Stitchduchess Crazy & Sane Quilting World

Whew! Has things been hectic here. This post will be long and I will finish it on tomorrow when I have time. It has been a while since I last posted anything, but we finally moved into a house of our own. I have literally been up to my neck in boxes. Last count on today was 296. I still have two rooms to go and 30 something tubs as well as about 6o or more boxes that need to be unpacked! That is just the stuff we had in storage since last August when we moved to be with my mom and dad for her surgery. She is now well enough for us to move out of their house. The original house that we were wanting to buy did not work out for us so we decided to rent for a while and buy later if we decide to stay in this area. It is a hundred and eight year old Victorian house with fireplace's in each room, fourteen ft. high ceilings and big rooms. An unfinished attic space which my 16yr. old son declared as his room! It covers the whole entire house and is huge, so he will have plenty of room up there. So now you can see why I have not been updating in a while. So I will do that now, while I am taking this much needed break.

First here is a pic of the front of the house.

Hmmmmm..........where to start? I know, by saying a big happy birthday to my middle daughter who just turned eighteen on today! Happy Birthday Bliss!!!!!!!! I love you and am so proud of you. You have blessed my life these past 18yrs, and I am looking forward to watching you grow into the wonderful woman that God has made you to be. May all your days be blessed, and may God continue to smile upon your life. I love you very much!!!! Wishing you many more great birthdays. Isn't she beautiful!!!!!!

Miss Winter Bliss 18yrs

Now on to the crafty things that I have been up to late at night when I can no longer stand to open a box and put the contents away!!!!!lol. Thank goodness for fabric and swaps! Anyhow, I am in a Sampler RR on Crazy Quilting International and we are taking different stitches each month and doing the seam treatments or patches with them. Some I know how to do and others for whatever reason I have not tried before this. So for me this is a learning experience as well as fun. This month the stitch combo is herringbone and spiderweb rose. I have not done either of these before so I decided to do them both. I combined them and used them to create a motif on Sandy's block. I had a really fun time doing both of these, and I like how they turned out. The herringbone was one of those stitches that I shied away from thinking it would be hard to master. Well hello there, how wrong could I be! It was easier than I thought. The spiderweb rose was easy as well, I just have not done a lot of ribbon embroidery. I have a very limited amount of ribbon on hand so I just used what I did have. And it actually picked up the colors in the butterfly fabric in the center of her block. I really enjoyed working on Sandy's block. I hope she likes what I have done for her. Now it is packed up and waiting to go out on the first of the month to the next person who will then work her own magic on Sandy's block. I am looking forward to getting the next block as well. Here is the pic of Sandy's block for you to see, enjoy

On to the next item, which would be the tag swap on CQI which is being hosted by Sharon. I originally signed up for three tags, then had to reduce it to two by giving one as a hostess gift. Now, I will not be sending in any. First I thought I had until the 30th, not!! Which was my own fault, but with moving and unpacking I did not re-read the post which I had printed out or I would have known that. Anyhow, I was ok and had let my hostess know that I would be mailing out late, which was fine. Until.........I realized I had not put the hanger onto my two tags. Ok no problem, I will just put the grommet on and wala, it will be done in two shakes right? Wrong! The first one did fine, although I did have a problem getting the hole punched into the fabric. But I finally did and place ribbon to hang, and oh how pretty the tag looks. Then I start on the next tag. This one is a little bit thicker fabric, so I thought well I need to hit the grommet a little harder this time to make sure it goes through and attaches properly right. NOPE! Wrong! STOP!!!!! I hammered and it did not go through, so I kept on until finally it took hold. Boy did it ever, I now have a beautiful tag with this blue thing on the back that will not come off no matter how hard I try to pry it off. Hubby is not home to help, and I have tried to pry it off to no avail. The tag is ruined!!!!! So now I had to let the hostess know not to wait on my tags because they will not be coming in the mail.(tears of frustration by this time) I don't know how to get that thing off, it is on there tight and shows no signs of turning loose. Below is a pic of my tags, and of the disaster that has happened.

Now on to the next item, which is a pic of an oil painting on canvas that I bought about two months ago at a thrift store of a peacock. The only thing wrong with it is that it needs to be re stretched and re framed. And that is what I am going to do with it. I could not pass this up for the price. Besides everyone knows how I just love these gorgeous birds. Anyhow, here is my find I hope you like it.

I have more but since this post has been so long I will finish off another time. We are having family over for Bliss's birthday dinner on tomorrow so it may be first of next week before I can finish updating. We would be celebrating tonight but her and her older sister are going with her family to the go kart races. My oldest daughter and her husband sponsor several of the guys and Bliss enjoys going with them to the races. So, I must go now and finish getting ready for tomorrow. I have to go shopping for the food as well, she has requested homemade lasagna and cherry crunch for her special dinner. I usually fix their favorites and we have a big dinner for them. This year family will be here as well, so she will have lots of fun with her cousin who is six months older than her. Happy Stitching everyone and hope you have a good weekend.

Wendy