Happy May Day!

I'm only a little early since some of my readers are ahead of me.  So Happy May Day everybody.

Do you have May Day traditions that you remember?  I do.  At school, about every 4 years, one of the Physical Educaiton teachers would get in their heads the idea to try and teach us awkward students how to dance around a May Pole.

That was semi fun but what REALLY fun was when mom would drive us to the neighbors to leave May baskets on the neighbors door.  Of course the theory was that you left it on the door or stoop, knocked on the door to get their attention, and then run!   Of course in the country when you have a mile drive way to try and escape down it wasn't as easy as people made it out to be.

This May Basket has flowers in it but Mom would have us make the cones out of paper and then we'd put fruit and nuts and marshmallows in them.  Every once in awhile a dandelion or daisy might have been stuck in it also.

I was going to do this at work this year but expenses didn't allow me to.  Ok, I will admit that May 1st snuck up on me.  Maybe next year.  :)

Have one more May Day pictures just because it is too cute not to add.

 On Saturday I'll post some more quilting stuff.  Right now I have to look through recipes to see what I want to bring to the office for another food day on May 7th.

Until then, keep whatever traditions you want, throw out whatever traditions you want, but always remember to have fun!

Until next time....Have a Great Day!

Weekend Sewing

I didn't get much done this weekend since it was a gaming weekend but I did manage to finish a block.  This is call the Hug Block and is from McCalls Quilting.  They have it for a 16" block (if I remember right) but I needed it as a 12" finished block.  It took me forever to figure it out.  I just asked somebody else to figure it out since I'm not good at that.  LOL.  Anyway here it is.

I'm not totally pleased with it but not totally displeased either.  That was on my list of things I wanted to accomplish on Sunday so that is good.  It is joining the other blocks now.  Here is what I have for the Beginner BOMs.

I will use more tans in a couple of other blocks later.  I'm trying to use most of the same fabrics in the blocks.  I have put those fabrics aside so that I won't accidentally use them in something else.  LOL.

After that I picked up my cross stitch again.  Made good progress on it.  I have to finish the halo and all the back stitching for the Angel.  I have to get some metallic thread first though so it might have to wait until the payday.  I also need to add a little more to her hand and the blue ribbons.

That's ok.  My fingers are protesting doing so much with them so they can use the rest.  On the other hand I might start the Delft cross stitch.

I have the Aida cloth and the blue floss all ready to start it.  I had hoped to be picked up a scroll frame for it but I wasn't able to.   Payday isn't here yet so it might have to wait a bit.  I did mark my center on the Aida cloth as well as used up leftover binding that I had. Instead of sewing the ends to stop fraying or using fabric fray etc., I sewing on (basted) my binding pieces.  I'll take a picture of it to show you later.

It is time to get ready for bed.  Everybody have a great night/day.

Name of Magazine

This is a super quick post to tell you the name of the magazine that I couldn't remember the other day.  Here it is....

Now I have to run to a meeting.  LOL.  Everybody have a good day/night.

Happy Administrative Professional Day

Yep, it's that time of year again.  About the only time I get flowers but you know what?  I'm not complaining.  I love where I work and I'm always remembered on Administrative Professional Day.  Not everybody can say that.  So this year, "the Recruitment Office" sent me these flowers.

That is a "leaf" that is wrapped around the flowers in the vase (the green stripe).  Never seen that done before so it will be interesting to see how it holds up.  The pink square vase is nice as a change from the normal vases you see.  Overall - I love it.  :)

Now on to some talk about quilting.  Yeah, I haven't done much but I did find a new magazine which I think I might love.  Of course I can't remember the name of it and I don't have the picture of the front of the magazine with me today.  Does that stop me from posting the other pictures?  Of  course not.  You'll just have to wait for the title until my next post.  The magazine (it's the premier issue) concentrates on precuts.  I love how the table of contents is laid out.  If you are looking for fat quarter patterns they are all listed in one place.  You want squares?  THEY are all listed under one heading.  I think that is a very useful way of doing.

I also like the diagrams.  They are large and easy to see so you're not scrunching up your eyes (Yeah, showing my age there) to get the idea.

So all in all I like the first issue.  I'll have to see what else they will come out with.

Now, sit down for the next part of this.  I found the story book that my grandma made my brother Philip (Tony).  So to preserve it, I'm taking pictures of the pages and will be posting them under the family ancestry page of my blog.  For those who wonder what to do for their grandkids, this is one idea.  As you can see it survived for a number of years.

Did I forget to post my 4th block?

It looks like I might have.  I didn't get much quilting done last week but did manage to get one block done.  This is the fourth block and so you can see it with the other three I am reposting them also.

I actually like the 4th block (square within a square).  It didn't take long to do and that is always a plus.

I'm not sure how much quilting I'll get done this weekend either since I'm determined to finish emptying out the storage shed that I share with somebody else.  Of course that means I'll have totes to go through and see what to get rid of.  I went through some of it last night and discovered some cross stitch and quilting gems.  I'll post more pictures of them later.  Right now I'm off to a meeting.

Have a great day.

Wordles - do you know what they are?

A Wordle.  What a strange word which I didn't know what it meant until today.  I've seen them but didn't know their name.  Do you know what a Wordle is?

A Wordle is a word cloud.  Wordle, or weighted list in visual design, is a visual representation for text data, typically used to depict keyword metadata on websites or to visualize free form text. According to Wikipedia anyway.

So I went to a site which is suppose to help make them.  I got this information from my Graduate Assistant who had an Instructional Technology class.  She gave me her PDF lessons and some of them I can do without being in the class.  This was one that I did with putting around 30 quilting words down for it to it's thing.  I chose the rectangle design because I might have a use for it.

:)

Then I did this one which I just plugged in my blog address and IT chose words from my blog to put into the Wordle and I chose a heart shape.

It was a fun thing to learn and I have a lot more to learn about it but it is past quitting time and I need to close up the office and start my weekend.  It's a gaming weekend so no quilting until Sunday.  I did, however work on a little bit of cross stitch last night.  The Angel is coming along.

I hope everybody has a wonderful night.

I'll catch up with you later.

What a find!

Did everybody have a good Easter?  Mine was ok.  The holidays aren't as big of a thing for me now that mom has passed on.  I enjoy going to see other people but also enjoy having the time to myself for a bit to get stuff done.

I did get stuff done.  I managed to finish up two blocks that have been mailed out to friends.

This a design from Bird Brain Designs

This was just out of one of my quilting books but can't remember which one.  Perhaps Inspired by Tradition.

Those have been sent in the mail so then I turned my attention to something that I have been postponing for quite awhile.  Removing my stuff from the Storage unit I've been sharing with my ex and his family.  It's a long story but it's time for me to get my stuff out of there (no he's not making me do it).  I managed to get hold of Jessica and she helped me take out 12 totes.  These are the plastic tubs from Walmart that Rubbermaid makes.  I had forgotten how heavy they could be!

The first 12 were taken and put into my apartment.  I can't finish taking out the rest until I go through all of these.  Jessica says she'll keep my quilting frame in her garage for me since I don't have room for it in my apartment.  I did manage to empty out 4 of the tubs.  It was rather easy since a lot of it was mom's knick knacks which I didn't want.  I do not have a lot of room and I already have a lot of things from mom--especially fond memories.

Back on topic Bonni.  Ok. so here I am with all these full plastic totes and at least 12 more waiting for me in storage yet.  I HAVE to get them emptied out and gone through to figure out what I want to get rid of.  Now, when I say get rid of, I don't always mean thrown out.  I might send some of my magazines or patterns to other crafts who might want them.   That means I will probably scan some of the patterns, if possible, so I will always have an electronic copy of it.  That is where my great find comes in.

Going through some old cross stitch magazines, I saw this cover and OMG!  It will be a perfect accompaniment to Oma's Blues which I'm going to do.  Ready to see those two pictures together?  Here we go......

 How great is that?!  Two of my favorite things, quilting and cross stitch that would compliment each other.  If you look closely, you can see that the magazine goes back to 1986!  I can't believe I've kept it all this time.  Back then the magazine only cost $2.95.  Ahhhh, an affordable price and well worth it.  LOL.

That's it for this segment.  I wonder what other treasures I will find.

Until next time, have a great day!

Cross Stitching

I'm taking a break from quilting for a little bit.  Still not feeling good and I can pick up and put down the cross stitch project a lot easier than the quilting projects.  I've been telling you about the great cross stitch stuff that was sent to me by Marilynn.  I have started one of presents.  It is an angel that when stitched up goes underneath a glass or acrylic square to act as a hot pad or something.  The stitched design will go on a 5" square when done and this had the whole kit so I figured why not.

Want to see what it should look like?

Of course I have a lot of stitches to do before it gets to be that pretty but I've started.

For fun I thought I'd also describe how I do itl  As you can imagine, the pattern was very small.  Thanks to a handy copy machine it's blown up to a decent size and colored pencils/markers work wel to color in the stitches that I have done already.  If I'm off a line (which I might be on this)  but I think I can correct it or add in the line without it detracting from the pattern.

Well back to sitting down and napping.  Everybody have a great day.

1st Log Cabin Block

I finally did it.  I made my first log cabin block.  That is the 3rd  beginner block in the Creative Rectangle Facebook Group.  I thought I'd start with the beginners and was glad that I did because I sewed the log cabin block wrong three times today!

Here is the finished block:

I'm not too fond of that lighter blue.  It's darker in real life but it does show up too light I think.  I will keep it though since this is a sampler that I'm doing.  If it bugs me too much I might paint on some tea water to darken it a bit.  I was happy to be able to use up some of my African fabrics in it also.  The two yellows (the yellow and blue stars and the yellow and blue flowers) are from Africa as well as the gold/black/blue geometric material.

It's a learning experience and since it is a single block I might not change it.  The other two blocks that I have done can be seen in this picture.

I'm headed back to bed now.  I'm not feeling well so am resting a lot this weekend.  It's either the crud that is going around or allergies.  Actually it could be both but we'll see.  The allergy pills are letting me breath right now and my skin isn't itching any more so that's a good thing.  Next time I"ll take a picture of some of the cross stitch that I'm working on.  My friend sent me some more patterns and there is at least one that I want to make.  I'll tell you more about that later.

I hope everybody else is well and having a great weekend.

Until next time Happy Stitching.

YIIIIPPPIIIIEEEEE!

Have I mentioned I love working for my boss?  Probably not last week and this week since he came back from Ghana I've been VERY busy.  But I met all my deadlines and things have started to calm down a little.  At least as calm as they get in my office.  But today is different.  Today I'm back to loving him because......drum roll.......

He brought back some fabric from Ghana.  It's going up in price over there every year and he has so many people asking him to bring stuff back that this year I didn't ask for fabric.  BUT I GOT IT ANYWAY!    YIIIPPPPEEEEE!

So here is my newest additions to the Ghana fabric.

They all are Wax Block Prints.  I will happily put them in my collection.  :)

Ok, now I guess I'd better get back to work.  LOL.

Have a great day!

Fitted Sewing Cases

In my box of goodies that I received the other day, was a magazine called  Sampler and Antique Needlework Quarterly.  I had so much fun looking through it especially when I ran across two articles.  One showed an Italian Black Iron thimble.  Obviously it wasn't very popular for long because iron is very heavy to be putting on the fingers.

Another article that I liked was one showing pictures of fitted sewing cases.  I think it would have been great to have had one of these.  There is just something about opening up your sewing case and everything you needed was right there.  

The article said this first one was probably English and around the middle of the nineteenth century.  5 15/16" wide x 4 1/2" high.  

The second picture is a beige leather case around 1898 from Providence Rhode Island and is 5 7/8" wide x 4 5/8" high.  I like the floral motifs on the scissors, etc.  The picture marked 3 is French and the tools are silver.  It's from the early nineteenth century 5 13/16" wide x 4" high.  You can, of course, read these comments on the pictures number 1-4 but I'm just typing them also so you don't have to strain your eyes as much.  :)  The one marked four is very nice.  I love the pull out drawer.  Don't let the picture fool you.  Even with the pull out drawer it is only 5 15/16" wide x 4" high.  It is English and has silver tools in the red leather case.  The article puts it around 1820.  

Number 5 is French and has silver and steel tools in red leather.  From the Nineteenth century it is 4 7/8" wide x 2 3/4" high.  Number 6 is a little difficult to see since the picture was split and put on two pages.  It is a French red leather case with silver tools from early nineteenth century.  It is 4 7/8" wide x 2 7/8" high.  Even though you can't see it, the case is embossed with lute, bird and diamond motifs.

Number 7 is a blue leather case from England probably between 1841-1910.  It is  8/1/4" wide x 3" high.  The scissor blades are marked "SHEFFIELD" and the blade and shank are marked "Steel" with a Birmingham hallmark.  The thimble is from Dorcas.  

Number 8 is Austrian Silver and enamel tools in a blue leather case.  Early twentieth century this time with it being 5" x 6 1/4" high.  The knife in it would have been used for pressing.  The silver is matte finished and the design is art deco which was so popular at the time.

Number 9 is French and a little different.  It is a tapered  brown leather sewing case from around the middle of the nineteenth century.  it goes from 1" - 4" wide x 5 3/4" high.  The pins in it are pearl headed.  I like how it opens up and can just imagine a lady sitting down and slowly opening up her case to it is all handy.

The sewing cases came in all shapes and number 10 shows a French one that is oval shaped.  It has silver gilt tools in a light red case and measures around 5 1/8" wide x 3 1/2" high.  It is from 1880 and shows the case being marked "Dreiger & Co, 5th Avenue, New York".  Next to it  (No. 11) is a tapered French sewing case.  It has silver gilted tools in red leather.  This French sewing case measures 3 1/2" wide x 6 1/4" high and was used in the early nineteenth century.  It has a cornucopia motif to it and it was imported from "Dreiger B C in New York".  

Picture 12 has a little different design.  It is French and has silver gilt tools in a tan leather case.  It was used around 1900 and is 2 7/8" - 3 1/2" wide x 5 3/4" high.  When closed it is suppose to be shaped like the neck and upper chest of a woman.  I'll take their word on that part.  LOL.  Number 13 is fun since it is a fan figured sewing case.  The article suggests it could be from England.  It has steel and bone tools in red panne' velvet case.  It is estimated to come from the late nineteenth or early twentieth century and measure 2 1/4" wide x 11 1/2" long.  Notice that the vertical sewing cases all had strips to hold the pieces in place.  Sometimes it was made out of ribbon and sometimes leather.   The article also hinted that this could have been used by a lady of the evening.  She could be sewing until needed and then simply fold it up and she had her fan again.  I discount it because I didn't think ladies of the evening would have the opportunity to do needlework when they were on the job but also the fan is only the motif and not functional as a fan.  It it still fun to see and perhaps they did use it, who knows.  As they say, that was "before my time".

The last one pictured and talked about in the article is number 14.  The iron figure sewing case.  The source of it was unknown but there was steel and bone tools in steel blue leather case with silver fittings.  Estimated to be early twentieth century it measures 4 3/4" wide x 6" long.  The tools in it are not matching but are from the same era and notice that they put crochet hooks in their sewing cases as well.  I wonder if they could heat up the iron figure sewing case and it served also as a pressing tool

]I hope you enjoyed seeing the different sewing cases.  Do you think your sewing case will last for over a century?  I know mine won't.  LOL.

I will be doing some cross stitch today at lunch instead of quilting.  It is a pattern of an angel and relatively small so it can be made into a hot pad.  

No matter what you decide to work on, or NOT decide to work on, I hope you have a great day.  Until next time......

Happy Stitching.