Snow Day?....I'll take it

Well.....got the message last night about 9:30 that the office was closed today because of snow.   As I start typing, nary a flake.....but Ill take a day of sweats and stitching any ole time.

So what's up with me.......work load has substantially DECREASED and I am still getting accustomed to feeling like a human again and not a Stepford employee; kind of a little leary about getting too comfortable in case this is a momentary blimp on the radar of my job.   But again, I'll take the hiatus.

Now with all this 'extra' time, I have been getting in to things.....like that wallpaper removal job I started YEARS ago and work and life and everything else got in the way.   I have managed to spend an evening and a Saturday afternoon devoted to resuming the nasty task.   All I can say is that I did a damned good job putting it up.  Maybe I can put in another hour this afternoon.    Convince myself that it is 'lifestyle activity', a form of exercise.
















Last month Challenge Piece #3 was completed.   It is Halloween Quaker from Lila's Studio.   I am pleased with the finish and the finishing.




Since I finished the Monthly Challenge piece I had the hardship of replacing it with a new piece.  Hey, we do what we'll got to do, right?

Katherine Beringer from Summer House Stitchery Workes.

It has been a fast stitch but now it is time to put it aside for a new EGA Challenge piece.

This month's Challenge Number is Project #1.   It too is a new start.  It is  called "Nesting"  from KathySchmitz.com.   I pulled fabric and threads from stash.   I choose the WDW Molasses rather than a blue because I just liked it against the fabric and maybe because I recently updated my inventory ap and have 6 skeins of Molasses. How does this happen?   Nice to have used that extra hour and a half less at home each day to be able to one evening make the update.     When I finish the stitching, I am going to turn this into a project bag and it will be my exchange piece when I go to the Prim Stitchers Retreat in May.


I have read "Where the Crawdads Sing", excellent and am now reading "The Beantown Girls", also very good.



I have also caught up and moved ahead a week on the bi-weekly quilt block challenge.    I got the brilliant idea to start sewing these into rows as I go rather than wait until the end and be faced with 75 blocks to sew together.   That meant I need to sit with graph paper and chart out placement.    After a few misses, I finally came up with a layout that doesn't put any of the blocks in the same row or column or too close to each other.   My plans always seem to make sense in my head......it is just the execution that sometimes goes awry.

For each block I use the same fabrics but change up the placement when I can.   So far so good.   It really feels good to make such progress on a block at a time at a time.  Not sure how that dark blue in the 4-square patch is going to fit in.......might have to rethink the dark blue and it could just be how it photographed.

My daughters and friend started our 12-Days of Christmas SAL.   This is taking me out of my comfort zone.   Lots of felt pieces, all embroidery......not that it is difficult it is just taking that first step to start.  From the stack 'o felt you buy, the color choices for each piece are up to you.   I saw the completed set done this past fall and was sold on making them.   The SAL is two ornaments every six weeks which is totally doable.   There is a lot of stitching but these are quickly becoming addictive.  A great lunchtime project.   I think I will hold off on any other photos on this babies until they are finished.

 The Partridge and the Pear from Larissa Holland on Etsy.

That's what's going on in my neck of the woods.....and as I look outside, I see the snow falling albeit not yet enough to close the office, but, like I said, I'll take it.........the day off will help be get bedrooms ready to a visit from Will this weekend.  I wish I knew how to upload a video from my phone to share this little tike of 30 months on hopping off the ski lift and skiing down from it ....with the help of his mom of course.   He was so excited, yelling "I did it".  Damma never was able to join the other reindeer  and play games so I am so excited to see it.   Good thing videos on phones don't wear out from viewing like old 8mm movies used to because if they did, I'd done worn that video out already!

Thanks for stopping by and keep on stitching'.

Progress Made

I managed to spend an hour Friday evening at the sewing machine and created the next quilt block in my 2019 Quilters Planner.   I hope to get the block from the week of 1/27 done tomorrow and then I will be current.   Why is it when we undertake these projects they seem so easy to accomplished and then BAM! you fall behind so quickly?






I don't know why I decided to sew three of each biweekly block but I did.   It is an easy calculation that if I keep this up all year, I will have 75 6-inch blocks for another "QWIP"....Quilt Work In Progress

 Let's watch the pile grow!

I am glad I pulled my yellow and blue fat quarters to use for all the blocks.   No telling what this could have ended up if I had not.   Setting yourself up for the next step is a little I learned at a quilt class.   Our teacher taught us the last thing you should do in any quilting session is to have everything set up for the next time you sit down to work.   You waste no time trying to figure out where you where and can't start straight away.  You can really just dedicate 15 minutes and get a ton accomplished when everything is ready to go for each work session.  For my 'set-up' I have chosen my fabrics for the next block, have removed the tags and cardboard and have them laid out to iron.  A quick press, cut-cut, sew-sew and I'll have the next block to add to the stack hopefully in about an hour.

I didn't make too much progress on my Summer House Sampler.     I've been working on finishing all week.   But progress is progress and this is nice small project.



I did assembly my stump work name tag.   Not sure if I would ever do stump work again but the mystery of how it is done has been solved for me.

 I finished my Quaker Halloween from Lila's Studio and have been working on finishing this piece as well.   Seems when you get on a finishing streak you just keep going.  Don't mind the dangling cording that I am attaching.   I hope to have it all attached before my guild meeting later this morning.  I opted for cording rather than the Chinese braid because that is what I had available and you know when you are ready to finish, you are ready to finish and need to roll with it.

 
And then there is the truth about the other bed in my crafting room.   It is piled with packing and boxes left over from Christmas because I just might need boxes (?).......as well as everything off the top of my sewing table which of course has to be moved to sew........and we have been wondering where the cat had been hiding.....

Oh that Buddy.........Thanks for stopping by and keep on stitching.

Stuff, lots of stuff

where to start.....middle of a polar vortex here in the northeast and we've been using space heaters all week....we have heat but it has been intermittent......circuit board fried on the heater.....new one installed yesterday and all is warm and toasty now.

I  have only picked up one book since last May, Need to Know.   It was excellent.   I am now reading Where the Crawdads Sing.    Only about 75 pages in but I can't wait to pick it back up to see what comes next.   My sign of a good book.

Speaking of books, I just purchased the Antique American Needlework Tools from Amazon.   It is a beautiful book filled with tons of color photos.

Mid-January I went to Camp WannaStitch in OCMD for a great weekend.  We sat with our friends from Rose and Thistle Guild of Williamsburg.  It is always fun to reconnect with them.   I got to ring the bell as I finished my Halloween Quaker.   Since MLK weekend I have managed to take steps to fully finish it.  I need to get more black Chinese braid.

....unless I want to walk on the wild side with the purple.  One step at a time.

I started a new sampler from Summer House Stitche Workes, called Karoline Beringer.   Beth Seal of Summer House was lucky enough to find and buy the original and then chart it.     It is a small sampler and I am almost half-way done.    Love when a project zooms along like that.   I made some substitutions using colors I had on hand......no need to add to my stash with a dozen more WDW threads.

Stitched and finished this Cherry Tart pin cushion.  It was an EGA meeting project from our January Meeting.  EZ-PZ.  At the meeting we watched three quick videos that gave us great hints for the wool appliqué.

Also, stitched up this week, this Valentine’s  humbug.  My first humbug.  Another EZ-PZ except for stitch-stitch-change-color-stitch-stitch-change color part.  It has me wanting to pull out a humbug that was a Christmas in July a few years ago that I never completed.

My sister gave me a great daily planner that I am enjoying using.... silly it is just a planner.   But alas, I am list maker.  I get so much more accomplished if everything is written down in one place.... I review it each morning at breakfast, making my notes for things I need to accomplish that day or week, grocery lists, phone calls to make, etc.  It has biweekly quilting skill builders included.   I have done the first skill builder.







The coming week doesn't look to bad......let's see what the planner looks like at the end of the week.

The skill builders for quilt blocks are featured every other week.   I am a couple of skill builders behinds but hope to catch up.    

Here's the first week.  Quick and Easy four-patch.  Before I started the second one, I decided to pull all my blue and yellow fat quarters out so at the end of the skill building at least I will have something cohesive.

More quiltie stuff......I purchased three sets of the same jelly roll from Missouri Quilts.   I issued my daughter’s a quilting challenge.   We get together every July for a five day  stitch-a-thon.  So my challenged to them is find a quilt pattern to use for the jelly roll.  It will be fun to see the different outcomes we have.  I have my pattern picked and hope to start soon.

My daughter's and I are also starting a 12-Days of Christmas SAL.    Yikes!    It is scaring me!   Lots of embroidery.  I hope to spend the afternoon with Heather next Saturday and we can get started.  I am thinking safety in numbers.

Which brings me to the need to have a grand sort out of the craft room.  The holidays with gifts and wrapping and pushing furniture here and there to accommodate everyone takes it toll on my craft room.   Fabric has been pulled for projects.    New stash added.   I have so many fabric scraps from myself and from friends that I think I need to take a vacation day to tame the bags and piles.

This also needs to be done with my stitching bag.   It is so full of stuff that I 'might' need that it gets heavy.   I need to re-evaluate and make sure it is filled only with what I really need.  Somehow it seems no matter what I am toting along there is always that one thing I don't have.   Just an afternoon spent putzing and sorting I feel like I got a lot accomplished but there is more to do.  I could have been lost for a full weekend in my craft room but it felt good to make a dent in 'taming' the mess.

 I managed to sort my fat quarters in color ways.

 Believe it or not, I need another large tote.  And this is ONLY the fat quarters.    Larger yardage is stored in the chest of drawers in the closet.   OMGosh....too much stuff.

Under the bed they went and the bed is all cleared off for Mr. William who will be visited later this month.

So of course I got derailed when I was mucking about in my craft room.......after I finished the humbug, I pulled out this name tag I made several years ago.   I made the braided cord, ran the gathering thread and mounted the front and back with batting.  I am all prepped for the final stitching to assemble and attaching the cording. This is my first attempt at stump work.   Love these EGA projects that give you a taste of a technique

And I FOUND these!    These are from a class I taught several years ago and then
couldn't find them. I knew I stitched them as samples for the class and just thought I lost them when I packed up after class.     Double wow....room cleaned and what was lost is found.

Well I know there is more to do....never made it as far as either walk-in closet where there is more stuff is stored!  ....but I am off to watch an episode of Mrs. Maisel while I work on some finishing.

Thanks for stopping by and keep on stitching.