Where Did 2013 Go?

Hello blogging friends. It has been a whirlwind year!  I have managed to finish a few things and I thought I would post them so that I can look back and remember what I accomplished. It was not as much as I would have liked, but a few things none the less.  This is the first time I have used my iPhone to post so I hope the pictures will be satisfactory. Above is my Shores framed. 

This is a punch needle pattern by Buttermilk Basin. It is in a series of blankets for a sheep. I mounted it on a hanging basket and added some rusty keys to the side. 

Halloween Queen by Notforgotten Farm. I stitched this on vacation in October.  I used the color changes from Shepherds Bush and added the buttons as they suggested. I loved stitching this!!!

This is a long retired pattern from CedarHill Cross Stitch. I have had it in my stash for a long time. I changed the colors to Gentle Art and it stitched up in a couple of nights. I love the frame for this piece. 

This is a little Shepherds Bush kit called Fa La La sheep. I stitched this on vacation too. Sorry for the blurry photo. 

This table runner is from a Primitive Gatherings magazine I believe it was Fall 2013. A couple friends and I made this at my house at a mini retreat we had in the Fall. This is a gift from my mom. It is a pattern by Pine mountain designs. I love how it sits on a cocktail plate that is glued to a candle stick holder. So clever. 

In September I went to a quilting retreat with my guild and I assembled some quilts that I had been doing as exchanges.   This is Kim Diehl's Idaho Farm Girl. This was a difficult quilt but the results were worth the effort!  

This is another exchange called The Spool Quilt from Edyta Sitar. It's from the book Friendship Strips and Scraps. I still have all of the appliqués on the border to do. That may take another retreat to finish!  

Another exchange we did several years ago. This one is called Girl Gang. I want to add a piano keyboard border to this quilt and back it with something soft. It looks like a nice usable quilt to me. 

Finally a Bullseye Quilt that we cut out using an Accucut machine. We exchanged blocks after all the sewing was done.  This quilt was made out of scraps we would normally throw away. There were no rules on fabrics, it was anything goes!  I love to sit and look at all of the odd combinations of fabrics. It was fun to put this one together.  

Earlier in the school year I took my kids to the Utah Shakespeare Festival and to Bryce Canyon. My daughter wanted a costume to wear so I made this from fabric and scraps I had on hand. I didn't buy one thing for it except grommets which my dad gave to me. He bought a package at Harbor Freight for $3.00 and they worked great!  That was a lot better than buying them at the sewing store. 

For Thanksgiving we were in Arizona and my mom and I went to The Attic for a visit.  I bought the pattern for this sampler, Petite Mexican Sampler by Sampler Workes. The company is no more so once the patterns are gone it will be OOP.  I thought is would look great with this little sampler ....

My Scarlett Letter sampler ABCD 1817.  I finally finished it last weekend!  It only took me all year to complete. I changed the colors and added the date and initials of friends.  

I loved seeing all of the Scarlett House samplers in the store. Tanya has an eye for great things!  I want to stitch them all!  

For now I am working on Snow Days by With Thy Needle and Thread.  Conversion by The Atttic Needlework store in Mesa Arizona. 

There are a few more things I could share but I think this post is long enough. I will share them next time. 

I hope all is well with all of you!  Enjoy your holiday season!  

Pumpkins for Cathey!

Please hop on over to Daffycat's (Sharon's) blog to see the list of all that participated in this special surprise for Cathey.  And, if you aren't familiar with Cathey's story, please hop on over to Pumpkin Patch and Co.   Be ready to cheer her on in her battle against cancer.  Be Strong Cathey.               

My New Favorite Vintage Clothing Website

Hi blogging Friends,

A few weeks ago, I was contacted by a wonderful clothing company called "Shabby Apple". They were wondering if I would be interested in reviewing a dress for them.  Well, of course I jumped at the chance, especially since this company was new to me.  I was curious to see what they had to offer. They specialize in Vintage Clothing.

Choosing a dress was not an easy task.  Seriously, there were so many darling things to look at, that I poured over their website for days!  Finally I decided on a dress called, "Heart of Me", because it was different than anything that I own...and IT'S RED!  I just love the color red. 

One thing I really love about Shabby Apple, is that they donate a portion of their proceeds to a charity organization named Unitis.  Their mission is to give micro-loans to the world's working poor.  The clothing tag on the article of clothing will tell you a name of someone that they are helping.  My tag had the name of a 35 year old widow from India, who is a bamboo weaver and has benefited from a micro loan of $89 to help her with her business.  I love supporting companies that use their good fortune to help others.

The dress was a wonderful lightweight cotton, and was a great color with a soft white flower print on it.    It had some great details, such as lots of pleats and generous amounts of fabric.  I loved the giant bow in the back.  It was well constructed.  I ordered a size bigger than normal based on the website reviews, and did not have to do any modifications to it.

Heart of Me dress by Shabby Apple

They are reviving the art of the dress, and have expanded their clothing line to tops, skirts and swimwear!  They also have wonderful accessories, and shoes.  Please, go and check them out!  You can like them on facebook and follow them on instagram for special savings.  I am going to buy my next holiday dress from Shabby Apple!


That's all for today friends.  I am working on a blog post to show you what I've been up to all summer long.  Happy Sewing and shopping. 

Getting my head back in the game!

 

 

Hello!  How do I come back from such a long absence?  I'm just going to jump back in with both feet and hope for the best.  Hopefully someone out there will be somewhat inspired by the progress I've made the past several months.  I finished my Shores of Hawk Run Hollow, by Carriage House samplings!  (Hallelujah chorus singing!) It was stitched with Vicki Clayton Silks, and a few NPI silks.  The fabric is 36 count cream, that I hand dyed with tan Rit dye.  Wow, did it ever feel good to put  the final stitches in this sampler.  This sampler took me just over 5 years to complete, and I dedicated it to my husbands 7th grandfather back.

William Mayne Duncanson was a Captain for the East India Trading Company.  He amassed a fortune during his trading days, and moved to Washington D.C. in 1794.

With that fortune he built a beautiful historic home near the nations capital, which is one of the few houses still standing today.  It was named, The Friendship House or The Maples.  The house was finished in 1796.  William entertained guests such as George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson and was influential in politics and government.  Sadly not long after finishing the home, his business partner swindled him out of his fortune, and he lost his home.  He passed away in much more modest circumstances.  The house was later owned by Francis Scott Key. 

It was fascinating to read his story and to learn more about this relative.  In 2012 a development company bought the home, and they are now building upscale condos around the property.  The home will serve as a gathering place for the residents.  I can't wait to go and see it someday.  It has such a rich history.  I stitched a bit of this history on the bottom of the sampler, and will include a more detailed history with the frame. 

I got a few quilts back from the quilters and I have been busy putting on bindings.  This is a quilt top that my mom made for my 40th birthday.  This quilt is called The Journal Quilt and it's by Wednesday's Best Quilts. 

This is The Garden Fence by Fig Tree Quilts.

This quilt is called "Home is Where the Haunt Is".  It's by Kimberbell Designs, and was a mystery quilt that I signed up for a few years ago. 

This is called "A Vintage Christmas" and it's by Bunny Hill Designs. 

I got this framed a while ago, but never showed it on my blog.  This is called "The Village Alphabet" by Cross My Heart.  This one took a whopping 18 years to complete. 

I absolutely love the way this sampler turned out.  This is a Quaker friendship round robin that many friends stitch on.  It is one of my favorite samplers of all time!  I think the frame goes perfectly with it. 

This is Hillside Traveler, by Little House Needleworks.  This is another favorite sampler.  Do you ever have a sampler that  you wish you could hang in several places in your house at once?  I feel that way about this sampler.

Sorry about the flash showing on the glass in this sampler.  This is The Weeping Tree Sampler by The City Stitcher.  I have this hanging in my kitchen.

This little quilt was easy to do.  I just had to add the boarder and binding.  I quilted it myself, because I need the practice.  The doll clothes were ironed onto fusible fleece, and then cut out.  I made a little bag to put all of the clothes in, and I think I'll keep this out were it can be played with during the Christmas season.  I took this to my guild for show and tell, and after the meeting about 5 ladies ran up to the local quilt shop, and bought the rest of their panels.  It's so cute in person. 

In January, I took a class from Lisa Bongean of Primitive Gatherings.  She is a fabulous teacher, and if you get the chance to take a class from her, do not hesitate!  I didn't think I would learn that much, as I have been doing embroidery for 30 years, but I found her techniques improved my stitching by leaps and bounds.  We made this wall hanging on the first day.  Wool, is my new obsession.  I have a lot of wool projects in the works right not. 

In February, my daughter talked me into remodeling her room.  It was quite an undertaking!  I guess after 10 years of being in our home, it was time to make the bedrooms more appealing to teenagers.  So this is what my daughters room looked like before...

..and this is after.  I had to do about 15 coats of paint to get it to this point.  I don't look forward to painting over that black someday.  She absolutely loves her room now!  It's so girly, with lots of black Eiffel tower accents.  The best part is, she keeps it really clean!

Unlike my son, who's room was such a disaster, we opted to take things out of it, rather than clean it up for a before photo opp.  It looks like his comforter needs some readjusting in this picture, but at least he made his bed, right?  We added a queen bed to his room, and painted the dresser to match.  I am going to paint his room this summer.  I'm thinking gray and white.  I am a little tired of the tan and red, although it's not bad. 

My in laws moved last summer, and wanted to clear out some of their things, so we inherited this antique type set case.  It's kind of a fun way to display little treasured knick-knacks that you don't know what to do with.  Many of the things in here came from my husbands grandparents, and then we added little special things that have been given to us over the years too.

I made more Abbey Bags.  One for my sewing room, and one for a gift.  They are so much fun to make.

I got some wonderful treasures for my birthday.  I have sweet friends!

One of the wool projects I started is this wool lamb by Buttermilk Basin.  I am working on getting blankets cut out to take on vacation.  It's easy to get them cut out and ironed down, the sewing is the part that takes me forever. 

This little project was intended for Valentines day, but I just got it sewn into a pillow last week.  This comes from the Valentine Need'l Love book.  I still need to make some buttons flowers to tuck into the heart pocket, but once summer hits, I should have time to work on it.

I'll leave you with another fun antique we inherited.  Another summer project on my list is to make a Gail Wilson doll to put on this chair.  I love the way it sits in my stairway.  

I hope this post finds you all well dear blog friends.  May you enjoy each moment with your sewing and do as much of it as you can.  Talk to you all soon!