Happy Tuesday!

I'm happy to say I'm finally getting back into blogging again and am seriously trying to catch up on reading all your lovely blogs. I can genuinely say "I MISSED YOU!" :)

I was reviewing some of the older posts on my own little section of the blogosphere and saw this...

Pitiful....... 

Seriously?! 6 whole posts in the first 4 months of 2014. What's wrong with you Melissa???? Get your butt in gear!.

1 Post for all of February and April and nothing in January. SERIOUSLY????

OH! And here's the kicker - I forgot about my Blogoversary!

WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO THE LAST 4 MONTHS OF MY LIFE???????

I can honestly say I don't think I realized quite how absent I've been of late :( It's only recently that I've been getting a real itch to get back to the finer, less DIY more crafty things in life. I miss it terribly. There's nothing I love more than stitching a few 'x's at the end of the night during my favourite TV show or running a bit of fabric through the machine at the crack of daybreak. 

Myself and Phil took yesterday off from the house, and despite the fact that we were crazy busy during the day shopping for the house rather than working ON the house.... despite the fact that the only time I get to myself these days is often spent soaking the ache out of my bones in a bathtub.... at the end of the day, when the hand on the clock was headed for 7pm I found myself BORED OUT OF MY MIND. 

If I was still in my teens, this would be an excellent turn of events. I would have thought "YEY! 3 hours to veg out of the couch and watch TV or go for a drive with friends or even to play some sort of video game". While I still like doing some of these things even now was an adult, I find it beyond difficult to spend any down time I might have not doing something productive. I've turned into my teen self's worst nightmare. But you know what??? I love it! More power to you adult Melissa!!! 

I kid you not. I cannot wait to get home today and start the next project! Will it be hanging some doors? Or perhaps painting the study? Or maybe even sanding down the walls/ceiling of the living room????

When the house is finally allll finished, I'm not sure if I could ever go back to a slower pace of life. I imagine doing more crafty projects, I imagine making curtains for my new house, I imagine more DIY projects. I don't ever want to stop :)

SO prepare yourselves for an influx of blog posts! This girl got a lot to show you from here on out!

Until next time!

Melissa

Happy Thursday Everyone!

I don't know about you but this whole Daylight Savings switch over has got me bushed. My eyes are stinging, I've been chugging coffee like it's gasoline for an empty car. Seriously, I'm just trying to get through this day...

I love you daylight and the fact that I no longer have to drive home in the dark... And I know that with the longer days that means we're just one more step closer to spring! But why oh why do you have to rob me of that one extra hour of sleep?! I'm actually shocked that I'm feeling this so much. I don't remember losing that one hour of sleep hitting me like truck so much ever before!!!! Gahhhhhhhhh. Here's hoping I can trick my body into thinking all's normal tomorrow!

This past week, before the time change went and played havoc with my internal clock, I made lots of progress on my next quilty project. As you may already know, in my last post I announced the opening of my Etsy shop The Wayward Needle :) This quilt is destined to be another addition very shortly if all goes well!

I spent 2 nights last week sewing together the backing fabric and basting this beauty. I haven't quite decided yet but I may just scallop the boarders. The colours, while from the same collection as my last quilt, are much more dainty. I think french country, spring mornings and Easter eggs when I look at it. So I think scalloping the boarder may just be the way to go on this one! 

Let me know what you think!

Ciao for now :)

Melissa

Happy Thursday,

It's been quite awhile! I've truly missed you blogland!

I don't have much in the way of excuses but to say that life took over for a while and I simply have not been focusing much on anything internet related. But I have been missing reading all of your lovely blogs out there my dears. I actually logged on to my reader last weekend this is how many posts I have missed out on over the last month or so... 1,678. HOLY COW! You guys are certainly prolific little buggers aren't you. I'm afraid I'm not going to be able catch up on all those lovely posts, but I'll certainly try!

While I've been MIA from the blog world I've certainly not been missing from the crafty world. I've got a few plans in the pipe and can't wait to tell you about them, but that's for another post all together.

For now a crafty update will have to suffice :)

During the Christmas holidays I started another quilting project. The fabric is Honeysweet from Moda (I think) and below you'll find I've grouped them all up together (thank god for the banister...)

Beautiful pallet isn't it! Out of these jelly roll strips I made two lap quilts. So far I've got the quilt tops finished and planning to get them completed within the next couple of weeks or so.

Christmas also brought this awesome cross stitch stand. To say it's revolutionized how I stitch would be a huge understatement! I love it. I stitch soooooooo much quicker and am a total convert now - especially for larger projects. 

On to more quilty crafts I've started yet another quilt (just because I ran out of fabric for my other quilts that I was doing above). As you can see I've completely taken over the dining room and have a pretty good set up going.

You can see here I've laid out some block combinations to be put together. AND my gorgeous new sewing machine! Another x-mas gift :)

And finally, the last big development over the past couple of months is...... I got engaged!!! So happy :) I think he did pretty good on the ring ;)

I'll leave you now with a picture of our little Arya (who's not so little anymore) attempting to drag around a bone that was bigger than she was and that she could hardly fit in her mouth. 

Until next time!

Melissa

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 Monday folks!

Annnnnnd welcome to December!!! Let the festive festivities begin!

I have another finish to show you all today of the quilty variety! (I also have a stitchy finish but I can't show it to you just yet!!!)

So without further ado I present a beautiful throw! 

While I thought this would be more of a lap quilt, like my last one, it's actually more body sized and would be great to cuddle up on the couch with. I figure I will slowly make my way up to a full sized quilt... this one was hard enough to handle and it was much smaller than even a twin sized quilt.

I say the main reason I found this quilt difficult to finish is because of all the stippling I did. Swirls all over the blanket. And when I say all over I mean everywhere my little needle could go. And boy did it ever use some thread to do! So when I finished this quilt Sunday morning passed, I was happy to see it end, but also oh so pleased with the end result. All those hours moving my quilt this way and that paid off, and I have to say I love the effect stippling imbues. 

Now it's on to the NEXT one :) I'm even thinking that maybe I'll sell some quilts. Not sure what the market is like for quilts but who knows :)

I also finished some placemats... again the stippling, but at a scale that was far more reasonable. Probably took me about a 1hr work from start to finish for each mat. Not bad for a beginner! 

Again I really tried to optimize my fabric. I had about a metre and a bit to make some placemats out of. When all my calculations were done I realized I only had just enough fabric for 4 mats with binding made out of the same fabric (and that's using every inch of fabric... I mean it). I was a little disappointed that I didn't have enough to make a least 6... if only I had another fabric to use for binding....

I have another 3 projects I'd like to get done before Christmas on the quilty side of things. Not leaving much time for stitching I know - but I'll squeeze it in there some where at some point or I'll go insane. 

I'm so ready for a break at this point... I feel like I spend EVERY evening doing something. I just want a couple of nights where I do nothing but veg on the couch... with my new blanket :)

Happy Stitching!

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 Wednesday everyone!

I find myself in need of a distraction from life today. 

Just last night there was a horrible shooting in my sleepy town of 20,000 and as of right now 3 people are dead. Let's get one thing straight... this type of thing NEVER happens here. The police even issued a warning for everyone to stay inside and lock all the doors. I wasn't at home when this all happened, instead I received a panicked text message from my boyfriend which told me come straight home after my quilting class and not to stop anywhere. I was even afraid to bring my puppy out for a pee! Needless to say I hardly got any sleep as I kept picturing a raving lunatic with a gun at my back door... even at 4:30am... and what's worse is that I was just across the street from the shooting not 15 minutes before it occurred. 

My heart aches  for the tragedy of it all, but also for the innocence that seems to have all but dissipated from my usually happy, bustling yet quiet little town. I completely fail to understand what drives one person to do this to another...

As you can probably tell my mind has been pondering this tragedy all day long... so I've decided to get it off my chest and distract myself a little by taking pictures and writing a post of my new dive into the quilting world.

I have to say I am loving what I'm seeing so far!!!

As I've mentioned in previous posts, I began taking a quilting class back in September and hope to complete a small lap quilt (although it's quickly becoming bigger as I add more things).  Here are my squares so far:

Apparently this type of quilting project is called "stacking the deck" or something like that. I'm not overly fond of the pattern but it'll do for my first quilt :)

Originally I was just going to sew them up in the way I've laid them out above... but I was thinking that perhaps it could use a little sashing between the squares to help break up the patterns I've used. I can't help but feel that it would just be "too much" if I just sewed them up as they are now.

And believe me when I say that those squares weren't so square before I cut the edges off them and made them a consistent size. I lost about 2 inches over all from each square by the time it was all said and done... but I do take comfort in the fact that I was not alone in this :) Thank god for my quilting classmates. 

In the end I suppose I have to accept that I'm just a newbie, and unlike taking up cross stitching again, it will not be like riding a bike!

In preparation for the fact that I will get better (one hopes) I've already bought fabric for my next quilting projects!!!!

Don't those faby's look delicious! They are in what's called a Jellyroll and they can used in various ways to create a quilt. One quilt I'm planning on making is the Jelly Roll Jam quilt that Fat Quarters has kindly created a tutorial for (thank god). Here's the video if your interest is peaked!

If you have any other suggestions/tips or favourite quilt patterns you'd like to share with me I'd love to hear them!!!

Until next time,

Melissa

Happy Thursday!

Wowzers have I ever been distracted lately. After getting a good start in on Santa's Magic a couple of weeks ago, literally ZERO stitching has taken place. I guess I have a few good excuses for this.

1. Work

I'm not what you call a workaholic but I've been busting my butt at work lately. At work early in the morning, often the last to leave the office, bringing work home. All because I'm in the middle of a series of workshops I've put together and it's literally eating up my days! It's constant work on presentations and one email and meeting after another. By the end of the day all I want to do is go home and crash... not move a muscle... not even touch a pan to make supper.

So this is what it's like to be a busy professional?!

Don't get me wrong! I'm feeling more fulfilled than ever and I'm very happy that I'm run off my feet. I prefer it that way. But boy, I can't wait until the pressure is off! Another month and a half to go!!!

2. Quilting

I started my quilting class exactly 2 weeks ago! Super fun, but again makes for a loooooong day as I stay out in town rather than going home after work because I would just have to turn around an hour after I get home just to come back to do the course... so I stay out in town. And did I mention the class is 3 hours long and doesn't end until 10pm!!!! Never doing that again. 

I am starting to fall in love with quilting though! I've order some new fabric and have my 10 blocks for my quilt class nearly finished!!! EXCITING!!!

3. NEW PUPPY!

Myself and my wonderful boyfriend have our first furbaby! I picked her up 2 Saturdays ago and BOY she is starting the be a handful. It makes me wonder how I ever got through having two puppies at once not even two years ago. Blue and Leia have since grown up quite a bit and Blue has gone off to live with my brother. Anyway here is our little Arya (AR-EE-yuh) the Irish Setter!

Hopefully I'll be able to get back into the stitching swing once she doesn't need constant supervision!

Toodles for now!

Melissa

Happy Wednesday everyone!!!

Change is one of those constant things in life. Some people like change and some people... well lets say 'fight it tooth and nail' all the way! I would say I'm in the middle ground. I like change well enough, but sometimes if it's a BIG change with lots of uncertainties it makes me nervous. My experience over the last few months however has been that no matter how big the change, everything works out for the better... now I've just got to start believing that.

One change I have to tell you about is... I've just signed up for a beginners Quilting Class!!! That right folks I'm broadening my crafty horizons! I'm not the best with a sew machine but I do know how to sew a (semi)-straight line. Over the past week or so I've been slowly collecting all that I might need to quilt. Cutting board [check!], rotary cutter [check!], fabric scissors stolen from my mother [check!] (hope you're not reading this mom!). There's still a couple more pieces of equipment that I need to get, so I'll pick one thing up every week until the first class. It'll be like picking up supplies for the school year! Building anticipation one purchase at a time :) I don't know too much about the class right now, but I do know 

Another BIG change that has been slowly creeping into my life is my house! Of course 'slowly' is a relative term... The boyfriend and I, dad, brother's and cousin's started building this back at the end of June and here we are today…

In the last 3 weeks we went from having no roof to having the roof completely sheeted in, shingled, windows in, some doors in, stairs on AND have started the exterior foam insulation and siding! PEWF! I even ventured up onto the scaffolding yesterday to help tyvek the exterior... a new brave accomplishment for me! Let's just say heights and Melissa are not two things that go together very well. 

I'd say we're trucking along at an excellent pace so far and are hoping to get in during the winter sometime, which is MUCH sooner than we had anticipated. Is it possible to be scared and excited all at the same time???? I'm terrified of all the new expenses we'll have but at the same time I cannot wait for a bit of independence. Talk about being conflicted about change!!!

Speaking of change how do you all like my new blog layout???? I've been working hard trying to fix some of the bugs and glitches and I've been very busy making it pretty yet fun all at the same time. Send me your thoughts! Like it? Hate it? Does something look like it doesn't work??? Let me know!

Ciao!

Melissa