Last Design Wall Monday for 2012

Just like the rest of the year this last day of 2012 is flying by. This is the status of my design wall for 12/31/12....more than half way but not quite finished.

This is my Marigolds quilt - pattern and fabrics all from Fig Tree Quilts. I'm very happy with how this is coming together.I have big plans for this top to be finished by next Monday so I can give it to my long arm quilter, Cass, at our quilt guild meeting.

This is a close-up of where 4 blocks come together to form the marigold.

It took me a while to wrap my head around this but I got it now. I had plans for getting more of this quilt top sewn together but last evening instead of sewing I went to see this guy-

What a fun evening! I've seen Peter Noone in concert several times and he always does a great show. For an hour or so I go back in time to those teenage years when I loved all the British groups. And speaking of going back in time, while I was in line waiting for the concert to start I ran into 4 people I went to high school with. Now that may not seem like much of a coincidence to you but take into consideration that my high school had less than 200 students in 4 grades (there were less than 50 in my graduating class) and the concert was over 60 miles from my hometown at a casino that is pretty much in the middle of no where. Interesting? Well it sure made my day.

For my recap of what I got quilted this year I surprised myself. I totally finished 15 quilts - 11 full to queen sized ones and 4 Schnibbles. And of these 15 quilts, 8 of them featured some sort of star block. It was definitely a stellar year - LOL!! I have 2 quilts that are finished except for the binding and I have 2 quilts out at the quilter. Cass who does the wonderful long arm quilting on my quilts deserves a lot of credit for making me productive. I love to piece and while I could quilt my stuff I don't want to. I wouldn't have a fraction of these tops complete without her.

So I will close out 2012 very nicely and if I get the bindings on the 2 quilts that are languishing in the basket in the corner I'll have a great start on 2013. See it is a good thing to have unfinished projects at the end of one year so you can start the new year on a winning note - at least that is the story I'm telling myself LOL!

If you are going to be out and about tonight, be careful. I plan to ring in the New Year with my butt in my stitching chair either knitting or cross stitching, either way I'll be happy!

Happy stitching-
carol fun

Some some snow day stitching on Sunday

Oh my it is a beautiful sun-shiny day here in Ohio. It is only 29 degrees and everything is covered with a 5" blanket of snow. And the road crews have been busy, even my cul-de-sac which is off of another cul-de-sac is snow free. We've had 2 snow events since Christmas and that makes more snow that we've seen in the last 2 years combined. I'm ok with it at the moment, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we don't have to deal with any yuckky road conditions the rest of the winter.(Yes I am totally delusional. I know there will be problems. I live in a city of hills, big steep hills that get covered in snow and ice. Bad driving conditions are inevitable I just chose to ignore it for this moment.)

So on the day after Christmas when we got our first snow fall I unearthed this gem - Snow Day by With thy Needle & Thread.

Another sampler with a GIANT figure towering over everything. I LOVE that! I also excavated this piece of linen from my stash. I don't have any idea what it is other than it is 30 ct. and it is hand-dyed and is a lovely light olive-y brown-y color. All the flosses came out of my stash - DMC and a bit of Weeks for his nose. I'm thinking of adding a alphabet line at the bottom and making this a sampler. I'm planning on adding this to my winter display along with my finished Lizzie Kate Winter Alphabet (you can see it here) and my finished Boughs of Holly which is another WTN&T piece (which can be seen here). I got a great coupon in the mail the other day for Micheal's framing - 60% off plus an additional $10 off and Joann's will honor this coupon. Should be a very reasonable price.

On Friday I talked about how I reviewed by knitting accomplishments for 2012 and today I can speak to my cross stitch finishes. According to my tally I completed 15 cross stitch projects. Six of which - 40% - were Blackbird Designs. I'm seeing a definite bias - LOL! Now I also looked back and saw that I planned on finishing this...

BBD Anniversaries of the Heart. I'm almost halfway done, sort of, kinda. I haven't done any personalization on this yet. (some of these are kinda fuzzy - sorry!)



I do know that I will put my oldest son's birth date in this block for January.

And my youngest son's birth date will go in this block for April - love those tulips.

This block is for August. I need to get both my Mom's and my Grandma's birth dates in here.

And this one is September, my birth month. I have added the chicken (it was graphed for a dog) and the house is yellow, so I have done some personalization here. The real incriminating information (year of birth) will follow -LOL!

So I have completed a lovely number of samplers and started a few a couple several quite a lot more pieces to be finished some time in the future. I'm not putting any deadlines out there - not gonna do it! And there is a bulging stash of other LARGE samplers that have been started. Perhaps one of them will get lucky and get finished in 2013. You never know, stranger things have happened... like buying a multi-million dollar lottery ticket. Oh that would be nice!

So on this New Year's Eve eve my wish for you and for me is lots of crafty time in 2013!

Happy stitching-
carol fun

Thoughts about what has been on and off my needles in 2012

I know I'm not the only one who gets their week all out of whack when there is a holiday, and if I am the... only one humor me. I will say the holiday break has given me time to sit and think. Well honestly, what gave me time to sit and think was the fact that my internet has been incredibly spotty. Without my online diversions... Pinterest, Raverly, Ebay, a bajillion blogs...I decided to figure out what I have knitted over the last 12 months. I was pleasantly surprised at my output. I have completed 17 pairs of socks - 3 of which were the humongous ones for my son which should count as 1.5 pairs but I won't argue with myself... although I could...I'm good at it -LOL! And I have knitted 4 shawls, however only 1 of them has gotten blocked. Now some of the pairs of socks were partially knit in previous years but they were completed in 2012. I still have a collection of mateless socks which are waiting to be paired up in some coming year, so I figure the total pair number is a wash.

As for this week I finished the last pair I'll get to in 2012, my lovely yellow Carolina socks - you can find the free pattern here.

I will do another pair with this pattern, and make an adjustment in the K3tog part. I think it would be easier to K2tog and then slip 1 over. You'd get the same result although it might look different than the K3tog version, but I don't think so... and I have waaaay over thought this.

I started another pair of plain stockinette socks. These are Regia Design Line "Garden Effects" in the Herb Garden colorway.

I love the colors - eggplant, paprika, teal, olive green and a chartreuse-y green.

A week ago heyitskarla whose blog is These are a Few of my Shinest Things left me a comment about what were the wire frames I showed with my socks. Unfortunately didn't have any way for me to respond to her comments so I thought I'd talk about it here. These are wire sock blockers.

I have NO intention to EVER block a pair of socks. I only purchased them so I could take better pictures of my socks. I like how they let you show the pattern the way it would look on your foot and it is easier to take pictures this way then on my feet with my pale and pasty calves blinding you.

I like taking the time at the end of the year to reflect on what I have accomplished. However I have no intentions of making any New Year's resolutions about what I will get done in 2013. I'm no good at resolutions. However I have decided that this year before I buy new yarn I should first "shop the stash". I have a lovely selection of yarns I have purchased that are now malingering in plastic bins in my storage room. I'm going to free a few and let them see the light of day. Now I didn't say I wasn't going to buy any yarn next year (although it would be possible) cause that is just crazy talk! But I'm going to try to be a bit more judicious in my purchases... at least I'll try to try- LOL!

Happy stitching-
carol fun

Some seasonal stitching for a slow Sunday

Just in the nick of time I got this little gem picked up from Joann's framing - Merry Christmas from Blackbird Designs.

I am again blown away  by the work of Bev and Joyce. The frame is a great complement to the stitching. I love how the platinum gold-y finish is such a wonderful match to the linen. This sampler is a petite 8" by 11" and with the great coupon only cost me $23 to frame. Beautiful and a bargain!

Well I'm hoping to stay home the next couple of days. On Christmas Eve our family tradition is a meal of appetizers. My menu includes sweet and sour meatballs, teriyaki chicken on skewers, toasted ravioli, little quiches  and greek turnovers (gotta love Costco) and some cold boiled shrimp along with the obligatory cheese dip with veggies and crackers. I'm starting my cooking tomorrow morning and prepping dishes for Christmas day too. And I'm planning a well deserved nap Christmas afternoon. Our weather forecast right now calls for  4 inches of snow on Wednesday - maybe more. We haven't had a big snow fall in a long time and the timing is good since my son doesn't have to go back to work till Friday. I have a feeling we will have plenty of leftovers to keep us happy if we get snowed in... but usually the streets are passable in about 24 hours. I'd be happy to stay inside but others in the house get cabin fever very quickly.

I hope that you have a safe and wonderful holiday.....

from the Polka Dot Chicken!

Happy stitching-
carol fun

Christmas Joy!

Last year, or maybe it was the year before, I had a giveaway of 5"squares of Christmas fabrics. And now that I think of it I did a giveaway like this twice, which covers the amount of time it took me to finish my version. Anyway Heather K. won those first squares. She is a young mother with 3 boys and limited time, but she found a way to put her squares together for this holiday season.

I love her fresh modern design. She appliqued JOY in the center and it makes my heart joyous to look at this wonderful quilt! Great job, Heather!!

And here is another of her creations that makes me smile too -- her youngest, Gus, who is celebrating his first Christmas.

Isn't he a cutie? Merry Christmas to Heather and her brood and all of you too!

Happy stitching-
carol fun

Off and on the needles

Well this week has seen me bouncing around from one project to another like "a BB in a box car" as my sainted Dad would say. Focus has never been my strong suit. At lunch about 2 weeks ago, my friend Stephie was working on one of those ruffly scarves and it motivated me to dig out the yarn she gave me last year at Christmas (yeah I'm speedy like that) and knit one up for me.

I only did it 5 stitches wide and it came out real looooooooonngggg - about 6 feet.

I love the colors - like a fiesta - orange, hot pick, turquoise and of course yellow!

And when I went looking for that scarf yarn I came across this unfinished pair of socks. And they are yellow - imagine that- LOL! I have no idea why I put them away. I even had the second sock started.

I don't know what the yarn is. All I remember is that my friend Laurey dyed it for me at a LYS a couple of summers ago. I love the color!

The pattern is called Carolina, Last Queen of Naples - okay, that's a mouthful. It is free and you can find it here. It is an easy pattern to remember - row 1 has some yarnovers and K3tog but the other rows are just knit or purl. I saw this pair that I like a lot. I hope I can figure out what Crazy Zauberball she used.

Well I still have stuff to finish up for Christmas. There is grocery shopping and I am continuing to have issues with the demon tree....yes more lights have gone out!! This tree is going to have a date with a wire cutter before it is returned to its box in the storage room.


Happy stitching-
carol fun

Not much happening....

Not much happened here over the last couple of days....

Both of my boys were under the weather, and the funk I found myself in, after learning of the events in Newtown, CT didn't put me a very productive mood. As a mother I can't imagine the pain the parents of the slain children are feeling. All I can offer is my prayers.

Like Big Dude I spent a lot of time vegging and a little time stitching. I got my first installment of the Little House Needleworks Santa's Village in the mail about a week ago. I was too late to sign up for the stitching blog that is showcasing people's progress, so I'll just be showing mine here.

After a 3 store search for DMC 321 Christmas Red, I was finally able to start. Here's what I have so far.

Now I am doing this on 28 ct. evenweave. The color is Glass Blue. This is from my fantastically good purchase (75% off) when a local shop cleared out all its cross stitch merchandise. On this larger count, my houses will be about 5 1/4" high by 6 1/4" wide. I'm going to do them side by side on this one piece of evenweave.

Here you can see the area to be stitched rolled up on the right. This piece of linen is about 65" long. I could never have afforded a piece this large if it hadn't been for my good fortune at their clearance sale. At first I thought I would have this framed, and I was going to start saving my pennies dollars now. But after further thinking I hit on what I believe is a great idea.... I'm going to use this long band of cross stitch as the focal band in a another Christmas quilt! It will be a lap/twin size quilt. This band of cute little Santa houses will run width wise and I'm going to do some very simple pieced blocks above and below the stitching in Christmas fabrics. If I keep up with the releases (and I saw on the internet that the next house is ready to go) and I start sewing the pieced blocks in say July, I should have a top together before the next holiday season rolls around. Keep your fingers crossed - oh wait if you do that you can't stitch- never mind!

As for the demon Christmas tree, DH being an engineer, was certain he could make those burnt out lights work. After about 5 hours of labor and some un-Christmas-y language, he gave up and put on extra strings as I had suggested. It looks nice. Just need to finish adding all the ornaments.

So are you ready for Christmas??? If you are I don't want to know. I'm almost done. All the stuff I ordered online better show up in time. The delivery dates I was given should work out fine. There are always a few last minute goodies I pick up but otherwise things are manageable. I don't think there is going to be a lot of crafty stuff finished between now and next Tuesday, but I'm hoping for a dramatic increase in craftiness starting on December 26th.

Happy stitching-
carol fun