June Recap:
1) Tie baby quilt [DONE]
2) Start Kingdom Sampler! [YES!]
3) Work on Peaceful Silhouette [YES!]
- finish second boat [YES]
4) Work on Mini Cottages II [FINISHED!]
5) Stitch appleseed needlecase [nope...]
6) Get pieces ready to frame and buy frames! [nope...]

Not too bad :) On top of that I stitched Dry Turkey and made my castle wall hanging ... a pretty productive month!

Circular Blanket Stitch...

So last night was stitch night, I had all my projects with me but when you're trying to talk and stitch at the same time I find that embroidery is easiest as it's already drawn on the fabric! So I worked on my Leanne's Quilt Block last night.

I had been putting off embroidering mini block 2 because it's these flowers made of circular blanket stitch and I've never done blanket stitch, but I braved it and made them and I love them! They came out great, albeit all different sizes and sometimes not round but I love them :) So 9 little flowers with stems completed last night, waiting for their bows and then it's back to mini block 5 to do all those flowers!

And now it's friday ... just a hopefully busy day and then home to pack and head up to NH for most of the weekend! My only goal stitching wise this weekend is to work on the embroidery on the quilt block, i'd like to have that finished up so I have a break before the next block arrives!

And the baby quilt has a quarter of it's binding done. Shouldn't take long to finish up!

Last night we went running - which was great as I haven't done that in a LONG time. Then after dinner settled in to work on the quilt and then read when my elbow started to hurt. I'm currently reading Kite Runner, which is a difficult book to read. It's hard to read a book where you don't like the main character, I don't have much sympathy for him either. Maybe it's the way I was brought up or the things I've lived through but I just can't feel sorry for him and I just don't like him, but the book is very well written and I'm told it just gets better.

It's bad when I'm thinking about what I'm going to read next already - it's like choosing my next stitching project but it goes much faster than that :) Only another 2 weeks maybe and I'll be sitting in front of my bookcase choosing the next world to jump into!

Castles, castles and more castles :)

Well yesterday was just great! As I said in my post I pieced and quilted a little wall hanging from a castle embroidery I did a few years ago. Here it is all finished up now:


After finishing that up I worked on Kingdom Sampler while watching Lord of the Rings (Fellowship of the Ring), and I finished the castle!


So it was castle fun for me last night :) I also managed to make dinner and lots of stuff for the picnic at work today. Tonight I go to my aunt's house and I brought the baby quilt to start whip stitching the binding down on that. Then I have to embroider a patch for the back of the quilt with the baby's name and all.

Looks like it's going to be quite a busy weekend, we'll be going up to visit my uncle friday night to sunday morning for the holiday (all the family is coming out saturday) then we have a birthday party for a friend of mine on sunday! Busy busy! Good thing I got my quilting and stitching in for the week :)

ACK! I love my sewing machine!

I just had the best night/morning with my mom quilting away. Last night I organized my fabric collection by color family and washed my new fabrics to add them. Then this morning I added the binding to the baby quilt (just has to be whip stitched to the back) and I made a wall hanging out of a piece I embroidered a few YEARS ago! That's waiting to be whip stitched as well but I machine quilted that little guy and like I said - I love my machine :)

So this is just short, I'm going to whip stitch the wall hanging quick (it's a castle!) and then work on Kingdom Sampler for a bit. Pictures tomorrow for sure!

**reply to comments - the Dry Turkey piece is by Raise the Roof designs.

I think I say this a lot but really - we had the best weekend ever :) I think this is going to be a great summer!
*(no Kayaking due to weather but ...)

I got lots of things done, Friday night I worked on the embroidery on Leanne's Quilt (which I will show below). Then Saturday we watched Pride & Prejudice the 5 hour version! During which I stitched this little guy:

I had to change one of his wing colors (dark blue to light blue) and then I switched the blue and purple feathers since I liked the purple more. But I love this guy on this dark blue fabric! He took about 6 hours to stitch, after Pride & Prejudice we watched profiler season 2 some more.

Sunday we planned our vacation for the end of the summer, we'll be staying for a week in Atlantic City at the Trump Taj Mahal. I can't wait :) We even got tickets to some shows. We're going Mon-Fri and my sister and her boyfriend will be joinging us Wed-Fri. I'm looking forward to lots of beach time, some casino time and boardwalk shopping. Now I just need to work on the website to save up some shopping money!

After we got that squared away and I cleaned the whole apartment for my mom visiting, I got out my quilting stuff, first I finished tying the baby quilt - that took about 2 1/2 hours but it's done and ready to add the binding! Next I started working on Leanne's Quilt Block 1 again. I finished piecing it completely and was able to work on the embroidery on mini block 5 afterwards:


The best part about this weekend is that tonight my mom is coming to spend the night quilting and I have tomorrow off to continue our visit in the morning and then stitch all afternoon! The apartment is clean and there's nothing more for me to do but enjoy myself. Hopefully work will go fast today :)

I won't be able to SAL to Kingdom Sampler tonight as it's quilting all the way and I'm probably starting a new small quilt even, but tomorrow night I will work on it to make up for today and i'll be back on track next week :)

Finally a picture (sorry it's not my card but I totally spaced yesterday after lunch!)

It is however a great picture of Blackwork Dragon - after working on it last night at stitch and today at lunch for a bit:

He's stitched on Wandering Ivy 36ct linen by Silkweaver with WDW Hunter thread.

I love this fabric (Wandering Ivy), seriously it's probably my favorite fabric that I have so far.

Last night was stitch, it was a great time and i even got some stitching done :) My friend brought her scroll rods and now my fabric for Celtic Banner is all ready, just awaiting the arrival of a much needed border color which should be in 2 weeks at the longest.

And it's almost the weekend!!! Oh I can't wait to get home! I have the apartment to myself tonight to watch some girly stuff while getting some stitching on my quilt block done. Besides cleaning on sunday and possibly Kayaking one day if it doesn't rain both days, my weekend will be just stitching and quilting! Much needed!

I'd like to get Leanne's Quilt - Block 1 completely pieced and a good start on the embroidery and the baby quilt tied completely. Stitching I'd like to start Dry Turkey and continue working on Blackwork Dragon.

Even better - i have next tuesday off to spend the morning with my mom - the rest of the day will be more stitching :)
Monday night however I will not be able to do the Kingdom Sampler SAL with Carol - I think I will switch my night to Tuesday this week since my mom is visiting and we have plans all night which don't include stitching time :( But Tuesday is a great day to work on Kingdom Sampler so it should all work out!

I'll update this post later with a picture (probably just after the lunch group thing).

Last night was great, my brother and his girlfriend came over and we bbq'd up some meat (k'bobs with a mixture of beef, chicken, shrimp and some - very few - veggies). It was fun, then we watched a little tv, it was late, nothing else got done, i even put off the dishes! Which is something I never do, i hate waking up to dirty dishes. But i'll probably do them tonight when I get home late and just want to go to bed - dishes will be calling to me :)

Today is Stitch & Stamp at work - my little group I'm starting, I have all my supplies ready to go to demonstrate the card and then everyone can make it. Then I brought my other stuff to show and people can play with, whatever. The reason I'm waiting on the picture of the card is in case I make something else at lunch I can show both at once.

Stitch night tonight - probably will work on Blackwork Dragon if I don't start Celtic Banner. My friend is bringing scroll rods for me to try out so I'll have to figure out how to use them, not sure how much stitching will actually get done! Ah but it's fun anyway!

After lunch update:
I finished the outline of blackwork dragon and started the blackwork a bit! I'm kind of wishing i had 32ct fabric instead of 36ct so the detail could be seen better but for some reason i bought 36 and i'm not restarting this guy AGAIN!

I will try to post a picture of my cards tomorrow!

A cardmaking night.

So yesterday at lunch I cheated and didn't work on Peaceful Silhouette, Blackwork Dragon was calling to me so I broke down and worked on that a tad more. I want to get the whole outline done so I can take a picture and it will actually look like a dragon :)

But last night there was no stitching. We made dinner and I cleaned for company tonight. Then I got out my stamping stuff and made a card - with an asian theme since my new stamp set is asian themed. I really like the card, it was simple. Tonight depending on how long my brother stays I may make another thing to show tomorrow at work. I set up a lunch time event tomorrow for anyone that's interested, to show stamping - for card making and scrapbooking and i'm bringing my supplies so anyone can make the same card as well and get to try out the stamps and stuff. It's like a little craft club we're trying out. We'll see how it goes :)

But today - probably still work on blackwork dragon at lunch :) Can't help it, I might be able to finish the outline!

Kindom Sampler SAL night!

I didn't get as much time as I would have liked last night to stitch but here's my progress:

Carol is such a fast stitcher, I'll have to sneak in an extra night some time soon just to keep up!
I'm loving this piece, I held off on the roof tops of the castle but next week I'm definitely going to jump into those as I love the red WDW color! I did as I had planned, filling in more trees and working on the castle which is the fun part so far.

Also I've made some good progress on Peaceful Silhouette at work lately and even my boyfriend was impressed (this piece is for him, he bought the kit for me and wants to hang this in his future office next year):

It's fun to work on a little bit at a time, I have a feeling the sky will be the boring part but the filling in of the dark brown/black is actually fun because you really see shapes come to life.

Last night we made up some dinner and retired to the bedroom where the A/C was for the night, watching dvd's on my laptop. Tonight I have to clean and do laundry after dinner since my brother is coming over wednesday. I also should work on the website again!

A GREAT weekend! And i'm not just saying that because I got a new toy...

We went back home this weekend to visit with family, it was a relaxing weekend, I didn't get any stitching or anything done but fun none the less. Sunday we drove home around noon, we decided to stop at target and buy the camping stuff we need - which turned out great, we got a tent, sleeping bags and chairs in the exact colors and brands I wanted! I was very happy!

Then as we were just walking around target we hit there very small sewing machine area... I was just complaining to my mom this weekend about the machine I have (an old hand me down singer), i can't sew even medium speed without skipping stitches, so I was bummed about starting Leanne's Quilt instead of excited. SO i bought a new machine! It's mechanical, not computerized so that saved me a ton of money (some day I will get a really good machine like my mom has) but this is great. It comes with a walking foot and a ton of other feet and a quilting table. It has 80 stitches and some neat features like a needle threader. I'm very happy with it so far. It's obviously not an expensive machine as it's not very quiet when it sews but it's perfect for what I need for a few years!

With that I started block 1 of leanne's quilt, piecing mini blocks 1,2,3!

I want to do the embroidery and applique before doing block 4 and 5 but as it was rising in temperature in the apartment under my sewing lamp we decided to put the A/C in the bedroom and finish the night sitting in the cool room - so I started Blackwork Dragon again on Wandering Ivy Linen (36ct) with WDW thread. I'll show a picture soon, not much progress yet.

So that is why it was such a great weekend - I got a bunch of new toys!

Quick post:

Mini Cottages II finished!:


And the floss toss for the Celtic Banner (butternut road's):


That may not be the final floss toss as I may be substituting some of those colors tonight but the bright greens are definitely staying! I may just add in a bit more purple instead of the pinks.

Wow - i finally joined the blogroll thing - and i love it! Sure makes checking blogs go faster! That was great!

Hehehe!!
So last night was stitch night and I found out that one of my good friends is going to start Celtic Banner really soon - and another good friend and I both have this with the green conversion and want to stitch it as well ... so we bought fabric! So it looks like this will be starting soon, I have to gather the huge amount of floss I will need (in greens not browns!) and figure out if I can borrow scroll rods from my first friend as she said she has plenty and then we'll start!

So that's one new project that will be under way and this morning I went through my charts really quick and pulled all the ones that I really really want to start this weekend, these are my choices:
America, The Beautiful by Rosewood Manor*
Dry Turkey by Raise The Roof
Elemental Cosmos by Witches Stitches
Shamrock Sampler by Sweetheart Tree
Just A Little Peace and Quiet by Dragon Dreams

*This one is one I want to do for my aunt.

So today at lunch I will try to figure out what color family of fabric I want for most of them and then when I get home tonight I can widdle down my list based on the fabric I actually have available. I might just choose to do Dry Turkey because it's so small and will go quickly since Celtic Banner will NOT go quickly :)
Right and Celtic Banner is going to be on yellow fabric - 32ct. Oh I can't wait! I love starting new projects!!!

Finished!!!

I can't post a picture yet since I wasn't home last night and probably won't have time tonight but SOON - Mini Cottages II is finished! This is just awesome, I finished all the backstitching last night! I actually have Mini Cottages III that I could always start now but I'm going to hold off just a little bit.

I really got into working on Peaceful Silhouette yesterday at lunch so I think I'll bring that to stitch tonight to work on and this weekend while I'm "traveling" to NY I will work on my appleseed needlecase from celebrations that has to be ripped out and restarted.

And now - i really can start another new piece! So friday night I will be going through my stash to see what really pulls at me and what i have fabric for, some options off the top of my head are:

Blackwork Dragon (DD)(restarting this on Wandering Ivy fabric)
Just a Little Peace and Quiet (DD)
Shepherd's Purse (Shepherd's Bush Kit)
Piece for my aunt (don't know the name)
Petal Fairy in purple conversion!

That's just a quick list from the top of my head but once I look through all my designs I'll figure out the few that I really really must do next and then figure out what I have fabric for. Just in case I have to wait on fabric I will buy the thread I need for blackwork dragon tonight since I do have that fabric specially ordered already :)

No stitching -
Well yesterday at lunch got really busy so no stitching then and last night I was supposed to work on the website but with internet problems I just couldn't get motivated so I wound floss on bobbins while watching some more Oz. I'm now in the 900's with my floss winding - this is taking forever! :)

Today I will definitely stitch Peaceful Silhouette at lunch and Mini Cottages tonight at my aunt's. Then tomorrow night is stitch night so I will continue the backstitching on Mini Cottages then too.

In other news - I found the two skeins of WDW i bought for Kindom Sampler! Thank you carol for the offer - i knew I had them around someplace and found them this morning, pretty close to where I thought I had put them but hidden with a pattern I had bought at the same time. I would say which pattern but I already forgot the name of it and can't find it with any searches!

Well it's getting close to lunch - maybe I should stop munching on frosted mini wheats - not that good dry anyway.

SAL night :)


Ah yes - so far so good with monday nights. I went to the grocery store, cooked up some burgers and corn on the cob and then settled in for almost 3 hours of stitching! The only problem is I had to frog! I was stitching away on the castle and accidentally stitched that whole spine or whatever in the light grey! So I pulled that all out and stitched the darker grey where it was supposed to be - okay I didn't pull it completely out .. hehe.. The last row I left in the first leg (half stitch) in light grey and stitched the final leg in the dark grey, it mostly works, a little blended look but it's blending from one color to the next anyway.
So now you know my secret - very often I stitch "over" when I mess up if I can get away with it, I did it a few times on Going To Market and on Mini Cottages II I think I messed up twice and did the same, always with only a stitch or two.

I can't wait until next week, I figure I will always start with some of the more boring (fill in some more trees) and then work on the fun stuff (the castle!) for a bit at the end!

I bought the WDW for this - but I can't find it! I cleverly put it someplace safe and I have no idea if it's in my closet or a stitching bag somewhere - hmph - i organize too much it seems :) Luckily I have a week to find it!

I nice weekend - not a lot of stitching time but lots of family time :) I love hanging out with my three little cousins and that's what we did this weekend. Plus friday night we went out to dinner and then saw X3 which was awesome and I so hope not the last Xmen movie they make.

On the stitching front I have a progress pic of Mini Cottages II:


As you can see the stitching part is done and now I'm just backstitching, the first 2 houses I finished last night on our drive home and I couldn't get myself to pic up my stitching after we got home, i was just too tired, I wound some floss on bobbins while watching Oz season 2 instead.

And tonight is Kindom Sampler SAL with Carol. Of course I have to work first :) And at lunch I plan to work on Peaceful Sillhouette, last week got so busy at the end that I missed out on it and I have a lot to do in order to finish the second boat by the end of the month.

Maybe with working on Mini Cottages tues and wed it can get finished up by the end of the week!

Ack - it's almost the weekend!

Today has been slightly busy - the kind of busy where the next thing you know it's 1pm and you haven't even thought of lunch! I did get to eat though - plenty - at 1:30 and now i'm winding down, things have been finished up as of 10 minutes ago, i'm catching up on emails from earlier that i just skipped because I was living directly in the now.

Last night was great, my regular stitch group didn't meet but i got to meet with my closest stitch buddy and work a little on Mini Cottages II again - a little more sky fill in. I'm up to the point where I have to add the moon before filling the rest in or else I'll mess it up for sure :) Then I just have the ground! Hopefully sunday i can work on this a little.

Tonight is X3!!! And tomorrow is working on my car and going to my cousin's recital, definitely no stitching time. Hopefully time enough to get all my car work done so I can spend sunday relaxing and work on the website a bit.

It looks like I'm working late next monday night due to this deadline on tuesday but that means I can leave early hopefully next friday and with no plans as of yet i'm hoping it will be a crafty weekend with maybe a little quilting - but that's pretty far off - first --- this weekend!

Hour left to go till i hit traffic :)

No pictures just yet but I worked on Mini Cottages II some more last night, I finished the stitching on the last house, all I have left (besides backstitching), is half the blue sky, the moon and the ground. I will probably stitch more sky tonight and hopefully the moon and this piece will definitely be finished by the end of this month!

So it's time to plan what to start next! I think the one I want to stitch for my aunt is pretty high up on the list of possibilites, I also have 2 little babies that will need stitching by november and december this year, one i hope to stitch a pooh thing for (it's older sister got a Pooh wallhanging I stitched so I think a framed Pooh piece would go well). The other baby might get a baby quilt instead of stitching as it's mother is the one I made the wedding quilt for and she loved it and she's not a fan of stitching I think. I wonder how that quilt I made them is doing...

Anyway - so I will have to start planning some new starts.. there's always "Winter in My Garden" that i'd like to start too!

Atlantic City anyone?

Has anyone ever stayed in Atlantic City? Do you have any suggestions for places to stay that are reasonably placed? We are thinking about doing an end of the summer vacation there with my sister and her boyfriend on a wed-sun but so far the prices are looking crazy! We'd like to be close to the boardwalk and enjoy both beaches and casinos but maybe we'll take the few extra hours drive to virginia beach which seems much cheaper!

I did it - i worked on the website!

Unfortunately I didn't also fit in going to the gym or getting up and running this morning but one step at a time!

I hit SO much traffic on my way home last night, I was 45 min later than expected so my dinner was late and by 8 I was finally on my computer ready to work on the website. I got 2 hours in but wasn't done by 9 like i'd hoped so i could go to the gym, but by 10:20 i was in bed as usual which was good.

Tonight i go to my uncle's so I'm sure to get some stitching time in, i'm either going to work on Mini Cottages II or pull out my appleseed needlecase that I wanted to start over which means taking out what i already did. Luckily that's done in DMC so if i run out of thread i always have more.

Well time for some breakfast and time to figure out what i am doing today!

A new start!!!

Carol and I have started a new SAL - Kingdom Sampler by Dragon Dreams. She started with the dragon (which I kind of guessed she would since it's like getting the face done :) and I was very tempted) but I decided to go with the castle side first, also so I can do the alphabet in order as I go along since I decided I am going to do the alphabet.

So my monday night SAL progress:

It's not much, I started the outter border, marking each 10th half stitch with a whole to make it easier to count, then I started in on the grass so I can work up to the castle. I'm hoping if I save the dragon until I'm almost done then I will stay motivated.

So last night was a great stitchy night, I came home, cooked dinner, ate dinner and relaxed watching a few profiler episodes (2) while stitching. Then I read - keeping to 20 minutes a night is getting me slowly through Sixpence House.

On the horizon - I think I will start "Just a Little Peace and Quiet Please" or this patriotic quilt theme piece for my aunt next - probably next week if I can get fabric together.
Tonight - I must work on the website - been a LONG time but it's really needed now - both money wise and just because there are things that need to be done!

A great stitchy weekend :)

And to top it off i remembered pictures! Friday I went shopping and then we ordered dinner in and relaxed for the night. Saturday was a stamping party where I ordered some retiring stamp sets I've really wanted and then went out to dinner and bought some new movies to watch while I stitched. (the beginning of the stitching).

Sunday I slept late and then cleaned the whole apartment - including organizing my closet and the livingroom. It feels great to be all clean again. Around 3:30 I settled in for a stitchy afternoon while watching the rest of the srubs season we had. That was about 6 hours of stitching - and here is Mini Cottages II with all my progress from the weekend ... i apologize for the flash, it makes it hard to see the actual stitching but my next picture should be better especially once I start backstitching:


And my week's progress on Peaceful Sillhouette:


TONIGHT Carol and I start Kingdom Sampler as a SAL ... I can't wait, i brought my pattern to work so I could blow it up a bit - it's a little tiny to read - and I'm ready to go! I may only have about an hour to stitch but any start is still a start!

I may be able to finish up Mini Cottages by the end of the month which would be good as I plan on starting another new piece this month already so finishes would be good :)

Stitch stitch stitch!

Traffic was horrible last night on my way to stitch but I made it by 6 (unfortunately I had left work early hoping to be early enough to stop home quick and that didn't happen).

I worked on Mini Cottages II which really goes much faster than I think. I worked on the sky some more and then the white which is in the windows of some houses and the top of another house. I'm looking forward to making some progress on this piece this weekend before monday's start of Kingdom Sampler.

So I have just caved in to something new ...
Leanne's House
I know a few bloggers are doing this as a SAL which is what caught my attention but mostly I just love this quilt! With applique and embroidery it's just perfect for me so I'm going to sign up today. Spreading the payments over 10 months makes it not too bad anyway and hopefully i'll be getting a raise 2 weeks from now.

Now I must go order the car parts I need for working on my car next weekend. Unfortunately that will add up but I should be able to repair the caliper instead of buying a new one which saves a lot of money!

June Goals:
1) Tie baby quilt (hopefully it will happen this month)
2) Start Kingdom Sampler!
3) Work on Peaceful Silhouette
- finish second boat
4) Work on Mini Cottages II
5) Stitch appleseed needlecase
6) Get pieces ready to frame and buy frames!

And how did I do?
May Wrapup:
1) Tie baby quilt [not yet]
2) Cut binding for baby quilt [not yet]
3) Work on Tiffany's Sweet bag needlecase [nope]
4) Work on Peaceful Silhouette [YES]
5) Work on Going To Market - start boy [FINISHED WHOLE PEICE!]
6) Work on Mini Cottages II [YES]
7) Stitch blackwork piece from celebrations [YES -finished]
8) Stitch round robin piece from celebrations [YES - finished basket]
9) Get Kingdom Sampler ready to start?? [YES ready to start!]
Also finished woven butterfly this month! And the Saturday night event piece.

No real stitching news - no stitching yesterday. My dentist appointment went just fine and then after work I went to my cousin's soccer game before dinner and getting back around 10 which left me exhausted and I just read a little bit.

Today though I do plan on stitching on Peaceful Silhouette at lunch and maybe Mini Cottages II at stitch probably. Getting close to the weekend again! :)

Oh right - must do goals for the month!