TA DA!!

Ta-Da is right!! I worked from about 11 a.m, with very little breaks, until about 6:30 p.m. finishing. That's right, I said finishing... The rest of the evening was working on the pumpkin scissor fob and the ribbon the on SB Christmas piece, as they were done by hand. I am not a finisher, so this is a hell of an accomplishment for me.

This has been stitched for awhile, it was a "kitted" up gift with a few others in the chest gifted to me by Pam! Beautiful - both the the wood chest that sits by my stitching-nest chair and this pumpkin fob. It's by Sweetheart Tree.

Side one:
Side Two:

Next up, Shepherd's Bush Merry Be pincushion. I love the way this turned out!! I don't know if I will use it as a pin cushion, an ornament or just a pillow. Stunning, if I may say so myself.
Christmas Pocket by Sewing Chest Design. Judy presented this to the Kindred Spirits Sampler Guild in 2009, I think. I had part of it done prior to my illness/surgery and then worked hard on the stitching once I recovered. Then I finished it!! The needle book and case (the green part on the right side of the photo) was a gift with the kit. The scissors have Santa as the handles...I will show a close-up when I do a scissor fob in the next couple weeks. This is the back of the pocket. Words were over one.

Inside of the pocket is the next photo. Of course I see where it's really uneven and I didn't quite line the silk up enough to the edge of the linen, but I am learning and I think finishing takes lots of practice to be good - or good enough for my pickiness (is that a word? Spellcheck didn't like it). There is a piece of wool - green, under the "needles of pine" to store my needles.
Finally, the front of the pocket. I still have to get a piece of ribbon to match the silk. I changed the red on the stitching to match the silk (it came with a brighter red silk and I preferred the darker red of the silk lining). Judy also included the card punched to hold my fibers. The card above that is the needle book that slides into the green wool case. Once I have ribbon, I will tack it to the tree on the pocket top and it ties to the button to hold the pocket closed. I will use the ribbon for a scissors fob too.

Picked up these batiks, fabulous batiks when I took the class from Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts.
I also had to have these too! I love the bottom three together and have to figure out something to use the yellow, purple and the middle batik...the purple really looks blue in this photo.

This was the class - it was hard but I did make one "plate". I constantly repeated the mantra "one step at a time" and that works so much easier for my stress level - I tend to look at things and think they are so hard and complicated looking, yet doing them one step at a time makes it so much easier!

The paper piecing class I took was much easier, once I got my head wrapped around the concept. It's at the quilters now, will just stitch the binding on like zippity-doda, add the loops to hang and presto-bango, it's done too!

I have a couple other things done and finished, but they are Christmas presents...so you will have to wait to see those. After my pals and I have our holiday dinner, I will share them!

I also relearned to knit this past week - it's been 35 or so years since I knitted, so casting on had to be the first lesson/refresher. Then I did a few rows, some with mistakes. I have cast on a different color and will show progress once there is really something to show - not much now. I think I have about three rows.

Hope you enjoyed seeing my finish-finishing attempts and some that even pleased me.

Besides finish-finishing this weekend, I also made a roast with potatoes, carrots, onions and cole slaw (using the broccoli slaw instead of cabbage - we liked it) and a caprese salad for dinner, homemade butterscotch pie for dessert - first time I made it - Aunt Penny's recipe. I put fresh whipped cream on it and all I can say is YUM, YUM!! I think I even mentioned that in the last post - so that tells you how delicious this pie tasted!!

Today I made applesauce to put in the freezer - my son LOVES homemade applesauce and due to my sciatica last fall and then my illness/surgery early this spring, I never had a chance to make him the annual applesauce. Done :-) he's happy... Ran some errands and got lots of things organized and caught up. Gotta prepare for my impending return to work.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope the rest of your week is awesome!

Do something that makes you happy,

Sherry :o)