Fun Crafting

With life being a little hectic lately, I am forcing myself to get some crafting in. It keeps me sane. I was sifting through organizing my fabric one day when I came across a bag with red and white taffeta and a box of straight pins. This has been around for quite some time waiting for me to find the right color green taffeta. Let's not mention that I haven't been looking. They are the supplies to make pretty folded fabric ornaments from a magazine from the 1990s. 

 On the same day I saw this YouTube video for a No-Sew Quilted Christmas Ornament Tutorial from Shabby Fabrics. I have been fascinated by these ornaments for a long time. The tutorial uses cotton quilt fabric instead of taffeta. Well, I had the foam balls, the pins and a lot of scraps of fabric so I just got started. Here is my resulting ornament so far.

The two ends don't line up perfectly, but for a first try I am pretty happy with the result. I have to buy some ribbon to go around the middle. My stash was either too wide or too skinny. I will stop at JoAnn's or ACMoore on my way home some night this week and buy some ribbon. I have a whole lot of scrap fabric and four more 3" foam balls. I also have a bunch of 2 1/2" balls that I am sure I can use. This was a really easy and fairly quick craft. It only took about an hour in total.

I have made progress on Baker Beach. Last week it looked like this:

I have managed to get more than halfway finished with the 7th page and it now looks like this:

I have also been working on the 2014 Prairie Schooler Santa. 

I am hoping to finish this one and another before Christmas. Wish me luck! That is probably not happening.

Here is an update on my daughter's stitching also. She is really having fun. When she calls and I ask what she has been up to, she tells me she is cross-stitching. 

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching today. Tomorrow I will join the Stitchery Link Party at Super Mom - No Cape. Pop on over to these sites to see what other bloggers are stitching.

Thanks for stopping by!

Harvest of Quilts

Hubby and I went to the Evening Star Quilters' show, Harvest of Quilts this past Saturday. He wasn't feeling well, but I didn't feel like going alone and Mom was sick too. I didn't purchase a single thing, but I did enjoy looking at the pretty quilts. I thought I would share them with you.
This is Braided Poppies. I really love the fabric and the beautiful graphic nature of this quilt.

Rainbow Haze.

Another one of my absolute favorites was this Mariner's Compass.

Isn't this appliqued quilt just beautiful? It is Love at First Site. Obviously it won many ribbons.

Here are a couple of close-ups.

I love this block with this still life. There are a whole lot of berries and leaves.

I always love star quilts and any blue quilt. This one is called Aurora Borealis.

Another beauty: By the Sea

Hubby's name is Scott so....The Scotties. Isn't this adorable.

You actually could see the graphic nature of this quilt better in the photo than in person. The secondary on-point yellow squares were hard to see.

This is Confederate Courtship.

This Scrappy Hunter's Star really spoke to me. The graphic nature and the calico fabrics make for a stunning quilt.

This is My Favorite Place.

 The Gifted Cardinal. There are a bunch of cardinal fabrics.

 I have always loved a Card Trick quilt.

 Keep your Sunny Side Up.

 Can you believe this gorgeous quilt? I believe it is called Falling Border.

So pretty.

 Yet another beauty called Dream Weaver.

 Exploding Universe

 Stars Over Hawaii

  Trees of Life.

I hope you enjoyed this quilt tour.

Thanks for stopping by!

Like mother, like daughter

An unexpected day off from work on Friday allowed me to make progress on two projects. Finally, finally, finally Autumn Angel is completed.

Ta-da! 

Once again I used stash items to finish her. The fabric has been in my stash for many years and the yarn is an old hair tie. 

I think she looks great! She is a great addition to my Autumn decorations.

I was able to spend more than an hour working on Baker Beach. This is where it was in September when I last worked on it.

I added swaths of two more colors. I am just shy of being half-way done with page 7 out of 10. 

Now here is what makes my heart sing. Last Christmas, I gave my daughter a cross-stitch ornament kit. Now that she has finished studying for her 10th actuarial exam, she has some free time and this is what she sent me.

What is even better is that she is really enjoying working on it. She has promised to continue to send me updates so I will keep sharing her progress as well.

 I may continue working on Baker Beach today, but I also have two Prairie Schooler Santas that need my attention. I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching today. On Monday I will join the Stitchery Link Party at Super Mom - No Cape. Pop on over to these sites to see what other bloggers are stitching.

Thanks for stopping by!

Stitched!

After finishing my chores on Saturday morning....covering up the deck furniture for winter and dumping the plants that are past their prime, I sat down and finished all the back-stitching on Autumn Angel. Here she is:

Now I have to assemble her into a placard. Don't ask how old the fabric that I chose to cover the placard is. I think I have had it since the 1980's, but it is perfect for my angel.

Yesterday, I cut all the mat-board, batting and fabric and started gluing the pieces individually.

Now I just have to wait for it all to dry before I can finish the assembly. Hopefully, that will be done sometime today.

Now I have to figure out what my next slow stitching project will be. I am joining Kathy today for some Slow Sunday Stitching, but I think I will be gluing. Tomorrow I will join the Stitchery Link Party at Super Mom - No Cape. I am also joining Measi's October WIPocalypse. Pop on over to these sites to see what other bloggers are stitching.

Measi asks "What online stitch communities do you enjoy?". I would have to say that I love reading the many blogs that I follow via Blogger and Bloglovin. I love linking with the blogs that you see above as well as others. I do not belong to any online communities though. 

Happy Halloween!

Thanks for stopping by!

Autumn and Christmas

As I have been for the last few posts, I am still working on Autumn Angel. There are just not enough hours on the weekend to get her done and there haven't been even a few minutes during the week. Well, there have been a few, but I have been exhausted so there has been no interest in stitching. This is where she is now:

 I still have to finish stitching the word Autumn and another bird on the right. Then all that is left is the black back-stitching to complete.

This came in the mail the other day. 

I have had a magnetic advent calendar tree since my children were little. They always loved adding ornaments to the tree. One child got the odd days, one the evens. It switched each year. I would like each of my children to have their own advent tree now that they are on their own. I will start on this in the new year. There is no way it will be done for this Christmas. If I like it, I will buy a second one in the future if it is still available. I have a cross-stitch pattern for one of these that I bought a few years ago, but the cost of the necessary linen and floss is really quite high. I am not sure that I want to make that investment.

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching today. Tomorrow, I will join the Stitchery Link Party at Super Mom - No Cape. Pop on over to these sites to see what other bloggers are stitching.

Thanks for stopping by!

Wings to fly, roots to come back, reasons to stay.

I have always loved this quote from Dalai Lama "Give the ones you love wings to fly, roots to come back, and reasons to stay." I think my hubby and I have successfully shown our children that this is what we want for them. Our son is visiting from California this weekend. We haven't seen him since June. He is near the end of his PhD studies in Chemistry at Stanford University and has been interviewing for jobs in Boston. Happily he was able to take a side trip to visit us before heading back to CA. Both of our children are navigating the world in their own way. They have left our home and moved on. They come back to visit us often. They didn't return to Long Island to stay, because we encouraged them to live where their opportunities for employment would be the greatest. We are secure in the knowledge though that we will always stay close as a family.  

Needless to say, my crafting will be minimal this weekend as I am going to enjoy being with my son as much as possible. I am really hoping he gets one of the two jobs that he interviewed for this past week. Then both of my children will be living in Boston.....only four hours away.

I do have more progress to show on Autumn Angel this week. 

All that is left is for me to fill in the second wing with white, stitch two birds and the word Autumn in black and then all the back-stitching. The end is in sight!

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. On Monday I will join the Stitchery Link Party at Super Mom - No Cape. Pop on over to these sites to see what other bloggers are stitching.

Thanks for stopping by!

Writer's block

Okay, so I don't really think of myself as a writer, but I am having a really hard time trying to find something to write about in a charming way. Most of that probably has to do with a lack of progress on most of my crafts at the current time. Well there is an idea. I think I will look at what I currently have in progress.

First and foremost, Autumn Angel.

I have managed to stitch one of the borders, some leaves and one whole pumpkin. I will work on that pumpkin and the second border today. I am now hoping to finish her before Autumn ends. Wish me well.

I am joining Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. On Monday, I will join the Stitchery Link Party at Super Mom - No Cape. Pop on over to these sites to see what other bloggers are stitching. Autumn Angel is my project for this holiday weekend. 

Of course there is Baker Beach. I have hardly touched it since school started. It would be nice to be able to finish this in the next year so that my son can hang it in his apartment once he gets settled. He is finishing his PhD. and interviewing right now.

Prairie Schooler Santas are just sitting here. I was hoping to make these as Christmas gifts. One is started with only about 20 stitches completed.

I should be working on this stamped cross-stitch, but I am not loving it. It is a cast-off from Mom. I actually think the left-hand tree is finished now, but I don't have a new picture.

Okay, now for my yarn crafts. I took apart a hat that I made with this yarn that my daughter really didn't like (I don't blame her). 

She loves the soft fuzzy yarn, but she didn't like the pattern. To tell you the truth, this yarn is awful to crochet. I'm not sure I even like how the new hat is progressing.
I also started crocheting another Christmas tree. This one will be for my son. Mom has requested one also.

Then there are these crocheted rose granny squares that need finishing. I had to search photos from a year ago just to find one of them. I think it has been almost that long since I worked on them. 

Of course it would be nice if I could get back to finishing this quilt. The not-so-funny thing is that I have been making it as a twin-sized quilt to use to redecorate my daughter's room and now I am contemplating buying a queen-sized bed for the room so that it can serve as a guest room. I may have to rethink how I can assemble this quilt to make it larger. 

I never used to have this problem of UFOs. I would start a project and work on it from start to finish until it was completed. I partially blame blogging, because I always want to have something new to share. I think I have to work on finishing a few of these before I start something new again. Yeah right!

Finally, this little bird flew into my dining room picture window and landed on its back on my front porch. I got it on its feet and it sat on the porch for quite some time.

I believe it eventually flew away. It was gone when I checked an hour later.

Thanks for stopping by!