Time for 'Tis the Season

Well, it's almost time for the 'Tis the Season stitch along. We start March 1 and that doesn't happen for another hour here. The Australia girls are already getting going. I'm totally ready to start, with my blocks traced, the interfacing ironed on and even the thread cut. I didn't quite go so far as to thread a needle!

Still no camera. Apparently DS finished the play he was working on and immediately started another. I've seen so little of him that I didn't even know what's going on. He still has my camera and I havent even seen enough of him to ask for it back.

I had a test tonight in the course I'm taking this semester. I don't know how I did; I'm just glad it's over.

Slowly, slowly

Progress has been made of the Stalker cat pillow for #2 son Brian, but not a lot. We didn't see him on his birthday and probably won't for another week so I have a bit of a reprieve.

Meanwhile, I am getting organized for the 'Tis the Season stitch along. I have chosen my fabrics, cut out the backgrounds and most of the borders for the blocks. Today I purchased fabric for the inner border and interfacing for backing the stitcheries. I had some interfacing, but not enough. I still have to trace the patterns onto the background fabric, cut the interfacing and iron it onto the backgrounds and finish the cutting of the block borders. I was planning to trace today during daylight, but it turned out to be a dark, rainy day. Maybe I'll trace tomorrow if it's brighter out.

The rain is melting a lot of the accumulated snow. Maybe we'll be able to see the yard soon. It's been buried under snow since the day after Christmas. Some low spots are flooding from the runoff, but nothing to cause great concern.

I wanted to include a photograph of my progress so far on these projects, but #3 son borrowed my camera yesterday and hasn't returned it. He's stage managing a show currently. Between that and his job, he's gone 17-18 hours a day. He must be exhausted. This is the final weekend for the show, so he'll be able to rest soon. I'm proud of him for working so hard, but as his mother, I worry too.

Sons and cats

It just hit me that it is only four days until #2 son's birthday. I have been planning on making him a throw pillow for his apartment using this pattern.


It's called Stalker and is by Helene Knott. It's part of her Garden Cats series and I just love it. I also have Eggplant Purrmesan. All the patterns are of cats as vegetables. I'd love to do a whole quilt with a bunch of them. Maybe someday..... Anyway, I purchased the pattern from Over the Rainbow Quilt Shop. I'm hoping that my son Brian likes it as much as I do. He and his girlfriend are both cat lovers-they have two. Anyway, I'd better get busy if I'm going to have it done on time.

The Over the Rainbow shop is about 3000 miles from here. I discovered it doing the FabShopHop. FabShopHop is basically a form of advertising for quilt stores and related businesses. The advantage to the hoppers (like me) is that I find out about a lot of different quilt shops and try to win some nice prizes. A few years ago-2003?- I won the grand prize, a Bernina Sewing machine. These days there's a hop almost every month. If I'm not too busy, I participate.

One down, many to go

I finished my Piano cross stitch.

Ta Da........

I do need to work on my photography skills, but you get the idea. After I wash it, I'll set it aside to be framed. It won't be hung until we've painted and we won't paint until we can leave the windows open-probably May. I have finished very few sewing, stitching, craft projects for the past 3 1/2 years since I went back to school. This semester, instead of going full time as I have been, I'm only taking one class and have much more time.

I've also started another quickie project which I'll show when I finish it-not more than a few days.


Meanwhile, DH gave me this for Valentine's Day. It's a Sierpinski Triangle valentine. You probably have to be a math person to appreciate it, but go ahead and google it

It's a kind of fractal, very cool.

Meanwhile I continue to seek out new fabrics for the 'TTS SAL. (Ohmygosh, I'm writing in acronyms!)

Gathering

I'm starting the process of gathering the materials for 'Tis the Season wall quilt designed by Natalie Bird. First of course was ordering the book. I got mine from Daisy Cottage Quilting.

My next step while waiting for the book to arrive was to order a variety of red floss. When I get the fabrics, I can choose whichever red looks the best.




I also thought I might do the quilt in greens instead of reds. So I
ordered an even bigger selection of greens to audition.





Next step is to choose fabric. I have to dig out and paw through my many boxes of fabric to find a suitable assortment. I may make the quilt more scrappy than the original. So far I have a cream solid to use for the sticheries if I don't find something I like even better.

What does everyone else do when planning a project? Do you shop from your stash or do you head for the quilt store?

Progress

I've been working away at my little cross stitch, and I just love it. Another week, maybe less and it will be done. There are so many projects that I want to do! For a while I'll try to concentrate on old UFOs, just to reduce the pile. That doesn't mean I won't start a few new ones.

I should probably make a list of all my UFOs, but the idea is daunting. I don't want to scare myself out of tackling them. Anyone have any input on that?

Thanks to all those who have been visiting and leaving a hello in the comments. A task high on my priority list is to reply to some of the comments-as soon as I figure out how. I know it sounds silly, but when I decided to do the blog I didn't think that anyone would actually read it!

I've got pictures

Here is my piano cross stitch showing how far I'd gotten on 1/31/11. Below is the leaflet with the piano cross stitch. Tomorrow, when there's better light, I'll try for a picture showing its current status. It's much further along now. It has been quite a few years since I've done any cross stitch and I'm enjoying it tremendously. This is the first time I've ever done cross stitch without a hoop. I read somewhere that it was an individual choice rather than a necessity. I decided to give it a try and the results seem just fine to me.

Yes, both of those pictures were taken on top of snow. It has been a cold and snowy winter so far.

I have joined the Tis the Season stitch along organized by Chookyblue. It will go from March until August. My book arrived in the mail today and I'm so excited to be a part of the stitch along. See the sidebar for a look at the project.

A New Beginning

I've had this blog for a while and used it for a couple of college courses which required me to have one. Those courses are done and I've erased those posts since I no longer have need of them. I decided recently that I wanted to have a personal blog to record and share some of my interests. I enjoy reading blogs, and wanted to have my own.

Some of those interests are quilting, needlework, doll making beadwork-all kinds of crafts really. I'm also a big reader-nothing heavy- mysteries are my favorites.

My current book: All Clear by Connie Willis. I guess it is classified as science fiction. It is a time travel book in which people in 2060 travel to England during WWII.

My current project: A counted cross stitch called Piano by Gail Re. It's at least 20 years old. I made the companion Violin piece many years ago. I'll see if I can figure out how and post a picture withing the next few days. Blogs are much better with pictures.