Spring Stitching and Sewing

 I've been very busy over the last month. I started visiting school and nursing homes with Miss Doss, participated in a dog seminar, worked and have been dealing with car issues. But I have really tried to find time to stitch and sew.

I have been making really good progress on the block of the month club for the Gravity Quilt. I am enjoying this and would like to try it with another set of fabrics.

I have 3 more months of blocks to go and am working on cutting the background so I can start assembling it in the next month or so.

I have also been working on a block of the month with the Milk and Honey Quilt Guild through Kristin Laura Designs. This one is a more traditional quilt, but I opted to use the tilted tiles effect to make it look a bit more modern.

I also made a valance for my bedroom using a table runner pattern. I really like this. I am hoping to make some curtains for our TV room as I learn more about how to sew for more than just quilting.

I have been working on a few cross stitches and have made some great progress with a couple finishes!

And I even framed a few things thos morning so they wouldn't just be sitting in the finishes pile.

Of course I also bought stuff I don't need.

I have fabric on the way - which I also don't need but it looks so gorgeous so I just -had- to.

I am so happy with my sewing and stitching spaces in our house. Now that we are settling in more and finding how we use the rooms and how the light moves through them I am so glad to have happy spots to enjoy my hobby with, and sometimes away from, my dogs and cats.

Happy stitching!

Quilty Finishes and Stash!!

 It's been a busy month here in central Vermont. The air is warming up and Jon is starting to prep his plants for the summer. The rain has dialed back in the last few days and the soil is starting to dry out a little. Our creek is still flowing and the ponds are high, but at least the high ground isn't squishy anymore.

We have been working on a few house projects as well. We are trying to plug a hole which is leaking into our kitchen, selling fencing, cleaning trash left by previous owners from the upper yard and mucking out the barn. I'm planning on painting our shutters, front fence and additions this summer to perk up the outside of our house and make it as festively colored as the inside. 

Despite all of this I have been working hard on a number of stiching and quiling projects. April has had a big focus on quilting as I finish up my 30 year challenge quilt for the Milk and Honey Quilters Guild - sadly no spoilers on this yet as we have a presentation at the end of May for that. But I did finish the Nebula quilt that I have had in progress for a couple of years. I started it just before I met Jon and then moving and caring for a 200-year-old house happened. I am so happy with how it looks! I can't wait to get it quilted (but I will because the house ate all my long-arm funds). It was difficult to get the photo, but it is hexagonal for reference.

I also finished a window valance for the bedroom but don't have a picture at this point. It is using some of the left over fabric from the Nebula quilt. 

In addition to the quilting projects I have been working on some cross stitches. I finished a few gifts for people. I need to frame the one I finished last night, so there will be an outing to a thrift shop or two in search of a cool frame.

And my moms' day gifts are all finised and framed. I'm determined to do all of my framing from now on so I can save more money for crafting and dogs!

I picked up more stash - a terrible addiction. I wanted to get all of the dessert mandalas from Glendon Place. I also found a bunch of cute projects from Thistles. Sadly the one I really would like is discontinued...merrrr!

I'm currently working on my sea lady from Mill Hill, the perpetuial calendar., Black and White, and the Bramble and the Rose. I guess I'm keeping busy.

Also in amazing news, one of my neighbors traded me some fencings for her hand made felted pictures of my dogs which she makes with the wool from her own sheep.

I am hoping I can figure out a safe place to hang them away from Oreo the Destroyer (my busy tuxedo cat). 

Enjoy the spring!

Fresh Arrivals and a Few Finishes

With the onset of spring there is a fresh energy in the house and some weather upheaval that prevents outdoor recreating fairly often. I have been antsy and wanting to get a number of outdoor projects completed. The other day I was cutting down volunteer trees from beneath my pines while being sleeted on. It was acually fairly comfortable because I was getting so warm from the effort. But overall, the weather is making for some good indoor stitching time.

The Nashville show patterns are hitting the shops and everyone is sending out emails with their new arrivals and sales. Oh my the temptaions. And I succumbed. I ended up buying a cute cat and dog pattern and then had a sweet little bonus added in from Dirty Annie's. I'm not even sure if they are new this year. I just ended up going down a clicking rabbit hole. I'm not sad at all. I also have a few more patters on the way from Thistles. I love both of these designers! Here are the new patterns I received:

Meanwhile, on the dog theme, I whomped together a small that I have had laying around for a while. It was a sweet little afternoon project from Rovaris. I changed up the colors to use what I had laying about and to make it look a bit more like a bloodhound. Overall I'm pretty happy with the result.

A few days later I finished up the last of the June pieces from the perpetual calendar project. I have the July materials ready to go, but I think I want to wrap up a couple more WIPs that I have going on. There is a growing pile of projects sitting next to me and it is starting to infringe on my personal space!

Halfway done with the calendar! It should only be a few more years before I finish.

Then I decided to wrap up the last of the Mill Hill Marine Life Series with the completion of the Jelly Fish. I'm going to wait to frame everything until I finish Ocean Song so I can put all 5 together.

Overall it has been a good couple of weeks for stitching. Sadly a huge snowstorm is coming through which would be perfect for stitching, but I will be at work instead. For shame! 

Sew Busy!

 The last three weeks have been great for me and stitching. I made the decision to work less overtime so I can have more time at home. I miss the money, but I was too tired and stressed. So with all that time I made things!!

I worked for a bit on the jelly fish project from the Mill Hill Marine Life Series for a bit. I decided to take a break from it so I could work on my Perpetual Calendar. It is so easy to start working on little projects that are super satisfying to finish and forget to take time to progress on the larger projects. I am almost finished with June and am hoping to start July within the week!

I have also been spending some time working on the Bramble and the Rose, but do not have an update photo on that. 

Meanwhile, I have been trying to get up to my sewing room every couple of days to work on some large projects I have going on. I was able to finish my Tradewinds quilt a couple of days ago.

Today I finished the last of the quilt blocks for the Nebula quilt pattern. I have some of the background cut. I'm hoping to cut the rest of that tomorrow so I can assemble the quilt top in the near future. Here are the ones I finished since the last update.

I also have been sticking to my Gravity Quilt stitch along and finished the 3rd month's blocks today as well. Here are the blocks I have completed so far.

I'm working on a challenge project for the Milk and Honey Quild Guild which requires me to make a quild no larger than 28 inches square using 4 colors, 2 of which are provided to me. So far I have designed the quilt and selected the additional 2 fabrics. I am hoping to start cutting the project very soon. I think it needs to be completed by May. No spoilers though!

In addition to the sewing today, I got a little excited and painted the pantries in my kitchen. It looks so much better! Before and After...

I'm looking forward to sitting on the couch soon to do some cross stitch. It was a busy day to be sure!

The Beauty of a Stitching Place and Time

 It has been a great year so far. I made a decision to work less overtime, so I have had more time at home (although less money for stitchy projects). Also, we recently went on a cruise. Vacation is a lovely pick me up and this one was very relaxing. And, of course, I have been working on my projects.

Since I moved into my new home I have a sewing room where I store all of my stitching supplies and have room for a sewing table, a cutting table, fabric shelving, and a comfy chair. In our relaxation room I also have a decidated stitching area at one end of the couch. But most of the time I sit at the end of my gorgeous kitchen table in a sunny spot stitching with my dogs and cats milling about my legs...and preiodically climbing on me. Having these happy spots has motivated me to stitch more which has really helped me destress from work.

Before we left for vacation I made six tote bags. Four of the bags were for us to take on the cruise. I was thrilled to add pockets to them on the interior. I am super happy with the fabrics I used as well. Everyone who received one loves them - which makes me heart sing. Three were made from the blue florals and the others were made with the same fabrics but I rotated the placement which really changed the charachter of each bag.

While I was on the cruise I worked on the third in a four part series of Marine Life from Mill Hill. I loved stitching the first two and the Dolphin project was just as fun. When we were in the Bahamas sitting on the cruise ship deck with the sun streaming down the beads were so brilliant and lovely! I finished just after I arrived home.

I'm now working on the fourth in the series - the Jelly Fish. This one I saved for last because I love the rainbow colors and was so looking forward to it that I figured it would pull me through the others. Although the blues in the dolphin were luscious.

Yesterday I was feeling quite terrible with a sinus infection and decided I didn't want to participate in much. I wasn't up to sttiching but I did end up doing some quilting in my beautiful sewing room. I cut the last three months of the Nebula Quilt from Jaybird Quilts. I finished sewing the month 7 blocks and then made a little piece with some of the left over fabrics. I was excited with how they all came out.

Throughout my stitching I have had my helpers with me. They seem to be always with me, sometimes within millimeters of me.

I'm looking forward to more stitching and more finishes!

A Finish and a New Kit!

 As usual it is busier around here than I was thinking it would be. I seem to include basic needs in my time buget plan! I did take time to do some stitching and sewing this week. I completed a tote bag for a friend - and forgot to get a picture! No worries though since I have 2 others pre-cut with the same fabric.

I have been working on the Mill Hill Aurora Borealis kit for the last couple weeks. Today was competion day! I'm excited to see what it looks like in the dark because it has glow-in-the-dark beads. Ooooo.

I haven't decided yet how I will frame it. I'm trying to think of new ways to display my stitching because framing is just so expensive. We might start making our own frames here. It is easy enough to cut some molding and then I can paint it. Especially for these little project stitched on the paper it should be easy and attractive to make our own.

While I was stitching the Aurora Borealis my dog flipped the bead container and I ended up running short of the 02098 pine colored beads. Crisis! So I just _had_ to order the Grasshopper Pie pattern from Glendon Place as a kit since it happens to have those beads. Yesterday the kit arrived! I am so thrilled to have this goegeous project. Of course, when to stitch it? I have so many that I want to do. What a terrible conundrum to have! I received the kit from WickedWips ETSY shop and couldn't be happier with the service. I recommend purchasing from her if you have the chance.

First 2024 Completion

 It has already been an eventful 2024 and it's only one week in. I worked three of the days so far and have been trying to get a handle on plans for our vacation in a month. It finally became cold enough for the ground to freeze, so I haven't had to fight the mud battle I was waging in December. There have been a couple of doctor visits for me and for dogs, and finally a couple of days to try to relax. Of course the minute I sat down I spent most of a day doing paperwork. I swear the world gives me more busywork than an elementary school teacher! Saturday I was excited to have a friend over to stitch with me for a few hours. That is the first time in a couple of years I have been able to make that happen! We had a great time. I was working on the letter Z in the Black & White project. She was working on Glendon Place's Plum Pudding. 

Today I was able to finish the letter Z. I was pretty excited because it seemed like it took far longer than I hoped. I grabbed the letter Y to work in next but decided that I wanted to work on The Bramble and the Rose a bit before I started back in on some of my smaller portable projects. Here is the finish of Z and some of the progress on The Bramble and the Rose:

Now that it is winter (it snowed about 6" today), I start to think about what WIPs I can work through to completion. And I always hope I will be able to get more done than I actually do. This year I'm going to think more about just trying to find time to stitch and not worry about what I might or might not complete. I am hoping that things start to settle down with the house so I'm not tied up with fixing all the things that one finds wrong with a 200 year old home the first year living in it! I look forward to making things to make it beautiful instead of just focusing on just keeping it standing - a lofty goal. 

I know that things always happen and some are good and some are challenging. I hope that everyone this year is able to find more fun times than challenging ones and that the challenging times are short lived. Be well!