forget-me-nots and gardening time

My gardening time lately has been limited
to some stitching time on my Gardener's Alphabet block -

Forget-Me-not:

It was a whole lotta'  cast-on-stitch flowers
and even more french knots:

But I love how it turned out!!!
It's not pressed or trimmed down,
and I don't even have the basting threads out,
but I'm counting it DONE!
I have the last two blocks already colored and heat set, 
just need some stitching time. lol
My last two blocks are the
Dicentra, aka Bleeding Heart:

 and the English Daisy:

How about you?  Are you getting some stitching time in?

slow stitching, three years slowly

It's all about perspective.

If you've read my blog over the past half year or more, 
I've been holding down my lazy-girl chair a lot,
slowly recuperating.
I've also been doing some red-work embroidery stitching
on The Gardener's Alphabet quilt blocks.

The Gardener's Alphabet is a Crabapple Hill pattern that I just love. 
(: I love so many of Meg's Crabapple Hill patterns that I'll never finish all of them that I'd like to do, but I may start them!... more on that later :)

I've had the last half of the alphabet traced and crayon-tinted for a long time
(Yes, I started at the end of the alphabet, not the beginning).
I can't believe it, but three years I've had this one going!!
I even went back and checked the time-period, 'cause I couldn't believe it's been that long!
Now I have the letters M/n and P blocks stitched!
I'm so excited!
The letter O- Ox eyed daisy is in my embroidery hoop now,
and the next letter I have readied is Q- Queen Anne's lace, 
so a lot of french knots coming, I know.
But that means that it's been three years and I 
have the quilt half stitched!
That also means that I only have 3 more years working on this one!! :)

I don't have any blocks pressed yet as they are just going back into a work basket and will re-wrinkle during the next three years while I continue stitching the remaining blocks.  The close-up photos look better than the far shots (which show the wrinkling more than the stitching).

And finally, here's the 'more on that later':
It's not a UnFinished Object!
It's a six year plan of attack!
So, plenty of time to start more of the CAH quilts that I love!!!  lol

I've heard confirmation from other quilters, 
who've said that a six-year, 
hand-stitching embroidery project is a good plan,
not unheard of at all.

See? Perspective!

What are your slow stitching, six-year quilt plans? :)

Sunny days

Folks have noticed that I've not been as productive in
quilting and blogging over the last few months.
And, I missed my semi-annual quilt retreat this week.
Which is unheard of, right? :)
A quilter missing her retreat only happens if something is not right.

Well, I've not been 'right' for a while now...
I seem to be on the mend, but it's been a long time coming.
The short story is this:
Evidently, my body doesn't like antibiotics anymore,
Antibiotics I've taken over the last year for a root canal infection and a couple of sinus infections killed the bad bacteria in my body, which is good.
Antibiotics also can, and did, disrupt the beneficial bacteria in my gut, which is bad.
Good news?  No cancer or other bad things discovered.
More good news, 
there are medications today that will help me heal.

I just have to find the RIGHT medication...

• Med#1 worked great but was not covered by my insurance and would have been $900 a month.  But I only purchased 5 days worth to get me through the long holiday weekend and until I could get something covered by my insurance

• Med #2 was insurance covered, but, whoa, bad side effects

• #3 med was a sample, so I didn't have to purchase, but it was not being digested

• #4 med caused massive headache and knocked me out

Hopefully 5th time's a charm on the medication front...
(Sorry if that's too much info... but I'm a tell-it-like-it-is-and-have-it-out-there kind of person.)

SO... my thanks to everyone who's checked in on me -
I so appreciate your continued prayers and good wishes.
I have so many good people in my life, and so appreciate all of your concern.
And, sunny days, 
I'm already planning on attending 
the next retreat in just over 200 days!
Lord willing and the creek doesn't rise. 
And I find a med that my body doesn't veto. :) 

Here's my next hand-embroidery block ready to stitch:

Those sharply creased fold lines indicate that 
I've had it traced, hand-tinted with crayons and all prepped 
then stored for a while - like a few years, 
so it's definitely time to do some healing stitching!!!
The pattern is from Crabapple Hill, A Gardner's alphabet with Cosmo/Lecien threads off to the side.  
I LOVE stitching with Valdani threads!!!  If you've not stitched with them, they are worth the little extra cost in their color variations alone!

Thank you again, for checking in on me!
Happy Stitching
and sunny days, good friends!

Nice threads!

So, as I shared last week, I have started the "next up for me"
Crabapple Hills' "Gardener's Alphabet" quilt...
and as I didn't have all the flosses I needed for the project,
I found a nice shop online to order some of them.
I had not ordered from this shop before, but they had a whole lot of nice stuff!

I was so excited when the package arrived!
I spent just over $30. for the flosses.
Add  $5.45 for shipping.
That makes a grand total of $38.00.

I opened the package with such anticipation!
And this is what I found:

I was so disappointed...
There seems to have been  no care given in packaging or presentation.

Almost forty of my hard earned dollars.
and it looks like a wadded up mess.

(It was packed in plastic, with a business card thrown in.
And the whole thing was mailed in a bubble-wrap lined envelope.)
But, am I being too wanting or needy?
Are my expectations set too high?
WHAT happened to making the customer feel special?

It wouldn't have taken much to make this order "special" . 
Just by taking the time to lay the floss skeins beside each other.
Maybe a little piece of tissue or a little piece of curling ribbon...
And I know the cost of shipping has gone up, but this weighed only TWO OUNCES!
and, $5.45 for shipping seems just a tad high.

So, I'm just a little disenchanted.
I think I'll send off an email and let the online shop know my disappointment.
And that I had to immediately take them all out and straighten them:)

Am I the only one "OUT HERE" that would like a little nice-ness when I spend my money?

I can't wait to start stitching with them,
so I still say, nice threads!

forever and a week!

Seems like forever and a week
since I was down and out 
with the nastiest flu ever.  
It DID NOT want to leave!  
Also, seems like forever and a week since I've blogged...
I guess it was! :( so sorry, and thanks for all of you sweet folks 
who've checked in on me to make sure I was O.K.


NOW, my computer seems to have caught the viral bug -- 
UGH!  Hope it doesn't stay around as long as my virus did! :)
I've talked with my computer guru, though,  
and he's going to take it away today, so
I may be down and out for a few days or so...
Thank you computer guru!!
 Now, on the the important stuff - stitching!
I really haven't done much at all in the way of quilting...
(which means that I have not mailed out my Birthday Gifts yet, SO Sorry, Gals!!!
And, now with the computer problems, the mailing addresses are saved in a file on that infected computer -
soooo, really, I'll get them to you as soon as I can- promise!)
I did do a little hand stitching on my

Crabapple Hill-"How Does Your Garden Grow".

By the way, I do LOVE stitching with those Cosmo Threads...

The color variations are just wonderful!
Oh, I also I pulled together my fabrics so I can start the piecing.

Slowly getting back in the quilting motions...
And Oh, so glad.
Now, to get my computer back!!!

more hand-work "stitchery"

 I thought I'd share some of my hand-embroidery-stitching...

that I call stitchery.

And, you should be able to click on the pics below,

click again and get an enlarged pic

to scroll through to see the coloring up close if you care to.

I have been working on Calendula Patterdrip's Cottage,

a pattern by Crabapple Hill...Block one is traced, crayoned with white & shaded with browns,

then stitching started...

Block one with hand-embroidery stitching done:

(this piece is ~40 inches wide, so it's a big one!)

 Blocks two, three and four (below)

pieced & stitched together,

then traced,

crayoned with white

and shaded (mostly with browns, some green, blue and mauve)...

 Here are blocks 2/3/4 and I have about three-fourths of them stitched...
(I don't know why this pic below is so faded out,
but the one above does the coloring more justice)

(I L-O-V-E coloring with crayons,

and am really enjoying this project.

Coloring is so...relaxing elemental soothing to me.

Takes me back to Sunday afternoons when I was little,

awaiting Sunday-after-church dinner

that the matriarchs in the family were whipping up

while us youngins colored great masterpieces).

Anyway, I will tell you that the blocks 2/3/4 segment above...

I colored and tinted for 6 hours!

Yes, six hours! 

And, it took almost two whole white crayons

for the base coating before the tinting.

That's a whole lot of coloring fun!!!

This one is easy to stitch, as it is only one floss -

Cosmo (Seasons 8041)

20 skeins of floss is called for in the pattern!!!

It's a variegated brown that is just lovely.

And, it seems to be going quite quickly.

I don't know if it will be done for this Autumn,

but as quickly as it's going, it's a maybe!

Happy Stitching!!!

And, Happy End of August (already)!

How I keep busy

or pretend to...

I had a "chunk" of Primitive Muslin fabric
(by Primitive Gatherings/Moda)
that was calling out to me...
I love the mottled-ness of the shading
(I'm pretty sure the color is Tallow).

I think it was calling out to be something with some
hand-embroidery stitching on it...

I traced and then crayon-shaded this cute pattern

called Which Witches Boot by Crabapple Hill.

Then I stitched it:

Well, most of it is stitched...

Still need to stitch the ribbon candy,

the pumpkin's collar and the variegated black in the boot.

I stitched it with the designer's color choices
and used the Cosmo threads called for.

The colors are definitely brighter than I would have chosen, but I liked stitching with the Cosmo threads.  They stitch very smoothly and don't tangle easily.

And it sure is cute!

Back to keeping busy!

A Fat Pig

I just had a call from my brother and he has an extra pig to send to market, so I told him yes, I'm in if no one else wants it.  It will go in to be butchered sometime late in the month, so I need to do some reducing in the freezer department...I need to do that anyway, pig or no pig. 
But, that made me think of the Mother Goose Nursery Rhyme:
"To Market, To Market, to buy a Fat Pig".
Now, the Fat Pig is taken care of, and I'm singing and dancing around, 'cause, wait for it....
I get to go "To Market, To Market!!!" 
No, not the butcher shop, but Texas!!!
Yep, I'm off to Houston for a few days.  For the Quilt Market!  To Market - can't believe how excited I am.  I was going to try to work in this post about "leavin', on a jet plane", but that was too slow.  I like the "To Market, To Market!!!  It goes better with my singing and dancing around!


Hopefully I'll have some pics and new stuff to show when I get back.  *still singing and dancing around*
I really want to see in person that new line by French General - Rouenneries.   I keep seeing sneak peeks of it in different designs by different designers.  Check out Lynette Andersons' blog, she even had some to work with in Austrailia and has a new pattern to go with-beautiful!  And Lecien Company has a new Cosmo thread that is two strand and would be great for redwork, I think.  And I have seen quite a few new patterns by different folks that look very promising. 


Hopefully, I won't see a fat pig at market as it really is the wrong type of "market" for THAT and, already have one of those coming!

OH.... almost forgot, catering another home Ohio State tailgate party before I leave:

 I guess I just have the extra time, ha ha! 
See that stamp on that Wear-Ever pan in the left pic?

Yes, that says 20 quarts......

Now, see the pic on the right? Yes, that is about 18 quarts full.  (You know chili is best if it's cooked a couple of days ahead, right?)  Also a whole buncha/bagga cooked elbow pasta (some Ohio folks like to throw a little more starch in their bowl of chili for some reason).  Then in front of the chili and pasta, is the corn bread.  One pan of regular corn bread, one pan of jalapeno corn bread.  I also grated about 4 pounds of sharp cheddar cheese and minced 3 large sweet onions.  Both the cheese and onions get liberally sprinkled on top of your bowl of chili if you know what you're doing!  Then a couple of shakes of hot sauce on top of that, and Yum, Yum, tailgate food ready!

Later, I mean, see you when I'm:

Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig! *still dancing*
Life is Good!