Moderately Productive

I am on vacation and I shall be productive.  Those were the words I said when I started my vacation.  Then I sat down and talked to myself about how silly that sounded.  What?  Work hard on a vacation?  What kind of a vacation would I have if I tried to be productive throughout the whole time?  Didn't I hear that one should do things in moderation?  Well then I shall be moderately productive.  And that, my readers, is what I have accomplished.

My list of of accomplishments so far has been:

Bought an ice cream maker and tried it out  - yumm (no not the maker, the ice cream sillies)

Finished up two test projects for The Quilt Pattern Magazine - the report will be sent to them in the next day or two

Will finish up putting binding on a co-workers first lap quilt.  I certainly wouldn't have had the ladies in the church group start out with mixed fabric (she has satin, cotton, polyester on front; flannel on back, no batting) and told them to buy the prebought binding.  It's too slippery for her to stitch so I m doing it for her.  It also appears that she didn't tell them to even up the top fabric and the bottom fabric.  BUT it is her first attempt and used material that had been donated (perhaps I should clear out some of my stash and donate) and she has every right to be proud of it.  She incorporated a Chinese Komono from her Grandmother which was nice.

I will start to look through two stacks of t-shirts since I have been asked to make a t-shirt quilt (for $$) and two t-shirt wall hangings (for $$).  I can already see a problem.  The designs on the t-shirts are very large.  They need to be done by November so I have some time to do them.  When the man came to me to ask if I could do it I quoted him my cost and he didn't flinch.  I must quote a higher number next time.  LOL.  Actually it will be higher because I quoted him for a 12" finished block and these designs won't fit in a 12" finished block without cutting off part of it.  I also just noticed that he didn't only include t-shirts.  There are some polo's and dress shirts as well.  Sigh.  I must think on this.

I am deciding if I need to unstitch my 1,000+ cross stitches for The Guardian by Theresa Wentzler and put it on a larger canvas or just adjust when it is done and deal with a small unstitched border.  I think I will only have 1 1/2" of unstitched canvas.  Of course I could just restart the project.

Speaking of cross stitch, I received a new pattern today.  It came from Orenco Originals.

http://www.orencooriginals.net/collections

The one that I got was "Holy Grail Detail (left) from Arts and Crafts Artist William Morris.

The finished size is 10" by 14" and designed for 14 count fabric.  When I first opened up the package I gasped.  I was thinking "Oh my!  No way I can do this chart without blowing it up more so than usual."

Then I realized that there were a lot of pages after that front page.  Four more pages where the pattern had been broken down more and enlarged.  Much easier to see and after I blow it up a bit more for these old eyes to see, it shouldn't be bad at all.

What else was in the chart pack?  A thank you card as well as a card that told a little bit about Orenco Originals.  It had on it certain FREE services such as "...would be glad to re-chart any of our designs for different finished measurement).

They also  had a note about how to read their charts.  It was standard cross stitch stuff but it was done on 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper instead of a 2" column along the side.  That was nice.  Another nice surprise was two hard floss cards.  The symbols were already on them, all I had to do was match up the DMC floss numbers by the symbol, punch a hole, and insert the floss.

I liked my packet.  Oh, did I mention that there are only whole stitches?  No messing with little half stitches or quarter stitches.  YAY!  We'll see how it goes.  I might end up ordering more charts from them if I like it.

This isn't getting anything else done so I'd better send this off and get back to work.  I hope you all have a great day and Happy Stitching!

Sunday Stitching

Good morning!

It's Sunday and I am getting back into my routine.  That means time to do some stitching on Sunday.  I have some (aka - a TON) of applique projects to work on so finding something to stitch won't be a problem.  It will be harder to figure out WHICH one to work on.

I have a couple of small projects which need to be done in a couple of weeks.  They are Test Patterns so I can't show you those.  I will start to prep them at least today.  There are some Splendid Sampler 6 1/2" blocks that have some stitching on them.  I might try and work on those too.

Yesterday was a good day for getting some things done.  One of the blocks for the Splendid Sampler was a mini churn dash.  I decided to make mine bright.  I wanted to bring in some color so here it is.

This is a larger picture of the multi colored fabric.

I'll probably never be good at piecing but I am getting a little better.  Perhaps one day I might enjoy it but don't hold your breath.  I keep trying though.

To push my boundaries with piecing, I am doing a starburst design by Missouri Star Quilt Company.
I have two quadrants (of four) done and pieced together.  This is a bad picture but I'll take a better one later.

It's a black and white piece.  I will probably put a black border around it.

What will you be stitching today?

Happy Father's Day Progress

Happy Father's Day to all my friends.  I hope you had a great day and even if you aren't or weren't a father I hope you all had a great day.

My day was a mixture of things.  I tried to do one of the Splendid Sampler blocks (6 1/2") which was teeny hexies.  The template for the hexies is around 3/4".  My big fingers didn't like that so I have put that aside to try later.

I did, however, finish up May Adinkra block.  I hope that this week the June block will be out.  Here is a picture of all my Adinkra blocks that have been done so far.  I can't believe that I'm up to date with that BOM.  It might be the first one that I've managed to keep up to date on.  :)

I was on a roll so I decided to do something a bit different for me.  I did....drum roll please...Half Square Trianges (HST)!!!!  What brought this on?  I mean now?  I didn't want to do them when they were the bucket list drawing but now I do?  Jeesh.  I need to get with the program.  :)

The reason I was doing them was because I watched the Missouri Star Quilt Company video this week about the East Starburst Quilt.  You can watch it here if you haven't seen it yet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-grDlGdebQI

They used 10" squares to make this large Starburst but I had some precut 5" squares so I dcieed to make a smaller version.  I have all of my HST cut and sewn together and laid out.  That is where I stopped.  I took a picture of it (see below) and I will look at it in a day or two to see if I still like that layout.

Like the one from Missouri Star Quilt Company, I am doing mine in black and white.  Well in shades of it anyway.  I had a Stonehenge stonechip pack so I know that the colors all go together and I had a charm pack of all white 5" squares.  So mine is around half the size as the one they did for the video.  It's not lined up right in the photo since I had to lay it out on two different boards and they are just pinned on.  I can see some little changes I will want to make before sewing it all together.  Then after that I will put on a black border.

Time for me to sign off for the night.  Tomorrow is a busy day at the office tomorrow.  Truman State University McNair Scholar's are coming out on campus for a site visit so I will be busy with them until around 2 p.m.

Everybody have a great day/night.  Until next time...happy stitching.

Sunday Stitching

Hi everybody!

How have you been?  Today has been a busy day of stitching for me.  It's too hot to go outside, plus I'd rather stay in, so I picked up my cross stitch and did another 100 stitching or 1 square on The Guardian.  No pix this time.  I'll take one when I get another 100 stitches done.

That's not all.  I managed to get two blocks done on the Splendid Sampler this weekend!  I am so far behind on them but that's ok.  I save them all and just work on them when I want to or have time.  I wonder how many 6 1/2" blocks I'll end up with.  If I do them all, which I'm not, there would be 100.

Here are my two blocks that I finished this weekend.

The dresden's were terrible to make.  The finished size is barely 6 1/2" so that meant the green stems were 1/4" and the small circles around 3/4".  Yes, those are suppose to be circles.  Same as the center.  Don't blame me.  I can't draw circles, never could, so this was the best I could do.  You can kind of figure out what they are but by the time they are in a quilt and you see it from a distance, they will pass.  LOL.

Here are the other blocks that I have finished so far.

That's my progress report this weekend.  I hope everybody is enjoying their weekend.,  Until next time....Happy Crafting!

Tiny Raven!

Today has been one of those weird days.  I got up early and went to my 7:30 a.m. meeting.  Then, since I was meeting Connie for lunch, I went to the office to spend some time.  While at the office my tooth was bothering me.  Now that could be due to many things but I was guessing that it might be allergy related (educated guess after years of figuring this out).  So I took an a Benedryl and almost missed meeting Connie since I just wanted to put my head down on my desk and sleep.  So I closed y eyes and when I opened them back up I left hte office for the day and went to see Connie.

I had a delightful lunch with her (I usually do) which ended far too soon.   So when I got home I took a nap which lasted for 4 hours!  LOL.  Not my fault.  Connie told me to do it.  I knew I was right about my tooth because the pressure had disappeared.  So I got up around 5 p.m. and found realized I wasted half of the day.  Guess that means I'm on vacation.  :)

I did manage to finish up the raven cross stitch.  Here's the final picture of it.  It's small, only 4" x 4" stitched area.  I am thinking of sending it to a small girl named Raven who just celebrated her 1st birthday.  A small raven for a small Raven.  :)

Time for another Benedryl so I'll sign off.  I hope everybody has a great weekend.

Happy Friday Eve!

A friend of mine coined that phrase so I thought that I would use it today.  Her rationale was if you can have a New Years Eve or a Christmas Eve, All Hallow's Eve, etc. we can have a Friday Eve.  So Happy Friday Eve!

I haven't gotten as much done while on vacation as I hoped for but I did manage to continue to work on my Raven cross Stitch.  I am determined to get it done over vacation time.

I also managed to get another block done in the Splendid Sampler BOM.  I have only done around 5 of the blocks but this is block 30 which was just released today.  I had hoped to get a couple more of the blocks done while on vacation but I'm not sure I will.

I have a couple of Fat Cat Patterns Angel blocks to do.  I think I will try to get four of them done.  I have cut out the fusible for two of them and tomorrow will try to pick out some fabric for their "dresses".

My vacations are usually squirrely.  That is the nice way to say Bonni gets easily side tracked.  I start out on one project and then out of the corner of my eye, for instance, and then I pull that out and get side tracked.  The squirrel reference comes from the animated movie UP!.  The dogs in that movie are usually getting side tracked by the appearance a squirrel or by somebody saying the word squirrel.  I have a couple of friends which have "squirrel" moments and I tell them they squirreled in our conversation.  Of course they do it to me too -- what are friends for.  :)

Back to cross stitching.  And, before anybody asks, yes this blog post was a "squirrel moment" in between taking stitches.

Everybody have a great day and a great Friday Eve!

Black Sunday

Yes, you read that right.  It's a black Sunday.  When I first thought about Black Sunday it was because the color of my thread for the day.  In both my quilting and my cross stitch, I will be using black thread.

I prepped my thread and was all excited about getting to craft.

Emroidery floss for cross stitch all threaded and waiting

I took some left over batting and taped it on my card table next to my laptop.  I do most of my hand stitching and cross stitch while in my living room so I can watch the computer AND television while stitching.  It  might be a bit weird but seems to work in my small space.

Black bobbins all ready and waiting

So I picked up my quilting project and started to quilt.  I thought I'd do the buttonhole stitch by machine this time since I should finish the project in 7 days.  Everything was going along well and THEN I ran into a snafu.

Where did that clump of thread come from?  Why now when it's about half way done?  GRRRRrrrr.

So I decied to take a break from that because I found myself thinking perhaps I'll just scrap that whole idea and see what I can with the fabric instead.  That might still happen.  I hope my sewing machine was just being onry this once since I have a couple of wall hangins that I need to finish while on vacation.

Since I have my black thread all ready for my Raven cross stitch, I thought I'd switch to that.    So now I"m back to looking at the lilac bush and stitching on the Raven.  I decided I should take a better picture of the lilacs.  The other one was taken through the window screen.  Here is an unobstructive view of the lilac bush.

Time for me to get stitching.  So I hope everybody has a good day. 

VACATION TIME!!!!!!!

Yes that is right!  Bonni is on VACATION!!!

Now that means I will probably only go into the office twice in two weeks instead of 10 times or so and I will have a list of projects to work on that I will be lucky to get 1 or 2 things done on.

One of the things that I will be working on is this Raven:

What else will I be working on?  I'm not sure, but I would like to finish a child's quilt (who is now 1 year old) and this Raven.  I have 2 or 3 blocks to do and mail out.  Perhaps work on my butterfly blocks, or teapot blocks or..or...or....

Let's face it.  Trying to come up with projects to work on will not be the problem.  The problem comes in trying to figure out which one to work on first and then remember to work on them.  Mundane things like house cleaning will have to be on the list since I will have company company for 4 days in early June.

Guess I had better get going.

Everybody have a great day!

Weekly Report

Have you ever felt that you were drowning in projects?  Me too!  That's why I try not to think about them.  All those UFOs were brought to mind when I saw the flooding of the Kishwaukee River this week.  It was really weird.  We had heavy rain one night.  On the way to work the next day I saw "puddles" of water in the park area.  By the time I went past them on the way home I only saw water.

By the next morning, I could see the blades of grass starting to peek their blades through the water.  By the end of the week it was back to the periodic puddles of water.

If the water can go back down, I figured I could pick up a UFO or another project to work on.  This week I was working on the Dinos as well as a Cat wall hanging.  I'll show the cat wall hanging later.  I am giving to my friend in June when she comes up for a visit so I want to keep it offline until then.

I have also been working on some cross stitch also and hope to be able to show you some finished projects before too long.  I will be on vacation in a couple of weeks and I hope to get some serious stitching time in.

I'll report on my progress later.  In the meantime, stay warm and have a great day.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all my friends.  Almost everybody I know is a mother.  Either they have children of their own, have pets which they consider their children, or have friends which they act like a mother to (whether the friend wants them to or not).  What am I doing this day?  I have my chores all done so now I can relax.  I have bean soup in the crock pot going and all my dishes are washed AND I have already done laundry.  That means I get to play, right?

Before I do another 100 stitches on my cross stitch dragon, I decided to get a couple of quilt blocks finished.

First up is my 4th Adinkra BOM block.  This one is suppose to resemble a comb.  I think it does but it also resembles a bit of an octopus.  LOL.  i guess we all will see what we want to see.

I am really enjoying doing the Adinkra blocks.  I think it will be cute when it is all done.

I did finish one of my Dino blocks also.

The dark blue blends in a bit but when you see it in person it stands out a bit more.  I am working on the green dino now and I am using a darker green on that which stands out more since the fabric is lighter.

 It makes me happy working on such bright colors.  :)

Another thing that I discovered this morning, when I was at Michael's buying more blue embrodiery floss, was this little bobbin holder.  It seems most people keep trying to find the "best" thing to use for a bobbin holder.  I saw this and thought it might be a good idea.

I like the idea that it has a zipper closer so that it keeps dust off the bobbins, etc.   Of course I also have to admit that it's just plain cute with it's little handle etc.  :)

Almost forgot that I also made a little holder for my Samsung Galaxy Tab 4.  I also put a couple of larger snaps to keep it closed.

Well that's it for my report today.  Everybody enjoy your day!

Now wait a Cotton Pickin Minute!

That was the topic of conversation I had with a friend just the other day.  It came out of the blue but we had fun with giving alternative answers.  Of course a minute is 60 seconds but then we expanded out on that.  Nowadays it is 60 seconds.  Back in early history could it have been longer?  If you leisurely picked cotton and took your time, would it be longer than 60 seconds?  We all know about football time.  A minute in football time is certainly longer than 60 seconds.  So I was diverted, once again, from stitching.  I think I will use my excuse for not posting for a bit due to football time.  OR it could be Cubs time (Chicago Cubs baseball team) which is even longer than football time.  They keep saying "their time" will be next year.  We're still waiting for that time to come around.  Perhaps their time is like the adage, I'll do it tomorrow but then you don't ever do it because tomorrow, when it comes, is actually today and not tomorrow.

In between all that confusing thinking, I did manage to dig out my fabric and start to work on the Dinorawr wall hanging.

It was long before I had the Dino's from FatCatPatterns downloaded and fused on.

I have one of the blue ones done but at home so now will take another off the work bulletin board to work on.  The three blocks on the right are from the Adinkra BOM.  I am almost done with the 4th block so you should see it done by Monday.

So that is what I am stitching on.  Last couple of weeks I've been stitching on those and watching my neighbor burn wood very close to the fence.  *I* think it is too close but since nothing else caught on fire, I suppose it was ok.

Lunch time is over with (they must use short minutes) and now I must get back to work.

I'll try not to take so long in between posts.  I hope everybody has a great day.