Treadleworks by Tammy

50ish

2012-01-25T12:59:00.005-05:00

Last Friday I turned 50.

I haven't gone into panic mode.
I'm not seeking out the latest wrinkle cream, or fad diet or even the latest "younger looking" fashion....does that mean I have given up on looking the best I can?
No, turning 50 has me looking at life the best I can.
I'm watching my grown sons begin their adult lives..
I'm watching my grand-child grow...
I'm reaquainting myself with my husband.
Again, I'm seeing the deep blue sky, the trees, the mountains and all the gorgeous awesomeness that God has surrrounded us with.
I'm feeling the soft wool I knit with and seeing the beautiful colors I sew with.
I hear the thread running through the fabric as I hand sew.
I feel like a child again rediscovering the world!
Turning 50 has made me feel a more deep profound love, not love of things and self-beauty but all of life's beauty, God's beauty...not that I didn't appreciate it before but there just wasn't that much time.
I was busy....
busy raising my kids..
busy taking care of my husband so he could work and provide for us...
busy taking care of a household...
busy finding myself too.
There just wasn't any extra time.

I'm looking forward to my 50's ...
to sit back and relax a little, to embrace the physical changes of my body, embrace who I am...
to reflect, to praise and thank God for ALL that I have experienced and will experience while I'm 50ish.
Woo Hoo!!
I'm 50!!!

Best wishes and stitches,
Tammy

PS Please go here (click on here) and read Quilt Hollow's post....thank you :)

City House/Country House

2012-01-06T00:40:00.002-05:00

I guess my first post for 2012 should be about resolutions (been there, done that), but it's not... it's about finally settling in at what we like to call our "city" house. (the city house only because it's not in the middle of the woods)
As you may remember, back in August we decided to once again use the cabin in the woods AKA the country house as a weekend get-away only.
Quite a few of you were "horrified" at this decision, that I would leave my sewing studio behind.
I want to assure you that I have not stopped using my sewing room.
See....

...a new table quilt for the "city" house kitchen :)
The pattern/design is from the book "Sew One and You're Done"

And now that the "city" house bathroom is remodeled and has fresh paint in each and every room and no more pizza boxes stacked in the kitchen by the college kid (that has always lived and still lives) at the "city" house ....I'm able to sneak in a few hours each day and knit, something I have been wanting to do more of for quite a long time.

I started this lace scarf about a year ago, in a class, and decided to finally finish it as a Christmas gift for my Mother-in-law :)

I also knitted another pair of socks for myself, this time using alpaca wool.
These socks are so comfy, warm and soft, I love wearing them :)

So you see there are things to be done at both houses, a little bit of "city" knitting and a little bit of "country" quilting and for both of those I am SO thankful :)

Best wishes and stitches everyone!
Tammy

Holiday stitching

2011-12-23T07:37:00.001-05:00

I have been preparing for the holidays by stitching a little wool applique =)

I wish you a.....

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Best wishes and stitches!
Tammy

Do you remember?

2011-12-01T10:41:00.000-05:00

Remember our new addition to the family, Tabitha?

Turns out we have the same interests...she enjoys watching classic black and white movies and knitting.
Do you see that smile of hers?

BTW In case you noticed that Tabby's fur looks a little funny around her belly, her fur hasn't totally grown back in yet since her spaying.

Best wishes and stitches!
Tammy

Stay tuned....

2011-11-27T09:21:00.000-05:00

I'm doing a little blog decorating and Bella is fixing her hair....

a new blog post is coming soon.

Best wishes and stitches!
Tammy

2011-11-23T09:56:00.000-05:00

A very happy and blessed Thanksgiving to all!

Best wishes and stitches!

Tammy

It's all about wool

2011-10-16T17:20:00.007-04:00

I've been "playing" with some wool lately.......

all the Pennies from Heaven BOM blocks I've stitched so far....

..........the last three blocks that I needed to stitch to be up to date with the BOM.....
feels so good to be caught up!

These are named "Penny Flowers", "Flower's Song" and "Starlight" designed by Gretchen Gibbons.

And this is the latest Penny Mat BOM
(October designed by Buttermilk basin)

Best wishes and stitches everyone!

Tammy

Mixed Emotions

2011-10-02T13:48:00.001-04:00

Since I last posted, my little Shia bunny passed away :(
She was such a sweet, sweet bunny and I miss her terribly.

I know loosing a pet is just part of the circle of life but that doesn't make the loss the least bit less painful.
I vowed I wasn't going to get another pet, I couldn't endure the heart break one more time.
My kids are grown....I have lots to keep me occupied.... I don't need a warm, cuddly, furry little one on my lap while knitting anymore.

My husband wasn't convinced of my decision, nor was my son's Girlfriend, Amanda (an avid animal lover and rescuer) The two of them "plotted" against me and introduced me to Tabitha.

Tabitha in her basket next to Maggie (my Son's cat)

Tabitha and her favorite toy

Tabitha was rescued (she was a drop off) from Amanda's friends driveway. When I took her to the vet she had ear mites, fleas, worms and a slight fever. After some TLC, a bath, vaccinations and some medication, I'm happy to say Tabitha is now a very playful, healthy, happy 14 week old kitten. She loves knitting and stitching with me, cuddling and mending broken hearts.

Thank you dear hubby and Amanda

Best wishes and stitches everyone,
Tammy

A Special Day

2011-09-05T11:50:00.000-04:00

Grandma just finished stitching Raggedy Ann and Andy and here they are waiting for the party....

our Grand-daughter's very first Birthday party!

Kisses for Raggedy Ann and Andy!

Best wishes and stitches everyone!

Tammy

Moving along

2011-09-01T09:46:00.000-04:00

Well we have another room finished, the Dining Room :)

To be honest I was very nervous about the red painted walls, but I really like how the room turned out :)

I was able to bring down 4 of the antique sewing machine cabinets (treadles that I have collected) from the attic and use them as side and corner tables for the dining room.
The china cabinet in the corner, my Mother recently gave me (it was in her home) and it is filled with the Dutch tea sets and dishes she had collected over the years. I will get a closer pic for the next blog post.

Here is the quilted wall-hanging I started a few years ago and was never sure where I would hang it, until recently and now that is finished and hanging in the kitchen :)
Another UFO "grounded"!

We did have minimal damage here in PA from the hurricane and our power was out for 2 days but considering all the devastation I am seeing on the news, we are certainly counting our blessings. My heart goes out to all of those who have lost their homes, suffered damage or who are still without power. Prayer and hugs to all of you.

Best wishes and stitches everyone :)

Tammy

I'm back =)

2011-08-10T10:33:00.001-04:00

First I want to say thank you to all my dear blogging friends who said "What happened?" "Are you OK?"
I'm good, thank you and I'm back blogging, as you can see ;o)
I thought perhaps I would give up blogging, but you were unrelenting with your "miss yous"...THANK YOU dear blogging friends! I have missed you too and didn't truly realize how many of you out there were reading my blog.

Let me tell you what has been going on here lately....we have decided to "reclaim" our primary residence from our youngest son (22yrs). He is going back to college, he starts in 2 weeks (yeah! Matt) and will still need a place to live near campus and will not be able to work as many hours, so you parents out there all know how that goes...Mama will be cooking meals again because Matt can no longer afford take out and National Bank of Dad has reopened.
Yes, we still have the cabin in the woods but will be using that as a hunting lodge and weekend get-away home. We have moved Maggie and Willow back to the "main" house, it was not an easy task but we all got through it...ever try taking 2 cats for a 2 hour car ride, while they tag team meowing each other? YIKES!
We have also moved Shia, the Angora bunny, she loves car rides and enjoyed the AC and classical music all the way home.
Shia is now 2-1/2 months old and such a sweet, sweet bunny.

As you can see Maggie has settled in and has said "I want my basket here!" on top of hubby's dresser...I was wondering what to put there anyway...this works!

Now one other thing I have learned is that "boys" don't clean when living alone and think pizza boxes stacked in the corner of the kitchen is "awesome" decor (at least they were stacked) Sooooo.... guess what I have been doing non-stop for the last week...Yep! cleaning the kitchen.
The kitchen is now clean and freshly painted and I did get a hug with a "I'm so glad you're home Mom" which totally made the image of the stacked pizza boxes vanish from my mind =)

New paint and new curtains always warms up the heart of the home =)

So you see I'm back in a few ways....all good!

Best wishes and stitches everyone!
Tammy

What's white, so soft, so cuddly and earns it's keep?

2011-07-08T00:19:00.003-04:00

A baby English Angora bunny of course!

This is Shia (pronounced shy-ah)

She was born May 31st

My Great-niece (AKA "Bunny Whisperer") named her Shia because she is the smallest of the 3 kits and is shy compared to her brother and sister. I've added "princess" to the name Shia only because she is already being so spoiled and treated like royalty. My Great-niece has been taking very good care of her from day 1!

Little Princess Shia is ever so sweet!

She will be coming to live me in the next few weeks.
When she's older I will be spinning then knitting her wool and sneaking cuddles too of course =)

Best wishes and stitches everyone!
Tammy

It's been a "joyful" June

2011-06-30T11:46:00.000-04:00

My accomplishments for June....

The "June patches" for the Patchwork Journal designed by Joined at the Hip

Block 4 "Joyful" of the Pennies from Heaven block of the month....

My version of Pat Sloan's design from her book "Quilt the Seasons"....
(I was able to applique this one by hand..woo hoo!)

these are the creativity angels that I sometimes mention when I post here...now they watch over me in my sewing studio =)

Best wishes and stitches everyone!
Tammy

The Shawl

2011-06-18T11:31:00.001-04:00

It's finished!

Pattern: La La's Simple Shawl (free on Ravelry)

Yarn: My handspun (angora rabbit and sheep wool blend)

Knit by: me =)

I love the way it turned out!

Best wishes and stitches everyone,
Tammy

Maggie and Annie

2011-06-14T08:48:00.001-04:00

As you can see Maggie Pie AKA "Mags" is adjusting to the cabin in the woods just fine and even found a
new friend!

Best wishes and stitches everyone!

Tammy

A little bit of show and tell

2011-06-07T18:03:00.001-04:00

I've taken a little break from quilting, just a little, to finish this sweater I started a month or two ago. My intention was to get it done for Easter...well you know how that goes.... isn't there a saying, something about the best of intentions?

"Mette-Marit Pullover" and designed by Mercedes Tarasovich-Clark

Rowan Amy Butler Belle Organic DK 50% wool 50% cotton yarn

I saw this pattern in Knitscene Magazine (Winter/Spring 2011) and fell in love with it
A nice loose fitting sweater worn just off the shoulder with a blouse or tee underneath, knit from the top down and with a little bit of Fair Isle knitting.....perfect!!
I have not yet knitted with a cotton/wool blend and must say it was rather nice to work with and thought the Fair Isle for a Spring sweater was kinda of a neat idea.
Now that this sweater is finished of course my needles are crying out for another project....I like to knit after dinner with Willow next to me all nice and cuddly on the sofa.

This is what I'm working on now.
It's called La La's Simple Shawl and the pattern can be found on Ravelry.com for free. (I'm known as Tam120 if any of you want to friend me on there)
I'm using some Angora rabbit/? Sheep wool blend yarn that I spun myself to make this shawl.
This pattern is so easy and SO much fun to knit and it "grows" as you knit it...I can make it any size I like or until my yarn runs out and I think it will great especially after it's blocked...perfect!
And here's a little tip for you that I read on one of the Ravelry groups and has really helped me....my hands and arms get tired easily, or just plain hurt from the fibromyalgia, and I would only be able to knit for short periods of time or not at all....it was suggested that a "Boppy" pillow be used while knitting. For those of you who may not know, a Boppy pillow is a horseshoe shaped pillow, placed on your lap and used to lay a baby and your arms on while nursing. Well, being a new Grandma I knew where I could go to find one of these pillows and try it out. Try it I did and that night I went and bought my very own pillow and now I never knit without it! My arms, shoulders and hands hurt a whole lot less, sometimes not at all...Woo Hoo!
I'm thinking I might want to try using the pillow while doing some other handwork too, such as applique.

So that's my latest show and tell, hope that wonderful pillow might be able to help someone else out there too.

Best wishes and stitches everyone!!
Tammy

Tornado?

2011-05-28T17:39:00.000-04:00

Thursday night we had a nasty thunderstorm come through here in PA.
It was dark and the power was out, what we heard (we couldn't see anything but vivid lightening) was very frightening and yes the wind sounded exactly like a train.

This is what we saw once it became daylight.....

I have taken 39 pictures each with a different fallen tree here in our neck of the woods...I just posted a few of the pictures.

Our power was out for about 16 hours, and why it is on now, while these trees are still resting on the power lines is beyond me.

Hubby and friends spent most of today and yesterday cleaning up some of the fallen trees.
We are waiting for the power company to arrive so the trees can be safely cleared from the wires that are blocking our road/driveway.
I think we will have a long wait but I don't mind, we are all safe and our home was not damaged, certainly a miracle and we are thankful.

Happy Memorial Day everyone,

Tam

"A" is for Applique and "I" is for Invisible

2011-05-24T21:30:00.002-04:00

I have forever loved applique.
I have been appliquing for years. I have taught classes in applique and even led applique clubs.
Over the last few weeks my hands have been giving me alot of grief, pain, stiffness and cramping from the fibromyalgia. I couldn't hold the milliner's needle and make the tiny invisible applique stitches. I was trying so hard to ignore the fibro and hand applique the May blocks that you see in the Patchwork Journal quilt above...I got so frustrated, put the blocks aside and had a melt-down, thinking I would never applique again because of this DARN fibro, I was even thinking about giving away all my quilting stuff.
I was very, very sad.

A few days later, my creativity angel (remember her from past posts?) whispered in my ear, "you can't give in, give up, give away, just because of the fibro...you love applique and love conquers all!"

So this is what I did....

Invisible machine applique!!
I got out my freezer paper, traced the shapes and cut them out, ironed the freezer paper shape to the wrong side of the fabric, folded over and glued the raw edges of the applique to the paper with a washable glue stick, pinned the applique onto the background fabric, machine stitched them with YLI smoke color invisible thread and a small zig zag stitch, cut the fabric away from the back of the applique, soaked the block in water, removed the wet freezer paper, let the block dry, pressed it, machine quilted it and bound it and oh my am I happy with the results! :)

I love applique :)

Yesterday and today, with lots of hand resting breaks, and those lovely elastic glove thingys, I was able to get another Pennies from Heaven block stitched, yes this time by hand!

TAKE THAT FIBRO!!!

Best wishes and stitches everyone,

Tammy

If you like wool....

2011-05-13T13:30:00.000-04:00

If you like stitching with wool...you might want to check out this link

http://www.homesteadhearth.com/penny-mat-of-the-month.htm

I'm in!!! :)

Best wishes and stitches everyone!

Tammy

It's a purple day

2011-05-12T15:56:00.000-04:00

Please take 2 minutes and watch this video.

Today is National Fibromyalgia Awareness Day.

Please share this video or purple ribbon with your friends, family or even on your blog.

Help me and help others by spreading awareness about Fibromyalgia.

Thank you :)

Best wishes and stitches,

Tammy

Pennies from Heaven

2011-05-04T15:00:00.001-04:00

I ordered Pennies from Heaven as a block of the month and am happy to say I have been able to stitch 2 of the blocks so far. Stitching is slower now because of the fibro but it's stitching!! =)

The first block is called "Celebrate Life" and the second block, which there is two of, is called "Sunburst".

(you can click on the pictures for a closer look)

I decided to try something a little different in making this quilt. I have machine quilted the block first before adding the applique and without adding a backing...so in other words I quilted the cotton fabric to only the batting. Then I added the wool applique...I trace the shapes to fusible web then press them to the wool, cut them out, place them, then press the shapes to the block and for a little extra security I staple the wool shapes also. The fusible web keeps the wool from stretching out, the edges from fraying (even though the wool is felted it can still fray slightly) and helps keep the applique in place while stitching. (not as firmly as usual thus the staples) The staples are easily taken out with an ordinary staple remover tool and no marks are left behind...I love wool!!
I stitched the wool with 2 strands of hand-dyed floss, leftovers from cross-stitch projects and then added seed beads as per directions...the beads are leftovers from some knitted bracelets I made a while back.
Once all the blocks are made I will add the backing to each individual block as I sew the quilt top together...I'll show you how I will do on a later post.

This is Laura's quilt!!! Yes, she finished her Summer Day Sampler quilt top and this is the quilt in which she learned how to stitch needle-turn applique. Laura you did an awesome job and congrats on your finish!!!

I would like to thank all of you that sent me advice and comments concerning my recent diagnosis of fibromyalgia...hugs to all of you!

Maggie Pie (my son's cat) was spayed today, all went well and she will spend the night with the vet, just to watch for any complications....then tomorrow afternoon she will come to live with us at the cabin in the woods. =)
I have discussed this with Willow (our 15 yr old cat) and so far she is giving cat-attitude by just ignoring me, I have caught her practicing pinning her ears back and looking fierce a few times though. ;)
Hopefully, Willow won't take too long to accept Maggie into the family.

Best wishes and stitches everyone!

Tammy

FM and PCOS

2011-04-27T13:25:00.000-04:00

Reading about another's health issues can be boring or just plain uncomfortable but I'm asking you to hang in here with me for a minute or two.

(Dennis the Menace our "neck of the woods" bear is listening)

I'm not looking for your sympathy, nor for attention but I would appreciate some "input" from you all.
I'm also hoping putting this information out there will help someone else or at least create a better understanding of these health problems.
I'm a firm believer in the fact that we are given "issues" in our life to learn from them and then help others either by our knowledge or by our example (trust me mine is not the best, but I'm working on that)

I'm going to start off with a definition of PCOS......"Stein-Leventhal syndrome also known as Polycystic ovary syndrome is a hormonal disorder that involves multiple organ systems within the body, and is believed to be fundamentally caused by insensitivity to the hormone insulin. It can be diagnosed in all phases of life - in girls as young as 8-9 years of age, up through post-menopause. Although PCOS is one of the leading causes of infertility, the reproductive aspects of the disorder are secondary."

I have had PCOS since I was a young girl, but was not diagnosed until 9 years ago (I'm now 49) after developing high blood pressure, insulin resistance and hypothyroidism (all this is another story for another day) I take several medications daily to "deal with" the affects PCOS has on my body and I try very hard to lead the healthiest lifestyle I know how, I have too much stitching to get done to do otherwise :o)
Since last November I have had body aches and joint pain and extreme fatigue, I figured uh oh I need another adjustment in my thyroid medication...off to the doctor I go for blood-work, "all tests are normal....maybe it's just a virus" the doctor said.
The pain just got worse over the next several weeks....to make a long story short.... after another doctor's visit and then a referral to a Rheumatologist and after ALOT more blood-work and tests it has been determined that I have fibromyalgia and much to my surprise it's another "perk" of having PCOS.
I was given a medication called Savella to take and yesterday had to be taken off of it because of the side effects, one of them being my blood pressure was rising. The Savella really wasn't helping me with the pain anyway.
So the Rheumatologist suggested a magnesium and malic acid supplement, light exercise (yoga or swimming) and to avoid chocolate :( citric fruits and caffeine...he's not comfortable prescribing any other medications at this point because of the way I react to them and because of the PCOS issues I have.
I have read quite a bit online about Fibro, but like stitching there's always that little tip or advice someone knows about that you can't find online.
So here I am asking you for any insight, advice, tips or information you may know of to help me manage the "fibro" and on the other side if there is some more info about having PCOS and FM that I can share with you please let me know.

I am not going to let PCOS and FM stop me from stitching..I was a stitcher, I am a stitcher and will be a stitcher and I just need to make some changes here....can you point me in the right direction?

Best wishes and stitches,
Tammy

PS I would SO appreciate your advice or insight but please (and I say this with love) don't try and sell me the latest remedy or tell me that Fibromyalgia isn't real.

Easter Blessings

2011-04-20T19:30:00.000-04:00

Appliqued and quilted by me =)

"Straddling Bunny"

After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightening, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen.....Matthew 28:1-6

Easter blessings to you and yours!

PURRsonality

2011-04-08T16:08:00.002-04:00

This is a purse I just finished stitching :)

The purse is designed by Quilt Plus and the pattern is called "Flower Garden Bag".
Quilt Plus had a wonderful booth at a quilt show I went to last month in NJ...lots of samples, patterns for the samples and the handles used for the purses AND friendly customer service.
I love my new purse!

All of you that are familiar with my blog, know that I love kitties....well since last November I have lost 4 cats :(
All of them where senior kitties and lived with us for the last 15-20 years, 3 of them died of illness associated with old age and Ashley recently passed in her sleep, she was the 20 year old.

We have Willow left and she is still full of healthy "cat-attitude" but even though she gets her daily cuddles, she seems to be a little lonely, after all she is used to living in a crowd....and this kitty Mama is missing having more than one kitty around.

Last Spring the black cat above was, we believe "dropped off" here, at the cabin in the woods...well with the cabin at full kitty capacity and as much as it broke my heart, we couldn't adopt this very friendly little black cat...so my youngest son adopted her :)

Recently, my son re-enrolled in college (woo hoo!!) and with working also, he will not be home much, soooo he asked if we would take his kitty to live with us....a purrfect solution for both of our situations...I love it when God puts a plan together :)

I would like to introduce you to Maggie Pie, our newest kitty that will live at the cabin in the woods :)
We named her Maggie Pie because she is chatty and black and was found in the woods, like a magpie bird (not sure that the magpie lives in the woods so much, but you get what I'm trying to say here, right?)

So stay tuned for some more Maggie pictures in the near future :)

And last but not least...

another pair of knitted socks for my feet, as you can see in the purse picture, it's still kinda cold and dreary here in PA and socks are still needed.

I hope your weather is better and more Spring-like in your neck of the woods!

Best wishes and Stitches!

Bella had a busy weekend

2011-04-04T08:36:00.000-04:00

Bella, our grand-daughter was very busy this weekend....

(You can click on the picture if you can't read Bella's T-shirt)

This led to this.....

which led to this

which led to this....

and finally to this

A very tired little cupid!

Best wishes and stitches from a VERY HAPPY future Mother-in-law :)

A Summer Day Parade with a little Spring decor mixed in

2011-03-28T17:18:00.002-04:00

Here is a "parade" of the Summer Day Sampler Quilts stitched by the "Chix in the Stix"
(we 4 girlfriends that meet for stitching on Mondays).....

Dolly's quilt all quilted and ready for display :)

Audrey's pieced top that will be quilted with her new mid-arm machine and quilting frame :)

My pieced top that I hope to get quilted
some day very soon ;)

And Debbie's quilt, quilted and ready for display :)

We are missing one quilt in this parade, and that is Laura's. I got a sneak peek of Laura's quilt as she is finishing the last row and her quilt is GORGEOUS. Laura learned needle-turn hand applique while making her quilt and she now admits to applique addiction...yes I did warn her ;)
Summer Day Sampler is designed by the The Rabbit Factory, be sure to click on the link under my blog list on the side bar, to see more beautifully designed quilts.

This is a quilt I just finished stitching for our mud-room.

I made this same quilt in Christmas fabrics to display for the Winter months and plan on making 2 more quilts in this pattern.... red, white and blue for Summer....rich rusts, oranges and greens for Autumn. This log cabin quilt design uses 1-1/2 strips and you know what that means?!
Moda Honey Buns are in my future :)

It has been usually cold here in PA for this time of year, temperatures only in the 30's instead of the 50's, (degrees) which has made this Winter especially long.
One of the things I like most about living in PA is the change of seasons, but not when one season is lingering a little longer than usual.
My solution to the dislike of the extended Winter is to decorate for Spring even though it's still Winter outside....

this is the counter between the kitchen and the sewing room, all "decked out" with Spring "things".

This is "Hop Squared", my latest cross-stitch finish and is a Lizzie Kate Snippet design. I added this to the Spring decor this year.
I finished the stitching over a Styrofoam cube that I first covered with batting, then coordinating cotton fabric on the back, then with a lavender ribbon tied around the sides of the cube, then a bow to top things off :)

Poor Willow having another identity crisis...this time she is with the bunnies and thinks she needs to be included in the Spring decor.

What is one owned by a confused cat to do? ;)

Best wishes and stitches everyone!

More sheep?

2011-03-21T18:47:00.000-04:00

I think Willow is feeling left out....

OR is she the shepherdess?

Best wishes and stitches!

Bless Ewe

2011-03-15T15:14:00.001-04:00

Last night I cross-stitched this cute little pillow, while watching the Smithsonian channel (I love that channel!)

It is a kit from Pine Mountain Designs, you can find the link to the pillow here
I have stitched several kits from this company and must say I have never been disappointed and always go back for more ; )

I added this stitched sheep to the other sheep I have gathering around on top my old trunk/coffee table/pattern storage container, in my sewing room.

I think I'm starting to have a nice little flock of sheep, what do you think?

Best wishes and stitches and........Bless Ewe!!

Out Like a Lamb?

2011-03-11T21:52:00.001-05:00

Well this is what I woke up to this morning after a day and night of heavy rain...

A usually calm and peaceful brook running along side our cabin in the woods...

not so calm and peaceful and raging outside her banks....

and then there was this blocking the road.

The water was even with the running boards on hubby's SUV and he even took the high ground through this "puddle".

Mother Nature seems to be a little "wild" lately and although the flooding here in the woods is making quite the mess, it is nothing compared to what is happening in Japan right now.
My thoughts and prayers are with all the Japanese people.

March is certainly "coming in like a lion" and as she roars I seek refuge in my sewing studio.

I was able to finish The Patchwork Journal patches for March :)

And stitch some gifts :)
These are notepad holders.
The pattern I used is called "Just a Note" and was designed by This & That Patterns
The pattern calls for charms (5" squares) but I had a great time looking through my scrap box for fabric and using my scraps instead.
I also quilted the fabric which isn't called for in the pattern, but I really like the results and I hope the recipients do too :)

Hopefully, tomorrow morning I will wake up to less water and more sunshine and as March progresses along she will leave gentle as a lamb :)

Best wishes and stitches everyone!

My New Friend

2011-03-02T20:27:00.002-05:00

I have always had a wish to make myself a Raggedy Ann doll....after 2 days of machine stitching, hand-stitching, stuffing and some yarn hair making, my wish has finally come true.....

I would like to introduce you to my new friend, Annie :)

Best wishes and stitches everyone!

PS Already, several people have sent me stories about their Annies...I'm enjoying them so much...thanks for sharing and keep the stories coming :)

An Almost Finish

2011-02-24T17:31:00.001-05:00

I so appreciate all the comments concerning my last post, thank you :)
And with much inspiration from my readers, I am very happy to say:

I have torn up the schedule and now work on whatever my little heart desires for the day, one project at a time :)

And look what happened after following my heart's desire for this week.....

My hand-appliqued version of The Summer Day Sampler quilt top (designed by the Rabbit Factory) is almost finished, it just needs an inner and outer border.

Best wishes and stitches everyone!

May I have your thoughts please?

2011-02-18T21:49:00.003-05:00

Like most creative type people I have several projects going at once and I was wondering how do you all manage your projects?
(I hear you laughing!)
Besides giving up sleep, which just makes me real cranky, I have thought about setting up a schedule, on the days I have free, something like this:

7:30-11:00 breakfast, shower, housework, computer
11:00-11:30 walk/exercise
11:30-12:30 cross-stitch
12:30-1:00 lunch
1:00-2:00 read
2:00-4:30 quilt
4:30-5:30 spin wool
5:30-7:00 dinner/dishes
7:00-10:00 knit

Each week I would work on a different project.
For example this week I would work on another row of The Summer Day Sampler quilt (see side bar) next week I would work on the The Patchwork Journal.

Then the other thought process is... just take one project at a time, work on it until it is finished and move onto the next.
In other words finish The Summer Day Sampler quilt entirely and then move onto the next project.

So what do you think?
What do you do?
Do you have an entirely different way of managing your projects?
If you could take a minute to leave a comment and share some of your ideas or tips on how you get your projects done, I (and I'm sure others) would so appreciate it.

Best wishes and stitches!

Tammy

2011-02-14T08:41:00.000-05:00

My Grand-daughter, Bella and I would like to wish everyone a Happy Valentine's Day!

Making Some Progress

2011-02-08T16:17:00.007-05:00

After organizing my plan of attack against "the pile" in my sewing room and taking the bull by the horns, so to speak and some rare Winter sunshine pouring through the windows as a great motivator..... I was able to accomplish some stitching.

Here's my progress....

I finished up another row of applique on the Summer Day Sampler and was able to stitch it to the quilt top....

just 2 more rows to go and then the border :)

Yes, we "Chix" are still stitching together on Mondays....hopefully soon, I will be able to get a group picture of all of our progress on our Summer Day Samplers, to share with you here.

I only have a few snowflakes and some pine garland left to stitch on this project :)

and remember these?

Yes! the Flower Box patches from the Promise Stitch quilt :)

You can read about this quilt here, just in case you are wondering what "Promise Stitching" AKA "Stitching in the Way" is all about.

I have 35 of the 70 hand-pieced patches completed and all with a "Fairy Purse" inside :)

OK, let's see what's next in that pile of stitching :)

Best wishes and stitches everyone!

In the Sewing Room

2011-02-04T13:48:00.005-05:00

The February "patches" for the Patchwork Journal quilt, are finished and hanging nicely above the quilting frame.....

and look what I found in the sewing room this morning.....

sunshine!!!

Best wishes and stitches,

Applique Anxiety

2011-01-19T11:05:00.005-05:00

Anxiety: An unpleasant state of mental uneasiness or concern about some uncertain event; (or un-stitched event) An uneasy or distressing desire (for something, like completed quilts); A state of restlessness and agitation, often accompanied by a distressing sense of oppression or tightness in the stomach. (and a need and desire for some chocolate to ease the tightness in the stomach)

Yup!! That's how I'm feeling about all this.......

this pile of un-stitched stuff :(

I'm not a big believer in new year's resolutions they just never seem to work out for me but I am an organizer and planner and that's what I seem to do the beginning of each year... I kinda make a plan of attack concerning my stitching life.

Well I started doing that this past week, digging through my pile of UFOs and PIGS and I found all this applique, not stitched but definitely ready for stitching.

So, I'm thinking OK Tam you seem to REALLY like applique but you seriously need to have your basting glue taken away and get stitching on what you already have going here...of course this is after I signed up for another 2011 BOM...yes it's applique silly!!

So this is my story (plan) and I'm sticking to it!
I have 4 BOMs sitting there...4 weeks in the month...that works!
I should be finished with one of the BOMs by May which is when the new BOM starts, that works!
I have 3 "little" projects that need stitching that I can get done in between the weekly projects, that works right?
No more gluing and planning of new projects and more stitching! (hopefully that will work)

I did get the January mini quilts finished for my Patchwork Journal already :)

Best wishes and stitches everyone!

Off to a good start!

2011-01-03T16:54:00.009-05:00

I hope all of you had a wonderful holiday season!

Christmas and New Years was especially special for our family this year as we had our new Grand-daughter to celebrate with :)

Bella will be 4 months old in just a few days!

But now that all the hustle and bustle that the holidays bring is over, I must say it is nice to get back into a routine again....and there's is no better way to get back into that routine but by having the Girlfriends (AKA Chix in the Stix) over for some stitching and show and tell.

Audrey's quilt that she is hand-quilting, isn't it gorgeous?

A tote bag she made, with lots of pockets for stitching supplies and space for a plastic storage box that fits nicely inside...Perfect!

I was able to finish this Fair Isle knitted hat for my son Matt.....

and a wall-hanging for someone special that has been a great support to me this past year.

She likes stars...hope she likes the quilt!

Happy New Year everyone!

Best wishes and stitches too!

Knit 1 Purl 2 and a Merry Christmas too!

2010-12-23T15:50:00.004-05:00

I have been knitting my fingers off and can now say...

WOO HOO!

I've finished the knitted Christmas presents, I wanted to make :)

Two "Skater's Beanies" knitted from fingering weight, sock yarn and stretchy for a good fit.
I followed a pattern out of the book "Not Just Socks" by Sandi Rosner

And two Fair Isle ear bands from some very nice super-wash merino wool.
These also have a cotton knitted lining for no wool itchies comfort...nice and cozy warm too!
Pattern by Bea Ellis Knitwear called "Norwegian Headband".

It's now time for a cup of Chai tea, a seat near the wood-burner, kitty on my lap and something else to create in my hands....

Have a very Merry Christmas everyone.

Love and blessings to all and of course.....

Best wishes and stitches!

The Best Gift of All

2010-12-16T19:25:00.006-05:00

Today I had lunch with the "Chix in the Stix".... Dolly, Audrey and Debbie, dear friends and absolute sisters in the stitcherhood :)

It was SO good to have the four of us together again, (we have all had a hectic last couple of weeks)..... we chatted, we laughed, we ate good food, shopped a little for those last minute Christmas presents and exchanged gifts with each other.

Dolly crocheted 2 exquisite doilies for each of us

Audrey gave us each a beautiful pewter Angel

And Deb stitched this awesome, heart-tugging picture!

I cross-stitched ornaments and made candle cradles for the girls...

All treasures for sure but none can compare to the hugs, love and gathering of good friends......

I am thankful for this.....the best gift of all!

Best wishes and stitches everyone!

A Cradle of a Different Sort

2010-12-08T08:49:00.006-05:00

I've been stitching and stitching and stitching Christmas gifts the last week or so (some knitting too) and I wanted to share some of what I have stitched with you.

I bought the pattern Candle Cradles by The Teacher's Pet at my local quilt shop and thought I would like to make one of these for the cabin in the woods as I like candles so much.

Well I made one for myself and then thought "hey, these will make great Christmas gifts!" and one led to 12 more ;)

I used the stitch and flip method (quilt as you go) instead of piecing the cradle than quilting it.

I just love how these "cradles" turned out, great way to use up some fat quarters, charms or honey bun strips too!

I even found another use for them besides to cradle a candle...

...TA DA!

Maybe a candy dish or pretty jar filled with goodies would like a cradle too? hmmmm....

Best wishes and stitches everyone!

A Bittersweet Thanksgiving

2010-11-24T13:50:00.007-05:00

This morning our sweet little cat, Gracie, passed away.
My husband found her as a very small kitten walking the shoulder of the PA Turnpike, how he saw her as he was driving, astonishes me and in my opinion was divine intervention.
He brought her home and she was quite a mess, a torn ear, dehydrated and sores on her paws...we cuddled her, loved her and soothed her hurts and she spent many years with us, a sweet and shy little ball of fluff.
I'm thankful she was part of our lives for so long and I will dearly miss my little knitting assistant.

Tomorrow we will spend the day with this sweet, little angel...my almost 3 month old Grand-daughter, Bella and all the rest of our family.

This will the first time in a very long time that I am not cooking the entire Thanksgiving dinner and must say I am looking forward to sitting back (just a little) and holding this little one.

AND I'm happy to say that I finished the mate to one of the socks (see previous post) and 1/2 of another sock :)
I probably would have had more socks knitted if I didn't take time to make this

Apple River Table Runner from Connecting Threads
(kit available here)

So many things to be thankful for....time spent with little cuddly cats, sweet little baby girls, abilities to create with needle in hand and most of all the giving and receiving of love.

Happy Thanksgiving :)

I wish you all love, best wishes and stitches!

Wonderful visits

2010-11-15T17:06:00.010-05:00

I had a WONDERFUL time visiting with my sister, Gerdina.....we knitted, spun wool and shopped 'til we dropped!
We found a new quilt shop in my Sis' neck of the woods that I just adored called Sew Nice. We also found a great little yarn shop that is just a room in an old farm house, "oh my" does the owner know her yarn and know exactly where it is in her little shop. My Sister was thrilled to find her little yarn store out in the country and I was too :)

While visiting Sis she also taught me some more knitting techniques such as Fair Isle knitting, a little bit of Aran knitting (I knitted bobbles!) and she showed me Entrelac knitting (which I don't have a pic of yet)

A baby sock with bobbles on the top edge, my first Fair Isle sock, a Christmas sock using self-striping yarn and another self striping yarn sock......notice I used the singular in all these descriptions...Yes :( I have the "mates" to knit yet for all these lonely socks.

My head is spinning with all this new knitting knowledge but I must say I'm excited too :) THANK YOU SIS for sharing your knowledge and your Dutch licorice too!!

Laura came over last Thursday for some visiting and stitching...she also brought along some show and tell, that I will share with you.....

An afghan she is knitting, I love the color!

A red work quilt that just needs some borders....isn't it beautiful?!

And Laura's latest on the Summer Day Sampler......Laura, you get an "A+" !!!

If you remember I posted about how we are making The Rabbit Factory Pattern "Summer Day Sampler" together. Laura is doing a great job and I'm so glad to have another new stitching friend :)

This is what I finished so far on the sampler quilt....

...yes those are kitties instead of bunnies **sigh** I really like bunnies but I just HAD to stitch sleeping "chocolate" kitties on my quilt......

even though my kitties do this.......

the minute I turn my back.....

who me?

I still love those kitties!

Best wishes and stitches everyone!

Bye for Now

2010-10-28T14:47:00.004-04:00

I'm off to my Sister's house for a week of visiting, knitting lace scarves and socks and spinning wool. Sis is a master knitter and I'm hoping to learn a new trick or two, besides enjoying her company.

Last month I took a lace knitting class and this is my progress so far on a scarf.
The plum lace yarn is for the next scarf :)
(Nothing wrong with being prepared for another project right?)
I have never knitted lace before and must admit I really do like it!
The socks are a Gentleman's Christmas gift.

I wish you all a good week, best wishes and stitches!!
Be back soon :)

Catching Up

2010-10-22T19:23:00.006-04:00

Time for some catching up in "blogland"!

The last few weeks I have been especially busy with my kiddos and of course the grand-kiddo :)
This is Bella (my Grand-daughter) at 6 weeks old.

She is growing like a weed (a pretty weed of course!) and in another week she will be 2 months old, ALREADY!
She is so precious and such an easy going baby, such a little blessing and one of the many joys in my life!

The last few weeks were also spent with my youngest son and his new cat Jinx.
Jinx was a poor little kitty that was "dropped off" at the cabin in the woods.
My son, Matt adopted her, she is so sweet and is as happy as can be with her new home and Daddy.

Matt finally had his ACL surgery after injuring his knee on July 11th. I am SO relieved to say this long road with the kiddo's knee is finally coming to an end. He has been so patient with the physical therapy and then all the doctor appointments. Matt is mending nicely but for the first 10 days after surgery, Mama was needed by his side to tend to his needs and the kitty's needs also. (hubby stayed home with our kitties)

Matt is in a full leg brace with crutches and goes back to the doctor on Monday to have the knee portion of the brace unlocked so he can walk while bending his knee, but the brace still has to stay on, BUT no more crutches....which he is very happy about!

So what does a Mama do besides tending to the kiddos needs?...she stitches of course!!

These are the latest stitch finishes I wanted to share with you.

Two table-runners and place-mats that I put together for the kitchen table (my own idea)
Just another way to use a jelly roll and a few pieced 12" blocks :)

The fruit bowl and candlesticks used to belong to hubby's grand-parents they were a gift given to them for their 25th Wedding Anniversary back in the 50's and now passed on to us.
Love the way they look on our table :)

This is what I cross-stitched while tending to Matt.
A design from Waxing Moon Designs called Halloween Fairies (#150)
Today I finished it into a fabric covered cube and added it to the rest of the Halloween decor :)

Hopefully life will be a little less hectic over the next few weeks but then again, you kinda just have to go with the flow don't you?

As Bella's Daddy likes to say...It is what it is!

Best wishes and stitches everyone!

Back to Some Stitching

2010-09-16T14:17:00.009-04:00

THANK YOU for the kind words via comments and emails concerning baby congrats :)

Bella is doing very well and so are Bella's Mom and Dad.

Grandma here has been trying to come back down to earth and get some stitching done again.

I was able to get a quilt made last week for Bella (I didn't say I was totally back down to earth yet ! LOL)

I used Marcus Fabrics from believe it or not the "Itty Bitty Bella" line....I didn't realize what the name of the fabric line was until after I started cutting it! I just bought it because I thought Mommy, Daddy and Bella would like the fabric.

Coincidence or meant to be?

Bella taking a little snooze with her new quilt :)

And.....

I finished Row 1 and 2 of the Rabbit Factory "Summer Day Sampler" this is the BOM that I mentioned the Chix and I were working on in a previous post.

I was able to hand applique and use my treadle machine to piece the quilt so far. I am REALLY enjoying using the treadle machine and am thinking I may have discovered a new love :)

I apologize to my blogging friends out there about not having caught up on my blog reading yet....I think as these feet get closer to earth I will be able to catch up, meanwhile I hope all is well with you and yours :)

Best wishes and stitches everyone!

More baby pictures

2010-09-06T22:12:00.007-04:00

Some more baby Bella pictures to share

Isabella with her Mommy

Bella listening carefully to what her Great Aunt has to say

Daddy introducing his little girl to his brother Matt

Matthew and Isabella

Matt wants to be known as the "kewl" Uncle to Bella ;-)

THANK YOU so much for all the kind words and congrats, you my blogger friends are the best!!

I need to get my feet back on the ground and start thinking about stitching again.....
sigh....this is going to be tough!

Best wishes and stitches everyone!

Introducing....

2010-09-05T21:35:00.002-04:00

Our precious little grand-daughter.....

Isabella Sarah
(with her Daddy, our son)
6lbs 8oz
18" long
Born September 5, 2010 at 3:37 PM

All is well and we are so thankful :)

Our Grandbaby is on the way!

2010-09-05T07:28:00.002-04:00

My son called this morning at 6:30 and said "mama to be" has been checked into the hospital and they are there to stay until the new little one arrives!!

You'll never guess how I'll be spending the holiday weekend :)

Be back soon with some pictures for sure :)

My life in so few words

2010-08-21T11:36:00.003-04:00

Design by Whimsicals from their book Occasions.

Pieced, hand appliqued and quilted by me.

Appropriately hanging in my sewing studio :)

Best wishes and stitches everyone!

Putting the Treadle in Treadleworks

2010-08-11T13:09:00.007-04:00

Ahhhh! finally my treadle machine is in it's new home!
I have had this Singer treadle machine (66 series) for years and have ALWAYS wanted to sew with it :)
Well last weekend it made the journey to the cabin in the woods, to the Treadleworks studio and made itself right at home :)

Yesterday, I finally had some time and gave my "new baby" a good cleaning and rub down with oil. Then I checked to see what was working and what was not and put on the new belt.

I was so happy to see that all the machine needs is a new needle clamp (it's missing) and a new rubber ring "thingy" for the bobbin winder....I was able to order both online :)
The cabinet could use some refinishing but for now it's clean and functional....the refinishing can wait.
After I borrowed a needle clamp from my Singer Featherweight and placed it on the machine, I did some deep breathing and prepared myself mentally for tension problems and skipped stitches.
I carefully threaded the machine, loaded the bobbin and placed the fabric under the presser foot...I treadled and watched carefully as the needle and thread went up and down in the fabric and...............

MAKE THE MOST GORGEOUS STITCHES I HAVE EVER SEEN!!!

I'm so excited!!!
Another dream come true, not only the studio of my dreams but now I will become a treadle seamstress/quilter too!

I also brought this little "gem" to the studio too. This is a Standard treadle and a little shorter in length than the Singer. These machines were made by the Sears Roebuck Company and were made to compete with the Singer machines and sold at a lower price. I hope to find the cabinet for this one someday, but for now this little guy will sit on my counter :)

Of course the Chix were over last Monday and this is Dolly's show and tell.

A beautifully hand quilted whole cloth. Dolly has made several of these quilts as gifts and I'm sure they will become treasured heirlooms.

And I am happy to announce we have a new "weekend warrior" member of the Chix, Laura.
Laura and I met via my blog and we got talking :) and she mentioned she would like to learn needle-turn applique "well" I said, "Come on over" so she did and....

this is what she has learned so far!!!
Laura is also working on the Rabbit Factory quilt (see last post) and she is doing BEAUTIFUL hand applique...well done Laura!!!
Laura will be one of the Saturday sit and sew attendees (see side bar)

OK I'm off to go treadling :)

Best wishes and stitches everyone!

Getting the point and an invite

2010-08-02T16:21:00.011-04:00

A few weeks ago Deb (one of the Chix in the Stix) uttered those ever so popular quilter words and said "Why don't we do a BOM together?"
Of course our response was an excited and I must say immediate "OK!"

The Chix were over today for our regular "Funday Monday" and we started the BOM

We are using the Rabbit Factory's "Summer Day Sampler" pattern (page down when you get to the link) for our BOM (block of the month)

I have wanted to make this quilt for quite a long time (along with the hundred billion other things I want to make) and fortunately the Chix all loved this pattern...so it was a unanimous yes! and I especially say "yes" because I finally will make this quilt and have alot more fun stitching it with the girlfriends.

We are all stitching the applique by hand and this is what we have accomplished so far, Row 1 well under-way :)
Lot's of points to stitch!! :(

The Chix have also been keeping up with their monthly button-up quilts

And of course what would a Monday with the Chix be without some.....

"cat-attitude and.....

"catty" stitching supervision :)

Yes! I did mention an invite in the post title.....

All you stitchers, knitter/crocheters out there
are cordially invited to my sewing studio in the woods to

"Grab a cup of tea and stitch with me".

All experience levels welcome.

I live in NE PA, sorry I do not have overnight accommodations

This is not a "class", more like a sit and sew/knit with free technical assistance, if needed.
(I taught quilting/stitching for over 10 years)

Cost: a food item to share for lunch.

Stitching times are once a month,
Saturdays, from 10AM-3:30PM

Sept 18, 2010
Oct. 23, 2010
Nov. 20, 2010
Dec. 18, 2010
2011 dates to be announced

Stitching dates are filled on a first come first serve basis (up to 6 people)

RSVP ASAP via my email (see profile)

If you want to just sit and relax, sew, knit, crochet, cross-stitch, embroider,
or
be taught something "stitchy" come on over!

Best wishes and stitches everyone,

PS: Why the free technical assistance and and sit/sew time, Tam?
Just my way of "Paying It Forward" :)

Back at ya' with lots of pictures

2010-07-23T09:57:00.006-04:00

Ahhhh...to be back in blogland :)

Thought I would share some pics with you.

The deer have been coming into the field but leaving the fawns behind in the woods.....

until yesterday!

Mama is trying to wean them but as you can see the fawn will still sneak a drink or two.

I find watching these little ones interact with their mama and the other does such a gift to see :)

I haven't been stitching too much but I did manage to finish this watermelon quilt (Pat Sloan design) with some needle-turn applique and machine quilting.

And I did a little cross-stitching too! (design by Heart in Hand "Summer Bird")

Not sure how I want to finish this yet. Any suggestions?

The Chix still have been coming for our weekly sit and sew...above is one of Audrey's projects that she plans on hand quilting.

Below is Tam's Flippin' Tote (designed by me) By the way, I still have patterns for sale.
(The patterns sell for $8.00 each which includes shipping.)

Audrey made this one and I love the fabrics Audrey chose for her version of the tote.

Deb finished this little quilt (Kim Diehl design) that she will use as a table topper. So pretty!

And what would my blog post be without kitty pictures!

Here's Willow (above) quality control testing a quilt I quilted for my niece.
The quilt had honest to goodness gently processed sheep wool batting in it (no scrim)...a definite new quilting experience for me and I must say it quilted beautifully! And my niece gets to spin the left over batt into yarn!

Chloe quality control testing the left over pieces of batt :)

Ashley dreaming through the whole process and using a stuffed kitty for her pillow.

I'm writing this as I listen to a gentle rain falling here in northeastern PA, it has been so hot and dry here and to have this slow falling steady rain is quite the blessing right now.

Think I will sit here, be still and listen to nature for a few more minutes.

Best wishes and stitches everyone :)

Please stay tuned....

2010-06-20T16:11:00.003-04:00

and enjoy these pictures of the Foxglove in my garden, while I prepare to hostess a grand-baby shower here at the cabin in the woods next Saturday.

Baby shower pictures to follow in the next post.

Best wishes and stitches everyone!

Bear Bottoms Welcome Here

2010-06-07T17:43:00.012-04:00

Does one little thing you bought at a little country shop in a little country town ever inspire you to decorate a room just because of that one little thing you bought?

We have a very small bathroom here at the cabin in the woods and I decided it needed some "sprucing up".....a "cheap" face lift until the money for the new bathroom is in the savings account.....so I took that one little thing and started decorating.

Some silk greens and pine cones to hide some of the ugly medicine cabinet and mirror

A new quilted shower curtain

A few new pictures on the wall and a fishing bear, placed, well you know where ; )

A little bit of new cross-stitch with some pine branches for the frame

Of course a line of cute little bears up high on the cabinet overlooking the goings on in the bath room.

An antique copper mirror......

and oh yes I thought I would leave these guys outside.

Two cubs of four that dropped by for a visit over the weekend....oh don't worry Mama is not too far away....this family of 5, yes 5! have been visiting us on a regular basis.

So there it is the newly decorated, "bear bottom bath" : )

The Chix came by today for some chatting and sewing, this is their latest show and tell....

Audrey's table-runner and wall-hanging both beautifully hand quilted.

Debbie's latest wall-hangings for Spring (yes she did fix the "a") beautifully machine quilted and hand appliqued.

And Dolly made another fabric wreath, this time in a spring color theme!!

Well done Chix!

Best wishes and stitches!

Yours without wax,

Summer Welcome

2010-05-31T11:39:00.007-04:00

Memorial Day......

Stitching and decorating for summer........

available at 123stitch.com

Spring gardens at our cabin growing into Summer gardens.....

Remembering those who put our country first before themselves.....
God Bless you all and thank you.

Best wishes and stitches,

Time

2010-05-18T09:55:00.003-04:00

I have just discovered that I have "made" a grouping on my sewing studio wall with a "time" theme...this wasn't intentional it just happened :)

Although my first choice in home decor style is "prim" (primitive country) but the sewing room is becoming very eclectic which is fine with me, it is a sewing room after all and how boring would creating be if we stayed in the same ol' box all the time, right? So why should the sewing room decor stay in the same ol' box?

The little wall-hanging on the left is what I have stitched over the past 2 weeks.
A Lizzie Kate design called "Time for God" (#141)
The clock insert I stitched a few years ago, a design from Jeremiah Junction.

This design I stitched in 1995 and I'm sorry but I can't remember the designer. This little sampler says "When I was young and in my prime, here you can see how I spent my time" :)

And I also spun all the bunny/wool fiber that I showed you in the last post...some "yummy" soft yarn to knit with now.

Not only have I been stitching and spinning but I also have been dealing with some "stuff"... the stuff that makes life hard that what I like to call "crapola" but stuff none the less and stuff that must be dealt with not just ignored if one is going to grow and become a whole person in this short lifetime of ours.

I'm not embarrassed or ashamed to say that I have sought professional guidance in the way of a psychologist to help me deal with the "crapola" and must admit at this point (trust me not initially) that I am glad I did because I KNOW without a doubt I will become a stronger, confident and more spiritual person on the other side of the crapola and I am so thankful :)

For the gossip mongers out there who read my blog and have nothing better to do with their time but to talk about others, here's some CORRECT info for you....

My second son is fiercely fighting his addiction and is winning the fight, addiction will be his haunting demon the rest of his life but he has accepted this and is becoming stronger everyday and beating that demon down..... prayers for him would be appreciated instead of your judgement.

NO my marriage is not falling apart and I love my husband dearly :) He has been my shelter through the storm.

Yes, my first son is going to be a father and he is not married but he's in love and has been for the last 7 years to the mother of his child and at 24 he can make his own decisions about HIS life. Hubby and I are excited about the arrival of our grandchild and know without a doubt he/she will have the best parents ever :) Again prayers would be appreciated instead of your judgement.

NO I am not teaching at my home nor anywhere else, but I am glad to know my projects/ideas on my blog were well used at the local quilt shops....I'm flattered you liked them, thank you :)

And finally the reason (not that I owe anyone any, but hope this will be taken as advice) that I sought professional care is because I need to be strong for my children and I need help with setting up boundaries with my mother who has mental disabilities and my father who will not accept the truth concerning my mother.

To my dear blogging friends....I have made a decision that this will be last post for quite a while.
I am emotionally and physically tired beyond words, it has been a tough 18 months...I need to put my feet up and take care of me for a bit.

I'll miss being in blogland and hope with all my heart that you will stay "in touch" via email or you can find me on Facebook (I'll email you the link to my FB page)

I'll still be stitching, spinning, knitting and all the other things I do, just at a slower, simpler pace now.

THANK YOU!! for all your support, your kind words and most of all your friendships over the last years that I have blogged.

To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven:

A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up
that which is planted;

A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

A time to rend, and a time to sow; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war; and a time of peace.

~Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

Best wishes and stitches everyone and my love too,

WARNING: Lots of Photos

2010-04-27T11:16:00.018-04:00

Greetings from the 101st CT Wool, Fiber and Sheep Festival!

Nice smile, no?

This is where I spent time over the weekend with my Sister and niece.

This is my sister Gerdina.

My beautiful sister with the beautiful vest she knitted and literally sold off her back at the festival!!
So many people stopped her to admire her handwork, she is SO talented!
She was even mentioned on this blog, Knitting Out Loud, they retail audio books for fiber enthusiasts, be sure to check them out.
The pattern for this vest is on the cover and included in the issue of Vogue knitting Spring/Summer '09 issue.

My niece, Debbie setting up her booth.
Deb weaves baskets as a business, she also spins fiber, crochets beautiful sweaters, offers spinning demos and is a stay at home Mom. Deb's website: Knelly Kreations

This was the view I had from the back seat of Deb's SUV...yikes!
I must admit she made turns gently as to not crush her Auntie although one turn did shove the table into my ribs once...Deb said it was just a loving poke :-/

And this is a 9 week old Angora rabbit named Maaijke (my-ka) that Deb brought home with her from the festival...she is SO sweet and such a "snuggler".
Deb will harvest her fiber for spinning when little Maaijke "grows up".
BTW the sweater Deb is wearing is made from Icelandic wool that she spun and then crocheted.

And this is some of what I brought home with me....

A new tapestry loom...No I have no idea how to weave but always wanted to learn and no I don't need another thing to do but you know how that goes...*sigh*

This is one of the audio books from "Knitting Out Loud" that I'm looking forward to listening to while spinning.

AND....some "yummy" fiber!
The plum color fiber in the basket is an Angora/Corriedale (wool) blend and the fiber outside the basket is Merino wool/Tussah(silk)

Two ounces of the Angora/wool I spun already :)

And a new basket for me, woven by Debbie that will hold my knitting. (that's a hand spun mobius type shawl that I'm knitting that's in there, will show you pics when it's finished)

I know this is a long post but I had to mention just one more thing....the Chix are back in action!
We spent another day together yesterday :)
Audrey and I did some handwork and Dolly and Debbie worked on Dolly's latest creation.

Dolly pieced this quilt from upholstery fabric samples that were given to her from a friend who has an interior design business. Dolly made this quilt for him as a thank you for house sitting while her and her husband travel.

Dolly and Deb spent the day tying the quilt...who would think a quilt could be so beautiful from a bunch of fabric samples....well done Dolly!!

Last, but certainly not least....Nuts guarding Dolly's supplies while we all stitched.

Best wishes and stitches everyone!!

HA!

2010-04-20T09:58:00.006-04:00

HA! You thought I disappeared ;D
Nope, I'm still here just have been busy with life and stitching and stitching and stitching on THAT Patchwork Journal Quilt.

Well I'm happy to say....."Wa La"!!

At night with the "trak" lights

This morning in the daylight

This quilt is designed by Joined at the Hip and is called the Patchwork Journal.
I machine pieced and quilted the quilt and hand stitched the applique and binding
AND
did not buy any new fabrics but used my stash! :)

Each month the four little quilts (the "April", tulip, egg basket and bunny mini quilts pictured here) get switched out with a new little quilt with a theme for that particular month.
Which I think will be lots of fun and four little quilts to stitch each month should not be a huge project and will "freshen" the look of the quilt each month :D

The Chix are back in action (although Dolly is "down" with that cold bug that's going around and couldn't stitch with us) and came over yesterday for some stitching time...thank goodness too, I missed those Gals and I was able to finish the hand stitching on the quilt, while we stitched and chatted. We have a little quilt shop road trip planned for Thursday, Audrey's Birthday and hopefully Dolly can join us then...we missed you Dolly.

Friday and Saturday I'm going here The Connecticut Sheep and Wool Fiber Festival with my sister, niece and friend. My niece and friend will be vending at the Festival and Sis and I will help out but of course we will NEED to go shopping for some fiber "stuff" too :D
All of us spin wool, knit and crochet so we are all looking forward to a great time.

I apologize to my friends out in blogland, I need to get caught up on my blog reading.

See you out there in blogland soon :)

Best wishes and stitches everyone!

PS
Hi Laura :)
Thanks for your comment and I would love to answer your question but cannot reply to your comment because it does not include an email address. You can email me privately through my profile here on the blog from your email acct. and we can chat :)

No news is good news?

2010-04-08T10:39:00.005-04:00

It's been pretty quiet around here, although the last 2 days have been VERY warm, in the mid 80's which is not typical PA April weather.

When it's that warm what can one do but build a house, right?

Well, a house of fabric :)

I have been stitching away on the Patchwork Journal foundation from Joined at the Hip all week, and hope to have it finished this weekend.
The house is the last section that I need to add to the quilt top and then a little more applique and then quilting and wa la!!

Hopefully next week I will stitch the April mini quilts for it.....then stitch the Wool Crazy block...promise stitch quilt...knit socks...cross-stitch....spin more wool......SIGH!!!

I did have one very exciting thing happen this past week...I WON!!!

The cutest little vase from the Blushing Rose give-away..... it's a Pansy Pillow Vase!

Thank you again Marydon :)

Well that's all the latest here, I'm "installing" the windows next on my house.

I'll be sure to share pictures soon :)

Best wishes and stitches everyone!

Hope

2010-04-02T16:16:00.013-04:00

It is such a beautiful, warm day here in the Pocono Mountains of PA and while I was taking a walk this afternoon, I started thinking about the meaning of hope.

The hope that Easter promises.

Without hope something dies within us.

Hope leads us on and can keep us on the right road.

Hope gives us strength to grow and survive the long, hard "winter".

Hope gives us new ways to "go about" things and not give up.

Read here to understand what I mean by re-thinking things
and then you will understand the start of the crocheted rug above.

Love springs from hope.

Hope offers us joy and peace :)

"Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime."
~ Martin Luther

Happy Easter everyone with love,

from Ashley too!

I've married my needle

2010-03-26T16:02:00.016-04:00

That's how my hubby feels lately, that I have married my needle, poor man but the doc said to relax and stitch awhile, so.....
Dear Hubby, I'm just following doctors orders, and I really haven't married my needle
(well sorta :D )

OK more about the needle thing later......here's what I've been stitching.

This is the latest on the "Wool Crazy" block.
You can click on the pic for a detailed view if you want.

And more Promise Stitching....I have made 16 patches so far, I need 70 total for the Flower Box quilt.
Each patch is hand-stitched onto a piece of cotton flannel and then a "Fairy Purse" is inserted in the center of each patch, between the fabric and flannel, and tacked down with French knots until they are quilted in place later on.

Here is a close-up of the Fairy purses. Fairy purses can be plain or very fancy, mine have been plain so far, although I did make one using a lace flower as you can see in the pic.
These little purses are filled with little trinkets such as a lock of hair, seeds, flower petals but only the quilter and the fairies know what is in each purse.
Only certain Promise Stitch quilts have Fairy purses in them, one of them being the Flower Box quilt, which is being taught to me now by Carol Jo.
If you click on the picture and look even closer you can see a flower button with a little "something" on it that Carol Jo made she also made the reddish/pink Fairy Purse.
I think they are amazing!
The thimble in the picture was my Oma's (grandmother) and I am using it while hand stitching. I only met my Oma 3 or 4 times in my life because she lived in Holland.
I wish I could have known her better but at least I have her thimble to remember her by.

As I was taking pictures for today's post this guy walked by and said "Can I be on the blog too?"
I said he could if he promised not to gobble so early tomorrow morning.

OK now if you look at this picture closely you will see what I really mean by marrying the needle....marrying the needle to the thread that is. Another lesson from Carol Jo and an excellent way to keep the thread from un-threading from the needle. (BTW marrying the needle does not allow the thread to slip out of the eye, thus it would be near impossible to rip out mistake stitches....another rule I was taught about Promise Stitching that I forgot to mention, no ripping out....yikes!)
See if you can figure it out....that is the way I learned from Carol Jo, she sent me the "married thread and needle" and I figured it out.....send me an email if you need some more hints.
I promise once you figure this out you will stay married to your needle forever ;D

Best wishes and stitches everyone and thanks for all the prayers, number 2 son is doing well.

NOTE**** Information about the Fairy purse in case you missed it last time.

This is a beautiful story, again told to me by Carol Jo and this is her writing (please do not copy without permission, thank you)

The flower fairy purse is the one Linda Lee came up with. It represents
Nettie's flowers, the fabric hearts inside represent Ruby's love. (we just cut tiny hearts out of fabric like you would a valentine.) Ruby made little bundles for her fairy purses, Nettie did many things and when she was a little girl she stitched leaves together and filled them with seeds and flowers.
I'm not clear on how Nettie got to Ruby's area, but when she was "old" she was ready to die and was taken out to the desert to die. She was wrapped in a quilt. Ruby was of marrying age and did not want to get married. So to prove her worth and that she could take care of herself with out a husband she went out to the desert and got Nettie and brought her back to take care of her. Nettie was mad, because she was ready to die and would not speak to Ruby. She just sat wrapped in her quilt. Finally one day Ruby sidled up to Nettie and fingered her quilt and said it was pretty, will you teach me. Ruby had no desire to learn to quilt but she was looking for a way to get "in" with Nettie. That was all it took, Nettie taught her all she new and they lived and stitched together for 20 years. When she did finally pass Ruby picked up the quilt that Nettie had with her when she was in the desert and it just started to fall apart and all these seeds etc. fell out of it. So Ruby gathered up everything and buried the quilt along side Nettie's grave. She watered it and tended it and pretty soon the seeds started to grow. I guess to this day there are plants growing in that area that came from the seeds in that quilt that were not native to that area. That quilt was the flower boxes quilt.

My life in wool thus far

2010-03-20T11:54:00.013-04:00

Some of you may remember from a previous post here that I have joined in on the "Wool Crazy"
stitching using JoAnn Mullaly's book Wool Crazy for instruction.
Here is just an update of what I have completed so far on my block....

This is block one of 4 in the quilt and I am "journaling" the first 20 years of my life.
Baby carriage...my birth date
Lace butterfly....growing into a young woman
Windmill and tulip...Holland my "roots" are in Holland and am first generation American.
My parents and sister immigrated to the US a little over 50 years ago.

Once all the applique is stitched I will go back and embellish the blocks further with either more stitching, buttons or perhaps some beads, I haven't decided yet.

JoAnn Mullaly has explained and instructed perfectly on how to prepare and layer the block for stitching with fabric and batting as the layers behind the wool pieces.
I find it to hard on my hands (due to some health issues) to stitch through such thick pieces and I wanted SO much to make this quilt that I had to change the layering method slightly to make the stitching a little easier for me.

This is what I did....
First I removed all the stitching and applique that I started, removed the fabric and the batting.
My wool pieces in the "crazy" shapes were still held together with the fusing tape that I had used behind the seams that I layered slightly (I did not butt them) Be sure to use a press cloth and steam when pressing. Do not press right on the wool without a press cloth.

Note***When I lay out block 2,3 and 4 I will use a 24 inch fabric foundation as JoAnn instructs but will not baste my wool pieces to the foundation, instead I will fuse the seams as shown above then use the interfacing again, as shown below.

Then I ironed a lightweight fusible interfacing to the back of the wool pieced section. I made sure to use a press cloth between the interfacing and the iron and lots of steam. I would imagine a stabilizer of some sort could be used too, but I feel more comfortable with the interfacing (guess it's the garment sewer in me)

Once I pressed on the interfacing I turned the piece over and then zig zag stitched (long and wide setting) the seams with my machine and a walking foot. I used the walking foot to keep the seams from possible bunching and shifting (even though they were fused)
Better safe than sorry :)

I machine basted the seams only because I wanted to be certain the interfacing would not shift while I hand stitched and as extra insurance the interfacing would stay put.
I remove the machine basting as I hand embroider the seams. You can hand baste the seams instead of zig zag stitching if you like.

Now the thinner block is ready for the most fun part of applique and pretty embroidery stitching.
My hands are breathing a sigh of relief working on a thinner piece. I will add batting or perhaps just flannel when the blocks are put together into a quilt top and then the quilt will be tied....I'll "cross that bridge" when I get to it :)
And oh yes, I am using hand-dyed floss for the applique and Valdani pearl cotton for the embroidery.

On a little bit of side note...I have been getting some emails of concern because I have been a little quiet lately in blogland :(
Let me briefly explain.....
My youngest son (not the Dad-to-be) has reached another stage in his recovery process and it has been stressful.....this Mama is in worry mode but she is also in prayer mode.
I'm quiet but have peace because of God's love and the love from you my dear friends.
Number 2 son is quite a strong guy when it comes to making a decision about something and he has made his decision and it is an excellent one :) I know he is under God's care and under the best professional care.
So this Mama is now a little more at peace and focused on gathering up her strength again with some very focused stitching and enjoying this glorious spring time weather we have had lately here in PA.

THANK YOU for your love and concern and mostly for your prayers.....you're the best! and I'm going to close this post now because it's hard to type with tears of gratitude and joy in your eyes.

Best wishes and stitches everyone!!!

Speechless

2010-03-12T11:07:00.008-05:00

OK!
I hear my family and friends laughing now, but it's true I'm speechless!
Only because there has been a more stitching going on here lately rather than anything else...
well besides household chores, those pesky things just don't want to go away!
I think hubby (he works from home) is enjoying the sound of thread being pulled through fabric, with music in the background opposed to my constant voice. (me too!)

So here we go no more long "speeches" to write/read but some eye candy for you all.

All of the above was stitched by the "Chix in the Stix"

Well done Girlfriends!

The beginnings of my Flower Boxes "authentic" Promise Stitch quilt :)

Another cross-stitch project completed, wrapped and in the mail as a gift for a special person :)

Design by "Little House Needleworks"

My latest cross-stitch start...a design by "Lizzie Kate" some hand-dyed floss and 30 ct cappuccino over-dyed linen....YUM!

Best wishes and stitches everyone!

March!

2010-03-03T11:08:00.011-05:00

Ahhhhhh March!!

"In like a lion and out like a lamb" (I hope!)

Pieced and quilted by me

Spring is in the air, here in PA, even though there is still quite a bit of snow on the ground.

The "boys" (the little group of turkey "guys" that hang out around the cabin) have already been struttin' their stuff, being "vocal" and debating among themselves who gets the first date with the hens.

The "chippies" are emerging from their long winter nap, through still significant snow piles.

Look at the snow pile furthest in the background, straight ahead....

Doesn't he/she have the look of ...."what the heck happened here"?

Chipmunks are not considered cute by all I know, but I don't have any pretty gardens around the cabin, so I think Chipmunks are cute and fun to watch.

I have been emerging from my hibernation too but only with thoughts of stitching outside with lots of sunshine opposed to stitching inside, with lots of wood burning in the stove...either way I will be still stitching :)

I just finished up these little gift bags (a Bareroots design) and was able to use some of the antique lace I have for the edging :)

(sorry for the bad pic, click on it for a better view)

And I have been working on the Wool Crazy block...."playing" with the appliques and deciding what and where I would like to hand-stitch. The embroidery stitching will certainly add a whole lot of "pizazz" to the block and I must admit for me, that is the fun part. I bought some Valdani Pearl cotton (size 8) which is just "yummy" thread to work with for the embroidered edges of the wool and will use DMC cotton floss for the applique.

Ashley has been helping too.....

Thanks Ash ;>)

Yesterday, I bought the fabrics for the Flower Boxes Promise Stitch quilt and hope to start cutting the fabrics today (BTW, I didn't forget about you Lin)

Carol Jo (my wonderful teacher) said the "recipe" for this quilt calls for floral fabrics for the boxes and yellows for the centers (charms).

Here are the fabrics I have chosen, what do you think?

Best wishes and stitches everyone!

I Promise with Delight to Crazy Stitch on Wool now that the Floral ABC's are Finished

2010-02-23T20:26:00.012-05:00

Let me explain the title of this post....I Promise with Delight to Crazy Stitch on Wool now that the Floral ABC's are Finished.
I somehow wanted to include my latest 4 projects in the post title and you thought I was loosing my mind!! HA!
Maybe too much chocolate lately and a few hot flashes but no mind loss.

Here are the projects...

Floral Delight Row 1 completed

Hand-pieced and appliqued. I have forgotten how much I enjoy the handwork and it's a good thing I still enjoy it ;) I still have a few more rows to complete on that quilt!

Wool Crazy block 1

You can read about the Wool Crazy project by clicking on the Wool Crazy button on my sidebar.
This will be my first wool quilt. I am making the quilt from the Wool Crazy book by JoAnn Mullaly. The quilt consists of 4 large blocks and I have decided to make it into a wool "stitched journal" of my life.

Block 1 will be the first 20 years of my life...
block 2 age 20-40...
block 3 will be what is happening now...
block 4 my future hopes and dreams.

The picture above is my start.

ABC Sampler project 3
Finished and ready for framing :) Thank you for sharing the design Gazette 94 :)

And Project 4 An Authentic Promise Stitch quilt
**sigh**
I'm so excited to begin this project!
Carol Jo and I have been exchanging emails and oh my what I am learning is amazing!

I am following in the spirit and tradition of "quilting in the way" by also sharing with you and you are to share what you learn also
BUT
I ask that you do not copy any information from my blog which includes teaching classes at quilt shops or guilds or where ever else.
PLEASE respect Linda Lee, the spirit and the ways of Promise stitching and not commercialize "quilting in the way"....thank you :)
I will be more than happy to share any questions or thoughts you may have with Carol Jo, just send me an email and I will pass it along to Carol Jo.
You are also more than welcome to link to my blog.
I will also be deleting the Promise Stitch tutorial I have included here on the blog as I have recently come to realize it really is not true "quilting in the way" and I wish to respect the tradition and history of this quilting method.

So you can better understand the following let me explain something here first and again this was told to me by Carol Jo.....
Linda Lee Peterson learned from a lady named Ruby and Ruby learned from a lady named Nettie.

This is a beautiful story, again told to me by Carol Jo and this is her writing...

The flower fairy purse is the one Linda Lee came up with. It represents
Nettie's flowers, the fabric hearts inside represent Ruby's love. (we just cut tiny hearts out of fabric like you would a valentine.) Ruby made little bundles for her fairy purses, Nettie did many things and when she was a little girl she stitched leaves together and filled them with seeds and flowers.
I'm not clear on how Nettie got to Ruby's area, but when she was "old" she was ready to die and was taken out to the desert to die. She was wrapped in a quilt. Ruby was of marrying age and did not want to get married. So to prove her worth and that she could take care of herself with out a husband she went out to the desert and got Nettie and brought her back to take care of her. Nettie was mad, because she was ready to die and would not speak to Ruby. She just sat wrapped in her quilt. Finally one day Ruby sidled up to Nettie and fingered her quilt and said it was pretty, will you teach me. Ruby had no desire to learn to quilt but she was looking for a way to get "in" with Nettie. That was all it took, Nettie taught her all she new and they lived and stitched together for 20 years. When she did finally pass Ruby picked up the quilt that Nettie had with her when she was in the desert and it just started to fall apart and all these seeds etc. fell out of it. So Ruby gathered up everything and buried the quilt along side Nettie's grave. She watered it and tended it and pretty soon the seeds started to grow. I guess to this day there are plants growing in that area that came from the seeds in that quilt that were not native to that area. That quilt was the flower boxes quilt.

My first Promise Stitch quilt project...Flower Boxes :)

Best wishes and stitches everyone!

PS

2010-02-15T15:29:00.009-05:00

PS.....Thought I would share just one more picture of what I decided to do with some of the antique cuffs and collars I found in the lace container (see last post)

A little bit of added decor for the corner shelves in the sewing studio :)

PS not only means post script but are also the initials for Promise Stitch

This is Dolly's completed Promise Stitch log cabin with a custom made frame by her hubby...well done you two!

This is the Promise Stitch Log Cabin mini quilt I made a few years ago, as a class sample I taught.
I have a tutorial here on how I taught this Promise Stitch project.

Why am I writing about this again?
Well, this morning I received a very interesting email from Carol Jo and I asked if I could share her email with all of you and she graciously said "of course" :)

Hey Tammy,
I was just looking at your blog and thought I would share some information w/ you about Promise stitch.
First of all the reason you can't find any information about Promise stitch is because even though it is an old art handed down from woman to woman (in the beginning it was really the men that did the quilting) It was not called promise stitch, they just called it "quilting in the way". I've learned about promise stitch from a lady who really is the only lady that knows the stories, patterns etc. from way back when. She learned it as a little girl. It became known as promise stitch when she was asked to speak at a guild and talked about the promises you have to make. One of the ladies asked her if she could learn more about promise stitch and from that time on it was referred to promise stitch. Which was in the late 80's early 90's I can't remember the exact date.
There are hundreds of patterns that we use in Promise stitch but not every pattern is a promise stitch pattern. We have a log cabin pattern but it's nothing like the traditional log cabin.
You probably learned what you know about promise stitch from The gals at Mountain Patchworks, or from their Pattern Line. Though they do have some very beautiful patterns they are not true promise stitch patterns.
It did originate in the Appalachian Mtns
A few things about promise stitch.........
*Everything is done by hand, no machine.
*No pins what so ever and we
*never mark our seams.
You are supposed to learn what a quarter inch looks like and my quarter inch is mine and yours is yours. One gal has a tiny quarter inch and her name is April.........from that time on any tiny quarter inch was called an "April quarter"
*all fabric is pre-washed and dried but NEVER ironed
our batting is flannel (not the back of the quilt) and it is never pre-washed. Once your quilt is quilted it's washed and when the flannel shrinks it gives everything that wonderful antique look that we call "shadow kiss" The more shadow kiss the better. Over quilting will take away the shadow kiss. We do have some quilts w/ no batting or binding. Those are called summer spreads. The double stitch or Promise Stitch is what keeps the seams from raveling.
*Promise Stitch quilts are never bound. Each outside edge is turned under 1/4" and stitched together w/ what's called a railroad stitch. I've heard it called a ladder stitch elsewhere. We will finish our top, layer our top, batting and back and baste it in a spider web pattern in a thread that shows up well. Then we will go ahead and Railroad stitch our edges. Once the railroad stitch is finished we will quilt a running stitch 1/4" in from the outside edge. Now our quilts are very easy to take w/ us to quilt w/ out things getting messed up. They are quilted on the opposite side of the ditch from where we did the promise stitch and then the borders are either quilted in what we call "mashed potatoes" which is like a serpentine back and forth and looks like a potato masher. the other is called chicken trot and is like the machine stitched stipple.
*When we cut our fabrics we use a rotary cutter blade w/ a pinking edge or we use pinking shears. This helps keep them from unraveling while we are working on our quilts.
*Don't forget...........no pinning allowed, if a real promise stitcher sees you using pins she will steal them from you.
*We use the same thread for piecing as we do quilting and we dress our thread w/ a homemade goats milk soap. Once you have used the soap to dress your thread you will never go back to things like thread heaven or use that awful coated hand quilting thread.
Seams are not "pressed" towards the dark necessarily. (never pressed w/ an iron of course just finger pressed and then promise stitched down) Your first patch (pc of fabric) is called home. When you start stitching all seams go away from home. then next row the seams go towards home.
example 9 patch:
home is patch 1 in row one,
so seam goes to right as your looking at the top of your patches.
patch one in row two the seams go towards, then in row three the seams go away.
When you do your promise stitch you do catch the mtns of the seam on the back. But if you are doing what we call Press patching (this is where the block is pc'd on a pc of flannel like foundation pc'ing) then all blocks are pc'd together and no more batting is added. Instead of promise stitching through the seam you stitch just to the outside of it so it "floats" between the flannel and your top patch. So not so many layers to stitch through.
Our quilts have lots of other hand work be it critters or applique'. We do our applique' a little bit different. It's called back steps applique' because instead of like needle turn where you go forward w/ each stitch you go back a lil then forward a lil. After your needle comes out, you go back in a little bit behind where it came out then point it forwards and come out ahead of where it last came out. This method gives your applique' a lot more dimension and softness.

Hope you've found this information helpful and interesting. let me know if you have any questions.

Carol Jo

I also received a reply to my reply with some more info :)

......I learned promise stitch about 5 or 6 years ago. I get to go learn something new once or twice a year from the Real Promise Stitch lady Her name is Linda Lee. There is so much to learn and each time I travel to meet w/ her I only get very little snippets. There is a whole thing about learning things in order etc. It's about a 300 mile trip one way. So as you can now tell, even though my email was pretty long, there is still tons that was not covered.

THANK YOU Carol Jo again for sharing all of this WONDERFUL information about "quilting in the way".

Here is a link to Linda Lee's website if you would like to enjoy some quilting "eye candy" :)

Today was another fun day with the Chix :)
Here's Dolly's show and tell

**SIGH** so pretty!

And yet another cat picture for you

This is the very shy 8lb Gracie "holding" down the 23 lb Nuts as he takes his nap.

And....
The Chix wanna know.....

Why are short naps called cat naps, when a cat tends to sleep all the time?

Best wishes and stitches everyone!

No Arsenic But Some Old Lace

2010-02-13T19:20:00.021-05:00

I needed the container of lace out of the attic the other day...a large container (poor hubby)
I have had this lace for many years, some of it is what I purchased during my garment sewing days and some of it is the lace that was given to me by someone I barely knew, quite a few years ago.
I took out of the container what I needed, just a little trim for a gift I was making, and then thought OK I can't do this to hubby again, ask him to put the container back in the attic....

Side note: I don't go up in the attic because you need to climb a ladder to do that, I don't do heights well, which means I don't do ladders, never mind ladders while carrying a large container.

...so I sorted and looked through the lace, organized it, stored some of it in the studio and kicked myself for not looking through the lace sooner.
I found some beautiful pieces of antique lace, crocheted pieces and old collar and cuff pieces.

Let me show you some of what I found

I would love to add this fillet crocheted piece (below) to a hand sewn garment of some sort....

***SIGH***

I was in lace heaven and thought I can't just store all of this away, out of sight, someplace in the studio in a box or drawer, so this is what I did with some of it.

Added some pieces to the old tobacco ladders hanging on the wall

I hung some lace motifs to the rag garland I made for the sewing studio door

and added this piece to the little antique sewing box I have

Then I came up with another idea :)

This is the basket I use to hold my supplies and yarn for sock knitting

This is Jo Morton fabric that I bought a few years ago...bought it because it "called to me" but I had no idea what I was going to do with it....

today I said..."Tam, remember that "sheep" fabric you have and that circular piece of hand crocheted lace you just found?" (see pic above) "You can line the basket with the fabric and what are the chances that the crocheted lace will fit around the basket?"

I love it when a plan comes together!!
(I might move that crocheted lace up a smidge, what do you think?)

Inside of my new sock basket :)

The sock knitting basket with sock knitting supplies and a sock in progress inside :)

I write the directions for "vanilla" (basic) socks and mittens on index cards and then laminate them to carry in my basket...you would think I wouldn't need to carry directions after knitting so many socks and a few pairs of mittens...NOPE! not me! I need the directions ;)

By the way this is the latest pair I knitted.......AND just in case you were wondering what a Maine Coon cat does during a snow storm...here you go!

He "occupies" nearly an entire storage bench in a sewing studio and let's it snow!

AND one more thing and I really hate to do this to you... but now that I'm going to be a Grandmom for the first time, I just HAVE to share a picture of our new Grandbaby :)

This ultrasound picture was taken when the Mom to be was 8 weeks and 2 days pregnant, she is almost another 2 weeks along now, baby and Mom are doing very well, Mom still has morning sickness and for now is craving apples. ;)

This little one is due to make his/her public debut on or around September 14th.

Thank you all for your best wishes and congrats, we are SO excited!

I better quit playing with lace and socks and start making a baby quilt or two!!!

Happy Valentine's Day, I wish all of you lots of chocolate, roses and love too!!!

Best wishes and stitches everyone!

New beginnings

2010-02-09T12:07:00.007-05:00

Yesterday was another gathering with the Chix here at the cabin in the woods.
I think we are all in winter semi-hibernation mode, Dolly, Audrey and I just relaxed and hand-stitched....although Audrey was not hand-stitching at home last week...look at all she accomplished!!

Everything is just gorgeous and wow Audrey!

Audrey is also hand-quilting this beautiful table-runner and quilted a little more on it yesterday.

Dolly was stitching applique to another Joined at the Hip Foundation quilt, which I will take a picture of once it is all put together...trust me it looks great already!

I was able to start stitching the first Floral Delight applique block, yesterday and finished it late last night.....

two more star blocks to hand-piece and row 1 is finished! :)

Tonight we are bracing for a "significant" snow storm...all the winter storms having been going south of us this year but not this one, we are expecting 12" of snow maybe more, beginning tonight, all day and through the night tomorrow.....hmmmmmm what to do?? ;)

This weeks question will take a little work on your part, not hard work, but I think a little bit of fun..... a search and find on my blog with a bit of VERY exciting news!

I have included the "news" on my sidebar and have changed my profile information just a little which holds another clue to the "news".

What is my latest news? :)

Best wishes and stitches everyone!!

Warming Up

2010-02-04T10:49:00.008-05:00

Ashley has her "method" of warming up....

and I have mine.....

by finishing one quilt I "warm-up" for the next......

The beginnings of Floral Delight.....what else can we do but......

in the middle of winter and of course "warm-up" :)

Best wishes and stitches everyone and stay warm!

1st pic: Applique blocks designed by Bunny Hill Designs
A Tisket A Tasket 2009 BOM stitched and quilted by me

2nd pic: Floral Delight designed by Lori Smith and hand-pieced by me (so far)

3rd pic: Let It Snow designed by Joined at the Hip and stitched by Dolly

Birthday and Fun Day

2010-01-25T21:33:00.013-05:00

Last Wednesday was my birthday and the Chix and I went quilt shop hopping!! :D
We stopped at 5 different shops just over the PA border, into NY and had a FANTASTIC time.
I bought some fat quarters, patterns and books and will show and tell about the projects as they are finished.....so stay tuned :)

One of our favorite shops was The Quilted Crow pictured below....

the shop was filled with wonderful "prim" fabrics, patterns, and lots of beautiful samples, including the new Civil War quilt (click on the words The Quilted Crow above to go to the website and see the quilt)...we also met the shop owner Peg who was VERY nice and the Chix and I are truly looking forward to visiting this shop again. Be sure to click on the highlighted words and visit The Quilted Crow too!

Beside my purchases at the quilt shops, hubby also gave me this antique Dutch copper tea kettle and a wonderful book titled Felicity's Story Collection. The book is a collection of stories about a girl growing up during American Revolution time and this "big girl" will enjoy reading it very much :)
I just love my "old" new tea kettle too :) thank you DH!!

My dear blogging friend Kelli sent me a wonderful package filled with all this CHOCOLATE!!
I must of mentioned here, at least once ;) how much I "need" chocolate in my sewing studio :)
THANK YOU so much Kelli for keeping my chocolate stash well supplied!!!

Then I received another wonderful package from my Dutch aunt, Tante Maryke.
The box was filled with Dutch licorice (a definite favorite since childhood!!) a tea mug with tea steeper that fits inside the mug and a matching lid, a box of tea, stroop waffels, (waffle syrup filled cookies) Belgium chocolate, Nasi Goreng mix, pickled onions to go with the Nasi, cute "country" looking tea towels, a delft votive candle holder and little delft trinket box.
THANK YOU so much Tante Maryke!!

Here's a picture of the Nasi Goreng an Indonesian rice dish that the Dutch and I enjoy so much.
I make mine with cubed ham and scrabbled eggs add "Nasi" mix to the rice and then fry the rice, ham and egg mixture...YUMMY!

So as you can see I had a wonderful Birthday, thank you family, friends and I would also like to thank all of you for the Birthday wishes sent via this blog and email...as we say here in PA "yous guys" are the best :)

Today was Fun Day Monday with the Chix and charity quilting time, once again we made Quilts for Kids.

and we had show and tell :)

Hot pads and placemats made by Dolly...well done Dolly!

And I was able to finish another one of the "buttons-ups" from Joined at the Hip that I mentioned in my last post.

Here is the foundation quilt for the "regular" size button-up....

and here is what I buttoned to it for the month of February.....

lots of fun and all ready for Valentine's Day!!

I'm hoping to stitch a new quilt each month to button-up :)

AND yes I did start stitching "Floral Delight" and so did Serena....we will keep you posted on our progress...so again, stay tuned :)

AND last but not least....
the Chix Wanna Know.....

Do you prefer Dark Chocolate, Milk Chocolate or White Chocolate? and where do you "keep" your chocolate "stash"? ;)

Best wishes and stitches everyone!

"Live Simply"

2010-01-18T16:57:00.006-05:00

Live simply.....

This is a wall-hanging I just stitched, a baby button-up design from Joined at the Hip.

(one of the patterns I mentioned in the last post)

Seems lately these words have been "talking" to me quite a bit....take note, Tam, of what is really important in your life and get rid of all the "stuff" that isn't....live simply.

SIMPLIFY!

Spend more time with those you love...take time alone for yourself and actually hear the whisper of God.....take the time to notice all the nature that surrounds you....do what you love and eliminate all that wastes your time......learn to say no to the unimportant things or the things that make your life too complicated, say no more and yes to the fine, simple things in life, such as your friend's first hand-knit pair of socks.....

share her joy when she has finished her first foundation paper-pieced project!

...and most of all rejoice when you can share what you love and your friends "see" the words live simply too! :)

Wednesday is my 48th birthday!
I'M GOING TO BE 48!! 48!!
Where did the first half of my life go, what did I do?!!
Seems like it was complicated and fast paced, not horrible, but wonderful most of the time, but definitely fast paced and with delusions of what living simply meant.....I have also learned some valuable lessons and I am grateful for what I have learned, experienced and seen.

With God's grace I hope to have another 48 years of life....a SIMPLE life filled with love and those I love.....

Live Simply Tammy....
my motto for the next half of my life.

Have you decided to live more simply?
Do you have any tips or thoughts to share with others to help them live simply?
How to organize? How to say no? How to have more time for yourself? for your loved ones?
How to have more knitting or stitching time? How to down-size?

Me and the "Chix wanna know" :)
Please take a minute to share in the comment section after this post.

Best wishes and stitches everyone!

Chix Christmas

2010-01-11T15:34:00.007-05:00

Finally, all the Chix were able to get together today and exchange our Christmas gifts :)
I received a clean "bill of health" from the doctor last Wednesday and seem to be getting myself back into a routine again :)

Audrey painted some really cute wood ornaments, made a gorgeous needle/thread keeper and gave us each a "recycled" food utensil of some sort. Mine was a flattened spoon with pretty beads added to use as a book mark! How clever is that? (click on the pic for a larger view)

Dolly hand-quilted very funny and adorable "quilting ladies" wall-hangings for each of us...too cute!

Debbie made us each pincushions filled with ground walnut shells and a few other goodies tossed in our bags.....like some chocolate :)

Thank you Chix!!
All treasured gifts for years to come!
Well except the chocolate, that will be gone soon ;)

And here are the Chix with the new Chix in the Stix tote bags I made for them (I made myself one too :D)
We JUST had to have something to hold all that fabric in when we go on our road trips!
I think they liked them :)

We did get a little stitching done today too!

We are all working on a wall-hanging from the "Baby Button Up" collection from Joined at the Hip, called "Live Simply".
We liked these "Button Up" patterns so much that we all joined financial forces (threw money in the hat) and ordered all these other patterns to share with one another......

These patterns are so "neat"...you make a foundation quilt with 2 buttons attached and then you attach another quilt to the foundation quilt via the buttons for a different looking quilt each month without having to make an ENTIRE quilt each time..too kewl in my opinion!

The "Live Simply" wall-hanging is in the center of the pile.

You can find all the patterns we are using here, be sure to look around the entire Joined at the Hip site, you will not be disappointed.
We plan on working on these quilts during our Fun-day Mondays...we are going to be very busy in 2010!

I would like to THANK all of you who left a comment here last week and THANK YOU for offering your opinion, tip or an answer concerning last weeks question about rotary cutter blade sharpeners...the response was wonderful and very informative! :)

Here's this weeks "The Chix Wanna Know" question(s)

1) What type (cotton, polyester, etc) and brand of thread is your favorite for hand quilting and/or hand-piecing?

2) What type and brand of thread is your favorite for machine quilting and/or piecing?

3) If you hand applique, what type and brand thread is your favorite to use?

Please leave an answer in the comment section here at the bottom of this post and be sure to check back for every one's answer or comment. Remember your comment may not post immediately due to a spam screening process.

And by the way, don't fret "non-quilters" there will be questions here for you to answer or comment on too, very soon.

Last but not least a kitty picture for you and a picture of the latest man in my life!

How do you tell a very large Maine Coon cat he's too big for THAT basket?

I stitched this latest "man" using a pattern by Cottage Creek from their Backdoor Quilt Series.

Winter Blessings, best wishes and stitches everyone!!

A Wonderful Day and The Chix Wanna Know

2010-01-04T20:33:00.008-05:00

Even though it was nasty cold outside, it was a wonderful day today....

Ashley enjoyed snuggling in the basket, just look at that smile!

Chloe enjoyed a nap in the warmth of a morning sunspot.....

I enjoyed going from this unorganized mess of heavy containers, under my cutting table to......

this neatly folded and organized fabric stash in awesome new drawers :)

Then the Chix in the Stix came by, minus one, Audrey couldn't be here today :(

Dolly had this beautiful hand appliqued quilt to show, all quilted and bound.

Debbie and her daughter Heather gave me this "really kewl" sewing basket they made, as a thank you gift.
...of course I promptly started to fill it with quilting supplies :) Just love baskets!

The Chix and I had a great time "catching up", stitching, then having some lunch together, more stitching and then some nice hot tea and cookies.....then we had a thought ;-)

Every Monday, we would like to post a stitching related question here, via me.
We are hoping that you all won't be shy and leave an answer, your opinion or experience here in the comments section of this blog. You can even be anonymous if you want to be.
We thought this would be a great way to share some tips, thoughts and knowledge with each other :)
So here is the first question for the new year......

The "Chix wanna know".....

Have any of you used a rotary cutter blade sharpener, if so what did you like or didn't like about it?
If you haven't used the sharpener, why not?

Now remember please don't be shy and leave a response in the comment section of this blog (it's right at the end of this post...just click on the word comment and it will take you to the comment form)
Unfortunately, due to spam, I have chosen to have the comments go through an approval process, so don't fret if your comment doesn't "show up" right away, your comment will appear shortly after being checked for spam.
Be sure to come back in a few days and see what everyone else has to say about The Chix question of the week.
Best wishes and stitches everyone!

UPDATE: I would like to THANK all of you who have left comments so far concerning the question of the week. The response has been great and your comments very informative :)
Thank you for taking the time to share and keep those answers coming!

Finishing Up and Starting Something New

2009-12-31T12:01:00.010-05:00

Slowly but truly there is activity in my sewing room again :)

I was able to finish the wreath for my Mom (I started before I got the flu)

Thank you again Heidi for the wooden shoes! :)

I finished a pair of socks for my son, Matt...he loves the socks his Mama knits for him. :)

That little knitting bag in the background was a get well gift from one of the Chix. Just love it!!

I'm able to watch the deer again from the sewing room windows.

I finished another sock, this pair will be for Matt's friend, L.J...who said
"hey! where did you get those cool socks Matt?"
and Matt said,
"my Mom knits them and she'll make you a pair if you want."
L.J...
"Kewl! Will she make me a black and white pair and can I have them by Christmas?"
The phone rings....
"Hi Mom, L.J wants a pair of socks too, black and white and for Christmas....
OK Matt....
great Mom, love you bye!" :)
Good thing I like to knit socks!
Sorry L.J. you won't be getting them for Christmas but how about New Year's?

I have been thinking too about what I would like to do in the New Year....
As I mentioned in a previous post I would like to slow down a bit in the stitching department and do some more "hand" work which includes not only the "Floral Delight" quilt but also some more knitting and spinning.

I found this great book from Interweave Press called the Fearless Knitting Workbook by Jennifer E. Seiffert. This book takes you step by step, chapter by chapter and teaches basic knitting techniques such as knit and purl, shaping, cables, lace and openwork and chart reading. Each technique is learned while knitting a small project.
One of my "goals" for 2010 will be to work through this book and build my knitting confidence!

I wish you all a VERY Happy New Year filled with blessings and stitching!

Priceless

2009-12-23T12:11:00.003-05:00

Sitting upright, out of bed, no more rib/chest pain, less coughing, no fever, no body aches, no chills, just fatigue....PRICELESS!

"I" decided I wasn't going to "get" it.
I wasn't going to get the H1N1 flu, the Swine flu or any other illness.
I educated myself about the flu, I washed my hands, I sanitized my hands, I nagged my husband to do the same...cover your cough Dear, cover your sneeze Dear, try not to shake hands with anyone at work unless absolutely necessary Dear.
I stayed away from the malls, the big stores, shopped online...basically I limited my public exposure... "I" really decided "I" would not get sick.

Silly me! Who do I think is in "charge" anyway?!
I got the Swine flu!... then I got a nice dose of bronchitis along with it.
Go to the doctor for the second time, you need a "breathing treatment" NOW and if you are not breathing better afterward you are going to the hospital type of bronchitis.
I didn't go to the hospital.
I went home with an inhaler, antibiotics and strict orders of bed rest and plenty of fluids.

Then Dear Hubby gets the Swine flu...he took the Tamiflu that made me vomit when I took it. He never had a fever, no bronchitis, just nasty body aches and chills..he finished the Tamiflu and he has been feeling "fine" for about a week now...thank goodness!

OK now what? I have the flu, hubby has the flu, the Swine flu!
Christmas is coming, what about the cookies, the tree, the presents, the cards?

Um excuse me...remember "Me" I'm in charge here...the presents, the cookies, the tree, the cards are not important....Christmas will be here with or without them.

Once again Tam, I will remind you that Christmas is...
the loving care your husband gives you when he doesn't feel well himself...
the love your friends send when you are not well via daily emails and a cute little knitting bag with kitties on it...
amazing get well wishes and prayers via your blog from people you have never met...
silly Facebook friend comments that you wish wouldn't make you laugh because it makes you cough and coughing hurts, but you are so thankful to laugh anyway....
love via long-distance hugs when you have decided to have a pity party...
being grateful you only have bronchitis and not pneumonia and not cancer or some other nasty chronic disease...

Christmas is "My" Birthday, a celebration of love.

"I am and I am love"

"I am not the cookies, not the presents, not the tree, not the cards."

"I know what is best for you, my timing is perfect for you, I will Bless you and keep you and I love you"....

PRICELESS!

May you also receive the priceless gift of love...Merry Christmas!

Best wishes and love,

An Update and Thank You

2009-12-14T19:50:00.004-05:00

Hubby had to take me to an Urgent Care Center last night with a 103 fever.
I have been diagnosed with H1N1 Flu.... AKA Swine Flu.
So much for my philosophy of carrying hand sanitizer with me at all times, avoiding the malls and hiding in our cabin in the woods.
I think this blog intermission is going to be a little longer than expected.

THANK YOU so much for all your kind words and especially your prayers.
They are bringing me comfort more than you will ever know.

Best wishes and stitches everyone,

Be Back Soon

2009-12-13T10:10:00.004-05:00

Please excuse this unplanned blog intermission as I "deal with" fever, chills, body aches, coughing type flu :(
I am retreating to my bed with lots of quilts and kitties and hope to be back to blogland soon.

Best wishes and stitches everyone,

Winter is Here and Christmas is Near

2009-12-09T11:31:00.015-05:00

This morning I woke up to this....

Another "deposit" from a winter storm....4" of snow overnight, then ice and a little rain and now some gray winter skies.

Last week we had a snow storm that left behind about 2" of what I like to call Christmas snow, you know the kind that glistens and sparkles and is oh so pretty :D

Winter is here and Christmas is near which means I cuddle up in the cabin in the woods and get down to some serious stitching.

I have been working on another pair of wool socks, this time for my son, he likes the bright funky colored socks, my kind of kid!

I finally finished a "winter" quilt for the sewing room

I say finally because as I was quilting this quilt the quilting machine foot broke :(
Please bare with me as I vent........
Of course I did the sensible thing and called the local sewing machine dealer, who knows me well, and asked to purchase a new foot....I was told the foot was discontinued...my machine is a Babylock Quilters Choice Professional and only 5 years old! I was told there is a "stronger and better replacement" foot that will work, I said OK as long as you say this will work, after all YOU are the expert.
Dear hubby drives an hour away on a late Sunday afternoon purchases the foot (it looks totally different) but I put it on machine...the foot fits but the machine will not stitch correctly :(
BUT the expert said this is the right foot.
So I spent EIGHT hours trouble shooting my machine..new needle, different size needles, new thread, cleaned and oiled the machine, re-threaded the machine a dozen times....still not stitching right....so I said OK it has to be the foot, can the expert be wrong?
Hubby rigged up the broken original foot, put it back on the machine and guess what?!
Yup! It stitched beautifully!
So Tuesday morning I call the expert and I said the foot is wrong and he says NO way I took it off our QCP model (because he had none in stock) and went through all that trouble just for you! I said well I appreciate that, but the foot is wrong....we had more conversation...and I threw in a couple of terse words, not potty mouth words (although I was tempted) after he mentioned a new quilting frame and machine "On Sale for only $8000.00".
He then said he would call Babylock and see what to do....meanwhile I did some research got some info on the original foot and called the expert back. I said what about this foot it looks just like my original one and he said well I'm glad you called because I just found out I gave you the wrong foot......"someone" must of switched feet on the Babylock QCP on the store model and what I gave you is for a Juki machine!!!

As Forest would say "and that's all I have to say about that"

The expert ordered a new free motion quilting foot for me.....hopefully the right one!

So the mitten quilt is quilted, not wonderfully, but it is quilted and hanging in the sewing room :)

The Chix came by on Monday...poor things! They were here while I was trying to get my machine to quilt properly and shared my frustration.

I taught the gals how to foundation paper-piece in between my quilting issues and must say I think they liked it and they have found another quilting addiction, this is what they stitched....

Well done Chix!

I have also been paper-piecing, but by hand and using the English paper-piecing method to make these little Dresden plate blocks

I am finishing these blocks into pincushions.....

using antique lace from my stash.....

and Finn sheep wool and corn fiber cat litter as the stuffing.

I think the wool and the corn fiber litter will keep the pins nice, clean and sharp.

And for all you cat lovers out there...here's a picture of Ashley using her paw-dunk method to snatch a little leftover milk....

silly kitty!

Best wishes and stitches everyone!!

I Won!...Part 2

2009-12-02T10:02:00.011-05:00

Yesterday I went to The Mountain Quiltworks and did a little shopping with my "winnings".
As promised I took a picture of all the blocks that were entered in the challenge.
These blocks are going to make a beautiful quilt!

And oh yes I saw this too....

A 1947 Singer Featherweight for sale.....NO, I didn't buy it :(
(I think I just heard my hubby sigh in relief)....but thought if any of you are interested in purchasing a Featherweight I would take this picture and post it here for you.

You can get in touch with Amy, the owner of quilt shop here for any details.
I did not sew with the machine but I do know Amy has an excellent reputation concerning her shop and selling sewing machines.

OK as far as shopping is concerned this is what I bought...

A triangular ruler rack....

the cutting area in the sewing room is better organized now and a little more spacious.....ahhh!
much better!! (No laughing Patty!)

And I bought fabric of course :)
Fabric for the Floral Delight Quilt.
The background fabric I bought online at thousandsofbolts.com at a VERY reasonable price.
I spent quite awhile at the quilt shop deciding on what I would like to choose as a color theme for the Floral Delight quilt.
Right away I went to my usual choice of the darker, warmer shades of red, green and blue and I must say I still do love these colors...but then I saw the Civil War Homefront fabric designed by Barbara Brackman and the Old Primrose Inn fabric by Blackbird Designs and thought "I really love these colors!" Browns, mauves, burgundies, mossy green, a warm teal blue and then some lovely rich gold...I'm also thinking of a nice plum color would be nice, but have yet to find the fabric.

I'm nervous about the color choices but I'm excited too and must say I am feeling more comfortable with the colors this morning and after having a few pieces of chocolate last night ;)

For the past several years my quilting life was involved charity quilting and teaching, so quilt production needed to be high....kids needed (need) quilts and quilt shop owners needed samples to fill classes. Classes, shop owners and bright colors for kids dictated my quilt choices.

I would like to start slowing down my quilt making process, more hand work, which I so enjoy, perhaps create something of heirloom quality and definitely step out of my box and try different color choices.
My goal for the next year is to find my true "quilter" self again in between getting some pesky UFO's finished.
I guess what I'm trying to say is I would like to be more creative and less productive, does that make sense?

Of course the Chix came by last Monday for some sewing :)
It was time again for some charity pillow cases!

Nuts decided to nap under the warm lights but couldn't seem to fit his tail in the basket!

Willow, once again, felt the lighting in the sewing room is far too bright for napping!

Those Chix when not sewing here are busy at home sewing away at Christmas gifts...

Dolly's Cathedral Window pillow foundation

...and some pretty placemats yet to be quilted.

I finished knitting a pair of socks for my Dad...hope Dad likes these colors as much as I do.

And speaking of Christmas, my dear quilting friend in Texas, Patty, stitched and sent me an early Christmas gift!

A quilted advent calendar along with the hanger!!
Patty and I love snowman and I just LOVE this wall-hanging!
Thank you again Patty, love and hugs to you Girlfriend :D

Best wishes and stitches everyone!!

I Won!!

2009-11-28T17:35:00.005-05:00

Amy, quilt shop owner of The Mountain Quiltworks just called me and said "you're the winner of the challenge and a $50.00 gift certificate!"

YIPEEE!!!!

I entered a quilt block challenge at my local quilt shop, this was the first time I ever entered a quilting contest.
I have always been intimidated by these things and when Amy asked if I would like to join this year, I finally said "what the heck!"

Here's the challenge fabric

I was allowed to add 3 more fabrics to the challenge fabric, this is the block I made....

I added the background fabric, the green for the leaves and stems and the purple for the flowers.
The red flowers and butterfly were made from "fussy" cut challenge fabric.

Amy had 24 blocks entered in the challenge and now will sew the blocks into a quilt, the quilt will then be auctioned and the proceeds given to charity.

Thank you so much Amy and kudos to you for your charitable quilt work!

Best wishes and stitches everyone!

See Serena and I Sew

2009-11-23T17:36:00.016-05:00

Serena from See Serena Sew...with Spirit and I are going to start stitching a quilt in 2010...

...this quilt!

A quilt designed by Lori Smith from "From My Heart to Your Hands". The pattern is called Floral Delight: A Celebration of Applique. (Click on the picture for a closer look)

I purchased this pattern a few years ago and just haven't taken the time to make it....I still love this quilt even after all these years and am excited to be finally stitching it and better yet with friends!
We will be starting this quilt on Jan. 20, 2010, (my birthday) and plan to hand stitch an applique block and a star block per month, until the quilt is completed.

Debbie, one of the Chix in Stix is going to join Serena and I in making this quilt and I would like to invite anyone else out there in blogland to join us.
It will be fun to share pictures of our blocks, share our stitching techniques (either hand or machine), our fabric choices and keep each other motivated through this quilt making process....maybe we can even swap some fabric :)

Please email me or leave a comment here or over on Serena's blog if you plan to make this quilt also. You don't need to have a blog to join in.

On Saturday, hubby and I went to a family birthday party but before arriving at the party we stopped at Where Victoria's Angels Stitch in Clifton, NJ.
WVAS is a cross-stitch shop and I shopped!
This shop is fantastic and has everything a stitcher could possibly want or need.
This is what I bought.....

This is my absolute favorite chart! A sheep in disguise!

I am so excited I found this frame at the shop....this is a "fanny frame"!
(available from the shop or Hardwicke Manor Hoops)

I usually like to "hold" my linen fabric or baste it to a scroll frame while stitching, but lately I am having pain in my hands, and am finding it difficult to stitch for any length of time.
This frame is placed on your seat and then under your leg or (ahem!) "seat" then the height of the frame is adjusted and you stitch away, without the need to hold fabric or a frame.
Awesome!
The hoop band on this frame is wide and hardly leaves a mark on the fabric...although the stitchery should still not be left in the frame while not stitching.

If you click on the picture you can also see the nifty, pretty little magnetic needle holder I like to use for stitching or hand quilting....I always know where my needle is with this little gadget :)

This is the latest progress I have made on the Grand ABC Sampler...one and a half sections to go!

Today was another Chix in the Stix fun day Monday :)
Dolly finally came to her senses and came home from Europe last night....at last she has her priorities back in order ;)
Seriously though, she had a great trip and we are very happy to have her back home!

Here's the Chix show and tell....

Debbie's version of "Pumpkins for Sale" (not yet quilted)

A table runner that Audrey made

A quilt that Debbie pieced and I quilted today, for her Grandson.

And this is Dolly who snatched and wrapped herself in the quilt as soon as it came off the frame....Dolly was suffering from just a "tad" bit of jet lag and just wanted to sleep!

This is another wall-hanging I just finished from Cottage Creek Quilts.

I hope you enjoyed the "Show and Tell" :)

I would like to wish everyone the Happiest of Thanksgivings.
I am so thankful for all of you who read my blog.
I am also so thankful for my family and friends.
God Bless you all!

And "The Boys" are thankful we don't like to eat wild turkey!

Best wishes and stitches everyone!