list of stitching projects is much larger than I wish it was – I’ve got 11 things going and that is too many. Unfortunately, most of them are big projects so I can’t expect many finishes anytime soon. I did work on Quakers & Quilts some in December and this is where I’m at so far.

I haven’t picked it up in a month but hope to get back to it next week. I didn’t do any new holiday starts – just didn’t want to add another project to the WIP basket! Not that I don’t have dozens and dozens of charts I’d love to stitch….but we’ll see. I’d like to have a finish before I start anything new.

I’m still trying to get around to everyone’s blog updates. I finally got everyone set up to 'follow' which took me awhile as I read about 130 blogs! I’ve seen so many wonderful Christmas ornaments over the last month and enjoyed seeing some of your “stitchers year in review”. I worked hard all year but didn’t have as many finishes as a lot of you! I’m looking forward to a better year than last – 2009 wasn’t terrible but it had its stressful times and I am hoping for a more positive year ahead. I wish good health, happiness, and many finishes for all of you in 2010! I am thankful to be a part of this online community of friends sharing the things we love.

Have you ever had stitchers remorse?

Now friends, I admit I do get stitchers remorse, and I do some dumb things. I just had a case of it this weekend as I was poised to start “Quakers & Quilts” . All my fibers were bagged and tagged on my floss ring, I had my big piece of 40-ct linen serged and pressed, the DVD was going, I had my Diet Coke handy, the needle was threaded and poised……..and then……….I saw the vast expanse of blank linen. OMG. I realized how big this project is and how in the world am I ever going to get it done with all of my other WIPs?? Do you have these kind of thoughts? I dived in anyway and got started but I know it’s going to be a long haul.. Then right off I didn’t like the thread I stitched the first part with. It’s Belle Soie Cranberry and it’s so very dark- I’ll leave it in for now but I may end up replacing that with a varigated red that isn’t so dark. I moved on to a pink motif and started feeling better – maybe it was momentary BAP-panic?

So then yesterday I went out to purchase a couple of threads I needed and I went to a local shop I haven’t been to in a long time. This shop used to sell both needlepoint and cross-stitch supplies, but they phased out the cross-stitching about 2 yrs ago and replaced it with knitting. (darn knitters…..LOL) They still have a huge selection of fibers though so I really ought to go back more often. Anyway, while I was there I see they had a little bin of old leftover cross-stich patterns marked way down – 50 cents for most of them. Now here’s where more stitchers remorse comes into play. In it I find a copy of Paula Vaughan’s 'Summers Remembered' pattern for 50 cents. I had these 2 pieces stitched and up in my bedroom in the late 80’s before I got married. I never was completely happy with the framing but for some crazy reason I got rid of them when I got married and moved to Arizona in 1991. I don’t even remember what I did with them but in recent years I really regretted letting them go. I could’ve had them remounted and reframed and now I’m just wondering what was I thinking?!? I don’t do a lot of Paula Vaughan patterns but I do love her quilt-themed ones and these were so nice. Plus, these were part of my “stitching history” and they were a lot of work (oh I can still recall all that backstitching!) So I bought the pattern since I no longer had my original one, and in the back of my mind I’m thinking that maybe someday I will stitch them again. (picture me rolling on the floor laughing right now) Well you never know!

Then after I grab the Paula Vaughn pattern, I see a copy of Blackbird Designs ‘Pumpkin Blossom Needlecase” in the bin also for 50 cents! Bear with me please – another story. I had this pattern back when it came out in 2003 – and I stitched it. I wasn’t that happy with the colors for some reason, and then when I went to finish it into the needlecase I screwed something up and ended up throwing the whole thing in the trash. I didn’t like the finishing instructions and I was just disgusted so not only did the project get tossed, but I THREW THE PATTERN AWAY! Now of course it’s selling for big money on eBay (I’ve considered it but couldn’t justify the expense), and I’ve seen gorgeous finishes of this pattern especially when done over-1. I am my own worst enemy sometimes! Not to mention I have most of the Loose Feathers patterns since they started and this was a missing one in my collection. The good news is I was able to retrieve these 2 patterns from my past for only $1.00. I think it was meant to be. And I’m determined to restitch the Pumpkin Blossom needlecase and this time it’s going to be great! I also picked up a cute little sampler pattern below for another 50 cents – never have seen it or heard of the designer but I like it and you can’t beat the price. I think it must be very old as it calls for DMC flower thread and I’m not even sure that it’s made anymore (not that I’d use it anyway).


Thank you readers for visiting with me today. I’m plodding along with Quakers & Quilts after getting over my initial angst. I did finish My Quaker Lady before starting Q&Q – here she is and I’m quite pleased with her. I love the petite nature of this – the whole sampler measures only 7.5” square since I stitched her on 40-ct linen

Netherfield is let at last...

Last week I got Netherfield Hall stitched for my Pride & Prejudice sampler. I took these pictures under artificial light and they're not the best but I'm happy with the house. You can see it looks pretty close to the house used for Netherfield in the movie. I used the house pattern from A Ball at Netherfield by The Stitching Parlor. I bought all five of her P&P samplers but I only using a few of the motifs from them to make my one big sampler. I still have lots to add to Netherfield - grass & trees, some animals, and of course Mr. Bingley himself. I am undecided as to whether to stitch him as a couple with Jane Bennett or leave him as an eligible bachelor - hmmm.


Here's my latest progress on My Quaker Lady. I have one small motif left to do plus the alphabet rows at the bottom. This has been such a fun piece to do. I hope to finish it up this week so I can start Quakers & Quilts on Sunday - woohoo!
Progress on my nine-patch scrappy quilt is also being made. It's pieced together in diagonal rows so each row gets longer and longer until you are halfway done and then the rows get smaller again. It's going together quickly thanks to all the trimming of blocks that I did. I struggled with picking the colors for the setting pieces because the nine-patch blocks are very colorful but it seems to be turning out well - at least in my opinion. I really love scrappy quilts.

Our Arizona weather has finally cooled off and we can say a thankful goodbye to summer! In fact today a cold front (okay well cold for us) moved in and it's quite chilly this evening. Time finally to put a blanket on the bed - yeah! Our days are wonderfully breezy and sunny and I sat and stitched outside on Sunday which was such a treat. Thanks for visiting and Happy Halloween everyone!

24 and there's so much more........!

Ahhh.....I can recall one of my best college buddies saying that on his birthday - unfortunately it was a few decades ago! Yes folks, I must admit I'm a LONG way past 24 but hey I'm still here and tomorrow is my birthday so I'm celebrating. I don't know where all those years went that's for sure - you ever look back on your life and wonder where did that person you used to be go? I'm grateful for all I've had in life - lots of wonderful experiences, family and friends. I'm grateful I have passions like stitching and quilting in my life and I'm able to share it with people I've never even met like you! I appreciate you coming by and I love reading all of your blogs which inspire me every day. For today I won't look for any more wrinkles, get depressed about my weight or worry about getting older - I will enjoy the present and all its blessings. :)

I picked up a few new things from market - not much as we continue having employment issues in our household since May. However, you can't be good all the time, right? I still have some birthday discounts from some online stores I can use this month. I'm making a couple of short lists for those as I hate to waste the discounts. I'm anxious to pick up "With My Needle" since The Goode Huswife has issued it as a single pattern now. It's a must-have for me - go see Nicole's progress on hers- wonderful colors!

I picked up Quaker Diamonds from Rosewood Manor - I LOVE this pattern - and the Sarah Woodham reproduction sampler from Teresa at Shakespeare's Peddler. This is a gorgeous antique sampler Teresa has reproduced. "It's Cold Outside" from Blue Ribbon Designs is not new from this market but I've been wanting it awhile so picked it up with some of the supplies to stitch it. I've had this Quakers & Quilts pattern below for some months now but I finally splurged on the silks and fabric. The pattern calls for Valdani varigated threads which are cute, but I don't really want to start a stash of Valdani. I would rather invest in silks that I use more regularly - not to mention I wanted to stitch this on a smaller count of linen than what was called for. My LNS had done a conversion from the Valdani to Belle Soie which I altered a bit to my own taste. Don't the colors look luscious? I plan on stitching on Lakeside Linen's 40-ct Vintage Bisque. I can't wait to get started! If there are any of you that would like to stitch along I would love some company to share progress with. Another great thing is the new pattern from Rosewood Manor I just bought uses the same colors so I will get dual use out of a lot of my silk investment.
Here finally is an update on My Quaker Lady. She didn't get much attention last month while I was finishing up Beatrix Potter but she is fun stitch. I now have to buy the coordinating Gentleman Quaker of course. How's a girl supposed to resist a coordinating pattern?? I'm also waiting on my order of the latest special edition Gingher scissors below - "Elena". I got them from Mike & Carol's store (Carol of Garden of Stitches). They have the best price around for these and I've gotten great service always from them. Then I saw the new "Mia" edition at JoAnn's yesterday so I have to take my coupon up there this weekend and pick them up too. I don't care much for the plaid on the Mia scissors but I collect them so I must have them anyway!

Thanks for stopping by!

Beatrix Potter finish, trades anyone? , & my P&P sampler

Hello friends - I'm back in Blogland finally. After a bit of AWOL time, I am back trying to reconstruct what I’ve been doing the last month or so. Mostly I’ve been on a mission to finish up my Beatrix Potter and here she is! I’m so happy – I’ve been stitching with the online SAL that Hazel put together in January. I had a bit of panic when I ran out of the lightest color of thread a few weeks ago. Big thanks to Nicole who answered my post on the HDF Forum and had more of the matching dyelot. Thank you Nicole! I’m thrilled to have my first Quaker sampler done.

I also dragged out my Pride & Prejudice Neighborhood Sampler which was lurking under my stitching table feeling very unloved. I had put it away after not being happy with some of my silk coverage - once I get annoyed with a project I have to take a break from it. I added another half-stitch over the entire tree trunk and I am happier now with it. I still want to do the same for the roof on the house but I’m putting that boring task off for awhile. After doing a bit of landscaping, the Bennett sisters' home (which is about one quarter of this sampler), is complete! Next up is Netherfield Place, the home of the infamous, very handsome, and eligible Mr. Bingley!

Here you see some of my inspiration - the Bennett family and their home from my favorite A&E version of P&P (hey don't look at that car in front of the house, I'm just glad some lucky tourist took some pictures and posted them online):



I have a couple of trades I’d like to make if any of you are interested. I recently brought home LHN’s “Home of Needleworker (Too)” from my LNS – thought I didn’t have it but it turned out I do own it already. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve done this to myself! Anyway I have a brand-spanking-new copy of “Home of a Needleworker (Too)” up for trade and also two used patterns in good-as-new condition - LHN’s “Captain’s Inn” and “Peppermint Lane”. I always make a working copy so my used copies are in great shape. Is there anyone who would like to trade for some of these? There are tons of other LHN or Country Cottage patterns I’d love to trade for especially Liberty & Justice, most of the Dear Diary patterns, Two Roosters, Mayflower Landing, Traveling Stitcher, Gingerbread Trio, Beach Cottage and Cherry Hill. My email address is in my Profile.

I’ve also started on the My Quaker Lady SAL but I haven't gotten around to taking a photo yet to share - I've been concentrating on Miss Beatrix this month. I do love the pattern though and will likely end up getting the Gentleman Quaker to go with it.

AND….it’s market time again! More temptations and to-die-for patterns to add to our stash – HELP! Okay, so I have to live to 110 – as long as I can have my big Daylight magnifying lamp in the nursing home and they let me have needles I’ll be okay! I’ve been watching Kathy of CHS unveil each of the blocks of the new Christmas at Hawk Run Hollow and it’s on my list! I’ve not stitched any of the others from this series – not that I didn’t want to but they’re so big and it’s expensive to get all the silks. I’ve already determined that I’m just going to arrange my 9 favorite blocks from the CoHRH pattern for my own version of it – the other 3 blocks I like but they don't seem to really go with the rest that well so I'd rather do something different with those. I likely won’t start it until January though as I have plenty of other things going already that I want to focus on for the rest of the year. I know there are those over-achieving stitchers who will be posting finishes of CoHRH in no time at all but I’m content to go plodding along in my little stitching universe at half-speed LOL. My free time has to split between quilting and stitching and there's only so many hours in a day.

Hope this finds you all well, enjoying your autumn, and getting ready for October - my favorite month of the year! Pumpkins, leaves, cool weather, Halloween, and my birthday - what's not to love??

My Lady's Quaker SAL!

If you love Quaker patterns run over to Amy’s new SAL blog and check out the latest temptation. I love this pattern and just purchased it for myself.

It can be purchased on this webpage – http://www.jardinprive.com/index.php?mod=QC03%20
- select the ‘Quakers et Cie” link in the upper lefthand corner. There will be an option to buy the PDF version of the chart on the website and pay using credit cards or Paypal. Before checkout you do have to register yourself as a customer to the website and the page is in French but not difficult to figure out – name, address, email address and password of your choosing. The cost for the PDF version of the pattern is 6 euros which Paypal converted to a total of $8.65. I received my pattern via email already this morning. Yippee! Now just to decide fabric and colors! There are several different stitched versions you can view via links on Amy’s SAL blog.

Just when I told myself I wouldn’t start anything new for awhile! Let the fun begin!

Ahoy! and a little finish!

Well it sure is the dog days of summer - can you believe we are nearing the end of August already?? About this time of the summer I start getting crabby - I'm tired of the intense summer heat and wishing autumn was already here. Of course, here in the desert we don’t really have much of an autumn and it won’t really start getting cooler until October but a girl can dream, right?

I finished up Little House Needleworks "Captain's Inn" this weekend. I'm very happy with it. I was stitching on an old piece of 32-ct Lugana I had ....and I had trouble with it "warping" while I was stitching. I've never had that before that I can remember, it was like 2 strands of floss were too much? Anyway, I had to block it and it seems to be okay now. I'm on my way with my someday-nautical-wall-grouping!

"Captain's Inn" by Little House Needleworks

worked on 32-ct pewter Lugana

I have been busy busy busy stitching and quilting away. I’ve made good progress on my English Band Sampler – and I am feeling confident this UFO will be finished by the end of 2009. I finished the strawberry band with the queen stitch strawberries and the gold work. It looks a little warped in the photo as I had laid it over a turquoise folder to be able to see the openwork.

I also completed the satin stitching band and the band with all the eyelets and buttonhole bars. Oh how I was dreading finishing that band and had put it off - it really wasn't that bad. The faggot stitch - that is the zig-zag looking part - is the worst stitch I've ever had to do. It's hard and there is nowhere to bury your threads on the way. Now I'm working on the lacis section. I am not totally thrilled with my first couple of dove's eyes rows but........ hoping I improve as I go along.


Since finishing up Captain's Inn, I'm going to go back and work on my some of my WIPs & UFOs a bit. Beatrix Potter needs her monthly installment for August and I'm loving the way she is turning out. I've been diligent about doing my 3 motifs every month so it should be done before long. I really would like to have it done maybe next month but no promises LOL.
And..I'm toiling away on a couple of quilts. I'm doing some machine quilting on one - and I really don't enjoy it at all. I would much rather take my finished quilt tops to a longarm quilter as they do a much better job but it gets expensive so I am doing this one myself. It's coming along though slow but steady. I'm not doing a lot of fancy schmancy quilting, just the basics to outline things for the most part. I'm also getting my nine-patch quilt blocks ready. OMG, I've been trimming and trimming and trimming. I have over 200 nine-patch blocks that my quilting group exchanged - all those have to be trimmed to the same size. Then I made over 200 half-square triangle units that I am also trimming - that's over 400 blocks to be trimmed! I've been doing 20 to 30 here and there - piles on the right side are done and piles on the left still to go. I am anxious to start sewing the rows together on this to see how it looks.
Not much new stash lately....the stash budget is very slim these days. I finally picked up the last 2 Loose Feather designs that were being held for me at my LNS...and just one of the new Prairie Schooler patterns - 'Boo to You' which is really cute vintage-looking Halloween designs.
I also picked up "A Ball at Netherfield" by The Stitching Parlor. I want to include the house from this pattern in my Pride & Prejudice sampler which has been sadly neglected for a few months. Hopefully I'll get going on that again soon. There was something I wasn't happy with on it and once that happens I tend to lay a project aside so I need to just deal with it and get back on track.

Thanks for stopping by friends.....I do so love reading comments so that I don't think I'm just talking to myself! I get a lot more feedback from all of you than my hubby!