Quilter's Retreat

Momma and I went to a quilting retreat last weekend.  It was a lot of fun.  We stayed in a lovely house with everything a quilter could dream of having there.  We brought our own food for lunch and had dinner out with our friends Mrs. Cherry and Mrs. Katherine.  We quilted our hearts out, but we did take a few shopping breaks.  I'm glad we did, because we bought fabric for a group project at All Brands.  We all made a fun Halloween table runner.  Mrs. Cherry figured out the pattern.  The beauty of being a hand quilter is that by the time I was finishing mine the others had already worked out the kinks in the pattern.  Here's mom and me posing with our table runners.

No Stitching Today

Bobtail and I did not get any stitching done today.  We've been tackling our craft room instead.  So instead of cross stitching, I began organizing my cross stitch patterns.  First I made a list of themes that I stitch a lot of (ex. Dragons, Wild Animals, Christmas, etc.).  Then I created binder spines using teacher software for each theme.  I bought cheap 1 inch binders from Target and labeled the binders with the pretty spines.

 

Then I began going through my boxes and boxes of patterns (okay I've only actually gone through one box so far, but you get the point).  I kept the patterns I wanted from my cross stitch magazines and leaflets and placed them into page protectors.  I put the pages in the correct binder and voila--organized!

 

However, that doesn't mean I haven't been stitching lately.  I finished part 5 of my Fairy SAL and I'm almost finished with part 6.  Here's part 5 completed:

 



Part 4 for comparison

Part 5 updated progress



  

 



 



Monday Night Crafting

Bethie and I decided to get together tonight instead of Thursday because we will both have busy weekends.  I am proud to say that tonight I completed not one, but two pins!  That means I now have 7 things on my Things I've Done board (We'll ignore the fact that I have over 1,200 pins!).

Graduation cards inspired by Pinterest

My Mean Cousin

My mean cousin who comes to my house on Thursdays for crafting night has decided that we should finish a Pinterest pin every week.  I mean, can you believe it, she actually wants me to do the stuff I pinned!  What is she thinking?

Well, since my mean cousin forced me to do it, I did actually finish a pin.  I made a food passport.  Since it was just as easy to make two as it was to make one,  I made one for her, too.  A food passport is a list of restaurants in your area so that you never have to worry about that dreaded question, "Where do you want to go for dinner?"  This is really good for me and my friends because we are all way indecisive in this area.  Anyway, here's what it looks like:

The cover

My Title Page

A Sample Entry

Mystery SAL progress

I'm trying to catch up on my stitching.  I seem to be making pretty good progress.  I thank Bethie for that.  She keeps me on target by showing up every week to cheer me on.  This week I finished part 7 of my mystery SAL.

 During this section I found a new favorite stitch.  I love the whipped backstitch!  It's a simple backstitch, but then you stich on top to raise it and give it a 3-D look.  It's really cool and adds a lot of dimension to the piece.  Here's an update on my progress.

The whole shebang so far.

Part 7 close up

 

PR SAL Fairy Top is Complete

I finally finished the top section of my fairy from Passione Ricamo.  The edging is beautiful.  I love all the beading and the metallic threads are fun to work with.  I love the Rainbow Gallery metallic threads.  They are my new favorite threads (sorry Weeks Dye Works).  This piece is going to be so beautiful, if I can ever get it finished.

PR fairy before



PR fairy after

Finally Able to Say Goodbye

In February, we lost a treasured member of our family.  ChiChi was a unique kitty.  He hated us all with a passion unlike any other.  He peed on my laundry.  He hissed at me when I walked in the room.  Then he went senile and forgot he hated us.  The last few years with him, he snuggled in my lap and even purred at me every now and then.  As mean and ornery as he was, he is truly missed.  I've spent the past month remembering him and stitching a memorial for him.  Here's a memory for my beloved Home Cheese.