Loved this Weekend - Lots of Pics!

Wow - what a great weekend...it's been a rainy, yucky one - but that has allowed no guilt stitching and quilting... Yesterday I worked on cleaning up the studio - you see, when I neglect it, stuff just gets piled and stacked; then I want to sew or pull out fibers or whatever and I have to clean up stuff. I spent an hour yesterday putting away stuff and organizing. That room also has our spare bed located in a corner (great for laying out fabrics, done quilt square, etc. and it had to be stripped since I had made that bed up when John had his surgery in case one of us needed to move so we could both sleep. Once that was done, I sewed together strips for a ditty bag...then moved on to sewing together strips of really soft flannel for John's quilt. I bought the fabric during the super bowl sale at a really awesome quilt store - three years ago...nothing like taking my time. I worked on that again today and then cut apart and rematched the squares. It's a pattern called Yellow Brick Road - I don't remember by who. It's also one I put in an earlier post (for my niece, Amira- pic in 3/5/10 post). The first pics in this post are of the quilt I did this past Christmas for my niece, Olivia. I love this black and white pattern. It's called Tropical Turnover. It was a lot of cutting but is absolutely beautiful. I hope she loves it as much as I do!

Last Tuesday, I took a few pics around my house (above). My bleeding hearts are absolutely stunning this year. I don't have a green thumb and really don't like gardening, but these bleeding hearts thrive here without much help. This is the mock apple tree (at least that's what I've been told it is - and thanks Jolene, now I know what the purple hyacinths in an earlier post are called). Can't wait to have my peony plants bloom and the lilacs!

Now for some stitching updates - I have spent some time on my fanny stitching this past week. I made progress on The Red Flower Sampler (Eileen Bennett), Jingle All the Way (AB Designs) and started and almost finished with Cupcake Fob (AB Designs). I apologize that the pics are that good and are shadowed; like I said above, it's been rainy and cloudy and I had to take them inside...

The up close flower is one that is entirely rice stitch. Not my favorite, although I love the way it looks. The words, yep - over one. I don't mind that, as long as I'm not sleepy.

And I love the fob, Amy!! It's fantastic...The two teals I have laying on the fabric are to help me decided which of the two I want for the lighter shade on the cupcake wrapper, so to speak. I didn't have the correct Kreinik and don't really like working with anyway, so I changed it. I love the way the Pansy Purple (Crescent Colours) looks against the line (Tropical Green - not sure from who). It's been a quick and pretty easy stitch. I will be working on my finishing techniques with this one.

Jingle All The Way is so cool and the pic does not do it justice at all. I love the guacamole linen and it's fun to work on. It's also a quick stitch and when I'm just a little sleepy but not ready to go to bed, this is perfect. I only have to count and cross my x's, not have to look too close with over one or work on stitches I usually have to refer to the chart to execute.

Last but not least, I have been checking out some new (to me) blogs. Yikes, you all are so good and I still struggle doing postings like this with the pics, lining things up and all. I know, I don' t know how long it takes you - but I am going on over an hour on this one and have to wrap it up to get some stitching in...plus I want to add the blogs I have joined to my blog roll - now how did I do that? There is one that you have to check out and I want to mention here (you may want to check out all of them on my blog roll - and then you want to check out what they have on their roll and what they have and so on and so on). But check out Edgar's http://blacksheepsite.blogspot.com/ he is on his third year of blogging and I think I read that he has reached (or will be reaching) his 700th post. Since when I first started reading these, I would go back to the very first and read forward, that sounds very overwhelming to me...but I have long since gave that up and now read back a month or two when I am a new follower...otherwise I'd never have time to put needle and thread to fabric. And that, my dear friends, is what I am doing soon - so until next time, stitch happy and enjoy your laughs!

Hugs,

Sherry