Update on my little stitching roll

Working on this while watching the Olympics...

Pinterest....

I've fell victim to a pin on pinterest and started a new UFO.  Because I don't seem to have enough of them in my life. 

I stumbled on this website and bought this little stitching roll pattern.

So spent about an hour prepping fabric and tracing the design on Saturday while the hubs was at work.


Then on Sunday morning, while I let the hubs sleep in (until 10!) which is crazy at our house where we are usually up and at 'em by 7 am, I worked on coloring in (tinting) the pattern.







I had a the movie "The Bishop's Wife" playing on my ipad while I colored.  Totally great way to start the day!

Last night I started on the stitching but didn't get very far but will keep you posted.

I'm still here,

just haven't been able to get my blog groove going lately.  Keep thinking I need to post and then look fabric!

So here is a quilt I made for my father in law back in Texas.



I did a self binding and hand tied it rather than binding and quilting it...Yes, last minute Christmas gift needed to get done quickly.



Here is a little gem I picked up off of Craig's list. She is a Singer 66 Red Eye from 1923

She is really beautiful and I used a local shop that did a great job in buffing her up.

Last Friday I was able to attend the Road to California show (sadly, my dear friend Karen from SewMuch2Luv got sick and couldn't go with me).

Here is ELEANOR BURNS.  I'm such a paparazzi!



I was hoping she'd throw thread on me like fairy dust.

Here's the wall of Red Work Submissions for the Bird Brain Designs Challenge.



Here is one little item I did end up purchasing but will not get until after I go get my peepers checked at the eye doc next month, from Craft Optics.




Here are some of the quilts on display.







And finally, here is a little something I am working on right now.



Here is one that I have already completed.

Rainy Weekends

I'm very grateful that last weekend I planted my garden.  This weekend it rained and rained.

I've been working on a few little projects...some for fun and some for a swap I'm doing.  Both have required some stitching.


In this little bugger, I see one wayward square I need to fix and line up, but the stitching is coming along.



Yesterday while the hubs was at the gun show, I scurried down to the farmers market to see what could be had for some canning before the rain started.  I found tomatoes for $1/lb.  Granted these were the ugly ones, but still good and fresh and not bruised.  I brought home 10 pounds.  I decided I'd give my hand a try at making homemade pizza sauce.  We eat a lot of homemade pizza at home. Figured I could make them that much better.

Ten pounds of tomatoes takes a bit to blanch, peal and puree.




But in the end I got 12 jars ready to go into stock for pizza making.

Looky what the mail man brought me!

Two new stitching patterns from one of my favorite stores - Bird Brain Designs!

I can't wait to start on them.

Not much to show for the weekend

Other than some good naps and really nice dinner out with the hubs and some friends.

I did try my hand at one of the Bird Brain Designs this weekend. It's their logo but they offered it as a freebie last week, so I gave it a try using Sulky Sticky Fabri-Solv to apply the designs to my fabric and it worked wonderfully! Super easy to use.

Bow Wowzer!

Ok I wanted to do a feature on something very special to me. As you know from yesterday's post, I got my Hot Mama Apron Swap apron from Regena.
You see, when Regena and Denise came down for the International Quilt Festival, Regena gave me the little girl dachshund towel.Well, inside that swap box was something extra special. A tea towel with an adorable little dachshund embroidered on it. So now I have a his and her set and I just totally love them! Even the hubs gave his seal of approval.

Can you Tell What it Is?

Originally uploaded by amysgreatadventure

I stitched this last night while watching TV. I picked up the new Cross Stitch Magazine and this was one of the free patterns in it. I had the aida from my thrifting with Sue over the Christmas break, tons of miscellaneous threads that I'd picked up at JoAnn Black Friday sale - so I went for it. I like it but do you know what it is?

Over the weekend I did this little piece. It's a part of the Welcome Bow pattern that Karen sent to me. But I did a few alterations to make it more specific to what I want to use it for. I'm pretty happy with the little chicken.




Also, the hubs read my post on the truck quilt. He advised that I need to design the quilt for a specific spot in the guest room. Also, he put in a order for two table runners for the guest room (no he doesn't live in there, but he dresses out of there and keeps his toys in there - bows, arrows, helmets). He suggested using some of his old Carhart jeans. I'll have to marinate on these for a while.

Mug Rug Swap

This is my assortment I'm working from to choose what to use for the mug rug.

So I decided to branch out from apron swaps and try a mug rug swap. To be honest I had to google around to find out what that was. Also, Aunt Pitty Pat had a link to a fabulous flickr photostream of amazing mug rugs.

I bought a mug yesterday but am second guessing it as "the" one for the mug rug inspiration. I think I'll go see what my favorite local gift shop has on hand before I start the sewing.

I'm a bit excited to sew this up just so I can try out some of my new found quilting skills. Not that I'm all that, but maybe I can re-purpose the sawtooth star skills somehow. I hope my partner and I get to email each other so we can know more about each others likes and dislikes. It really helps to create something they might actually like and use.

The morning after

is not what you think. For me, this means the morning after I spent the night trying to creatively work off stress to find my little crafty room a disaster. Happens a lot around here. Scrapes of fabric everywhere, patterns laying about, cutting board out - all evidence of some craftying debauchery.



As I'm a bit new to the sewing arena, I try to make myself learn one new technique every week (when I'm not traveling). This week the challenge was prairie points. You see I'm in this Christmas stocking swap with some from where I have to make 4 stockings for each of them representing myself. I thought the prairie points would be a good character representation. The ups and downs the fun sassy appeal of prairie points. That's my rational and I'm sticking to it.

Over at Moda Lissa there is a great tutorial on Prairie Points.

I tried this last night and got some decent results.


I also want to try this on the baby quilt for the hub's grand niece...we will just have to see.

Monday Night Baseball and Babushkas

Last night the Rangers lost the World Series. Last night the Giants won the World Series. I don't follow sports much, but this year was interesting. I was able to see the Giants a last month when I was visiting San Francisco and it was nice, just wished I hadn't been so tired that night. What was interesting was that the American and National league champions were not the old regime - no Philly's or Yankees. Just two good teams getting a day in the Big Show.

In other news I made one of the Babuska dolls from the tutorial over at Wee Folk Art.

She came out kinda snarky. Think I'll remove her freckles and see if that helps then stitch a back onto her and stuff her good.

I need to find out what is the best needle for sewing felt because the number 28 I was using just didn't seem to be ideal. Today my index finger is a bit sore.



But on the way home last night I stopped off at Joann's for some fabric to make the hubs new grand niece a little blankie and this is what I found. I hope the satin binding doesn't kick my butt and ruin the blankie.

On going Christmas Projects

Last year I learned how to cross stitch. The year before I learned how to needlepoint. Two things I had always wanted to know how to do. My first needlepoint project I learned how to do from Dorothy (she's married to the hubs second cousin) up on Bowen Island. Behind their marina is a wonderful needlepoint shop that I bought a great kit of Canadian wild flowers. One afternoon we went out on Dorothy and Rondy's boat the Moxie and while the men chatted and got us to the other island, Dorothy helped and taught me to do the needlepoint.

It took me 9 more months to finish it. It traveled with me to Europe, Brazil and I don't remember how many other places.



I then found a local needlepoint shop that I just adore. They are so patient with me and help me to learn. They looked at my finished wild flowers and were confident it was ok to bind into a pillow. It now rests on the guest room bed at our house. The next year I did a black and tan dachshund for my hubs for Christmas in memory It too rests on the guest room bed.

So I felt like I'd "learned" needlepoint so I wanted to tackle cross stitch. I went to my local shop and said I need to learn how to do this. They sat me down and showed me the basics. How to make the back look as good as the back, how to pick floss, find the center, etc. I'm really enjoying it.

Here is my first project. Black Santa by Birds of Feather patterns. Now I'm working on Red Santa - then Green and Gold Santas. I just need to figure out what to do with the Santas after I get them all done.

Process of Creativity

I was thinking about how I go through a process when I want to make something. Especially, if I don't have a pattern or a guide. On sewing blogs I sometimes see where the design has been drawn out. I will occasionally scribble out a sketch of what I want to make.

My process is one that works or mulls inside my head for days - sometimes weeks. This week I was chatting with Karen and Regena about an apron idea I've been thinking about. One where the bib buttons on and off so it can be a full and/or half apron. I'm sure this has been done before, but I don't have a pattern and I'm pretty sure of my design right now.

In my mind this apron skirt is mostly white (not a good apron color). It has splashes of bright color stitched here and there. The bib is mostly red with some white dots or flowers. The attachment of bib to apron is by a row of big red buttons - probably 4 shiny buttons, 1 inchers. The ties and waist band are some sort of fabric with all the colors - white, red, yellow, green, blue and the ties are wide and long for double wrapping for a bow in the front. I see some bright felted flowers somewhere too.

None of this is written down on a sketch pad or scrape of paper you see because it's all in my head still.

Wait.

Week of Fun and Games

Originally uploaded by amysgreatadventure

So on Tuesday I had a follow appointment with the doctor on my recent shoulder issue. Apparently, the MRI should all kinds of issues - bursas and tears - rotator cuff tears... Dr. McDreamy gave me three steroid shots in and around the joint and referral to and Orthopedic for surgery. I have some fun to look forward to.

Meanwhile, I was able to work on the two quilts from the weekend.



This quilt got a new binding...well mostly, I'll hand finish it tomorrow night.

The Moda Halloween quilt got more free motion quilting. It really takes some practice to get the hang of it right. By the time I finish the strip of free motion, I hope I have some sort of process for this. The outside bands will be quilted with straight lines.

Panic at the Disco - I mean Vet

I almost had a nervous break down today. My baby, Dott the Wonder Dachshund had a biopsy at the vet. She has 2 tumors that have "sprung" up rather quickly. Our vet is great, but she really freaked me out when she checked out Dott. All worried, and didn't say much just kind of broodish and highly concerned. I had to wait for the biopsy. I had tears of worry. This is my baby, she's my best friend (or one of). She sleeps against my hip each night. She's in my lap when I'm stitching away. Her head rest on my feet when I'm at the sewing machine.

She is very important to me. Some people may find this silly, but she gives me such joy and happiness with her little kisses and tail wags.

So for now one of the tumors is a wait and see if it goes away on it's own. If it doesn't then she'll have both removed and hopefully put this all behind us.