Where Have I Been?

I can't believe I haven't posted in 2 weeks!! :-o Where have I been? If you saw me, would you tell me... I have no clue how time could have flown by so fast!! LOL :-D

Seriously~ I've been here and there, shopping, cooking, sewing, you know.. all the things we do and try to fit into a day! :-) DS is home for Spring Break, so yes there has been more cooking~ he has two hollow legs! :-)

And sewing? Oh yes, I've been doing lots of that! Unfortunately, I can't show you the 28 blocks I made for the three row robins I am working on. But I did finish them and get them mailed off. And I can't show you the birthday gift I made for my Mom (hi Mom! :-))  And I forgot to take a photo of the postcard I made for friend's friend~ it went into the mail too fast. ;-)

I can show you two more Just Takes 2 blocks~

For some reason I had a hard time with the house. :-/ The fan went together like a piece of cake! Go figure. I have the next bunch of blocks all cut out and waiting by my sewing machine for my next 'buckle in and sew' day.  Maybe Friday? There is going to be a Friday Night Sew-In going on. ;-)

And I can show you the new project I am starting. :-)) Ok, ok... it is a long term project. I'll bet you were thinking~ uh-oh, here she goes again! ;-)  I'm going to be working on an exchange again with my friend Bingo~Bonnie.  We just love all the plaid quilts in Bonnie Hunter's Scraps and Shirttails book 2, so we are going to make and exchange blocks for a quilt in the book. No hurry, no worries. Just for fun. :-) I would love to make my DS's plaid quilts.  I cut out a bunch of rectangles today and matched them up with Triangulations pages to start my 'homework'.... making loads of HST's. ;-)

So there you have it~ my not-so-exciting life! ;-)  I just received 2 more row robins I need to get to work on... and I need to work on my April BOM. See? Always something! :-)

Hope you are finding some sewing time too!
Until next time~
Happy Stitchin'!

Mystery Solved~

Thanks to my friend Karen at Briarside Lane I now have an answer~

The designer of the wonderful sewing machine graphic is Ursula Michael. It is a counted cross-stitch pattern and you can find it here~ The Stitchery~ Let's Sew.  :-)

Some Fun~

I can't show you what is going on in the quilt room because I am working on the next HGTV BOM~ which gets revealed Thursday. ;-)  And I'm working on my row robin rows. Remember I started out with 2 lap quilts and wall hanging size rows, so I have 3 rows to do each month it gets passed around. I know some of the gals in the Row Robin visit hoping for a peek at their quilts! ;-) LOL We all have to wait until the 'big reveal' in September. :-) I must say, some really creative rows have been coming my way! It is going to be so fun to see all the tops!

In the evenings, I find myself stitching~

I finished the asparagus towel last night and the beets a few nights ago. (sorry my photo is a little blurry :-/ Both of these patterns are the monthly freebies from  Bird Brain Designs.  Scroll down and look for 'freebie'. They are going to do a vegetable freebie each month all year. And they stitch up really fast. ;-)

I used Transfer Eze to transfer the designs to my towels. It is a water soluble product that eliminates the need to trace. It comes in 8 x 11 inch sheets. I must say~ I like it!  It didn't affect my stitches at all. I did one towel in perle cotton and the other in regular floss. You need to remember to set your printer to 'light', so you use the least amount of ink possible. I forgot to do that on one project and discovered that it was much harder to rinse out in small areas. This time it rinsed fine~ I haven't rinsed the green towel yet. I was too excited to show you! :-)

Yesterdays mail brought my next project~ perfect timing!! :-) I was lucky enough to win Quilt n' Queen Pauline's giveaway for a Bird Brain Designs gift certificate last month :-) and I ordered 2 patterns~ one of them  printed on Sticky Fabri-Solvy.  BBDesigns uses this product now because it comes in larger sheets~

I am going to be prepping my background fabric today and stitching soon! Thanks so much Pauline!!  You are keeping me in stitches! ;-)

A reminder before I leave you~ Wednesday is Thimbleberries Sew Day!  I won't be joining you this month, but please let me know what you are working on so I can visit!!

Until next time~
Happy Stitchin'!!

♪♪♫♫♪ I'm Back!! ♪♪♫♫♪

Did you see musical notes in my title, or does it only show for me? That's as close as you will get to hearing me sing! ;-) LOL  I am soooo happy to have my computer back!  The good news was it wasn't a virus and it was fixable. The bad news? I lost everything! All my downloads, photo's, files, programs etc. I was so bummed! We've spent most of the week reinstalling lost stuff and then getting the updates. Sheesh. If I learned anything, it is to make sure you save on an external drive or thumb drive anything important before you shut your computer down! You don't know if it will start up again in the morning. :-/

Ok on to fun stuff~~
On Friday night I stitched~

I finished this little stitchery and plan to make it into a pillow like the pattern. It is from Crab •apple Hill and is called Vintage Candy Cane Snowman pattern #411. I got the pattern as a Christmas gift~ thanks Cyndi!! :-)

Then I started to work on this~

And finished it last night. :-) I still need to rinse out the Transfer-Eze.  I'm going to make it into a wall hanging for my sewing studio. :-) I got the idea from Anna at Woolie Mammoth.  You can read all about it on her post HERE  And you can find the image on her Pinterest. I was lucky, I was able to capture it and resize it in my photo program~ before the computer lost everything! ;-)  If anyone knows who the talented artist is, please let me know~ I'd love to give them credit for their fantastic design! Edit~ the designer is Ursula Michael, and it is sold as a cross-stitch pattern called 'Let's Sew'. ;-) I used perle cotton to stitch it,~  about halfway thru I wished I had used something a little thinner. Next time! ;-)

I also got my kitchen towels all prepared to sew while our power was out.  This is my Christmas Through the Year project for this month.  I just need to string the ribbon through 2 more.  You can find the tutorial at Carol's Crafty Creations~ here. Thanks Carol!!

And finally~ I got some fantastic mail during my computer imposed computer break. :-/

Elaine at Faithful Quilter: Elaine's Journey had a wonderful giveaway a while back for this Jo Morton book and a bundle of Jo's 'Carolina' collection.  And I won!!! Oh my gosh! I love all the patterns in the book! I am going to start small though and do the smallest project first. ;-) I am really new to applique and Jo's book has a good detailed section on back basting and hand applique.  I am determined to conquer applique!  Thank you Elaine!!

Ok, I think you are caught up with my little corner of the world. I have a bunch of projects I need to get cracking on! Since I lost my entire EQ7 files, I need to re-draw up the HGTV BOM I am doing with  my good friend Karen~ I am having a great time with the BOM, but don't relish the idea of having to draw it all again. It is going to take some time, but I'll be back in the swing of things soon!

Until next time~
Happy stitchin'!
(and go back up anything you want from your computer now!!) ;-)

Late to the Party... again!

I did sew on Friday night. But on Saturday my computer wouldn't start!! We took it to the Dr and came home, I was going to use hubby's computer to post~~ and we had no power!! :-o The second FNSI in a row!!   :-( Can you believe it?!

My computer is still being fixed, so I am typing from hubby's~ and he has no photo programs, so no photo's to share. I'll be back when I am up and running again!

Hopefully tomorrow~? ++

Have a happy day!

Friday Night Sew In

Handmade by Heidi is sponsoring the Sew In  :-)

Last month I was all set to join in, and then we lost power and cable to an ice storm! :-o

Tonight we've had a few cable flickers~ it is pouring out and a little windy right now. I am hoping our electricity stays on because I want to join in!  Are you joining in too?  I just looked and there are 176 people signed up! :-) That is a lot of humming machines!!

I'll see you in the AM with my accomplishments~ that is, IF the power stays on! Fingers crossed!! ++  :-)

Catching Up~

I am slowly but surely catching up with the 'Just Takes 2' quilt along. (see the link in my sidebar). I just have to finish the fan block and the house block and I'll be caught up~

I thought I'd read somewhere to sew the flying geese to the block, but I went and looked and couldn't find it~ maybe i dreamed it? Maybe I'll be frog stitching when it comes time to put this all together? ;-) LOL Now that wouldn't surprise me! :-))

Today the 4th installment came out~

I have everything printed and ready to go. I print the paper piecing pages on dollar store scribble pad paper. It works great. Rips off nicely and is a lot less pricey than 'paper piecing paper'... which seems very similar to this pad of paper. ;-) I do have to cut the sheets down a little, but I think for the price, it is worth it.

Hope you are busy sewing and having a productive week!
Until next time~
Happy stitching!!