Tree Bird Blog Hop Day 1

It is Friday the 13th!

The Tree Bird Blog Hop begins today.

I hope you join me by hopping over to visit today's blogs!

DAY ONE

It Seams To Be Sew (Lana - our amazing cheerleader!)

Life in the Scrapatch

Amy Stitches

Lakeshore Stitches

Needled Mom

Quilt in Not - Shell

Suebee's World

WIP Wednesday 03/11/2015

HAED Freebie Santa and the Mouse Ornament Progress:

What a quick and busy week! Wednesday crept up on me.

I did manage over 150 cross stitches on the Heaven and Earth Designs (HAED) Santa and the Mouse Ornament. (This free design is no longer offered, but it is a portion of this larger HAED Santa and the Mouse chart.)

This week's progress was not in one cluster, so it is not easy to see where I made progress. Stitches were added to Santa's face, hat and to the night sky viewed through the window.  Above is a close-up of how this section looks now. Below is a picture of this section last week.

There was not a lot of time to work on my crafty goals this week. However, I did finally paint our guest bathroom. We had a wonderful time hosting our in-laws and family friends for dinner and an evening of Pinochle on Saturday, and we celebrated my husband's grandfather's 97th birthday on Sunday.

Notes of Interest:

1. There is a new Spring Crazy Quilt Challenge Kit available at crazyquiltingsupplies.com. The kit is $35.00 and the prizes look amazing! (I am not affiliated with the shop.) For more details, click the link to the kit.

2. Thanks to MA at Magpie's Mumblings, I learned about Through Our Hands, a magazine loaded with textile artwork. I enjoyed looking through it! (And, if you love eye candy, you may also want to check out this work of beauty MA recently completed.)

3. The Tree Bird Blog Hop at sewwequilt.com will begin on Friday the 13th! (My day to share will be Wednesday, March 18th. Next week, my WIP Wednesday post will actually be shared on Thursday.) Our cheerleader, Lana, has posted the complete schedule on her blog, It Seams to be Sew.

4. May 1st is the deadline to submit crazy quilt photos and/or tutorials for the Autumn 2015 edition of the Crazy Quilt Quarterly magazine. You may find more details here at Pamela Kellogg's blog, Kitty and Me Designs. 

5. If you love Pinterest, this may appeal to you. Diane at A Focused Journey has started a monthly Stop Pinning and Make Something Link Party. The rules are here and the post to link to in March is here.

6. The Have a Latte Blog Hop at sewwequilt.com is about a month away. A recent post by our cheerleader, Joan at Moosestash Quilting, indicates there are still a few slots open. Details may be found here if you want to join the fun with these fun Clothworks fabrics designed by Dan DiPaolo.

MY GOALS:

Last Week's Goals:

1. Complete at least 150 x-stitches on the HAED Santa and the Mouse chart. Done. See pictures above.

2. Work on Nicki Lee's UTS DYB RR Block. The basic seam work is done. Here is a sneak peek. 

3. Work on an item for my Etsy shop. Sigh... No progress. I do have a hard time with the idea of selling my work. Today, a lady at the store asked me if I made my purse and then eagerly asked if I make and sell them. It was sweet, but I was horribly embarrassed and shy. I believe it is safe to say my discomfort with the idea of selling my work may be hindering progress with this goal...

4. Work on a block requested in exchange for my son's senior pictures. Not yet! On Saturday, I did receive the perfect shade of blue perle cotton in an order from crazyquiltingsupplies.com, so it is time to dive in!

5. Work on Beginner's Crazy Quilt Block. Sadly, I did not make progress this week. Our dinner guests loved the block though! (I highly recommended the free class through shawkl.com; however, I do not think any of the ladies plan to take up crazy quilting at this time.)

This Week's Goals:

1. Complete 100 x-stitches on the HAED Santa & the Mouse chart.

2. Finish Nicki Lee's UTS DYB RR Block.

3. Work on an item for my Etsy shop. 

4. Work on a block requested in exchange for my son's senior pictures.
5. Work on Beginner's Crazy Quilt Block.

6. Share my Tree Bird Blog Hop projects on March 18th.

7. Host a cast party after my boys' play this weekend. (It is hard to believe this will be Monkey's last performance in a high school play.)

Marked Off the To Do List!

If you followed my Work In Progress (WIP) Wednesday posts last year, you may remember one of my long-term goals was to paint our guest bathroom.  I wanted to surprise my husband with this one and he was working from home at the time. So, I needed to wait for him to be out and about long enough to complete the task. He is working at a company office again, so yesterday the work (fun?) began right after he and the boys left the house.

Ironically, before I got started I enjoyed a cup of coffee while reading a few blogs I follow and discovered that Laurie, at 111 LaLa Lane, had just painted her laundry room. (She added stripes and it looks fantastic!) She asked me to share pictures of my bathroom makeover, so they are below.

Before I get into the before and after pictures, I want to encourage you to read this inspirational post Laurie shared about Whitney, a young mother battling cancer. (Whitney's story left tears in my eyes. She and her family are in my prayers.) And, if you love old buildings, you will also enjoy the photos Laurie shared of this old church. They make me wish I could not only visit, but restore the building to its original glory.

Yesterday, our guest bathroom transformed from plain white to a soft shade of green. (The color is Quietude from Sherwin Williams.)

Our guest bathroom is a bit small, so getting a good angle for pictures was tricky.

Here is a close-up of the cross-stitch hanging on the wall. In 1996, I stitched this using the chart for "The Blue Gardenia" in the 1995 Stoney Creek Collections Cherished Heritage booklet. (The booklet is available at Amazon.com here. Please note: at the time of this post, the prices listed at Amazon range from $13.88 to $14.95. The price on the cover is only $6.50, so you may be able to find it for less elsewhere. I am sharing the link so you can see the cover of the booklet if you are interested.)

The bathroom seemed the perfect place for this little outhouse.

Hmm... Taking a picture of a bathroom mirror without including your own reflection is not easy; thus, the partial view.

Due to finals and the end of the trimester, my boys (nicknamed Monkey and Mutt) had a half day of school yesterday. The smell of paint met them at the door when they came home, letting them know exactly what I was up to. Mutt went directly upstairs to escape the scent, so I opened the house up to let it air out. My husband was happily surprised when he returned home from work.

This morning, I put up the window clings and shamrock garland I purchased a few years ago to decorate for March. (I always look for decorations when they are marked 50% off after holidays.) 

Another item is marked off my To Do List and our guest bathroom is all dressed up for our dinner party tomorrow night. 

Thank you so much for stopping by!
Renee

WIP Wednesday 03/04/2015

It has been another busy week here, but I did manage to complete a couple of projects and make some progress on the Santa and the Mouse Ornament. This freebie chart is no longer offered, but it is a small section of the Santa and the Mouse chart that is available at Heaven and Earth Designs (HAED).

Above is a picture from last week. I found my missing skein of DMC floss in stock at the fabric store this week, so I was able to fill in the small white sections along the top of Santa's hat. I also added a bit more sky to the right.

Here is the current progress on my block for the Beginner's Crazy Quilt Class taught by Kathy Shaw at shawkl.com. (If you are interested in this class, registration for the next free class will be open March 20th - 22nd. You may learn more details here.)

My fly stitch roses need more practice, but they were fun to make! Created with a French knot and three fly stitches, they sound pretty simple. I pulled my tacking stitches a bit too snug and placed the bottom stitches a tad too far out. I look forward to trying these again.

I do love dragonflies! This lace one was fun to tack down.

I could not resist adding a spider. This may be my first pink spider. It is certainly the largest one I have ever stitched!

These little satin flowers with pearl centers may be my new favorite embellishment! (I purchased mine from Thearica at Crazyquiltingsupplies.com. I am not affiliated with her shop, but I love ordering from her!)

This little bow with the dangling heart is entirely too sweet.

It is always so much fun to see how a few beads can dress up a seam! I only wish the photo could capture how the beads play with the light.

That is all the progress I can share at the moment. 

Thank you so much for stopping by!
Renee

Last Week's Goals:

1. Complete at least 100 x-stitches on the HAED Santa and the Mouse chart. Completed about 60 x-stitches. See photo above.

2. Finish my Beginner's Crazy Quilt Block. Made significant progress. 

3. Work on an item for my Etsy shop. (It is currently empty. It is so much more fun to make gifts!) Completed almost half of the embroidery on a panel for a denim coin purse.

4. Finish my February 1 X-mas Item a Month project. Done! You may read more about it here. 

5. Finish my project for the Tree Bird Blog Hop at Sew We Quilt My day to share will be March 18th. I was a little nervous about how one project would turn out, but was so happy with it that I actually clapped my hands with delight. :) That same project will also be a Christmas gift this year, so I marked off my March 1 X-mas Item a Month project at the same time. Bonus!

This Week's Goals:

1. Complete at least 150 x-stitches on the HAED Santa and the Mouse chart.

2. Work on Nicki Lee's UTS DYB RR Block.

3. Work on an item for my Etsy shop. 

4. Work on a block requested in exchange for my son's senior pictures.
5. Work on Beginner's Crazy Quilt Block. 

CQI Under the Sea Round Robin - Nicki Lee's Bare Blocks

Look at the beautiful Under the Sea (UTS) blocks that arrived in my mailbox last week!

Nicki Lee in MA pieced these lovely blocks.

Nicki Lee is well known for her amazing crazy quilting and for the beautiful hand dyed laces she sells at Raviolee Dreams at Etsy.com

Check out this GORGEOUS UTS block Nicki Lee made for the 2013 Message in a Bottle contest at Crazy Quilt Supplies.

(Speaking of contests, I believe Crazy Quilt Supplies will be introducing the crazy quilt kit for their 2015 Spring Challenge sometime today.)

Out of the 6 blocks, I chose to work on this one.

Today, I will plan how to embellish it.

This is going to be fun!

Thanks for stopping by,

Renee