What I’m Working On…

I’ve had another busy week here.  I had Georgia overnight one night.  I had a full house of childcare kids all week.  We had a no school day and a two hour late due to snow.  That means shoveling sidewalks and that all means less time to create.  I was also busy doing the last few things for my tax prep for my tax meeting.

I did get a few things done.  I stole time the best I could.  Sewing didn’t happen much.  But I did get the borders on this.  YAHOO!!

Sorry for the bad photos.  It’s winter in Iowa and pretty gloomy.

Here you can see how the borders turned out.  I like them.  Next up, find a backing.

It’s not fancy but I love it and was on the easy side as far as quilts go.  I think it will be a great quilt for a fundraiser.

Right now being that I am sewing on the kitchen table (because Rosie, my beagle pup, can’t handle my sewing room or the upstairs for that matter yet) sewing gets harder.  I have to carry my sewing machine to the kitchen table and set it up every time.  I’m only sewing on my Singer 301 so it’s not a big deal but every time I think of setting it up and then being extra diligent that I know where Rosie is and what she’s doing so she doesn’t chew my cords, I’m more nervous than having fun.  Having these UFO from Roxana have been a blessing as I don’t have to keep track of two boxes and a million quilt pieces out every time I want to sew.  I only have to keep track of the blocks.  There is no way I would want to make a Bonnie Hunter quilt with this set up…too many pieces.

This is all just temporary though..so that’s okay.  It has given me a whole new appreciation for those of you who do sew in a small space or on your kitchen table.  At the farmhouse I had a very small sewing room.  There is no way I could fit in there nowadays but I wasn’t coordinating all the charity sewing that I am now.

Anyway…because of that, if I only have an hour to sew, I often grab cross stitch instead.  Since I completed the piece last week, I’m so excited to finish more.  I have a stack of items that need to be fully finished.  This week I grabbed one. This one….
and here it is finished.

This little pattern came to me via the thrift store.  I paid 25 cents for the chart.  It was my first time using fancy variegated thread.  I ended up liking it.  The frame or mounting piece came from Hobby Lobby last fall.  I knew I had a couple fall things that would need a frame and picked it up for half price hoping someday I’d use it..and I did.  The burlap closest to the frame came with the frame.  I have another frame in red and I’m hoping I have something Christmasy I can stitch and use.

I did this like I did the other pieces.  I drew a pencil like on the back to give me an idea of the size I wanted to cut the sticky board and it gave me a guideline for placement of the sticky board.  This has helped me so much.  I used to be so unsure of how to place the sticky board until I decided to lightly draw the lines on the back.

I cut the piece 1″ bigger all around than the sticky board.

I hot glued it all together.

I dug through my Civil War reproductions to find some small prints to work with this.  I came up with the orange and green.  I mounted the green diagonally so I didn’t have to worry about lining up the square of the checkerboard.

Note the green board is not square and is rectangular.  This gave room for the bow and room for the the clip to hold the piece without damaging the actual stitched piece.

I am so thrilled with it.  I often don’t finish my cross stitch pieces because of
-cost
-don’t have the right finishing pieces
-I’m picky
-fear it won’t turn out right

Each piece I do I am gaining confidence and I like that.

So what did I do???

I stitched some more.  I actually started THREE projects last week.  I know, what was I thinking?

It was actually partially Rosie’s fault.

I started this….

But then I went to stitch the rabbit and the white I had, I didn’t like.  It was too white for me.  I was going to get up and get a different white but Rosie was snoozing on me.  I knew we’d have to go through a whole ordeal to get her back to sleep if I got up so I grabbed something else that was kitted up and in the drawer of the coffee table near where I was sitting.  I’m not a pastel gal so I’m changing the colors in this…at least the letters.  (yes I love anything with the ABC’s)

I stitched on that, but the next day…the Lizzie Kate Valentine freebie was calling my name.  I just knew that if I stitched in now, I’d have it for next year.  I was afraid if I didn’t I would forget about that piece so I started stitching it.  It took a couple nights and that was finished.

Here’s Rosie with me wanting a belly rub.

Here’s the whole piece.

If you’re looking to try cross stitch, this is a perfect piece to try on.  The chart is free you don’t need much thread..I used only four different threads.  I used Priscilla’s color changes.  The free chart is HERE.  If you are tempted to give it a try, it’s really an easy entry hobby without a lot of costs.

My goal is to fully finish the Lizzie Kate cross stitch “Be my Valentine” this week.  I’m hoping to get Kayla’s baby quilt into a top too.  Little steps but I think it can happen.  I actually have a couple days off this week.  YAHOO!!