Holy Cow, What Week Is It?

Holy Cow!  Life is super busy when you don't work and the holidays show up.  I keep thinking I've got so much time now, I should get stuff done that I wouldn't normally expect to do.  Yikes.  But, now that Christmas with my In-Laws is over, I'm hoping to slow down just a bit.

Well, first off.  I finished the cottage by framing it with charcoal grey & red plaid.  I think i made all the difference!  I'm really happy with the final product.

 I think the thin grey frame helps your eyes focus on the details.

 Since the plaid mitered corners didn't match up correctly, I added some daisy vines to distract the eye.

Oh, I can't forget to tell you about my studio, phase 2.  We took the ironing surface out of the loft.  The dressers are there temporarily until one of the kids needs them.  The tree is a decrepit old tree that we used 20 years ago in Iowa.  I put all of the ornaments that my mom brought me from her travels around the world.  I've got ornaments from Norway, Sweden, Russia, Germany, Denmark...all the places I've never been.  I also have some ornaments from her childhood.  They're precious 1950's pink and blue glass that were on my Grandma Bradley's tree.  Then, there are circa 1980's ornaments that I made mom buy when I was a kid.  I only put this tree upstairs where there is carpet because the hardwood down stairs has claimed more ornaments' lives than I care to count.  This is the first year it's been up in the 10 years since mom passed and I bawled like a baby the whole time.  But, it's time to be a big girl and revisit those precious times.  All the places my mom went and she thought of me everytime.  The paper mache Santa is from Rich & my first Christmas together.  Aaannnnnd...now I need to make a tree skirt...

The base for the old ironing surface is now cabinets in the girls' old dressing area.  Ground zero for Brighter Side Fabrics.  I unloaded the bookshelves which will soon come down.  Now that I've lived with them for a few months, the bookshelves are currently in a terrible spot...

I finished the quilting on Grandpa's Cowgirl quilt.  I just did a meandering loop & star in a khaki thread.  I was pretty happy with the result.  I hope he was too.  Yes, most of my corners got cut off, but I don't think he noticed or cared.

 Bethany told her friends, "moving back home came with some stipulations."  I was laughing so hard, I almost peed myself...  I made horse hoods as Grandma's gift and needed a model.  I'm really hoping that her horses are bigger than her grand-daughter, or I've made a serious miscalculation.

These are Sierra's Christmas stockings.  She picked out the fabric and fur and I put them together for her new place.  She was a little disappointed that I wouldn't fill them too,  but you've got to draw a line somewhere... 

Bethany, just because she's so cute and is such a good sport when I ask the ridiculous.  She was attending her boyfriend's Christmas party.  Not to mention the tree took me a whole day to decorate.  The main family tree is full of ornaments that my Mother-In-Law, Ann bought.  She's bought everyone a new ornament for the tree for as long as I've been in the family.  Sierra took hers to her new home but we still had so many, they couldn't all fit.  Grandma didn't disappoint this year, either.  I got a feather weight sewing machine ornament this year!  Score!

Ethan's first violin recital was a smashing success.  He gave a stellar performance.  And, looked so handsome doing it.

This is my offering to the Crazy Quilting International Christmas Card Swap.  With all that was going on, I missed the deadline by a day.  I'm mailing it tomorrow.  The trees are done with a cretan stitch  trunk and herring bone branches.  I tried to do a silk ribbon holly between the poinsettia beads, not  sure if it was as successful as the picture that I saw but I gave it a try.

If I'm honest, this has been my biggest time suck.  I started selling Caron embroidery threads in my store and they're so beautiful, I can't help but to sample them!  This is a pattern from the Catherine Redford class I took a few months ago.  I couldn't wait to get my hands on it.  Mustard yellow and fall colors are a stretch for me but I've got a plan in mind.  I do need a new fall wall hanging...  The leaves are herringbone in Jade.  Damned if I didn't run out of thread before the very last leaf!  Guess I'll be ordering more in the morning! My long and short stitch tulip needs some help.  It's a new stitch for me.  The basket is chain stitch in Fiesta and looks fantastic in real life.

Well, does that look like 2 weeks worth of stuff to you?  It sure does to me.  Now, to get the Christmas cookies done by Wednesday, so I can ship them from work.  Ethan wants to go see Moana, he's learning to drive, too.  Then, maybe, just maybe, I'll get to relax and quilt my Roberta Anne with an "E" quilt.

Thanksgiving Week

I'll tell you what, this has been a crazy busy week!  Thanksgiving will do that to anyone!  

I thought I was done with the mermaid but I found these adorable fish beads and knew she needed them.  For some reason, my picture won't show... The lighting was so much better than before, go figure.  You'll just have to go with the tail shot for now, I guess.

 Look how great my burning bush is!  We had tried a couple times to grow one over the years.  This one finally took and it's a slow grower but this year it was amazing!

 We had Thanksgiving on Saturday because our schedules were so crazy this year.  Rich had to work
16 hours on Thursday & I worked Friday & Saturday morning.  Thursday was really weird for me because it was so quiet.  Rich did most of the cooking on Saturday.  That was another first for us.  I guess that's going to be my new normal now that the kids are getting older and will soon be off in different directions.

 Most of the week was spent working on Grandpa's quilt.  It took a whole day to piece the alternate blocks and another whole day to set the blocks.  Damned if I didn't have to make 4 more Flying Geese blocks at the very end.  Too many, not enough.  I tell ya, it drives me crazy.

 Last but not least, I made a few needle wallets to sell in my Etsy shop.  They're hand embroidered, using satin or velvet.  They're really elegant & I'm going to have a hard time parting with the hot pink one.  And, the black one with the clover.

 I do love lavender.

 Oh, but the clover on black velvet.  So pretty.  Bethany now wants me to embroider something on a black velvet dress for her.

Well, that wraps up another week.  After work tomorrow, I'll have to concentrate on quilting Grandpa's quilt.  Also, I found those 2 missing hexies... but now I have 2 of the same hexies going in the same flower. I think I've decided to not let it bother me.  That could change.

Hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful!  Now for some Christmas decorations!

One Week Down, Five to Go

Well, hello friends!  Week one of Lay-Off is over and it was a busy one.  Nothing like having time off to keep you SUPER busy.  I had hoped to have more finishes to share but I did get a lot of almost finishes ready... If that makes any sense.

All of my CQJP blocks are finished and sewn together.  I've made some decisions about a border.  I'm going to finish it with an ivory border and I bought some beautiful lace to use as an inner border.  I was looking in to jacquard ribbon as the inner border but the one I wanted was $25/yd.  I need 4 yards.  I'm pretty sure Rich would frown upon a $100 investment on just the border.  We won't tell him how much all the bits and pieces have cost so far.  I won't tell if you don't tell.

 Not sure what I did to my camera but it stopped taking clear photos.  Maybe I just need to hold still.  This is my one and only real finish this week.  It's part of a group project with my guild.  Hopefully, many of us will make a small quilt that will fit together with everyone else's like a puzzle.  Clearly, they've gone with an "Under The Sea" theme.  I immediately chose a mermaid.  I didn't start this project this week.  It's been on going for  awhile.

 Her tail was filled in with chain stitches and beaded on top.  The tail fins are beaded a little more heavily.

The seaweed was done with several different fibers.  Then I attached several different do dads along the seaweed.  The little snail shells are real.  They were from a necklace that I got from the Goodwill.  Let me know if you want any.  It was a big necklace.

 The hair was also done with chain stitch.  The threads were from Caron Collection.  I liked them so much that I started carrying the thread in my shop.  The variegation in their thread is really beautiful!

 The other time sucking project I've had going on is my little lace cottage.  It's been really challenging.  I've taken out almost as many stitches as I've put in on this project.

 The pathway is Oyster stitch with a thick version from Caron Collection.  The fence was some of Pat K.'s mom's lace.  I painted the base so I wouldn't have to stitch the whole thing solid.   Those green tufts are supposed to be weeds in the yard.

 I put in rose bushes, irises, daffodils, tulips, and  wisteria.  More gardening than I've ever done in real life.  I love the little red wagon.

 So, I used some artistic license with the tree.  I realize that apple trees aren't usually taller than your house but I wanted some color in the leaves.  So, it's now an apple tree.  Also, when I first stitched the tree, Rich stopped by and asked if we could plant a bacon tree at our house.  Then, all I could see in the truck was a strip of bacon.  Luckily, Caron Collection has a thread, literally called Bark.  The variegation was much more subtle and now looks a bit more like wood and less like bacon.  Rich found the little swing seat for me.

 Found some bird charms and stitched a kite to fill in the big open space that was my sky.  The puppy button was a huge find!  He's so cute.  Also, I had birdhouses stitched in where the flower arch is now.  But, they weren't filling the space properly.  The bush in the center is covering up all my birdhouse holes...

 What I should have been working on was Grandpa's quilt.  I did get all of the Flying Geese finished. There are 80 of these blocks.  Naturally, I miss counted and have enough fabric cut to make another 80...

 And, last but not least, all of the hexies for my Mosaics quilt are done.  I either have 5 extra or I'm 2 short.  Not sure which yet.  I'll let you know wen I figure it out.

In between the stitching, I mangaged to watch all of the Harry Potter and Star Wars movies.  Sierra and I went on a little adventure that included Goodwill, Joann's and the zoo.  Then, Ethan, Bethany and I went to IKEA, the London Tea Room and a gem show.  Like I said, nothing like some free time to make sure you're WAY to busy!

If I don't see you, I hope you have a fantastic Thanksgiving and I'll check in with you again next week.

One Stitch At A Time

Well, this has been a crazy week.  I don't have much to say about it other than I love my fellow Americans.  For that matter, I love my fellow humans.  And, the president of our country, no matter who that is will not change that.  Not that they are trying to.  So, I will continue to make the world a more beautiful place to be, one stitch at a time.

And, here's my latest contribution to world beauty...  this is the Art Nouveau quilt so far.  I LOVE it!!  I can't wait to finish it!  I wonder if it'll be ready in time for the next quilt show!?  So, what do you think?  Should I do a border?  I'm thinking solid black.  I'm also toying with the idea of a very thin green beading around it.  I was hoping to do my own quilting on it.  Yikes, I know.  But, after the giant I just gave Jane Hair to do, I can't really afford to quilt by checkbook any time soon.  Unless, of course, everyone wants to visit my Etsy shop and do some shopping...  Feel free.

This is the most recent addition.  Like I said last time, I've got the final blocks ready to go & the 

project is definitely going on my short list for lay-off.

I'm also doing some designing of my own.  I've had this Cowgirl fabric for a couple of years and I'm finally going to make my Father-In-Law a  pinup girl quilt.  I've made them for Great Grandpa Mantz, Rich and Hunter but I could never find something for Horsey Grandpa.  Then, when I found the fabric, I didn't really know what to do with it.  This will be on my short list and hopefully his Christmas present.  Then, hopefully, I will have another pattern to publish.  Lots of flying geese.  Lots and lots of flying geese.

 My Crazy Quilt Journal Project, so far.  I'm happier looking at it as a whole than I am when I can pick apart each block.  This is on my short list.  I'd like to have it done by the quilt show since we're adding a new crazy quilt category.  I think we are, anyways.  I'm seeing a cream/ peach satin border on this with some lace trim.  Olderose has a wonderful tutorial on borders for projects.  I love what she did with some tapestry style ribbon and satin.   A few of the blocks have her hand painted buttons on them.  If you're considering buying me something for Christmas, I'd like more of her buttons, please.

 This is October's block.  I don't love it.  I may have already whined about it to you before.  Sorry.  I used waste canvas for the first time on the daffodil cross stitch patch.  That was wild.  Effective but a little hard to line up just so.  Now that I'm looking at the picture above I'm realizing I hadn't shared November's block.  It's directly above in the center bottom row.  I'll have to dig it out again and take a photo.

 

 So, silly me.  I just realized I can watch Netflix in my studio, using Bethany's smart tv!  I was so
excited.  It sure made squaring up those flying geese easier to take!  Since it's such a light weight tv, I moved it over by the sewing machine when I was done!  Love it!  Next, mini fridge.

 Here's what I've got so far for my Mosics project.  This is the project from Irene Blanck's class.  I really struggled with gluing everything in place and then sewing down all at once.  It was too loosey goose, if you want the technical term, for me.  So, I'm saying it's okay because it's supposed to be primitive anyways.  I just noticed that I forgot the berries... Please note that my vines meet up in a "v" like the pattern.  That's some skill, right there...

 And, like I said, I learned how to do English Paper piecing.  This I loved and will continue to do.  I ran out of glue and all I could think was Pat A asking if I'd like to buy the re-fill while we were at the store buying the glue stick.  Dang it, I should have done it Pat, I should have done it!  And, in case you were wondering, I did find the missing papers. They were, indeed, put away safely in the project's own box...

So, I work tomorrow, and then I start my lay-off.  I am SO looking forward to it!  I'm so fortunate to work where I do and to have a completely indulgent husband that doesn't freak out when I make less money for awhile every winter.  At least, he won't be cold.  God knows we've got plenty of quilts laying around...

Irene Blanck and Her New Best Friends

So, yes, the world CAN handle this much fabulousness in one room.  This is a picture of my TAS group.  Well, most of us anyways.  We were fortunate enough to have Irene Blanck come and teach us for a few days in October.  Irene is from Melbourne, AUS and she was traveling the US, giving classes, before landing in Houston for the big quilt market.  Luckily, Dana D. knew it and we were able to put Mascoutah on her itinerary!  Such a wonderful experience.  Irene is a real gem.  Yeah, that's me, the bright pink shirt with my arm draped over Irene like she's my new best friend... No invasion of personal space happening there... Awkward...  the photo is courtesy of Irene's blog.

An upside down picture of everyone's center piece.  It's fantastic to see everyone's interpretation.  The dark backgrounds are so interesting!  I hope they finish the project so I can see them when they're done. 

 These are pics of Irene's quilt.  Mostly for my benefit.  I wanted to have something to refer to as I do mine.  The primitive style is totally different than anything I've done before.  Her technique is to glue everything in place and then sew it all down at once.  Thant was weird for me.  I'm real used to back basting.   It was also strange for me to work with such a large piece of fabric at once.  The center is 42" square.

 The English paper piecing was new as well.  I finally cleaned my studio up last night from the class, put the paper pieces aside to work on later, and damned if I can't find them now!  I'm sure they're put away nicely somewhere!

 The lovely Irene with her quilt "Mosaics".

 

 I managed to finish a block for my Art Nouveau quilt.  I've finished another as well but haven't gotten a picture yet.  Only 3 more blocks to go!  Morning Glory Designs had the blocks on sale 1/2 price this weekend, so I bought the 2 I needed to finish.  Then, I have to figure out how to finish it.  Borders?  I feel like the only color should be the blocks.

 My October CQJP block.  Not my favorite.  I feel like I'm losing inspiration on the crazy quilting front.  I do recall someone telling me in the beginning that his particular block would be difficult to do.  Guess she was right.   A break might be in order but this project is all but done so, you I can''t stop now.

 I participated in a Halloween postcard swap.  This was my entry.

Lay off starts after this next week!  You know how I love this time of year!  While I was cleaning my studio, I also started my list of UFOs to accomplish while I've got the time off.  More on that later.  For now, I hope you enjoy your day!