My quilting story

I was looking back through my old posts for some reason and I realized that I have never posted any quilting things here other than a small kit that came on a UK stitching magazine.

There isn't really much of a "story" here, but I figured I should post a little about how I got in to quilting since I've written so much about how I got in to cross stitch and embroidery. I think I've always liked quilts, but I actually got interested in making them in 1994-95 while I was working at Hobby Lobby. I was working in fabrics and needlework, so of course I occasionally got quilters at the counter. They were easy to spot, they would come up with 10 bolts of fabric and only want a quarter or a half a yard from each (finding pre-cut fat quarters at craft stores wasn't as common back then). And we had to stock notions, books, etc. and during that process I saw a book from the "American School of Needlework" collection called Decorator Quilts in a Hurry that had a really cool celestial-themed fabric and design on the cover quilt. So I bought that book to make the quilt on the cover (which, to this dates, I still haven't done).

Right about this time, the first of my friends from college to have kids found out they were pregnant with twin girls (who graduated from high school yesterday - I cannot accept that!) so I figured that making them some baby quilts would be a good way to get into quilting. I picked up another book called Stitch it, Snip it & Flip it that had a neat quick trick for making, among other patterns, star shapes. So, the first two quilts I ended up making were the two for them. I don't have the scans handy, but I'll eventually post some pictures.

I also bought yet another ASN book Quilting for People Who Don't Have Time to Quilt (I ended up with a bunch of those books because of the sales and employee discounts!), which was - and still is - a good description for me! The blue rail fence you see up top, as well as the brown shades one on my Flickr set, come from that book.

Of course I got in to reading and posting on quilting newsgroups, lists, etc. around this time too, since I can't have any hobby or interest after c. 1991 that didn't involve looking it up on the internet (and eventually the WWW). I eventually joined the Austin Area Quilt Guild, although after a few years it got harder and harder for me to make it to the meetings so I eventually decided not to renew my membership. I did get a chance to work at one of their shows while I was a member, which was a blast. I have some photos from that show, but since it was back in the old film days, I'll have to scan them. You can see photos from the 2006 show here though.

I've done a variety of small projects that you can see a few photos of on my quilting Flickr set (link below). I'll eventually go through and write a bit more about some of the project individually. There really isn't a whole lot to them, but as usual, I like this blog to be my personal journal of my projects, so the write-ups might not be all that interesting to other people. :)

You can see all of the pictures of my projects that I've posted so far up on my Quilting Flickr set. And you can see photos from the 2006 AAQG show here.

OMG, I actually finished some stitching

Yes, I finally finished the project that I showed in the post from last August! Needless to say, I haven't been doing a lot of stitching lately. Some of it is that my spare time was occupied with some of my other (way too many) hobbies, and some was that I moved some lights around and discovered the new arrangements weren't great for stitching (so I moved one of the lamps back to a better position). I might be getting back in to the mood to do some more, although I have that age-old problem of new things I want to start even though I have a bunch of other works in progress! I think I'm going to do a cute monarch butterfly Mill Hill kit I picked up when my LNS closed last year and then tackle some stuff in my "to do" basket.

Happy New Year!

Gosh, I can't believe my last update here was in August, and it wasn't even a stitching update! The project in my last stitching update post is still on my lapstand waiting to be completed - I only did a few stitches on it over my holiday break from work. (Which is really pathetic given that there isn't a whole lot left to do on it!)

So, it probably should surprise no one that one of my hopes for 2013 is to get more stitching and finishing done. I think I say that every year. :)

RIP Marilyn Leavitt-Imblum

I just saw in the Nordic Needle's weekly newsletter that Marilyn Leavitt-Imblum of Told in a Garden (and Lavender & Lace and Butternut Road) has died. I've only stitched one of her designs to date - Celtic Christmas - but I have several others in my stash that I intend to get to one of these days. Thankfully her talent lives on in her daughter, Nora Corbett of Mirabilia Designs and in the many beautiful projects her fans have stitched, and will stitch, from her designs.

Marilyn L. Imblum obituary from the Finger Lake Times.

Fifth Blogiversary!

I feel a little ashamed to be celebrating the 5th anniversary of this blog given that I update it so infrequently!

I thought I would have some time over the summer to get more stitching done, but the time just didn't materialize. A combination of a really busy summer at work and the fact that it wasn't atrociously hot this year just made it fly by. This year the summer was pretty mild other than a short stretch in June and we've actually had some rain. And, most importantly, everything's not on FIRE here in central Texas this year.

I really haven't done a lot of stitching since the last update, but here's the little Halloween haunted house that I've been working on sporadically:



I have one or two small Halloween projects in the queue and then maybe, just maybe, I'll tackle some of those larger projects that I've only barely scratched the surface on.

Stash enhancement, but at a great cost

And I don't just mean the amount of money I spent (which was a little higher than my usual stash enhancement experience, even with everything on sale). No, the real cost was that my local needlework shop, Ginger's Needlearts and Framing, is closing at the end of July. I get their email newsletter and when last week's arrived I started skimming it as usual and noticed that EVERYTHING was on sale. So, yeah, I had missed the top of the email where she said she had decided to close the shop. The reason was that the landlord had raised the rent again, this time to the point that it was no longer viable for her business. She had already had to shrink the size of the store once because of this, but now it was just too much. It's really a shame since she had the only shop in town I know of that really catered to cross stitchers. We do have some needlepoint and quilting shops, but not much for the other forms of needlework. I can remember at least two stores that have popped up that had cross stitch supplies but neither made it. (Which is a shame since one of them was really close to where I live now.)

I admit that I occasionally shop online for supplies or would buy at big chain stores, but I was still a loyal customer of Ginger's for about 20 years and I'm really sad to see the store close. Best wishes to Ginger and her staff and here's hoping that eventually someone will decide to try to fill her shoes.

No stitching updates this time since I didn't have much free time for needlework last week!

Fall owl

I managed to squeeze in another quick finish before heading back to work tomorrow! This is another one from the 2011 JCS Halloween ornaments issue. I used DMC for the stitching except the border, which is a Weeks Dye Works thread that I had bought for another design that I thought would look cute here (and the colors did match great!). I still have two more designs from that issue in the works, but I have no idea when I'm going to get around to finishing them since I have a feeling this is going to be a fairly busy summer, at least through July. I'm really hoping for a calm August since it's usually so hot outside that it's a good time to sit inside and stitch!

Witchy Kitty

"Witchy Kitty" from the 2011 JCS Halloween Ornaments issue.

I usually take a little time off between semesters which is a chance to catch up on movies, books, and stitching! This design had been on my lapstand for a while now and sitting there taunting me and making me feel guilty for not getting any stitching done this year (although I knew going in that this was going to be a busy year - and I wasn't wrong). So I was glad to finally finish it up. I used DMC floss and I wish I had chosen a slightly darker green for the "potion" so it would show up on the gray fabric a little better, but too late now.

I have a habit of occasionally pulling out all of my WIPs and putting them on my craft table just to see how many projects I've got in various stages of completion (not including things that need to be framed or made into ornaments) and this round was kind of sobering. I have A LOT of WIPs - although not as many as when I first started stitching and put about a dozen stitches into about 20+ projects and then left them in a box under my bed for 10 years (I tossed a lot of those after a point since they were all on Aida cloth and I now prefer linen/evenweave). So I'm making a pact with myself to not start any new projects until I finish at least three of the current unfinished ones. We'll see how long that holds up when this year's JCS Halloween ornaments issue shows up at the end of the summer. ;)

"By the Full Moon" Finished

Although the parts have been sitting on my craft table for several weeks, I finally got around to doing all the glue today. It has been taking me way too long to do the finishing on these things - I did the stitching back in September 2010!

I have three other things that are *almost* complete - I'm still working on the final trims. Part of the delay has been trying to figure out the best way to go about it. I have the perfect trims for all three but I'm still figuring out the best way to attach them!

Time for another apology post

But first let me start with Happy New Year!

I had high hopes of getting a bunch of stitching done over the time off over the holidays, and while I did do some, it wasn't a whole lot. No pictures today, but I'll post one once the ornament I mainly worked on is finished. I also did a little work on one of the Halloween designs I started back in October and I started a *really* old Christmas kit. Given the rate at which I'm stitching these days, I seriously doubt I'll be doing many designs in their appropriate season (unless I want to end up with a whole lot of "in progress" projects).

I did wash and press some of the little designs I did in the later part of 2011 and maybe, just maybe, I'll get around to making them into ornaments or whatever over the long weekend coming up. I probably shouldn't make any stitching resolutions for 2012, but I would really like to get some of those old finished items out of their basket and into frames, etc.!

Last weekend's finish

I finished this last week but of course I'm just now getting around to posting the picture. This is the "Acorn House" from this year's Just Cross Stitch Halloween ornaments issue. I don't often get the hand-dyed or over-dyed floss that a lot of these designs call for (I use the DMC or Anchor substitutions), but I just happened to be in the local needlework store when they had their Weeks Dye Works floss on sale. So, I picked up a couple of skeins of "Trick or Treat" which is the color around the border on this design. I love the way it looks!

The original in the magazine was stitched on a darker fabric, but I didn't really have anything on hand that I liked, so I went with this lighter one instead. Some parts don't look as good on the fabric I chose, but some of it looks better. I should have oriented it a little different so that some of the lighter stitching ended up on a darker part of the hand-dyed fabric. Oh well.

You'll notice that the owl, cat and fence on this design are stitched over one (on 28 count fabric in this case) and when I went to do those parts I discovered that my eyes just can't handle it any more. So, it was a good excuse to pick up a small magnifying Ott Lite at a local craft store. :)

Last weekend's finish

I was trying to find time to post this all of last week but obviously I never got around to it! This is from this year's Just Cross Stitch Halloween ornaments collection. I'm working on a few other designs from that issue including one that has a few parts that are over one on 28 count fabric, which prompted me to run out and finally get a magnifying lamp. I started a few stitches and basically my eyes said "no way!".

I've also made a few stitches in Sleepy Hollow, but just a few small areas to get started. That project is going to take me forever at the rate I find time to stitch! As an indication, I expected to start stitching it when I posted about finishing Halloween Fairy a year ago. :)

Recent finishes and blogiversary!

I never got around to posting these last weekend, but here are the two other things I finished during my stay-at-home vacation last week.



This is the finished version of the ornament that I posted a progress photo of back at the beginning of the month. I have no idea what I'm going to do to finish it (I'm leaning towards a little pillow ornament) so it goes into the ever-growing "to be finished" basket.



And this is the beaded ornament kit that I picked up during my vacation. I have the mandolin one now too and will probably get the whole set. (They are similar designs to the Fifteen Year Christmas Ornaments, but hopefully they won't take me that long to finish!).

And finally... yesterday was my fourth anniversary of starting this blog! I had some stitching stuff posted to my personal blog before, but I split it off to be its own thing four years ago. It's been a lot of fun going back through and writing up all my old projects and it's been very valuable in keeping track of current projects, so I'm really glad I started it!

Hardanger holly ornament finished!

My 9-day stay-at-home vacation got off to a good start - I actually finished another project! Granted, there wasn't a whole lot left to do and it stitched up fast, but I'm still happy that I've finished another thing in my pile. I've stitched a little more on the other Christmas ornament from the post below and I've started on a Mill Hill bead ornament I picked up at my LNS.

Of course, now that the JCS Halloween issue is here, I have plenty more small projects I want to start... :)

Latest stitching

As I mentioned in the previous post, I've been stitching on some Christmas ornaments to try to take my mind of the incredible heat we've been suffering through here in central Texas for the past two months (actually, it started getting hotter than average back in April).

First up is a progress image of the Blue Ribbon Designs ornament that I started a week or so ago:



As you can see, the fabric is a loose weave, so you're seeing the light coming through the window behind it. I haven't gotten too far on it because I decided to finally start this little hardanger ornament that I bought in kit form sometime in the past year or so:



I got pretty far on it so I should be able to finish it this week. This is a "no cut" hardanger design that I picked up from Nordic Needle. I experimented with hardanger for the first time a few years ago, but I still need to get some really good scissors for cut work. So when I saw a kit that didn't require cutting, I snapped it up!

Hey look - I stitched something! And blogged about it!

I've taken a break from the cottage in the post below since I was getting bored with all of the browns, so I pulled this little castle from 501 Cross Stitch Designs by Sam Hawkins and stitched it up on some spangly Silkweaver fabric. I haven't decided what I'll do for the final finishing, so it's going to the "to be rinsed" pile and eventually the "to be framed/finished" basket until I think of something cute to do with it.

In the meantime, I've started the Blue Ribbon Designs Christmas ornament in the July/August issue of Just Cross Stitch magazine. It's been a miserably hot summer here in Texas already (actually, it started in early June, which is technically still spring - 106F... really???) so dreams of Christmas is just the relief I need. Actually, I'm most looking forward to the *next* JCS issue, which will be their annual Halloween issue. Just a quick look through the blog will show that I have a big thing for Halloween and Autumn designs! And speaking of, I've already pre-ordered the Just Cross Stitch Halloween Collection book that is coming in September.

A few weeks ago I finally broke down and bought a new floor stand to use for my larger projects. I have one that clamps at the top, but unfortunately the two big designs that I've put on the Q-snaps are just too heavy for it, so I had to get one that clamped on both sides. And after first getting the wrong item (which was resolved quickly and at no extra charge to me), I now have a Stitch Master stand for my big projects. It holds the Q-snaps pretty well, but I might need to play around with it some to get a bit more of a secure fit. I haven't actually started stitching with it yet, but I think it will work well for large designs.

That's it for this update... hopefully there won't be another three-month gap before I blog here again!

Swiss Cottage progress report

Here's the first picture of an old kit that I'm finally stitching. I picked up four Cross My Heart cottage kits AGES ago and I'm just now starting to stitch them (well, this one at least). I switched the fabric out with a hand-dyed Silkweaver fabric that is very subtle and is a light blue/gray color (I had to use the flash on the camera so it's a little washed out).

I really like the Cross My Heart designs, but I really hate hand-lettered charts! There are some nice details around the windows, but the chart is really hard to read because of the partial stitches and backstitching lines. I'm stitching the whole stitches right now and then I'm going to blow up the chart around the harder to read areas and see if it gets any easier to see.

Some finishing from last weekend

I got a bee in my bonnet last weekend and finally did some finishing of projects that the stitching was completed on ages ago (in some cases, over five years ago!)

First up are two Christmas ornaments from previous Just Cross Stitch ornament issues, both with some awkward shapes. I didn't want to just do a regular square or round ornament, so these were experiments with some different shapes.



Doing the corners at the bottom was very tricky on this one! It's hard to tell from the picture, but the felt backing is dark green.



Annoyingly, this one ended up crooked on its backing, but I'm still fairly happy with it overall.

Next is the Hedwig Four-Patch freebie that came out with the release of the last Harry Potter book. So, of course, I took a photo of it on my Harry Potter shelf!



This one is finished as a stuffed ornament. I think this was the first time I have done a stuffed finish with a ribbon hanger, which was a little tricky, but it came out well.

The next is a framed finish of The Mary Rose, stitched from a kit that I picked up when I visited the museum in 2000.



The photo for this one was taken on one of the many shelves of Tudor history books in my apartment.

And finally, I pulled an old needlepoint kit out of the frame it was in and finished it into a small pillow. I still want to add a trim around it, but I don't have one on hand that I like so I'll have to that some other day.



I was looking for some decent light to take a picture in, and of course the second I set it on the floor one of the cats decided she had to investigate.

Catherine of Aragon is finished!

It took about three years of off-and-on stitching, but I made the final push and finished the patterned underskirt last night.



I have a couple of medium-sized projects that I've started, and I'm thinking that my next big project (once I get some more large q-snaps) will be a cute whimsical fairy cottage kit that I bought a month or two ago. I'm substituting a sparkly Silkweaver fabric for what came with the kit. I also have a bookmark kit that I started... too many projects going, as usual! I have also been playing around with some finishing of older small projects, including taking an old needlepoint that used to be in a frame and making a little pillow out of it. I really need to get some of these old projects finished up into ornaments, flat folds or framed, etc. and get them out of my "to be finished" basket!

Updated to add: I think part of the reason I was able to *finally* finish this project was that I have *finally* managed to put together a good stitching spot after buying a folding table. I initially bought it to make a sewing table (I bought an extender for my machine since I don't have one of those in-set sewing cabinets) but I also discovered that it works well with my needlework tabletop/lap frame. I had been trying to set up the frame on my computer desk, but it was a little too tall, the light wasn't as good and got in the way of me using the computer. :) So, I now set up my new table to the side and can spin between the computer (often with a podcast or Hulu running) and my stitching. I also stitch in bed sometimes, but now that I have two cats instead of just one, that has proven to be a little more difficult!

And updated again: I meant to mention that I have the other 5 of Henry's wives in the queue to do one of these days, but I'm going to work on a few other projects before I start on Anne Boleyn

A finish!

I finished the stitching on this AGES ago, but put off the final finishing for a while since it seemed a bit involved (which it was). It was in a kit that I got in this grab bag (errrr, box) back in 2008. The kit originally came with white fabric, but I substituted in a scrap of light green so the white beads of the snowman would stand out better.

I haven't had a lot of time for stitching lately, but I've been trying to do the "15 minutes a day" approach that I've seen on a few other blogs. Even if I only get 15 minutes in, it's 15 minutes that I can slow down and concentrate only on fabric and thread. :)