Thursday, March 28, 2013

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??

Saturday, March 23, 2013

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.

Thursday, March 21, 2013

"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


Sunday, March 17, 2013

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!












Wednesday, March 13, 2013

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!

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

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?

Sunday, March 10, 2013

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!

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

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!!!

Sunday, March 3, 2013

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.

Friday, March 1, 2013

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!!