HAPPY MAIL - A Wonderful MugRug

Another gorgeous MugRug flew across the BigBluePond and has made it safely to California.  Thank you, Rosemary! I just love this darling mug rug. Isn't it beautiful? Check out the stitching!

MugRug designed and made by: Rosemary D.

Wishing everyone a very Happy and Prosperous New Year!

Quilty Hugs,

HAPPY MAIL! Embroidery!

The postie brought some lovely Happy Mail: a wonderful embroidery from Frummie. I think her Charlie helped... or maybe it was the other way around! lol. Thank you so much Frummie. Your lovely embroidery will become part of a special label for my Civil War Quilt. The picture below does not do justice to this gorgeous stitchery... all the stitching is PERFECT and so delicate!

Embroidery by Frummie

Until next time. . . I am off to my sewing circle meeting to sit-n-chat-n-sew. What are YOU up to today?

Linking to: Freemotion by the River.

Quilty Hugs,

Florida SNOW In California

Now is this a feisty little SnowPerson or what?! He is so cute! This block is from Frummie. And now there are two: Melty [by PatH] and Feisty [by Frummie].  He is all beautifully embroidered and appliqued. Love him. Thank you, Frummie!

Snow Person Block by: Frummie S.

Until next time. . . I am working on SnowPeople parts - wow, that sounds gory! ... what are YOU working on?

Quilty Hugs,

How it turned out. . .

Remember the afghan/bedspread fiasco that I shared? The original post is here. Well, after it dried I layed it on the bed. It doesn't look as bad as I thought it would. It is no longer a king-size. It shrank to a Queen, but it is useable. Relief.

Hand crocheted bedspread with embroidered florals

Above is just a quick picture. The bed doesn't have the matching bedskirt or proper shams sitting on it, because it takes two people to lift the mattress and put the bedskirt on. It's fine the way it is for now.

Until next time. . . I am making some DJ blocks and triangles. What are YOU working on?

Quilty Hugs,

MINI EMBROIDERY QUILT. . . Done

It's finished! The little quilt I've been working on for the Friendship Embroidery Mini Quilt Swap is all done. Soon it will be on it's way across the Big Blue Pond to it's new home somewhere in Australia. Sure hope the person who receives it will like it and enjoy it.

"Friendship's Offering" by Cyn;-) Forrest for the Mini Embroidery Swap

The poor little thing looks a bit washed out... I took the pic under incandescent light. Maybe waiting for daylight would have been better.  For a little bling, I stitched mini rick rack in the binding seam sort of like a flange.  The heart appliques are YoYo Hearts. They were fun to make. I like how it turned out.

On the back are Fast Finish Triangle Sleeves -- many thanks to the AAQI site that shares how to make these.  I put them on the top as well as the bottom of the quilt. To hang, just slip a stick or rod of some sort under the triangles and hang.  And to keep the quilt always hanging straight and flat against the wall, lay another stick - even a chopstick will do - in the bottom triangle sleeves.  The "label info" has been penned on the triangle sleeves with Pigma Pen. Unfortunately it doesn't show up in this photo, but it's there!

Embroidery design by Lena of the Stitching Cow; stitchery by Cyn Forrest

The center stitchery was quilted as it was embroidered. I usually work with a thin cotton batt behind the background as I am embroidering - it gives nice dimension to the stitches.  This was a fun project to do. More so because two local friends also participated and we cheered each other on. Nice. Many thanks to Lena of the Stitching Cow for her wonderful line drawing for the embroidery design, and thanks also to Michele at Quilting Gallery for putting the swap together... thank you ladies!

Until next time. . . I hope you have loads of time to stitch up something wonderful.

Quilty Hugs,

YO-YO HEARTS 4 MINI

A little bling never hurts, so I'm making a few YoYo hearts for the Friendship Mini. I hadn't made these in so long I had to get out the directions.

Fabric and Heart Maker Tool by Clover ArtNo.8704

Stitching completed - popped out of disc/plate

First heart - just pull up the stitching thread and ease into shape

2nd Heart: secure thread by taking a small tuck to improve shape. Not a part of package instructions, but improv is always good, eh?

2nd Heart - this one has a little tuck in the back, then secure thread end

You be the judge: do you like Heart #1 or Heart #2 better? Does it really matter? Do they both look like hearts? There might be tiny little beads in the center of the hearts when I stitch them on the quilt - the washable kind.

So, this is what I am working on today. Hope to finish it by tonight. Until next time. . . . what are you making today?

Quilty Hugs,

MINI EMBROIDERY & MENU FUN

The Friendship Embroidery Mini Quilt I'm making for a swap is almost finished.  It still looks a bit plain... there will be a few more bits added, then a little more quilting, a binding, a label and done. Hopefully this will go into the mail by Monday. Sure hope the recipient likes what I've made. It's hard to guess what someone else is going to like. Fingers crossed.

Friendship Embroidery Mini Quilt Swap - in process

Missy snoozing and relaxing under the front window... nothing can relax as completely as a kitty!

Your camera WOKE me!

Until next time. . . I'm headed back to my sewing machine  to bed! What are you up to?

Quilty Hugs,

MENU FUN:
Doc says, "put more veggies into your diet!". What he really meant was A LOT more! So I've been experimenting by changing up some things I've cooked for years.  In this case, spaghetti sauce. There are so many veggies in here I call it the "Kitchen Sink" sauce. It was tasty. I served it with 1/2 Cup of whole wheat pasta & 1 Cup of this veggie/tomato concoction. It was great. So now-a-days instead of 2 cups of pasta and one cup of sauce, it's a smidgen of pasta and tons of veggies. Totally vegan. My body seems to like it.

Spaghetti: Super Veg-a-sized!

MINI EMBROIDERY - A Near Disaster!

Too bad I didn't take a picture of this little embroidery as it was last night.  I gave it a quick dip into a bowl of cool water to remove the Solvy and laid it on a clean white towel to dry.  Later I noticed the puple floss  had RUN -- there were little 'splotches' on the background!!  Oh sheesh.

Friendship Embroidery Mini Quilt Swap

 I grabbed a Shout sheet, a squirt of All and crossed my fingers. It had to soak all night before it came out. Whew... a near disaster avoided. I am Happy Dancing that the Shout worked! But, lesson learned; next time I will TEST the floss before using it!

I'm off to the San Diego Quilt Show today with friends. We are going to take the train! What fun. Until next time. . .

Quilty Hugs,

WIP Wednesday: Friendship Embroidery Mini Swap

Several people around the world are signed up for this little swap. It is a cute and fun project. Below is a pic of my progress so far. How is everyone else doing? I hope to get my offering into the mail in about 4 days.

Friendship Embroidery - design by Lenna Green of the Stitching Cow

NO tracing... just print design, lay on foundation & stitch. Dissolves in water. Love it.

Until next time. . . what are you doing today?

Linking to: Freshly Pieced: WIP Wednesday.

Quilty Hugs,

NEW SWAP - time is running out to sign up

If you want to participate in the Embroidery Mini Swap [design by Lenna Green of Stitching Cow], then you need to act fast! The signups close tomorrow, Wednesday, August 22. It's going to be fun. A clickable button is on my left side bar.



Linking with: Freemotion By The River - click over and see what everyone else is up to today.
Until next time. ..

Quilty Hugs,

Embroidery, Beading & Quick "Hi"... going on 4 day retreat. . .

Just a quick note to say "Hi" -- I am going on a Retreat for four days so won't be posting again until next week. I am taking my Internet phone with me, but I doubt we will have any reception out in the boonies. lol. My DD Laura will stay here to "hold down the fort" and to take care of Missy -- there is no way I would leave her alone for 4 days! Thanks, Laura!

Finished most of the embroidery for the wonky October block I've been working on. My friend Bob's birthday is ON 31 October -- Halloween! So, this block will be a little something just for fun. Not sure if it will be a small WH, or perhaps a reversible pillow for his couch. I "inherited" this block from someone else who was "through with it". I think it's really cute. A few LC rounds on it and it will be finished.  Note to self: next time add a thin batt to the back of the block and quilt it while embroidering.

My long-time and wonderful BFF Joy made me this darling Scissor Fob for my recent birthday. It has a little 'lobster claw' finding that allows it to easily be moved from one scissor to another. Wow!  I am so blessed to have her in my life. Thank you again, Joy... I just LOVE my fob and it even has a little kitty charm... how sweet is that?!

I was so spoiled this year for my birthday. Family and friends were great and heaped on a lot of surprises. But now it is "official"... I am actually Older Thank Dirt! Next year I will start counting off the years going down instead of up! Only substraction from now on! lol

That's all for today. Thank you for stopping by for a visit and I hope where ever you are that you have time to create something for yourself or somone you love.

Quilty hugs,

PLEDGE & A BLOG FACE-LIFT

Well it's about time I rearranged a few things on this blog. Now it has 3 columns: 2 are for gadgets, which hopefully will make it easier to read and find stuff -- like clickable BOM Buttons, etc..  The middle column remains as the posting and photo area.  It might take a few more tweaks before I'm happy with it, but this is a beginning.

PLEDGE: My sweet friend Marianna has written a Pledge on her blog and invited me to do the same. So, officially I have pledged to: STOP PROCRASTINATING... or, at least try not to. Marianna has a post on her blog and a button, too, I think. Currently we have used "list making" as a tool to stay on top of things more. This includes crafting and 'real life' stuff. Even housework needs tending to once in a while. lol. So... please wish us luck as we try to turn-over-a-new-leaf and make 2012 a more productive year with less wasted time. If YOU would like to take the pledge, too, please join us. All the info is on Marianna's blog.

I have a new embroidery project calling my name and I want to get a start on it while the light is still good. If you would like to join in with the "It's a little bit French" BOM, there is a clickable button on my left side bar.

That's it for now. Thank you for stopping by to visit.

Hugs,

TA DAH!! It's Finished. . . now, back to quilting ;-)

Well, it's done... my Giant Granny from the CAL on Sucrette's blog is finished. It took exactly 3 weeks to make -- one to do the crochet, and two to decide how to finish it and put on 3 more rows to balance the colors. Isn't that funny? For me, design always takes longer than the actual "making" of something. 

It turned out quite BIG! Here it is covering half the loveseat in my living room. lol...

First, I tried making the edging shells of Treble Crochets ... that seemed pretty heavy for this blanket.

So, I pulled it out and redid it using Double Crochet instead. This looks much better [pic below].  Do you agree? The smaller edging doesn't dominate the whole blanket; just sits nicely on the edge and behaves itself. lol. It looks a bit unruly now, but will look better after it has been blocked.

This afghan is too big to get the whole thing in one picture, but I think the pic below shows enough of it that you can see the colors.

This was a very fun project to do. It was even more enjoyable because I have been crocheting along with friends: EllyD, LuAnn, Katrin, and Sucrette [this is a new URL for Sucrette].  All these ladies make fabulous art! I'm looking forward to sharing another project together sometime.

Well, this is the end of crochet for awhile -- I must get back to sewing, quilting, and finishing up those last two placemats and I have a new embroidery project all ready to go: [the drawing comes from BariJ's site. I redrew a few of the lines to more closely fit my needs -- artist's license, eh?!]

Thank you for stopping by to visit. I hope you will come back again... until then, may you have loads of time to quilt, sew, stitch, crochet, knit. . . whatever makes YOU happy! What do you like to do the best?

Hugs,

PS: There is a link to a Flicker site on Sucrette's blog [or click on the button above and on the right side of my blog], if you would like to see what the other Giant Grannies look like.

SPIDER WEDNESDAY & Other Strings n Things, & 10-Minute Quilt Blocks

Yesterday was Tuesday Friendship Group and Deb brought her Spider top -- isn't it gorgeous? A big "thank you" goes to Katrina for organizing our SpiderWeb Ring .  . . it has been a lot of fun! Go visit Katrina's blog to see a list of the whole Ring of quilters making Spider blocks.

Now to decide -- border or not to border? Here's one option:

I finished the embroidery on Sidney's SBS block and decided to make the little bird dark blue with a turquoise-green eye. Now just a small pieced border to finish it off. I'll take it with me to Hawaii on Saturday and finish sewing it while waiting in the airport. With a long two hour wait until flight time, it will give me something pleasant to work on.

Rani is new to our group  [but long-time friend] -- she makes beautiful quilts. This is her latest batik squares:

Also Rani's -- very colorful and with applique:

Pat has been busy sewing up more 10-Minute blocks from 5 inch batik Charm Squares. If you would like to see how to make these click here for a short how-2 video:

Pat is auditioning her layout [above] and the tape is to keep it all together -- she rolls it up and takes it home and everything stays in place! Good idea.

That's all for this morning -- I hope where ever you are that you find time to create something that makes you happy.

Hugs,