Fabric Arrived!

Woohoo! My fabric from Fabric Buffet arrived today. This is a really fun online shop. I ordered my fabric on Friday and it got here today (Monday) - that's phenomenal especially since the US Postal Service was involved. (It went from Indiana to Washington state)

The 2 fabrics I purchased are from the Moda Decadent Victorian line and will be used for the borders and binding on my Decadent Victorian quilt.

Stacy

Mt. St. Helen's Tournament

I got back last night from Kelso, Washington where I was bowling in the Mt. St. Helen's Tournament. The tournament was held at Highlander Lanes. The staff there is absolutely great - friendly, helpful and all-around fun.

I'm infamous among my bowling friends for leaving the 5 pin (directly behind the front pin). The 5 pin, in the bowling world, is known as the "sex pin". If you leave it on your first throw and then knock it down on your second, you supposedly will be "getting some" that evening. Since I throw a straight ball, I tend to leave it alot. This past weekend, I left it - alot. Nine times!! Every single time, I picked it up. Needless to say, I was getting quite a bit of teasing from my friends and from the staff at the lanes!

The tournament involved a singles event, doubles event and team event - three games of each. We bowled singles and double as a set on Saturday and team on Sunday. I went into the tournament with an average of 159. Here are my scores for each game:

Singles: 134, 175, 148 = 457 series
Doubles: 154, 166, 172 = 492 series (my partner bowled a 605 series!!)
Team: 179, 173, 182 = 534 series

Stacy

Cross Stitch WIPs

Finally, I've gotten around to taking photos of my current cross stitch WIPs. So without further ado, here they are.

First up, we have Flight of Freedom. This is a Dimensions Gold kit. I'm doing it 'cause hubby saw it in a catalog and asked "Do you want me to buy it so you can stitch it for me?". I told him "Yeah, right." with very heavy sarcasm. The next day, I had my mother order it so that he wouldn't see a charge on our credit card. I worked on it only after he had gone to bed. He took off on a trip with his brother at the end of June and I figured that I could finally put in some real time on it and work on it in the living room. He was planning to be gone from Wednesday morning (early) to late afternoon on Sunday. I started work on it as soon as I got up Wed. morning. That Saturday, I had to be at my mom's for a family gathering. I got home in the early evening planning to work on it before bedtime then hide it upstairs again before I left for church on Sunday. Guess who was lying on the sofa when I got home on Sat.? You guessed it. I told him, "That's the last time I try to stitch something as a surprise for you." He likes it so far and I have more time to work on it now.

Here's how the finished project will look.

Here's my progress so far. About 2/3 of this has been done since that Wednesday of his trip. All of the sky/mountain is done in half stitches which thankfully, makes it work up more quickly.

Next, is my progress on the 12 Days of Christmas by Teresa Wentzler.

I'm stitching this on a single piece of fabric which I will then frame with a multiple window mat.

Here's my progress on Heirloom Christmas Sampler from the Victoria Sampler.

For no particular reason, this one is a low priority in my rotation.

And lastly, my progress on Wild Menagerie from Cross My Heart.

What it will look like finished.

I've finished the tiger and am working on the lion. Because the fabric is so wide, it wouldn't fit on my scroll frames normally. I'm stitching it rotated 90°. The tiger is at the top of my frames and the cheetah will be at the bottom. When I stitch, I have the pattern rotated as well.

Happy Stitching!!

Stacy

Recent Quilts

Thanks to my joining a great online quilt group, I've really been quilting up a storm lately. For anyone interested, the group is StashBuilders and you can find them at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/StashBuilders/

StashBuilders organizes quite a few swaps, a couple in which I have participated. The first one that I did was a Happy Block swap.

Those participating are divided into groups of 4 or 5 people. I chose some fabric, cut it into 4" squares (centers) and then mailed 6 squares to each person in my group. As each person received my centers, they kept 1 square for themselves and then sewed 2½" borders around the remaining 5 centers. The now bordered centers (Happy Blocks) were then mailed back to me for me to keep. In the mean time, I was receiving centers from the other group participants; putting borders on 5 of them and then mailing them back to their owners.

Here is a picture of my Happy Blocks quilt. It's in a hoop while I hand quilt it. I'm doing a heart stencil in the center of each block and then just quilting in the seam lines around the entire block.

The second swap that I joined was a String Block swap. I signed up to do 2 sets of 6½" blocks. Each set consists of 12 blocks. The theme for this one was purple & green. When I had my sets done, I sent them to the swap hostess along with a self-addressed, stamped envelope. She kept the blocks until all the blocks from each participant had arrived. Then she mixed them up and sent each member the same number of blocks that they contributed. The blocks that I received back were not my own but done by a mix of other members.

Here is my finished String Quilt. I have it hanging at the top of the stairs in my craft room. I machine quilted it in a grid so that there is a 3x3 grid going through each square. I hate doing binding, and due to the style of the quilt, I thought a Prairie Point edging would be appropriate.

Currently, I am receiving blocks from another Happy Block swap. I've already finished and sent all the centers from other members, I'm just waiting for mine to arrive home.

While I'm waiting, I couldn't resist starting another quilt. See? I'm addicted to quilting too. I saw this pattern in these fabrics at the Quilt & Sewing Expo I attended in November 2007 in Puyallup, Washington. As soon as I saw it, I went directly to the lady running the booth, pointed and said "Where do I get the pattern?". It took me awhile to get the same fabrics but God Bless Ebay!!

The pattern is from Strip Delight - 10 Fabulous Quilts from 'Jelly Roll' 2 1/2" Strips - #5321 . The pattern is named for the fabric line called Decadent Victorian (from Moda).

Here is the main body of the top laid out on my quilt design wall in my craft room.

Kah-nee-ta

Ok, you are probably asking yourself, "What on earth is a Kah-nee-ta?". Well, it's more like a where on earth...

Kah-nee-ta (pronounced just like it looks) is a resort in the high desert of central Oregon. You can see their website at: http://www.kahneeta.com/

The first week in July, some friends "kidnapped" me and kept me there with my full cooperation. We had a lot of fun doing nothing. The pool was great and it was soooo nice to see the sun. (For those of you who don't know - I live on the coast of Washington state, gray is the official color of the sky.)

Below are a couple of photos that I took while staying there. (click on the photo to see a larger version)

View from my room overlooking the golf course (background) and the area where the salmon bakes are held (where the tepee is).

The pool area at the Lodge. The deck on the left is just off the lobby.

Me, Debbie and Mary - the friends that "kidnapped" me. Debbie's hubby, Doug took the photo.

General Update

Well, obviously, I haven't been blogging much lately. I guess "real life" is keeping me busy! ;-)

I have been stitching on my Wild Menagerie and am on page 7 of 12. Each page from here on out has less stitching on it than the previous page so it should go fairly quickly.

I've also joined an online quilting group. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/StashBuilders/
I've already signed up for a couple of swaps there and they are proving to be alot of fun. The group is really friendly and organized and I can definitely recommend it!!

This past week has also found me working on updating my Las Vegas scrapbook with pictures from this year's trip (back in Feb.-March). I took over 200 photos and just hope that I bought enough paper. In this scrapbook, each trip has its own particular paper that I use for every page.

I've been doing some hand quilting on my Broken Bricks wallhanging and will hopefully finish it soon. I am working on the decorative quilting in the borders and just started the last side.

When I went to the local quilt shop a couple of weeks ago, I found a charm pack (5" squares) of fabric that I fell in love with. I ended up going back and buying 2 more identical packs. I have finished making them into a wallhanging quilt top - just need to add borders on 3 sides. This wallhanging will be machine quilted and will be put in the display rotation above my desk in my home office.

That's all for now. Happy Stitching!

Stacy C.

Stitching Updates

After having the flu, getting well, taking a 5 day vacation in Las Vegas, getting a cold and trying to get over it, I have managed to get some stitching done! I've even managed to take photos so that I can share.

First of all, I finished my January 1 stitching challenge piece, Night Train. I haven't chosen a frame for it yet since I want to stitch the companion piece Night Train II and then get identical frames for the pair.

Here is a quilt that I finished recently. It is a pattern of 9 patch squares alternated with blocks of single fabrics all set on-point. It is approximately a full size quilt.

After finishing Night Train, I started working on my UFOs again. This is Teresa Wentzler's 12 Days of Christmas. I managed to finish Day 2 and have the border ready for Day 3.

Since I finished a day on the 12 Days, I've rotated to my Wild Menagerie UFO (from Cross My Heart). There are 8 pages in this pattern. This photo represents 2 pages finished. The odd thing about this project is that I am stitching it sideways! While I have some big a** scroll frames, I didn't have any wide enough to hold this fabric normally so I rolled it with the left edge on the top scroll and the right edge on the bottom scroll. In the long run, I think this makes it more manageable to work with. As I am stitching, I have the pattern rotated 90° as well. I have made some progress since I took this picture as I am about 50% finished with the third page. Since the pattern calls for stitching on black fabric, there are large areas that do not need to be stitched which is making my progress seem faster.

Happy Stitching!!

Stacy C.