Just a quick 'Hi'

Hello everybody! This is just a quick little post so that you all don't forget who I am! Below is a picture that I have had on the computer for a while but don't think I've ever shared on the blog. It is a quilt I made a few years back called 'For All Those Scrappy Times'. It was a McCall's Quilting pattern and though it was a simple pattern to do, it turned into a nightmare! I spent a few years collecting fabrics for it,no big deal there. Then when I had together all the fabrics I wanted to use , I followed the cutting instructions and cut my fabric. Well , they made a cutting 'error' and that caused a huge waste of fabric. Well , no so much a waste as I could use that fabric at some point for another quilt, just not the one I wanted to use it on. I contacted them, let them know my problem, and they stated that in the following issue they had made a 'correction'. Well a lot of good that did me. I mean who buys every single issue of a particular quilting magazine? I for sure don't! They appologized and said that all they could do was send me a free issue and took my name and address. Well , they didn't even do that. I contacted them several weeks later and asked them where my magazine was and no response whatsoever. I still have never bought another one of their magazines. Call me petty ,but I was really upset about it. Since I had had the fabrics for awhile , by the time I went to purchase fabric again to finish cutting the quilt, the original fabric choice was no longer available. As it turns out, the new fabric I bought I liked much better than the first . That led me to finding a new fabric designer that I just love, Sandy Gervais.

Sorry there's not much detail in this picture. I'll probably get around to taking a better one eventually. The dark blue fabric for the hour glass block is from the Stitches on the Oregon Trail collection from Kansas Troubles, another favorite fabric designer of mine. The yellow/gold print is the fabric from Sandy Gervais but I can't for the life of me remember what that collection was. Any guesses out there?

Ok, ok, so this wasn't such a quick post after all ! Sorry!

'tll next time,

Sharlotte

MIA

Greetings everyone! I just wanted to kind of update you all . I know I haven't been posting but I really don't like to write posts without pictures. The guys are still in the woods deer hunting and as far as I know ( or they get a deer, fingers crossed) they will be there through the weekend. I have mentioned before that they took the camera with them to the woods, but I'll mention it again incase someone missed that post. Because of that , there will be no gift idea this Friday either. Hard to write a tutorial post without pictures. ; ) The guys will be in town for a while today as they had to come back for a funeral. My husband's cousin passed away from cancer but it was still somewhat of a surprise to everyone that he had passed away so soon as he was not yet at the stage that most are when they pass away from it. He was such a sweet man.

While the cats away the mice will play right? While the guys have been gone, I've been busy stitching of course. I have also been busy doing lots of cleaning and decluttering. Very hard to do when someone is around to say 'oh I was saving that'. LOL! I have also been busy planning Thanksgiving and where we will be putting the tree this year and other Christmas decorating. I won't pull a thing out until after Thanksgiving though. We never decorate for Christmas until Thanksgiving has passed.We don't like to overshadow the holiday. I do want to have a little quilted turkey banner done for Thanksgiving, but with it being only a week away, I highly ,highly doubt it. Oh well, another time perhaps.

I probably won't have another post until after I have the camera to use. Posts look so 'empty' without pictures don't they?

Thanks for all the wonderful comments on the last post. I appreciate that you take the time to read my ramblings.

'til next time,
Happy Stitching,
Sharlotte

A couple of finishes

Hello everyone! I have a couple of finishes that I wanted to share with you. This first one is of the acorn pattern that is an extra pattern on the Cross-Eyed Cricket Be Ye Thankful chart that I won from Jolene. I plan on finishing it either as a basket lid or shaker box top. Not sure which yet but Thanksgiving is right around the corner so I need to decide soon.

This next one is a freebie pattern from Primitive Traditions and Needlework Press. It was intended by the designers to be stitched with a shade of blue from Crescent Colours with the word 'persevere' at the bottom . I omitted the word and used Crescent Colours Wild Berries for the the flower and a dark olive shade from DMC for the bottom. I stitched it on 32 count lambswool linen. I was hoping that the color changes would make it look like a poinsetta and I think it pretty much does. I then made it into an ornament . The fabric in the background is what I used for the backing. I don't know if you can tell much in the picture but the backing fabric is mistle toe and has a little sparkle to it. I made a two color cording out of an olive green shade and a dark red shade from DMC, specifically 3051 and 221. I like the way it turned out. Simple but elegant at the same time.

Here's a little close up.

Not much to write about today. I got extremely busy this past week and didn't get a chance to work on the Friday homemade gift idea. I won't be able to do it tomorrow morning either as the guys will be in the deerwoods and they are taking the camera. So unless I dig up some pictures of past projects, I won't have anything to show for a post either so I may not be posting for a few days. :( Sorry about not having the time to think ahead this week and not have anything to post tomorrow like I had scheduled. I must make it up by coming up with a really good gift idea to make up for it.

Thanks to all of you for your wonderful posts. They are so appreciated!

'til next time,

Sharlotte

Have you heard the news??

I was at my local quilt shop today and one of the women that work there told me that Weeks Dye Works is going colorfast!! I was thrilled to hear the news. She said that they are going to be changing their labeling ,but until they do, if you pick up a skein of Weeks and it has a red dot on the name card, that means that it was from their colorfast batch. Now I would imagine that their competitors would follow suit to keep the customers coming back. If they were wise they would. Didn't know if any of you had heard this and thought I would pass it on. Now lets hope it's not a nasty rumor! LOL!

'til next time,
happy stitching,
Sharlotte

Some Fall baking ...and a few pics

Hello everyone! Well I was in the kitchen yesterday and started to get a whif of bananas. I looked in the bowl and sure enough the banana peelings were getting pretty brown. It was banana bread making time. Alex and I had a quick home ec lesson in bread making. We whipped up a simple but good recipe and tossed in some chopped walnuts. An hour later we had this wonderful loaf of banana-nut bread. I'm not a huge banana bread fan but it was really pretty good.

I finished my own strawberry a couple of days ago. It didn't turn out as nice as the one I made for Jolene. It will do though. I didn't take the time to make the pins. I may do that while the guys are away.

I've been working on a pinon pines quilt from designer/quilter Robert Callaham for quite some time now. I will get back to it, but I was in need of something for our bedroom windows. I made some valances using some of the same fabrics from the quilt to make prairie points along the bottom. I didn't want to make them very full as I wanted the prairie points to show nicely, however , I think that's why the header won't stand up nicely.I didn't realize until after I had taken the picture that I really need to clean the mini-blinds. Hopefully you can't see that in the picture!!

Here's a little closer look.

Well that's it today. Thanks for all of your nice comments. You all are great!!

'til next time,

Happy Stitching!

Sharlotte

Whirlwind state of mind

Greetings all! Today's great site is John's blog over at http://quiltdad.com/. I know that this isn't a stitching blog , but I also know that there are a lot of you that are into more types needlework besides just stitching. John is very talented and if you like what I call "the new wave of quilting", you'll enjoy his blog. He will show you that it's not your Grandmother's quilting anymore.

I know I missed a few days posting last week. Our lives have been pretty eventfull. We witnessed a robbery and had to go through the details with the police. We've been trying to double up on school since the guys will be in the deer woods for a week and a half. We've been busy running to this sale and that to get what they need. We had to replace the front tires on the car, so there went my spending money for the beautiful yarn that was on sale! We learned that a friend's breast cancer has returned after seven years of remission and we also found out that my husband's aunt has lung cancer in both lungs. So my mind has been... well ... occupied. I have given myself some time to breathe though. During those times I have done some stitching at least.

Here is a pattern from LHN that I have wanted to work on for a long time and just needed the motivation. I had joined the beCAUSE It's Pink exchange on HOE / HOE II and recieved some lovely pink linen by Silkweavers from Caroline P and decided that it would be perfect for this pattern. I will be turning it into a large needlebook and floss keeper. Here is the results of my weekend effort.

I had a couple of buttons left over from a baby sweater I had made awhile back and thought that one of the buttons I had left over would be perfect for it. Hope you can see the detail in the picture.

While in Branson looking for hunting gear , I needed to take a break so we went into Cecilia's Samplers for a bit to look around. They are no longer going to be carrying DMC Perle Cotton #3 and had bags of 10 marked for $1 a bag. Well I wasn't going to pass that up. I came home with 3 bags. They had placed 11 in one bag instead of 10 so I now have 31 skeins , originally marked for $1 a skein, for a grand total 0f $3! I figure I can use it for ornament hangers and so forth.


I worked some on the Be Ye Thankful piece and here is that progress.



Worked some more on Long Winter from Bent Creek that I started last year. Can you see the tiny little skater on the pond? I'm getting close to being done. I'm thinking either a navy blue or rusty red frame for this.




I had gotten a free pattern by JABC from Cecilia's the last time I was there. I wasn't sure whether or not I would stitch it so I popped it in the mail to someone. I then , of course, decided I would stitch it and had to get another copy. I had a small bit of blue evenweave that I tried some dye out on. I thought I would try to squeeze it in on it. Since it's 28 count it's stitching up to big for the tree I think. I will probably make it into a small pillow or bowl filler, I'm not sure.

Well , that's it for today. I will try to post something in a day or two.We'll see how it goes.

'til next time,

Happy Stitching,

Sharlotte

Homemade gift idea #4 - Toffee Delight

Well here we are again friends for another Friday gift idea. Today is Toffee Delight and it is really good. If you like Heath candy bars, you'll like this one.

Supply list:

1 c. butter or margarine (plus a little more for buttering a cookie sheet)

1 1/3 c. sugar

1 T. light corn syprup

1/4 c. water

4-oz. milk chocolate bar

8- oz. package pecan pieces ( if using a bag that is very fine pieces , you won't need the whole bag)

candy themometer - I'll teach you how to test without one if you don't have one.

Using a medium sized heavy saucepan ( it will boil over in a small one) , melt butter , then add sugar,corn syrup and water. Insert candy themometer and cook , stirring often until mixture reaches "hard" crack stage, 300 degrees. If you don't have a candy themometer, wait until the mixture is pretty golden brown and thickening. Use a spoon and drop a tiny bit of the mixture in very cold water. Wait a minute and take the piece out and try to break it. If it bends it is at the "soft" crack stage and it isn't ready. If it breaks when you try to bend it, it's at the "hard" crack stage and it's done. Just keep testing in cold water until it reaches "hard" crack stage if it wasn't ready the first time. REMEMBER, you're working with quite a bit of sugar and this mixture will get very hot ,very fast. I highly recommend you don't do any taste testing, you'll burn the heck out of your tongue!

Pour onto a buttered cookie sheet and spread evenly. You'll need to work quickly at this stage because it will set quickly as it cools and will be harder to work with. It may pull away from the edges and corners a little ,but that's ok as long as you have almost the entire pan covered. Cool completely on the counter top using potholders or a wooden cutting board (to protect the counter) and not in the fridge.Keep flat to insure an even set.

When cooled completely, melt chocolate and sread over the top. Sprinkle on the pecan pieces. Chill until hard and break into pieces. I twist my cookie sheet like plastic ice trays, to give myself a starting point. Line a decorative tin with wax paper and fill the tin. This is a great recipe for giftgiving and just about anyone will just love it.

That's it for today. Hope you enjoy trying out the recipe.

'til next time,

Sharlotte