Stitchery Link Party at Super Mom - No Cape

A few of you may remember this purse. I made it in February of 2014, using my February Crazy Quilt Journal Project (CQJP) 2014 block. (You may see close-ups of the embroidery here.)

After roughly 14 months of daily use, I am happy to say the embroidery has held up pretty well. It is a tiny bit dingy. (I am gathering the courage to hand wash it.) There are few snags with some of the rayon floss. And, I lost one bead from a seam near the top-right corner. (Thankfully, I knot each bead off in the back so the whole string is not lost if one breaks!)

Why am I sharing this project with you today? This morning, I discovered a new Monday Stitchery Linky Party will be hosted at Super Mom - No Cape. Here is a link to the party, complete with rules if you would like to join in or just stop by to check out the posts that have been shared.

Today, I will be sharing a link to the original post for my February CQJP 2014 purse.

I hope you all have a wonderful week!
Renee

Have A Latte Blog Hop Schedule

The Have a Latte Blog Hop offered by Mdm Samm begins tomorrow! This blog hop features the Have a Latte line of fabrics designed by Dan DiPaolo for Clothworks. Joan at Moosestash Quilting has been our amazing cheerleader.

I purchased 6 of the 19 fabrics and they are pictured above. However, I only used two of these for the blog hop. Can you guess which two? I will be sharing my projects on Thursday, April 16th. You can find out then! 

I do hope you will join me each day as I hop on over to see what everyone else has created. The full schedule is below.

April 13

Seams to be Sew

I Peace 2-Mary

Janes Quilting

Moose Stash Quilting

        April 14

How Art You?

Stitchin By the Lake

Selina Quilts

Beads and Birds

          April 15

Just Let Me Quilt

Life in the Scrapatch

Grandmamas Stories

Wow I Like That

        

  April 16

Sew Incredibly Crazy

Mountain Stitches

Whims and Fancies

Living my Dream

  April 17

Creatin' in the Sticks

Lakeshore Stitches

From This to That

A Stitch in time

  April 20

Quiltings by Kathy

Why Know Kwilt

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

  April 21

Sunshine Reflections

Words & Stitches

It Seams to be Sew

  April 22

Chitter Chatter Designs

Sew Peace to Peace

Everyone Deserves a Quilt

Rainbows Bunnies Cupcakes

  April 23

Cates Linens

Needled Mom

SewWeStitch

WIP Wednesday 04/08/2015

Over 250 stitches were added to Santa and the Mouse this week. 

I filled in some of Santa's beard and the fur on his hat. Here are close-ups of this week (above) compared to last week (below). 

Click any image for a larger view.

Last Week's Goals:

1. Complete 250 x-stitches on the HAED Santa & the Mouse chart (which is no longer available, but it is a part of this chart at Heaven and Earth Designs.) I completed just over 250 stitches this week. Photos are above.

2. Work on a block requested in exchange for my son's senior pictures. I finished this seam and have the base stitches down for the next one.

3. Work on Beginner's Crazy Quilt Block. I only added 12 more beads to seam 5, but it is progress...

4. Write at least 11,670 words this week. My current word count is 11,701.

5. Complete a project for the Have a Latte Blog Hop. (I love this Clothworks fabric line!) One project is done and another is almost finished. My day to present will be Thursday, April 16th.

6. Share pictures of the Crazy Quilt International Under the Sea Round Robin (CQI UTS RR) blocks I received last week. Kathy S. of MD made 6 gorgeous blocks and Nicki Lee of MA did a stunningly gorgeous job embellishing one. I also need to choose a block and sketch out my plans. Here is a link to the post and below is a picture of the block embellished by Nicki Lee.

I decided to embellish this beautiful block. A friend asked how I could possibly choose which one to work on. I opted to go with the block I liked best with a piece of lovely lace I purchased from Nicki Lee. 

This Week's Goals:

1. Complete 250 x-stitches on the HAED Santa & the Mouse chart (which is no longer available, but it is a part of this chart at Heaven and Earth Designs.) 

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

4. Write at least 11632 words this week, for a total of 23,333 words for Camp NaNoWriMo.

5. Complete another project for the Have a Latte Blog Hop. (I love this Clothworks fabric line!)
6. Work on Kathy's CQI UTS RR block.

CQI Under the Sea Round Robin - Kathy's Bare Blocks

Another beautiful set of blocks arrived in my mailbox last week!

This set was pieced by Kathy S. in Maryland. 

(She is also known on-line as Clothqueen, as we have more than one Kathy S. in Crazy Quilting International.)

I just love the bit of curves she added to her blocks.

I also love how many colors she used. 

The greens, blues and purples are all lovely!

Choosing one to work on will not be easy.

Nicki Lee in MA was the first to work on Kathy's blocks.

Her work is absolutely amazing and will be a tough act to follow.

Just look at all of the wonderful texture she added to this block. Gorgeous! 

I recently purchased some of Nicki Lee's beautifully dyed lace 

and hope to incorporate some onto Kathy's block. 

It is going to be a fun one to work on.

Thank you so much for stopping by.

Renee

WIP Wednesday 04/01/2015

I made lofty goals last week, thinking the boys would be on Spring Break, so I would have extra time. (What was I thinking?!) Although I did not meet all of my goals, it was a great week. Mutt, my youngest, and I did yard work for my mom. Monkey, my eldest, did yard work for my mother-in-law. And, we had a great friend over for dinner. Most of my free time was spent working (almost compulsively) on the Santa and the Mouse Ornament.

I added over 600 x-stitches to the window section this week. The photo above is how it looks now. Below is how it looked last week. 

You may click on any photo for a larger image.

Camp NaNoWriMo begins today. NaNoWriMo is held every November and stands for National Novel Writing Month. The goal is to complete 50,000 words in 30 days. Camp NaNoWriMo is offered in April and July. 

In order to complete 50,000 words this month (an average of 1,667 words per day), I will need to utilize my time wisely. So, I may not be very active on the Internet this month. (Funny how quickly time can go while browsing through blogs on the web, isn't it?!) 

I do hope you all have an amazing week and thank you for stopping by!

Renee


Last Week's Goals:

1. Complete 250 x-stitches on the HAED Santa & the Mouse chart (which is no longer available, but it is a part of this chart at Heaven and Earth Designs.)  More than doubled this goal with over 600 x-stitches - See progress above.

2. Work on an item for my Etsy shop. It still needs a spider...

3. Work on a block requested in exchange for my son's senior pictures. Progress made.

4. Finish Beginner's Crazy Quilt Block. Not yet - but I finished adding beads to the seam 2 (the picture with the spider below), which I was dreading for some reason, so progress is easier now!  Now I am working on seam 5 (the picture with the pink arches and peach roses below.)

5. Work on outline for the novel I will be working on during Camp NaNoWriMo in April and update story info on their site. I am really self-conscience about the idea of anyone reading anything fictional that I write... I think that has been a HUGE hang up on actually finishing a novel. (I managed 50,000+ words in November of 2012, but did not let anyone read any of it.  That being said... here is the synopsis for the modern fantasy novel I plan to write this month. (Note I said "plan" not "hope" to write... Gulp.) 

Samantha Lumen has a secret. She is not like everyone else. To her knowledge, of the six people that knew her secret, four are dead. Of the two remaining, one is a killer and the other a thief.

Six years after fleeing her past, Samantha leads a quiet, private life. She works two jobs and lives with her roommate, Jade Greene. Her life is busy, simple and safe.

A phone call in the middle of the night changes everything. Samantha agrees to give a rebellious teenager a ride home from a party, not realizing her past and present are about to collide and all of her secrets may be exposed.

6. Create a gift to share at 1xmasitemamonth.blogspot.com. Not quite, but I did make progress on a project using this Alma Lynne cross-stitch pattern. If you missed my post, you may see it here. 

7. Work on project for the Have a Latte Blog Hop. (I love this Clothworksfabric line!) I sort of made progress... Patterns have been selected and fabrics set aside for each. Should be fun!

This Week's Goals:

1. Complete 250 x-stitches on the HAED Santa & the Mouse chart (which is no longer available, but it is a part of this chart at Heaven and Earth Designs.) 

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

4. Write at least 11,670 words this week.

5. Complete a project for the Have a Latte Blog Hop. (I love this Clothworksfabric line!)
6. Share pictures of the Crazy Quilt International Under the Sea Round Robin (CQI UTS RR) blocks I received last week. Kathy S. of MD made 6 gorgeous blocks and Nicki Lee of MA did a stunningly gorgeous job embellishing one. I also need to choose a block and sketch out my plans.