Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies!~ The heat has been much better here the last couple of days. We had a nice little downpour and then the temps and lowered some. We were not expecting the rain and we had shampooed the carpet.So needless to say that with the moisture in the air, it didn't completely dry until into the next day. On Sunday , when we had the rain , we had a beautiful double rainbow. You know , you usually just see the ends of the rainbow, but this one stretched all across the sky. These pictures of course do not do it justice.

I don't know if you can tell in this next picture here, but in real ife the second rainbow was more vivid. I sometimes think of the song "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" when I see one, but I always think of Noah and the Ark and the promise the rainbow represents.

Well , I got LHN's Virtue Sampler done . It was a lot of fun to stitch. I had planned on framing it and putting it in my laundry room , but now I am thinking of maybe making it into a quilted tote. I will have to think on that one.

I also stitched up part of the Two Roosters pattern from LHN. I am thinking about stitching this one a few times and finish it out a few different ways to have things in the kitchen co-ordinate. My Shaker style kitchen is quickly turning into a kitchen with more farm decor.

I wanted to give a shout out to a new blogger . Some of you have already seen her blog.Her name is Peggy Lee, go check out her blog. Yesterday Ma Teakettle gave a shout out on her and you should see how fast her blog followers are growing. I know last week, she had three,me and tow others. Yesterday morning she had 6, and then whammo, it jumped to 30! Can you imagine gaining 24 followers in one day?! That's quite impressive! Another one you can check out is Colorado Stitcher. She has deleted her old blog and has began a new one.

I will be taking a new project to work on and will be sitting up at the hospital for probably a good portion of the day. My husband's grandmother was taken to the hospital for sugar spikes and then huge and fast drops.She is a diabetic. Her blood pressure as of last night was staying fairly steady of around 67/44 which , of course , is not good. She has really been declining in the last several months so we shall see how it goes. Prayers and thoughts would be appreciated.

I will go. You all take care and have a lovely day! Thank you all so much for stopping by and for your kind comments.

'till next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

A little more patience

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies!~ Just popping in real quick to show you the picture of the progress that I intended to show you yesterday. I am hoping to make much more progress over the weekend. I've been taking it easy on my eyes so we shall see.

I"m not quite sure what to start next. I have so many things I'd love to jump in on. I will probably work a little more on VoHRH and start An Apple a Day from Plum Pudding Needleart. Decisions ,decisions!

Well I hope you all have a terrific weekend! Let's hope it's not too hot in your neck of the woods! Thank you all for visiting today and for all of your wonderful comments! I do appreciate them! I hope you enjoyed your visit today!

'till next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Some progress and an exchange

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies!~ I actually made it through the heat yesterday!! Man it was hot. My husband said that he heard that the heat wave was supposed to end last night, but Weather Bug says today that we are in for more. Weathermen; gotta love 'em. I sometimes think it is 90% guess, and 10 percent scientific! LOL!

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Yesterday hubby worked a blood drive at a Genral Mills convention. All of the employees that were working brought home two bags of groceries that they were giving away. I was pleasantly surprised. Below was just part of what he brought home as there were duplicates in the other bag. They even had a huge towel with a big blue "G" on the front. Hey , for free, I can live with a blue "G"! Oh, and you see those new pretzel M&M's upfront? I snagged those right away! LOL!

I found out from Barbara of Mainely Stitching that the exchange I sent her for the 4th of July Exchange I was in arrived. I stitched Bent Creek's Uncle Sam Flatbed and finished into a pin pillow. I think it turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself!





I got just a tiny bit more done on the Virtue Sampler. As I sit here typing, I see that I posted the same picture as I did yesterday . Whoops! Well , I guess I won't change it now since I would have to pull all of the pictures and repost them. So ,hopefully I don't pull the same bonehead move tomorrow!

Well, thank you all for your visit and for the wonderful comments! Keep 'em comin'!

'till next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

A little patience

Hello dear friends and blogging buddies!~ Man has it been hot here! I can hardly stand it! The air is still out and will be for some time as it is going to being costly to replace . :( It's not going to be fun to be without it for any length of time. It's 74 right now , not as hot as it has been for this time in the morning, however, our expected high is supposed to be around 95, yuk!!

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Well, they say that patience is a virtue and so it is befitting that it would be on the Virtue Sampler.I haven't been getting much stitching in as there have been other things that have needed my attention. I had hopes that I would get it finished this week ,but there isn't much hope of that happening since this is as far as I have gotten and I am needing to slack off of stitching this week because of eye strain. Gee, imagine that! LOL! Here is my progress so far.

You can't tell in this lousy picture,but I have dyed the fabric I am using a very pale olive green. In the view of daylight, it looks sort of a yellow- green , but I guess I will stick with it as I really don't want to take everything out and re-dye it.

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Well, I am keeping this short today as I have many things that I must get done. I hope you are all doing well, and that you can all stay cool! Thanks so much for the comments and the friendships. They mean a lot !

'till next time,

don't be stranger,

Sharlotte

Quilting tips and tricks

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies!~ Boy yesterday was so hot! Not the 69 degree temps the weatherman had predicted the day before. It was 86 by about 10 a.m. I think. I didn't even look after that. While I had Cottage Cheese Loaf baking in the oven, I noticed that it sure was hotter in the house than it should be. I checked it out and I about had a cow! Our airconditioning as went out!! It's not something that is going to be fixed anytime soon and it is only the middle of June!! We do have a attic fan but on the really really hot days, all that does is circulate hot air. They'll be lots of iced tea served in this hot today !!!!

Well, last week I mentioned having a quilting tips and tricks post this week and since today is Friday and I have ran out of "week" I guess it had better be today. Here is a book that I find very helpful and I think you will too!

1.For starters , I can't stress enough how important it is to have all of your supplies together in one place .It is such a time waster to have to go back and forth to get this and that, not to mention annoying.

2.Once all of your supplies is together , make sure that you check those things that may need attention, i.e. , do you need to fill bobbins for the sewing machine ,do you need more thread, does your rotary cutter need the blade changed? Those kinds of things.

3. Before I start a new project , I make sure that I read the entire pattern before hand. This can be tedious but you may very well find math errors that the editor didn't find. It's a terrible waste of time and fabric to find this out only AFTER you have cut your fabric.

4. I do my best to do all of the same tasks together. Examples of this would be sewing the same type of pieces together. If you are sewing a group of flying geese blocks, sew all one corner, press , trim , then sew all the next corner. Clipping the dog ears can be done all at the same time , tracing all applique pieces at the same time, those kind of things when grouped together can be such time savers.

5. If you don't have a lot of time to spend quilting , break that time up. You don't have to wait until you have a full day or half a day to quilt. You'd be surprized how far 10 or 15 minutes of piecing blocks will get you on your quilt. In the book above , Lynette calls sleeping a time bandit. We do need our sleep but when it is possible you can rise earlier than the rest of the family to create more productive quilting time. Lynette suggests that getting up just 30 minutes earlier one day a week will get you 26 extra hours of quilting a year. Rising 30 mintues earlier 3 days a week will give you 78 more hours a year. Doing this 5 days a week will give you of bonus of 130 hours a year! That can get lots of piecing done!

6. You can do all kinds of sewing tasks while talking on the phone. However, never use your rotary cutter while on the phone .You could miscut something or worse, cut yourself!

7. I always keep a medium tan color of thread on hand for piecing a quilt top. As a matter of fact it's a pretty "happy medium" color to use for most piecing . With the exception of piecing a very light colored quilt top , a cream or white colored thread would be best.

8. If I'm pressing smaller units or blocks, rather than get out the big ironing board, I just get out a big fluffy towel and fold it in half. It can be placed on the counter top, table or floor and used for small ,quick , pressing jobs. You're using it in such short intricles it shouldn't cause any damage. ALWAYS press across your seam and not up and down the seam. Up and down can cause the fabric to stretch and then the qulit top will be out of shape and not flat. Also , don't use steam when pressing biased pieces and it wil cause the bias to stretch as well.

9. When piecing a block that requires lots of pieces, them seams can start to get bulky. If you need to leave any pins in for those blocks ( especially those blocks with partial seams) when pressing, the pin heads can get in the way and they could melt. For this process I use needles instead of pins, as there are no heads to be in the way.

10. Chain piece whenever you can . It saves on time and thread. Save the clipping of the chain pieces apart ( and clipping dog ears too) for when you are watching your favorite t.v. show. That way you won't miss your show and STILL can be doing something productive toward your current project.

Well, that will do it for me today. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Thank you so much for your wonderful comments . They mean so much. Thanks for your visit today and come back real soon!

'till next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

A finish and an exchange arrived!!

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies!~ Well, I finally got the picture code thing figured out but now Blogger will only let me post two pictures. :( I am baffled, not computer savvy, so there's not really a whole lot I can do. I will hopefully be able to post pictures tomorrow that I wanted to post today.

I got Mrs. O'Leary's Dairy Farm done! Yay! I had so much fun stitching this. I am not sure of the frame but I have a couple of ideas I am kicking around. Hopefully I'll come up with something that I will be satisfied with.




Yesterday the mail brought me my 4th of July exchange stitched by Becky K. I have had her reputation for her impecable finishing and I can see why she has that reputation. It is fabulous! She stitched me a littlein cushion and matching scissor fob! I can't believe she had the patience for all of those beads! She had each one cleverly wrapped like fire crackers. It was so cute and I wish I had taken a picture of that before I had opened them. Thank you so much Becky! I love them both!

I'm still in sort of a reflective state that I had mentioned that I was in. It didn't have anything to do with learning about the passing of the friend's husband as it had started before then. I hope that it is over soon.There are some things a person just does't want to "revisit" you know?

Well, I started working on the Virtues Sampler from LHN . It is going to be a lot of fun too! I hope I wil be able to add a picture of that progress.

Thank you all so much for your wonderful comments, support , and friendship! It is really appreciated!! Thanks for visiting today and I hope you come again real soon!

"till next time,

Don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

The farm is growing

Greetings all!~ Well I am just a bit frustrated with Blogger this morning. I can't center my post. I posted a picture and it's just a text code so I will have to be careful and type around it. I know they have recently added a "design" feature and maybe that's throwing everything off , I don't know. My tools are gone from my blog, and the trash cans for deleting posts. Hubby fixed it once and then "poof" they were gone again. Urghh... Wordpress is looking pretty good right now!

Well, on to other things. The husband of a friend of mine passed away sort of unexpectedly. He had open heart surgery and his kidneys shut down. They were married 35 years, had 4 children , and two grandchildren and one on the way. Everyone is in shock. He will be missed by everyone that knew him!

I got some more progress done on Mrs. O'Leary's Dairy Farm. As a matter of fact, I have the chimeys, two trees to do , and the border and then I'm done!! It might be today , but I'm thinking it will probably be tomorrow evening before it is completed. I can hardly wait to start on my next project and I do need to put some more stitches in VoHRH.It's been a bit since I worked on that one.






I've been doing a lot of personal reflection lately. Thinking of things I haven't thought of in a long time. Other things I wish I could get off my mind. Kind of in a little melancoly state I guess you could say. Maybe... I don't know. Things will change soon.... I hope. I hope I am not the only one that gets like this. It's not really depression, it more rethinking things from the past. Did I learn the lessons that I needed to learn? Am I thinking about these things because there are more things to learn from it? Just a very odd place to be for me .

Well, I'm going to go before some of you think I am turning into some kind of a kook!LOL! I hope you all have a wonderful day, thanks for all of the lovely comments. They are so appreciated!!

'till next time,
don't be a stranger,
Sharlotte

Getting Personal

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies!~ Thank you all so much for your comments yesterday! I have forgotten to thank you for your thoughts and prayers for the family concerning my husband's aunt. I'm so sorry about that . I appreciate it so much!

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Before I get on with the rest of my post, I want to talk to candidly about a subject that is very important to me and hopefully will be to you as well. When was the last time you did a self breat exam?? I'm being serious. Do you do it when you think about it, once a year, once a month (like you should) or never?? When I was doing this I wondered about how many of you take the time to do it. Now please don't think I was being a pervert because I thought of you while doing it. I just know that even with today's knowledge and how high the risk is, there are still women , and yes men, who do not partake in the ritual. Almost two and a half years ago, I went with my mother for a mamogram. She hadn't had one for eons. But her doctor found something that concerned him and told her to have it done. A week later she got the results and it confirmed our fears. In just a very few days , she and I were at the surgeon's office for a consultation. She would have to have a mastectomy . I asked the surgeon how comfortable he was with the size of the lump and he told us that there was hope and that he unfortunately sees that size all of the time. You know what size it was ? It was about the size of a quarter , but spherical and starting to spill out on one side. He sees that size so much because people do not take the time to examine themselves. I mean really examine themselves. It's not just a matter and poking around a little bit. Get on the internet and educate yourself about how to do it.Keep a journal of each months findings, ask your doctor or the American Cancer Society or whatever your local cancer organization you have if you're not in America , and get a self -exam card to hang in your shower. Just do it! You owe it to yourself and your family! :) Btw....my mom is getting ready to head into her second year of remission!

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Ok, now let's get on with something a little more pleasant. I worked some more on Mrs. O'Leary and it filled the door in all of the way. Now it looks like a door and not a cellphone! This is soooo much fun to work on ! I'll be sad when it's over ,but I have a ton of other patterns that I can stitch up , so I certainly won't be bored!:)

This may sound silly , but when I was finished with LHN's Little House Neighborhood, I really really missed working on it . So much so that I was "stuck" and couldn't think for several days what to stitch! Like I said, silly!

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I thought I would leave you today with a little list of some blogs for you to checkout this weekend.Some of these may be some you've seen and some may not. So without further ado, here they are:

Carol

Melanie

Sherri

Maggee

Lynne

Well, that it for me today. Thank you all for stopping by and sharing some of your time with me. Hope you all have a super weekend!!

'till next time,

Don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Moooo....

Greetings all!~ Thank you so much for your wonderful comments yesterday , and always. You make my day ! Stitchers are just THE best! I have had a few questions aksed of me about quilting tips . I thought I would plan on a having a little tips and tricks post next week. I hope it doesn't bore those of you who are not interested in quilting. :)

Well, yesterday Kathy asked what I was going to work on next. Well, that would be Mrs. O'Leary's Dairy Farm! I worked on it last night while watching Sleepless in Seattle. There are a few movies that, even though I own them, I can't help but watch them when they are on t v. This is one of those movies. Here is my progress.

For those of you that haven't seen this pattern before, it is one of the new ones from LHN ( Little House Needleworks) . Just go to the new patterns page.

Oh, but it is going to be hot today! I stand corrected on the rain thing. My husband informed me yesterday, after I had made my post, that it did in fact rain cats and dogs during the night. I slept right through it! I have been so tired the last couple of days . I took a nap on Tuesday and during that time, we had some repair men come and fix the garage door. My husband said that I slept through all the banging. I didn't even know that they had shown up until he told me the door was fixed. I get up a couple of hours before everyone else does so I can have some "me" time. I guess all of that early rising and going to bed late has caught up with me!!

Well all of my exchange stitching is done, I just have to do the finishing. I can now sit back and relax about having that done. I don't have any others that I have signed up for so I think I will probably take the summer off from exchanging other than Round 2 of the BBD Stocking exchange in late summer, so I can do some for myself. We'll see.

Well girls and guys, I am off to do some housework. Hope you all have a wonderful day and stay cool! Thanks for visiting!!

'till next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

A little Autumn Song

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies!~ I want to thank you all for your thoughts and prayers concerning our family's loss. It is appreciated more than you know! Thanks also for the wonderful comments on my quilt top. It was so much fun to piece and I was sad when I was finished. :( A good sad though!

Goodness , it was so hot and humid here yesterday. We had a 90 % chance for thunderstorms last night ,but it didn't . At least not here in town, I don't know if the surrounding towns got anything or not.

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Been doing some more work on Autumn Song. Well, ok, I finished it. I still have the pincushion and the alphabet band to go. I'll need to wait until the Fall themed fabrics come in to finish it into a sewing box, as I don't really think I have anything appropriate to use. I was at Hobby Lobby last week, and they are already getting in some Fall flowers and pumpkins and a few other things! Can you believe it?! Well crafters that have booths in the Fall season do have to have their supplies early ,but the 4th of July isn't even here!! I suspect that the Fall fabric will soon follow so I will probably find something before too long. Anyway, I just loved stitching this!!! I can hardly wait to see it come together!

If some of you are wondering why I am only posting about 3 times a week now or haven't commented on your blogs much , you can blame Blogger for that. Well, I know I did say that I was going to slow down on posting , but here lately , it's been because I can't log in and post hardly without getting a "timed out" notice. That happens when I try to comment on blogs , or even visit them as well. Also I keep having to retype my password as it will tell me that my password is wrong and I KNOW it very well isn't ! Very frustrating!

Well , I will step off of my soapbox now and let you get on with your day!! I hope it's a good one for you , and by all means I hope it's cool!!! Thank you so much for stopping by today and come back and visit real soon!

'till next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Some stash, some mail, and a finish....

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies!~ I am so glad you all stopped by today , I will try not to bore you! Been puttering around trying to get some things done. So many things, so little time. You all know how that goes right? Things have calmed down for us a little . We did spend Saturday attending a funeral for my husband's aunt. I know a few of you knew what was going on with her and she passed away on June 1st, our anniversary. She was a very sweet lady and will be truly missed.

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Well.... she's at it again!! If you guessed "she" is Shirley, you'd be right! I received a lovely package in the mail with the remaining Hawk Run Hollow patterns and a couple of Little House Needleworks patterns! One of which, is a new one that I was dying to have, Mrs. O'Leary's Dairy Farm. So guess what? Well, I started it of course!! Thanks again so much Shirley for your kindness and generousity and for just being you!!

Faye and I have done a borrowing swap and she sent the pattern back to me that she borrowed. Look what she sent. Counting pins that she made herself!! They are lovely and I am disgusted that I can't get a better shot! I know a few of you have received these and are just tickled pink like me!! I'm sorry that I haven't emailed you yet to let you know they arrived, I do love them and have already put them to use!

I got the piecing pretty much done for 9-Patch Charm Walk. I just need to add a border when I can get the fabric. I had so much fun piecing this and cutting went very very quickly!

Well, I just had enough time to pop my head in here real quick to get some pictures posted .Also to let you know a little bit about what's going on with me. What's going on in your world? Thanks so so much for stopping by and spending part of your day with me. I know your time is valuable and I appreciate it so much that you spend a snippet of your time with me. Thank you from the bottom of my heart! I hope you all have a blessed day!

'till next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

More Quilting

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies!~ Have you all been staying cool?! Boy it's real muggy here. I know it will only get worse as well move more into summer. i've been staying busy with the usual and then some. I've worked on some exchange stitching so I don't reall have much to show in the way of stitching.

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I have been getting in a little quilting time. Thanks to the Thimberries tips and tricks , and a few of my own, I've been able to fit some in in the 5-10 min increments that I've had. I have gotten the first row pieced for the 9-Patch Charm Walk and here is the progress in two pictures.

I really like the fabric and color combinations . The aster print in the third patch , in the first row, of the first 9-patch of the second picture, (have I confused you yet? LOL) reminds me of some wall paper that I seen in a house when I was really little. It's almost the same. Isn't it funny how we can retrieve little things here and there from our memory? It's funny because I can almost smell that old wall paper! It's starting me to think of my grandmother's house so I better quit before I cry.

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Well I have to race out the door soon... yes this early! I will go for now. I want to thank you all for your continued visits and for the wonderful comments . I appreciate them all and I appreciate you all! I have enjoyed learning what some of YOUR favorite things are! Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!

'till next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

A few of my favorite things...

Greetings all!~ Thank you for the wonderful commenting yesterday and for the anniversary wishes! Much appreciated! For those that are in the BBD stocking exchange, I changed the mail date from June 30th to July 1st. I know it is only a day's difference , but since I didn't get the partner info sent out until yesterday ,I figure I owe you a day. :)

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Do some of you have favorite things that you use for your needlework? I know I do. Below is a few of my favorite things. One of my favorite things is a matress pin cushion that I got from Diane in an exchange we did in January. I love that the pincushion is flat and doesn't roll away from me. It is a regular staple in my supplies.Of course when quilting I must use a rotary cutter. I remember back before they came around. Man, am I glad that we don't have to cut all those blocks out by tracing then cutting by hand! I love those scissors too.Those were a gift from the lovely Jolene as well as was the wonderfully stitched and finished floss tag you see there.What stitcher can do without some fabulous overdyed floss? Isn't it great? Two new things I have fallen in love with is the stitchers station and the needle minder. You may remember those from a few posts back. They were a gift from Shirley. She and I are becoming friends through email and she is just the nicest!!

Well ,I caved! I was going to try to stitch one thing at a time, but I just can't do it!! So here is a start on Autumn Song from BBD. I have wanted to do this one for such a long long time.I will be stitching the pincushion too of course. I can hardly wait to get it all stitched and finished into a sewing box! It will be so grand!!

Well, I know you all have a ton of blogs to read so that will do it for me.Thanks so much for your visit today! I hope you all have a wonderful day and try to stay cool!!

'till next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte

Some quilting and some finishing

Greetings dear friends and blogging buddies!~ I hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend! We spent some time making our rounds to the cemeteries and paying tribute to those in our family who have served in the military. It is always a humbling time. We were also called away to the hospital to say goodbye to my husband's aunt who has been fighting lung cancer. That was a very sad time, such a sweet lady. Most of the rest of the time was spent relaxing and doing some of our favorite things. Guess what today is? It is our 14th wedding anniversary! I can't believe it's been that long. You know what they say, time flies when you're having fun!

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Edgar let me know via email that his win for the drawing I had arrived so now I can show a picture of it. Some of you have probably already seen it on his blog I'm sure. It was a stocking by BBD called Fourth of July and was ,of course, from the July stockings pattern. I had so much stitching one that I HAD to stitch another one! I didn't take a picture of the one that I sent Edgar as I already had a picture of the one I stitched for myself so I'm just recyling that picture.

I got the Bent Creek Patriotic Row piece done! I am excited of how it came out. It was such a quick stitch too! Thanks again Natalie!

Other than finishing off Patriotic Row, I took a stitching break to rest my eyes. In doing so , I got the rest of the blocks pieced for the 9-patch charm walk quilt. Now all I have to do is sew the blocks together, then in rows, and add the border, and I will be all done piecing the top! Using those charm packs sure make the cutting process a lot faster, which is my least favorite part of quilting.

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For those of you that are signed up for the BBD stocking exchange, I will get the names out in an email later today. Thanks to all of those that were brave enough to sign up for my first exchange organizing!

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That will do it for this edition of The Happy Needle Chronicles. Thank you all for stopping by and visiting today! I hope you come again real soon!

'till next time,

don't be a stranger,

Sharlotte