Embroidery and more

I have finished the embroidery of my Over the River, the Crabapple Hill design.
2 and 1/2 years in the making of the tiny outline stitch with Presencia pearl cotton 12.
Love the brown color.



So happy and feeling accomplished!  But as I have other piecing projects in the line up, this one will be put on hold for a while to get all the blocks and borders together.

Here are my progress squares for piecing.   Only 2 blocks to finish and then the sashing which is also pieced. This is a Thimble blossoms pattern made with Bonnie Sullivan woolies in flannel. My couch has lots of brown.

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In between I needed some new needlework beside the TV to work on.
So I got out Henrietta the squirrel, her friends the crows all in pumpkin land.
It was dark while sewing, so I need to select my floss ahead of time to match it to the various shades and colors.



Sorry for the twisted picture.  I have 4 blocks done of the wool applique with 3 ready to hand sew and 2 to prepare. This is an Ann Sutton design that was a free BOM back in 2012. I started with needle turn; not my preferred method and switched to the wool.  Some of it is felted, but I noticed some of my browns are not. Another UFO to work on. But it feels so good to be making progress.

And lastly, I got out a knitting project.  I think it is 2 years old. I know I put it on hold, as I couldn't find the 2nd batch of yarn. And I did a mad scramble again searching all my yarn bins only to find that I had already included it.  I even found my pattern online. What luck!


Now the photos of the knitting are deceiving as there is an edge of stitches which makes it crumpled.
But you can at least see the pattern and the colors. They are a medium gray and a great self striping yarn.


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Hooray for getting things done!

Over the river...

I am so excited.  After 2 and a half years, I am finishing all the embroidery for my Crabapple Hill design.

It all started when my husband saw this quilt made up in fall colors at a favorite quilt shop. He showed me the quilt.  He rarely has any suggestions of things he likes in a store.  So I purchased the pattern. ( I have liked the  design as well.)

It took me a week just to trace the 3 panels and baste the backing fabric onto each one.  And that was in July of 2016.

I started with the panel with the trees, followed by the one with the most embroidery and the beautiful bridge and sleigh, leaving the words for the tail end. I have carried it on several car trips, especially to my Mom's in Canada.  So lots of miles, lots of memories and lots of time have traversed these 3 panels.

And here we are on the final countdown:







Hooray!  I know I can finish it today.

Over the river...

I have not posted my progress on this in some time. My Crabapple Hill project is into its 3rd year of work and sits next to the couch.

This is the second of three panels. The last one being only the word panel. 

Almost done! And appropriately, during the holidays. Over the River and through the woods to Grandmother's house we go!
I have the entire center and right side completed. 

Close up!

And I was so blessed to have family together for a Thanksgiving meal: only my daughter in law was working at the hospital.

And thanks to my daughter for a great camera and apple pie. 

Happy  holidays!

Over the river

This is my second panel for the Over the River pattern by Crabapple Hill.

Here is a link to see a finished quilt: Over the River and Through the Woods by Ruth McCormick who chose black prints similar to the pattern sample. 

Little by little, stitch by tiny stitch, I am slowly getting to the end.

It was started 2 years ago in July and took a full week just to trace it and baste the 2 layers together.

I pick it up here and there as I watch t v and don't have other bindings or projects to work on. It is also good for road trips.

My spouse and I saw this several years ago totally made into the quilt with beautiful fall colors.  He is the one who liked it so much.  And he has rarely made his preferences known in all the quilt stores I have gone into with him. He even suggested I abandon it when I showed him how long it was taking. What a guy!

The first panel is already finished; it was much more densely embroidered.  The last panel of the three is the words: "Over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house we go". It should go quickly in comparison.

Here is the right side which is completed. ( part of the stone bridge is not shown. )
I am using a sepia brown Presencia size 16 pearl cotton.

And here is the left side which I need to keep plugging away .

And this is the part that I have finished in the past week. 

On a personal note, my little brother called me Friday from the hospital. He had a heart attack while in the cath lab. He works in IT at a hospital and wasn't feeling right and had gone down to the emergency ward. So they checked him in after some monitoring. We are lucky, very lucky. Had he not been in the hospital, he would have died...just like my father and grandfather. It is congenital and his blockage to the  artery had been building since the 90s. I am numb. 

Foxy finish

It is DONE! The quilting shows up much better here than in the last post.

I trimmed up the batting , added the binding and hand sewed it.

 I like the stripe that complimented the back which is a colorful woods scene with lovely greens, teals and foxes.

Hooray. This will be sent off in the mail Thursday after I show it off at guild. It is for my niece who was two weeks old when I got married many moons ago.

I was also able to get a lot of embroidery done. About halfway...

Henrietta goes Over the River

My house is out of sorts as I am getting a new sliding glass door for my patio. It was 40 years old; the screen door was immovable and the seals had broken on the glass panes of the door giving it a dull look no amount of glass cleaner could help.

So that room is where my sewing machine and cutting table reside   and now the living room is a make due substitute as I needed to give the crew space. 

The doors were to be done yesterday, but now it will take a few more days. Can't wait to use them!

So I have been doing embroidery on my Over the River panel from Crabapple Hill.  I am seeing progress slowly.    Most of this section was done over the weekend watching a couple movies.

And I have prepared two more blocks for Henrietta Whiskers ( out of 5 left to do)   These are a 9 block applique by Bunny Hill.  Each of the 9 blocks has applique with pumpkins, or  crows, and Henrietta Whiskers with a little patchwork on the sides. I initially started with needle turn and abandoned them. I like the wool much better. Now I can blanket stitch these. 

Found my mojo!

It is summer! The break in the weather has been FANTASTIC.  Opening windows and doors is a delight. Such a contrast to almost 100 degrees. 

And I finally am back to being productive.  And boy, does it feel good. 

Last night I got out my Crabapple Hill embroidery; it has been untouched for a long time. 

This is Over the River and Through the Woods.  I have one panel totally  completed. This is the most busy. This is all I have on the right side.

Here is a bigger picture of what has been completed.

And here is what needs to be embroidered on the other side:

Baby steps, baby steps!  

But this week has been a whirlwind of cleaning.  After school is out each year, I like to do the deep cleaning that never gets done during the school year and clean up the accumulation of stuff as well. 

And I finally started. ( only a month after school is out). 

And I am on a roll, with a few more floors, cupboards and such to do. We will see how long it lasts.

I even finally cleaned out my garden beds from the winter's dead.   It has been TOOO hot to get to it. 

And then since I am done with a couple projects, I needed to get things going.  So I made 40ish of the Blockheads from the first go round. 

Last Sunday

Tomorrow I go back to school for meetings.  There are fun things planned for staff to reacquaint themselves with each other.  And I feel that there are several new directives in place for kids to be more productive.  ( No phones; they all have computers.) 

So I am trying to get several things accomplished.  I did get some cleaning jobs accomplished.  Yeah for the windows.  

But here are the latest:

First up: my embroidery; I have not touched in in over a month.  It felt good to work again.  I need to plug, plug away at it.

Second, here is the latest Blockheads  # 25. 

And lastly something fun. I have organized my Halloween colors and searched patterns to make a row quilt.  And I had fun making this cute little witch. She and her friend, Froggy, need buttons for eyes.

Back from vacation

My how time flies when you are away! I spent a week in Canada with my Mom and her spouse. It was great to be away. And the best part was spending time with her.  The weather was rainy and  cloudy most of the week. But I got to eat great meals both at home and out at restaurants.

Here are some pictures:
Of the Lock at Young's Point




Of Fred, the blue heron whom my husband saw almost every day


Of the gorgeous Northern Pines by the lakes:


I could spend a copious amount of time just gazing at these:





 And I spent hours embroidering my Crabapple Hill panel. I was able to finish a lot; but there is so much more to do.

Slow stitching the trees

A trip to visit my Mom again in Canada. That gives me hours in the car to stitch while my husband drives and relaxing evenings with family to spend on stitchery. And lots of time spent carefully with needle and thread slowly expands the areas completed.

This is the 2nd panel of 3 of Crabapple Hill's "Over the river and through the woods".

Odds and ends

It's a new month!         Happy Canada Day late for those up north, a little late. 

Happy 4th of July for the Yanks!

I made my Stash Bee blocks:  They are string blocks using muslin foundation.  The hard part was selecting the strings. I sorted my scrap bags. I really don't have a lot of strings and was unsure what colorways to choose. But they are done.

Then I started my Rainbow Scrap Challenge Blue blocks.  I know; one of them looks more gray than blue. But it is a good start. 

But mostly I am glad to post this start on the 2nd panel of " Over the River and Through the Woods by Crabapple Hill .  Yeah! The first one is done. But this one has a whole lot more lines to follow. 

It has been a year since I cut the panels and traced them, followed by hand basting them together.

Oh, and here are my dear daughter and husband from our day Sunday. We did trivia at a bar which was fun, and then walked the lakefront of Milwaukee.

I love the water and the reflections of light. It was kind of a cloud-ish day. 

And I loved this flower that looks like little white spiders in clumps. So delicate and beautiful!

Finish gold RSC and panel 1

I finished the last of my gold/yellow for RSC for June. Here is a picture of the last 4 although I have made 7 others, totaling 11 golds.

For the year so far: 8 purple, 8 teal, 12, red, 13 rainbow, multicolor, 12, green and 11 total.  

SUM  64 blocs,  Plus  2 half square 3 inch blocks for each color.

My goal is to finish the last fence row on this panel today!: 

The decision will be to do the panel with only the wording, or the one with the most to do?  Hmmmm.

Slow stitching in Canada

School's out for summer! Today is my first official day off. Hooray!

My first trip is/was to visit my mom who lives in Canada. After driving through Chicago and around the bottom of Lake Michigan II met my sister in Detroit and  we finished the trip up through the peninsula of Ontario together up to Bobcaygeon.  It has been hot as is much of the Midwest. But it is the first heat for them in Canada ( in the 30s Celsius)..

We visited my favorite lake: Stony Lake near Lakefield, Ontario. My family had a cottage there and we would go up for the summers. So beautiful, so peaceful...

Just love the view of the islands and trees; there is nothing like it. Here is my sister and mom where we ate.

        I miss these tall Northern pines. They peek out above the rest of the trees.

So in between going here and there, I have been doing lots of embroidery all weekend.  I almost have this panel finished.  Making HUGE progress.... almost finished with this first of 3 panels. Crabapple Hill design.

Here is a greatshop in Bowmanville, Ontario.  Very cute clothes, gifts, jewelry.  Loved it! 

AND in the back was a quilt store... what a surprise!

 My sister found the store online.  She didn't know about the quilt store. But I was thrilled. And I found some wonderful fabrics and a pattern for the  150th celebration for Canada rock Inuits.  They have 3 locations: Campbellford, Peterborough, and Bowmanville.