It's an "ing" week.

Sewing, Blog Hopping, Revealing and Pondering -- Oh MY!!

It's not surprising that I spent time this week sewing this week -- that is what I do.  Actually I do spend lots of time with my sewing machine or on the Internet  wandering about the www on different things about quilts.  But I know that I'm not the only one that does this -- so I don't worry.  Especially since tomorrow is NATIONAL QUILTING DAY!!!!  Yeah!  So I tomorrow I will celebrating the holiday by ...okay big surprise here....yeah that is sarcasm ... Sewing!  LOL.  I'm still working on that Schnibble  that I started last week I believe. 

I was at the point that I had half the sashing on it when I realized that I had made an error so I started to frog it.  Then the second guess kicked in and then again and yet again.  I just got to the point I was getting mental whiplash as I whip around my decisions that I threw my hands in the air with a growl and went back to what I done in the first place.  Of course this was after I tore apart the blocks back down to rows.  The scene resembled a  Humpty Dumpty nursery rhyme causality.  Okay now to start putting them all together... again. 



Ballet Slipper Block #3


Then Ms. D. (from my weekly sewing circle @ the library) was suppose to teach me how to paper piece. Hurrah!! I think as I'm planning to learn so that I could add the skill so that I might be able to work on it as practice before attempting some blocks in the the Dear Jane, or some thing of the type in the future.  Ummmmmm ... well .... what I didn't know was she also learning too with her 1st project.   Wait ... WHAT?!!!! Not only that but I was told we would be working on a mini where the average block size is 2" Finished. REALLY????? Okay - so then riddle me this, if that was the case why is she working on 6 or 8" blocks that are in crazy quilt fashion?   Soooooooo  no this didn't go well.  But what did happen was what I call "grabbing the project bull by the horns" and suggest that we start working on our UFO's next week.  See Ms. D. falls in that quilt shop trap and has a new project every week and the following week ... a new UFO. We'll see how this progresses in the next few weeks.  

This week was the Nancy Drew Blog Hop that was hosted by Madam Samm of Sew We Quilt   and then there was Cheerleader Carol of Just let Me Quilt.  Oh what a trip down memory lane that it evoked from the many happy hours reading these books and spending time in whatever library I was closest to.  I have to say reading was my one constant companion as I was going up. Any hows, I'm was saying I had LOTS of fun doing this hop and I'm hoping to win a little something. I understand that getting this fabric was somewhat difficult and there was a delay but the quilters came up with many creative and beautiful items with their "Get A Clue With Nancy Drew" fabric line by Simon & Schuster for Moda.  You can get a sneak peek of the line here.

For those of you who like blog hopping I believe the next one starts on the 20th with Jane of Jane's Fabrics is the Cheerleader and Madam Samm is Hosting it.  This is one that I wish I had know about before this 'cuz I would have joined up for a space to play hostess since I LOVE stitchery.  This one is called "Stitch Me Up" and I added the button for it on the right.  Be sure to stop in and give it a look see when it start next week.  

Oh yeah I have a reveal for ya!!!  Do you remember when I posted this sneak peek.

Sneak Peek

Well I bet you would love to find out what it was!!!  This was what I made my Canadian friend for our personal St. Valentine's Day swap. The rules was to use red, pink, white, chocolate brown and some sort of charm.  So this was what I came up with. This is an OOAK design that I sketched out over the period of more than a week of phone calls with my middle child.  it actually is the combination of 2 such drawings or doodlings.  From there I proceeded to start stitching with a system that was 1 thread for red, 2 of pink and 3 for white.  After many nights of stitching this is what I came up with. The charm says "Love (luv) n. v. : a passionate feeling for another person."  I think it made for a fitting piece for this wall hanging for a very special friend.  


The Finish

Close up

Super Close Up W/Charm

I forgot to take a picture of all that went into the package so hopefully my Canadian friend send me a pic. so that I can show it to you next week.  At which time I will reveal what I got too.  This was soooo much fun that we decided to do it again. Whoot Whoot!!

Hummmmm .... I just realized that next Thursday  on the 21st is my 1 Year Blogiversary.  Now  what am I going to do to celebrate such a wondrous occasion?  Well I'm going to have a Give Away Of Course!!!!  How can I not!!    But what?  Okay this is where I want some feedback so further down in this post I'll tell how.

I had to show you my 1st completed knitting project.  I  might have a few dropped stitches and I split the yarn a few time but it went from this:



It begins!!

 











Now what to do with all these?

  

Ahhhh Yea ... A solution!!



So what you think?  The nice thing is thing is that it is actually pretty heavy and it's a nice that the cats can't steal my hook and scissors.  Maybe you would like one of these as part of the Blogiversary Give Away?

Now last week I should you some pictures of the Merry-Go-Around that I took from a recent outting.  Well here are some more for you to enjoy. 

Okay I gave it some thought as to what I'm going to do for my give away and decide on asking you a question because I'm looking for a project to do with my son this summer during his break. 

I really want to know what is your favorite free pattern ? 

You can leave more than one comment for a chance at my prize package that is just a little bit of a mystery right now.  I can see a small wall hanging with a baby chick on it (Sneak Peek coming in day or two), a book, a homemade pincushion and fabric in some form. 

But I would love it if you also became a follower too!!  Please be sure I can reach you.  If you don't have a blog, you can sign the end of your comment by leaving an e-mail address so that it looks like this:  name address@ (?) dot com.  So it would look like this sort of....  Tric @ Yahoo dot com.  

To become a follower,  I know of a couple ways to do this. 

1.) Over on the right side side of this post you will see my side bar in a slightly darker green.  If you scroll down a bit until you see the little picture thumbnails and just above that,  you will see a blue "Join this Group" button that you can click on that, a second window will open and with a couple clicks and you are signed up. 

2.) Also just under the little pictures, there is a blue "Follow By Mail" button -- that will allow you to see my postings "hot off the presses" in your e-mail. 

3.) Other way is to you can even add the link to your favorites with your "Add to Favorites" button.

 With anyone of those options you can become a follower.   I thank you for becoming a follower and I hope you will enjoy reading this blogeach week.

I will do a random drawing on Friday, March 22nd.  Also let me know if you like to would to have a knitted or fabric pincushion. 

Well it's beyond time for me to put this to bed, so I bid you good evening 'til next week.

Toodles with Quilty Dreams,

Tricia

Here's to the New Year!!

Well Ladies & Gentlemen..... here it is our 1st get together for the new year and time for new beginnings. Time of reflection and anticipation all wrapped up in pretty paper. Something about the New Year has us thinking of those goals we would like to reach... rather they be to lose something, gain some insight, become more ..., try to do/not do... or whatever the case maybe. 

I know we are all busy making our resolutions with great gusto but the real challenge will begin when we get farther along in the year. I know I'm off to a great start as I started the New Year with a Needle in my hand as the ball dropped.  I did revisit mine own goals that I stated a few weeks ago. And after much reflection and realizing they was beyond a tad lofty I would like to revise them if y'all don't mind. 

My new goals are now to do 2 small projects each month. Now this could be a combination of any of UFO's. WIP's or New items.  That  would include any swaps that I might sign up for. If I finish those, I will pull another small project out of the box to finish and if I don't finish in that month I'll move it to the following month. I think two smalls could be a reachable  and reasonable goal to strive for in my humble opinion.  

This month I have a table runner for a swap that I need to finish & mail out on the 15th.  The hard part was done when I finished the last appliqued snowflake block. So now after my boy goes home on Sunday even, on Monday the sewing machine comes back out and the piecing should clip a long quickly.  For my second project, I'm doing my own "OOAK" piece for a St. Valentine's swap between me & my close friend that lives in Hagerville, Ontario, Canada.  This one I'm keeping under wraps until she receives it. So sorry there won't be any sneak peeks on this one folks. So there are my 2 small goals for this month.  The nice thing is I already know what the 2 are for February, making me ahead of the curve so to speak and that is always a good thing in my book. LOL.

And for my long term goal, I have decided that if I can get at least one of the large queen top done, I would most happy.... thrilled even. Why just a top you might ask as you consider what you just read. Well it could be kind of a cop out in a way but it's more like having a reality check and unfortunately my check has bounced!   With the 2 tops having lots (and I do mean LOTS) of hand appliqueing on them, I have to realize that I might be lucky to even get one of them done.

The other day, I was able to put some time in on "Sunflowers and Crows". I had added some echo quilting to the inside of the pinwheel triangles as I sat listening to the next 2 Cd's in the book that I'm listening to.  I broke down and decided that I would use an actual 1/4"-ish stitch in this area instead of those little 8 to 10 spi's.  They really look HUGE in comparison, but I'm making myself stretch a little to give another visual effect to this - my Frankenstein.

So this weekend my plan is to continue with the St. Valentine project that I got started.  I divided the piece into 8 quadrants and have been plucking along.  I introduced the second color into it last night.  Tonight I'm most likely introduce the third & final color into this quad before I move onto the next quad. At the moment it appears that the brain & fingers are having a meeting of the common mind, meaning they are playing nice together as the vision is coming about. 

On Wednesday , I went to see the doc about the blood work I had done in Nov.  At that time, there was enough change in my TSH level that I'm now on a synthetic thyroid supplement.  The kicker is that I have to take it on an empty stomach and have to wait for a minimum half hour. EEWWWWW ... Wait ... NO Coffee ... ugh! the horror!!!!!!

Sooooo the long of the short of it is ... I'm going to put that time to use.  I'm jumped on the treadmill for the half hour.  It's been quite some time (like maybe 4 or 6 months.) I was on it. I started by 2 mph's for the first 25 minutes,then bumped it up that last 5 minutes to 2.5 mph's.  I didn't really break a sweat 'til I bumped it and surprisingly, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Afterwards, I took a gander at that horrible thing called a scale.  I didn't add any weight but on the other hand I didn't drop any either. So I guess I know what I going to lose. I am hoping that half an hour every morning will help.  I'm only suppose to walk - no running - not that I could but under the threat of dire straights of death. But 110 -ish calories got to count for something. Which reminds me - I need to track this stuff for the doctor. 

So I have a December finish to show ya.  I took part in the quiltingboard.com monthly doll quilt swap. My partner liked brights, and as we know;I wanted to do something a bit different so this is what I came up with.  Now keep in mind that this was during the last snowstorm when I lost power and had to think on the fly.  So I free formed this stocking  from a small pic in a coloring page somewhere. I love looking at free coloring sheets as we all know...lol.   I blanket-stitched the whole thing by hand around the applique.  I place these small buttons (?) beads to the cuff points but ended up not doing much quilting on it at all.  
                                                 
The little ornie I made from Crafter's felt, poly-fill and twine that had on hand.  I thought it made made for a cute surprise. What you think...would like one? Hummm maybe I need a giveaway again. Thinking here.... maybe an idea will bloom before the end of the post.  LOL.

I enjoyed the PIF's stories from last week and look forward to seeing more of them. So please keep them coming.  This year I would love to have my PIF project to be for the little girls that take part in the Visit with Santa our little village has a part of the Winter festival. I'm going to take some of my scraps and turn them into little blankets for their little dollies or stuff critters. Actually what I REALLY wanted to do is to include a dollie or stuffie with these little blankies, but I don't get the opportunity to go garage saleing - where I might find some nice gentle used "babies".  So I'll work with the blankies at least.

We had about 150 little girls this past Christmas. Which was just under 1/2 of the little kids that came to see "Santa". I guess that number didn't include the older kids. When I went to the library and talked to the Head Librarian about doing this, my 10 yr. old son heard us talking.  It appears that my son has shown some interest in helping me when he comes up for the summer. He has been attending Cub Scout meeting down there at dad's house and thinks this would be cool to do.  Hey ... I'm all for it and it's great to know he is thinking about others around him at this age.

Well on the Kitty front ... they have been settling in nicely as they have been caught playing and chasing each around the house.  I do have some pictures that I have to upload someday to show ya. They have minds of their own that's for sure!!  Appears they are quilty surveyors too as they are in, on or under whatever I might be working on at the moment. And I had to catch Ms. Honey a couple times as she trys to take off with my with flosses.  The little bugger!!  LOL.

Hummmm ... looks like I'm really have been rambling along for quite the while so now I have to think of something for that little Mittens Giveaway.  Okay ... how about you tell me about tell me about your New Year goals. I will pull a winner next weekend and announce in the posting at that time.  Good Luck Y'all.

Toodles,
Tricia