Work, Work, Work...So I Can Sew, Embroidery, Crochet

I has been a few days since I posted, but I have been really busy.  Honestly, I have.

Working in the quilt/craft room.  I really need a new name...Diva Den...no, I am not a diva.  Maybe Needle Nook...not to sure about that.  Must think about that a bit more.  At any way, here are some before photos.

So much stuff.  Not sure what do with all of it.  But I figured it all out.  I even have the room divided.  Cross stitch in one corner, sewing in another corner.  Supplies stored close to each.  Just wish I could have gotten my stash closer to the sewing table, but that just couldn't work out.  For a number of reasons, the way the furniture functions (direction doors open and size) mainly, but the biggest reason is I had to put things in a certain location to make it all opposite of the way it was.  I couldn't stand to have the rocking chair in the same corner as it was when Mom was staying here.

And...drum roll please... really, it needs a drum roll in my opinion.  Here are the after photos.

This is a stained glass sign that my dad made.  It hung in there travel trailer for many years and traveled to many places with them.  My mom loved this sign, because dad made it for her.  The red horse is because Dad worked for Mobil their entire marriage.

Okay, here is the first wall.  TV entertainment center has a cabinet on the end that opens out.  It is full of my Cricut cartridges and Sizzix dies.  The other end has a glass door.  All my embroidery supplies are in there.  Floss, embellishments, machine embroidery thread, laces and trims.  The shelves have all sewing supplies, current quilt projects and such.

Computer desk, cross stitch corner.  Mom's little rocker, which does not fit me well at all. It is very small, but of course it is about 60 years old and she was much smaller than me.  I will eventually get rid of it, but at the moment it is a sentimental thing.  It was always in her home, she loved it because she rocked both her babies in it.  Lamps for better hand stitching of course, then little drawer sets have all the office stuff.  You know, markers, pens, pencils, tablets, mailing supplies, label maker and such.  The very top shelf has little bins of various specialty yarns and my Cricut cutter.

My new sewing table.  The metal file cabinet sits in the corner, out of the way but easy to get to.  It has one drawer full of recipe and menu plan files, the other drawer if full of various files that have to do with quilting, crochet, embroidery, swaps and challenges.  I also store my cutting squares and rulers in that drawer.  Now, the long curtains are to replace the closet doors.  This makes it so much easier to get in the closet.  This is where all the good stuff and bulky stuff is now housed.  Shelves that hold bins of crochet projects, fabric for garment construction, UFO quilt projects, a cool round spinning shoe and purse carrier that is perfect for holding yarn.  Small skeins fit in the shoe pockets and the one pounders fit perfectly in the center opening that is actually for the purses.  Drawers of sewing patterns, sewing supplies, another set of drawers has quilt projects, mostly block sets or flimsy type (which I believe is the term given to a top that has been completed.  My AccuQuilt Go cutter and the plastic container I bought that holds all the dies and cutting mats perfectly are also in there.  On, and my box with the dressmaker's form is in it's own spot as well.  I made the curtains yesterday, but had the wrong rod to hang them on.  The cat gets a kick out of playing with the bottoms of the curtains.  I am not sure I like the fabric though.  It looked good on the bolt, cost $2 a yard, but it reads very busy in appearance.  But they are made and hanging.

Finally, my stash.  All folded and sorted by color.  Except the top two shelves, sorted more by novelty print.  Stack for juvenile boy and for girl, older themed too.  The new Brother 770 embroidery machine sits on the little chest or cabinet.  Another piece that was my mom's.  The cabinets hold cross stitch charts and clip boards and all the college team fabric I bought while in Texas.  Both are Texas teams.

 

Now that everything is in it's own special place and cleaned up, and the curtains are made, I can get started on my most immediate quilt projects.  I need to finish some crazy quilt blocks for a challenge and a swap, then a couple of throw size quilts for my church quilt ministry's project of quilts for the orphanage we kind of sponsor.  Also am making a quilt for my youngest son's girl friend.  I will post the computer generated rendering of what that should look like.  I am starting to understand my EQ 7 software a little bit more each time I use it, so figure these charity quilts are a great learning lesson for finding and using old quilt patterns and techniques.

I did manage to get the window topper completed this evening.  Let me tell you about my other little event of the day.

Went out early, in the freezing cold weather, to Walmart to pick up the correct rod to hang the closet curtains on, a rod for the window topper, fabric for a quilt class I am taking this Saturday to match the living room/dining area/kitchen window treatments that I made several years ago.  Well I added some longer panels to the dining area windows this past summer, they are west facing so I wanted to block a little more light.  Decided to make the quilt class project match the living room and will put it on the couch.  It is a Lonestar variation. Okay, back to the point.  At any rate, I was in Walmart and had a PSVT attack.  Really bad one, lasted longer and more painful than I had ever had.  I was too embarrassed to let them call me an ambulance, so I suffered and prayed that I would not pass out in the store.  When I realized that I would have to end up going to the ER, I had to go buy a package of pads so I could have some with me.  Another stupid moment, shopping with out being prepared.  At any rate, I finished my purchase, sat down for a few minutes and then managed to get to the car.

I had to call an ambulance to pick me up from the parking lot.  SOOOOO totally embarrassing, but by that point the pain was so intense, dizziness and nausea so strong that I just didn't care any more.  Well, I had been battling the episode already for about 20 - 30 minutes before giving in and admitting I had to have some help just to get some relief.  When the EMT checked me, my heart rate was only 214.  They immediately gave me medicine to bring it down, which didn't work so followed that up with a double dose.  Understand, that this medicine, when administered, tightens the chest as if in a huge vice grip.  Off to the ER we went to make sure I wasn't having a stroke or anything else.  I have to call in the morning to have a follow up visit with my primary doctor.  I swear I think it caused a mini stroke because I am having trouble remembering some things one side of my mouth now has a bit of droop to it.

Needless to say, I didn't get anything much accomplished today.  Wasn't even able to keep the grand baby and I really feel bad about that.

Well, I am off to take a warm bath and then to bed.  Tomorrow is another day and now that I am a day behind, I really need to hit two fabric shops and a local quilt shop tomorrow to pick up some fabric that son's girlfriend picked out so that I can have it on hand to work on her quilt.  Also need a coordinating fabric for the Lonestar project to use on the insets.  The quilt is shaped kind of like a stop sign.

Thank you for stopping in for a visit, please come again soon.

New Year - New Start

Well, it is the start of a new year.  They seem to actually be showing up a lot sooner than they used to.  Remember being young and thinking on New Year's Day as you eat you black eyed peas that it going to take forever for it to get to Christmas again.  So many things can change in that year.  Loved ones lost, loved ones just beginning.  Now, as this year starts, I cherish the memories of my parents that are no longer living. I miss them something terrible. I look forward to a new grand baby coming. 

Along with that comes all the plans for the year.  Do any of you make resolutions?  I used to, but just don't any more.  I just don't get them resolved.  Don't get me wrong, I still make out goals and plans for the future, both immediate and longer, but I just don't label them.  Keeps the pressure of so I don't feel disappointed or a failure because I didn't loose that weight, clean the house, eat more healthy or what ever a resolution would involve.

Are there areas I want to work on?  Yes there are, many of them, too many too list.  Okay, so I do have a list, just not going to share it.  I will say that I want to work on me this year.  I have been so busy giving me away to so many other people that I have disappeared a bit.  I think I need to find me, such a cliché saying, and then work on making me better.  I need to define my relationship with my Savior, only by getting that in order can there be any type of order to myself.  I am no good to anyone if I am can't even pull myself together.

I want to be better at being a wife, which means better at taking care of the house. Better cleaning, better meal preparation, working on getting the house fixed up the way I...repeat "I"...want it.  I have been in this house for going on 13 years and it still doesn't feel like mine.  I want it to feel like mine.  You know, like I belong instead of visiting. 

I want to be better at being a mother, which means paying more attention to my kids.

I want to have time to do all the craft things that are stuck in my head.  The counted cross stitch projects (my new obsession) that I have started.  The quilts I have planned.  All the quilts in various stages that were put away when life got in the way.  In other words, I am determined to finish all that I have started.  For a change.

Oh I am great, stupendous in fact, at making list and organizing.  Problem is, the organizing just doesn't quite get there.  I start, like sorting out a closet, then way to easily get side tracked by some sort of thought that blows through my head.  I buy all the needed supplies for doing the organizing, then just don't use them.  Maybe it is time to re-visit Fly Lady or the SHE school of thought.

I had planned to play along with a challenge or two, but am also thinking all that over as well.  I did give up and quit the Crazy January challenge.  You can read more about it on that page.  Needless to say I am way too slow at stitching so it is already driving me crazy to have the two projects I started just sitting around.  I will continue to work on them, that gives me a total of three WIP in the cross stitch department.  I have no UFO's any more as far as cross stitch is concerned.  The one UFO I had, was the Nativity, but since I am actively working on it again I have updated its status to a Work In Progress (WIP) now.  I use to have an intense passion for quilting.  I am good at it.  My dad would call and ask me what I was working on, I would email him photos, he was my biggest fan.  What ever I made - quilt, ceramic, garment construction, crochet - he was interested and loved it all.  When he died, it hit me so hard I don't think I really let myself go through a proper or rather healthy grieving process.  At any rate, I kind of stopped quilting for a while.  Now, that little bug is back and wanting to do a lot of stitching.  Besides, I think it would kind of be like disrespecting of me to not pick it back up.  I even learned in a bible study class that craftsmanship is my gift from God and I feel that by not using it I am not honoring that gift.  On one of my groups, there is a WIP/WHIMM challenge that I am the coordinator for.  The WHIMM (Works Hidden In My Mind) category in my case is about to explode.  I even bought a little bit of fabric this evening to put me in the mood.

I have to make some diamond blocks for a Crazy Quilt challenge, so will be starting on them no later than this week end.  They are small blocks, but have a lot of embellishment that will go along with them.  Thankfully, with quilting I was blessed with speed.  Guess so much of the speed gene was used for quilting that none of it is left over for cross stitching.  Sounds good anyway.  My biggest obstacle with sewing has been being able to get to my machine.  It seems that just when I get my sewing room cleaned up, something happens and stuff gets dumped in it.  Mainly, that is where boxes of Mom's things get set for me to go through.  So very hard to do.  I still need to finish up her bills, she passed in July.  At any rate, today I worked around Mr. M as best I could (along with the diversion of catching up on emails after being gone for a week) and was actually able to get quite a bit accomplished.  I bought the stuff for shelving, just need to get it attached to the wall now.  I also bought some cheap but pretty fabric to make the curtain to hang over the closet doors (now removed) and purchased a little extra to make a window topper to match.

Well, it took forever for me to get out of Walmart tonight.  Have to go back tomorrow because the idiot man checking was too busy talking and charged me twice for an item.  I also have to go to the bank in the morning, it would seem that someone has once again gotten our bank account info and made debit purchases.  Metro PCS...again...$118 dollars worth this time.  Last time it was our daughter's account and she didn't have any money in it so it only debited $1.51 but it is the hassle of it all.  Now, I have to find out whose card is being used, mine or hubby's, and they will block that card.  That sets off a whole new set of irritation as we both have so many things that are automatically debited each month.  I kind of hope it mine, hubby and the two of our kids are on a trip at the moment, won't be back until Sunday, so can't block his card.  I hate people who think they have the right to just take what they want.  Any way, I am headed to the bath and then to bed.  I would go straight to bed, seeing as how it is almost two in the morning, but I am freezing and a bath helps warm me.  Crazy thing is in another few hours I will have a big old hot flash and sure won't be cold any more. 

That's life I guess.  Speaking of which.

Meet my helper.  She has made her mission in life to eat all my threads and to see just how much skin she can take off my legs by crawling up them.  Yesterday she has started climbing up the back of my computer chair and then sitting on my shoulder.  Her very loud purrs in my ear tell me she is content there.  Just makes it a bit difficult to do anything.

Thanks for stopping by the zoo, come back soon.

Last Post 2012

Well, this is the last post of 2012.  It is not quite midnight here in the Pacific Time Zone.  We just rolled in from our trip to Texas to visit family.  It was a nice trip but too short.  So, just playing a little catch up since I am seeing the year in by myself.  Hubby has been driving since about 1 AM this morning, we got in about 8:30 PM or so.  Unloaded the car.  Haven't put it all up yet.   Hubby took a shower and hit the bed.  Son, Mr. College, that is spending the Christmas break with us, slept all the way home, brought his stuff in, showered and headed over to his girlfriend's house.  She had some minor surgery done today.  Daughter, Miss Zebra, has gone to a friend's house for the night.

On the trip...I did a little shopping.  Here goes.

I cleaned out the clearance bin at Hobby Lobby, plus a couple that weren't on clearance, but had coupons for them.  I am planning on using these counted cross stitch kits for the Crazy January challenge.  Will be posting a lot more about that in January.

I bought some more purples for the "heart" quilt.  Plus one pasta novelty for me.

Also, some Texas fabric.  The UT fabric will be a quilt for my brother.  I plan to try out my AccuQuilt Go cutter with the tumbler die for this quilt. Not sure what I will do with the Tech fabric yet.  Also got extra UT fabric to make some pillow cases for grandson, Mr. T, or maybe some pajama pants. More about the quilt projects will be coming in January as well. I am challenging myself to make a couple of finished quilts each month.  Am also doing a crazy quilt journal challenge as well, which is only one block a month.  That will be easy.  In fact, for January, I need to make some "naked" blocks to embellish for a swap I am doing.

I also got this stocking kit, it was on clearance.  Not as discounted as I would like, but it is cute so got it to make for next year.  This is part of another challenge I joined, Christmas one, the goal of the group is to make one ornament a month instead of waiting until the end of the year to make them all.  I figure I can complete one ornament a month, but will adding in my stocking projects as well, I consider the stocking and ornament. I plan on eventually making each grand son one.  Maybe will be able to make one for a grand daughter, we don't know what is on the way yet. Just praying that this pregnancy goes well and both mother and child is healthy.

We went to a really neat antique store, more like a mall, each booth is a different seller.  This little glass tooth pick holder I bought for my oldest daughter.  She collects blue glass.

Bought this limited edition signed print portraying Texas.  It listed in the booth for $35, I looked up the artist and while she still has prints for sale, they are selling for $69 unframed.  The photo doesn't do it justice.  The glare plays with the colors, the frame is wood, not painted green as it looks and the mat is dark blue.  The print has a lot of blues in it which is my favorite color, and since we are from Texas, well just couldn't pass it up.

This unusually shaped shadow box was a real find as well.  I have needed to find a new one to replace the one ruined in the washing machine flood incident.  I can't wait to get it hung on the wall and load it up. Just don't know where I will hang it.

Last but not least, is this beautiful native American squash blossom sterling silver and turquoise necklace.  I have no idea how to determine it's value, but after looking at several over the last few years I felt like I got a real bargain.  It needs a little polish, but is just the right length, is not so heavy or chunky as most I see.  I just love it.

I also bought a new purse, but didn't get a photo of it yet. It's awesome.

Well, time for me to go enjoy my bath tub for a much needed soak.  I have a lot of work to do tomorrow.  We have to unpack, then hubby and kids will repack for colder weather and load up and go to Mammoth to snow ski for a few days.  I intend to get a lot of work done while they are gone around here.  Will post my progress, hopefully.  I need to do some deep cleaning, put up all the Christmas, start up my menu planning once again as well as get some organizing of my life and home done.  Wish me luck.

Out with 2012, thankfully I survived it.  In with 2013, prayerfully awaiting a better year.

Thanks for stopping by and come back soon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thread Purchase

I have been working to get a stash of thread built up.  I purchased one of each color, still don't have them all because the stores have been out of a few colors.  However, it was a big start.  I posted about it here.  I have also been buying some patterns and kits.  They are coming in a little each day, got to love it, looking forward to mail I mean.  Between my purchases and Christmas shopping for hubby, the postal person is being kept busy.  Fortunately, hubby is used to my craft purchases so doesn't even suspect that some of the deliveries are for under the tree.

At any rate, I won some auctions on eBay for some large lots of DMC floss.

All in all it was a good deal.  One purchase was for 100 bags, three skeins in each, had .10 printed on the bags.  The description told me that,  so I knew and expected 100 different colors, three skeins of that color, each sorted in to a small baggy with a sticker that reads .10 on it.  It was also in the description that they had purchased these from a craft store that was going out of business and that it was already packaged that way when they got it. Also said that there were no duplicates.  Well, to start with, there was only 98 bags.  When I sorted through them and inventoried the color numbers, 11 of those little bags were duplicate color numbers, and obvious duplicate numbers at that. That is what the empty baggies to the left are, duplicates.  Most of them are DMC brand.  A good number of them are American Thread, which I have never used before.  I am not sure, haven't done enough research yet, but about four of those colors look like duplicates, but have a different number so not sure.  For instance there is a color 1006 and another marked color 1006-A.  Most of these do look like they are just a subtle change in hue, but not a lot.  I wanted to leave feedback, kind of neutral, but it would seem that now on eBay you cannot leave neutral or negative feedback until 7 days after the purchase. That's a little ridiculous if you ask me, there is nothing that will be "worked out" with either of these purchases.  I got my money's worth so have no intention of asking for a refund or such. I did however email the seller through eBay, will see what kind of response if any I get. This type of buy just isn't worth that hassle and I know that on eBay it is sometimes just a crap shoot.  About 97% of my purchases have all been very positive with successful out comes.  My selling experience has been the same.

Funny, I was writing this blog and had to stop for a while so saved it as a draft.  When I came back to write it, I forgot about the draft and started a new post.  That's what happens in my life. LOL

On to the second purchase.  I won 100 threads already in a thread baggy with a hole punched in it so you can put it on a ring.  I had not seen these type of bags before, but had heard of them.  Anyway, it was described as 100 bags, one skein in each, a few bags had two skeins, marked with the color number, no duplicates.  These are all DMC.  So, I sat down with my paper and pencil to inventory record the color numbers, sort them in numeric order according to color number and inventory them.  Actually this was the first set  of the two I worked with last night.  I was very disappointed in this buy.  The description said nothing about being in a smoker's home.  I ended up having to put them aside and find my inhaler because the smell of the stale smoke was so strong it triggered my asthma, which I haven't had an attack in ages.  This buy too was short, only 96 bags and four of them were duplicates.  I didn't feel like writing to this seller, so I did leave a positive feedback since they shipped quickly and like the other purchase I did get my money's worth.  However...I did leave a remark about the smoke odor issue.  That is a big point with me, as every one in this household is asthmatic in varying degrees, my grand son that I care for during the day and his mother are too.  The grand baby was born early and so breathing issues are big with him.  Not so bad as it could be, but still something we have to be mindful of.

Anyway, at least now I have a stash to start with.  I don't have that many charts, but at least I will have thread to work on them.  Good thing is that the kits all come with thread for them.  My other little habit to feed is crazy quilting, which has a lot of embroidery embellishment to it.  My older stash of thread has been reserved for that since the color number is not important.  With embellishing, you just use a color of thread that goes with what you need.  Specialty threads come in to play with this type of embroidery as well.  Fuzzy threads, metallic threads, loopy threads, as well as buttons and charms. I love crazy quilting, it is so expressive and not really any real rules to go by.  You know, satin sewed next to velvet sewed next to cotton and so forth.  It is Victorian in nature after all and that whole period is wonderfully wicked eccentric.  Here is a lovely example of a crazy quilt that Renee found and pinned to her Pinterest board. You really should go look at it.  I have never seen a crazy quilt that was made like this.  Most crazy quilts are more random in their block shapes and sizes.  The history of the crazy quilt is really quite fascinating.  Victorian girls would collect fabric "charms" or pins or cigar wrappers which at that time were made of silk.  A charm is a piece of fabric.  Young men that would gift these things to earn a girls attention.  Traditionally, a girl would collect 999 charms and who ever gave her the 1,000 charm would be her true love.  Although, in reality, crazy quilts were traditionally made by upper class women because of the finer and exotic fabrics that were used while the charm quilts evolved in to a whole different type of quilt.

My new profile photo is a heart block I made in crazy quilt style.

I used to make them to trade.  I just couldn't give this one up for some reason.

This is a traditional block.

This was part of a round robin I participated in.

Then, there is also the world of the ATC.

These were for trade, but never did.  ATC stands for Artist Trading Card and they are the size of a business card.  Kind of a good way to practice a new stitch, but a challenge due to the small size.

Okay, so I have probably bored you beyond tears so will call it a night.  I had a small flood in the house yesterday.  A hose on the washing machine sprang a hole and I had a rain storm of hot water going.  All over the ceiling, the floor (which has a drain but apparently it is clogged) out in to the hall.  Water traveled under the walls into not one but three bedrooms.  All of the laundry had to be redone because of the water.  Lost some thread and lace that I had stored on a top shelf in there, even my little shadow box was ruined.  It was a mess.  Fortunately, no major damage that would cost to repair, just mainly lots of labor.  Hubby had it repaired yesterday right away, and today I have done load after load of laundry until I am tired of it, and still have more to do.  I don't mind doing the laundry you see, it is the putting up of the clean items. You know, if I didn't have to do laundry, clean house, cook or such idiotic things I would sure have a lot more time for stitching.

Thanks for stopping buy and come back again.

Busy Day.

So...have laundry going.  At least enough to make hubby think I have done house work today.  Will be fixing spaghetti and meatballs for supper, unless that makes hubby take us to grab a burger.  Miss Zebra has her Christmas band concert tonight that we have to go to.  She actually requested that we come to it.  Mr. M is in a mood today, so he needs a little extra attention.  Fortunately, Miss Zebra is home today to help.

I stayed up way to late last night crocheting a scarf out of this new Sashay yarn made by Red Heart.

It comes looking like this.  This color is called Mombo. Rich colors that are berry, navy, olive green and magenta, all blending together.

It opens up to look like this.  A mesh, net style. Reminds me of the fish net hose I use to wear in my younger days.  The bottom edge of the mesh is wider with a metallic thread that runs through it.  I had never seen this yarn before, but found it on some posting somewhere, talking about the great scarves it makes.  I posted a photo of the scarf to my FB page and my oldest daughter Mrs. S promptly posted that there was several shades of the yarn with, and I quote, "rich hues that flow together" and she hinted that she would like some.

Like the loving mom that I am, I went online to search for patterns.  Apparently, this yarn is better used for knitting.  Which I can't do.  However, I did find some crochet ones.  I talked to a lady at JoAnn's who had used the yarn, she knits of course, but she was very helpful.  She suggested going on YouTube.  Which I did.  The few videos I watched had a little different crochet technique, but it seemed easy enough. One lady stated that the scarf would only take less than one skein and about 30 minutes to work up.  Another lady stated one skein would have yarn left over and only takes about 30 minutes to make if you are used to working with it, about an hour if you haven't.  She said the hardest part of making a scarf was pulling the thread out as you crocheted.

So...here is the finished scarf.  Pulling that yarn apart, or stretching it out, as you work it is a bugger.  The bottom edge, as I said, is a wider edge with a silver metallic thread running through it.  The top edge of this mesh yarn is narrower and that is the edge that you work with.  For the first time to work with this yarn it took way more than an hour.  Maybe I am slow stitching, but here's the thing, if you loose your stitch, it all comes out.  This yarn in my opinion is a real pain in the ass to work with and I would never become one of those people that makes them to sell.  I would charge way too much for them because I hate working with it.  However, that being said, this scarf will go to Mrs. S and I have another skein in a different color to make for her as well.  I will say, that I did have quite a bit of yarn left over and I made it longer than the one shown on YouTube.  I also have to admit, that after I dropped the stitch and had to start over...three times...I did hit a groove in working with the stuff.  I will say this as a warning.  Do not start this project unless you have a couple of hours to work it.  It is not like regular crocheting where you can just pick up where you left off.  I mean you can, but only if you have a safe place to store it that your hook won't come out.  Also, I would suggest using a bamboo handled hook.  The handle helped immensely in keeping the thread on.

I bought a wireless keyboard and wireless mouse to go with my new computer today.  LOVING them.  I am starting to get the hang of the Windows 8 thing as well and it is growing on me.  I was upset that I had some how lost my scanner, on every computer, but this morning I had an update waiting to be installed for my printer series and it seems that it is working now.  OH YEAH!  This is a big deal to me because I just purchased EQ7 quilting software program (rather pricey but I did get a good deal on it over on the Quilt in a Day site.  The main reason I bought this particular version of EQ7 is the capability of scanning my fabric to fill in the block in the quilt design.  That way I can see how it looks before I even cut it.

Speaking of awesome quilts.  Take a look at this Pinterest site. I love it when I can combine my hobbies into one project.  Like using embroidery on a crazy quilt. Well this quilt is a little different in that it is not your traditional crazy quilt that is built from odd shapes of fabric sewn together.  This quilt is what is known as an apple core pattern.  Very traditional, considered a charm quilt, dates back to the late 1800's I believe (late 19th century).  Victorian era ladies would collect charms of fabric, buttons and pins and such.  At any rate, this quilt is a great example of a traditional pattern, embroidery embellishment, and...it happens to be a die I just purchased for my AccuQuilt cutter. 

I cannot wait to get through the holidays so I can actually start working on something.  I added the last pieces of furniture to my craft room.

This is my mom's little rocker that she was so attached to.  She didn't use much, as she preferred the comfort of her Lazy Boy, but my parents bought this rocker in 1951 when they adopted my older brother.  Mom always talked about how she rocked her babies in this chair.  My brother and I were adopted, not blood related, but we were related in a loving family.  At any rate, while it is not the most comfortable chair to kick back in, it does fit the space perfectly. 

It is harder in some ways, easier in others, than I expected getting through the holidays with out mom.  They say the first ones are the hardest.  I know I am missing her terribly.  Christmas was her favorite time of year.  All the church services, celebrating Christ's birth.  Family getting together for gifts on Christmas eve and then again on Christmas Day for a huge meal.  It was just always on Christmas.  Growing up was my brother and I with mom and dad.  We never went anywhere for Christmas, never had anyone visit.  I think earlier, before I came along, there was Christmas with one uncle and his family and my granny (dad's mom) but I only know of it from home movies.  I don't ever remember it that way...and I do have a superb memory for that kind of thing.  Now my kids always had several Christmas times.  One with just us, then one with my parents, and one with hubby's parents.  I know I just want to make it through the holidays with out falling apart and that is getting harder each day.  I want to get past the holidays, get all the decorations packed away and get on with life and working on things. 

Speaking of which.

Update on the Nativity.  I have finally made the decision to start another cross stitch project (that is smaller) and quite pushing myself to finish the Nativity.  Now that I realize I will never finish it for this year. 

I hope hubby never finds out how much I have spent on quilting/stitching supplies on eBay. LOL  I am now feeling better about my stashes though.  Plenty of kits, plenty of patterns, plenty of thread (since I won some large lots of embroidery thread on eBay) and enough quilt fabric to at least plan a quilt.  I think also, after the first I will start selling off some of my paper craft supplies (rubber stamps, punches, papers) to feed the kitty so to speak.

Speaking of kitty.

She likes mom's rocker too.  I didn't realize when we took her in how much comfort it would be to have her around.

Oh...and also speaking of feeding the kitty.

Here is my change kitty (on the left) that is fed by all the change I find around the house.  The other decorative jar is what my mom used to keep cotton balls in.  I am going to use it for a TUSAL jar.  Found out about this on some blogs I read.  It stands for Totally Useless Stitch Along.  All the bits and pieces from cross stitch (ends and frogging) goes in the jar and I post a photo of the jar each new moon.  I always keep a baggy taped to the sewing table when I do machine embroidery.  I have used all those little pieces in other projects. I guess you can see one of my sets of machine embroidery thread in the background.  I only have three. LOL

This is a free standing lace cross that I stitched out on my embroidery machine a while back.  All the various colors you see in it was done by using two layers of tulle and placing the cut threads I collected between them then stitching out the design.  Oh I hope I can find those files on a computer somewhere in this house when I get ready to start doing some machine embroidery work.  I know I have a disk somewhere that has designs  to embroider out that are the cutest vintage children.  I hope to put them in to some quilt blocks.

Well, time to move the laundry around.  Thanks for stopping by and do come back to visit soon.  Feel free to leave me a comment.  I love to read them.

Oh What Fun!

Okay, so you know how you eat all the cake and cookies the week before you know you are starting a new diet?  Because you know that  you won't be getting any after that day? And you really want to get them out of the house?

Well, I am preparing for my diet date.  A stash diet that is. Jan. 1 will start a no buy, use the stash, finish the UFO's personal challenge.

For quilting, this means that I will only purchase what I need to complete a project.  I will be making a list of all my UFO's (unfinished forgotten objects) that are stuffed folded up neatly on the shelf. I will be feeding the PIGS (projects in grocery sacks) so that they fatten up in to wonderfully completed quilts to go to new homes.  I have an obscene amount of PIGS.  Good thing I love ham so much. I did find a great deal on EQ7, quilt design software, over at the Quilt in a Day site so purchased it...on Thursday, it arrived Friday.  I was in total shock at the speed. I can't wait to load it and start playing with it.  Next week though, I am going to play with my AccuQuilt Go cutter and the new tumbler die I bought.  I purchased fabric today for a purple and grey quilt to made out of the tumblers for a gift for youngest son's girlfriend.  I do suspect however, that in the not to distant future she will become family.  Think, hope anyway, they are planning on waiting until they are both out of college.  They have been together for like five or six years already.  Also, purchased some iron on interfacing to use for the t-shirt quilt I plan to make out of youngest son's t-shirts I have collected.  Actually he collected them, kept them stuffed in his closet, I found them when he moved out.  So, figured if held on to them, I can make them in to some thing he can really hold on to.

Now, the "Stash Diet" as it deals with my newest fascination of counted cross stitch.  For this re-visited hobby, I call it that because years ago (many, many years ago) I enjoyed this particular craft.  But, like so many things in my life it was boxed up, put away, not to be thought of for far too long.  Well, in the process of sorting through boxes in the storage to unpack and place in the sewing room that was no longer needed for a bedroom for mom, I found some UFO's that had not been touched in at least 12 years or more.  I have developed a new determination to finish all unfinished works in my life.  Guess it is a by product of the loss of mom, dealing with all the final disposition of her things and such.  At any rate, there has opened up a new window of interest again after being closed up for far too long.  Getting rid of the musty part of old I guess.

So...as with the quilting, I am going on a diet with this area as well.  Problem is, I haven't really got the huge amount of stash to supply my addiction with the counted cross stitching as I do with my quilting. But, I am in for the game.  I have only one project in the works currently, that will be an ongoing project for some time it would seem.  I stitch very slow.  Don't know why I can create a quilt in a day, two at the most, completely finished, but it takes forever to make all those little x's of thread everywhere.  On the agenda for this new project, it will be a lot of organizing, just like with quilting. I already have planned which project I am starting first.  I am so tired of working on my current project, the nativity.  Once I tasted reality and swallowed the sad fact that I will not be able to finish it for this Christmas, I immediately placed it at the top of my "ongoing finish for 2013" list. 

To "prepare" for my  upcoming stash diet, I have gone on a little spending spree.  Not a lot, but I did buy the thread for my next project, but forgot the cloth.  I will have to remember to get some.  I am thinking that it would be much cheaper to buy some cloth by the yard.  I have a serger and can finish off the cut edges.  Maybe though, I will just have to buy the cloth as I go.  Not sure which would make more sense, money wise, at this point.  Any way, at this time, I am really concentrating on building up my thread stash.  Last week, I bought a thread of each color, sorted it and have it all inventoried.  At the moment however, I think I went a little overboard on bidding on Ebay.  I will only have a problem if I actually win them all.  However, I have budgeted for just such an occasion. At least I will have on hand all I need to work with, supply wise. As with the quilting, as of Jan. 1 there will be no more purchases of thread, charts, kits to just stuff find a place to store away.  I will only use what I have on hand.  Of course, it doesn't count if you have to buy a few threads to replace what you use up, or run out of before finishing the project.  Yep, that's the story...I'm sticking to it.

Oh this is going to be so much fun.  Wonder if I can stitch while on the treadmill, which I will be starting back on Jan. 1 as well. Well, exercise anyway, thinking of getting some hand weights and a ball for scrunches.  Will start simple.  Also need to get back on track with my food as well.

I have decided to re-organize my day a bit and starting on the first of the new year I plan to sew during the day.  Well...as much as I can around Mr. M and his needs that is. Cross stitch when everyone has gone to bed and it needs to be quieter.  By that I mean I won't disturb hubby who goes to bed at 8:30 each night.  I have to fit in menu planning in there somewhere as well. It seems to really run a lot smoother at meal time if I have planned it out a bit.  We eat out way too much, my fault, and since I am the largest instigator of it, I will be hardest to push for home meals.  It is better all around financially to plan out the meals and eat at home, emotionally I don't have to worry what is for dinner, and physically is much healthier for us as well.  Hubby eats out a big meal every day for lunch with his job.  Miss Zebra eats at school each day, she tries to make healthy choices but sometimes that is really hard with what the school offers up.  It makes sense to make the evening meal more nutritious for all of us.

Pulled some more items from mom's storage out today and brought them to the house to go through.  I finally got the furniture I want for the sewing room all in place, just need to clean it back up as every thing was just kind of piled here and there willy nilly to change out the pieces of furniture.

Cross over between these two crafts will be the crazy quilting projects.  They are both quilting and embroidery and they are embellished with all kinds of embroidery stitches and decorative pieces.  I have a box of my mom's clothes that I saved, her more favorite pieces and a sack of my dad's neck ties.  I will cut them up and make a crazy quilt for myself and my brother, just throw size, and then will make smaller pillow or lap size projects for each of the grand kids to have. This project will take a long time I am sure, but that is okay too.  This project will not go on any list, no deadlines, nothing but time to heal and remember.

The other craft that I enjoy, or hobby, but I just hate the word hobby because to me it conjures up time spent doing some project that is of no use to anyone.  When you say you have a craft, it sounds more artsy, more special.  Regardless, I also crochet.  Love the things I create, but like with cross stitch, am totally at a snail's pace with it.  I will never be able to understand how someone can sit there and tell me how relaxing, calming, crochet is.  I can only work so long, by that I mean not long at all, for I become a nervous irritable wreck.  So, because I have a weird sense of need to punish myself, I bought some this new yarn out to make a scarf for my oldest daughter, Mrs. C, the teacher.  You can crochet with it, but it has a net, much like the old fishnet hose, built in to it.  Apparently, it makes really great scarves because the yarn design naturally makes a spiral or ruffle.  I talked to a woman at the store that has used it quite a bit.  She knits though, will never be able to learn that, and she showed me a little of how to do it, but with wanting to crochet it she advised me to check out YouTube for videos on working with the stuff.  Mrs. C has already hinted that she would like one.  She finds things on Pinterest, then lets me know...in not so subtle hints...that I should make it for her.  She has a lot of misplaced confidence in her mother's abilities sometimes.  But hey, makes me try new things...once.  If you haven't looked around that site, you really should, it is amazing.  Make sure you lots of time when you do.

Well, it is late and I have written a book in this post.  Thank you for dropping buy and listening.  I have a year's worth of cleaning to get done tomorrow.  Hubby loves me so much he had to share his little bug with me.  I have been sick for a week or so.  So...nothing has really been done around the house because as you all know, only mom can do it.  And, even if she can't really hold her head up, is sneezing a storm, coughing up a lung, it will all be alright when ever she does get around to it.  Come back and visit soon.  Will be updating later in the week the nativity progress.  I kind of hit a sweet spot with some large areas of the same color to stitch.  Oh my stars, that doing three or nine stitches of a color at a time just kills.  I should just nickname the project Small, because, "you're killing me Smalls).

That being said, I am off to soak and then to bed.  Have a really full day waiting for me tomorrow.  Will see how much I can get done.  Have you finished your Christmas shopping?  I am about a fourth of the way done.  Need some online orders to arrive, then wrapped, and one more shopping trip with hubby and we will be finished.  I am so excited that we are heading to Texas to see family right after Christmas.  I will have to pull some photos off Facebook of Buddy, Mrs. C shelf elf.  If you haven't heard of this craze you really should look it up.  She is so creative in story ideas that I just eagerly anticipate reading each day's post about what he was up to during the night.

Wednesday Wrap-up Workings

I came home Monday night and found that hubby had loaded Office 2007 on my computer. I am so happy to have my Word and Excell back, especially my Office photo manager.  YEAH!  It is so much easier to work with photos now.

Speaking of which, here is how the Nativity is looking.

At least this project is coming a long with out any problems.  As you know it is a UFO that I am determined to finish.  As slow as I stitch I am confident in saying that this will not be finished in time for Christmas.  Maybe by Christmas...2013?  It is fun to work on now, I can actually see some of the figures coming to life.  A wise man kneeling, the manger, an angel, a shepherd looking on.

Also, if you followed any of my postings, you would know that my "house" project was scrapped and am now going to scrap the SW Angel.  There is just way more work to taking out stitches and correcting stitching mistakes than is worth.  While I dearly adore the elderly friend that gave it to me, I have decided to just start from scratch and make a new one.  I will start on her after the holidays are over.  I have a few kits as well that I plan to work on.  I must say, the hands free embroidery stands are working quite wonderfully.  Just need to get the hang of tying off when I end a color.  It is awkward and bothersome to loosen a screw, flip the frame over, end that color...or start one for that matter...then flip it back over to work on.  I did see a neat YouTube video that is a basic how to for counted cross stitching.  It is really quicker stitching, with an in and out in one motion of the needle, however, with all the work I have already done on the piece it is a bit difficult at times to work the needle in and out from the same side.  But...that may be due in part to the fact that the cloth is loaded sideways in the scroll.  The cloth is way more wider than it is tall, so it only fits in a scroll frame sideways.  I am tempted to go back to a hoop frame and then place that in the floor frame.

Last night I made soup for supper.  We are all sick to different degrees.  Hubby has had it the worst, so he wanted to pass it on for our enjoyment.  I have had it, while my throat isn't so sore anymore, I have lost most of my voice, nose is running like crazy and I am so tired.  Taking care of Mr. M is not helping the matter either.  Miss Zebra has so far gotten by with barely any bug effects at all. Anyway, I made Enchilada Meatball Tortellini soup.  OH WAS IT GOOD! I really need to get my but in gear and get back to organizing a menu plan, start posting again on MPM and get this house cleaned up.  I still have stuff in a storage unit from mom.  Speaking of which, I need to make myself sit down and fill out forms for her insurance, social security death benefit, and finish up her personal papers to get ready for her final tax return.  So much to do, that I just don't really want to deal with.  And, especially this time of year, I miss them both so much.  I just get this overwhelming feeling of being an orphan.  Even though I am a grown woman with a mostly grown family of my own.

Now, hubby wants us to go camping and dirt bike riding with a dirt bike club this week end.  I am thinking that none of us are well enough to do this, and I can only think of all the things I need to do to get ready for Christmas.  I really do need to some how organize myself so that I can find time to not only stitch on my counted cross stitch project, but also on my quilting.  In January I will be building three crazy quilt diamond shapes and embellish them with embroidery and such for a swap.  The embellishment will take a little time to be sure, fortunately I sew really fast so building them will only take one evening. We will see what happens I guess.

Thanks for dropping in, come back often.

Sunday - Time Change

Well, did everyone change their clocks?  We did, but I do believe that for the first time in...ever...I took advantage of the extra hour of sleep, and then some.  Totally missed church.  Hubby needed hair cut, so I tagged along to pick up a few groceries.  We were there too early for the hair cut, so he said he would go back, he just needed to go to Home Depot to pick up some supplies for his building project.  After we got checked out and headed to the truck, he informs me that he isn't go to Home Depot, he is taking a day off.  As worn out as gets with anything lately, I am worried about his health, worried about how on earth he is going to manage to get through the rest of the house remodel jobs we have planned.

I on the other hand did a lot of work yesterday and this morning so am taking the afternoon and evening off.  Well, have to cook something for supper at some point, but other than that, I am just catching up on the computer, doing a little online shopping, and about to settle in with some project to work on.

I finally tackled my bedroom yesterday, took most of the day, but all the clothes are put up and the boxes are mostly gone.  Still have a box of glassware in there, but I am not about to put them in the storage building. Am hoping that after the first of the year when we redo the kitchen that I will have some storage space for them.  They were mom's and I just can't let go of them yet.  At least not until I can find some one that can tell me a little something about them, and if they are worth anything.  Mom called them her "Fostoria" glasses, but just not sure.  I did meet a lady that knows a lot about such things and am hoping to get her to the house one day soon to look them over.  At any rate, it is AMAZING how big my bedroom looks, and is, when all the stuff is gone.  I rearranged a few pieces of furniture and made room to put my mom's sewing machine cabinet in there.  I know have a card table set up to put my laptop on and to write on.  Was looking at buying a small desk, but am thinking I will just use the table a while and see what works and what doesn't before investing any more in furniture.  I have a recliner that is entirely too big for the space, but have to leave it as is until I get my living room arranged the way I want, the recliner may be going in there.  Our old PC is in the bed room, moving things around I am actually able to use it once again.  I hate typing on my laptop, keeping hitting something that moves the cursor all around.  Anyway, I bought a new mouse for my laptop and put the old one back on the PC.  Now have the printer right next to it and can sit down and still reach everything to do scanning.  The PC monitor is much larger as well, easier to see. I also went and uninstalled a whole bunch of stuff that never use to free up some space, loaded my new Quilt Design Wizard on it as well.  I created the drawing and directions of my first quilt yesterday morning.  It was fun and much easier than I had thought.  I know that EQ 7 would be really fun to work with, as you can scan your fabric in to it and see how it would look in a quilt.  But...at this point, I can keep playing with the Wizard which was so much cheaper.  Like is cost less than $15 and EQ 7 runs about $180.  I did find a place on line that had it about $30 cheaper, but still...at over a hundred dollars more I am content with what I have, which is much more than I had before.   An internet buddy told me that I would know when it was time to upgrade when I started wanting to do more with the design than I could do with the Wizard.  That I understand.

I also bit the dust and purchased PC Stitch 10.  It was less than $40, and have not bought from that site before so am praying that the transaction goes well.  I had a few bugs happen when trying to order, so am really praying that I didn't order three of them and didn't pay three times.  I also found a much cheaper brand of software, it was only $10, but it's capabilities were not really clear.  The PC Stitch describes being able to scan in a photo or image and turn it in to a chart.  Also has built in colors of all the major floss brands as well.  We will see what happens, I went with the more expensive one because I know people that have it and are using it and it stated that it could be used for beading, crocheting and quilting.

Eventually I am sure I will end up getting some type of software to do my own machine embroidery designs as well, but those programs are very expensive and I am just not ready for that yet.  After all, I did just purchase a new embroidery machine.  Granted it is not one of the top of the line fancy named machines, but for the type of work I do it will work perfectly and I am SOOO totally fine with the cost difference. I will see just how much I can do with what I have, how much I can't do that I wish I could, and then go from there.  I loose my head sometimes and start over supplying my needs for my various crafts.  Most people just do one type of craft, but not me.  Oh no, that would be too easy.  My problem is, so many of my crafts just overlap and run in to each other.

Can you tell I am a cheapskate.  Not an extreme one mind you, but if I can get the same item, same quality, some where for cheaper, than so much the better.  Especially since most of my projects are charity offerings.  How did I get started down this path you ask?  Let me tell you.  I first found that I have a passion for quilting.  A true God given talent and passion for it.  As I grew up, I learned the basics of sewing and crocheting.  I used those abilities from time to time as I became a wife and mom.  My oldest daughter as a toddler had a closet full of clothes, then for the boys too.  Hubby used to laugh at me when he would come home to find that I had been dumpster diving for sewing patterns.  Then, hubby's granny would take pity on me and help me advance my crochet abilities.  I also did a little embroidery from time to time as well.  Except for sewing, it just took me way to long to finish an item to suit me so I didn't stay with it long.  Every time I would get a craft area set up in the house, we either added to the family or moved.  I did ceramics for a while, miss it terribly, but the equipment alone takes up much too much space.  All those molds and a kiln.  When we moved to California, I found a church that had a quilt ministry.  I already knew how to sew, had always wanted to learn, and they had child care while we met. So joined in and found that I loved it.

Oh I jumped in that pond with both feet.  Got online and found some groups to join with, did swaps, round robins, even joined the local quilt guild.  They started me making small quilts, 32 x 32 inches called isolets.  They are used in the neonatal units to buffer the sounds and light for the premature and sick babies.  I met a friend, Cara.  In fact, we met online, noticed we were posting about the same speaker, she lived in the next town over but had joined the quilt guild as well.  Her two children were age wise on either side of my youngest.  We made a personal challenge of it, to see how many isolets we could get finished by the next meeting.  Then, she moved.  I really miss her.  In fact, she got me started in machine embroidery, then when I was kind of stale mated, she showed me the things to go with our machines to take it up a level.  Thanks to Cara I learned about free standing lace.

Then a lady asked me if I knew how to crochet. I told her just the very bare basics.  She wanted me to help make some hats to send to some soldiers.  She gave me a pattern, I bought some black yarn, and made a hat. Helmet liners they called them.  Okay...I bought a lot of black yarn...made 250 of those black buggers. Got tire of black so made a pair of slippers.  The soldier that I made them for said he had a bunk buddy that had really big feet, wondered if I could make him a pair.  So...I did, the guy wore like a size 15 boot.  That lead to some more request, they wanted colorful ones. You guessed it, I made like 200 pairs. Then my soldier (I had adopted this small unit, sent them all kinds of food, fun stuff, personal items) asked if I could maybe make a baby blanket and send it to his wife.  I made the crib size quilt, then decided to add a crocheted hat, sweater and booties along with it.  While waiting on my daughter at school one day, one of the teachers saw the baby set I was working on.  She hired me to make sets for her from time to time for shower gifts. That led to some charity sets that went to the army hospital for babies whose dad's were deployed.  A side track to that venture was rubber stamped announcements to be sent with them.  Then, I still don't quite know how it happened, I got lost in my second passion, crazy quilting.  I just fell in love with the embroidery embellishments that went along with it.

 That led me to do a lot of swapping of hearts.  This is one that I did and kept, but is nothing to compare with the ones that the other ladies were doing.  It was a true learning curve as I learned what embellishment were acceptable for cloth. What typed of products used in other crafts worked in this one.  I even bought a special rolling tote case so that I could pack up all my beads, threads, other decorations and take it all with me on a trip to Las Vegas with my hubby.  He went for work, so I had the whole day to myself in the room to work on this stuff.

You guessed it, I found a way to blend my machine embroidery with the crazy quilt blocks, the little car was done with my machine.

On any given block, you can have beads, sequins, ribbon, buttons, even jewelry pieces.

Then...I got stupid and decided I needed to take a full time job outside the home.  Thinking that I would be able to keep doing my crafts, I would cart the plunder back and forth.  It was about this time that I felt sorry for hubby having to listen to the whir of the sewing and embroidery machines all hours of the night and thought that scrapbooking would be the way to go, much quieter, didn't need as much room.  I was wrong, it is way more spread out.  Then there are all different types.  Scrapbook pages, card making, art journal, and so many techniques.  Stamping, ink embossing, texture embossing, ink, pen, markers, embellishments, on and on. Even went so far as try my hand at being a demonstrator for a home based rubber stamp company.  Yes...I was my biggest customer.

Oh, I could go on and on, but you get the picture.  So, I have been down sizing the supplies so to speak in order to put all my efforts in to only a few crafts.  That being quilting and crocheting.  I have a box of my mom's more special clothes, that have embroidery or cut work on them. Also a sack of my dad's ties. Have been saving odd fabrics for over twenty years and will use them with the clothes to make some crazy quilts.  Small one, lap size, for my brother, and then will maybe divide what is left in to four small throws so that each of my children will get one.  A memory thing, but I intend to work in some old photos of family members as well.  Will probably do this with the computer, photo print on fabric, but there may be some other ways as well.  I just ordered some software that will turn any photo or image into a cross stitch design. Much cheaper than the digitize version for machine embroidery and no learning curve either.

Of course, after doing so much hard work yesterday, and since I am still waiting on my AccuQuilt Go cutter to get here, I did do a bit of shopping.  Oh alright, a lot of shopping.  I am going broke getting updated supplies and new ideas.  Still have a couple of "carts" waiting on me to finish checking out.  So...now that I have had a really long break, I need to get back to work so I can spend the evening working on something...anything...just some of the many UFO's I have.  I have a huge stack of paper work and magazines to go through and purge down and then find a home for.

Will post photos of my progress so check back often.  Thanks for stopping in.