Thursday, March 10, 2016

Time goes by sooooooo fast.  We came down to Bushnell to stay for three months while it is cold at home.  I miss my kids and I miss my grandkids so much.  This would be perfect if the kids were in and out like they are at home. 


I did not realize it had been so long since I posted in my blog.  I have got so much done while we have been down here but I have not made a dent in what I brought down here to work on.  I have finished several of my mill hill kits.  Every thing else that I brought down here is missing something that I need to work with. 


I will never come down here again without my sewing machine.  I can not wait to get home and clean up my sewing room and play in there for the next three months. 


I have a wedding to go to in April.
I have a family vacation planned for May.
I have close to 10 quilts that are still in my sewing room that needs working on and finishing.  I will spend April, May and June trying to finish them up and doing the finishing work on what I have stitched while I have been down here.


I will recap my stitching progress a little later after I take some pictures.
Quilts to finish when I get home.
I have two quilts for Aunt Mavis that her mother embroidered.  One is a heart block and the other is a rose quilt where all the roses are a different color.


I have three quilts for Jan Stewart that I have had for 5 or 6 years but she keeps telling me not to worry about them because she does not have the money to pay for them to be quilted.  I am going to do them just to get them out of my sewing room.


I have a row robin Halloween quilt that needs some beads put on one row and I will be finished with it.


I have a paper pieced red white and blue quilt that was done when I was on the HGTV message board swap.


I have two double sliced layer cake quilts done in batiks that I pieced for the camper that I want to quilt.


I have a Judy N Fire Island Hosta quilt that needs the outside border finished that I want o use in the camper.


I have a stamped cross stitched quilt that belongs to Jean Jacobs of Baldwyn that needs to be finished hand quilting.


I want a quilting machine with a stitch regulator on it where I can learn how to free motion quilt.
I want a Phoenix frame from sewing machines plus
I want to upgrade my pcquilter to a side saddle like Marj's.
I need a new heater/AC for my sewing room
My sewing room needs a major cleaning.









Thursday, February 18, 2016

This is my pine cone snowman


This is my Santa with his chicken and pine cone.  I will look again for a picture of my other snowman

Lizzie Kate 6 Fat Men have been put on hold.  I have used up all of some of my threads.  I have stitched it all that I have thread for and I have ordered the thread.  It shipped on Tuesday but I don't know how long it will take to get here.  In the mean time I have been working on the 2015 Mill Hill designs.  2014 Mill Hill did 6 Jim Shore Santas.  This past year they did three Jim Shore snowmen and three Jim Shore Santas  I have all the snowmen finished and one santa These are two of the snowmen,  I can not find the pictures of the rest of them  I will go look and come back and post a picture of them.

Sunday, February 7, 2016

My next project for completion will be my Lizzie Kate 6 Fat Men design.
I finished Benjamin.  I had a 14 hour marathon of stitching yesterday and ended up with a touch of vertigo this morning.  No more stitching that long with out getting up and moving around some to keep my head cleared

Saturday, February 6, 2016

I finished Luke around 3 pm and started on Benjamin

I finished Gloria this morning around 10 am and started on Luke

This piece is finished.  I need to press it really good and sew on some buttons.  This piece
came with a button package.  Like there are some snow and bird buttons that goes on each
block and some in the design in the middle of all the blocks. It feels so good to finish theses
pieces and put them in my finished box. 

this is my next project to finish.  The Mill Hill Trilogy is finished except for beading.  I will work on these until they are finished.  I stitched these back in early 2015 while Mike was visiting his brother and nephew at a BBQ cookoff in New Orleans.  There is so many things that I have started and not finished for some reason or another.  I brought a bunch of things like this to put the finishing stitching on so that when I get home I can do the final finish work on all these projects.

Thursday, February 4, 2016

Each year, Mill Hill comes out with six little Christmas ornaments or pins or magnets.  I never use the magnets or pins.  The gingerbread house was one of them and this is the second one.  This past year I only purchased three of them because I did not like them all. 

Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Well I got a little side tracked, as usual.  That is why I never get anything finished.  I lose my focus and I have way too many little projects laying around calling my name.  I am away from home and did not bring my sewing machine and I sit and think of so many things that I could do if I just had my sewing machine.  The only problem is that we are maxed out on the amount of weight that our truck will pull in the camper.
This is what I have been working on for the past two days.  The first one I did was a Mill Hill Seasonal Window Pane that I found in all the stuff I packed in here to bring with me.
 I also found one of my new Mill Hill ornament kits
Neither one of these had been started previously.  They are new ones.  Now
this morning I have gone back to my Lizzie Kate Snow Belles.  I promise to
try to focus better. 


I

Friday, January 29, 2016

The next one will be the 6 Snow Belles by Lizzie Kate which goes with the 6 Fat men. I have four of the six of these done so it will go quickly finishing the other two.  Does this make you think that I may need some therapy of some kind for having so many projects started and not finished.  I am going to shoot for finishing everything I have started and becoming like My friend Mary Ann Lake.  She starts a project and finishes it before she ever even thinks about her next project. 
This will be my next UFO'
The first three is the Mill Hill Nativity Trilogy  Gloria, Luke, and Benjamin.  I have already done Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus, and the three wise men. For the most part all three of these are finished except for the beads being sewn on.
The next project is Lizzie Kate's 6 Fat Men.  There are 6 flip it designs for each piece.  I have three of them started but none of them finished on this design.
 
I did not post a picture of my second UFO. 
I finished the third of my four UFO's this afternoon.  The fourth one got started this afternoon but it will probably take two days to finish.  The beading is very slow. There is a wreath button by Shepherds Bush that goes down at the bottom of this piece in the middle.  It is at home in my button box.  I will be back for an update on my fourth UFO and an update on the next UFO's that are in line to be finished.  It is really nice to get all these pieces finished.  I am very good at starting these projects and taking on more projects than I have time to finish.  It sometimes overwhelms me and I just put these things away and start something new.  2015 was when I started concentrating on all these unfinished projects.  I am going to continue it on into 2016.  Wish me luck!!!

Thursday, January 28, 2016

I finished one of my four UFO's.  We found a cute little cross stitch shop in Ocala today.  I was missing some beads to finish the "O Tannenbaum".  I had one leaf at the bottom done and liked two more  I bought the same number of beads and finished the other two leaves and the beads don't match.  I also did not bring my siam rondele beads with me.  So when I get home I will put the three rondele beads at the bottom and then I will be done.  But for right now I think I will take out the beads that don't match and swap them for the new beads  that I just bought. 

Wednesday, January 27, 2016

I almost forgot to post a picture of my santa face.  I finished this while I was waiting on my threads to be delivered.
My first UFO choice is "Believe" by Mill Hill.  I still need to add some pine needles and beads to the area around the I and the E.  Mill Hill is one of my favorite designers when it comes to Christmas designs and they are my all time favorite to work on.  You would never have guessed that would you? LOL


My second one is also by Mill Hill and it is a snowman in a garden of bird houses.


My third one is by Mill Hill and it is "O Tannenbaum" 


And the fourth one is "December" by Shepherds Bush.  This is a design that we did in early 2000 when Lori had the cross stitch store in Tupelo.  It was a monthly project where we did one design a month until we had twelve of these.  I have all of them stitched but only  one of them finished into a box.  That too will be part of my month of April. 


2016 is going to be a year of finishing up all these things I have packed away that I have started on in the past and laid aside to flitter off to something new like a butterfly in the spring going from one bloom to another. 
Yesterday was very productive.  My threads arrived in the mail and I finished my Christmas sampler made from the Lizzie Kate double flip its.  Now when I get home I will have about a months worth of pressing, stretching, and lacing to get several pieces ready to go to the framers. 
I also finished the Mill Hill
Santa face I had started. I did not get a picture downloaded of the Santa I will do it and post it later.

Now I have to decided which UFO to finish next.  I will work on UFO's till the first of February or maybe until the middle of the month before I start any thing new.  I have my UFOs listed in a journal and I have one whole page of UFOs and only a half page of new things that have never been started.
You see I have been a hoarder of cross stitch  projects for the last 15 years and a fabric hoarder for the last 10 years.  I guess I purchased this stuff while I was still working or better yet while my better half was still working because I knew when we both were too old to work anymore I would not be able to afford my hobbies which are quilting and cross stitching.  Believe my I have enough of both hobbies accumulated to last until I can no longer pick up a needle.  This is four of the UFOs I have gotten out to try to finish before the first of Feb.  d

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

More UFO"S

Sorry I missed posting yesterday.  We are in Central Florida for a few days and on Mondays we always get out and find a different part of the country to explore.  You could really make a mint in this country with a shoe store.  We have been here three weeks and we have only found one payless shoe store. 


I am still waiting on my threads to come from Utah so I can finish my Christmas sampler.  Maybe today.  In the mean time I am working on a santa face that I started just before Christmas.  I have 7 or 8 of these and I have finished 2 already.  This will be my third one.  This is a Mill Hill kit and is stitched on perforated paper.  I love to do these little things.  They look so good on my little Christmas trees that I set on my old Singer treadle sewing machine during the holidays.


I may not post tomorrow.  Tuesday is usually laundry day but I am saving it until tomorrow since it is going to be pretty and sunny today but rainy tomorrow.  We have been gone for three weeks today.
Austin is staying at the house.  I wonder what it looks like.   Last year we came down here for a few weeks and it took me a week to wash all the dishes. LOL!!!!  not a week, that was an exaggeration!

Sunday, January 24, 2016

This has been a lazy Sunday afternoon.  Football and cross stitching.  What could be better?  I am running out of thread.  I have several colors now that I have used up.  I ordered more thread from 123 stitch and it was shipped on Friday.  But it was shipped from Utah so with all the ice, snow, floods, etc. it may be a few days getting here.  Thank goodness I brought plenty of stuff to work on with me.


This is an update on my progress for this piece.  When my thread comes in, it will take me a couple of hours to finish up all the little places where I need thread.

Friday, January 22, 2016

I have been working on my next project.  In 2014 there were six of my stitching buddies from The Tupelo area and two buddies from the Memphis area, that took a trip to the Shepherd's Needle cross stitch shop in Little Rock AR for a stitching weekend with Ann.  We had such a good time and I purchased the Lizzie Kate Double Flip series.  It was six leaflets with two patterns on each flipit.  I am sewing them all together as one long piece.  I stitched all morning on the word "Candy" and when I got to the end of it I was one stitch off.  I went back and recounted all my stitches in the word and I could not find any mistakes in it.  No matter how many times I looked, I could not find my mistake.  I laid it aside and laid down on the couch for a short nap.  When I went back to my stitching, I picked it up and decided to just go with it one stitch off.  I felt like a complete "dummie" when I realized I had stitched "candy" with two "n's".  I am half way through with this and hope to finish before the first of the week. 



Thursday, January 21, 2016



Here it is 2016 and I have been without for a while.  I have not kept up with this blog for almost two whole years. My last post was Feb 2014.   They say time flies but once you get my age it seems like it is causing a sonic boom..  I have sort of grown tired of quilting.  I have some minor burnout in that area.  Although I am away from my sewing machine and I am missing it.  All I have with me is cross stitching but I am enjoying it.  I have finished a few pieces.  I will try to post pictures of my finished projects on here.

I started a project with all my cross stitch buddies at the Status Thimble cross stitch store in 2005.   We stitched every Monday night together after business hours.  Boy those were some good times.  The friendships we created are still an ongoing thing.  Our group gets together at least twice a year for a weekend long stitching marathon.  When we all get in one room and turn on all our lights we are like the Great Wall of China and can be seen in outer space.  The project we started was designed by Carriage House Sampler and it was designed for Status Thimble exclusively.  We did one design a month until we go all 26 alphabet. She also designed us a border for the letters all put together.   I stitched mine just like the patterns called for. We all stitched them but with the different people all stitched them in different colors.  I would love to get them all together and lay them out and see just how different they all look.  When I stitched this I kept up every month until I got thru the Threads.  I even stitched the design and the signature boxes.  Last week when I finished this, I had to change the 2006 to 2016.  It was very easy to do.  just change the zero to one.
After a few years went by, I would pull this out and look at it.  I would wonder how I was going to fix the date and then put it away again.

I will try to keep up more with this site