Organizing & Stitching

I found this great way to organize some of my fabrics at Sew Many Ways.  Karen's blog is full of wonderful ways to organize your sewing and crafting supplies.  So far I've organzied 2 bankers boxes with my smaller fabric cuts.  This is perfect for me - I store these in a closet with the lid off.  When I need a piece for the backing of a stitchery, I  just open the door and quickly scan the boxes for the perfect piece of fabric.  

My old way of finding fabric would have been digging through plastic storage containers looking for just the right piece.

I ordered some more hand-dyed flosses from Nancy at Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe. 

Nancy shipped my order very quickly - I sure appreciate that so I can start stitching right away.  The pumpkin colors are going to be perfect for my fall stitching.

Before I can use my new floss, I need to finish my latest start - Anne Browne from Country Rustic Primitives.

Love her designs!

My sister/husband/3 kids and my Mom came for a weekend visit from Wisconsin.  Mom is still sorting and finding new homes for some of her treasures.  She knew I'd like this little doll quilt - it's 5 x 5 squares in perfect for me colors - browns, reds and 2 blues. Love it!  

We had lots of fun with the 3 little cousins, my nephew is 7 and nieces are 5 & 2.  Our youngest was in a baseball tournament over the weekend and he had quite the cheering section!  It's a good thing there are playgrounds close to the baseball fields - and concession stands with icees.  

Have a great week.

~Ann  

Cross stitching

 I finished another UFO this week, I'm on a roll ~ Stacy Nash Hollyhock Journal.

The antique blue fabric comes from the thrift store doll coat I found several months ago.  Stacy's pattern is for a larger journal, but I only had enough fabric for this smaller one. I backed the blue with some tan fabric from my stash, giving it some much needed stability. 

The inside bottom corner is pieced and I love the make-do look of it.  

I recently won a giveaway from Nancy at Victorian Motto Sampler Shoppe.  My winnings were my choice of 5 of her overdyed flosses. Now I need to dig through my patterns and find something to stitch with these.  They are beautifully done.  Nancy sells these floss collections for $2.00 each, which I think is a very good buy. 

 My latest finish is the newest pattern from Pineberry Lane, "Lydia Broome".  Isn't great to be able to purchase the pattern online and download it instantly at Patternmart.com so you can stitch right now? This piece only requires 2 colors and stitches up quickly.

I'm now looking through my stash for a frame that fits this piece.  Hope to find one so this doesn't sit in my UFO pile. 

Have a great weekend.

~Ann

From Start to Finish

After my marathon week of finishing up those UFO's I decided to reward myself.  I started AND finished this Spells pocket, pattern by Stacey Nash.  The backing and strap are a black fabric with an old gold design in it.  Note to Marly - I used a lightweight iron on interfacing on the back of the stitching and it was perfect - Thanks again for your help.

 Like so many of you, our weather here in NW Ohio was unbearable last week.  

 Even with our central air on, the cats didn't do much last week.  I'm not even sure this photo is appropriate!  It may be hard to tell with that jumble of fur, but he's on his back, back legs flopped open sleeping on the living room floor.  

Linda Claus, this picture is for you - do you see the nice pillows you made me on the floor in the background, by the side of the rocker?  Shadow pushed them off so he could sleep in the rocker - bad cat!  

Hope you are all having a good week.

~Ann

One Dozen UFO's Done!

By Friday of last week, I finished a total of 12 items from my stitching basket.  Not every UFO is done, but I made quite the dent in my stack of projects.  

#12 - I needed to bind and steam this little mat, pattern from Robin at A Bird in the Hand found HERE 

While I would have liked to keep completing those UFO's duty called and I needed to get these custom baskets done for a gal who ordered a total of 10 baskets from me.  These are the biggest and last 2.  

I had to reward myself after getting all these projects done by starting more!  I actually finished it too - I'll show you later in the week.

Have a Happy & Safe 4th.

~Ann  

5 more in the DONE pile...

Too busy with being a Mom yesterday to work on any finishes. Nothing today until a baseball game tonight at 5:30 - it's going to be a HOT one.  We've been hiding out in the AC all day - over 100 here in NW Ohio.  

#7 - Tombstone Angel by Country Rustic Primitives found HERE.  I needed to coffee stain this piece and frame it, another thrift store frame.  I'm so glad that I painted a bunch of frames and just had them on hand - I used 2 out of my stash today.

 #8 Another Country Rustic piece that needed coffee stained and framed - I just love this little alphabet piece.

 Decided to hang this one in our half bath, under my recently acquired cupboard.  

Finish #9 - I took this paper mache box and turned it into

                                 

Two Hares Marking Sampler Sewing box.

First I painted over the snowman design so it wouldn't bleed through the fabric.  Covered both the lid and  box with coffee stained fabric and attached the stitching with primitive stitching around the lid.  

  

This is a Pineberry Lane pattern - you can find her on Patternmart.  Now I have to collect some sewing goodies to put inside.

#10- Wool Pillow Pinkeep - another Pineberry Pattern.  She includes 2 different patterns in this, but I've only stitched one.  I finished it with help from Marly - Samplers and Santas blog found HERE.  

(It looks blotchy - it's not dry from the coffee stain yet)

Marly and I have been discussing finishing needle projects.  I'm not happy with how mine turn out most of the time.  Marly was kind enough to send me the interfacings that she uses to get crisp finishes.  I will be purchasing more of these interfacings next time I'm at Joann's.  Thank you Marly. 

 And #11 - my last finish for the day - Quaker Egg Pinkeeps - Pineberry Lane pattern, again to be found on patternmart.

I wish I had finished these with Marly's technique, but I stitched them together on Tuesday, prior to my new-found knowledge.  I did "X" around each egg and they were finished off with a coffee stain bath and baked in the oven until dry. 

Be sure to stop on over and see Cathy and what she finished today too!  One more day of this UFO finish challenge and I'm really ready to start another project!!!

~Ann 

Thank you to My Old Crow Primitives

I recently won a giveaway from Mona at My Old Crow Primitives Blog - visit her HERE .  

Mona started out the giveaway with this gorgeous strawberry pinkeep.  The strawberry is velvet and the hull is wool.  I apologize to Mona, my photos just don't do justice to her work - it's perfect.  

In another post, Mona added these two pillows to her giveaway.  George & Abe attached to coverlet pillows with sprigs of sweet annie.  

                            

Mona also said there would be some surprises tucked into the box.  She wasn't kidding!  Included in the box were these 2 pinkeeps.  I've already said this but, WOW her work is perfection.  

You can also find Mona at Primitives Handmade Mercantile HERE or HERE at TDIPT

Mona, Thank you so much for all the lovely handmade items you sent me.  I'm enjoying the potpourri too!

On to an update in my Challenge to Cathy from Tolentreasures blog found HERE.  If you missed my post yesterday, I issued a challenge to Cathy for the 2 of us to get those UFO's done, so we can move on to create more UFO's!

#1 Finish - mended son's tie - no photo!

#2 Finish - Made the wool pillow for this little stitchery and blanket stitched the two together.

#3 Finish - I needed to dig through my buttons to find 2 that I could use on this piece for wagon wheels.  Then I framed it in a Thrift store frame.  

Finish #4 -  "LOVE" by Country Rustic Primitives - you can find her patterns HERE .  I decided to do another wool pillow and used primitive stitching to attach the actual stitchery.  I added a rusty skeleton key and a couple of antique buttons from my Grandmother's stash. 

I guess you will notice this was wool pillow day!

Finish #5 "Joy" by Pineberry Lane - it's a free pattern found HERE 

Finish #6 - "Hocus Pocus" from The Stitcherhood found HERE I backed this one with a black calico fabric.   

I'll be back tomorrow or Thursday with more finishes!

Anyone else want to join the fun?

~Ann

Want to join the Challenge?

When I first started this blog, I held a Procrastinator's Challenge.  The idea was to dig out those projects that are half way completed and FINISH them.  One of the winner's of the challenge was Cathy from Tolentreasures blog.  Cathy has an unbelievable amount of energy and finishes LOTS of projects.  She also has her fair share of unfinished projects sitting around, as a matter of fact she just posted several of them today.  I sent her a challenge (since I have a HUGE stack of UFO's sitting around) to see what we can finish by Friday.  

I'll share this photo with you, all from my cross stitch basket.  Who knew I had so many finished stitcheries sitting in there? (Note to the Cranky Crow - you thought I was kidding didn't you?!)

Several of these need frames, some made into pillows.  There's a tie that my son needs mended (don't like to mend) a wool coin purse that needs finished, 3 wall hangings that are in different stages of being completed.  

If you would like to join Cathy & me this week, jump on board.  Let's see how many projects we can get done!  

Leave either one of us a comment if you want, we can link to your blog and we'll all show off throughout the week what we get done.  

~Ann