Saturday, May 22, 2010

Horn of Plenty, Done!

I did it, I finished my penny rug!
I spent the morning finishing those darn tongues...man, talk about labor intensive! Then I had to make sure that when I stitched the backing on to the penny rug I didn't catch any of the tongues. If I had to rip out the stitches I would damage my hours upon hours of work, and that would bite. So how do I make sure the tongues don't shift? I pin them!!! You might think this is Pin Overkill but after all those hours of stitching I was NOT taking any chances... After flipping it over I then proceeded to blanket stitch around the center and after a quick steaming.... I present, Horn of Plenty, TADA!!!!
I could have spent another thirty minutes pulling and tugging until it laid absolutely perfect but life is too short to get hung up on those things so I just gave it the "once over" and I am all done! Woo-Hoo!
Hope your day was filled with great stitches and a wonderful finish before bedtime... now onto the next project! Hooray!

Friday, May 21, 2010

Horn Of Plenty, In Progress

I've been working on a wonderful new wool penny rug from one of the latest designers to be showcased at the Pumpkin Patch, Jan Speed. This is her pattern, Horn of Plenty as I have converted it from wool felt to all hand dyed woolens. The applique is all done but the tongues are still in progress. When all is said and done it will look like this: My pic was taken outdoors so it looks brighter than it really is. The daylight makes the other colors "bounce", but it really is not bright at all. I wanted to make sure you'd see the textures on the woolens. I love the way the applique turned out. I hope to be finished with the tongues tomorrow; stay tuned for the great reveal!
Hope you've been working on something fun too...

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Wool Crazy Pincushion Update

Today was Round Robin Reveal Day. Take a look at what Pat added to my pincushion. Isn't it sweet??? I just love it!You've already seen mine because I couldn't keep a secret if my life depended on it, LOL! You can see mine HERE.
And go check out the others too:
Pat Sloan (Ok, so I ruined her surprise but she has a fun post , so go and check it out), JoAnn Mullaly (don't forget she wrote the book Wool Crazy, she knows what she's doin'!) and Roseann Kermes (who just happened to come up with the cacamamey idea and still hasn't posted her picture...ahem! I'm just sayin'!), check back for hers...or should I start send her hints on Facebook ? I'm so bad! LOL!
Did you "Like" me on Facebook??? Well, I have a little button on the sidebar! Hello? I'm so fancy now I even have a Facebook page, so don't forget to "Like" me, now that there are no "Fans" just "likers", LOL!
Back to "work" for me. I want to have something to show tomorrow but I have to finish cutting some kits before the fun begins. You're going to love my new project so come back soon! B=)
Update: Candy Corn Forrest pic posted on Facebook...

Friday, May 14, 2010

My House Has a Red Roof!

Look what I saw this afternoon when I went to check the progress on our roofing job
I'm so excited... lots to go but at least it's not a sea of Tyvek! LOL!
It's the little things that make me happy! =)
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Settler's Pride BOM Block 1, Done!

You thought I was goofing off, didn't ya? Well, I'll have you know that it's almost time to send out the next block of Settler's Pride so I was a woman on a mission. I needed to catch up, or almost catch up, with the Settler's Pride BOM ladies. I am now officially only one month behind schedule.
Take a look at what I did yesterday... I completed Block#1, TADA!!!! One down, only eight to go! Woo-HOO!

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Happy Mother's Day To Me!

The wait is over and today was my lucky day! I received the email informing me that the iPad I had ordered was in. I was sooo excited I rushed right over and there there it was...just waiting for me! ARGH!
And it almost got here in time for MD...hahahaha! This was my Mother's Day gift... my very own 64GB wi-fi+3G iPad,
woo-HOO!
OK, so I don't know how to do anything other than check my email on it and I did need to ask the salesperson to show me how the heck to do that, but I trust that I am capable of learning... I hope.
Oh, I know GP isn't a Mom, but he wanted one too so I gifted myself peace and quiet by buying him one too, LOL!
I just noticed his has lots of little squares on the "home" page...
wonder how he did that! ? HMMMM...

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Seeing Roosters, Now In Progress!

Have you ever set aside a pattern to make "someday", and one day you just find it again and decide "someday" has arrived? Well, that's exactly what happened to me this weekend. I found this awesome pattern that I had stashed away to make "someday" and thought it was the perfect one for a rainy and *ugh* soooo dreary weekend... and I was off! Hours of tracing and cutting later, this is what I have to show for my efforts:
TADAAAAA! Seeing Roosters, is now in progress! I still have SIX more roosters to cut out but I have six ready to sew, and I feel like a rock star!
woo-HOO! I'm halfway done...
Each rooster is unique and goes on a different colored background. These are on the same background because I wanted to show you the actual roosters but they will each be on a different color when they are stitched down. I am using all hand dyed woolens for the roosters and the background. I'm still deciding whether or not to machine applique them....
But I will mull that over as I cut out the last six...
Stay tuned; more Rooster news to come!

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Wool Crazy Pincushion, done!

After careful deliberation I decided that my contribution to Roseanne's pincushion would be Summer themed...which blended nicely with her Bee Skep. So, this is what I added: I used one of her crazy blocks and made a watermelon and then I added a flag (4th of July?) and some extra bees to fill in the spaces. I decided to stop because I have to leave space for everyone else to add their part. I did add a hand dyed button by Hillcreek designs. If she hates it it can be removed and awoolen star can be added...I like it so I will send it, as is.
Whew! One down, three to go! Wo-HOO!

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

It's A Wool Crazy Week!

I've made some progress on my Wool Crazy Pincushion. I added a few flowers and even decided that my first flower was looking a bit too "dowdy", so I put my seam ripper to good use and removed it. My new one will be added shortly. Here's what I have so far: And as I was working on my new flower.... look what arrived:
This is Roseanne Kermes Round Robin pincushion.
I am its first stop, woo-hoo! Now isn't that bee skep the bomb? Amazing!
I will be adding a little something to it but I will have to sleep on it before I decide...stay tuned... it's definitely a Wool Crazy week at the Pumpkin Patch!

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

On Being Alone in a Crowd

My vehicle's state inspection was due in April, and yet again, I had not had it inspected. Today I HAD to have it done, lest I be stopped and end up in some serious trouble (not sure what happens if you're caught without the inspection...they make you walk home, after they give you a hefty fine???)
Anyway, the problem was that it was HOT, muggy and just a bad day for GP so he did not want to go get out of the car once we arrived at the inspection site. He was already upset because it was too sunny so he had used the beach blanket to cover himself in the car and the only way I could get him out of the car was to tell him he could stay in his"tent"...
This is GP in the garage's waiting room.
A Mom's gotta do, what a Mom's gotta do!
(I took the pic with my cellphone; there was no one left in the waiting room and I don't think he even noticed.)
He sat there for twenty minutes and didn't make a sound.
Sometimes he just needs to be alone. =)

Monday, May 3, 2010

Wool Crazy Fun

The more I looked at my little pincushion reject, the more I thought it was just in need of some lovin' to make it shine. Needless to say, it didn't take long for me to pull out my scrap bag and start having some wool crazy fun. Three hours later, this is what I had:
TADA!
Hope you had some fun yesterday too. =)

Saturday, May 1, 2010

What the Heck is a Round Robin?

A robin who needs to join Weight Watchers?!
No, you silly goose!
A round robin is a sort of group project where each person makes something and ships it off to other "players" who add to it. When your project has made all the "rounds", it comes back to you so you can finish and enjoy it. Simple, eh? =) Yeah, right! I didn't know what it was either so don't even play it!
I was recently invited to join in a Round Robin project by some very talented ladies and I thought I'd share my adventure with you ...
what the heck, LOL!
The first thing I had to do was make something to ship out, a base/background. Since it's a Wool Crazy Round Robin (did I neglect to mention that? DUH! Ok, so it's a WC Pincushion RR) and it's supposed to turn into a pincushion in the end I thought I'd make it round, so here you go...this is what I came up with...But then I thought the spaces might be too small so I made a little witch's boot to get the craziness started and OOPS! It didn't fit! Crap! So, I made another one. This one I kept as a square which later I will fold over and make into a rectangle/cylinder and will have all sides covered in wonderful applique pieces.... here's how it turned out.

Are you lovin' the boot???? I have teenie weenie buttons to add to it but I thought I'd add the embellishments when it comes back. I will also add the embroidery stitches when it returns. For the initial send off we just needed to have the background pieced so I'm sending it off as it is... All machine pieces and machine appliqued.

The others will be done by hand but this one is for me and I'm perfectly happy with my machine stitched boot... I'm saving my handwork to impress the other ladies, LOL!

You can see the other pincushions before they leave home, they have pics and tutorials... I'd post a tutorial but you know what they say about the blind leading the blind, LOL!!!!

Now go check out how the experts do it.

Pat Sloan, JoAnn Mullaly, Roseann Kermes

April was National Autism Awareness Month!

And I just wanted you to know what Autism looks like to me.
I would write about it but I just can't...
Thank God it's over!