A French Sampler for Sunday

Voilà!!! My Tournicoton Historie de Lettres is framed! and ohhhh I love how this one turned out!

You can click on the pictures and biggify them to see the details. I used an overdyed floss for the letters so they fade from claret to almost red. All the rest of the flosses were the DMC's the chart called for. I'm so happy with this frame. I used it before in a burgundy tone but this shade of green with the gold blotches really brings out the avocado and lime in this piece.

And this area with all its over one stitching was worth it. I love the child reading a book and the bees flying around the skep and those fluffy little sheep grazing. All the little motifs on this piece really do add to its charm. I don't like skipping around here there and everywhere to stitch them, but I can't deny how very pretty they are.

Well, as you read this I should be at the workshop with Ami Simms. I hope to remember to take some pictures to show you. I'm looking forward to spending the day with Ami and my quilty lady friends.

Happy stitching-
carol fun

Something finished on Friday

Now it took entirely too long for me to get the binding on this little quilt. This is my entry in the February parade of Schnibbles and is based on the pattern I.S.T.H. which Carrie said stands for "insert snappy title here" and I corrupted it to "I see the hen".

The chicken theme is obvious and in the top border to the right side is a polka dot chicken created by yours truly with a pigma pen. Cass who quilts for me did a wonderful job with this one. She contacted me to ask what I had in mind for this quilt and I replied that "I don't have a mind, do whatever you want."

She added so many things in the quilting. All of the sashing contains words and phrases like - which came first the polka dot chicken or the polka dot egg..... and a couple of references to the Little Red Hen - who will bake the bread - and the words - funky - Henny Penny - three French hens. She is so creative! You can click on the pictures to look more closely.

I'm going to drape this little quilt over a bookcase when I get all my chicken decorations out. Hopefully that will be later next week because the next couple of days are chock full of things to do. Tonight I have an invitation to join a cross stitch group at my LNS. Tomorrow evening I'm having dinner with some of the ladies from my quilt guild and our speaker for this month, Ami Simms! On Sunday, I'm taking a workshop with Ami (hmmm... I should probably print out the supply list and look at it - it is almost the last minute- LOL). And on Monday we have guild meeting with Ami. I'm planning on a nice slow day on Tuesday with a long afternoon nap. I really believe it's a good idea to plan that kind of thing.

So I hope you have a wonderful weekend! Happy stitching-
carol fun

Thoughts on Thursday

So this is what came home with me.....

In front is the new Denyse Schmidt Meadowlark collection from Joanns - there is 4 1/2 yds of that tone on tone yellow. Do you really think I would have bought less? In the back is a 10 yd. bolt of an older Mary Engelbreit crazy quilt pattern from Hobby Lobby. It was on sale at 30% off. I need at least 5 yards to do the stack-n-whack I'm planning and then the rest can be borders and whatever. I love this print and have used it before for a smaller SNW.

And I told myself I'd be good until next month when I go to the NQA show in Columbus but while...

Source: justanotherpreppyshopaholic.blogspot.com via Carol on Pinterest

It was my civic duty! Delusional thinking triumphs again!

Happy stitching-
carol fun

This and that on Tuesday

Well yesterday the temperature hit 80 degrees for the first time this year and I celebrated by finishing a pair of socks. Now if you are scratching your head and trying to figure out what one thing has to do with the other, just stop, cause I really don't have a clue. Its 80 degrees, I don't need a pair of socks, what I need is a pedicure but socks is what I got.

This is the Pyroclastic pattern. I just looked at it on Ravelry and I swear when I first downloaded this is was a free pattern. Wait I just looked on Knitty.com and it is a free pattern here. Knitty like Ravelry has lots of free patterns.

The yarn is Cascade Heritage sock yarn and the color is Citron. I love this yarn because is it machine washable and dryable and it has about 25% nylon which keeps my socks from falling down... and that's a good thing. Here is a close up - its looks like a cable but it isn't - just ssk and yarnovers - easy stuff.

Have you been over to Sinta'sand Sherri's blogs today? Go now and look, I'll wait. Aren't there some wonderful quilts in this month's parade of Schnibbles? I didn't get one done this month but I already went and downloaded the pattern for next month. Its called Doc -and you will recognize it as a card trick block. Carrie is offering Schnibbles as pdf's here so you can have instant gratification. I like that a lot! So now that I have the freshly printed pattern staring up from my cutting table I'll probably ignore it until about 48 hours before it is due, cause that's just the way I seem to do things. Oh well, there is nothing like a deadline to make me productive! LOL

Happy stitching-
carol fun

A dinner menu for Design Wall Monday

Thanks for all the get well wishes- I do feel so much better today. Yesterday evening I had perked up a bit and decided to see if I could finish the Coleslaw quilt and it is DONE!

It measures about 85" square and I am very happy with this one. I'm glad I ordered the extra fabric for the border. It really sets off the blocks.

And here are some of the blocks. I'm going to bind this in the same fabric I used for the cornerstones. And I'm ahead -I already made the binding nd put it in a safe place. (Let's hope I can find it when I need it- LOL!)

And now that the coleslaw is done, I think I'll move on with this dinner menu of a plan and stitch up some more chicken blocks.

I'm planning on doing a dozen dotty chickens and then 6 pieced blocks in the Hens and Chicken pattern. I also want to do a fried egg border. This will be a lap-sized quilt to hang in my kitchen.

I had the best intentions to do the Schnibble for this month's Another year of Schnibbles but it didn't happen. I'm looking forward to see the parade this month and finding out what it the choice for May. Hopefully I'll be able to get that one done.

Happy stitching-
carol fun

Flying by with a sampler for Sunday

I'm flying by today with my latest framed piece, A Flock of Birds, from the book, My Heart is True by Blackbird Designs.

This is a small sampler, it stitched up about 5" X 8". This is the first time I've used the overdyed gingham linen, but it won't be the last. I really like the look of it. Now when it comes to the thread colors,well, I think I changed almost every one. I used a selection of Weeks and Gentle Arts from my stash. The alphabet is Rhubarb from GA and the tree is Dried Thyme. I must have at least 6 different shades of Dried Thyme. I realize that it is hard to get exact duplication of hand dyed colors but I've never seen as much variation as with Dried Thyme. And it is a color that is used in lots of BBD pieces. This little piece allowed me to use up one of my many little bags of leftover Dried Thyme.

I stitched my boys initials in a contrasting floss, and I replaced one of the birds with my initials and the date. The frame is rather plain but oh what beautiful depth of color it has in real life.

Now I had big plans for my weekend, but on Friday afternoon my stomach decided it had other ideas and I spent the next 48 hours between the bathroom and my recliner and nothing much was accomplished. Oh wait I did do something... I think I pinned about 300 new items on Pinterest. I do like how sitting and pinning crafty things makes you feel creative and lets you forget that you just lost another 6 hours of you life. Oh well, it did make the time pass pleasantly. This evening we are celebrating my youngest son's birthday - he turned 22 yesterday. Boy does time fly! Its a good thing he prefers a cake from Grater's - my order was ready for pick-up yesterday afternoon and my oldest son picked it up.

Happy stitching-
carol fun

Thoughts on Thursday... inspiration abounds!

I have a love/hate relationship with the cyber world - on one hand I LOVE all the inspiration it brings to my laptop, on the other hand I'll NEVER get to make all the wonderful quilts I read about.

And speaking of inspiration here is a link to the winners of the AQS show in Paducah, KY that opened today. Now I suspect that this slideshow of winners was compiled from the book that AQS prints and sells at the show, because they don't show any real detail and you just know that the quilting on most of these is divine. My take was that most of the winners were of the traditional style - what you expect a quilt to look like and that's fine by me. My 2 favorites were Blooming with Hope by Junko Yazawa of Tokyo, Japan and Pat's Promise by Patricia Isaman of Harrodsburg,KY. Both of these were whimsical and Pat's Promise included polka dot birds. That would get my vote every time!

And have you checked out Moda Bake Shop today - this quilt is WONDERFUL!

It is called Twisted Charm quilt and is the design of Cindy Sharp of Tops to Treasures. Click here for her great directions - very clear. And I love this setting. I will definitely be using this idea in a quilt. This would be great for using my rather large stash of black and white fabrics and throwing in lots of brights. It will be fabulous (and yes I am opinionated - LOL!)

So armed with more ideas that my little pea brain can hold I'm off to sew!

Happy stitching-
carol fun