Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Halloween wall hanging


If you have been following my blog you know that I have tried to take a quilting class but that didn't go to well. I also tried to teach myself and I have made a few things but I felt I could learn more by taking a class. I found a class at our local sewing center. I signed up and have really enjoyed this class! As you can see I am making a halloween wall hanging. I need to finish stitching in the ditch and then this next Saturday I will be adding the border!! I love this!!!!

Fashions Update


Here we go...I have started couple #11 and I am so close to finishing I could almost taste it! However, with the baby blankets, wedding sampler and the yoga piece (yes it is a UFO) that I need to finish I have calculated how many stitches are left until I finish the pattern and divided it by how many days left in the year. Math teacher I am came up with the number 271. That is how many stitches a day I need to stitch in order to complete this design by Dec. 31. Now, if I finish it early that will be just bonus. My sister sent me a message asking about her yoga piece...so I need to dig that out and work on it. I need to stitch 203 stitches a day, every day, starting Oct 1 and ending May 31 in order to finish a few days after her birthday on May 28th. Looks like I am going to be busy.
Just an FYI...once I finish fashions, I will be selecting one lucky follower of my blog to send this pattern to. I will come up with some sort of contest I think...but you must be a follower in order to win the pattern and this will need to be the pattern you start on in 2011. Another condition is that you can't sell the pattern....you have to PIF to a new stitcher when finished. I would love contest ideas because I really can't think of one now!

Saturday, September 25, 2010

1 down 51 to go!


I posted a little while ago that I had two friends expecting and they both wanted me to make them something.....so that means 2 alphabet afghans which is 52 letters I have to stitch. Crazy huh???? I was going through my magazines and I found a couple that I was interested in but nothing just said STITCH ME!!!!!! I went to BN last week because the new Cross Stitch Collection magazine from Britain was in and it had the first part of a new Sandy Littlejohn pattern. I love her designs. I was flipping through it and found the CUTEST alphabet which would go for either a boy or girl. It is an animal alphabet and I just had to stitch it. This is the first letter that I have finished now I have just 51 more to go!!

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Finished Quilt and new Wedding Sampler

I put the final stitches in the quilt. This is just a small corner so you can see the fabric, border and binding. I love how it turned out!!! Now just to get it in the mail to my aunt.

I started a wedding sampler for friend Jammi. She is getting married in November and I put it off for a long time because I couldn't find just the right pattern. I did find it this summer when I was at my cross stitch retreat. I am stitching it on summer breeze jobelan with cranberrry GAST. In the middle will be two doves with a heart. The border will look like the small box in the middle. There will also be mill hill beads all over the border and box. I did modify the pattern because I didn't like the traditional sampler 1234567890 numbers on it...so I took that away. I think once I get the big border and beads on it...it is really going to pop!

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Historical Fashions Couple 10

Couple #10 is finally complete!!! I have to admit they turned out lovely. I look at these clothes and think WOW...people actually wore things like this. They actually had to hand stitch all their clothes...can you imagine sitting and hand sewing the ruffles, puffy sleeves, gathers and they buttons..OH the buttons!!! The happy news is that I only have 2 more couples to go! However, they are going to have to be put on hold because I have a wedding sampler to make and then I have 2 baby blankets to stitch!!! I thought about making 2 different designs but since both ladies do not know what they are having, I found the cutest Animal Alphabet in the October Cross stitch Collection magazine. It has frogs, tigers, bears, gators etc ...so they both getting the same blanket!!!!

Monday, September 13, 2010

Murphy's law for quilting!!!


My aunt called me a couple of weeks ago to ask if I would put a backing on a quilt. I said sure! I popped over to my moms Friday Afternoon and I assumed that she wanted me to put together a baby quilt that was premade or something like that...but no!! She brought me 2 yards of Razoback Fabric and 2 yards of Black fabric. YIKES!!


So off to Joanns I went. I bought the White fabric with black circles, red binding ribbon and in my stash I had some black Batik fabric. WHOO-HOOO!!!!

I had basically 2 days to put this together. However, I also had my friends Erins' 30th birthday party Friday night and then a trip to Branson Saturday for a day of shopping and wine tasting. I was very vital to this trip because I don't drink (that much) and I can drive a standard. So I was up until 2:30 putting together the top. Which I thought was a great since I didn't get started until 11:00! So off to bed I went!


After a long day of shopping, I finally made it home around 10:00pm. I started putting together the back of the quilt. I finally was ready to pin it together when I realized that the batting was about 2 inches short on BOTH sides!!!! OMG!! it is 11:00 on a Saturday night, no way to buy more batting and my aunt was leaving at 7:30 in the morning! I now have to priority mail it to her on Wednesday so it will be there by Friday for the raffle on Saturday!!!

Monday, September 6, 2010

Historical Fashions and Christmas RR

I set a goal for myself this weekend. My goal was to pick and finish an ornament for the Christmas round robin and to finish the upper body of my Historical fashions Lady #10. This lady was very detailed and called for 10 different colors for backstitching!!! Can you believe that??? 10 different colors!!! UGH!!! She is turning out very pretty I think.School is interesting this year. I was very concerned about being in the behavior room again because I had very bad memories for the last time I taught in the behavior room. In case you are wondering a behavior room has students with learning problems and along with that some severe behavior issues. They can be very argumentative, disruptive and just down right rude. This job is very tiring and emotionally draining. I wish I could tell you more but I just can't because that would be breaking the law. I am still uncertain about this year...I have 6 preps which is 6 different courses to teach and prep for which does take a while to do. So this morning I spent the time working on Physical Science and Environmental Science. It is just a little stressful!