A New CCS Project!

When I finished my snowman counted cross stitch picture a few weeks ago, I decided that I would like to do another CCS project...I just needed to find the right pattern.   Earlier this week, I did a Google search for Frank Lloyd Wright CCS patterns and found several at Heartland House Designs.     I narrowed my choices down to three stained glass window projects--The Office Window at Oak Park (I have actually been on a tour of Frank Lloyd Wright's house in Chicago and have seen the actual window!), Fountain Art Glass from the Susan Lawrence Dana House in Springfield, Illinois (I saw this house from the outside but it was not open for tours the day we were there.) and the Waterlilies Art Glass.

I will be doing the Fountain Art Glass picture first.  I went searching for my thread collection and checked to see if I had the colours I needed for the three patterns.  You would think that with a collection this size, I would have all the colours...but no.

I made a list of the floss colours that I needed to purchase...I had to check at three stores before I found a place that sold DMC floss.  I purchased all of the DMC colours I was missing:

I will put them onto the cardboard thread holders tomorrow and get started with my stitching.

Above are the colours that were already in my collection.

I'm excited to start a new project.  I find that CCS helps me to relax and slow down.  My life has been very hectic over the past several months and I really need some "me" time.

My daughter has finished her Detroit picture and has started her next city scape.

Next up...London, England!

My garden is getting more blooms everyday.  Lots of Daffodils this week:

The white and yellow ones are very tiny.

I will be linking up with Kathy and the other slow Sunday stitchers in the morning.

Baby Quilt DONE!

I finished off my I Spy baby quilt this week...it even has a label!  I have made several I spy quilts over the years and have never repeated a pattern...each one is unique.  I am quite pleased with the green sashing and binding on this quilt.  It will be given to a new baby girl in the family.  Our extended family has been very prolific lately so I still have two more baby quilts to make to get caught up!

Here is a close up of the quilting.  It should hold up well being washed over and over again.  I always tell the recipients of my baby quilts to just use them--I give washing and drying instructions.  I promise to make them another quilt if the first one wears out, but I have not had to make a second quilt for anyone yet!

I'm happy to report that winter is finally over and I have spring flowers blooming in my garden!

I think my backyard bunny took a bite out of one of these primroses...

The Columbine leaves are unfurling.

Bleeding heart leaves are such a pretty colour!

I have several primroses in my garden...such a nice bright spot of colour!

And here is my backyard bunny---often seen munching on the grass and the flowers...I wish she/he would stick to eating the grass!

I will be linking up to Amanda Jean's blog for Finish it Up Friday.

I Spy Baby Quilt

You may remember seeing this quilt top a few weeks ago.  Life has been rather busy lately (more on that later in the post) so I did not have time to quilt this top until this week.  I do my pin basting on my kitchen floor.  It's a little hard on the knees, but it did not take too long to get all those pins in place.

I started by using a serpentine stitch to quilt the sashing.

My daughter had a wooden Thomas train set when she was little.  We had a canoe when I was a child and my Dad taught me how to paddle.

My Dad played the fiddle.  Sadly, he passed away last week after a long period of poor and declining health, which is why I have not been sewing or blogging very much lately.  At his funeral, we had a fiddler play the Ashokan Farewell--you may know this piece as the theme music for the PBS series by Ken Burns about the Civil War.  I spent a lot of time with my Dad and will miss him.

My husband and I took a day to ourselves today and went for a drive --we stopped at a quilting store where I picked up supplies for three upcoming workshops. We went out for lunch and poked through some little stores and went for a walk by Lake Erie.  I did some hand stitching on the binding in the car.  You can see that I added serpentine diagonal cross hatch quilting after quilting in the sashing.  The thread matches the green sashing and binding. I hope to do some more hand stitching on the binding tomorrow.

My Dad and I

I will be linking up with Kathy in the morning.  Take a look at the projects that all of the slow stitchers are working on...

Just One Block

I had a very long and stressful day today.  When I finally got home, I heated up some leftovers and ate dinner.  Then, I headed down to the sewing room.  I desperately needed some "me" time.   I saw a scrappy churn dash block on Amanda Jean's blog, Crazy Mom, a few weeks ago that I wanted to try.  Her block was a 9 1/2" square and I wanted to scale mine up to 12 1/2".  I got the graph paper out and after sketching it out, dug through my scraps and started sewing.  I was so focused that I forgot to take progress pictures!

I used a bright orange Kona for the HST's and a light grey print for my background fabric.  The Elgin Piecemakers Guild members will each be making one of these blocks for our comfort quilt project one month later this year. I'm sure everyone has a few bright scraps hanging around in their sewing rooms just waiting to be used in a block like this...

Counted Cross Stitch

I needed a portable hand stitching project this week and remembered this kit that I bought before Christmas.  I actually bought a few of these kits --I gave a couple away as gifts and kept a couple for myself.  I completed the first one in time to hang the ornament on the tree, but the second one languished in its wrappings...

...until I went looking for it this week and got to work!

The kit comes with everything, right down to the needle, to make the ornament.  The wooden disc is laser cut.

I managed to get quite a bit done earlier this week and hope to have some time tomorrow to complete it during my Slow Sunday Stitching time with Kathy and the others who link up with her every week.

Here's what I have done so far.

Speaking of Cross Stitching, my daughter is well on her way to finishing her Detroit Skyline Cross Stitch picture.   She worked on it last weekend.

I showed a picture of my witch hazel bush in flower in my last post.  One morning this week, it looked like this:  

Ugh...I am so ready for Spring!

Foothills Quilt Blocks

I am making very slow progress on my blocks for the Foothills Quilt along with Mary Elizabeth Kinch.  Christine and I got together to sew one evening this week and I finished off four more blocks.

I have 9/25 done now.  I am using my husband's discarded shirts as my fabric supply.

Each block is unique.

The geese are pointing in the opposite direction in this block--they have gone rogue!

I have lots of parts made (half square triangles and hour glass units) but need to make more flying geese to put more blocks together.

I put all my blocks on the design wall to take a peek at how they will look together...

There will be sashing between the blocks.

It is still quite chilly where I live--we had a hard frost overnight.  My witch hazel bush is in bloom. I took these pictures after it rained all night.

I love how the water droplets just hang off of the petals.

That's all for now.  Take care and Happy Easter!

Baby Quilt Top and Some EPP

I cut out some 6 1/2" squares last week for a baby quilt.  I tried to lay them out in a checkerboard pattern--white background and coloured squares but it looked a bit blah.   I dug through my stash to see if I had some brightly coloured fabric that I could use as sashing...

This looks a lot better!  There are a lot of squares with this colour of green in them so it works perfectly!  The sashing finishes at 1".  I decided not to do an outer border and just bind the quilt in the same green after I get it quilted.  The fiddle fabric above is leftover from a pillowcase I made for my dad several years ago.  He is 88 and has played the fiddle since he was 5 or 6.  My daughter used to love watching Thomas the Tank Engine when she was little.  When I was younger, my dad taught me how to paddle a canoe.  Our canoe was red.  I love gardening, so the potted flowers had to be included too.

Here is the finished quilt top.

The puffin fabric was purchased in Iceland when my husband and I went there to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary a few years ago. One of the fabrics has cameras on it--I like to take pictures.  The glasses and pencils are for my daughter--she is an accountant.   I hope the baby who receives this quilt enjoys looking at all of the fabrics.  I will have to write her a little note explaining the significance of the fabrics.

I have not had much chance to do any hand sewing this week but did get one more EPP plus sign done with cutlery fabric!

Maybe, I will get a few more plus signs done this week.  Take a look and see what the other slow stitchers are doing over at Kathy's blog