A few small finishes.........

Hi folks......I keep waiting for autumn but it’s still not really here quite yet unfortunately. I have been in such a bad mood this week but not sure exactly why – everything seems to be annoying me and I feel depressed. I’m sure others get the same way sometimes.....I’ve got new responsibilities at work that are stressing me....can’t seem to keep up with household chores....people are aggravating me.....I’m constantly worrying about family issues, the poor economy, and the state of the world. Once I get in a funk it seems like I just keep rolling downhill and can’t think of anything positive. I think sometimes it’s "information overload" especially when it comes to the news. I don’t need to tell you what goes on in this world, you all see it, but it seems like a never-ending stream of bad news sometimes. If it’s not violent and mind-boggling crimes, it’s economic disaster, wars, natural disasters, and everything else. I try to tune it out and be thankful for all the good things in my life but I’m not always successful. In reading some blogs this week I see a stitching exchange went bad for a group and a few bloggers here and there contemplating closing their blogs.  We've all got our share of anxiety I guess.  Somedays I wish I could go back in time about 20 years LOL. It seems I was a lot more optimistic then and life was a lot more positive in general. I’m sure that’s just me being nostalgic... and maybe this is an age thing for me but I sure wish I could get out of this funk.

Excuse my rambling on a bit but at least I’ve been stitching as much as I can recently and I still get lots of enjoyment from it. I don’t think many days go by when I don’t see something absolutely fabulous on someone’s blog and want to make it! In reality I’ll never even get what is already in my stash done, but part of this hobby (okay it’s an obsession really) is enjoying buying the stash, owning the stash, and dreaming of COMPLETING all the stash. When I sometimes contemplate stopping blogging, I know I really can’t. I would feel very alone as I don’t have a stitching group to belong to and it’s just my husband and I in our household and he’s not very interested in my needlework. When you put a lot of yourself into making something, you just have the need to share it with others in some way.


I recently got 2 small things stitched and finished since my last post and I’m starting to get in the holiday mood at least. This is the famous Peppermint Twist from LHN that everyone was stitching last year, I’m a little behind the curve but loved doing this one. I finished it as a little pillow – I’ve got hopes of getting a basket of smalls together for Christmas decorating.

LHN "Peppermint Twist"

recommended threads mostly

I also made this one this week - it stitched up really fast and I finished it according to the pattern directions with some black wool I had. Isn’t it cute? I just love it and will be putting out some of my autumn and Halloween decorations this week. (I’ll be adding this pattern to a stash sale page I hope to update this weekend.)  As you can see I didn't spend any time staging a nice photo - just stuck it up next to the sewing machine for a non-glamorous snap........

"Enchanted Crow" by Threadwork Primitives

Then I did a little stash-diving to find what little patterns I had for fall and Halloween.....found lots of good linen colors and several things to choose from. I had a very old piece of Cashel linen that I got probably 10 yrs ago – it was the recommended fabric for some Prairie Schooler pumpkins that never got made LOL. Well the color was more rust than orange so I decided to try and lighten it up – I soaked a sample piece in a weak bleach solution and then laid it out in the sun for an hour. Look at the new versus old – it’s now a perfect orange color for Halloween - yippee – I love it when I can use up some old stash.

Yesterday the mailman brought me the latest Gingher collectible embroidery scissors – these are the ones that aren’t available at JoAnn’s but only at specialty shops.  They’re called ‘Tessa’ and I must say they are probably my least favorite Ginghers so far. They look like some dated 1960’s fabric – or maybe the Arizona state flag?? Oh well...they’re just going in the box with all the others anyway!  I really do need to do something to get all these scissors displayed somehow.....

Until next time, may you find some happy moments stitching or crafting!

Come on Autumn!

We've gotten a bit cooler here in the desert - and we're all hoping the trend continues as we are so sick of the summer heat.  It's hard to believe it's fall already, the year seems to be flying by at record speed! I had all these plans to stitch several Christmas ornaments this year - darn!  Somehow I've got to find more hours in my days that's for sure. 

I want to thank all of you for your wonderful comments on my Quakers & Quilts finish - it really warmed my heart and is much appreciated!
I've been making good progress on Christmas Rules - still enjoying stitching this one. I am down to the last 4 'rules' and should be able to finish it this month. I want to be able to get it to my framer before the holiday rush so I can have it ready to  hang for Christmas. I have a long narrow sampler already hanging in my foyer and it will be a perfect place to swap in this piece come December.  (and my husband will be glad I don't have to put another nail in the walls LOL)

I've been so good about working on my WIPs lately but I'm getting a case of start-itis. The 10-year anniversary of the 9-11 tragedy reminded me that I had bought this BBD pattern way back in 2002. (where the heck did those years go??)  Attic Needlework gave out a complimentary addition to the chart -  some words and the date to commemorate 9-11-01 at the bottom.  It's sad that it's a whole 9 years later and I still haven't gotten it stitched! I decided I would get going  finally stitch it this month.  Here's my start so far. 

The chart specifies using 30-ct fabric but I used some scrap 40-ct linen I had and some Gloriana red silk. Unfortunately I didn't realize the added words at the bottom were charted as over-one - well that just isn't going to happen - over-one on 40-ct linen is too hard for me so I will rechart the words as over-two instead. It's weird but sometimes I can stitch easily on 40-ct and other times I am really struggling - I use my lighted magnifier all the time so can't quite figure it out. This project is rather hard for me to stitch on... I wonder if any of you notice a difference between 40-ct linen from different manufacturers? Are some 'tighter' than others??

I've been doing more sewing than stitching over the past 2 weeks. I finally finished a king-sized quilt top I started about 2 years ago - I am SO-O-O-O happy!   I've already ironed it all and have it hanging ready to take to a long-arm quilter in a few months (I try to space out my custom quilting and framing...$$$....you know how that is).  I  don't have a big photo of it to show you. It's a subtle quilt - an antique reproduction so it's doesn't have a lot of 'wow' factor.  The beauty of it I think will really come out once it's custom-quilted.   Back when I purchased everything for this quilt I got a whole bolt of one fabric because I needed almost 10 yards just for the back of the quilt.  A bolt has 15 yards on it and I got a good discount which made it worth buying.   I think this may be the last king-sized quilt I make - it's tough working with something that big and also a real pain trying to iron it once it's all together!    If I count up all the materials, plus what it's going to cost me to get it quilted, this quilt is costing me close to $500.  Quilting isn't a cheap hobby that's for sure - not with the cost of most fabric being $9-10 per yard these days.  That doesn't even count 2 years of my time.  Believe me, it was a thrill putting  a big line through this entry on my WIP list!  I'll be back with some photos around Feb or March of next year when I get it back from the quilter.

Lately I haven't been tempted too much to bring home more stash - as Martha Stewart says, "it's a good thing" LOL.   I have so much already that I want to stitch...however I did recently pick up these from Threadwork Primitives...it's all Faye's fault as I fell in love with her "Pride & Glory" finish.  I want to get started on this cute autumn-themed one with the witch's hat.  I'm so glad that new designers keep coming to our world since some of our favorites have quit the business during the last few years.  I guess part of it is the economy and so many crafters doing other things like knitting, scrapbooking, etc.  I know that some of the designers have also cited issues with copyright abuse which makes me very sad.  It's great that we sell or trade our used charts  or stash we no longer want,  but I continue to support the hard work of the needlework designers.   I'm relieved to know there's no danger we'll run out of things to stitch!

A finish and a new start.......

I'm happy dancing - Quakers & Quilts is finally done! HUGE SIGH OF RELIEF!   I finished it last week - what a thrill to put that last stitch in. This one has been hanging on way too long - I went back to my blog archives to see when I started it and it was November 2009.  It's not like I worked on it constantly since then, I had starts and stops but those quilts along the bottom really wore me out!  Lots of backstitching, half-stitches, and color changes.   It's a beautiful pattern though and should look great on my bookshelves when I get around to framing it.

Without further chit-chat, here it is.........excuse the color changes from photo to photo... I was playing around in the photo editor trying to get the linen to look like it does in real life- you know how it is when you are photographing needlework.

"Quakers & Quilts" by Rosewood Manor

Stitched on 40-ct Lakeside Linen - vintage bisque - and

with a conversion to Belle Soie & Silk 'n Colors threads

I couldn't wait to start a new project and I snuck in the first stitches on Lizzie Kate's 'Christmas Rules' the night before finishing Q&Q.  I absolutely am loving this project! It's like a breath of fresh air after trying to finish up Q&Q - easy stitching, bright colors and just a joy.  I actually may have this done and framed for Christmas this year if things go my way.  I fell in love with it last year after seeing it stitched on some blogs.  It's such a cute design - I have all the Halloween Rules charts too and plan to start that one probably in January for next year's Halloween.   I even talked a coworker into stitching Christmas Rules with me - she cross-stitches but is more of a quilter most of the time.  She loves Christmas though and couldn't resist.

Here's my start so far.........right now I don't feel like stitching on any of my other projects so am going to relax and enjoy this one for awhile! 

Back to our regularly scheduled stitching & sewing.........

I'm back on schedule after spending most of June working on blogiversary giveaways and RAK's.   I had 2 RAK's that I sent out earlier this July to Barbara of Mainely Stitching and Karen from My Favourite Things.  Both of them have been reading and commenting on my blog since my very first post 5 years ago so I wanted to reward them as faithful followers - thank you both!

I forgot to take a photo of Barbara's RAK but you can see it on her blog posting here.   I stitched a Prairie Schooler design ("Farm Fresh") and made it into a little pillow. I sewed a fabric project bag for her and also sent a needleminder from Paula Kelmscott's collection.  I chose a chickens theme for the stitched piece because if you read her blog you'll know Barbara raises chickens and of course since she lives in Maine she certainly needs to have the lighthouse needleminder. 

For Karen's RAK at least I remembered to take a photo this time before mailing it......I chose another PS design  because it reminded me of Karen with its cat and yarn balls.  Karen has 2 cats and she's not only a great stitcher and finisher but she knits too.   Karen  also received a mesh project bag I made and I included some fat quarter quilting fabrics for her to use in her finishing business.  I'm so pleased that Barbara and Karen liked what I made for them.

Prairie Schooler #116 - Y is for Yarn

Stitched in DMC on 32-ct linen, finished pinkeep-style

(By the way I found the cute little easel shown above at JoAnn's recently in the picture frame department and I went back and bought several more -  they cost about $2.50 US or less with a coupon of course.   What I love about these is they are small and work great for pinkeeps - they have sort of a rustic finish in brown/black.) 

There's a few things I finished back at the end of May that I haven't gotten around to blogging about...you know how it is.   May seems ages ago doesn't it although it's less than 2 months - how the time flies by when you're busy!  I stitched this piece below because it reminded me of an LNS I used to go to, and also to recall a special trip to Hawaii some years back.   This piece didn't seem that big when I started it but it was tons of solid stitching as you can see and seemingly endless sand..OMG.  I changed out the wording on the pattern and added a couple of hibiscus flowers.  This pattern used lots of specialty stitches which added some nice texture to the palm tree trunks, the water,  etc.

"Kona Coast" - oldie from Ewe & Eye & Friends

Stitched with DMC on 32-ct linen

Closeup of Kona Coast

I did manage to finish up my puppy dog quilt on time for the baby boy christening in June - my husband delivered it in person as I couldn't go with him to Chicago this time. I'm told the family loved it so mission accomplished once again.  I just found out that another niece is expecting so next year I'll need to do another baby quilt - it's tough keeping up with all these babies!

"Dog Daze" baby quilt - stitched & quilted by me

Pattern by Kimberly Rado

I posted about this last year..I had finally finished up an old quilting UFO that had been a nemesis of mine for way too long... this pattern was so much work!  You make tons of blocks then you cut them in half diagonally and recombine them all again.  There are many, many seams that drove me crazy matching up.   I took the quilt top to my longarm quilter a few months ago and I got it back a few weeks ago.  The quilting is fabulous and now at least I like this quilt again LOL.     I sewed the binding on the edges and have happily moved another  project to the 'finished' list.  I have no idea what to do with this quilt.....I'm thinking of asking for a quilt ladder for my birthday this fall as we have only 2 beds in our house which already have quilts,  and I'm short on wallspace.  I have lots of quilts just stacked up in closets.   I really don't need any more quilts of course but do you think that's going to stop me from making more?  :)

"Radio Flyer" - pattern by Miss Rosie's Quilts
Quilt pieced by me and quilted by a longarm quilter here in Phoenix......
hope you can see the beautiful quilting on the borders, and the back of the quilt really
 shows the pretty swirl pattern - love it!

Lastly thought I'd post an update on Quakers & Quilts. I got really tired of this piece and was trudging through it with a grumpy attitude...as in 'why did I ever decide to stitch this??'.  This week though I finally reached the point where I can see the end is getting near - I just have some more on the right side to do - one more quilt block and a little bit of the upper section.  I'm probably about 85% done.  Hallelujah!!   I'm starting to anticipate a happy dance!  I've got the energy going now  and working hard to finish this up quickly. I'm so anxious to start some new stuff but I am keeping to my rule of finishing a WIP first.   It will be heavenly to have all this tedious backstitching and the half-stitches behind me!

"Quakers & Quilts" by Rosewood Manor

(why does it look good until you photograph it and then every wrinkle shows?!?!)

Be back soon I hope!  Thanks for dropping in............

Blogiversary Winners!

Gee, I so wish I had a gift for each of you - thank you all for entering my giveaway contest.  I wanted everybody to win something!

Giveaway #1 (the rose-themed pieces) went to Follower #130  as determined by the Random Number Generator.

That turned out to be Missy of  Raven Stitches.   I hope this cheers Missy up a bit - from reading her blog today I see she has been laid up with a flare-up of chronic pain the past few months.    I've found out it's not that easy to choose a winner from a Follower list as you have to manually count it out yourself from the first follower forward.  Anyway, congratulations Missy and I hope you enjoy the prizes.

Giveaway #2 (the Whitman tin set) - the name was pulled from the 60 people who left comments on the last post.   DH pulled out Sally's name over in the U.K.   Good for you Sally!

Giveaway #3 (cherries flatfold & bag) - this winner was also chosen from those who commented - and it's Carol E.  Funny thing is Carol lives here in the Phoenix metropolitan area like I do but we've never met.   I see from your blog that we're both royal watchers Carol.  I got up in the middle of the night to watch Will & Kate's wedding just as I did back when Charles & Diana tied the knot.   Congratulations! 

I have sent all of you emails today so you can send me your addresses.

It's been horribly hot here the last few days with some crazy evening storms - our "monsoon" season has returned.  We were dog-sitting over the holiday weekend so we had a total of 4 dogs to keep an eye on and that kept us busy.    I'm still working away on my RAK's - one is done andI'm working on the finishing for #2.  Number 3 is not started yet unfortunately but I'll get going soon.  

Have a great day everyone and as always I so appreciate you stopping by my corner of the web! 

Let's celebrate! Five-year blogiversary giveaways!

Yes I haven't posted in awhile but I have been stitching to celebrate my five-year blogiversary today.  Wahoo!!  Where did those 5 years go so fast??  It's hard to believe it's been that long.  Okay, I know I don't post enough, and I don't get as much done as some of you but I still love blogging. I love reading what the rest of you are doing and I think it's great how stitchers support each other through the ups and downs we all have in life.   I have learned so much in the past 10 years from online interaction with other stitchers. My online adventures started out when I joined a Yahoo quilting group and one of the members was talking about her Yahoo Drawn Thread group - so I joined that and the rest is history.   From there I joined a few other Yahoo groups, then I added in  stitching bulletin boards like Cross Stitch Corner, the Teresa Wentzler board, Legacy Embroiderers and a few others.   I often wonder what has happened to some of the "regulars" on the bulletin boards who I don't see blogging.  I hope they are well and stitching!  Over the years I have saved off hundreds of photos to my computer that inspire me (probably some of your very own projects).  I've also saved tips and instructions, and been inspired to spend countless amounts of money on stash thanks to all of you 'enablers'  LOL.  I'm sure my husband now regrets telling me years ago that I needed my own computer!   Thank you all for adding to the love I have for my stitching hobby.

Now onward to the giveaways!   I have 3 prizes that I've made to give away. I also am working on 3 not-so-random RAK's (I've selected the 3 people already)  but they're not quite ready yet so it will be sometime in July before I can post those.

The all-important 'rules' -

#1 giveaway will go to one of the  current followers of my blog as of this morning.  I'd like to reward one of these nice 156 stitchers who have stuck with me even though I'm not the most exciting blogger. Thank you people!   I will use the random number generator to select a number between 1 and 156 to award the first prize shown.  

#2 and #3 giveaway winners will be chosen randomly by my husband from all who leave a comment on this post.  Doesn't matter if you are a follower or where you live to be included in the giveaway for these 2 prizes. You can post a comment (one per person please) anytime up until next Tuesday morning July 5th at 7:00 am Arizona time.   If anyone has trouble posting a comment you can send me an email (my email address is in my profile) and let me know so that I can include you in the drawing.  I'm giving you a week as I know many people travel around the July 4th holiday.   Please be sure your profile either shows your email address or you put something in your comment so I can contact you if you win.

Photos of the giveaways........

Giveaway #1  -  this is a needlebook I made from Little House Needleworks 'Rose Sampler' pattern.    Some Bohin needles will be included, a pair of Gingher stork scissors with matching stitched fob, and a rose-patterned project bag that I made to coordinate with it all.

Giveaway #2 - I finally did something with one of the stack of tins that I have!   I used the pattern from Jane Timmers "Whitman Tins Sewing Set" to make the little coordinating pincushion and lining for the tin.   I added an oval magnet on the inside lid of the tin to hold your needles, and 2 counting pins are in the pincushion.  You can see the 2 sides of the pincushion in the photos.  Also you will receive a package of Bohin needles, a pair of Paula Kelmscott mini-stork scissors with matching tassel, and a project bag I made out of some gorgeous batik fabric.

Giveaway #3 -  This is a flatfold I made from a freebie pattern I saved off years ago from Maryse's free pattern blog.  It's called "Les Temps des Cerises" loosely translated as "Cherry Time".    It's backed with some cherry fabric of course, and you will also receive a mesh project bag I made with a cherries theme (approximately 10" X 10"), a cute pair of Paula Kelmscott mini-stork scissors in black, and a package of Bohin needles.

Good luck everyone and thank you for coming by to visit! 

Totally Tuesday............

This morning we had the most wonderful cool breezes – ahhhh. Have to enjoy it as very shortly the heat of summer will be here to stay and there won’t be much mercy on us until fall. I just wish it could stay this way awhile longer!  My husband Dave and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary at the end of April – and coincidentally by reading Vonna’s blog I found out we share the same anniversary. I got my husband an iPad that he had been wanting and he gifted me with new wedding rings! We reset the diamond from my original yellow-gold wedding set into a new white-gold setting and also reset an anniversary band I had into white gold as well - that one is still at the jewelers as they had to order the setting. I'd never been able to wear the anniversary band with my former ring set as they were curved.    I still love my original wedding set and of course it has sentimental value so I kept it and we put a gorgeous sapphire in where the center diamond was before. I’m loving wearing my new rings while sitting on the couch reading blogs with the iPad of course. :)

I’m still reveling in the fact that Star Jones got kicked off of Celebrity Apprentice this week  LOL. DH and I have been waiting and hoping for that. It sure is crazy some of the wacky stuff we watch on TV these days – I never thought I would be interested in a bunch of crab fisherman in Alaska and loggers in Maine  either but I find myself watching the craziest stuff these days!

I recently got an order from Amy’s “Down Sunshine Lane” – the rest of the supplies I needed for kitting up Lizzie Kate’s Christmas Rules & Halloween Rules. I haven’t started them yet but hopefully soon. I was so pleased with the lightening-quick shipping of my order from Amy too – it was great having it arrive at my door in just a couple of days. Even though I have an LNS in my metropolitan area, it does take a couple of hours for me to drive there, shop, and drive home again – about the only time I have to go is Saturday and it takes up a chunk of my weekend.  So I still shop online some for the convenience and time-saving.  I'd love to make the Halloween Rules twice – once for me and once for a friend who loves Halloween but we’ll see.  I’ll be lucky if I get it done once let alone twice!

I’ve been diligently pushing forward on some projects of course. I started this king-sized quilt about 2 years ago – it’s a reproduction of an antique quilt that Moda Fabrics put out . The colors are subtle but I really love it – it just has so many pieces! I was cutting and sewing forEVER it seemed and no wonder – I counted it all up and the quilt has almost 1500 pieces in it! I finally reached the point of laying it out as you can see here – I’ve got my rows all stacked and numbered now so I can start sewing the blocks into rows and then the rows into the final quilt. I could’ve kicked myself as when I laid it all out I discovered I made like 16 extra blocks somehow – I miscalculated something when converting the pattern to king-sized. Sigh............... It’s funny as I just happened to fall in love with this quilt when I saw a model of it – and we have since redecorated our bedroom in shades of browns, mochas and aqua so that the quilt should fit in perfectly someday. It’s been a long haul so far but this quilt will not defeat me!

I had to break away from the big quilt this week as it was time again to make another baby quilt. My husband’s niece had a little boy not long ago and I’ve made quilts for all the new generation babies in the family so I’ve got to get this done in the next month in time to make the christening in June. I have this darling pattern called “Dog Daze” and so there will be 9 dog faces in this quilt. Here is the work in progress – trust me it’ll be much easier to recognize the dogs when they get their eyes and noses. Luckily I found a nice collection of cheerful fabrics at the quilt store on Friday and I got this far over the weekend – everything is cut out and ready to start sewing. I’m pretty happy with it so far and for once I picked something fairly quick and easy!

Meanwhile back on the stitching front.......I’m trying hard to finish up this little project by Ewe Eye & Friends called Kona Coast. It hasn’t been my all time favorite project, but it was one of those ‘self obligated’ projects – ever have those? I’ve had this little pattern probably a dozen years or more – the model used to hang in a local LNS and I always liked it so promised myself I would stitch it someday. For some reason once I make a stitching or quilting commitment I have to see it through. The shop has long since closed so I wanted to do this kind of to remember the place. They used to have an annual retreat in Hawaii and I believe EE& F designed this for one of their retreats as it has “Kona, Hawaii’ and ‘1994’ on the pattern. I will be leaving those out. I just have this endless sand at the bottom to get through and the borders and I can put this in the ‘finished’ column. I’ve been toying with the idea of making it into a tote bag.....but then again maybe I’ll just watch for a good framing coupon at Michael’s. I don’t take most of my things there but this one is just small and not something that I want to spend a lot of money to frame.

Quakers & Quilts has been coming along as well – this project and I have a love/hate relationship! I love how it looks but I am really REALLY tired of stitching it. Those quilt motifs along the bottom take a long time and there is so much backstitching – it reminds me of my days of stitching Paula Vaughan patterns – you’d think you were almost done once you got the cross-stitching completed then you’d spend a couple weeks backstitching. Aaarrgghhhh! I’m about two-thirds done so hoping I can knock this off the list maybe over the next month or so. I have the Quaker Diamonds pattern also by Rosewood Manor patterns but now that I look at the chart I see it uses all the same colors as Quakers & Quilts. I guess I could convert it to something different but right now I've lost my desire to stitch it. There are just those other hundreds of patterns in my cabinets that need my attention more!

My stitching companions Abby and Buster celebrated their birthdays last week. Buster is officially 8 and Abby about 7.  They had a great day enjoying their special chewies and new toys of course. My babies are getting older sniff sniff.........which reminds me they still don’t have the stitched Christmas stockings I thought I’d make years back........!

I’m also secretly making plans for some good giveaways this summer – I’m coming up on a significant blogiversary so making some special items and and gathering other gifties.....please stay tuned over the next couple of months!

Bless the U.S. Navy Seals & our Special Forces

The world is a slightly better place today.........we haven't forgotten.  

Spring update........

Happy Springtime readers & friends!  I hope spring is sprouting around your home like it is for us.  We’re having beautiful weather here in the southwest - everything is blooming....the temperatures are great...we have gentle breezes...the birds are nesting......life is good!   I've been away for a bit - went out of state to visit my mom for her birthday, then I went to a quilting retreat weekend up in Show Low Arizona and we had relatives visiting all last week. Now things are getting back to ‘normal’ finally so I can catch up on my blogging.   

I've been more in a quilting than a stitching mode the last few weeks but I did finish up my Jenny Bean pin tuffet recently. It was love at first sight when I first saw this on someone's blog last year and I finally sat down and stiched it up.  I admire it every day while I’m in my office/sewing room even if the DH wonders why I keep making more pincushions just to look at!  I LOVE all things "Jenny Bean".  :)

\

"Jenny Bean" by Shakespeare's Peddler

My own silk conversion on some sort of 40-ct linen

Don’t you just love the pins that Just Another Button company is making now? I picked up this little wool kit called Stuck on You that came out at market and it’s got adorable pins in it too. I can’t wait to make this up as soon as I get a little time.  The chocolates look good enough to eat!

Now I’ve got to share with you some framing I recently got back from Jill Rensel’s studio. I’ve never sent anything to Jill before but have admired her framing that I’ve seen posted on bulletin boards and blogs over the years. I had 2 projects that I had framed a few years ago locally on a sale - I got a discount if I let the framer pick out everything but in retrospect I found that doesn’t work too well for me – I need to see and stress (yes I do stress!)  over what it’s going to look like before it’s done. The workmanship was great but it just wasn’t what I had envisioned and so it’s been bothering me ever since. It was even worse when I thought about all the money I spent and then to be disappointed makes a sad situation.  Everytime I walked by them hanging on the wall I was a little bit peeved at myself.  Well long story but I finally got around to packaging them up carefully and sending them to Jill back in October to have some rework done. She was very busy with holiday framing and all so I didn’t get them back until March but it was worth waiting for. Yeah Jill!!  I’m so happy I had them re-done! The two projects were already professionally mounted from the first framing, and we were able to reuse the big frame on An Open Heart so the rework dollars weren't too bad actually.

St. Peter's Fair by Shepherds Bush was originally framed with mats and a frame that I thought were just too dark for the soft colors used in the piece. Jill used the same mat design she sells as a pre-made set for this design but did mine in blues & greens instead of the usual lavender/pink ones.

"St. Peter's Fair" Before:

"St. Peter's Fair" After:

This Drawn Thread piece when originally framed just seemed so
b-o-r-i-n-g.  It’s a very large piece and the neutral mats just didn’t do much to show off the piece in my opinon. I like the new moss-greeen mats Jill added  much better.  It’s another task I can mark off my list and I’m looking forward to sending some more pieces to Jill.   I made a lot of progress with my framing list over the past year but I still have about 6 things waiting in line - that's the downside about finishing things -then you've got to tackle the framing!

"An Open Heart" Before:

"An Open Heart" After:

Our quilting retreat 2 weeks ago was fabulous as usual – I didn’t take many photos this time. I’ve been there several times so end up taking the same photos of the place it seems – not to mention I barely took any breaks from non-stop sewing except for eating great food and doing as little sleeping as possible LOL.  But drum roll please...I finally finished my “Winter Memories” quilt top.

"Winter Memories" - pattern by The Acorn Quilt & Gift Co

(just ignore the chain hanging down from the ceiling fan!)

I started this hand-applique quilt almost 2 years ago so really glad to put it over to the finished column. I made some substitutions in the pattern (I can never leave things alone) replacing an embroidered wreath block with an appliqued sled (thank you Yahoo images...) and I re-drew the mitten block as I didn't like the one in the pattern. What's funny is a friend and I fell in love with this quilt at a quilt show vendor mall a couple years back and we went crazy hunting down the some of the same fabrics used in the model.   We found everything we needed through a combination of quilt stores, eBay, and a friend's wholesale account at Moda Fabrics..........but now I have enough fabric left over to make about 5 more of these quilts!  When will I learn to stop over-buying??    Now the quilt top needs to go off to be quilted by a longarm quilter. I’m not doing much machine quilting of my own quilts these days – I don’t enjoy it and it is hard on my shoulders. (I can’t bear going through any more shoulder surgeries!) I’ll do baby quilts or wallhangings but that’s it. The longarm quilters  can do so much more and do it so much better  than I can do on my regular sewing machine.  It adds to the cost of course but to me it's worth it rather than struggling along and doing it myself.  I just don't have the time to hand-quilt very many quilts either.

Hope to be back soon - next week is a 4-day workweek for me as we have Good Friday off (or in the politically-correct corporate world, it's "spring holiday").  Whatever you call it, I can't wait for a 3-day weekend!