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.