CLEANING OUT MY CABINETS

In an effort to clean out my sewing room cabinets and use up the fabric I have I remembered about this Sanctuary fabric that I have and want to use to make a rail fence quilt. I have 14 quarter yard pieces, 2 1 yard pieces and a piece approx 3 yards. I need more in order to make the top but the theme for 2009 is "use it up" not "buy it up" so I can't buy more in order to start.

Here's where you girls come in. Does anyone have some of this fabric that they'd like to SWAP for a Thimbleberries kit? I probably have every kit that they make so all you'd have to do is decide what you'd like and I'd swap with you....within reason of course. I'm not sending you a $100 kit for 2 1 yard pieces now...I'm desperate but not "crazy".... well, some might say I'm crazy but....

OR, I have some Gingham Girls fat quarters, or some New Hats Old Friends fabric by Sandy Gervais......

Please email me and we'll get to swappin....

Peggy

I'm working on it

Michelle, Robin and I are all working on Gail Pan's "Busy Little Christmas Elves" embroidery blocks and we're all doing them in a different colorway. Michelle is doing hers in red, Robin is doing hers in teal, and I'm doing mine in a variegated green. I guess for about a month now once I shut the sewing machine down at night I will sit till almost midnight stitching on my little blocks so I have quite a few done. I'm sure once Michelle returns from her trek across the country she'll have a couple more done too. Robin is only doing hers in between her crows, christmas wishes and a variety of other projects. Well, I decided I'd assemble what I have and got the first row finished earlier tonight. The fabric that I chose as the focus is a white with Christmas lights in multiple colors of green and red so I figured I could use both red and green fabrics in my assembly. If assembled as the instructions are written, the quilt will finish up to be 56 x 56. I'm off to start the assembly of row 2 now.

Peggy

Seaside Quilt

Back on July 31st I ran across Jaybird Quilt's Blog with her post about buying a quilt. The minute I saw the blocks and fabric I knew I had to have the same quilt. I know, I know, I'm a copycat but I just had to, it was so gorgeous! So, I went on the internet and started buying up blocks of the fabric and even stumbled across a gal on Etsy that had a huge bundle of it. I was fully set to make the quilt. The minute the fabric arrived I started cutting and voile...this afternoon we have a finished quilt!

I took some liberties with the borders since I wanted a wider blue border than the designer had planned and I didn't have the big floral she used on her border but I did have a smaller floral, but other than that, I have the same quilt. Off to the quilter it goes tomorrow afternoon!!! It was hard to get a good picture but I think you can get a good idea of how beautiful it looks...

Peggy

A Giveaway

You have to check out Heather Mulder Peterson's giveaway. She has the best patterns and fabric......I'm heading over now to enter to win....

We Have a Winner

Yes folks, we do have a winner...I was going to wait until Saturday to post but heck....we have a winner so I might as well announce it. The winner is Angela at the Country Cellar! I had quite a few girls that guessed my birthday....hmmmmm, wonder how that happened? So, I'll be mailing out Angela's packie either tomorrow or Saturday. Congrats Ange!
PS: My birthday is 12/22/54- YES, I will be 55 this December!!!

A New Blog Giveaway

Michelle is having a blog giveaway....She's got a great pincushion/scrap holder up there to be given away so hop on over and enter to win : http://afwife85.blogspot.com/
Hurry, hurry......

Impatient

I couldn't wait, I'm impatient, I had to cut into the Surf and Sand fabric.....I knew I wouldn't have enough of the stripe to do many blocks but I did get 4 of them done. Each block is 18 X 18 so I only need 9 of them.

This is going to be a GORGEOUS quilt.

I sure hope the stripe gets here soon....I'm anxious to get a few more done....

Blog Giveaway

As promised, I'm having a blog giveaway. While organizing my embroidery bin yesterday I found that I have 2 of the same pattern. It's called "OLD GLORY" by Crabapple Hill. I LOVE Crabapple's patterns but I really don't need 2 of the same pattern so here's a chance for YOU to own this pattern too. I've put together the necessary floss, floss bags, beads and needles. All you need is the time to do the embroidery and make the pillow. Here's what you have to do....Post a comment guessing my birthday and the closest to the actual date will be picked. I will be picking the winner on August 22nd!
PS: it is not 8/22, and I have not celebrated yet this year.

Peggy

Fabric Has Been Found

I had quite a few emails about the fabric I needed and one girl's suggestion of a shop was just the ticket. I've ordered what I need already and it's on it's way...
Thank you Lori for all your help.
Peggy

191 Posts and Still Going

WOW, who would have ever thought I would ever reach 191 posts? Not me, that's for sure.

I think I will celebrate with a blog giveaway tomorrow.....so, check back then.

In the meantime, I decided to cut out the fabric for this Seaside pattern by Nancy Rink. I found a gal on Etsy that was selling yardage from the entire line of Surf and Sand by Marcus Bros. which happens to be the line Nancy used for her quilt so I snatched it up. I got it all washed and pressed and decided yesterday to cut it out, this way, when I'm not busy I can start making the quilt. I got everything cut and then got to the last instruction piece and it says to cut the stripe into 36 strips. HEY....what's up with that? I only have 1/2 a yard of the stripe! So, I'm putting this out there....

Can anyone help me out with 1/2 a yard or more?????

I'm not asking for a hand out, anyone that knows me knows I will be generous in paying for it or swapping for something else you want or need. So....anyone have any??????

Peggy

I'm Done!

I finished Block #1 on my new Berry Picking Block of the Month. Michelle, Robin and Liz are also doing this and we are enjoying the stitching on it. We tried dragging Vickie S into it but she very politely told us to get lost...she wasn't joining another one even though she was lusting over Liz's pile of floss. Vickie just LOVES floss! Said she's got an obsession or something for it LOL.

So, as I was saying, I finished my block. It took 2 weeks from the day it came to attaching the border fabrics. There's a lot of embroidery on it and since it's done on a gorgeous white on white, you have to wash your hands any time you walk away and come back to it. And yes, when you prick your finger, a warning is to put a darn band aid on it, don't just think you've stopped the blood....ask me how I know this.

It is not an easy block to photograph, I think the light pastels and the shiny tone on tones do something to the picture.

It is gorgeous though and I'm anxiously awaiting the next block to get here.

Peggy

Pincushions, continued.........

I thought I'd dig up a few more pincushion pictures...I thought that any of the newbie collector/swappers out there might need some inspiration....This cute flower is made from woolfelt with some buttonhole stitching and some beading. This Mary E pincushion is one from a swap, but not in my posession...anyone out there have one I can get my hot little hands on?We have some roosters, rolling pins, mice, cats, watermelon slices, pretty fabric flowers....the list is endless. Now, don't ask me how "spidey" got in the mix....I'm thinking this picture might just be Robin's or Michelle's and someone...I don't know who that would be, but someone sent a spidey to visit and they put him out as a "watch spidey maybe?".

So, if you're joining a swap or just want to start making and collecting them and need some inspiration, just look here and lemme tell you, the internet is a wealth of information on pincushion patterns. Ask me how I know that... LOL

Pincushions and Can We Ever Have Enough

Yes, I ask that question "Can we ever have enough pincushions?". I for one have to say "NO".

I love pincushions and have them all over the house...not as decorations though, I take one with me wherever I am sewing and kinda forget to grab it when I leave the room.

Lemme show you a picture of some of my favorites and then maybe you'll share some of yours..

These brown Thimbleberries ones that looks sorta like a flower Michelle made for a swap and for some reason I use that ALL the time next to my sewing machine and I have a woolfelt log one seen here (yellow log with pink flower)that I use on my cutting table that Robin gave me quite a few years ago. Most of these I just display on shelves in my sewing room.... I won't even count how many I have but I think when I repaint the sewing room I'm going to make more shelves to display them all on.....then maybe I'll count them.

OH, and I'll be getting at least 6 more in September because Liz from our BPF group just had a sign up for a pincushion swap... I'll show you mine when I get around to finishing them and before I mail them off to Liz.

For now, I'm off to Joann's to get more beads to make more pincushions...

Peggy

Busy Little Elves Update

I finished assembling block # 2a this afternoon.
Cute isn't it?
Unfortunately for me, I don't have any more of the embroidered blocks done so I did some tracing and tonight I'll be sitting doing 2b so I can assemble and finish # 2 tomorrow.

Is anyone else doing these blocks?

Peggy

Busy Little Elves

I finally found a rainy day to finish assembling block 1 of the Busy Little Elves.

I am enjoying working on these a lot.

Now to go and get some more of the blocks embroidered so I can maybe get this done in 2009!

Peggy

More Elfs and a Finish

I finished the embroidery on 2 more of Gail Pan's "Busy Little Elves". These 2 blocks are only 6.5 in and I'm doing them in a green variegated floss. I'm not thrilled with the lack of variegation in this particular DMC floss but I like the colors so I'll continue. I'm sure once all the blocks are done they will look nice, especially since I have some really cute fabric for the borders.

Also, Robin is OBSESSED with Halloween and all the decorations than come with the holiday. She's made her halloweenie list and I am sure she'll make the time to get to all of them. I don't know that I've ever met anyone quite like Robin....I can only imagine what her house looks like at Halloween...... I started this runner in May and finally got the borders on it and ready for quilting....Can't have Robin doing "Halloweenie in August" all by herself now can we? :)

Hello, my name is Peggy and I'm an embroidery addict

Yes, you've read correctly, I'm an embroidery addict all of a sudden....I started with the Cinderberries Girls and moved onto some Bird Brain pieces and now I'm working on at least 4 if not 5 different projects at once.

I did the parts to a table runner at retreat all in gold floss, which is super cute, I have a crow block of the month I'm doing with my friend Deb Smith's quilt shop in Missouri, I have 2 elf Christmas projects going and yesterday I got my kit for my newest block of the month called Berry Picking...it's a Crabapple Hill pattern. I hope I can keep them all straight.....This little elf has his string of lights wrapped around himself and I'm doing this one in a green variegated floss. The "Twas The Night Before Christmas" one here has larger embroidery pieces and I'm doing this one in all garnet red variegated floss. It was supposed to be a block of the month but I'm kind of an impatient annie so I wrote to the shop in Australia and she's mailing me the remaining 6 months of instructions so I can get them going quicker. Once school reopens I will have lots of time to do these stitcheries on lunch and break time.

I WON!!

I won a blog contest about a week ago....it was a BUG A LICIOUS pattern from Cheryl at Willowberry Designs. Today's mail delivery brought the prize...Thank you so much Cheryl for such a fun pattern.

Peggy

I actually turned my machine on tonight

Yes, it's been ages but I did turn my sewing machine on and worked on a small project. Back in May I was at retreat in Indiana and one of the girls, Conni, had an unfortunate accident... We were right in line with a tornado which happened to drop a tree right on her car. Talk about feeling bad....I had downed wires on my car but heck, I was able to drive it back to New Jersey from Indiana...Conni had to buy a new car to get home...We tried to make the best of the retreat even though the tornado the first night kind of put a damper on things. At retreat we swap out quilt blocks, brown bag surprises, mini quilts and even pincushions. Conni and Lori hadn't made pincushions but when us that had put them out on display, and they started to ooh and aah over them Robin, Michelle and I jumped into action and without any patterns or anything we made up a set for each of them, which made both girls very happy...

Well, over 4th of July weekend I was in search of a pattern in an old magazine and Conni said she had it and would send it that week. Well, not only did she send me the pattern, she sent me this kit with a note thanking me for helping her and Lori make up their pincushions and to help make the best of a bad situation.

I love This & That patterns, they work up quickly and are super cute projects so, after dinner tonight I couldn't decide what to work on so I pulled the pattern, charm pack and coordinating fabric out of my project basket and worked on it. It's a note pad holder with a pocket to put the pad in and another to
store your pen or receipts for fabric or anything else you need to hang onto.... It finishes up to be 6 x 9 which is a great size for my travel embroidery bag that I take to school and work on at lunch time. I found lined pad in Staples that fits perfectly and I have my favorite Uncle Sam pen in the other pocket.

Thank You Conni for such a great thank you gift....I really love it!!!

Peggy

Tomatoes

Can you see em? Darn things are so tiny I can barely photograph them....

This is my first attempt in my life to grow tomatoes. Sorry....but I'm a city girl. NO ONE in my city grew any kind of fruit or vegetable. You went to Shop Rite if you wanted those things :) Anyhoo, this year I decided I'd take the plunge and throw one of these tomatoe hangers up on my only backyard tree and see what I get. I have 4 very small tomatoes on the vine.... I'll keep an eye on them and report back as they get bigger. NO, I will not be getting any overalls and a pitchfork, 'cause I don't plan on doing this very often....

Peg

Brown Eyed Susans and Snowmen?

Today was a vacation day for me so I slept in a bit, did a little cleaning, did a little laundry and even did a little sewing. First off though I want to show you a picture of my brown eyed susans...they're one of my favorite outdoor flowers and for some odd reason, they're the one of the only flowers that like growing in my yard. This is just a tiny batch of them...I have hundreds out back.

Then I thought I'd do some catch up sewing. I'm in a birthday block of the month with some gals on the internet. The July girl was asking for a very nice lily block BUT it had 6 set in seams. Well, I can't even get 1 right let alone 6 so I emailed her and she said to make a snowman block. No size or colorway so I just used what I had in my scrap bin and this is what she's getting....

I think he came out kinda cute, i'm just hoping Linda thinks so too.... I kinda made him up as I went along, using a pattern but then I had to alter him a bit to fit the background fabric that I'd already cut..oops.... LOL

I'm going to go outside and peek at my tomatoes and see if they're big enough to get a picure of....

be back later.

Peggy

Good Morning Bloggers..............

Yes, it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood and it's actually starting to feel like summer...not that I didn't enjoy keeping the windows and doors open with only ceiling fans running and at night throwing a light cotton blanket over me but the family is getting cranky at not being able to enjoy the pool....so, we'll take some warm days for a little while.

I was not working yesterday so I took the opportunity to clean my house and do a little sewing.

My daughter's best friend is getting married in October in Puerto Rico and I'm invited so Jen asked if I'd make her a little quilt. I made the quilt and yesterday made a label for it...

I usually use premade labels but I decided this one needed something special so I designed one myself.

Here's the quilt that I made using the Jamestown blocks that I did monthly from Michelle probably 2 summers ago??????? (sorry for the bad picture, all my quilt holders were out when I wanted to take the picture)

I was so happy with this quilt and it will be hard to part with it but I know Samantha and Jason will appreciate all the work I put into it.

Then last night, exhausted (LOL) from all my hard work, I decided to put my feet up to watch tv and do a little embroidery. I started a new bom called "Twas the Night Before Christmas" with an Aussie designer. I got the first of 7 sections on Monday and put off sitting down with it but I just couldn't help myself yesterday, I had to thread that needle and start stitching....Here's a picture of what I got done last night....I'm using a garnet red variegated so it will have quite a few varieties of red thru it. So far I'm loving how it looks....

I do have some work to do around the house and more laundry today so I am going to have to put this guy aside and get things done around here before I pick it back up again.

Happy Saturday to all.....

Peggy

I'm a Winner

YAY...I'm a winner!!!
Cheryl's random man inside her computer pulled #1 to win one of her beautiful stitchery patterns and you guessed it, I was the # 1 person to comment on her blog. I'm so excited, I can't wait to see my pattern.... If you go here http://willowberrydesigns.typepad.com/willowberry_designs/
you can see the patterns she was giving away.

Hope everyone has a good Friday....I'm off from work so any day off is a good day, especially when it makes it a LONG weekend...

Peggy

YAY, it's a finished project

YAY....I did it, I started a project today and finished it today too!!!

This little project measures 6 x 22 finished and even comes with it's own little hanger each month...a hanger that fits the theme!

I have it hanging next to the window in my sewing room so I can enjoy it every night while I'm sewing.....

I see that a couple of blogs were doing the "show me your first quilts" but I never did go get mine and take a picture of it....I will though this week.

It actually is a nice looking quilt considering it was my first. NOW, the 2nd one I made and quilted myself...that one leaves a LOT to be desired in the accurate/neat department....

Be back soon with more pictures...

Peggy

A Mini Project

I am doing a BOM and they are the Patch Abilities Mini wall hangings...well, project #1 came yesterday so being the impatient annie that I am I couldn't just look at the project and set it aside...NO.........I had to trace and cut everything out last night. Today I assembled the little top and couldn't wait to buttonhole it to show you a picture of it... It even came with the cutest backing fabric.... I think I go and do the buttonhole stitching on it now since I have a little time before I make dinner.

I also went to the quilt shop this morning looking for some teal/aqua christmas fabric for Robin, which was not an easy feat, BUT I did find some cute stuff for myself....I'm doing an "elf" stitchery courtesy of Michelle and since I'm already doing one Christmas project in red variegated, I thought I'd do the elfs in green variegated...so, here's the fabric I'm using...

Goodies in my Mailbox

I got me some goodies in my mailbox the past 2 days....I'm so excited because it's been kind of a dry spell here at Casa Aront, almost thought hubby had paid the mailgirl and UPS to do a drive by but not stop by :) Anyhoo, I got 5 Crabapple Hill patterns yesterday, my woolen bom and a package from Liz in California who was the hostess for our BPF UFO contest. She sent me 4 fq's, a small purse pad, some basting pins and a nice card. Out of 15 projects on my list I only truly finished 4 but I did finish a lot more that just weren't on the list so all in all, the first 6 months of 2009 were wonderful in the finishing department.

Now, today I received a magazine from Conni . I'd posted to BPF that I was looking for a pitcher of flowers stitchery that was on the Crabapple Hill site. It was in Quiltmaker magazine in January. Conni had the magazine and said if I could wait a few days she'd ship it out to me, so today was the day it arrived....but not only did she send the magazine, she included some charm squares, some yardage just like the charms and the cutest This & That pattern for a notebook cover... Conni is just the best...thank you!!! And, last but not least, I got my Part 1 of the "Twas the Night Before Christmas" BOM that one of the fabulous Aussie girls is doing online. I can't wait to sit down and start that one.

All in all, a nice mail day for me.....

Hope you are having a great day too.

Peggy

I'm making some progress

I'm making some progress on the Truly Scrumptious BOM that I started 2 summers ago...

It's not the borders that are taking so long, it's the embroidery part that I dragged my feet on.

I hadn't done embroidery since I was a kid so the thought of all the work on this was daunting so I started, didn't like what did, set it aside and moved onto other things. This easter when I was trying to find a project to take to Myrtle Beach with me I pulled this project out and ONLY brought that with me so I was forced to work on them. I have 5 totally done and borders on.

I have 3 more blocks that need borders and 1 more in the hoop to finish the embroidery on. I'm hoping I can get this top assembled before the weekend is over....what do you think? I don't have anyone in mind for this quilt but then again, most times when I start projects like this I don't....I usually make em and set them aside till the appropriate recipient comes along.

We're Done

Welcome to the apartment. As you walk in the front door and go up the stairs to the second floor you make a quick left. There are 2 steps up to the new apartment. This used to be my attic :( Now all the stuff is in storage....anyone have an attic they want to store my "stuff" in? Straight ahead is the bathroom with the bedroom on the right and the living room/dining area on the left. Don't worry about that mat, just step on in.... Here is the living room. Jen picked a nice warm light tan color...

Here is the bathroom.... Didn't love the green at first but it's starting to grow on me. Jen did a nice job accessorizing...

The living room is to my back in this picture so to the right is the area where she'll have a bar top table and 4 chairs...no kitchen. And the last picture is the bedroom.It's painted a light grey.... She's got a walk in closet to the left....

The U Haul comes on Saturday...anyone free to help move Jen's 200 pr of shoes, purses etc? You know how a 25 year old is with their stuff...she's got a lot of it!!!

Happy 4th of July everyone.......Hope everyone has a happy and safe day.

Here at the Aront house we're just laying low and barbecueing at the house with the family.

I have some hand sewing lined up and yes, as usual I have some laundry too... What's everyone doing today?

Peggy

Happy Birthday Dan

Here's my boy.....24 years old today ! Happy Birthday Dan, hope you have a great day and get everything you want......

Love,
Mom