Category Archives: Petite Mexican Sampler

I’ve been busy!

Haha.  I disappeared again, didn’t I.  I have a good excuse, or rather several of them.  They all fall under “I’ve been busy.”

I’ve been busy taking Petite Mexican Sampler to the framer.

I’ve been busy taking care of the yard and veggie garden while Mister went to California to surf and visit with Son for 12 days.

I’ve been busy stitching on And They Sinned.

I’ve been busy going to my Jo Morton Little Women Club meeting and buying more fabric for the next quilt.

Jo Morton yellow, blacks, and oranges

Jo Morton yellow, blacks, and oranges

I’ve been busy buying more fabric. Period 😀

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Jo Morton various 1/2 yard cuts

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New quilt project

 I’ve been busy snuggling puppies.

Harley and Jasper being Harley and Jasper

Harley and Jasper being Harley and Jasper

I’ve been busy ripping things off the wall of my downstairs powder room and installing a new mirror and small cabinet, and ordering new glass rod towel bar and tissue holder.  (I’ll be busy putting the new holders up, then pulling everything down, patching old holes, then painting and putting everything back up as soon as those holders come in 😉 )

I’ve been busy reading the latest Black Dagger Brotherhood book.

I’ve been busy out by the pool since our temps are consistently 105+ everyday.

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I was busy learning what a geek I am while volunteering for Phoenix Comicon over the Memorial Day weekend.

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Hung out here a lot when not on “duty.” There was tons of interesting things going on here.

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I’ve been busy winning a contest on the Quiltmaker blog.

I’ve been busy taking an applique class.

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I’ve been busy tearing my craft room apart.

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I’ve been busy rearranging furniture.

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I’m supposed to be busy putting it back to rights right now, but decided to do this instead.

I’ve been busy pulling more things to add to my sale page, both stitching and quilting books.

and

I’ve been busy getting a part-time job at my local quilt shop!

 

Weekly update and next week’s goals

While I didn’t go out and buy anymore fabric since my last post, 2 small quilt kits I ordered from Main Street Cotton Shop, prior to that, did arrive.  Warm Memories and Mountain Trails (in the blue colorway).  They’re added to my journal.

The fabric I mentioned I might or might not buy (in this post) didn’t get bought.  I did look at fabric and decided that what I want to use will still be there when I get some of my ‘to-do’ list taken care of.  I am still following the quilt-along instructions and making sure they get saved for when I’m ready for them. So, yay to me for not buying more.

I also didn’t pin Petite Mexican Sampler.  I’ve decided to take it to a new-to-me framer on Monday and let him work his magic.

So where am I on this week’s goals?

April 29 – May 5

  • Choose and cut fabrics for October JMLW Club (I forgot I needed to create a template for this quilt so I did that instead.  This will roll over to next week).
  • Pull plaids for J’s quilt (Pulled and started cutting – photo below).
  • Begin piecing stars on JMLW Blueberry Muffins (Nope)
  • pick fabric for Sampler Ladies sampler (Nope)
  • stitch on And They Sinned (Nope)

I didn’t even take And They Sinned out of the bag, so I guess if I stitch this week, it will be on that.

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The picture is really dark because it’s black fabric in the background.  I wish you could see how bright a couple of the squares look IRL.  I believe that’s from 20 different fabrics (2 squares each) and I still have a whole lot more to cut.  This fabric comes from all over the world.  I participated in an exchange while I was living in Japan and I swapped Japanese fabric for these.

May 6 – 12

  • Choose and cut fabrics for October JMLW Club
  • Continue cutting plaids for J’s quilt
  • Begin piecing stars on JMLW Blueberry Muffins
  • pick fabric for Sampler Ladies sampler
  • stitch on And They Sinned

Hermity weekend is almost here

I don’t know why I get so excited about joining in on the International Hermit & Stitch Weekend. I rarely go anywhere anyway! 😀

But it’s happening this weekend and I plan on spending my time quilting and stitching when I’m not cooking or swimming 😉

I’ll also be hanging out at Attic Needlework part of Sunday for Sampler Sunday. It’s such a fun day seeing what everyone has been working on.

I have finished Petite Mexican Sampler and started Hannah Gilpin 1800. I’m having blogging problems again so can’t post photos now but they’re on my Facebook page.

April Report

It’s been a rather fun month for us.  We’re continuing to settle in.  The weather has been excellent and we’ve been spending a lot of time in the pool.  We purchased a new BBQ and patio furniture and are spending our mornings and evenings on the patio.  I figured out this morning that our WiFi is strong enough out there, with all the doors and windows closed, that we’ll be streaming our iTunes and satellite radio out there so I’m going to start stitching out there in the mornings.  This makes the puppies happy since they love running around chasing birds, lizards, and each other.

I’ve spent a bunch of time playing in my room.  Still a long way to go but at least now I can sit at my workstation and sew.

The most fun has been working on my WIPocalypse pile while watching baseball and hockey.  Before I show my WIPocalypse progress, I’ll share a picture of Harley from last night’s hockey game.  When the Coyotes score, there is a howl played over the loudspeakers.  We, M and I, have started howling with it and the puppies have taken to joining in.  At the end of last night’s game we were howling and I got a snap of Harley doing her Coyote impression.  I know I’m biased, but she’s so darn cute when she does it.  Her little howl is so high pitched and “soft” you have to really listen to hear her, but you can tell she puts her whole heart behind it.

Now, on to the stitching:

Finished Hannah Beeby!

Got a whole lot done, then undone, then done on Petite Mexican Sampler:

I had completely finished the tree on the right when I discovered it was one stitch over on the right 🙁  It had to be frogged and put away since I was so upset.  I have picked it back up and will definitely finish it in May.

I don’t normally participate in stitchalongs since they feel like obligation stitching to me but two Facebook groups I’m on are having stitchalongs on designs that I already had planned on starting, so on Wednesday last I started Rose Quaker.  It feels like a quick stitch and I’m loving the colors:

It was very tempting to keep going but I wanted to start Mary Wigham for Thursdays.  I had messed up on Petite Mexican Sampler on Tuesday, and I let her sit screaming next to my stitching chair while I stitched on Mary Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

I am loving the subtleness of the colors and I think GAST Salmon, the top motif, is my new favorite color.

Hannah, Rose Quaker, and Mary all definitely qualify for April’s Theme-a-liciousness, too!

All that stitching has left me with a full TUSAL jar for April.

You can see the different layers 😀  I’ll be adding a bit more to it this afternoon, to finish out the month with Petite Mexican Sampler stitching.

 

My first hermity weekend report

I thought I was going to be kicked out of the hermit club my first try when I woke up Friday without a single itch to stitch!  I will blame it on the weather.  We had record setting heat all weekend and being lazy, and the pool, was calling my name!

I ended up putzing around in my room organizing more (which always gets me wanting to stitch) and doing some of my quilting homework.  I also made the mistake of playing on Facebook some and got myself sucked into two stitchalongs for the rest of the year.

First, part of my quilting homework:

I am not in love with the brown stripe.  I tried 3 times to get it to work and gave up.

I love the churn dash block.  It’s always been a favorite of mine and I’ve wanted to do a quilt with them for a long time.

Sunday was Sampler Sunday at Attic Needlework.  While there are some repeat offenders 😉 the crowd for Sampler Sunday is always different than the normal Thursday evening crowd.  We’re almost guaranteed to have a designer or two show and it’s fun to see what they’re working on for future release.  I shared my Le Marquoir de Justine which I haven’t touched in forever, and my Petite Mexican Sampler (PMS) that I’ve made really good progress on:

Thank you to those who helped me decide what sampler to start next.  I will be starting Hannah Gilpin 1800 as soon as I finish the above piece.  Here is my floss toss for her:

The fabric is Colorscapes “Earthen” and the fibers are Dinky Dyes.

I’m looking forward to the two stitchalongs.  Both pieces were in my stash.  I did have to purchase fabric since I didn’t have the white needed for one, and the fabric I pulled for the other one wasn’t large enough. Mary is a wide-bottom gal! 🙂

The first one is Rose Quaker Sampler by Wiehenburg.  I am using the recommended DMC since they are beautiful shades of pinks and browns and have decided to use 34ct Legacy White for my fabric.  Legacy has such a beautiful hand.  This will be my Wednesday piece since the stitchalong is called Wiehenburg Wednesday.

The second one is Mary Wigham by Needleprint.  I am using Gentle Art Sampler Thread and 36ct Lakeside Vintage Navy Bean.  This is an open stitchalong, meaning whenever I want, so I’ve decided to work on this one on Thursdays.  I will also be taking this one with me to my stitchins.

I’m going to be spending the rest of this evening getting my Rose Quaker floss ready, serging fabric and working away on PMS 😉 unless we get back in the pool.

Oh, and it looks like my blog is back to normal.  I adjusted the size of my market report photos and that seems to have done the trick.

Be cool!

edited to add that I noticed in the top block the bottom row was sewn on upside down and that has been remedied.  That block is really on my blacklist now 😉

Starting over. Sort of.

Ack.  I’m so far behind in catching up I’m not even going to bother.  Suffice it to say, I have been consistenting doing needlework of some sort since my last check in.  When it has not involved the sewing maching, I have faithfully been working on my WIPocalypse stitching.

Domesticity:

I packed everything in my stitching room, back up and moved the boxes to the guest room.  We gutted the closet, spackled it, painted it, and moved the shelf units back in.  I’m in the process of loading it back up, but am determined to organize while I do so, so I don’t put it off any longer.  It looks like this:

The designs are in their proper box and they’ll be cataloged later.  As you can see, none of my fabric has been unpacked because right now, as I type this post, my work table looks like this:

The fibers in the front in ziplocks are Anchor.  I’m leaving them ’til last because I haven’t decided how I’m going to store them.  The white box in the middle is not quite full of various fibers that I’ve been sorting (which is the mess you see, minus the
Weeks), and I’ve already sorted one of them.   That table needs to get cleared quickly so I can drag my sewing machine back out.

Quilting:

1 sampler quilt needs a bit more quilting, then the binding (which is ready to be attached).
1 quilted tote needs (still) 6 or so stitches in one of the handles to be completed.
1 quilt has been started (intermediate class started last week and I’m piecing the blocks for it).

Stitching:

Since I’ve been going back and forth to quilting classes, and have quilting homework, I haven’t wanted to try to keep up with my rotation so I’ve been focusing on one easy piece.  As of last night (4/15/12) Miss Hannah Beeby is now finished!

I’ve pulled Petite Mexican Sampler out and am going to focus on it for a bit.  My quilting classes will be over in June (I think) and until then I guess I’m going to be a one-at-a-time stitcher.  Fairy Moon is screaming my name from the guest room right now, but she’ll need lots of beading so I’m putting her off.  I’m still determined not to start anything new until I finish 2 projects, no matter how tempted I’ve been lately 🙂

In addition to all of the above we have been doing other bits and pieces of decorating in the house.  We I have a list of must-haves for the house that includes more painting, furniture, decorative items, and my stitching.  I will be taking Hannah with me Thursday night to get her framed.  I’ll take another piece in when we gets finished depending on how long she takes.  I would like to do one piece a month.

We’ve also been doing some stuff in the yard.  Right now M is digging up the oleanders, one at a time, in the front.  7 down, 3 to go.  The yard looks so much bigger now and we’ll be filling in some of the space with more pleasant to use desert plants.  In the back we have 2 varieties of tomatoes popping out all over the place, flat leaf parsley trying to take over the pump house wall, oregano, cilantro (in 2 different places), rosemary,  pickle cukes, crook neck squash growing in, and have been enjoying salads with home grown lettuces.  The lemon tree and mandarin tree both have fruit and we’re waiting to see if our little lime tree is going to have fruit this year (it had a hard time this winter and is only knee high).  I also planted a peony tuber that is doing well.

2012’s first stitching report

Petite Mexican Sampler

Petite Mexican Sampler - 1/2/12 - 10 hours

The colors in the 2nd photo are a little washed out.  The gold borders shows up better in real life 🙂  It’s fun to stitch now that I’ve figured out the secret to using the silks (dampen them and make sure to use my stitcher’s lotion).  I did have to frog a couple of times because the chart has an “x” next to a “+” so now I know to pay better attention 😉

Next up is Peacock Tapestry.  I’m using a random generator code on my spreadsheet and it has spoken.

I still need to put my Santa collection away and take down my stitching tree, then M and I are headed out to a movie and the home improvement store, so the stitching will have to wait until this afternoon.  He needs some stuff to get his bikes stored, and I’m hoping it’ll take him most of the afternoon to get that sorted so I can stitch guilt free.

I’m almost finished with my 2012 stitching “goals” list so I’ll probably be posting that tonight.

Before I forget, here’s my Christmas present from M.  I love the ideas I’ve been getting from Pinterest!

And here’s where it went

I’m in the process of moving my linens from upstairs to the closet next to the dryer, so don’t judge me 🙂

Licious-ness

I didn’t give much thought to joining in on Heather’s Theme-a-licious-ness since I thought you had to stitch on all the categories during the year.  Since I’m rotating, I didn’t know if I would be working in a particular project during the given month.  I’ve decided to give it a try though, just to see if it’ll work.  I’ve started a new page with her monthly themes and will add in under each month what I’ve accomplished.  I’m not expecting to have something for each month, but I may just surprise myself 😉

I’ve already spent about an hour and a half on Petite Mexican Sampler this morning.  When I first started stitching the border I had a huge panic moment because the gold border didn’t stand out again the fabric with one strand nearly as much as it did on the spool.  I’ve since added the olive and light olive tones and it’s looking better.  I’m trying to use as many colors as possible really quickly to see how they’ll look.  If it’s a fail it’ll be easier to rippit and start over on something lighter.  I’m keeping my fingers crossed that doesn’t have to happen though 🙂 since I think the silks are delicious and already have an emotional attachment to the fabric.

Here’s my December ort jar. There’s a whole lot of Hannah Beeby and Houses of Hawk Run Hollow in there. Looks a heck of a lot more better than a lot of the previous months 🙂

December 2011 Orts

I bought the small Yankee Candle candles this year and burned them while stitching. It was a fun way to discover new scents and I plan on reusing them each year. I’m going to “decorate” them up this year.  2011’s orts will stored together in a paint can container with the paltry 2010 orts.

2012 Orts

January-February-March-April

May-June-July-August

September-October-November-December

Happy New Year

Have you ever noticed when you thank someone, and use their name, it makes them smile?    I have been experimenting with this off and on the past couple of months.  I am going to start reading name tags more often.

I am very happy today is the last day of 2011.  While I know it could have been a whole lot worse, and many, many people did have it worse than I did, 2011 was not kind to me.  I am not going to dwell on it a second past midnight tonight.  What I am going to dwell on are the good things I want to happen in 2012.

Here’s a before picture of my January 1 start 😉


Petite Mexican Sampler
40ct Lakeside Palomino
Au Ver a Soie “Soie d’Paris” silk

I’ve been sneaking looks at the Eagle cam the last few days.  The nest is being constructed but I’ve yet to see either of the Eagles.  This evening, though, I was blessed with the view of a tiny field mouse flitting here and there!  All I could think was she/he better get a move on before someone shows up and makes dinner out of her/him 🙂

Tonight M and I are staying in and gorging ourselves on Pollo, Pork tamales, salsa, guacamole, tortillas and rice.  There will probably be beer and margaritas involved, too.   Most definitely there will be some Whipped Cream Vodka and hot chocolate 😉  Don’t know if we’ll make it to midnight or not, but here’s hoping!  We’re watching football right now, but I think I’m going to ramp up the other TV and get him to watch a movie for the rest of the evening.

I also found 1 more WIP so I’m up to 35.  My kits stand at 26 but that’s only because I haven’t finished adding them to my spreadsheet.

I’ve been enjoying catching up on my blog reading and seeing everyone’s stitching year in reviews.  It’s been making my clicky finger itchy though 😀

The fireworks have started around here.  The dogs aren’t exactly sure how they feel about them.  It is a little strange living in the desert and having fireworks going off all around.  They were illegal for personal use in Oceanside.

Tomorrow I’ll post my ort jar for December and my whole year collection.  I’ll also post a progress picture of Hannah Beeby since the light is so dreadful in my house this late.

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