Happy Sunday!

Well you knew it wouldn't be long right? Yup, I've started yet another project... seriously... what is wrong with me???

Scraps ball!

I'm seriously beginning to doubt my sanity here...

Gotta have a system!

Just when I thought I had enough of something, I head back in for some more????? Didn't I just get finished with complaining about having too much to do????

Extra mini!

I once heard that the definition of insanity is doing something over and over again expecting different results. Yup! I guess that seals it - I'm insane. 

But there is a bright side here! No pressure :) Meaning, this quilt is not for anyone. I'm just doing it because. If it comes out beautiful - yey me! If it comes out horrendous and I have no other choice but to burn it - YEY me! So I guess you could say I'm officially addicted. My stitchy bug has taken a vacation. She's been replace while on haitus with the quilting bug (if that's what you call it).

This one is made out of a set of fat quarter precuts by Moda, called Seasonal Elegance. I simply love the muted Christmas colours. Certainly seems to be the trend this winter actually. But I love that the colours are not overtly Christmasy at first glance. Instead the mix of the mild green/reds/silvers blend wonderfully with the unique patterns that are in this collection to put it in the "Christmas Category".

While I'm in the Christmas-y mood here's one for road:

Happy Holidays!

Melissa

Happy Wednesday!

Well I'm very happy to announce that I'm finished with working at the factory... the factory being the dining room table and sewing machine.

I've officially completed ALL the Christmas gifts I had planned! I can't believe I did it... and ahead of time too! I was convinced I was going to slaving away on the machine on Christmas Eve. NOPE, not this time! Alllllll done :)

Before I show you any pictures I have to tell you that the camera just doesn't do justice to the vibrancy of the colours what-so-ever. It's pretty well dark when I leave for work in the morning and dark when I get home so there's not much opportunity to snap a good picture that either shows the right colours or that doesn't have a shadow in it!

Now onto the projects! 

Another 8 placemats for my grandmother donzo:

The true colours of the placemats shown here. It was late afternoon when I snapped this pic so a little shaddy!

I used the same 'tablecloth' material for the backing in these mats as I used in the other set I did not that long ago. 

I just love this fabric! Bought it for 50/60% off or something like that. Have to say I think these will look brilliant on her dining room table :)

I also finished up a throw blanket for my brother. He loves watching TV with a blanket in tow. The fabric was generously donated from my mom, who still has TONS of the top fabric you see here:

It's a nice heavy material for top and on bottom I have a softer fabric that is bound to be nice and warm. I don't think it's quite flannel but it's definitely got a similar feel to it. Originally I thought I might quilt this but I was a little worried with how heavy the fabric was and how hard it would be free motion this one. So, since the top fabric is spectacular, I didn't see much harm in leaving it be.

I was so absorbed in my sewing on Sunday that I didn't even notice the snow storm blow in. One minute it was crystal clear, the next I turn around and meet a wall of white. Couldn't even see the road. Believe it or not, I love snow. It's just the removal of said snow after everything has calmed down that sucks... I'm sure many of you might agree. In anycase I'm hoping the snow sticks around until after Christmas... our temps generally yo-yo this time a year... so much so they could give you whiplash. ANYWAY, nothing like a White Christmas really! SO Mr. Snow, BRING IT ON!

I'll leave you now with some puppy pics! They LOVE the snow :)

Wishing you all the very best this Holiday Season!

Melissa

... BUT lots of SEWING!

Happy Tuesday everyone and welcome to November!

My hands have been very busy over the last couple of weekends doing everything but stitching. Which I need to get at!!! I miss you my dear cross stitch. 

With, dare I say it, Christmas on the horizon, I've been busy planning projects to give as gifts. Being a little cash strapped for gifts this Christmas, I've been searching for a way to give the people I care most about something special, that will mean a lot, and not break the bank all at the same time. 

And lets face it... I'm not about to be giving away my cross stitch projects (the big ones that is) to anyone anytime soon. I'm not the fastest stitcher, so when I finish a project I have so much emotional and sentimental attachment to it that I just can't bring myself to give it up. AKA: I love them too much.

Perhaps this is a little selfish of me, but I can't see giving away something I've spent literally WEEKS if not MONTHS on. Also there's that other danger that some of you stitchers may relate to, that you work months on a beautiful piece and then big moment comes where you give it to the person it was intended for annnnnnd... nothin'. They don't appreciate... maybe they don't even EVER hang it up! Or worse still they could be like "what on earth is this...." in the bad way. 

All I have to say is: NOPE not going there. I've heard way to many horror stories to even consider giving away any of my cross stitches to anyone but my mom (a cross stitcher herself). 

What I HAVE decided to do is make some quilted items for some special people. I already had a few jelly rolls lying around and just bought some majorly discounted x-mas fabric, so I figure I'll make something out of them. 

A pic of my first quilt... all for me :)

Love the colours :)

New project! Made from a Jelly Roll.

All my scraps! Not bad eh?

Why not……

Pining of the quilt top with help of my best friend. You'd be
surprised how fast 100 pins disappear…

I've literally spent the last two weekends piecing, cutting, sewing, ripping..., and sewing some more. I never thought my back could ache so much!!! I woke up this morning and I swear every bone in my upper chest and whole back cracked. As I'm going through the work day, and even as I write now, just the littlest movement lets off an extremely satisfying crack. Hopefully my bones and muscles will get used to this soon because I think it's fair to say I've been bitten by the quilting bug!!! I just want to do it alllllllll :)

At the moment I'm balancing two projects. One that is almost done and one that I picked up after discovering that I didn't have enough fabric to finish the first one... naturally, since I couldn't finish quilt 1 and was looking forward to a night at the sewing machine I got to work on a second project... what is wrong with me!!!!!??????

As of last night here's where I was at with both projects...

FINALLY DONE!!! ( Took me 7 weeks!) Not bad for my first quilt is it? :)

Project number 2

I started sewing all the block together last night! By a happy mistake I ended up have enough material in my stash to do sashing for the two small quilts I have planned outta this project. At lunch hour today I made a little trip to the fabric store to pickup the rest of the material I need... I stayed up until 1am last night trying to figure out the math.... ugh. 

Trying to figure out how much material one needs for a project is much like a puzzle .. a puzzle that makes your head hurt after a very short period of time...

Anyway, that's all for now folks! Hopefully I get to put a few stitches in on my cross stitch projects soooooooon!

xo

Melissa

Happy Thursday,

I have a new finish and start to show you all today! I haven't taken part in IHSW for a LONNNNG time, despite my best efforts. It's easy to let life whisk away your weekend I find, so hermitting can be a bit of a challenge. This weekend past however I found myself with a little extra time on my hands than usual and decided that some quality time with my stitching and netflix was in order :) I stitched until my hands and fingers went tingly and watched a season and a half of Bones. Yup I think I'd qualify this as a successful weekend!

I finished another house in the Santa's Village series by CCN and have another waiting in my WIPs bag just waiting for a start. I have 5 out of the 12 in the series right now... and NOW CCN has announced another series called Frosty Forest! I'm going to have to speed up because I find myself already loving the concept of Frosty Forest... oh dear ;)

Santa's Stocking Store
Country Cottage Needleworks
Stitched on 32ct Opalescent Belfast

I also put a start in on L*Ks new Mystery Sampler, Holly and Hearts.

I've been dying to start in on this sampler and have had it waiting in the lineup for a while. But I was being very disciplined and made myself hang off on starting until I finished my Santa's Village WIP! YEY for willpower.

Unfortunately, Santa's Magic has been neglected over the past week or so... just because I'm working with Kernik thread now and I hate it.

I figure once I've put the last stitch in part one of the L*K mystery sampler I'll kick my but in gear and continue on with Santa's Magic. I find with large intricate projects I always like a little side project just so I can take a break from it from time to time. Anyone else do this?

Also, do you notice how everything I'm working on right now is Christmas related?! I must have an obsession subconsciously... 

Ciao for now!

Melissa

Welcome to my Blog!!! First post - WOW. I can't believe I'm doing this actually, but I love the idea of chronicling my progress on my cross stitching efforts as well as anything else that may pop up along the way. So here I am - now let's dive in!

It's another grey foggy day here in Newfoundland... which makes it the perfect day to do nothing. Laze around - cook the turkey for Easter Dinner (thankfully pre-stuffed... thank you Butterball for making my life easier :) ), do a bit of stitching, do some laundry. My two pups don't feel that way that's for sure. Meet Leia an Irish Setter and Blue and English Setter - they have got to be two of the most rambunctious pups on the face of the Earth and being only 4 months old respectively certainly does nothing if not make them more energetic. Quiet moments since welcoming them into the house have been few and far between, and nap time has got to be my favourite time of day. Being so young means puppy proofing just about everything, which I've been pretty successful at so far having only lost one pair of shoes and a belt to the critters. My current cross stitching effort has also (thus far) escaped the wandering noses and worse more the jaws of these two devils in disguise. Despite my nagging fear that one day I'll wake to a destroyed house, I am absolutely in love with these two dogs. LOVE. So playful and the unconditional love is so rewarding. The puppy stage is certainly not easy but the companionship far out-weights the negative - most of the time ;) Thankfully I care share the pup-sitting duties with the rest of my family. Being 26 and living at home does have it's perks at times...

Soon this will change with any luck and I'll be off on my own. In fact I'm considering building a house the old fashioned way - with my own two hands. No I'm not kidding. My Dad actually built all the houses we've lived in so far and we're putting the finishing touches on my brother's house now. I'm sure I may be getting in over my head but again this is a case were the positives out-weight the negatives and the short term pain I'll being through. I've got roughly 6 months to start getting my ducks in order, house plans, lot clearing, etc etc etc. Lots of decisions to be made from now and plenty of 'wait-and-see'ing to the start of MY house (god that sounds sooo good) so I'll be keeping ya posted!!!!

Now onto my current cross stitching project! This is my first project in quite sometime and I'm eager to see the final product. I'm planning on this being a Christmas Gift for my brother and girlfriend to go on the bare wall of their new house. I LOVE the designs of Lavender and Lace, there's something so elegant about them and the colours are so rich. In particular the boarder of 'Oh Christmas Tree' is simply gorgeous - but the gold floss I've been working with has been difficult to say the least. Enjoy the pic's!!!

Happy Easter - 'til next week!

- Melissa