Crazy Quilts from the Denver Art Museum
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I didn’t take pictures of the garden – and it’s too late now because it’s pouring rain, but that occupied a lot of my weekend – mowing  the lawn, pulling weeds, planting things and now rain. Gotta love that timing eh?
However, this afternoon I was able to finish the 2nd set of curtains – these are sort of across the room from the others in the laundry area – kind of brightens up an otherwise boring hallway.
 Then I got back to work on my crazy quilt block – doing first the wheatear stitch (love this one – and I have NEVER tried it before!) – got so carried away that I’m putting it on a really long seam (with maybe some variations to what I add in the future – but I didn’t quite finish the whole seam before I needed to get these pictures up for the night! I love the way you can turn and mold this stitch and I intend to use it a lot in the future.
This week’s TAST stitch is the crossed buttonhole. I don’t know about anyone else, but I always seem to have to look up how to do the button hole every time I do it – once I start a row I’m fine, but it’s a drama getting going. Both of these I started by the cast on stitch flower and worked out – so I had to do part of it backwards. It was really fun tho – and I think maybe it needs some flowers on the ends or something? Again, I’ll have to go back and add more as I go along – don’t you think?
 The kids had 3 out of 5 days OFF of school last week, so it totally messed up my schedule. I’m looking forward to a full week this week, but I have tons of actual work to do to get caught up. Sigh. It never ends, eh? However, it really was a lovely weekend – we even took in a lacrosse game (never had seen one in my life) and had some friends over for a Bar-B-Q – so it was busy, fun and got some stitching in (I did the stitching while watching the first “Lord of the rings” movie – yikes we’re SO behind on movies!).
Anyway, I now feel like I’m back up with the group on TAST – so can’t wait to see what the next stitch is!
This was such a quick project it didn’t even make it onto my sidebar, but I’m excited to send it off today. The recipient gave me the towels and mentioned lime was her favorite color – so I thought this would be an appropriate thank you! 
 I’m back to my crazy quilting and regular TAST stitches this week!
If you’ve read my blog at all you know I’m a bit of a sewing machine -phobe! I really don’t LOVE machine sewing, but I have to do it sometimes to get through projects!
This weekend I actually had some fun! I ordered this fabric before Christmas (see how behind I am!) to put curtains on our kitchen window and finally got them up! Nothing fancy, but I think they look cute!
 And then this came as a kit from a local church for a charity project – really really simple quilting project. I did all the piecing, so now am going to machine quilt it and self bind with the backing fabric. Hopefully it will turn out really cute! (I’ll probably do the binding by hand – once a hand sewer, always a hand sewer! ha ha!)
 Then this little project I had shown the beginning stages of, but I think it’s turning out really cute. I’m going to use it as my TAST submission – even though it’s not the crazy quilt block. I’m so excited to do the wheat ear, but that’s going to have to be on my “catch up list” for this week! I used the satin stitch on the big daisies – the stem stitch on the stems (clever eh?) and then many french knots in the centers of the little daisies!
 This is going off as a present to someone – so I can’t wait to have it finished in the next day or two!
Wow, this has NOT been a good stitching month so far – however, I’m signed up to take a class next Saturday and I have several new projects/ideas in the wings.
This first one is a simple daisy embellished dishtowel – even though it’s just started, I thought I’d show of the beginning of my satin stitch – I usually use a split stitch to outline first.
This is the next task, I’m going to add this butterfly to my crazy quilt butterfly block – but more pictures on that later! I got the pattern from “French Knots” – where there’s a ton of awesome embroidery transfers!
 That’s about all – saw some fabulous clouds on the way home from an afternoon get together – coming in north of Denver around 6:30pm. Apparently these are mammatus clouds – I’m afraid heading out to Eastern Colorado and Kansas – they didn’t cause any big warnings around here – I was just checking the news. I hope all my friends and stitching friends are safe in the midwest tonight!
 I have taken a bit of a break from stitching to attend my 25th College reunion (honestly I had NO idea I’d gotten that old!!) – which was a blast, but I came home exhausted, so I’ve been relaxing and catching up on my reading.
So, if you do crazy quilting (or any needlework really) you probably teeter on the edge of being a hoarder, like myself! My kids and I just did a big purge at the beginning of spring break and now need to have a garage sale (I haven’t even started going through our “backstock” (you know those areas that have junk you haven’t looked at in several years?).
Anyway, while I was doing this, I started reading Sharon Fiffer’s series about “Jane Wheel” starting with the book “Killer stuff”. Jane is basically a hoarder (who is trying to be a picker if she can get rid of things) , going through a mid-life crisis and discovering that she’s pretty good at being a detective.
The characters around her are fun and many of the stories (I just finished the 3rd in the series) focuses around her parents 50′s something bar (which of course I’d love!).
Her family life, the mysteries and the people who surround her make these a really fun read!
Other than that, I really need to get back to stitching – anyone else gotten stuck? How do you get back into projects after a lull?
I found the embroidered piece at an estate sale – finished, but on a pillow “kit” (it just folded over and you could stitch it to the back) and so I rescued it. I got home and realized I had the fabric and pom-pom edging and couldn’t resist. I’ve been wanting to try doing envelope back pillows for forever, so I followed a tutorial. A few glitches with this, but not bad!
 The room is our guest room and doesn’t really look like much of the rest of the house (except the quilts – we have those on all the beds) – this wall is assorted baby quilts and projects I’ve done. I figure it’s a great place to display them!
The headline is sort of a tease – here’s last week’s TAST stitch couching:
I really struggled with this, because most of the couching I’ve done was with heavy fibers or eyelash yarns – something kind of bulky and I really couldn’t picture that treatment on this block. However, I found this metallic twist thread and couched it down with a metallic thread and I think it looks great. That beaded swirl was already there and had frankly looked kind of alone and weird and now I really like it.
The reason the headline is a tease is that I didn’t do the running stitch. I just had a hard time figuring out where I would use it. I’d love to use it as a trail to a bee, but alas, I have no bee yet! So, maybe I’ll add it in in the future.
In the meantime we switched from cable TV to Direct TV (or satellite) and although that sounds like it has NOTHING to do with crafty sewing, it does! because I had a little TV put into my studio area. I’ve spent the last two days organizing projects and cleaning up. Today I’m working on a lovely embroidered pillow top I found at an estate sale and I’m making it into a very fun pillow…pictures to follow!
I finally figured out how to “live blog” from my phone and stitch night seemed great! I’m working on my sheep:
The other gals are working away on their projects:
The best part is the chatting!!
 I don’t know about you, but that sort of plug (“If you like “Downton Abbey” you’ll love…) for a book often leads to disappointment, but at a book club last night I found myself raving so much about this book that I realize in this case it lives up to expectations.
“The House at Tyneford” is amazing and if you’ve watched “Downton Abbey” it only helps you visualize the countryside and people. Set in the spring of 1938, Elise Landau must end her glamorous life in Vienna because it’s no longer safe for Jews. Her parents arrange for her to become a parlor maid in England.
Tyneford, a fabulous manor on the bay, based on the ghost village of Tyneham on the Dorset coast, where servants tend to the guests and the households every need. However, like in “Downton Abbey”, this is a time of change and with the coming of the war and changes in class attitudes, the world is transforming. When Kit, the son and heir to the estate comes home, he strikes up a friendship with Elise that will change everything.
A fabulous story – tragic, but easy to read. The characters really come alive and are likable.
This is my TAST (take a stitch Tuesday) stitch for this week, the motif is from Carol Samples book, “Treasury of Crazy Quilt Stitches” and I’m really pleased with it.
I used basic cotton thread – variegated for the chains in the circles.
I’m open for suggestions on how to embellish that dyed lace butterfly (you can see quite a bit of it here). It seems to me like it needs beads or ribbon or something. Thoughts?
I’ve also been stitching on my sheep (stitching them down to the block) and reading. I’m hoping to have some book reviews posted this week, but it’s been a slow week productivity-wise!
Unfortunately everything was slowed down by a nasty nasty (did I mention nasty) bout of the flu this week that had me literally in bed for 24 hours. I’m SO glad I’m finally shaking it. After 3 days I have a cough and a bit of congestion but at least my head isn’t fuzzy anymore. Does anyone else hate that feeling?
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They’re talking: