This past weekend I actually got some finishing done. I know, can you even believe it?! I had to excavate the cutting table first before I could do it. Let's just say that was a job that was long over due. There's plenty more work that needs done in my sewing room but I'm all about the baby steps. It didn't become a disaster in one day and it sure isn't going to get put back together in one day either. LOL! Anywho, you didn't come here to listen to me rattle on about my slovenly ways. Let's get to the good stuff, shall we?!
This was my main accomplishment! I actually finished the bee. The fabric you see in the background is what I used to back it. I found this weekend before last at a new to me quilt shop. It matches the peachy pink floss perfectly. I'm still on the fence whether I want to put any trim on it. We'll see...
Design: Christmas Alphabet
Designer: Prairie Schooler
Fabric: 28ct. natural
Floss: DMC as charted
Started: 1/14/16
Finished: 1/15/16
Completed: 1/24/16
As you may recall, I left space on my linen when I stitched the ornaments for the peeps to do one for me. I decided to get to it weekend before last. I knew it would stitch up quick and I'm happy to now have one of my own. I actually feel like I'm ahead for this year...ahem...yeah, always looking on the bright side, I am. LOL! This would be my second finish of 2016. Oh yeah!!!
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I also had a wonderful RAK (Random Act of Kindness) show up in my mailbox Saturday! I had a "heads up" from Robin in VA (no blog) it was coming but with snowmaggedon hitting I actually didn't expect to see it till the middle of this week.
Here's Miss Nosey Pants checking it out and giving it kisses.
Here it is without the snout in the picture. Isn't it just so sweet?! Thank you so much Robin. Your kindness really touched me. I absolutely love it. It now lives on the mantle where I can see it from my stitching nest. You made my day!
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I hope everyone had a good weekend and if you were impacted by the snow storm I hope you are well and safe now. Winter is here for sure. Thanks for stopping in for a visit today.
I'm happy to report I've had a finish already this year. I'd wanted to stitch this one back in November when I got the substitute floss on the Auburn retreat. I wouldn't let myself start until I got the peep's ornaments done. That was my motivation to get those ornaments done!
This was my progress on the first day!
Here it is shortly after midnight one New Year's Eve!
Design: Her Majesty - Pincushion
Designer: Blackbird Designs from the Honeybee Hill chart
Fabric: 32 ct. Hive by Fabric Flair
Floss: WDW & GAST as charted
Started: 12/29/15
Finished: 1/9/16
Completed: TBD
Here she is all done! I really loved stitching on that Hive fabric. It was gifted to me by my peep, Linda. I'm planning to finish it as a mini pillow.
Funny story about the fabric, I had to laugh at myself, when I was putting the first few stitches in the honeycombs on the left side I realized I had the fabric going the wrong direction. It is printed with the combs going vertically and I stitched it with them going horizontally.
Now I know that's getting picky and probably nobody would notice but me if I didn't say something. I had a really good laugh when I discovered it. The way I discovered it was that the top and bottom had more fabric than the sides. It was easy to see that since the design is a rectangle. Guess I was in a hurry to get started and didn't even notice. Oh well, I'm not taking it out and it doesn't bother me at all. It's just a funny thing to note here.
I found some fabric this past weekend that matches the flowers in the borders. Now I just need to have a finishing day to complete it. Maybe this weekend. We are forecasted to get snowed upon again. We've been spoiled up to this point.
It's a short and sweet one today. I hope you are all well and happily stitching on something. Thanks for taking time out of your day to visit with me.
Well folks yesterday got away from me and I didn't get my post up. I underestimated how many pictures I had to edit. So go grab a cuppa something, we are going to be here for a while. I've got a whole lot to share with you today!
After we did our exchange at the hotel, we called one of our peeps for directions to the new hive at the county extension office. We changed locations this year as the previous one was falling into disrepair. This new hive was the "bee's knees" as they say and yes, I meant that pun too! Here's a look at the hive set up. This new place had a gourmet kitchen and we had our meals catered by a Mennonite lady who was an awesome cook! This allowed the Queen Bee to participate more in the fun. I think I worked out really well!
Once everyone was there and settled we were given our getaway project. As you all know, I do love BBD! I've wanted to stitch this one for quite sometime. We got to pick out our floss color. All the floss was by GAST. I chose Geranium. It's a bright pinkish red. The little purple things are Jordan almonds. Yum! In the US you see them a lot at weddings and celebrations.
This is what it looked like by the end of the night Friday. I'm thinking I want to put some beads on it in place of the charted confetti "x" and I've got some button trim in the stash heap somewhere that would be nice around the edge of a pillow finish.
Design: Getaway Girls Count
Designer: Rose Sartore
Fabric: 28 ct. White
Floss: WDW Confetti and DMC
Started: 3/22/15
Finished: 3/28/15
Completed: By the Queen Bee
Also, when we were given our kits we got this project bag. We had stitched the fronts and sent them in with our registration and the Queen Bee made them all into bags for us. It was designed by one of our getaway bees, Rose. We all picked our own colors. Too cute!
In between stitching and visiting, I shopped the boutique the Queen Bee set up for us. Just look at all this goodness. Yes, I found things I couldn't live without.
Hands On Design was one of the biggies this year. You all know how much I adore her things. I couldn't help myself. I was so happy to see the "Pin Feathers" chart there too. I had passed it by at Finishing Touch and it was haunting me. Yay! The little square of fabric is what I'll use for it. The bees, well they speak for themselves. The bigger piece of fabric is just because. I'm sure I'll come up with something to use it.
While we were stitching on Friday, we had a four legged visitor. Do you see it in the middle of the picture? Everyone got a sniff and she got an ear scratch. She came in with the warden and the inmates who fixed the folding door in the upper right corner of the picture. Yes, you read that correctly! I didn't initially notice that until I read the one guy's vest. Um...yeah! Never a dull moment...no siree!
Okay, so yeah, back to stitchy things. This was our show and tell table. The bags in the back contained our exchange gifts. We did that on Saturday. Let's have a closer look at these pretties!
Lots of pretty things to share and admire! We really are a talented group. I actually have a couple of these charts in my stash and now after seeing them stitched up, I'm tempted. If only I could live forever to be able to stitch all I'd like to. I bet you all feel the same way too!
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Well folks, this post has gotten longer than I'd intended so I think I'll leave you here and resume the recap tomorrow with the exchange and a peek at some goodies I picked up in town. I hope you are enjoying the grand adventure so far!
Ever had one of those finishes where you just need to do this tiny little thing and it would be complete but for some reason you procrastinate it? Yep, that's me on the BBD Pinkeep Drum. I've had the stitching completed for a while already. I'm happy to say I finally completed it last night.
Progress as of July 20th, the last day of the Russellville Retreat.
Stitching completed July 27th.
Then I started the construction on July 27th too.
I have to say that putting this together was a lot easier than I'd anticipated it to be. I followed the directions that came with the chart pretty closely. The only thing I changed was I left the cardstock circle inside the drum and added a couple layers of batting between it and the linen for the top and bottom. I didn't want the drum to pooch out. Yes, that's a real technical term isn't it?! I like the way the top is relatively flat now. I also filled the bottom with about an inch or two of poly beads for weight and used fiber fill for the rest of it.
Design: Summer in Bloom - Pinkeep Drum
Designer: Blackbird Designs
Fabric: 28ct. Silkweaver Days Gone By
Floss: GAST as charted
Started: 7/18/14
Finished: 7/27/14
Completed: 8/14/14
Our retreat kit came with silk ribbon to ruche along the edge but I really wanted to work with chenille again. I really enjoyed using it last time. I had ordered some from the LNS but got to rooting around in the stash and came across this. I love how it matches the fabric perfectly. I had another option that was more of a rust color but it wasn't wide enough. This chenille came from Victorian Motto in case you are wondering. I know not all LNS carry this stuff.
So there you have it, friends! I'm so pleased with how this turned out. It's the first drum finish I've attempted and it won't be the last. I really love working with the chenille too. It hides a multitude of stitching sins. LOL! I'd highly encourage you to give it a whirl if you get the chance.
I hope everyone had a good week and I hope your weekend is just a nice. The Tiara Club is getting together for an all day stitch tomorrow. I'm looking forward to hanging with the peeps! Thanks for stopping by for a visit today.
A week ago yesterday I left for our annual Russellville retreat. I met up with the peeps at a rest stop just south of the city. This year I drove by myself since my usual travel peeps were heading on to Florida after the weekend. Me, I had to come back to the grind. However, I wasn't alone in the car!
I had Señior Frog to keep me company along the way. He and I listened to my iTunes through the car's bluetooth and away we went! The girlies following me have now dubbed me Mario...ahem! Yes....I do tend to have a lead foot. I blame it on a really smooth riding car. Yep, that's it!
We made a stop at The Finishing Touch in Louisville to stretch our legs and do a little shopping. Gotta enhance the stash dontcha know. As you can see a few little things had to come home with me. We got back on the road for a short hop south of the city for lunch and then we kicked it on into Russellville.
Here's a peek at our nest. We usually spend our first night at the "hive" setting up and settling in. We have a pizza dinner so as folks straggle in they aren't missing dinner. The next morning we get down to stitching!
This was our group project for this year's getaway. It's Blackbird Designs' "Summer in Bloom - Pinkeep Drum." We used the called for GAST floss and 28ct. Silkweaver Days Gone By linen.
Here's where I was at the end of the weekend. I'm a lot further along now. I've got all the leaves and stems in and am working on the flowers. I'm hoping to get this one done really soon!
Speaking of finishing things, I've alluded to a round robin group project here on the blog. Well, we finally got to reveal them. This was the first time we saw them all together after they were finished.
I purposely left the picture scaled small for privacy sake. Most of these have the names, city and state of the participants on them. Some things just don't need to be put out there. I know you all understand. I can tell you we had participants from Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, and Michigan.
I'm sure you are curious how we accomplished this. Our organizers distributed the same set of quilt square charts from Susan Greening Davis (used with permission) to all of us. Each of us chose our own fabric, floss, and layout. As we received the stitched squares, we tried to choose a block to stitch that hadn't already been used. We tried to use complimentary colors so all the blocks would look nice as a group.
We sent them out each month by the 15th. We were paired up in groups of two since that's how our geographic location worked out. After I stitched my square on the two I received, I passed them along to my peep in the city at one of our stitch-ins. She sent them on when she was finished stitching her squares. And so it went until we were done!
They all turned out really nice and each is so different from the other. They really do reflect all of us. There is talk that we may do another round robin. The Queen Bee was quite impressed and maybe a bit envious that the worker bees struck out on their own. Giggles!
I have another couple tiny finishes to share too. This bag was given to us at last year's retreat by the Queen Bee. We were to stitch little "passport stamps" and attach them to the bag. They could be anything that was meaningful to us.
I chose to stitch a bee skep with tiny bees and my monogram since we all have the same bag. The skep represents our "hive" where we stitch each year and the bees represent us as stitchers aka worker bees.
In case you are wondering, the monogram is from a vintage DMC chart and the bee skep is from Prairie Schooler's chart #193 "Where there are Bees." I used 32ct. cream scrap for them both and finished the edges with nun's stitch. I used the called for DMC on the bee skep and NPI 947 & 572 on the monogram.
Each year the Queen Bee likes to give us little gifts during our getaway. This year she gifted us with this super cute hand made pin featuring our symbol, the bee! She also gave us this pretty journal to keep all our important thoughts in it. She suggested we could stitch our initial and put it in the square instead of the paper one that came with it. She also gave us a gold bee skep needle minder.
See the camel up there? Each year we like to patronize the local businesses just around the corner on Main Street. The camel was my souvenir from Pearl's Antiques. It's a figurine from the Red Rose Tea Company. It's made by Wade in England and offered as a promotion in the tea box. It just cracks me up!
It reminds me of the Geico camel which is my all time favorite commercial ever! I can't watch this video without laughing.
Well folks, this one has gotten pretty lengthy today and I'm not done yet. I'll leave you on this funny note and pick up again tomorrow with show and tell as well as the stash I got from the Queen Bee's "boutique." Hope you enjoyed the recap so far!
Now that I know the Stitched With Love Exchange Gallery has been posted, I can show you what I sent to my partner Silvia in Austria (no blog). This round was called Hop Into Spring. This was my first time participating in this exchange. We had our choice of sending either a spring or Easter themed package to our partner according the their preference. My perference was spring and so was my partner's.
Design: Think Spring
Designer: Lizzie*Kate
Fabric: 28 ct. mint greet
Floss: DMC as charted
Started: 2/19/13
Finished: 2/24/13
Completed: 3/9/13
Part of the requirements were that you had to send your partner a stitched piece that was no smaller than 4 inches square. If you did, you had to send two stitched pieces. Luckily my door hanger finished off close to eight inches long by four inches wide so I was okay. I love that little peep holding the umbrella. You just can't go wrong with a cute Lizzie*Kate design. It also happened to be one of Silvia's favorite designers too.
Here are the rest of the things I sent to her. Part of this exchange's rules were that you had to send six extras. If you sent more than one of the same thing it still counted as one of the six. So the thread, charts, fabric and chocolates counted as one each. The yellow fabric in the background is what I used on the back of the stitched piece.
Here's the box that I received. It winged its way across the pond from the UK! Don't you just love that handmade bee card?! I do!
Look at all the goodies just jam packed inside that box!!! There were trims, lace, ribbons, floss, charms, fabrics, scissors, buttons, fun owl socks and the richest dark chocolate I've ever had. The best part was the stitched piece. We have to look at that closer! Oh yes we do!
My partner knew my love of Blackbird Designs and she stitched this up for me. It's called "Tulip House Stitching Companion" from the book A Stitcher's Journey. Can you even stand it?! I know, it was hard for me to sit on this and not post until the gallery was up...but now I can!
I love the ric rack trim and the pearl pins she used. The box is made of the smoothest wood too!
She even lined the inside of the box with the same beautiful fabric as the outside. What's that in there? I think it's a clue as to who my partner was! Let's have a closer look!
My partner was Mouse from Tales of A Stitching Mouse!!!! I can not lie, this was so hard to sit on and not share. I kid you not! Thank you so very, very, very, much Mouse!! I absolutely love everything in that box. You made my day and I'm still on top of the world. I can truly say I was totally spoiled!
Thanks also go to Lainey and Lisa V who stepped in when Lainey needed some extra help. This was a fun exchange to participate in and I look forward to participating again. I'm so glad I am finally able to share this fun with you today. Thanks for stopping by for a visit.
Now that I know my partner has received her exchange, I get to show you what I sent for the Blackbird Designs Exchange - round #11! This little cutie went all the way across the pond to Angi in Hungary.
Design: Sweet Thoughts of You
Designer: Blackbird Designs
Fabric: 32ct. Chestnut
Floss: GAST as charted
Started: 1/29/13
Finished: 2/2/13
Completed: 2/17/13
This is another one that was hard to give away. The cotton fabric I used to finish it with is one that's been in my stash since my early days of quilting. I can hardly believe how closely it matched the blue in the basket. I found the trim at JoAnn's. They still have it last time I was there. I think it all goes so well together.
This one was supposed to be stitched on perforated paper but I decided to stitch it on linen in a color that came close to the paper color. I actually found this fabric on the road trip my honey and I took in January. I also decided to put the date at the top and stitch our initials (all over one) where the date would be.
Overall, I'm really pleased with how this one turned out. I may have to stitch this one for myself.
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Here's the fun part, yesterday the mailman brought my exchange package! Guess who it was from? Yep, you guessed it, Angi from Hungary! Isn't that just too funny?! Thanks, Lisa V that was fun!
Angi, sent me this wonderful stitched piece along with a sweet thimble that was made in Hungary and some wonderful hand-dyed flosses from Barbaral Creations. I've never had the pleasure of experiencing this floss but it's super soft and very pretty. Thank you, Angi! I love everything you sent!
Design from Secret Garden Necessity Box and Strawberry
Loose Feathers #20
Here's a closer look at the stitched piece! Isn't if wonderful? Angi's finishing is super nice! Love the sweet heart charms she added.
Look at this pretty backing fabric. I love the pumpkins and sunflowers. The twine on the edging is a nice touch too. I would have never thought of that myself.
I had to show you this tape she used to seal the packages. I love these sweet little dogs! Too bad you can't get them as fabric. I'd certainly add some to the stash!
Thanks to Lisa V for coordinating the exchange and especially thanks to Angi for stitching for me.
I hope you enjoyed seeing the exchange pieces and thanks again for stopping by to visit with me today.
Yesterday brought a sweet surprise in my mailbox. My exchange piece from round 10 of the Blackbird Designs Exchange winged it's way to me from the other side of the world! Check out this little lovely made by Lisa V in Australia!
This is "Love Letters" form the Joyeux Noel book. I've always wanted to stitch this one but somehow never got around to it. Now I have one of my very own and it was stitched by a dear friend!
I love how she mounted it on a round grass mat too! The blue ric rac perfectly matches the threads in the design. I like the added little flower blings and the charm that reads "Made For You."
I was beginning to get concerned since I was the last one to receive my piece. It was totally worth the wait and I completely understand why it took a while to get to me too. I love, love, love it!!!
Lisa V is the new coordinator of this exchange group and she did a super job both as coordinator and exchange partner! Thank you so much my friend! I'll treasure this always.
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I have lots to share with you and it will come in several posts as soon as I can sort out the 67 pictures I took at the guild party on Saturday. So stay tuned! Thanks for visiting with me today!
