Family WIP

At work today I “borrowed” my boss’s camera and took a picture of my new WIP :) Since I get to stitch a bit at work, I thought why not snap a picture? I started stitching The Trilogy: Family. I really like these small designs… can ya tell? LOL!

I’ve been bad in the evenings as far as being productive goes. Because I bought the book The Golden Compass by Phillip Pullman. I just could not put it down, it was sucking me in! I was even dreaming about it at night! So, if any of you like a good fantasy story, that is clean (great for older kids!), and full of wonderment, and just fantastical. Go and read this book. I am eagerly awaiting tonight to start the sequel to this book. I bought the whole trilogy last Friday as one of my birthday presents :)

I mentioned yesterday I dropped by Acorns and Threads, my lovely needlework shop that I just adore. I am always looking for excuses to swing by. They all know me by name, and know my kids too! :D It’s great isn’t it? So, I had picked up this pattern it’s called Harbor Lights by Hinzeit. They have SO many great ones I want to stitch up. But then I’d have signs all over my house! :D So, I finally went with this one for now. My LNS has their trunk show there, it’s awesome! Well, I bought all of the floss for it, and thought maybe I’d start this in the next few weeks.

My exchange was received! And my birthday exchange got to me :D

I heard from Cathy tonight that she received the Potting Shed exchange from me :) I made a little cube, and stitched her the Gardening Spot by The Trilogy. She said she liked it, I am so happy!!! I also had her sign up for my PIF, I decided to send them together. I stitched her a "friendship bag" it was a free design from The Victoria Sampler. It was a lot of fun to make! I was really glad to have Cathy as my partner, she's so much fun!!

My husband has taken our camera with him on a trip, so I can't post pictures of my birthday exchange I received in the mail yesterday! I got a beautiful package all of the way from Finland! Leena has really outdone herself and made a beautiful tin, and little biscournu scissor fob that matches! It is just amazingly beautiful to me. I am in love :) I'll take pictures of it when my camera gets back home along with my husband LOL! Thank you Leena!!!! *hugs*

I was able to get to the LNS today, I bought my fabric for the Neighborhood RR coming up like faster than a speeding bullet! So, I must get that all prepared. I am excited for this RR!

April Review / May Goals

April Review:

Stich Bent Creek: April Snapper *done*
Stitch another Shepherd's Bush Ornament for the SAL *started it yesterday, should finish in the next two days*
Stitch USEBB Potting Shed exchange *finished on 4/15/07*
Put Stitches in the Mermaids *about 1 hours worth*
Put Stitches in Old McMary's Farm *nope*
Finish stitching the Cannon Beach piece *finished on 4/17/07*
Finish Jessie's quilt this week! *still need to add some more to it, but haven’t*
Finish the blocks for my Blue/Yellow log cabin quilt *completed*
Finish cutting squares for the Trip Around the World Quilt *completed*
Make the birthday block for the exchange, this one is for me :D *nope*

This month I got my 3 May birthday blocks done and mailed out, I finished and mailed one of my PIF gifts, did JBW Pumpkin, LHN Blueberries and finished my Carpenter’s Star and my mom’s quilt as well! I say it was a great month :)

May Goals:

Buy fabric for the Neigborhood RR! Ack, this has totally come up fast. I also need to get my part done, along with the borders on it, so it can be mailed out the first of June.

Stitch the May Bent Creek Snapper

Stitch the Shepherd’s Bush ornament for the SAL

Put stitches in the Mermaids

Put stitches in Old McMary’s Farm

Finish the Jayne’s Attic RR and mail it off *done May 9th, 2007*

Finish my friend’s gift *done on May 19th, 2007*

Finish Kristie’s baby quilt *done May 17th, 2007*

Finish Kassidi’s baby quilt *done May 17th, 2007*

Work on my cousin’s trip around the world quilt, get another 1/3 completed

Make my birthday block

I could add more… but won’t. I like having these goals. It helps me a lot to not get so sidetracked :)

*finished Trilogy: Family, started Wave Quilt, finished LHN Pumpkins*

Thanks for all of your comments that you leave, you are so great :D I’ve learned a lot from all of you. And you’ve helped me build up confidence to try new things, and to do more! Thank you for taking the time to post on your blogs, and to comment here on mine. I love it!

Potting Shed Exchange and Birthday Blocks

Thank you for the birthday wishes everyone, you are so nice :D I've been enjoying the weekend. My husband and I went on a fun date Friday night we ate at The Cheesecake Factory and then went to the mall and Barnes and Noble. I picked up the books Pride and Prejudice and the Golden Compass (all 3 of them), we really enjoyed the evening.


Saturday was spent cleaning up the house and doing chores. We have been remodeling our living room, so it seems we have to run to Home Depot every other day to pick up one thing or another (kind of like me and my projects) lol! So, I'll be sure and take photos when it's done. Right now it's 1/2 way done and looks like a mess :D

I've been busily working. I finished an exchange, and will mail that soon. I received my Potting Shed exchange from Goldie! She stitched me a small needlebook and sent a great box of goodies. I was so spoiled :)


I also got all of my birthday block exchanges complete for May. I still need to make mine. But I am waiting for all of my blocks to get here first. I got 6 so far, about 10 more need to arrive. Here are my May blocks :) I like the maple leaf block the best, I am tempted to make a table runner using these fabrics and about 4 of the blocks.

Lizzy! The Shepherd's Bush stash I ordered were two of the fobs that come with matching scissors and two of the Americana neederolls. I am so excited! I may do a fob first. I've been eyeing them all for so long, I just had to order them :) The gatherer's like you mentioned are so nice too. I have those on my "must have" list to buy someday as well. We all need more time to stitch don't we! :D I wish that could be my job :D

Carpenter's Star Finish and Blueberries Finish :)

I have had fun finishing off these two past quilts, it is such a relief to get them done, to know that I can work on other things :) I finished my Carpenter's Star last night. I sent this one out to be quilted as well, and I love it! It is now residing on my couch :) I have picked out fabric for 3 more of these quilts, I really liked how easy it was to make and how nice it looks. So, I'll be slowly putting them together. Pics soon :D

I finished the Little House Needleworks Blueberries today. It was fun to stitch up. I have been taking these small ones to work with me so it is nice I get a little more done than normal.

The stash fairy showed up today. I've been really loving the Little House Needlework designs so I bought a few of them :) Quilt Time Sampler, Stars and Stripes, Berries threadpack, Starlight Sampler, and Shepherd's Bush Summer Garden. So much fun. I can't wait to start one of them. I need to work on some of my others first I think :) I was um... bad and ordered 4 really nice Shepherd's Bush charts yesterday, I can't wait to receive them! I love their kits.

My birthday is tomorrow! Mark is taking me out to dinner, and the guys at work are taking me out to lunch, it'll be a wonderful day I am really looking forward to it :)

My mom's quilt is DONE :D :D

Well, I got my two quilts back from getting them quilted, and wow they look amazing!!! They just did a meandering design all over them. I am so happy with the job they did. So, I just bit the bullet and did the binding on my mom's quilt today. I love how it turned out! A year in the making and lots of sweat and blood later.... I present the monsterly huge quilt!! (110" x 98")

Also I managed to get two small finishes in this week. I got my April Bent Creek done, it is so appropriate for this month we have had so much rain!!!

And Pumpkin by JBW Designs.

Lots of fun to stitch both of those :) I went stash shopping today at the LNS, I'll take some pictures later of that :D I hope you had a great Saturday everyone :D

Cannon Beach Finish :D

I’ve been contemplating a lot since Monday after what happened at Virginia Tech. It is a nightmare really. I am a really sensitive person, and things like that are really overwhelming to me. I have been praying for those families and students for comfort and peace. I couldn’t even imagine. I know that if I can just keep on being a happy, well rounded person, others around me will benefit from that. So… that is what I am going to do! All in all make the world a better place to live in right? So chin up! We’ll get through it.

In other news, I finished my Cannon Beach cross stitch! I put the final stitches in yesterday afternoon. I am really happy with it. Now I need to find a frame for it. :)

Kind Stitchworks: Cannon Beach & Haystack Rock
Stitched using recommended DMC floss
32 count evenweave, Babbling Brook

Thank you so much for your input on the log cabin layout! I had the overwhelming sense that all of you liked the newer layout with the diamond starting in the center, so that is what I’ll finish it like :D Woo! Thanks for taking the time to comment and give me advice, you are so sweet :)

Here are some pics from my garden, my peonies are blooming, and lilacs too :D I love it. My daughter Jessie really liked the peonies, they are so big! And the bees were all over them, she had fun watching them work. She took a picture of me too, so you can get a good view of my new hair-do :D

Have a great day everyone!!!

Another Log Cabin Layout and....

Well, I did another layout for the log cabin. Do you like this one better? Or the one that I posted before this? Please let me know!!! I need some advice on it :D I like them both a lot, so I am having a hard time deciding.

Also, I got all of the squares cut out for the trip around the world for my cousin. I am doing it on the fusible gridding, so I've divided the quilt up into 9 sections, it is easier to work with it that way. I have gotten the top 1/3 of the quilt done yesterday, so here it is! I like it so far. I think this is one of my most favorite quilt patterns, it's so visually striking if you can get the colors right. :) That gridding sure makes it go fast, I like that... I'm all about fast :)

I got my USEBB Potting Shed exchange all completed this morning, it turned out cute. I'll have a hard time mailing it off. I know my exchange partner will enjoy it though, so I better! :)

Log Cabin Blocks are DONE DONE DONE!!!

Woo, everyone do the happy dance with me!!! :D :D :D I got all 90 blocks completed tonight. After 3 long hours, they are ready to be put together. I did a test layout with some of them. I think it was only 1/2 of them! I may have made too many. I'll have to do the math and figure that out, but not tonight, I am off to bed after this post. I had to share :D Do you have those moments when you make something, look at it and think "I have ALWAYS wanted to make one of these" and you did! Well, that is me right now. Okay, my back hurts, so off to bed to lay flat as a board to straighten my back out :D Goodnight everyone!!

There was a big rain storm this afternoon, here was the result, rainbows are so pretty :)

Cannon Beach WIP Again :D

I got more done on Cannon Beach, the ocean is complete! Woo! I only have grey sand to stitch and I will be done with it. I have really enjoyed stitching this one, mostly because it just brings back the best memories from past summer being there. I hope to have it done by tomorrow. :D It’s kind of hard to see the ocean I think because of the scan I did. I don’t have a camera right now, so I had to scan it in. I hope you can see it okay.

I am going to work on my log cabin quilt tonight. I haven’t sewn for a couple of weeks now, so I am excited to get on it again.

Cannon Beach WIP

I have really enjoyed reading all of your blogs this week, I haven’t been able to reply to them, I am sorry! I love reading your posts though, they keep me motivated, and make me want to post more often. Are there times you think, “I should post about that!” :) I do that all of the time, I just love to share with all of you.

This week I made some good progress on Cannon Beach. I got all of the clouds and mountains filled in, and the tree trunk and starfish done. I only have the ocean and sand to stitch and I will be done with it! I love how it’s turning out, it’s like painting a picture :)

I have been stash shopping… again… this has really been an addiction of mine lately. There is just so much that I love, and I can’t help it! :D I’ll share pictures when I get my order in.

I’ll be sewing some more here soon. My husband travels a lot, and when he does I do a lot of sewing. The time is coming up! I miss my husband when he’s gone, but I sure get a lot done when he is LOL!

Thanks for the birthday wishes for my kids, they really are the light of my life. I am so blessed to have such a healthy, loving little family. I have some cute things they have said saved up, I had to share them, I hope you get a good laugh out of them. Kids say the funniest things!

Curren was telling us about elephants, and how they have long noses and suck up water and give their babies baths with their noses, so I said, that would be weird if I sucked water up my nose and squirted it on you! Curren says, “yeah! And you could stick straws up your nose to do it!”

Jessie gets her words mixed up, or should I say makes up her own words.She was eating salad the other night, and asked to have some “dress-up” on it. I was like… dress-up? You mean dressing? It was so cute!

And this morning she looked out the back window, and says “oh no! I left the broom outside last night, and it got wet from the rain!” I said “why did you have the broom?” She says “well, I was brooming the porch because it was dirty!”

I love my kiddies!!!!

Happy Birthday :D

Well, today is my daughter Jessie's birthday, she turned 5 years old, and boy does she act older! :D Yesterday was my son Curren's birthday, and he turned 6 years old. I had a very busy weekend between birthday parties and Easter.

I have almost finished Jessie's horse quilt, but I gave it to her anyway. I can work on it now whenever I can, since I don't have to be secretive. She loved it and has slept with it already. I am so glad! Every blanket I make for the kids ends up being the one they always want use and have close to them, that makes me so happy :)

Someone asked where I got the pattern for my Spring Quaker, it was a freebie. I got it all from here: http://amonamipierre.net//gratuite.php There is a large "sampler" and I just chose the ones I liked from it, I don't own any sampler quaker patterns, so I was glad to find this!

I've been working on my Cannon Beach piece, and started my "Potting Shed Exchange" for the USEBB, that has been fun :D Hopefully I can start quilting more now that the parties are over and I can take a breather!

I received my Quaker Exchange from Vonna!!!

Let me just say that I pulled it out of the box and my jaw just dropped. It is just beautiful. Vonna had me for her exchange partner on the USEBB Spring Quaker exchange. She made me a little "wallet", and inside were little pink scissors and pretty thread. She said it's the Quaker Flower by The Workbasket, and it's stiched over 1 using DMC varigated thread "carnation". She really put a lot of work into this, and you can tell by how unique it is. Thank you Vonna!!!!

Spring Quakers, PIF, and Round Robins... Oh My!

What a week so far, I can’t even hardly sit down to read your blogs! Well, I’ve been kinda busy with my projects, but since it’s been so nice outside here, I’ve been out in my yard working, or playing with my kids outside!

The kid’s birthday party is going to be on Saturday, and Jessie’s quilt isn’t totally completed yet. I have to finish tying it, and it’s taking me forever to do! I have to start getting the house cleaned up tonight, to be ready for the party on Saturday. I work full time during the day, so I have to be in full-speed mode in the evenings in order to get anything accomplished :P I am sure most of you know what I am talking about. I feel like a drill sergeant half of the time, well most of the time. We have to go NOW NOW NOW! It’s exhausting, but I have got it down to an art now, so I just have gotten used to my busy life.

At work, I am able to stitch a bit. So I take my smaller projects with me. I stitch during my breaks and at lunch. I work with all men, so it’s not like they can appreciate it or anything, but hey it works! So, this week, I have started and finished my next Jayne’s Attic Round Robin piece… here at work. She is having everyone stitch a different type of daffodil. She couldn’t have picked a better chart! I loved stitching it, and I even found the type of daffodil this is, so that was fun.

I also heard my USEBB partner Julianne has received my Spring Quaker exchange package! I mailed it on Monday. I had finished this at the beginning of March, so I’ve been dying to show it to you guys :D I found the chart for free off of the internet, and used floss from Needle Necessities, it was all one skein, I loved the color variations in it, it looked so springy to me :) I made my first little needle book, and put a pocket on one side. It was really fun to make.

Then, I keep forgetting to post this, Su has sent me a PIF gift, and I have admired her work for so long. It was such a treat to get this in the mail from her. It is a lovely little ornament. I will actually be hanging this on my Christmas tree, I love it. Thank you Su!

I am working on other exchanges now, and finishing off Jessie’s quilt. I heard that my Carpenter’s Star quilt I sent of to be “quilted” is done now! They are going to be working on my mom’s blue and white quilt next. So hopefully we’ll be seeing those again soon. Now I am off!!

April Goals, March Review

My March Review:

Begin working on my cousin’s quilt, get all of the squares cut out at least. I have cut out some of the squares, the log cabin quilt took over :D

Make one Birthday Block this month, I did this, but it's late :(

Stitch one of the Shepherd’s Bush ornaments for the SAL Yes!

Finish the Jayne’s Attic RR and mail it by the 19th of this month. yes!

Finish Jessie’s Horse Quilt completely, piece backing and quilt it! Almost done, I have to tie it, I'm 1/2 way done now. I made it with really thick batting, so quilting wasn't going to work. I bought DMC floss for tying it, and so far it looks really cute!

Work on Mermaids at least once a week. Well, does one time count, uh in a month? :D

Work on Gift for my friend: Yes

Start an exchange (I have everything, just need to start it!) It's about 1/2 way done now.

Stitch Bent Creek : March Snapper: YES!

It was a pretty good month, not as productive as say... January, but I had something in me that month that kept me up all night every night working on stuff. So, I was pretty happy with my progress in March :D

April Goals:

Stich Bent Creek: April Snapper

Stitch another Shepherd's Bush Ornament for the SAL

Stitch USEBB Potting Shed exchange *finished on 4/15/07*

Put Stitches in the Mermaids

Put Stitches in Old McMary's Farm

Finish stitching the Cannon Beach piece *finished on 4/17/07*

Finish Jessie's quilt this week!

Finish the blocks for my Blue/Yellow log cabin quilt *completed*

Finish cutting squares for the Trip Around the World Quilt *completed*

Make the birthday block for the exchange, this one is for me :D

That's enough for now :D I'll probably start on other things during this time, knowing me :P

Thank you SO much for your comments about my log cabin quilt, it's been really fun to make so far! :D And welcome to the new readers! I love having you.

WIP day :D

Hi there! I got some more work done today on my yellow/blue log cabin quilt. I kept running out of fabric, so I had to buy an extra 10 fat quarters to finish this off! I didn't realize 90 blocks took so much fabric. So today I cut out the last 5 rows of strips for these blocks and started sewing them on. I have 3 more rows to sew on then all 90 blocks are done :D I like the way it's turning out so far. Jessie's horses are helping me sew as you can see :D

I also am in a birthday block exchange so this is one of my blocks for that! It is called Mosaic 3, off of Quilter's Cache. :D

Lemme see. I've also been working on the Cannon Beach piece, so I've been plugging away on it.

And this is Old McMary's, I am doing the outline of the barn... boring, but it'll be fun to fill it in with red. So pretty.

I got my friend hooked on cross stitching now. I took her to Joann's to get a floss box and needles and some DMC floss for her next project. A convert, alright! It's fun to teach her how to do it. She really likes it so far.

My bleeding hearts are blooming. They are one of my all time favorite flowers. Aren't they lovely?