B is for BonBon

What?  That's not what the schools taught you?  I think they should have.  LOL.   I am making progress on my Fairy Alphabet letter B.  Here is what it looks like as of last night.

I am doing half cross stitches  at a time and then going back to finish them.  That way I don't have to look at my pattern as much for this part anyway.

I also found my pattern for the other sampler BOM that I was talking about in my last post.  It is The 1857 Sampler Quilt by Sentimental Stitches.

For me that is a very busy quilt.  A lot of it will be applique which is what I like to do but even if I don't do it all, it will let me pick and choose which blocks I want to use.  You can find out more about it at

http://sentimentalstitches.net/free-stuff/block-of-the-month-quilt-designs/the-1857-album-quilt/

To quote from the website:  "Almost all of 64 blocks are applique and I'll post 3 or 4 each month for the next 20 months beginning in January 2016. You can make the quilt in one of two ways - The digital block pattern sets will be free for one month (scroll down for free digital pattern link) and then retired to theOnline Store so you can purchase them if you miss any. You can also sign up to receive printed patterns and applique fabrics for the blocks. (scroll down to sign up)"

Check it out.  You might also like to check out the Westerning Women BOM.  That come out on the last Wednesday of the month and looks to be interesting.  Check out the Civil War Quilts:  Westerning Woman blog/website:

http://civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/2016/01/westering-women-introduction.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CivilWarQuilts+%28Civil+War+Quilts%29

The Introduction is up and I love how they tell more details about the time period.

That's it for now.  Just wanted to fill in some gaps from my last post.  Everybody have a good night/day.

Keep on Stitching!!!!

Plugging away on projects

It always seem to take forever and therefore I won't bore you with another picture of my progress on the Guardian...yet.  In a day or two I'll take a picture of the Alphabet Fairy so you can see THAT progress.  So what else have I done?  Sometimes I wonder that myself.

I did finish the two butterfly blocks so that I can get them in the mail this week.

They will be mailed off this week.  :)

So then I did what I told myself I wouldn't do.  I'm contemplating of doing some BOMs in 2016.  Yeah, yeah.  I know.  I wasn't going to.  Oh well.  I didn't decide until almost the last week in January so that makes it ok right?

Let's see what my list looks like for projects in 2016.

1.  The Val-Laird You Are Blessed BOM
      http://val-laird.blogspot.com/p/free-patterns.html

2.  The Splendid Sampler BOM
      Here is my fabric so far that I have pulled for it.

3.  Some Esther Aliu projects (Lily Rose and Little Hazel)

4.  Their is also a historical based BOM that I will be doing but of course I can't find the information right now.  I'll add a picture of that later.

5.  A class on making a tote bag in March with my friend Connie.

6.  A Westerning Women BOM
     http://civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/2016/01/westering-women-block-of-month-2016.html?m=1

7. Pay it forward which is five hand made things that I need to finish in 2016 and mail out.

8.  And a couple more that I can't remember right now.

Whew!  I'd better stop there since I am tired thinking about it all.  :)

Oh yes, one other thing.  I a was at Hobby Lobby the other day and picked up this panel of small labels for only 56 cents on sale!!

Have a great evening.

Long weekend Progress

Tomorrow is the first day of school for the Spring Semester 2016.  It should be busy so I thought I'd better post up some progress pix tonight.

First of all I did a couple of more stitches on The Guardian.  It's a good thing that I have my floss all marked because it is hard to tell the differences when I am only using one strand of one color and one strand of another color which I swear is only half a step away from each other.

Then I switched up to start my second block on something that I need to get shipped out this week.

 When I finish this block it will finish up my two purple butterfly blocks that need to be mailed and I have three of the other butterfly blocks that I am doing for my own wall hanging.  Things are progressing well.

I took a day off of stitching to make some tacos to eat.  I found on Pinterest how to make taco shells that stand up.  These were made by using store bought tortillas and putting them on the metal rack that is in my toaster oven.  I put them so they hang down, skipping a row or two.  I toasted them for around 5 minutes and when they came out they had a flat bottom to them.

This is a much cheaper way to make the stand up taco shells!  So of course now that I made them, I had to fill them.  So I filled them with ground pork, salsa, lettuce, and cheese.

That is about it this time.  Next time I'll catch you up on the progress (of healing) from that steam burn I told you about a couple of posts ago.  In the meantime, grab some ice cream and enjoy it!

Progress is made

Not much progress but at least I'm splitting my time up and still being somewhat productive.  I did just commit to doing two butterfly blocks for a project with others and, of course, they aren't the blocks I already have done.  That's the way it seems to go sometimes isn't it?

So here is MY butterfly block tentative layout.

In between doing the cross stitch, I have been working on these.  I have a couple of them all stitched now.

I thought I had taken a picture of the first block I finished.  I'll take one and update it the next time.  This morning, while waiting for a ride to work since my vehicle still isn't starting, I started on a third block.

I'm doing all the stitching in a dark brown and black for the center.  

I did have to stop stitching one day this week since I burned a couple of fingers on my hand with steam from my water kettle.  I hadn't realized that I had passed my hand through the steam until I noticed the red marks on my fingers.  It only slowed me down one day.

Breaks over which means it's time to get the mail and see what else I need to do at work today.

Everybody have a great day.

Cross stitch update

After finishing Lyndon's quilt, I decided to work on a couple of cross stitch projects.  One is something that I bought LONG AGO and this year put it on my list of 2016 things to start.  Thanks to my friend Connie, who I had given permission to bug me to start it and she did, I have started it.  It was more of a scared reason why I didn't start it.  It is complicated but that is one reason why I love Theresa Wentzler's designs.  That plus it is medieval.  Anyway, the main reason why I hadn't started it all those years ago was that it was a kit and it came with 28 count evenweave fabric.  28 COUNT EVENWEAVE?  I have to stitch over two threads?  Yikes!!!!!!!

Still I started it.  I didn't get very far but it is started.  I unstitched a number of stitches to correct some things but I consider it a good thing that i figured it out this early and not find it out when I'm 3/4 the way done.  Of course if I found a MAJOR error 3/4 of the way into it, I'd probably ignore it .  :)

I know, not much of a start but at least I started it!  :)

I also am doing a small alphabet fairy for my initial B.  It's coming along and fun to stitch because I don't know what it looks like in color.  I only have a black and white chart to go from.  It it being done on 18 count Aida.  I have never done 18 count before but am liking it so far.  I might have to do more on 18 count.

No quilting yet.  I need to find a nice purple that will stand up to a Stonehenge green. It will be for a toddler named Raven.  I plan on putting her name at the top and make pinwheel pattern.  Once I find the right fabric, I'll start and you'll see pictures.

That's it for now.  Everybody have a great evening/day.

African Blues is DONE!

I'll take better pictures tomorrow once I get back to work and can hang up African Blues to get a GOOD picture but I just couldn't wait that long.  LOL.

Finished it at 9 a.m. January 3, 2016.

The Back of the quilt.

 I liked how the back turned out.  I will have to remember how I did it for the next time that I do the Zipper Quilt.

The colors are so much brighter in person.

A close up of the binding

I pulled out some of my strips that I had left over and used it for the binding.  I like how it looked against the dark blue.

Well that is it for now.  I need to get the house cleaned up a little bit because now it's time to do some cutting for the Stitch a Long.

Five Butterflies have fabric picked out!

Whew!  I've been busy but am pretty much pleased with what I have accomplished.  Finished stitching the sandwich for African Blues.  Now I am at the clip the threads, defuzz it, and press it before working on the binding.  With that accomplished, I turned to the January Stitch a Long from my Facebook Group.  I am going to do 10 butterfly blocks.  I'm not sure if I'll use all butterfly blocks in the wall hanging but what I don't use I'll make a table runner with.

I have picked out the fabric for my first five butterflies.  These are all one design but the other five butterflies are another design.  When I pick out the material for those you'll see them here also.  So here are the first five.

Whatcha think?

Happy New Year!

It's the first day of a new year.  What will you be working on.  There is a new stitch a long that my facebook group is doing.  It's a short three month one where we are all stitching on something that has wings.  What we stitch is up to us.  I have so many options:

The gold dragon (Theresa Wenztler)
Tempest in a teapot (a dragon sitting in a teapot - another Theresa Wenztler)
Aunt Martha's butterflies on some pillow cases

I finally settled on doing some applique butterfly blocks.  They come from a book that I go to when I want some history as well as full size patterns.

So I decided on two butterfly blocks that were popular between 1920 and 1950.  I cut out Heat n Bond lite last night while waiting for the clock to slowly move to midnight and now have five of each kind.

After coloring my hair (Wouldn't want to start a new year with white strands would I?) I will start to look for fabric that will be good for butterflies.  I'm not sure how many I will put into a wall hanging for the office.  Perhaps the rest will be put into a table runner to go underneath it.

I also will be working on African Blues.  Yes I'm still working on that.  For a picture see my December 30th post.  The quilting should be done some time today and then it will be deciding which fabric to use for the binding.  It will be done by Monday so that I can give it to Lyndon.  Hopefully I'll have a picture of it for you.

Happy New year everybody and Happy Stitching!

African Blues is being worked on!

Whew!  African Blues is finally under the needle but it was a chore.  First of all I had to sandwich and baste it on two card tables (which I had to go and claim back from my neighbor who never returned them from her summer garage sale).  It was too big for it but that was as close as I could get to be able to do it.  It took me FAR too long to sandwich it.  It just would not line up right and first one side was too short then the other side.  First the top was off side and the back was short.  Then the back hung over and the top was too short on one side.  Yeah, perhaps it wasn't the best day to start this.

But finally I got it put together and now it is underneath the needle.

I turned it over , holding my breath while I did so, to see how it looked.  I had mixed feelings when I did so.  I haven't finished  quilting it but I do have the vertical lines in and that when I noticed a couple of problems.  One is that when it is done I will probably have some areas where it might be a little puffier or not "quite right".  I will live with that.  Yep, that's when you know you're ready to give the project away.  You mentally start to distance yourself from it.  This one has pissed me off enough (but I enjoyed doing it) that I can let it go.

The second thing I noticed is that it will pick up all the lint around the place!  I will have to heavily defuzz it.  It is all cotton but it really acts a bit more like a flannel.

Look at all the fuzz flakes (new quilting term)!

I'm done quilting it for today.  Tomorrow  is another day and then I'll figure out how I want to finish quilting it.  

Of course it won't be finished quilting until I run to the store tomorrow and get more thread.  Yes, that is another thing that happened.  Ran out of bobbin thread.  It's black.  Really!  How did I run out of black thread!   LOL.

Surviving the Holidays...or at least the first part of it

I hope everybody is surviving the holidays!  It's been a good one for me, if you discount that the post that holds up my computer monitor decided to break and my computer fell over on top of my keyboard.  Nothing broken though).  For me that means relaxing a bit and chatting with one of my best friends A LOT (all over the phone...hehehe).

I thought I'd take a moment out to talk about what I finished working on, what I might work on in January and please forgive me if I have posted some of this already.  So sit down in a comfortable chair and here goes.

Shall I talk about food first of all? I decided to freeze up some meals so I wouldn't have to cook as much during this break.  That means I did a crock pot full of Beef and Cabbage soup as well as a crock pot full of Pork and Hominy Chili.  I also made a Bacon and Potato Casserole.  For Christmas Day I made a Cornish Hen and scalloped potatoes and had some Lindt chocolate for dessert.  Today I made Russian Tea Cakes.  Now I'm all cooked out for a bit but that's ok.  It leaves more time for crafting and naps.

Here are some pix.

Cabbage and Beef Soup

Russian Tea Cakes (half the recipe, the other half gets baked tomorrow)

Bacon and potato casserole

Pork and Hominy Chili

Cornish Hen and Scalloped potatoes

Not bad huh?

That left me time to start to organize my crafting stuff, alternating with crafting and napping.  Cleaning can wait until after I go back to work (except for dishes).

At work Theresa, a co-worker and the one I helped do the t-shirt quilt before, asked me to help her make a Christmas gag gift.  I said ok but wasn't too sure since we had less than one lunch hour to do it.  Can you tell what this is suppose to be?

I don't blame you if you can't.  I wouldn't have known and I was the person who was helping to make it!  The white batting is actually the pattern.  I took my material and pinking shears to work to cut down on sewing.  I just did a running stitch by hand around the batting.  AND....this is the result.

Theresa was to put a snap on the Horse blanket.  So here is the story.  A family member has this horse which by now has only 3 legs.  This horse goes EVERYWHERE with them and is always showing up in family pictures and vacations, etc.  So she thought it would be cute to make a horse blanket/saddle for it.  The problem is that the family member seldom lets this horse out of his sight.  She finally managed to sneak the horse into the bathroom one day and took string in with her.  We had two pieces of string to determine if our blanket would fit.  One for the circumference of the horse and an even shorter piece of string to show how far we had to taper it to fit underneath.  I think we did pretty good all things considering.  There was a brown blanket that we made for it also.  LOL.  Theresa said that everybody had a good laugh over it.

I managed to get the test blocks done and mailed off and today I received the email saying that they loved how they turned out.  :)  YAY ME!  I'll show you the blocks once it is published in The Quilt Pattern Magazine.  I think it is scheduled for July or August?

Then I didn't finish making Lyndon's quilt/wall hanging but I did show it to him and he liked it.  He has to come back to the office on January 4th so I hope to have it ready for him by then.

Here is a decent picture of it.  The material hanging over the side will be the backing material.

Did you get a quilty present for Christmas?  My friend Janine crocheted me an infinity scarf.  I was wearing it around all Christmas Day since it felt nice and soft against my face.   :)

It was even long enough I could wrap it around the top of my head.  Sooner or later we will get snow and that will be handy.  Notice it is in NIU's colors of red and black!

I also managed to get to work on my cross stitch saying.

I think it is coming along nicely.

I'm not sure if I will finish stitching it now or put it away until July when I can tell my brain it's Christmas in July and time to start to finish Christmas projects.  We'll see.

January is right around the corner and I have some projects already lined up for that.  There is a three month Stitch a long in one of my Facebook stitching groups.  We are to stitch anything that has wings.  I might do The "B" Flower Fairy from the DMC Collection (By Cicely Mary Barker).  I am also getting ready to work on a Theresa Wenztler Golden Dragon complicated cross stitch which I totally know will NOT be finished in three months.  That's why I thought the small B Flower Fairy.  I could put it, perhaps, in one of my embroidery hoops and hang it on the wall.  We'll see.

How is everybody?  I hope you are having a wonderful time no matter where you are or what you are doing.  I'll catch up with you in the next post.  :)

Christmas around the corner - Are you ready?

Is anybody ever ready for Christmas?  I am about as ready as I can get.  Christmas Day is usually my day to be by myself and just laze around.  Of course I still have to make it through the last day at work.  It's not too bad but my mind is already thinking of stuff that I want to do after work.  First up with be a visit with my sister in law.  I want to show her what I'm making for the retirement gift for my boss.  Lyndon will be back on January 4 to turn in his keys and stuff so I can give it to him then.

I finished up my text blocks but can't show you until around July when they are in publication.

I think that tonight, if I stay awake for any length of time, I might pull out some cross stitch and just veg.  Doesn't that sound nice?  Just relax.

I hope everybody has a wonderful holiday and be safe.

I'll probably write another post before the new year starts until then try to keep your sanity during the holiday rushes.