December Update & My Big Finish!

Three of my four Christmas ornament exchanges have happened.  Here is what I got-

 

 

DD#1 and I did the first exchange. DD# 2 and DD #3 both decided to pass on this year's exchange.  I think time just got away from them. This is the Blackbird Designs ornament I received. It's the first time I have seen an ornament with the over-sized beads around the edge and I really like it! (Yes, she used hot glue to attach them) And it is pink which is always a winner with me.

 

This is the Stacey Nash ornament I gave to her.  But I told her after she opened it that I had several more finished in my bedroom and if she would like to have one of those she could trade.

 

So this is the ornament she chose!  Laura Perin Designs

She was happy and I was happy and the Stacey Nash ornament went right onto my tree!!

 

 

Here is the ornament I received at my local ANG chapter Christmas party. Can you see the log cabin quilt design cross-stitched on the sled?  Very cute. 

 

Here is the sweet little rocking horse ornament I received at the Northwest Sampler Guild Christmas party.

 

This is the mini Christmas tree with all the ornaments from the exchange for the Sampler Guild.  The one I brought was on the bottom of the tree-it is square with an alphabet sampler on it.

Here is the letter E for my Crabapple Hill Gardener's Alphabet quilt finished.

Dear DH made me a frame for Paradise Lost.  It has been sitting in my finished drawer for over a year now.  He bought some picture frame trim at Home Depot.  Cut it to fit and painted it satin black for me.  I am SO happy with the way it turned out! 

 

Even DH commented that it was a very striking piece.  (very rarely does he comment on my stitching). I mentioned that I have The Flood from Plum Street Samplers to go with this but haven't started it.  But I did buy a matching piece of linen so these two would go together. So he went out and bought more of the same trim so it would eventually have a matching frame too!

 

And now last, but definitely not least----

Susan Kerndt's Holiday Patches is Finished!

 

It was supposed to be finished last Christmas but better late than never :) I especially love the the use of fabric in this design. One of the members of my ANG guild brought this red cardinal fabric to our meeting when we worked together to fuse our fabric to the canvas.  Oh, it looks so much better than the fabric I had originally planned to use.

 

There is still more Christmas celebrating going on this next week and I hope to share another large finish before the end of the year.  Have a wonderful week!

December Update

I have been putting off posting because there is a big finish on the way!

But I feel guilty, so here is what I can post today.

 

Two more blocks on my Red Home quilt by Natalie Bird are finished.

My mystery sampler by Plum Street is finished!  It is so cute! Thanks for an unexpected Christmas present, Paulette!

One more block for Wooly Good Year quilt by Wooden Spool Designs is finished. I hope the crease in the wool disappears when it is quilted?

 

 

 

 

I signed up for the two Barbara Jackson Christmas ornaments on Shining Needle Society.  When they arrived, guess what I found in my stash?  A really old ornament by Barbara!  And I decided to start with it.  Finished in one day, too.

 

More new stash building :)
That's it for today.  Have a great hump day!

Back From Retreat!

 

The weather was sunny and cold the first two days of retreat.  But it warmed up and was fine the last two days.

 

 

Susan Kerndt

Holiday Patches

 

Here is an oldie but goodie that I was working on before I left for retreat.  I think I can call it halfway to finished now.

Those of you who are longtime readers of my blog will remember that I did this little Susan Kerndt piece a number of years ago-

 

 

I think this little egg came before the larger chicken above. ;)

 

Here is another finish from just before retreat-

Margaret Bendig's All American Frame Weight and Scissor Fob

I discovered that there are instructions for the back of the scissor fob too.  Guess I just missed them the first time thru :)

 

 

Renaissance Designs  Seven Snowmen Grinning

This came back from the finisher after retreat.

Stacey Nash Snow Ornament-This also came back from the finisher

New stash that arrived during retreat

Wooden Spool Designs

Snow Happy

I finished this wallhanging at retreat. It is not sewn together yet.

 

I finished two more blocks for A Wooly Good Year-

April

July

 

Here are the previous blocks I already finished-

 

January 

 

February

March

I wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving.  We have so much to be thankful for this year and every year.

 

More Finishes and I'm Giving Up!

 

 

Christmas In My Heart

All Through the Night

Bonnie Sullivan

 

Finished and framed! I bought this frame about 2 years ago at a neighbor's garage sale.  It was framing two cross-stitched mallard ducks from the 60's or 70's.  So I took out the ducks and the glass and had DH paint it satin black and voila! It was perfect for this project :)

 

 

 

 

 New baby quilt top all finished!  Not quilted yet.  But I am going to try and do it myself. Sorry for the dark pic.

Block 3 of A Wooly Good Year by Wooden Spool Designs

Here is LHN's 2013 Mystery.  Part 1 is completed.  I have the final 2 parts to the mystery  and the threads but have completely lost interest in it.  It has just been sitting around until  recently.  I saw on someone's blog (can't remember whose) that they also had lost interest and sold their unfinished piece.  I offered mine to DD#1 and she took it.  I'll keep you posted on her progress.

 

Should I feel guilty about giving up on this one?

I have been finishing up ornaments for this year's Christmas exchanges.  Still waiting for one to come back from the finisher.  If it looks too good, I might have to keep it :)

 

 

More Classes, Stash Building, Giveaway Winner, and a Gender Reveal Party

A new baby quilt class at my LQS.  Just getting started on this one.

 

Patrick's Woods Sherri Jones Button Lover's Brag Book Class and my pitiful start.

 

I was asked to share my Gay Ann Rogers E-week stash purchases.  So here they are-

 

Pretty Scissors Sampler-even though I don't do cutwork-nope, not at all.

I'm a weenie when it comes to putting scissors to my work.

Home is Where My Heart Is ornament and the Raj Quartet accessories (even though I didn't buy any of the whitework samplers, oh well)

and last, Three Button Samplers

I thought I was pretty restrained. 

 

But I think I'm having a button fixation right now!

More stash-new Country Sampler kit from Stacy Nash-love this one!

And La-D-Da Pocket for Potions-love the pocket, not so hot on the words.  So this one will get some "revision" :)

Can't remember where I bought this but love the Christmas theme and smalls.

I won a sewing necessaire from Nancy at Victorian Motto Shoppe's giveaway!  It is wonderful, click on the photo to see all the buttons, charms, trims, pins included.   Thank you again, Nancy!

 

Until recently I had never heard of a gender reveal party.  Have you?

 

Well, my daughter who is expecting in March wanted both us and her in-laws to find out the baby's gender all at the same time.  So she had her ultrasound on Wednesday and hosted a pizza party Wed. night.  The dessert was cupcakes and she had a spot of blue color hidden under the icing.  So it's a boy!!

 

She has fulfilled the greatest desire of my grandson who will be 9 when this baby arrives. He has been so loving and good around his two little girl cousins but has been praying every night that God would send a baby boy this time.

 

Please pray for my daughter and her coming little one. She is battling high blood pressure with this pregnancy.

Fall Busyness

Finish #1-Ladies Prim Society Blackbird Designs Song of Spring

The R & R prim yellow linen has a tinge of yellow in it and this photo caught the linen color best.

Finish #2-Christmas Tree Table Topper

I left off the red ric rac because the tree trunks were so short.  You can kinda get an idea of the backing fabric I chose on the sides (it is the wrong side of the fabric).  It is a vintage Christmas tree fabric from my stash.  It is already at the long arm quilter's as I couldn't figure out how to quilt this.

 

P>S> I bought 3 quilt tops off of ebay.  All very different designs.  One is black toile and black fabric and I decided to make a shower curtain out of it.  So I took the binding that came with it and sewed 4 strips across the top and folded over the top strip to put buttonholes in (so I can put the shower hooks thru the buttonholes) .  It turned out so cute!  A photo next time.  The other 2 quilts are at the long arm quilter too.

Did I say last time I had 7 classes this year?  OK, it is really 8 classes. I forgot about this one that I attended yesterday.  Debbie Busby from Wooden Spool Designs came to my LQS and we started this design.

Debbie is a most generous teacher and made us all a mug rug, and gave us a free new pattern.  She also included with the pattern for this design a small snowflake charm to use on this wallhanging. You can see it if you look closely at the photo.  This is my start on the first block.

We also had an opportunity for stash enhancement :)  Debbie had made a threesome of stacked pumpkins from this tomato pattern.  Then she put them in a little black cast iron dutch oven.  So, so cute!

Can't believe I forgot to take a photo :( 

Also, she hand-dyes wool and sold us fat quarters of wool at a discounted rate.  You can see I succumbed to temptation with 7 fat quarters.  And I  did not buy the most fat quarters by a long shot!!

Finish #3-A quilt-as-you-go flannel Baby Quilt

Bought this on my Alaskan cruise at a quilt store in Ketchikan, Alaska.

It just needs binding put on and it is ready to give as a gift.

 

No , I don't know what the new grandbaby coming in March will be.  But, if it's a boy, I'm ready!  If not, I'll put this one in the baby shower drawer for the next one I'm invited to a shower for a boy.

Last, but not least is my Mary's sampler.  I was caught up until today's new Week 5 release.

I am using a dove grey 32 ct linen and the called-for overdyed threads.  Couldn't believe I had every thread already in my stash!

 

One thing more-I had some comments last post about my retreats for next year. To clarify, they are all local retreats!  No flying around the country for me next year.  I even decided to pass on the regional EGA seminar in Reno, Nevada next year.   Here are the retreats I have planned for next year-

 

1. Meg Hawkey's Crabapple Hill spring retreat

2. Meg Hawkey's Crabapple Hill summer retreat

(I signed up last year for them and soon I get to go!!)

3. Pacific Beach annual retreat on the Pacific Ocean (again)  This will be year 5 for me.

4. Gold Bar retreat with the Northwest Sampler Guild

5. Gold Bar retreat with the EGA Evergreen Chapter

 

Gold Bar is a tiny town in the western foothills of the Cascade mountains. It is a beautiful, peaceful church camp and right next door to a state park with walking trails. It is a wonderful retreat location.

 

There is actually the possibility of one more retreat in Coeur d'Alene, ID with the Spokane stitcher's guild.  But I'm not sure about that one at this time.

 

Now none of the above retreats are expensive.  All are very reasonable priced between $200-$300.  3 or 4 nights lodging and all meals (except Meg's where lodging is not included)

 

Whew, this turned out to be a longwinded post!  Thanks for sticking with me! 

 

 Hope you all have a very Happy Halloween.  We get no trick or treaters at our house so we will spend it babysitting 2 month old, Brooke, while her sister goes trick or treating.  I'll try to remember to get some photos.

I Got a New Computer and Updates

I've got a new computer.

That's it. 

I know you'll understand now why I've been gone so long.

DH reassures me that I will get "used" to it. Well, I don't like disappearing links and  unannounced restart when I'm in the middle of something :(  And a hundred other things. Talk about cranky!  Am I the only one that doesn't connect "new" to improved?

Here is what I've been doing. I finished BBD Wild Garden. Very fun stitch and stress-free. Linen and threads provided in the kit.

Here are the first two blocks to the Natalie Bird Red Home quilt.  I am the only one in my class to do raw-edge applique with Lite Steam a Seam II and whip stitches.  Everyone else is doing needleturn applique. Do you think I'll regret my decision?

And a new start from the Ladies Prim Society-Blackbird Designs Song of Spring. Linen and thread also provided. Another relaxing stitch.  Other than the 4 sided stitch for the alphabet, there aren't any specialty stitches.  

Here is the latest on my Prairie Schooler Alphabet.  I'm still hoping to get it finished this year.

I have decided to call 2013 the Year of Classes.  I have one more class to go-Patricks Woods Button Lovers Brag Book in November.  That makes a total of 7 class projects I will have to work on next year from 2013. (Not counting any other WIP's)

So I'm calling 2014 the Year of Retreats. Yes, so far I have 5 retreats scheduled next year

and no doubt, I'll need all of them!