It's good as new!

This is my daughter's blessing dress that I made 8 years ago. I pulled it out of the closet to use it for a talk that I had to give, and to my horror there were yellow spit up stains all over the front of it. I know I put it away clean, but over time the stains began to reappear. I've been soaking it in the laundry room sink for literally 3 weeks. After all of that patient time, the stains have finally come out, and it looks as good as new!
This was my first attempt at French hand sewing and smocking. I think it turned out lovely. I thought I would show it to you all before it goes back into storage.

This was a very enjoyable project to do. I loved working with fabric, batiste, and learning how to use my machine to make the little pin tucks.

My son was having a "late nighter" party last night. It was a little wild with six, twelve year old's, having a nerf gun war on my stairs (inside the house mind you!). Somehow, I was able to get a little stitching in. Honestly, it's probably the only thing that was keeping me sane during the chaos! I'm going to try and finish this block today, and move on to some of my other March goals.
Have a great day! Thanks for looking, and posting your comments. I love them!

Finishes 2

I wanted to show you my section finished on the needlework set we are giving my friend with breast cancer. I think it turned out really well. It is from the online needlework magazine "The Gift of Stitching", and is a sewing set by Lody Steward of Timber Creek Needleworks. I've changed the colors to match fabric for a purse that all the pieces will all go inside. Very fun project, and super fast! Have a great day!

Finishes!

Hi to all. I want to thank all who come and leave comments on my blog. When I first started blogging, I thought I would do it more as a to do list, but now I get up every morning and check my blog list to see if anyone has written anything new. I enjoy reading about your families, your stitching, quilting, funny things you've done, etc, etc. It is the highlight of my day.
I'm also inspired to get more projects done! I should quit playing around on the computer and keep working on those projects, but it's just so fun to see what everyone else is doing!

Here are some finishes I have this week. My goals this month are seriously in trouble, but I've worked on many things that weren't part of my goals list, so therein lies the problem!

Bent Creek's "Hunt" framed and on my kitchen table at the moment.

Valentine Heart's by Blackbird Designs. I wasn't sure I liked the yellow flowers in this, but decided to leave them after I was finished. I love the frame, it really brings out the red's and browns in this piece.

This is a quilt I've had at the quilters since November. My son forgot to tell me, (he says he told me, but I was on the phone so I didn't hear him.) Uh huh. Anyway it's been done since January, and Sue called to find out what happened to me. Needless to say I just got it picked it up.

This was a block exchange I did in my quilt guild about 4 years ago. The colors were suppose to be, brown, lime green, and "doggy dinky pink". There were 24 more blocks to this quilt, but I wanted to change the original pattern and do this one instead. As it turns out, a good friend that did the exchange with us, needed several more blocks to make her quilt to fit her king size bed, so I gave her the rest of mine. I can't wait to see what she does with them!

This was quilted by Sue Hill in South Ogden. She is so creative. I love how she quilted a tulip in each block around the border. Must have taken her forever! I would never have thought of that.

Sue's quilting is amazing. This is one of the blocks that I did for the exchange.

This is "cow" minky (super soft, wanna touch and feel it) fabric that I've tried to hide from my daughter for 5 months. I planned to put it on the back of a quilt, but she kept climbing up on the dresser in the closet to get it down. She loves how soft the fabric is, and kept dragging it around the house. (It was originally a 3 yard cut, so it was huge!) When she took it to Grandma's while I went to Portland, I decided it was high time I get a blanket made for her. For someone who quilts, it's pretty bad when your daughter is carrying around fabric for 5 months. I finally got some brown minky, and just did a simple specialty stitch around the edge. I have plenty of cow fabric left, so I'm going to make her a matching pillow case. She loves it!

I've also finished dd's Easter skirt, but I need to do a little tweaking on it before I can take a picture. I'm off to do that now!

Have a great day!

Portland shopping spree!

Pictures of the stuff I bought to add to my stash.
New patterns I love!

I just returned home from a whirlwind trip to Portland yesterday. I have sort of a "job" that I have been "invited" to do. I'll try and explain, but pay attention, it is a little tricky! My wonderful Sister-in-law Melanie, (who is really the closest thing I have to a sister, since I was the only girl, and grew up with 5 brothers), has a sister, Kim. She has a manufacturing business in which she has to buy copious amounts of fabric on a regular basis. I'm not telling you what the business is, because it's shroud in secrecy. I asked her if I could blog about it, and she said "No!!!", so that's all I'm going to say. Anyhow, when she goes on fabric buying trips, she invites Melanie and I to go along and be her employees, because she thinks we have such incredibly good taste (LOL) that we can help her pick out coordinating fabrics. Kim's friend (and now our friend), also goes to buy for her own quilting business, "Quilts and then some." She is the funnest 72 year young person you will ever meet. We stay laughing with Ellen around!A new oil cloth bag, and lots of notions!

We went to Houston quilt market last fall, and had a wonderful time seeing the new fabric lines, and meeting designers. That trip was far less expensive, because you can't really buy fabric at the show.
This week was a little different, as we went to E.E. Schenk's "Trends" show. They are a distributor, and have bolts of fabric on clearance, and new stuff as well.

We drove 14 hours to get to Portland, which didn't seem as bad going, as it did coming home, when we were sandwiched in with about 100+ bolts of fabric!My small portion of the bolts of fabric we had to ride home with!

It is truly a sight to see us running around grabbing fabric bolts and matching it up with other bolts. We are really loud, and obnoxious, yelling across the warehouse, "Look what I found!" I could always locate Kim, because her phone would ring non stop!
Your arms get tired, and you get a little dirty, but it really is the funnest "job" I've ever had.

Saturday we had tickets to go and see the Broadway show Wicked. It really was as fabulous as I had heard. The story is cleaver, the music and sets are out of this world. It was the highlight of the trip, if you can believe it's better than buying fabric! I forgot my camera, so I couldn't even take a picture before it began, but if you have a chance to see it, DON"T MISS IT! It is fabulous, beyond!

Here is another thing I'm working on. We have a dear friend in our stitching group, that found out she has breast cancer. We are all stitching a part of this needlework set to give to her. We are all praying for a safe and quick recovery. I changed the colors to match a purse that Melanie made. I don't think she reads my blog, so I hope I won't spoil the surprise by showing this early!

Have a great day to all!

I have a million of these, why do I need another?

I'm not talking about things on my to do list, I'm talking about pincushions, of course! I love them! I've decided I definitely have a pincushion collection, as I can't stop making them! Why not? They're fast, cheap to make, and provide a function. So here's to our pincushion collection's girls! I'm embracing it, as I know that this addiction isn't going away anytime soon!
Here's my next one, from Happy Zombie, already planned out.

We made these pincushions in quilt guild last weekend, and they were really fun, so I made two. You use 3 old CD's in the base to make it easy to piece the two pieces together. It's also filled with emery and more stuffing than your stomach could hold on Thanksgiving day, which makes it a really nice weapon if someone were going to break in and steal your sewing stuff!
If you want the full instructions, here is the link. Have a great day.

March Goals

Hi to all. I'm really liking this accountability to my computer thing. I seem to really work better on projects if I have a goal in sight, so here are my finishes for February, (where did that month go?), and my goals for March.

I finished this little design last night. A shout out to my blog friend in Ireland, Siobhan.
You can read her blog at "Notes from Blue Hen Hollow."

February Finishes:
1. Bent Creek's "Hunt" sheep, finished on the airplane to and from Orlando! It's being framed right now!
2. "Valentine Hearts" by Blackbird. Finished and at the framers. (Victory Dance!) I'll post pictures when I get them back next week.

3. Sunflower Hill Designs "Fresh Pickings".
This was enjoyable as projects get.

I spent my whole Saturday cleaning and changing over the decorations. (I have major spring fever), and I love these new spring touches.

March Goals

1. Finish Cambry's Easter skirt.
2. Finish cutting out the "Home Sweet Home" quilt by Blackbird.3. Finish the blocks for "A Tisket, a Tasket" block of the month. This is block one, (ready to be appliqued). I need to finish block two and three (which will be available in a few days.) You can print these incredibly fun designs on Bunny Hill Designs blog.
. Finish "Angels O'er this House" by Chessie and Me. Sorry I don't have a picture for this. I borrowed the pattern out of my Stitch groups library.

5. Finish block two and three of "The Shores of Hawk Run Hollow", by Carriage House Designs. I love this sampler. I am stitching on 36 Count Edinburough fabric (My own tea dyed color), and Vikki Clayton silks.

6. Finish the last row of "Alphabet Village". I posted this as a goal in January and haven't done a thing on it. Shame on me!

Fun Travels:
I am going to Portland with a bunch of fun family and friends, to buy fabric at "Trendz". I'm so excited to see what is new on the market. I am going to try and have self control, and not buy everything I see, Heaven help me!

I'm also going to a quilter's retreat. I love attending this event with a few friends. We sew from Thursday to Saturday, and it always proves to be my most successful quilting day of the year. Last year I got 3 quilt tops done, and a table runner sewn. Yippee!