Category Archives: Stash

Old WIPs, Tracking, and Stash Enhancement

Posted on October 3, 2016 by Terri | Comments Off

Isn’t it funny how things change, but stay the same. Blogging used to be all the rage, then came Facebook and Instagram. Now YouTube is taking over the stitching world by way of the flosstube posts.

I try really hard to not get sucked in to watching flosstube. I’m trying to limit myself to 2 cups of coffee worth. I turn it on, and start going through my emails (which I had up to a couple of weeks ago horribly neglected). When someone says something really interesting, or they get to the “this is what I’m stitching” or “this is what I bought since last time” part I switch over to watching with undivided attention. 😀 I did remember several days ago that I can watch it on my TV, so I may indulge a bit more while I’m stitching. It’s can be horribly enabling though.

While I like learning more about bullet journaling (my latest tracking love), I can hardly stand to watch the videos. There is a whole lot of looking at someone’s journal sitting closed on a desktop with their fingers waving around (likened to playing an invisible piano keyboard) while they talk. That drives me nuts. So I don’t watch very many of them.

Creating a bullet journal has allowed me to blend stitching, quilting, and journaling into a joint venture! This is how I’m tracking my Yearly WIP Challenge pieces, where in the past I used Excel. I do love the convenience of computer programs, but I’m a paper and pencil girl at heart.

One of the things I was determined to do in 2016 was pull out Teresa Wentzler’s Peacock Tapestry – which was started Sept 1999 – and grid it. This was the first TW I ever started. I was living in Japan where I knew no other stitchers and had just gotten internet and ordered the kit.

I pulled it out to take a picture for a group I’m in, and look it’s already gridded. No idea when that happened, but it wasn’t this year. SMH.

I keep forgetting to share my latest stash enhancement item. It’s Crossroads & Country Roads by Piece by Piece. The designer, Pam McMahon is a local designer and I love her stuff! She posted on Instagram that she had a new design out and offered it up there first (I think). I sent her a message and she popped it in the mail on Monday and it arrived the next day.

I love that she includes instructions for both sizes. I love the red and white version, and the smaller quilt is 25″.

I just returned from my trip to Louisiana, and brought back a couple of stitching things. Main reason for the trip was to celebrate my father’s 80th birthday (which was yesterday). I also got to visit with my high school best friend and she’s who I went stash shopping with.

Count Twice Stitch Once by Plum Street

Fleur de Fleur by Alessandra Adelaide

Do Small Things With Great Love by Lizzie Kate

There were a couple more Louisiana related that had to be ordered.

I’ve also started on my Year of WIPs Challenge but that’s a separate post since it’s photo intensive.

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Posted in Lizzie*Kate, Peacock Tapestry, Plum Street Samplings, Stash

WIP Challenge 2016-2017

Posted on September 17, 2016 by Terri | 2 comments

I did something that has caused me to dig through this:

My BFF mentioned a few days ago that she was going to participate in a WIP Challenge, where you finished 12 or so WIPs. I didn’t fully understand how it would work since it was starting October 1, plus I have some huge WIPs and know I can’t stitch 12 of them in a year (on top of the sewing I want to get done) so I sort of filed it away in the back of my mind.

I was watching her latest flosstube and she brought it up again so I went hunting for more information and became intrigued. I think it’s completely doable! The gist is you stitch 10-15 WIPs by the end of December 2017. The boss lady of the challenge states that as long as they have 1 stitch in them come October 1, 2016, they’re WIPs.

I wanted to divide my 10 items by older WIPs and newer WIPs, so my list looks like this right now:

Scarlet Letter – Gratitude
Mirabilia – Fairy Moon
Examplar Dames – And They Sinned
Carriage House Samplings – Houses of Hawk Run Hollow
Goode Huswife – Book of Spells
Blue Ribbon Designs – Expressions of Gratitude
Plum Street – Hurt Not the Earth
Scarlett House – Coverlet Candle Mat
LHN – Needleworker
Mill Hill – Log Cabin

Houses of Hawk Run Hollow and And They Sinned are my two largest WIPs. I had already decided to go back to rotating through 4-5 projects at a time, and now I’m trying to decide if I want to go back to stitching in 10 hour increments on a design and then switching out or stitch for a week on something and switch out on Monday. Either way I intend to focus on Houses or ATS. So my weekly rotation may look like this:

Oct 1-2 Book of Spells
Oct 3-9 HOHRH
Oct 10-16 Needleworker
Oct 17-23 Expressions of Gratitude
Oct 24-30 Book of Spells
Oct 31-Nov 6 HOHRH
Nov 7-13 Coverlet Candle Mat
Nov 14-20 Gratitude
Nov 21-27 Fair Moon
Nov 28-Dec 4 And They Sinned
Dec 5-11 HOHRH
and so on until HOHRH is finished, then move ATS into that spot

Now that I have it written out this may be the better way to go. If I decide to do the time version it’ll be something like

10 hours HOHRH
10 hours Book of Spells
10 hours Needleworker
10 hours Expressions of Gratitude
10 hours HOHRH
10 hours Coverlet Mandle Mat
etc…..

We’ve been paired off with another member of the group and required to send monthly post cards as a way to encourage and get to know each other. I’m also excited about this as I’ve been sort of considering writing to someone once a month as a way to communicate.

Now I just need to figure in some quilting/sewing time and pull a couple of large WIPs and small WIPs and do my own quilting/sewing challenge during that time too.

And, I need to get this all down in my journal by September 30.

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Posted in An Expression of Gratitude, And They Sinned, Blue Ribbon Designs, Carriage House Samplings, Coverlet Candle Mat, Fairy Moon, Gratitude, HOHRH, Hurt Not the Earth, Little House Needleworks, Mill Hill, Mirabilia, Plum Street Samplings, Quilting, Samplers - Original, Scarlet Letter, Stash, Stash Busting, Stitching, The Book of Spells, The Goode Huswife, The Scarlett House, WIP Busting, Year of WIPs Challenge

Wherein I share my largest WIP of all

Posted on September 14, 2016 by Terri | 6 comments

the Dungeon!

PICTURE INTENSIVE!

This is part of my Lady Lounge/Dungeon. I’ve put my hands on almost everything you’re about to see except the two scary bins in my cross stitch area. Those will be my next sort, maybe. I really want to get my sewing table and cutting table completely cleared off first, but I seem to be using both of them for sorting through everything before I pile it in the guest room. My method probably only makes sense to me, but I am making progress my way, and that’s all that matters. 😉

If you’re standing inside and facing the door this is immediately to the right:

Quilt Fabric for all the things. FQ up to 2 yards. More than 2 yards and it goes on bolts (I get empties from my LQS). The bottom shelf holds pre-cuts.

Quilt yardage and bolts of 30ct Murano xs fabric

Quilt yardage (I need to get some more empty bolts) and bolts of 30ct Murano xs fabric

Cross stitch fabric and storage for some fibers

DMC and in the plastic bag is a bolt of 30ct Platinum Murano.

In front of my quilt fabric cabinet is this container of gathered books and magazines that need to be shelved. And another WIP! I didn’t realize what that was until I took the photo. Sigh.

When you turn right, there’s my sewing table, and the window that looks out the front of my house so I can be nosy while I sew. It is great light for the room since it faces south. They are cracked for the photo, but I keep the shutters closed if I’m not in there.

The top. Left to right: Featherweight and new travel case and in front of that is a box of “strings” for paper piecing. Pink containers have hex paper-piecing in them, and the blue basket has miniature Temecula Quilt Co quilt kits. Next is needles, pins, paper piecing stuff, threads that need sorting and storing. Letters that need painting and put on my wall. Phoenix Comicon stuff that needs sorting, tossing, or displayed on my cork board, and behind that is solid yardage that needs to be put in the cabinet.

Underneath the sewing table:

My sewing machine caddy, cutting mat, ironing “board,” that travels. To the left is a 3-drawer plastic bin that hold strips and stuff (that needs to be gone through) and behind is a basket full of quilt kits. I honestly can’t remember what’s in the brown box.

Close up of my strip bin. The blue containers contain squares and bricks.

Close up of all those quilt kits.

Instead of continuing around the room, let’s face the door again and turn to your left. (I’m avoiding that corner as long as I can.)

Cutting table top:

This is where I normally measure 10x then cut once and still freak out until I’ve measured what I cut. As you can see it’s another sorting spot. The pile on the right is what I’m working on right now. It has bolts (not on the bolt) of more Murano! The drawers to right are a couple of rolling bins I bought in Japan and I love them so much.

and underneath! The threads are my overdyeds on individual airline cable rings. Normally hanging on the doorknob of my cross stitch fabric cabinet. AccuQuilt Cutter and dies to the left of the shelves. The fabric bins on the top shelf and on the floor to the left hold scraps. One is specifically civil war reproduction fabric that I’m pulling from for my Farmer’s Wife Quilt. The other is everything else. The one on the floor holds a mix that I am going to go through, iron and use my cutting machine to make 2 1/2″ squares for a leaders/enders quilt. I’ll also be pulling strips from the drawer I showed earlier. The labeled plastic containers are MOST of my quilt/sewing WIPs.

Sigh. And now that corner. This is my cross stitch corner. Remember that picture of the boxes and boxes of stuff I have pulled out to sell. This is what’s left.

Top shelf on the left holds my coveted SANQ hardback books. Wooden box magazine holders are in alphabetical order by designer. Most are just labled A, B, C, etc., but some of them are designer specific (Goode Huswife, Shepherd’s Bush off the top of my head). Second row also contains my hard cover French alphabet/symbol books. The left wooden basket holds small kits that I really need to dig through and do for some quick gratification (anyone else remember the Elegant Stitch Essie’s?). The right one holds Blackbird Designs, many of which are kitted Loose Feathers. The metal bins contain, in alphabetical order, charts that are printed/sold in 1/2-sized and smaller ziplocks – a whole lot of Little House Needleworks in there. Under the baskets are hardback quilt and cross stitch books, and the bottom 2 shelves are magazines. Mostly SANQ and JCS. The middle unit also contains boxes, containers, etc., for finishing. The glassed in cabinet contains books and I have purchased glass shelves and lighting to turn it into a display cabinet for some of my small pieces.

And then there’s this:

I know if I start digging through here I will soon have 50 WIPs. These two containers hold mostly kitted things I’ve received over the past couple of years in the monthly clubs I joined (I quit one of them after last year). The damask container also holds things from a weekend sewing retreat I went on 3+ years ago. These 2 containers really scare me. LOL

Still with me?

Oh look. I left to get something to drink and my editor came by:

I have my laptop set up on the dining room table for now. It normally sits on my grandmother's treadle machine that's on the wall that you haven't seen. That wall is for another day.

I love the look on her face. She’s a little startled that I walked in and she’s getting ready to jump off the chair she knows she’s not supposed to be on. I have my laptop set up on the dining room table for now. It normally sits on my grandmother’s treadle cabinet that’s on the wall that you haven’t seen. That wall is for another day.

And here’s where it’s all going for now while I sort it out in my Dungeon.

Ouch. Fuzzy picture. Sorry! This is my guest bed. If you come to visit me I promise you won’t have to sleep with all of this. In fact, please come see me. It will get me to put it away faster! That fabric needs to go in the few empty spots left in my cabinet. I’ve been trying hard to color sort it as I piled it so I can just pick it up and shove it on the shelves. The pile you see at the foot of the bed is kitted items I pulled out the other day that I no longer have interest in. Several of them were self-kitted which means I need to gut them and put the fabric and fibers in my cabinets and add the charts to the boxes of stuff to sell. The pile between the fabric and the pink zipper bag are quilt kits I’ve been working on. (Don’t you love that batik on top! I got it during a visit with Kathy when she was in Yuma last winter.) The blue basket contains finishing items. I brought it in here to keep from traipsing back and forth. Most of the stuff in here is actually quilting stuff, but behind the pink bag are a few stitchy items that got tossed onto the cutting table and they just need to be logged into my spreadsheet and sorted into its proper box.

So that’s it. My Dungeon. I really do love my room. It took me forever to decide on a color. As you can see I love IKEA. I’ve blogged about it before but the color matches a cart I bought at IKEA. I saw the cart and immediately knew that was the color my walls needed to be.

The only piece of furniture in there that’s not IKEA is my grandmother’s treadle. It works, too. I need to clean it up a bit, and probably find a spare belt for it, but I could sew on it if the zombies showed up. And I have enough fabric and thread to keep up warm with quilts, and maybe even sew us a couple of shirts 😉

And since it’s still WIP Wednesday after this super long post, here’s my latest Houses of Hawk Run Hollow progress photo.

It was dreary when I took the photo (we’ve had some late monsoon weather the last few days). I like to stitch across and work my way up. As you can tell, there’s a whole lot of blue in this block.

One more thing. These are the two designs I pulled from my kitted bucket the other day. I had intended to start one of them yesterday but completely forgot we had a baseball game last night, so that didn’t happen. Maybe in a minute? I have all my adulting done for the day 😀

The Goode Huswife – Book of Spells

Blue Ribbon Designs – An Expression of Gratitude

silks, wonderful silks!

If you’re still here, or actually here at all, thank you for visiting. If you have comments, be gentle. If you have questions, bring them on!

6 Comments

Posted in An Expression of Gratitude, Blue Ribbon Designs, Carriage House Samplings, Farmer's Wife, HOHRH, Puppies, Stash, Stitching, The Book of Spells, The Goode Huswife, WIP Wednesday

Dear Diary

Posted on September 12, 2016 by Terri | 8 comments

I’m sorry to have been neglecting you. It’s all this boy’s fault. I have had an amazing summer hanging out by the pool with a cold beer, going to the movies, out to swanky restaurants, socializing with all the new friends I’ve made, but now he’s gone back to school and I have time to catch up with you and get all my summer secrets down.

Back to my regularly scheduled schedule! Yay!

Over the past several weeks I have been spending a shit-ton of time in my Lady Lounge, Woman Cave, Sewing Room, whatever the heck everyone’s calling it these days. Lately I have felt like calling it Dungeon.

Since I moved here almost five years ago, during the summer I normally sew until the air conditioner kicks on then I head downstairs to spend the rest of my day sitting on my rear end stitching and reading. This summer, nope! We really have had time out of the house, but the time in has been spent on daily chores, stitching, and reading. I can’t remember the last time I unpacked my sewing machine.

Because….

I have not been able to settle in since I painted and reorganized!!! I feel like I have stuff spread out all over the place. I have tons of shelves and boxes and buckets, so I have plenty of storage space, but I evidently haven’t been using it wisely because I feel like things are lost, forgotten, and hard to put my hands on.

I had all these plans to start selling excess cross stitch over the summer – that I sorted out when I pulled everything for painting – that I know I’ll never get around to stitching because I’ve either lost interest in the item, it’s no longer something I like, the designer pissed me off, etc. I am my own LNS. Here’s proof positive of how much I don’t need. Boxes, boxes, and piles of stuff to be sold. Trust me when I tell you that is just a drop in the bucket. 😀

This past weekend I had dinner out with my partner in crime, Annette, and we talked about stash diving because there was something we knew we had but couldn’t find it. I have started bullet journaling and wanted to add in my WIPs and get back to some type of rotation, and I was sharing with her that I was procrastinating listing them because I couldn’t decide whether to just start writing them down, or to go through each one and sort them by either how old they are, or how close they were to being finished.

When we started talking about retiring I knew I would have no where near the funds I would want to kit up certain things with all the lovely silks there are out there so I gradually began doing that. I have 2 large fold-back-top Rubbermaid containers that contained some of my WIPs and some of my kitted items (either by myself, or purchased that way).

I finally bit the bullet and started digging through them today. Here’s what I found in the WIP department

Peacock Tapestry – Teresa Wentzler
Letting Go (Lusk) – HAED
Ann Holewll Sampler – The Examplarery
Quaker RR
Dimples Bugs RR
French Alphabet Sampler (I forgot I put it in there!)
Castle Sampler – Teresa Wentzler
The Fortunate Traveler – Teresa Wentzler
Earthdancer – Butternut Road
Tapestry Cat – Teresa Wentzler
Sleeping Beauty – Mirabilia
Patchwork Pieces – Nutmeg Needle
Asian Garden – Odds n Ins
Lady of the Flag – Mirabilia
Tsunami Sampler – Stickideen von der Wiehenburg
Christmas Elegance – Mirabilia
Peace – The Silver Lining
Christmas Wreath – Teresa Wentzler
Topiary – Teresa Wentzler
Garden Trellis Box – Linda Driskell from Just Cross Stitch magazine.

In one box! I know there are more because I have a beautiful chest downstairs that my friend Kathy gave me and I’ve started storing some WIPs in there. In fact, now that I think about it, all of the above 20 may also fit in there! Oh, and then there’s the ottoman I prop my feet on while stitching…you can store stuff in there and I know I have at least one WIP in there, ’cause I was just looking at it the other day. Geesh. Oh wait! Don’t forget my stitching bag that probably has 2-3 in there, too.

And here’s what was in the kitted box:

Autumn Queen – Mirabilia
Random Thoughts – Drawn Thread
An Expression of Gratitude – Blue Ribbon Designs (which I pulled out)*
Victorian Pearls – Sew to be Seen
Victorian Pearls 2 – Sew to be Seen
A Christmas Sampler – Midsummer Nights
The Book of Spells – The Goode Huswife (which I pulled out)*
The Spot Sampler – Margaret Bendig
Shakespeare’s Garden – LaBroderie
Queens Rule – Enchanting Lair
Castle Ridge – Teresa Wentzler (bought overdyed fabric to exchange)
Damask Rose Scissor Keep – Textile Heritage (gift)
Above the Clouds – Teresa Wentzler (bought overdyed fabric to exchange)
Mermaid of the Pearls – Mirabilia (special overdyed fabric)
Toccata Three – Drawn Thread
Cattleya Orchids – Terrance Nolan
A Token of Friendship – Merry Cox (an OOP which I could probably sell to pay off my house)
This is the Day – La-D-Da
My Son – Indigo Rose (should have pulled this one and may go back and do it)*
The Dreamer – Mirabilia
Quaker Diamonds – Rosewood Manor
Toccata Two – Drawn Thread
Toccata One – Drawn Thread
Quaker Samplings – With My Needle
My First Sewing Box and Scissor Fob – Stitching Parlor (which uses a Whitman’s Chocolate Tin I’ve tried to throw away a hundred times)
Souvenir Sampler – Drawn Thread
Village of Hawk Run Hollow – Carriage House Samplings
The Song They Sang – Carriage House Samplings (I even bought the frame for this one!!!)
A Parrot, A Leopard, A Lion – Scarlet Letter
Norwich Marianne Wren
James Wilson
Voice of the Shepherd – Told in a Garden
Teeny Hardanger – Sweetheart Tree
Brilliant Plumage – Teresa Wentzler

So, I evidently have a thing for Teresa Wentzler.

*I will be very unhappy in Heaven if I die and don’t at least start The Book of Spells and An Expression of Gratitude. Guess they’re getting added to my WIPs list next month.

Now, lest LNSs around the world freak out, all of the above does not mean I won’t be buying more as evidenced by the deliveries my mailman has made since my last post. I give you Exhibit C:

A new small portable stitching lamp, and needle organizer (can you say Teresa Wentzler?).

28ct Brash Jubilee for Ann Pegg 1877. Yep, I found some. I emailed the dyer asking advice for a replacement and she told me she had 2 FQs left. Miss Annette snapped up the other one. Partner. In. Crime. I tell ya.

Pattern, fibers, stretcher bars, and canvas for this lovely. I have had my eye on it for a bit and found out it was discontinued so I snapped it up.

I also purchased these cones of DMC from Joanns.com for Death by Cross Stitch by Long Dog Samplers. I’m leaning toward the copper on the right. I need to check my fabric stash and do a floss toss. I’m very tempted by the beautiful turquoise in the back but I’m afraid it’ll burn my eyeballs out stitching on a sampler this large. I do have a backup plan for it though 😀 If I don’t have a good piece of fabric in my stash for the copper I may use the red and order some 40ct white. Not to be worried about now though as I cannot start it until next month at the earliest because I am going out of town next week.

I am stalking my postman for Brooke’s Books Wizard of Oz.

So see, shopping when I shouldn’t be, or don’t need to be.

And I have quilt stuff coming in too.

But! This post has gotten so long and my phone is currently charging so I can’t show you what the top of my guest bed looks like. It’s covered with fabric, patterns, etc., from the quilt side of my room AND fabric, fibers, and fabric from the cross-stitch side of my room while I go through the buckets and baskets mentioned above trying to reorganize and sort into a better working order for me. I’m slowing myself down because I have to look at it, and touch it, and remember when I bought it, before sorting it into a pile to place it better in my room. I’m dreading getting to two particular stitching containers because I have lots of already kitted small things that need to be added to that list up there and put into that Rubbermaid container (which is full!). I know I won’t get it put away any time soon as I still have some excavating to do, so I’ll share a photo next time I post.

I forgot to show you some stitching!

Since my last post I have finished my Sugar Skull by Mill Hill

And my version of Be Thankful by Country Cottage Needleworks

and block 7 of Houses of Hawk Run Hollow by Carriage House Samplings (currently working on block 8)

Now I’m off to write my WIPs in my Journal and do some stitching. Maybe tomorrow I’ll dig the rest out of their hidey holes.

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Posted in Ann Holewll, Carriage House Samplings, HOHRH, Mill Hill, Mirabilia, Quilting, Scarlet Letter, Sewing, Stash, Stash Busting, Stitching, Teresa Wentzler, WIP Busting

Stash enhancement and future projects

Posted on August 13, 2016 by Terri | Comments Off

I’m still working on my Sugar Skull, but without much progress to share. The last couple of days I’ve been watching the Olympics more than just stitching to them and looking up every now and then. We are seeing some wonderful accomplishments from so many new Olympians.

I thought I would share a few of the things I’ve purchased lately, and projects that I have in mind.

While I never really need more quilting fabric, I keep my eye on the Fat Quarter Shop sales page. Especially the 60-50% off pages. I usually will buy a half-yard cut of something if I can get it for around $3 and try to be cheaper than that. At one point I would buy only fabrics that fit a category of color that I was low in. My non-sewing has not stopped me from buying fabric but it has been awhile since I bought any.

I have some pretty mint and pink fabrics that have sewing themes I plan to turn into project bags using the very excellent video tutorial of Vonna at The Twisted Stitcher.

There was also a really good video tutorial on sewing zipper bags on Fat Quarter Shop yesterday and I want to make some zipper bags. I don’t know if I’m going to use her pattern, but I do like the tutorial. As long as I’ve been sewing, making these intimidates me for some reason!

I have had this quilt pattern saved on my phone for almost 3 years.

When I was working in a quilt store, a customer came in with her nearly finished project (she was looking for border fabrics). I fell in love with the scrappy-ness of it, and that it was done in civil war era reproduction fabrics. When I first hunted for the pattern I only found a soon-to-be-opened web page of the designer. I had posted the customer’s quilt (with her permission) on my Facebook page when she first came in and that post popped up as a memory a bit ago so I was reminded to hunt for the pattern again. The website is active and I ordered it. I was a little nervous because I received no confirmation of my order, nor any notice of shipping, from the designer. I had decided to give it two weeks before I wrote her, but it showed up in my mailbox about that time. Whew! No idea when I plan to start it, but I’m so happy to have it. 😀

Yesterday I received these two lovelies from Attic Needlework. I drove over to pick them up, but the store was closed, so instead of driving back over there just had them mail, since I figured it would be cheaper than the cost of gas from here. It took 1 day for them to arrive.

I spotted Ann Pegg during a trip with my girlfriends in June. It was out of stock, but since the designer, The Scarlett House, is a local lady, it didn’t take long for the store to get it back in. The design was stitched on 28ct Jubilee Brash by Picture this Plus, however, so now I’m having to decide what I want to stitch it on. Honestly, the fabric is what first drew me to the design, so I’m very disappointed it’s no longer available.

This Is My Happy Place is a new design by The Scarlett House. Coincidence! When I saw it I immediately started thinking how I could change it a little to reflect both stitching and quilting. I think I’ve come up with an idea, but we’ll see. The design is charted to stitch the buttons if you want to do that instead of sew some on.

New on my wish-list are Lizzie Kate’s Pumpkin Pocket (links are to blog pages), and Threadwork Primitive’s Autumn in Bloom.

Off to do some stitching before Mister and I head out on Date Night.

I hope you enjoy your weekend.

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Posted in Future Project, Sewing, Stash

Oh my goodness, my Christmas was wonderful!

Posted on December 27, 2014 by Terri | 2 comments

But it couldn’t have happened without the greatest babysitter in the world! This is the first vacation we’ve taken together in 5 years. My BFF’s daughter K house/puppy sat for us and it was so great to not once worry about anything while we were gone.

This poor fella was wearing himself out welcoming everyone as they checked in to the hotel.

I fell in love with the headboards. You can’t see it very well in this photo but there are tiny little nail pricks that created firework bursts in the sky.

We walked around Downtown Disney after we got settled. I found this shirt, that is SO me, but decided against getting it.

2014-12-23 16.53.14

I also spotted this one and snapped a photo since I’m hoping I can get Mister to paint it for me. 2014-12-23 16.55.21 What looks like white, is really silver and I think this would be great painted in pixels like he did the storm trooper for his art class.

We had a nice dinner and a couple of drinks, then headed back to our room to sleep until the kids arrived. Future DIL decided to take the train down to Oceanside and ride back up to Anaheim with Son after he got off work at 9:30. We were expecting them about 11 p.m. but there was a construction site that took more than an hour for them to get through and by the time they arrived it was 1:30 a.m. They wanted to do gifts as soon as they got there. They even got me “Disney” gifts in addition to 2 GC to Ulta. The fragrance is from FDIL’s mother.

2014-12-27 10.51.57 I have no idea what time it really was by the time we got back to sleep. Mister got up at 6 to go buy our tickets so we could get in the park an hour earlier than the general public. Good thing we did too, since we were on our 3rd ride by the time the park opened. We kept waiting for the huge crowds to show up and slow line times down, but we never had a long wait, or at least longer than 30 minutes. We took full advantage of the Fast Passes and leapfrogged our way through the park. The ONLY ride we didn’t ride, that I wanted to ride, was the run away mine train.

At some time during the afternoon the kids headed back to the room for a nap and Mister and I went to some areas and shops to pass the time. We had Fast Passes for the evening light show and met back right about 8 p.m. After the fireworks show we started working our way back to the hotel and the best ride of the day….our beds. 😀

The next morning I met a friend in Downtown Disney for breakfast while Mister and the kids started packing up the room and loading cars. We made some changes to our plans so the kids were headed to FDIL’s parents to spend Christmas Day and we were going back to the park. It was so much fun accepting and wishing Merry Christmas to everyone we walked by. Our hotel had a beautiful photo spot and we took advantage of it. People just lined up and whomever was in line next took the person in front’s photos for them.

It wouldn’t be a trip to Anaheim/Disneyland for me if I didn’t end my trip with a visit to the Jazz Kitchen Express for breakfast. Since I had already eaten, I headed to Starbucks for coffee while Mister and the kids had breakfast. They did save me a beignet. 2014-12-25 16.09.07

After the kids left we headed to the monorail for a ride into the back of the park. We were planning on riding this again but when we got off the train we walked into this!

It was about 11 a.m. and the Fast Passes told us to come back at 8 p.m. No. Way. LOL We ended up doing a whole lot of walking and did get to ride the runaway mine train.

We headed back to the Jazz Kitchen for lunch (shrimp po boys and ya-ya gumbo!). Santa did his shopping on the way out of the park Christmas day. I ended up with 2 scarves (look close for the Disney references), brush cleaner and Urban Decay Naked 2 eye pallette, a Castle charm for my bracelet (not pictured), and a Dooney & Burke Disney Shopper. 2014-12-27 11.07.02

Every year when we’d go to Disneyland on Thanksgiving, I’d add a Jim Shore Disney Christmas piece to my collection. I did buy a Mickey this trip, but we also purchased a new piece. Mister fell in love with the bright colors of the Britto collection so we will be building that as well. He decided on this piece since it made him think of the dogs. 2014-12-26 20.30.21

We drove down and spent the night in Oceanside. We got settled in our room about 7 p.m. and sent straight to bed. Talk about feeling old and worn out!

Son drove down from FDIL’s house early that morning and we had breakfast before saying goodbye. On our way out of town we headed to Buccaneer Beach to watch the sun rise over the ocean and surfers and see if Mister’s surfing buddies were hanging out. We actually passed one of them driving off and he turned around and told us that the other one had left earlier so we were able to call him and he turned around as well. I was glad he got to meet up with them for a nice long talk. 2014-12-26 10.12.37

While I love living here in Arizona, and I think the desert is such a beautiful place, I miss the Pacific ocean so much that I cry every time I see it again. There’s just something about the sound of the waves that calms my heart and I especially love walking on the beach when stormy weather is approaching. It’s so wild and wonderful. I did live on the Atlantic ocean for almost 2 years and it wasn’t the same.

I was so happy to get home and see the puppies.

The postman left some wonderful packages for me. I took advantage of some great sales before we left.

The Downton fabrics are all low volume, and the Shop Local has stitching related prints inside. These will be used in some scrappy quilts, especially in Wild & Goosey.

Threads of Time will go into my Farmer’s Wife scrap bins. I couldn’t resist the Petite Prints and all that red. They’ll be used in my upcoming Bonnie Hunter Happy Scrappy Houses class in a couple of weeks.

This layer cake and charm pack will also be used in Happy Scrappy Houses.

And these are the FQs from my December color of the month club I joined in place of one of my finished BOMs. I’m thinking of using the 2nd from the right as the chimney’s in my Happy Scrappy Houses.

So today I’m being as lazy as I can and still get in a trip to the grocery store and do some laundry. College football and cross stitch sound mighty fine.

Tomorrow, I’ll think about working on my wishes for 2015 😉

2 Comments

Posted in Family, Stash, Travel

Sunday Stash Report

Posted on November 3, 2013 by Terri | 3 comments

Before I get to the down and dirty, and yeah, it’s sort of bad, this was a great week for me. Still not up to 100% but I had to really think about it to see how I’m doing. Almost there.

The only bad part of my week is the flat tire I ended up with Thursday after work. Mister thinks I got the screw in the parking lot at work since it wasn’t all the way in my tire, nor was it dented up very much. Of course this created the need to search for a new tire on Friday and the closest one we could find is in Louisiana. I ended up getting the tire patched and we’re waiting to see what’s happening with a new tire. This led me to cancel my trip to California in a couple of weeks. The deadline to get my deposit back – and to mail the balance due – was Friday and I just couldn’t take the chance that the new tire would make it here, or to chance driving there and back on my patch. I’d already dodged one bullet on my last trip (as a friend so eloquently reminded me) and didn’t feel comfortable taking that chance right now.

On the stitching front, I did work on Elizabeth Sheffield 2-3 times this week. I’ve been lazy though and haven’t taken a new progress photo. Need to remedy that before next weekend.

On the quilting front:

* Son’s Tumbling charms – still waiting on black batting. I need to pick out what quilting design I want to do and see if my friend already has a similar pattern.

* Tumbler quilt – didn’t touch it this week.

* Civil War Club – tablerunner – didn’t touch it. That will be remedied after this posts.

* Celtic Solstice – As mentioned in my last post, I’m participating in Bonnie Hunter’s Celtic Solstice mystery quilt (starts Friday after Thanksgiving). I pulled my stash out and hauled my choices into work since I had 3 oranges and 3 yellows I thought would work. I bought 1 blue, and several yellow and orange FQs and am happy with what I have to work with. I’m excited to see how I’m going to be cutting it up. Many of the blues I’ve had in my stash forever and what I don’t use in this quilt will be cut up for a future nephew quilt, from one of Bonnie’s books.

* Future DIL’s quilt – bought an 8-yard bolt of fabric this week for background (and possibly backing).

* Scrappy Irish Chain – for me. Bought 5 yards of the background fabric.

* Camille Bag – this is one of the classes that I’ve signed up for. I found the perfect focus fabric but am waiting a bit for the lining and straps.

In addition to the project purchases I also added a couple of cuts of neutrals, one cut of red, and – woooo boy! – 1/2-yard cuts of all of Pam Buda’s American Gothic fabrics (link is to her blog post).

Fabric added this week : 29 1/8
Fabric out this week : 0
Fabric added this year (April – present): 178 7/8
Fabric out this year (April – present): 51 1/2

3 Comments

Posted in Celtic Solstice Mystery Quilt, Elizabeth Sheffield, Falling Charms Quilt, Stash, Sunday Stash Report, Travel, Tumbler Quilt

Contest prizes

Posted on June 15, 2013 by Terri | 4 comments

The last couple of days have brought in the prizes from the contests I mentioned here and here.

I’ll share the fabric from Andover first, because I’m going to be an ungrateful contest winner and whine a little about the other prize 😉

From Andover I received 10 (2 of each line) of their version of charm packs. They don’t sell charms packs to the public, just give them to designers, and contestants (at least that’s what I’ve been told by a couple of fabric designers). The charm packs were, from left to right, Renee Nanneman of Need’l Love Black Magic and Linen Closet, Jamie Kalvestran Chickadee, and Jo Morton Blue Variety and Madison Manor.

and 14 FQs from the new Jo Morton Savannah line.

I was doing the new-fabric-boogy in my kitchen after I opened the box and saw the great fabric and let out a “whoop” when I saw Savannah!

Doesn’t it look nice on my Jo Morton shelf!

Before I share the other contest let me say that I NEVER enter a contest just because it’s there. I only enter contests (or use grocery store coupons 😉 ) for items I know I would use/buy anyway.

In the Quiltmaker Contest I was expecting to receive only one of the books shown in the contest since we were asked to comment on what our favorite of the group was (I chose Diamond Traditions). Here’s what the site says about the giveaway (they lined out after winners were chosen):

How about a giveaway? I’d love to send these to Quilty Pleasures readers. ~~Please leave a comment here before midnight on Tuesday, June 4 and tell me which one looks most interesting to you. I’ll choose winners mid-week and post them here. Good luck!~~

I would have been happy with any of them.

Here’s where I start to sound like an ungrateful winner. Not a single one of the books mentioned in the post were received by me. All 3 of the books I received have 2012 copyright dates. Only 1 of the books would I have even contemplated buying.

I wrote an email to the person who contacted me about being a winner and thanked her for the books, and told her I wanted to make sure that I had not been mixed up in another contest because I had received 3 books instead of just 1, and that none of the books I had received were mentioned in the contest. This was on Wednesday. I’ll give her until Wednesday to reply, then will decide what to do with the unwanteds.

Am I ungrateful?

4 Comments

Posted in Quilting, Stash

Accountability and finding time to craft

Posted on May 1, 2013 by Terri | 6 comments

Mirriam-Webster defines accountability as “an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one’s actions.

I’ve seen several quilting bloggers keeping track of how much of their fabric stash they’re using this year. Since I just started actively following some of them I don’t know how they started, but I get the feeling they’re trying to “bust” their stash. Starting today I am going to keep a running list of how much fabric I’m using this year. With the exception of what I purchased recently, I’m not going to go back and “measure” all of the fabric I currently have, but I am going to keep a running total on the sidebar of what I buy and use from my stash with the hope that by the end of the year, what I use out of my stash will have the larger number.

The second part of my subject line is regarding a comment made on one of the email quilt groups I belong to. We got into a discussion about organizing our stash and projects to make us more productive. One of the members offered the following response (I have her permission to post her comment):

One thing that I have found and am not sure if others have commented on is the time we spend on the computer and shopping. I have found that I spent so much time on the computer looking at other’s completed projects I wasn’t getting down to working on my own. I would dream of making all the wonderful quilts others have done and downloading patterns that I will probably never get to. In the past month or so I have just walked away from the computer and I am finishing of some of my UFO’s. I have friends that spend all their free time out buying more and more stuff and not even beginning to start on a project. It is very easy to be lured in to it. We let ourselves become fabric, books and notion hoarders. We need to step back and be happy with what we have to work on and not let ourselves loose our objective in getting the sewing done. I don’t want to leave my children with a pile of fabric and stuff. I want them to have the quilts I have dreamed of making them and to know that there is hug from me in every one that I completed.

This is what repeats over and over in my head since she first posted that:

…spend all their free time out buying more and more stuff and not even beginning to start on a project…We let ourselves become … hoarders…We need to step back and be happy with what we have to work on…I don’t want to leave my [family/friends] with a pile of fabric and stuff.

I don’t want to be that person anymore. And it’s not just in my quilting. I have gotten myself so surrounded by things that I feel like I’m going to suffocate sometimes when I’m in my craft room. It’s hard to be creative when I’m feeling that way, which is why I’m selling off a whole bunch of stuff. Stitching, clothes, polish — I’m sorting through it and simplifying so I feel less surrounded by stuff.

6 Comments

Posted in Stash, Studio

What I did on my spring break

Posted on March 18, 2013 by Terri | 6 comments

and thank goodness it’s over 😉 I hate it when my routine gets messed with. I can’t believe it’s been a week since I sat here writing my last post. The past week has flown by.

Mister was home on spring break. We were supposed to get the powder room redone, but it never happened. The weather here has been glorious. So much so that our pool has been in the 70s and he’s been in it when he hasn’t been working in the yard getting rid of almost everything. The winter freeze this year really did a number on our beautiful yard. We had to completely replace several plants and this past week has seen them in the ground and a couple of them even starting to bloom. He also started getting his vegetable and herb garden going and has plans for expansion. I need to get my camera outside and show you my beautiful snap dragons! I can’t believe they bloomed all winter and are popping out all over again.

I, on the other hand, do not like to get dirt under my nails so I spent my time during his spring break piecing, layering, and quilting my little Abbygayle’s Scraps. She still needs her binding whip stitched to the back but here she is in all her very bright glory. Please don’t look too close, or judge too harshly, and remember I’m new at this. Thank you.

She finished out right under 18 inches square. I learned so much while creating her and accomplished a lot of firsts. This is the first time I’ve chosen the fabric completely on my own. The first time I made a quilt in a non-classroom setting. The first time I did it completely on my own with no one to ask questions of. It was daunting to actually cut that first piece of fabric but I just followed the directions one sentence at a time and took it from there. I did lose some of my points when putting the strips together, but I didn’t mind. What I did get disappointed in was how much that affected the quilting part, but like I said, it was a learning experience and I know that the more I do it the better I’ll get at it. I’m hoping to spend today and tomorrow finishing the binding since my next class is Wednesday and I want to be ready for the next project.

I do have 3 other small quilts cut and ready to piece 😀 It’s addicting, I tell ya!

Since the weather has warmed up (and we actually have used our AC!), I only spent the mornings upstairs. As soon as it was too warm to go without AC I headed downstairs to work on A Sampler Grows. This is how far I got this week

I managed to finish the stitching for the fob and got quite a bit done on the cushion. The green floral you see is what the backing will be for the cushion. I do have one “complaint” and that’s the little square flower. The background is stitched in over 1 (as is the flower) and you can see it completely makes the yellow flower disappear. I need to decide what to do about that. I thought about picking it out but even under a strong magnifier it was daunting so I’m going to leave it and maybe stitch over the yellow in red. There are 2 other flowers that need backgrounds filled in and I’m going to have to decide what to do about them. It’ll have to wait though since it’s time to switch back over to And They Sinned today!

Yesterday was Sampler Sunday at Attic. I love going to this since there are usually a couple of designers there sharing what they’re working on for their next release. I’m so excited about Tanya’s new project because it has a skinny (greyhound) dog in it! Woohoo! If you subscribe to Attic Needlework’s newsletter I believe there will be a preview of it in the next issue. And Gloria brought in the models for her Market releases. I had picked up 3 design packets on Market day at Attic but she brought in another design that has the sweetest hornbook design, plus one that uses limited edition embossed boxes (which I grabbed 2 of). It was discussed yesterday (and I checked this morning) that if the boxes run out of stock (since they’re no longer being manufactured) you can use Altoids tins. You’ll just have to omit the border in the design. If you go to page 13 of the current Attic newsletter you can see all of her designs.

Oh look! You can see the back of my little quilt in this one 😉 The other design (in the bottom) is Cherished Stitches limited release Rites of Springs. Every single thing you see on that pillow is included in the little kit. It is unbelievably priced and you only have to add the stuffing. I was drooling over the finishing fabric last night. I see this moving up on my to-do list. There is an upclose photo of it on page 5 of the aforementioned newsletter.

The other news, which was released this past week, is that Attic will be moving into a larger location next month. I already know where they’re moving and what it currently looks like inside, and I can’t wait to see what they come up with.

Mister goes back to class today. I’m very much looking forward to getting back into my routine so I’ll end it here wishing you all to have a great week.