Have a specTREKular Easter

Finishing and Fun!

Yesterday, I spent the day.......close to 11 hours....at Polly's Quilt Camp.
It's not a "real" camp, but a long time quilt friend's house. Food, fun and sewing....no kids, no errands....just a little slice of heaven 70 miles from home.

Me, Ratty and Polly

I was one of Ratty's Craft It Forward peeps.......here are my surprises.......

A hoop bag, a zipper bag and a jeans coaster. Fun stuff, eh. I almost always have two or three projects in progress so my Trek bag and this one will have stuff in them all thee time. Oh, perfect excuse to buy another pair of embroidery scissors.....eh eh eh snicker snicker snicker


I was a finisher.....it felt sooooooo good. A little bit of what I did.....................

Polly made me pose, this is the best of six shots. lol  She is a budding photographer.

 I look like a goof, but kinda cute too. 

A closer look here at home

Mug rug for my sister, including the hand stitched binding

Sweetwater table runner kit...allllll cut and ready for the machine

I even helped with a project or two that weren't mine! 

I love finishing, don't you?

What is in your finished pile??

Day 4.. stitch me up hop

here are the links from day four.....go and take a peek!

Stitches to Sprinkles Betty@That Other Blog

 Stitch Duchess' Crazy and Sane Quilting World ( late could be a drop out)

Bejeweled Quilts by Barb

Kathy's Quilts

Mountain Delights 

Tea and Quilts    

 Charlottes Creations

Quilt Obsession

The Slow Quilter

Cali Quilter

Little Pieces of My Life

Creating My Comforts ( drop out)

It's in the bag, baby!

Now that the blog hop is over for me, tune in Monday for more stitching awesomeness, I have some things in progress........

Six grocery bags...as long as I am in bag making mode, 

I think I need to make three more as giftees too . lol

A New 7.5"embroidery hoop to try...Hardwicke Manor, no less. 

And a new, awesome pattern from urban threads

See the extra strong brass hardware and the nice, wide hoop?

Next to my normal hoops.

 The pvc hoop really has great tension. I am hoping once I wrap this hoop in twill tape, I get the same effect with almost no weight. Cross your needles, I mean fingers!

Lots more planned after this....stay tuned.

day three of stitch me up

there is some serious awesome today....check it out!


FRIDAY March 22nd

Keri@That Other Blog

Heather@That Other Blog 

SewMuch 2 Luv

Englating

Kris Loves Fabric

Crazy'boutquilts

Quiltsmiles

Ninis Patchwork Blog 

ArtFriendzy

Batiks by the Bay

Dancing Moon

Love it Sew it
Pig Tales and Quilts

"Stitch Me Up" Embroidery Blog Hop Day 2

It's My Hop Day! Or should I say "Hoop" Day!

Thanks to Mdm Samm, Debbie and Cyndi for creating some lovely FREE patterns for all of us hoppers to choose from
and to our Head Cheerleader for this blog hop....JANE
from Janes Fabrics Fame and her generous Presencia Packets that she made available to us. Fun stuff!




I picked the beret-ed woman with the little dog. 
I just couldn't resist her. I came soooo very close to the chair and dress form though.
This was fun and challenging because I decided to make this an exercise in fill stitching. 
I got a lot of practice and I fear I need more. LOL  

Without further ado..............I give you..........."I like Paris in the Springtime"

I kinda like the inside too!
I used a patterned fabric so I needed to cover it with stitching. Next time I decide to cover this much open area (12" hoop), it will be a combo of rough edge applique AND embroidery. 

Here she is, up close and personal and a higher pixel count.

Stitches I used:
back stitch
straight stitch
stem stitch
split stitch
satin stitch 
french knots
cross stitch
and very new to me....bohkara stitch (skirt)

I think the hair is my favorite part!
I really had fun and frustration all at the same time......loved every minute of it. Since I was sick for most of the sewing time, it was a great way to sit all quiet like and still be productive.

Go and look at all the other hoppers!!! Day one was fab....day two is sure to be awesome!!

THURSDAY March 21st

Janice@ That Other Blog

Angela@ That Other Blog

piece peace 

Stitchin’ By The Lake     

Phoenix Heirlooms

Sew Incredibly Crazy

Mamaccessories

 Molly's Place

Kath's Creations

Get More Done Today 

Sew Many Yarns

The Distracted Domestic (me)

Sheila's Quilt World

UK City Crafter 

Start Hoppin Fellow Stitchers

Day One!

Karen@That Other Blog

Susan @That Other Blog

Sowing Stitches    

Life in the Scrapatch

Pig Tales and Quilts (moved to the 22nd)

Meadowbrook

Marla's Crafts 

Gracie Oliver Arts

Humble Quilter

Cherry Blossom Quilting Studio

New Girl News  

Sunshine Quilting

Patchouli Moon Studio

Lovin' Life at the End of the Dirt Road

Selina Quilts    

Fire Island

Technically, it's Sherman Island, but it burned for hours and hours today. Mostly grasses and such, it isn't very populated....thank God.

Even though it's miles away across the mighty Sac, pieces of the island made it here.

A few pics from my house......AAANNDDDDD my car, my still new car. The one my hubs took the dot in to practice driving in. The one that had open windows that nobody thought to check while it rained ash while the sickee took a long nap. Took me 45 minutes to vacuum it out...oy!

HAPPY PI DAY

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner

This "green" bag is for Karen @ Sewmuch2luv for picking a name for my car. 
She suggested E. V. for ecological vehicle. It stuck soooo easy and sooooo fast. Heck, even the hubs, who is sooo not into the car naming thing, calls the car Evie. Who knew?
I actually use a very proper british accent and call her EEEve-lyn  LOL


I call this the 'plan b' bag because I didn't have enough egg fabric to do a full lining of eggs.
I am glad because this is WAY cuter than the original thought!

Happy shopping, my friend!!

Now, to finish the rest of the bags for a swap and for moi!

Progress, slow and steady

First off, I went with the Bokhara(n) stitch. Looks better from a distance. lol But it did give me the look I wanted and I used nearly half a skein of floss for a tiny little area.

Grocery bags....7 of them. I am not showing the pretty parts...mwah ha ha

A few are for a swap and I want to keep a little mystery alive.....but only a little.

Also got a few more squares of the baby quilt quilted. I am afraid I may run out of the blue precensia perle before I am done. 

What are you doin?

Self-Couching Fill Stitches

You read that correctly...S E L F - C O U C H I N G. I know, right.

I am in a blog hop called "Stitch Me Up" happening march 20th. It's embroidery!!!!!!
They gave us several patterns to choose from and we are to have some fun with it. 
So far, I totally am. 

I have a pretty good sized area I need to fill with color....bright color...solidly..to cover a patterned background fabric. All I knew to do was a good ol' satin stitch or maybe a split stitch. Weeeelllll I didn't want it to look like a cable knit sweater, so I meandered over to this amazing site by Mary Corbet: http://www.needlenthread.com/  I looked through her video library and found a couple of stitches that might do the trick so I gave them a whirl........

Needless to say, mine aren't as fab as her's, but they aren't too bad.

I prepped a hoop

the designs are 1.5 inches wide

the light pink is size 8 perle cotton

dark pink, 3 strands of dmc floss

 This is the first one

pretty subtle, pretty smooth

This one, I think, is supposed to run vertical and kind of looks like a double romanian.

I wasn't as smooth with this one. lol

I've only seen it in wool so far.

I wasn't so smooth with this one either, but it makes a lovely pattern with the couching.

Group Shot

You can see the subtle differences in the stitches in the group shot.  
They all use the same basic technique. The couching stitch length is what changes. They go pretty fast too.  FYI......thread hogs..... big time!

Not sure which stitch I am going to use yet, but I am leaning toward one of them. You'll just have to wait to see which one it is.

Try a new stitch today!!  I really, R E A L L Y, need to make a sampler!

The Sweet Taste of Progress...

I am in a blog hop this month called "Stitch Me Up" 

Here's a little peek at my progress....


My color palette and my background fabric. You can kinda get a sense of where I'm going with it without totally giving it away. 

My background is done, but showing that would have been a dead giveaway. lol
You will have to come back on March 20th to see the finished piece and to see a whole bunch of other great embroidery.









I am making pretty good progress on my baby quilt too. Trying quilt at least two squares a day...that will put me on track to be done by the end of the month......eeeeeee......progress feels great!!!

Think Big.......

Big stitch quilting!!!

It's quilting time again......for a new baby boy due in May. I might even be on time....who knew?

No, not me, that ship done sailed. One of my son's besties. A whole next gen is beginning.

THEY'RE HERE * THEY'RE HERE

What, you ask? My custom TREK Shoes!!!! 

I entered a contest at Punk Projects  and I won, I actually won!!!
Thank you Katie!!!!!!!

Riker's expression is dead on!!

I ♥ them so

She can make you a pair of custom canvas sneakers too......I just may need a Q pair.....or the whole DS9 crew...or maybe FireFly..........yeah....Jayne in his orange hat!!