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

Upcoming Blog Hops, WIP's, Hand-Work & Afternoon Plans

Hey Y'all!!  The weather is a bit gray and starting to feel like Autumn around here this week.  Which is great for spending lots of time with the sewing machine for sure.  I have been feeling  like I have been a bit under a "blah"  cloud.  But today I sat myself down and made myself get to the business at hand.  Like all those pieces of Halloween fabric that I had cut up a couple weeks ago.  I posted a great picture of it back about 2 weeks ago. 

I also plan to be part of the "Leaf's Me Happy" blog hop. This fun blog hop is hosted by Cherry of  "Cherry Blossoms Quilt Studio" and Madame Sam of "Sew We Quilt".  Both buttons are on the side there if you want to check them out.   This will be interesting as I'm going to be a participate this time.  Yuppers!! You guessed it.... A FIRST for me. This is schedule for Oct. 1st to 10th.  Infact I just found out that my day will be on Oct. 4th.  Here is the link for the Master Schedule that Cherry has put together.  http://www.cherryblossomsquiltingstudio.com/ 

I have one project done and I'm on the second project for this hop.  This one is in a current magazine and yet again another 1st to be added to my list of 1st.  Needless to say I'm hard at work coming up with ideas for projects and a possible give-away to share with everyone.

Well from that picture, I have a small top completed and I have all 49 blocks pieced together for the "Boo" quilt that I'm working for my son.  Yes ~ that is 33 blocks more than the orginial pattern called for.  These will revealed during the "Wicked" blog hop that I'm going to be a part of will be from Oct. 22nd to 31st.   Which is hosted by Wendy of "Why-Knot-Kwilt" http://why-knot-kwilt.blogspot.ca and Madame Sam.  I hope you will stop in and check it out.  I promise to get you the schedule for this one as soon as it becames available.  I know I have a couple of projects that I want to show off for that one!! Samhain (Halloween) is my favorite part of the year.

Last week I did something a little different from the usual quilty.  I made a vintage-inspired full length reversible apron.  It came out really cute. I used doubled stitching on all the seams and really secured the ties on with triple stitching lines.  It will have to take some serious tug-of-war for those to even think about coming undone.  LOL.   Instead of trying to attempt button holes for the neck,  I improvised with Velco.  It was the stick on type so it was easy to place both sides at the same time.  With a few well placed hand stitches, Volia!!! It was finished. 

Side B

Side A

This is also from the same book as the half apron came from that I show ya a couple weeks back.  Which reminds me...... that little apron sold quickly after I showed it to a friend at the local library.  Did my happy dance on that one since it gave me the funding it make this one.  LOL.

Let's see what else since the last time we talked?  Oh I finally finished the center of the baby quilt that I was hand quilting for my friend in Scotland.  The quilt is for her new grandson and made by several of the ladies on my Quilt and Needle group.  They are currently working on two quilts for my grandbabies too.  This group loves making baby quilts and this year we have had a good number of them to be a part of.

I am still  working a couple different pieces of hand applique. I'm Hand-Appliqueing the tulips on to the background fabric.  You might remember that this is the Challenge that my friend in Wisconsin sent me to do.  This is  a challenge that I think I bit off to much.  The challenge was I'm suppose to have all the applique done on all 42 blocks by Dec. 31st @ 11:59pm.  I put my foot in my mouth and said I could have it done by then....  ummmm yeah .... only if I worked nothing else I might.  What was I thinking!!! But I'm still going on them. 

I'm also appliqueing a pair of raven's on a pillowtop for my son to go with his "Boo" quilt.  I'll share more details on that project during the "Wicked" blog hop.  And I'm finishing a Monkey Face for my Granddaughter's quilt that the Quilt & Needle Quilty Aunties are making her.  That will be done today.  So then there are the 3 little blocks that I need for my "Leaf's Me Happy" project that is done by hand embroidery.  I don't think those will take much TV Time to do.  Those might be done by next Wednesday night if all stays on schedule.  Yes, I love doing hand work while "listening" to whatever my Other Half has on the tv in the evenings.  I find it to be quite productive and relaxing. 

Well looks like today I might make me some scones this afternoon.  I'm thinking cranberries sounds really good to me.  Either Cranberry and Orange or Cranberry and White Chocolate.  These will be nice to go with my tea or as a snack.  On the quilty side of things, I'm going to ironing, & trimming the "Boo" blocks so that I can start working on their layout.   So with that, I'll say Thank You for stopping by and let you know that comments, thoughts & suchnot's are always welcomed.

Toodles,
Tricia