Sunset and Sunrise Quilt Finishes

As I predicted, I finished binding my Sunset Quilt yesterday. Here are the details. Sunset Quilt from the 2005 Thimblesberries Quilt Club. Finished quilt 60 x 60 inches.

Also I thought I would post a photo of the other quilt of the series, Sunrise Quilt. I finished this one up last spring. Its 62 x 76 inches.

And I could not resist taking a photo of Clancy and the Sunset Quilt. It was fresh from the dryer and still warm. He curled right up into it and took a little nap.

I did not join the 2006 Thimbleberries Quilt club because I didn't like the quilt that year. The 2007 is really nice but since I'm not quilting much I just could not justify the monthly cost. Maybe I should reconsider. I love how the Thimbleberries turn out even if they are not much of a challenge for me and the prints they use are perfect for me.

I can almost see a mill

I worked on the Village again last night. I worked from home yesterday and am going to again today. My stitching time sure does suffer when I do this, no train time! So I haven't made any progress on BFG. Over with next four days I have off work, I plan on just working on the Village and I need to get back to Marquior ABC - I haven't even started part four yet.

Today I plan on doing something I haven't done in over eight maybe even nine months - finish a quilt! I had one come back from the quilters the week before last. I'm going to bind it today. I finished piecing this one up last January. It only took a year and it's only a 60 inch quilt. Long story though, it's a Thimbleberries quilt of the month from 2005 and it has a mate. I found a new quilter in Seattle and had her machine quilt the first one in July of 2005. Last February I attended a five day machine quilting class myself with Harriott Hargrave (who some 23 years ago revitalized machine quilting). This quilt was within the size I'm comfortable with and within my abilities but I wanted the quilting to match it's mate. So I sent it off to Seattle last April. It just came back. The quilter had a few set backs and it took this long for her to quilt it. But in any case it looks nice and this might be just what I need to start quilting again. I have a dozen or so just waiting to be worked on, not to mention I never really practiced my new skill of machine quilting that I spent over $2,000 to learn. :-( So my next blog entry will have a picture of a quilt finish!

Moving right along

Here is my progress on block 8 of the Village of Hawk Run Hollow. I have to call Drema today and order the rest of the NPIs that I need before the price goes up. It's a bummer about the price, I just started to buy NPI in July of this year so I don't really have much of a stash and I love to stitch with them. And I really don't have much money after the holidays to purchase anything except what I need right now. That's too bad because I wanted to stitch the Houses of Hawk Run in NPIs also.

I'm also moving along with Blackstone Fantasy Garden. I kinda want to put this piece down and start on something different but I'm afraid if I do that, I'll never get back to it. And I really do love the way it looks, it's just kinda boring.

Here is a close up of the colors of the first knot - very pretty I think.

Here is my finished My Treasured Workstation - part 1 and part 2. This is also leaving me cold - really boring to stitch. I didn't even bother to try to jazz up part 2 like I did part 1 - I just wanted it done. The next part will come out on the first of January. I'm thinking it will be the almost the same as part 2 because there are two pieces that look almost the same. I'm not looking forward to that at all. But I have to keep current with this piece so I can start to finish it while everyone else in the group is finishing it. That way if I run into problems, I'll have support to answer my questions. And Judy has promised a surprise if you keep up with the group. And I don't want to miss out - I do love surprises.... :-)

back to work

Well, I'm back to work today - and boy am I ever crabby! LOL! At least I can laugh at myself....


I didn't get much stitching of the sort that I wanted to do over my short break. I did finish Delivering Winter but I had planned on also finishing block 8 of the Village. All I managed was around five hours on the Village. And I also finished part 2 of My Treasures Workstation. I have photos of both but I forgot to put the cord I need to transfer the photos onto my pc in my bag this morning. Such a dunce. :-) I'll remember tomorrow for sure.


I'm back to Blackstone Fantasy Garden as my train project. I started to fill in the brown knot. You'll just have to take my word for how pretty the colors are. My original goal for the month had been to finish up this piece but the holidays sure did get in the way. I'm nowhere near finished. January for sure. Those photos are of course trapped also.


I took some time yesterday to go through my stash to pick out items for the 10/25/50 challenge I want to start in January - I planned on the 10 challenge. I believe I said I had somewhere around five or maybe six fully kitted kits and while I never gave an estimate of how many partially kitted projects and charts I had, I supposed it was around 15 or so. Well knock me over with a feather. I have twelve fully kitted projects! Plus five WIPs! I have nine partially kitted projects and this is where it gets scarry, twenty-four charts that I have purchased just in the last 10 months. This doesn't even count the freebies I have picked up in the past year or the charts, kits and needlepoint projects I have purchased prior to my renewed interest in cross stitch (some dating back to the early 1990's - I didn't even go through those). And my wish list grows daily. :-) I am honestly shocked! So for now the plan is to start plugging away at my fully kitted projects. Not sure what I'll start with but all of them still interest me - even my poor Herb Gatherer I purchased back in 1991.

WIPs
Village of Hawk Run Hallow – Carriage House Samplings – 12 month project - currently slatted for evenings;
Blackstone Fantasy Garden – Ink Circles Designs - current train project;
Marquior ABC – 16 month project - weekends;
My Workstation – Judy Odell – six month project - need a break project;
Deco Spirits – Mirabilia (UFO) - will remain UFO at present time;

Fully Kitted
Quaker Samplers I & II – With My Needle
Moonlit Garden – Blackbird Designs
Autumn Silhouette - Blackbird Designs
Tin Pin Carrot – Twisted Threads
Spring Garden – The Drawn Thread
Celtic Heart – M Designs
Letter M – M Designs
Cirque des Cercles – Ink Circles
Celtic Bird - The Sunflower Seed
The Joy of My Heart Flat-fold – Lorri Birmingham Designs
The Herb Gatherer – Shepherd’s Bush

Ornaments Kits
Topiary III – Hillside Samplings
Topiary Ornament IV – Hillside Samplings

Partially Kitted
Summer Arbor – The Drawn Thread, fiber and beads
Flower Samplers Book I – Hillside Samplings – fibers
Autumn Bouquet – Blackbird Designs – fibers
Houses of Hawk Run Hollow – Carriage House Samplings, linen
Spring in my Garden – Mirabilia - linen, most of required fibers
Summer in my Garden – Mirabilia - linen, some fibers
Fall in my Garden – Mirabilia - linen, some fibers
Winter in my Garden – Mirabilia – linen, some fibers
Nova – Ginny Morrow - all required fibers

Charts only
Two Blue Houses – Little House Needleworks
My Treasures Sewing Case – With My Needle
Quaker Pattern Book – With My Needle
Stargazer Sampler – La Broderie
Boo! Scissors Keeper & Purse– The Drawn Thread
Miss Mary Mack – La D Da
Rose Mosaic Needleroll – M Designs
Evergreen – Blackbird Designs
Summer House – Blackbird Designs
Strawberry Garden – Blackbird Designs
With My Needle – Blackbird Designs
Quaker à 6 Mains – A Mon Ami Pierre
Fairy Moon - Mirabilia
Wee Beasties Part 2 – Terrence Nolan
Wee Beasties Part 3 – Terrence Nolan
Wee Beasties Part 5 – Terrence Nolan
Bee Collection – Terrence Nolan
The Shepardess – Plain & Fancy Collection
AY’s Necessities – Historic Stitches
Elizabeth Haxton 1866 Sampler – The Marking Samplar
North Star Sampler – The Sweetheart Tree
Cranberry Sampler – The Sweetheart Tree
Sentimental Heart – The Sweetheart Tree
Garden Dreams – Lesa Steele Designs
Numerous Shepherd’s Bush
Numerous Miscellaneous Cross Stitch charts dating back to the 1990's
Numerous needlepoint projects, many ready to go

Merry Christmas

From my house to yours. Have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year.

ta-da! :-)

Here is my finished Delivering Winter. I finished it up yesterday evening.

Delivering Winter HD

I finished up Delivering Winter from Homespun Elegance in the early afternoon. It was stitched on Silkweavers 32 count French Vanilla Swirl with some of the recommended Weeks Dye Works fibers. Now onto the finishing finishing! :-)

and now reindeer

I'm moving right along with Delivery Winter - it's funny how much thread can help a project along... :-) Today it's all about the snow on the bottom and getting the charms added on. I'd really like to even get started on making it a wall hanging. I think I'm going to use the padded board techique instead of just stuffing it. But I'll see when I get closer to that point.

finally snowmen! Or snowladies ;-)

My thread for Delivery Winter finally came in the mail yesterday. So now I have to press myself to get this finished before Monday. :-( I don't enjoy "have to" stuff very much at all and having to rush the "have to" stuff makes it even worse. I did manage several hours yesterday and I'll manage a couple more today. I will work on the reindeer and trees to the left next. I'll start the snow on the bottom but if I run out of time I think it will still be cute with just a little portion of it complete. I have to remember to leave myself time to turn this into a hanging. I'll do that on Sunday.

I do have a couple of problems with this piece. The dye lots of my two snowmen colors are so close you can't see the arms and heads very clearly. Rather than pull out the outline stitches which are too light, I'm going to try to pencil them in with a light brown pencil after I'm finished putting the piece together. Cross your fingers for me that it works out ok! :-) Also the fabric that I picked out is a little light so the snowpeople don't show up the greatest. I still have so much to learn about using overdyed threads and fabrics. Of course being a perfectionist doesn't help out much. And the person that receives this gift on Monday will only see it for what it is and not for what I think it lacks. That is a very hard thing for me to remember sometimes.

I'm finished with my shopping - truth is I don't have many people to buy for at this point in my life. I do have a little food shopping on Sunday but I'll go super early to avoid the worst of the crowds.

bit of a slump

My threads did not arrive yesterday in the mail. I'll be stitching on Christmas Eve for sure. :-( I forgot to toss in Blackwork Garden in my bag this morning as I was running late so I continued work on my Workstation. Not much progress to report from yesterday - when I got on the train for my ride home, I noticed right away that I was off one row on the bottom. So out it came. That seemed like most of the ride. And I didn't do any stitching last night. I'm in a bit of a seasonal slump. I can't wait for December 22nd when the days start to get longer. I really need to take a nice walk in the sun.

In the new year, I'm going to start a 10/25/50 challenge. I realize that I don't even have 10 fully kitted projects but I do have at least five ready to go and other five or so partially kitted. So my plan is to do those before I buy another chart. I will have to however, buy some supplies to finish several of them. Today is my last day in the office until next Wednesday - over my mini break, I'll figure out what my 10 projects will be. Unfortunately at least three that are ready with linen and fibers are fall projects. I'll be wanting to start some Easter/bunny/spring stuff soon so I'll need to get moving on those first. My two Quakers also come to mind right off. And my Cirque des Cercles - my Glacial silk arrived from Vikki Clayton. I purchased the premium so I could do it with one strand on a dark 32 count. It really is lovely fiber. The color is divine. I've been reading a board that has reoccurring posts about Cirque des Cercles with WIP pictures. It makes me really want to get started.

Last night was agility with Molly and she was terrific! I continue to be so proud of her.

no mail yet!

Well, now I am starting to panic - my threads for Delivering Winter have not yet arrived in the mail. I was expecting them last week around Wednesday or so. I know there is a holiday delay but this is just plain silly. I sure hope they come soon or I won't have a Christmas gift for my family grabbag. Time is getting short. I only have five days left and I can't work on it tonight or tomorrow evening because of agility.


Since I could not work on Delivery Winter, I continued to work on my Workstation from Judy Odell. Pretty slow going because I keep taking naps on the train. :-) I'm happy with the colors I picked out and I love the fabric - Silkweavers 32 count Heritage - which is still my favorite color from them. It's going pretty quick but it is boring. I might pop in my Blackstone Fantasy Garden for tomorrow's train rides if I can't get back to my Delivering Winter piece.


Here is my progress on Block Eight of the Village of Hawk Run Hollow. I love the colors on this block. That salmon and yellow colors are so pretty. I need to get going on this piece if I plan to make my goal of finishing this block in December. I'm going to change the name of the mill to Klemm's Mill. The k and the m's take up so much room that "grist" won't fit anymore. :-)

Marquior HD

Part three of Marquior ABC is finished! Yeah! And hardly behind my target. It was the only thing I worked on all weekend. I have downloaded part four and I hope to start it over new year's weekend. There is only N,O and P to go with the large alphabet. I ended up not having as much time to stitch as I thought I would. Nothing major happened, just holiday crap.

I was not able to bring Delivery Winter on the train with me this morning. The threads I ordered the week before last have not yet arrived. I've done everything I can with the colors I have. Yes, I could have done one or two more things, but all required large amounts of counting and I didn't want to mess up. I sure hope my fibers come today or tomorrow! I have to give it away on the 25th! I worked on my Judy Odell Workstation project on the train in today. I didn't take an update photo because all I could finish this morning was an outline - kinda boring to look at.

Here is my little tree with my two ornament collections. I really don't have enough of either one yet but next year I'll be able to add twelve more hand stitched ones (if I keep up with the ornament a month SAL I joined).

???

I was able to log into blogger today from work - can't figure out what is going on. Oh well. I worked on the Village last night and this morning on Delivery Winter. I'll take progress photos tomorrow as I didn't bring my camera to work today since I didn't think I would be able to log on. I should work on Marquior ABC over the weekend - part 4 is coming out tomorrow and I'm a bit behind. A couple of hours for sure.

I have no major plans for the weekend except stitching and cleaning. What I really want to do is take a couple of big long naps. I'm crazy tired and I have been having a hard time staying awake on the train to stitch. Napping sounds really good....

forbidden!

I have a fairly set routine once I get to work in the morning. I settle quickly in and then I take a photo of my WIP's for my blog. Then I log in to blogger and update my blog for the day. And that is what I did this morning only to find upon logging into blogger that the company where I work has added blogger to the list of forbidden sites. :-( So no more updates on a daily basis. I'm so bummed and unhappy. I realize why they do things like this but it sure does suck. I just can't stand this big brother kind of stuff. I have so many problems with Internet access at home - I'm lucky I was able to log in to this evening. I have dial up and have no plans at all to upgrade to broadband. I just don’t have the cash. But at least I can see blogs, I just can't update mine.

I did finish up the outline of Blackstone Fantasy Garden yesterdy on the way home from work and I started back on Block 8 of the Village last night and this morning on Delivering Winter. The outline looks great – I want to find more Celtic type pieces to do next.

So close

I'm so close to having the outline of Blackstone Fantasy Garden finished I can taste it! :-) I'll be done before I get home from work on the train tonight. Yeah! You can see that I only have one corner to go. Then the filling in starts - good TV stitching.

Tomorrow I'll start on Delivering Winter from Homespun Elegance (if I get the fiber in the mail today that is). I did end up buying six overdyed skeins for this piece - those, combined with what I already have will work just fine. I received just this past Saturday, the perfect Silkweaver's 32 count linen as part of my fabric of the month club and when I purchased the chart, I did buy all the gold charms it calls for. I'm planning on making the finished piece into a hanging. I purchased a beautiful length of cream wool yarn to do the edges and hanger. I'm not going to want to give this piece up! I can tell already! LOL!

Molly did great in agility last night - she is really following my direction like a pro. My teacher and I did notice however, that she is starting to hesitate before taking jumps - she does kinda double step. She doesn't like jumping at the 12" height at all. The solution? She needs to lose a little more weight. Just a pound or two. Over the past year, she has gone from 20 pounds to around 17. She needs to be at 15 pounds. Poor baby, she is always on a diet. Kinda like me. :-)

outline almost there!

Am I ever excited - I'm almost finished with the outlining! Yeah for me! I might work on it a bit a lunch time for complete the first half of the last green outline. Then I can start fresh on the second part on the train home. Once I've finished the outlining, I need to drop this piece for a bit to get some work done on my other WIPs and my Christmas Reindeer piece for my family gift exchange. I ordered the fibers on Friday so I should have them by the end of the week.

I won't have much time to work on it tonight or tomorrow night - it's agility with the pugs! I sure wish they were on the same night. But I do have my fingers crossed that when Clancy catches up to Molly, we will be able to move into the same class. Then I would only have to drive out once a week. Of course that would not happen until the summer but it is something to look forward to.

My sister and her husband, purchased a cruise vacation to Alaska for this coming May for my parents and myself (and them of course). We will be leaving on May 5 for seven days on the Oosterdam with Holland America Cruise Lines. This will be my second cruise to Alaska. It's a very cool cruise and I'm looking forward to it. They purchased us an outside cabin with a window. I was very happy about that because I figured we would all have inside rooms. But the folks and I still need a little more room so I'm going to look into upgraded our cabin to a suite with a veranda. I sure hope my sister is ok with it but I did mention it briefly to them yesterday when they gave us the sailing details. The cabin they booked for us is 171 square feet and on my last cruise with my parents, we had 240 square feet and were tripping all over each other. I'm looking into a cabins with 389 and 510 square feet. I want the larger one of course but I'm not sure I'll bet my parents to pop for the extra cash.

Not much stitching over weekend

I guess it's that time of year. All my plans went out the window and I helped my Mom with Christmas decorations. I persuaded her to clean out 30 + years worth of old holiday junk. It took two days but it's done.

But I only got in around three hours of stitching as a result. So I'm still working on finishing up knot number three. That will be done on the way home tonight from work. I think I will work on knot four tonight. I love how this is turning out and I'm eager to see all four knots in place.

two down and two to go

I finished up the second knot (the first green) last night and worked a bit on the train this morning - half way with the outlines! Yeah! I think I'll switch off this weekend between Marquior ABC and Blackstone Fantasy. I really just want these knot outlines done. I did find a couple of small counting errors last night - I was just off a stitch in two different places. Thank goodness they were both easy fixes. I don't know what I'll do if I find a huge one. Actually I think I know what would happen - this piece would sit for a while in my to do pile! :-) Not a very nice fate for such a pretty piece. I love Celtic designs and this is the first in my stash that I'm attempting. I do hope it is the first of many.

I have no plans for the weekend - it's going to get warmer starting today and getting even up to the low 40's by tomorrow. A good thing - I could use a good thawing out. I might help decorate the Christmas tree. Or not. It's not really one of those things that I enjoy doing. In fact, I have not pulled out a single decoration despite the fact that I have at least 10 huge plastic totes full of stuff. I just haven't really felt motivated enough. Maybe this weekend I'll try to make a start.

Have a great weekend!

Moving right along

Now that I'm starting the second row of the first green knot, it's going quicker. No counting! :-) At the current rate of progress, I'll be working on the knot outlines for the rest of the month. I think I'll have to break it up at some point with a smaller quicker project.

I'm supposed to provide a gift for my family's grab bag which we do as a group on Christmas Day while we are all together. This year's theme is reindeers. I purchased a really cute chart from Homespun Elegance called Delivering Winter but I haven't purchased the recommended fibers yet because they are extreme at the least. Over 14 skeins of overdyed! And some of the colors are only used for less than 20 stitches! Come on now, does it really have to be like that? I need to take a look at it and make some choices. I'm not going to purchased a skein of $2.00 plus floss for less than twenty stitches. Why do designers do that? It burns my butt a little. It did come with DMC suggestions but they are all two strand blends and I do all my stitching these days with 1 strand so that won't work for me. I'll just do my best and only order half of half of what I need. But in any case, this will be a good project to break up the tedium of Blackwork Fantasy.

Slow progress

I'm still slogging along with Blackstone Fantasy. It seems like I spent the bulk of the train ride home yesterday ripping out. That wasn't the case of course, but it sure seems like ripping takes a lot longer than stitching! I'm starting to get a rhythm to this piece and it wasn't as hard today. This is turning out to be a tough piece to stitch on the train. There are nine pages (!) of charts and I have to switch back and forth between pages frequently. And I have to re-hoop the piece just as often. And I'll be honest, I'm concerned with the lack of color fastness of the threads. It the dye is coming off on my hands what will it do to the linen long term?

Still doesn't look like much

Here is my progress on Blackstone Fantasy. It still doesn’t look like much! I didn’t realize until yesterday that the green portion is actually three knots and not one. It’s going very slow. But I’m sure by the third knot there won‘t be much counting left at all. These Carrie’s Threads are beautiful in color but boy do they ever bleed! I lick my thread to get it onto the needle and just that little bit of moisture and the dye is coming off on my fingers and my tongue! Yuck! I have a big green line on my tongue. LOL!

Last night I started work on Block 8 of the Village. I didn’t take a photo because all I have finished is the brown border. I’ll start on the guts tonight if I have time before I go to agility with Molly.

Baby it's cold outside

Pugs in the snow with their lab buddy, Lilly. I'll try to get a better picture at some point of Molly's cute Christmas necklace. She loves wearing it.

It sure is cold outside - down to the single digits at night. I'm glad I'm not a koi! I spent the weekend inside keeping warm. And stitching. I'm over halfway done with Part 3 of Marquior ABC. Yeah for me! Next weekend I'll work on what's left, the first set of bigish letters. It should go quickly though because they are all different. And that seems to make the stitching just fly.

This morning on the train, I finished up the brown outline of the first Celtic knot of Blackstone Fantasy. Tonight I'll start on the green outline. That is going to just go on forever. Or at least it will feel like it is. :-)

I took part of the weekend to wash the extra dye out of my piece of dark linen from Silkweavers. Good thing I did - you should have seen the water for the first couple of hours! I did loose some color in the linen but now I can saftly wash it when it's complete if I need to. For my Cirque des Cercles piece, I ordered Glacial in Vikky Clayton's premium silks. I can't wait to see it with the linen.

Let it snow and a Village HD

We are getting dumped on right now with snow - this morning I had at least six inches of snow on my car and it's not going to stop until this afternoon. I bet I have another six inches when I get back to the train station. It sure is pretty though. And the pugs love to play in it. They were buried up to their chests this morning. By the time I get home it will be over their backs! :-) What a funny sight that will be.

Here is my Block 7 of the Village of Hawk Run Hollow. I'm a third of the way done! Woo-hoo! I won't start on block 8 until Monday evening. It's going to be an all Marquior weekend.

Still not much to see on my Blackstone Fantasy. But I am getting close to completed the first outline. Then I move onto the second knot. I looked at my chart today on the train - that green knot is at least twice if not more, larger than the first knot. I'll be working on it for at least a week and a half's worth of train rides.

Time to recap November and commit to December.

Finished in November:
Village of Hawk Run Hollow - block 7
Quaker Meetinghouse - Midsummer Nights Design
Stitched and/or finished nine Ornaments from JSC 2006 and 2005
Finished Part 2 of Marquior ABC

November goals missed:
Did not start or even look at Quaker Samplings one time :-(
I did finish kitting Moonlit Garden, Loose Feathers #22 but did not start it

December Goals:
Block 8 of the Village of Hawk Run Hollow
Part 3 of Marquior ABC
Blackstone Fantasy Garden by Ink Circles

All and all pretty light goals for December. But I could use a break. Have a great weekend!