I need accountability!

Hello friends! 

 I’ve been absent from the blogging world for several years now. What happened to me?  Well, that’s a good question.  

The move we understook, also included designing and building a modern home, which does not look anything like my previous French Country home.  We literally sold most of the furniture, and minimized our work in the yard and house.    I’ve gotten rid of so much decor, that my stitching and quilting doesn’t really work in my house anymore.  Also, my personal growth, as a wife and mom, was challenged to the max, and it’s taken over 3 years to sort through life events.  I am a woke woman now, who meditates daily, tries to remain present, and is living with abundant joy and energy. 

I’ve eliminated a lot of stash, but I’ve recently felt a renewal to stitch. 

This is the only area of my home that looks anything like my old house. This chair belonged to my husbands grandmother, and I Iiked the modern lines, and couldn’t part with it.  So I draped a quilt from Kim Diehl, which was an exchange quilt I did several years, over the back, and brightened it with a new side table, which holds many fun projects, and books.  

New stitching area. 

I decided to focus my stitching on class pieces I’ve taken over the years.   This one is called “A Needleworker’s Sampler Huswif, and it’s by Ellen Chester

These are the ivory tools, made from recycled piano keys,  that go inside the huswif.

I am also working on another class project, called "The Toy Chest Etui", by Betsy Morgan.  This one is getting most of my attention, and I will post progress as I go.  

As my title states, I did better at projects when I had accountability, so I'm hoping that renewing this blog, will give me some motivation.  

See you next time!

Big plans!

Hello blog friends!  It's been too long!  I have many things that have been keeping me from posting, most of them are not good. We have had our share of personal trials, medical issues and just plain old stress!   

We are ready for some changes this year, and have decided to make a major move to Southern Utah! Think Zion's and Bryce canyons and Tuacahn, Utahs Broadway in the Desert.   We are all getting really excited, and have made several trips to Saint George to look for houses. We found one we really like, so now it's time to get serious about selling our home. We love our home, and so this is not an easy choice, but this will be a good thing for our family. Plus we want to downsize our house and get rid of some of the yard work and cleaning so we can hike and run and enjoy the fabulous weather that Southern Utah is famous for. Yeah more time for sewing and stitching too!!  

Me and my kids at Bryce Canyon. This was the trip that got our noggins thinking about moving!  

Here are some things I've worked on since my last post. 

This is "Pomegrante Table Runner" by Ginger Sanchez. It has been in my stash for a super long time so I don't know if the pattern is still in print. I used silk matka for the background fabric and it drapes beautifully. When I took this to guild, the owner of our local quilt store said no one was buying that fabric so she had taken it home and put it in her garage!  Several people talked her into bringing it back to the store so they could use it for backgrounds. True story!

I was gifted this kit several years ago and finished this table topper up at a retreat this Fall. It only took one day to sew together. It's called "Abundantly Blessed" by Cotton way. I have made this twice but forgot to photograph the second one before I gave it away. Darn!

At Christmas time, I had a little sewing party for some friends, and we made this project. This is "Christmas Mouse" by Brenda Gervais. I sewed the bodies up before hand and then when everyone came, we stuffed them and gave them

personality. I had a tub of tea dye made up that we brushed the mice with and we baked them. It was a day complete with food, chocolate and laughter!  I couldn't find the rope twine for the tail so we used a chenille pipe cleaner and wrapped it with chenille trim to give it some fullness. It was a great day!  

I put this Halloween quilt together at the same retreat that I went too. It's one that has been in my stash for a while as well. It is called "Its Halloween" by Village Dry Goods. 

I apologize for the plastic on this frame but it is packed away and won't be out until after the move. This is "For Thine is the Trick or the Treat" by Prairie Moon. I stitched on this at a retreat in Yellowstone. The fabric and the thead conversion were from Shepherds bush and the fabric was especially dyed for their store. 

This is a bag I made for my mom for Christmas. She is in two quilt guilds and often needs to haul supplies around. This has an ironing mat, a cutting mat, and a place for a rotary cover.  You can string pearl cotton spools on the ribbon in the center and all of the other essentials are there too. You could even put a quilt inside to take to show and tell. It's called "My Favorite Sewing Bag" by Kansas Troubles. It was a total pain in the behind to make, but I will do anything for my mom!  

My mom does wondeful things for me too!  She made me this darling quilt for Christmas!  I love it so much and I actually had the pattern to make in my stash. It's called "Wonky Winter" by Pine Mountain Designs. I can cross that one off my list now!  

This is called "Blessed Harvest" by Brenda Gervais and I made this for a friend whose birthday was in November. 

Here is another version that has been sitting by my sewing table for 3 months. I should spend 15 mins and finish it up!  Maybe after this post I will do it!  Does anyone else have these projects sitting around? Why are they so hard to get to?

This is another project in the works. It is Called "Gather the Passing Seasons" by Kathy Schmitz. The little quilts will be finished and will hang in the center of the frame with Velcro. We started this in guild 2 years ago and I've been holding off because I wanted to hand appliqué the motifs. Well my hand appliqué skills have not caught up to my desire to have this done. So I've resorted to fuseable web. For something so small, I think it's fine to cheat!  

On my Q-snaps I have Blackbird's "Bird in Hand" pincushion. Oh I thought this would be a fast thing to stitch and wouldn't take much time. Who am I kidding?  I don't seem to have any cross stitching projects that don't take a lot of time. I ripped out a couple of rows on the bird last night because I used a different skein of floss there and it looked too light. I hope I can finish this up this week, as I am anxious to move on to other things. 

One last thing to share. I started this project the minute I got it in the mail. This is from Primitive quilts and projects Spring 2013 and it's called "Stars in the Garden."  This is my first hexie project and they are only 1/4" in size. So finished this quilt will be 13" x 15".  I kitted up a star at a time and kept this by my bed with a little box of thread and scissors. Every night when I would wait for everyone to gather for prayers, I would sew a hexie or two on a star. Well of course after 2 years I should have this done, but I don't, so I moved it to my sewing room and I am auditioning fabrics for the filler blocks. I want to get this finished up this year so it can hang in my new house. 

That's all for now my friends!  Have a wonderful day and thanks for stopping  by.  Enjoy the day!  

The creative things people think of!

Hello my friends.  Summer has flown by and my daughter had already started school and my son starts on Tuesday. It is hard to believe that my vacation time went by so fast!  I have managed to do some wonderful things and I will follow with an update, but this post is about the clever things people think of. 

Last night my husband took me to dinner to Rooster's one of our favorite restaurants in Ogden, Utah.  It's a block from THE one and only famous cross stitch store, Shepherd's Bush. If you haven't been there, then put it on your bucket list. 

Roosters has the most fabulous food!  I don't think I've ever had anything there that I didn't want to try again and again.  Many people feel the same way, as it was unusually busy for a Thursday night and we had to wait about a half an hour for a table. 

Running over to Shepherds Bush would have been my first choice, but sadly, it was closed, so we decided to walk up and down the streets of historic 25th street. We read the signs that talked about Ogden's colorful history. We read about three famous "ladies of the night" and how their brothel houses were center stage during the days of the railroad construction. One lady wore her finest clothes and walked down the streets with her ocelot. Can you imagine the site?  

If that wasn't entertainment enough we enjoyed the colorful pianos that were set out in front of stores along the streets. 

Pretty soon we started to notice crocheted items wrapped around the lamp posts and in the trees. 

The colorful, crocheted items were around planters...

...the statues...(this has to be a favorite). 

..and even the bike racks. 

It became a treasure hunt of sorts. We found little creatures on the top of the buildings. 

and at the bottom of the poles. The store responsible for this?  I am guessing it is this one. 

The Needlepoint Joint, located next door to Rooster's. Here you can see their giant knitting needles displayed. 

There were so many more items I didn't  take pictures of.  Next time I will!!

I applaud their creativity and hope that people will appreciate the time and effort that went into this endeavor.  For those too far away to visit, I hope you enjoy the pictures. Perhaps it will inspire other historical areas to do something clever to their areas as well. Not a bad night to have to wait for a table!  

Have a great day everyone!  

Patriotic Week!

Hello blogging friends!  I wanted to show you a few patriotic finishes that I have worked on during the past year.  I love patriotic things. 

This project was done at girls camp last year. I was one on the leaders that had to go and supervise 25 girls between the ages of 12 and 17 for 5 days.  This definitley helped me stay sane!  

 This is by Little House Needleworks and I'm not sure of the pattern name. An oldie but a goodie!

I finally quilted this little wall hanging by Primitive Gatherings.  It was a class I took a year and a half ago by Lisa Bongean. It was a great project to learn how to perfect my embroidery stitches on.  

This is a wool project I worked on several years ago, but I've never shown it on my blog. The pattern was from an awesome book called Serendipity by The Ginger Cookie Company. The needle punched flag is my own design. 

I finally got this little sheep mounted onto my rolling pin. I saw this idea on a blog that has sadly, since been removed. I attached Velcro on the back so I could add other holiday designs. So far I haven't stitch anything else. Someday!  

I have had these two little designs in my stitching stash forever and I finished them up recently. They are both kits from Shepherds Bush. Both really fun to stitch and not too complicated. I messed up the cutting in the pincushion so one side is smaller than the other!  Ugg. I hate I when I do that. I managed to make it work but it bugs me a little bit. 

This is not a patriotic piece but I just got this quilt ready for the quilters last week.  It's called Winter Wonderland and it's by Crab Apple Hill. It has been languishing in the sewing closet for at least 5 years. I had half of the embroidery blocks stitched and the pieced blocks were done at a retreat several years ago. So I pulled it out at the beginning of June and made a goal to get it finished. I stitched on vacation for a week and finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel when getting the last block stitched. The border was tricky and I had to do some stretching to make it work. Hopefully the quilter can make it lay flat.  I can't wait to get this one in the wall for Christmas. I love the results but it was not my favorite project to do. Sometimes that is the way it is. 

This is my current stitching project that I hope to finish up today. It's new from Blackbird Designs called "In Full Glory".

 A friend kitted it up for me and changed some of the colors. I love how it is turning out!

This is my current quilt project called Farm Fresh by Buggy Barn. I have had the appliqués prepped for a long while and decided it was time to sew them together. I'm really trying hard to finish up old projects. They can be such a pain, but half the work is already done so they go fast. I'm using the starch/freezer paper method and sewing them on with invisible thread. 

This little quilt is by Primitive Gatherings and was given to us in the class I took from Lisa. It was done using those little 2 1/2" squares from Moda that come in a little package. It was so simple and easy to do. I think you could do this for any season using appropriate colors. 

Last of all before I forget and this goes in the decorating closet until spring, I finished up this set this morning. This is "March Hare" by All Through the Night. It was a most delightful project to work on the past few months. 

I found this wonderful grey dot linen fabric at my local quit store and wanted to do something fun with it. The pattern calls for the pillow on black wool but I changed it. I love the ruffle. You will need about a yard of fabric if you want to make this. 

That's all for me today. I have work to do. I have been working on a commercial building design for a friend and have been spending a lot of time at home. I'm grateful that it is summer and I can finish projects!   Thank you for those wonderful friends that leave me comments. I really appreciate them. Enjoy your summer!!!

Catching Up!

So I have been really bad at posting lately. I am not sure if anyone is even reading this blog still, but If you are, thank you!!!  I don't know why my life seems to be so hectic right now, but with two teenagers going every which way, I don't seem to have the life I had before. Not that it was easier by any means. 

I also got a job...more on that later. 

So I have some finishes to share. This is a wool and cotton quilt called Pennies from Heaven. I started this about a year ago and my sister-in-law did the quilting on it. I love the way this turned out. It was not the easiest pattern to construct and after it was put together I noticed some flaws, but it's done. and I will be thrilled to have it on my wall. 

I have several quilts back from the quilters. This was an exchange that we did in quilt guild called "Girl Gang". I'm not sure of the designer. I added the red triangles and piano keyboard. It's a really soft quilt that will get a lot of use at our house. 

This is my first Kim Diehl quilt called Idaho Farm Girl. It was also an exchange.  I really love the colors in this quilt and I can't wait to make another Kim Diehl quilt. I found out yesterday that she is retiring from teaching after 2015, so I hope to be able to find a class to take from her. She is one of my all time favorite quilt designers. 

This is a bullseye quilt that we cut out with an Accucut machine. I used the craziest throw away fabric to make this. The funkiness adds to the appeal. 

This was also an exchange quilt. I added a row of flags and intended to use this as a picnic quilt. My SIL quilted this for me and did such an amazing job, there is no way I'm using this outside!  This is going to be on my wall or bed this season. 

I finished Peter and Peep by Brenda Gervais and got to enjoy him for the Easter season. Once I sat down and focused some attention on him, he went pretty quick. The crocheted lace was made by my mom for my birthday. Which makes it even more special. 

I went to a retreat in April and we all made these hat pincushions. It's a pattern from Need'l Love. 

For my birthday, a friend of mine gave me this darling bird pincushion. She gave me the wire basket the year before and I just put the two together. I have sweet friends!

I pulled out the old punch needle and made a gift for a friend a few months ago. I decide to punch the same design twice so I could have one too. This is by Brenda Gervais. 

I had been recovering my cushions for my patio furniture. Not my favorite kind of sewing but I love the results. 

I still need to make slip covers for the bolster pillows. They will be out of a grey geometric. That is on my agenda today!

So my daughter still has her ballet performance next week, we are just finishing some major construction on our deck and I'm cleaning the garage and I got a job. So I guess I have the right to feel busy!!! Right?  

 I am working as a design consultant for a company called I4C.  We are doing some marketing and advertising right now and I am suppose to start a blog to show trends and forthcoming designs. So please watch for it!!!

We just finished some work for Donny Osmond Home (we redesigned their inspiration catalog for their manufacturers) and we will be meeting them at market in July!  It is an awesome job, that I love!!  What do I do?  Well, consulting with clients on designs, colors, and trends. We do customized trend presentations and swot analysis on businesses. The business owner Mike Collins, is a long time veteran in the furniture design business and is a genius with drawing and furniture design. If you have bought an outdoor set at Costco or Target recently, he probalably designed it. It was an opportunity that I couldn't pass up.  

I hope I have time to sew and do the things I want to do!  One thing is for sure, that I will be doing more social media so you will be hearing from me soon!  Please follow me when I get things up and running. I will keep you informed on all the good decorating ideas coming out.

One hot trend right now is...cross stitch!! How awesome is that?  

Enjoy your sewing time friends!