Maplefest

Hi everyone!

It's been quite a busy weekend, and none of it was spent stitching or quilting :-( or doing homework for that matter. So I suppose it was quite unproductive!

On Friday, which was the busiest day EVER (I swear, I never exaggerate) I had to get up early and put Cait on the bus. Which is fun. She's the most hilarious, smart and fun 9 year old I've ever met. So she chatted my ear off for a while while I had my coffee....then I stood with her in the freezing cold waiting for her bus...and off she went! I then hurried home and met a friend to go running. Which we did, quite unsuccessfully. She has a cold and was hacking away next to me, as I struggled to breathe, just...because. We decided to limit ourselves to just 3 kilometers because a) she was sick, and b) the wind was insane. So we lived, ate lunch, and then went to a meeting at the museum. THEN I headed back over to Holly's had dinner, and she, Cait and I went to watch Cait's dance teacher (and me and Holly's co-worker) in a dance competition. It was pretty cool! Then we all went to Tim's for coffee, which is always fun.

On Saturday Holly, Cait and I went to.....MAPLEFEST! It was so cool! Here in Ontario it's maple syrup season, and a lot of local sugar bushes have maple syrup festivals. Unfortunately all the snow has melted so we missed out on some cool things like snowshoeing, and making snow taffee. There was even talk of a snow canon, which would have been interesting I'm sure.

But we did get to visit the sugar shack and watch them make the syrup, which was neat, and smelled AMAZING.....

Then we sawed a chunk of wood off a log and had it stamped with a hot maple leaf press from the fire (yes, that is the technical terminology LOL)

But the best part was this guy. He was making candy and sugar from pure maple syrup...right in front of us! The process had something to do with cooking the syrup at such a high temperature that it hardens...or something. Honestly, the three of us were too busy shoving our way to the front of the group to get to the candy. Some innocent bystanders may or may not have been harmed in our quest for maple candy *smiles*

So...no stitching, and no quilting...and....no homework. But this weekend is Easter and I'm going to visit my Grandpa. Between the 5 hour drive and the quiet, long evenings (he goes to bed quite early and I try to be quiet), I'll have a TON of time to work on Frosty...woohoo!!!!

Happy Stitching!

Sunshine!

I am so excited to have received my very first blog award! Yay!

This award was given to me by Julie at Julie's Creations http://julies-creations@blogspot.com She has a wonderful blog that showcases her amazing photography, as well as her love of cross stitch. Since I jumped into this crazy world of blogging I've learned so much from all of you about stitching, and the happenings in your lives, and I love it. Thanks for blogging and sharing part of your world with me!

Thanks Julie :-)

Now, the rules say that you're supposed to pass this award on to 12 bloggers. But they don't say that you have to do it right away. Hehehe so I'm going to hang onto this for a little while, and save passing it on for a rainy day! Not that this isn't a rainy day (it is), but it isn't the right kind of rainy day LOL!

Quilt Progress.....

Helllllloooo out there!!!

Well, I've been working on my quilt a bit over the past three days and seem to be getting somewhere. Here's a pic of my progress to date:

I have to sew together 13 strips (like these 3) in total, and then cut them into squares, which will actually be placed like diamonds on the quilt. I tend to second guess myself a lot, and now I'm not so sure I like these fabrics. My friend Holly texted me while I was working tonight and asked what was up. I said that I was quilting, but didn't think I liked the fabrics anymore. Her response?

"What? You were SEW excited about the fabrics, you have to love them!"

She thinks she's funny :-)

I think they're growing on me a little more today...I like them better than I did yesterday hahaha.

I had to stop by the cross-stitch store today and buy some fabric I needed and Sue (the owner) asked me if this meant that Sir Frederick has been put on hold. I said NO WAY! LOL! She was happy to hear it. Anyways, there was a woman sitting up at the counter with her, and she told me that she has 70....yes, 70 Heaven and Earth charts, and has yet to even start one!!! How crazy is that?! Crazy, yet also pretty cool, in a twisted kind of way. I wish I had 70 of them too! Imagine the possibilities! Oh who am I kidding, I can't even handle the one I have!

On a happy spring-y note, my tulips are starting to come up! I'm trying not to get too excited because it's supposed to be really, really cold for the next few days, and is supposed to snow a little. But it's still a tiny bit exciting. I planted lots of perennials last year so I'm very interested to see what will happen with those. Yay spring!

Sir Frederick Frosty

Sir Frederick Frosty...Ohhhh Sir Frederick Frosty.

This is quite the project, and as I've stated in the past, I'm not really sure I'm a seasoned enough stitcher to have taken on something of this magnitude.

I can't say that I don't know what I was thinking when I decided to do this. I do know exactly what I was thinking. My boyfriend and I had just broken up, and in an attempt to cheer me up, Rose tricked me into re-joining the outside world by taking me on a trip to a little cross-stitch shop. Once inside, seeing all of the amazing work displayed in the shop, I had a sudden need to accomplish something great, and in that moment, something great came in the form of a ridiculously difficult cross-stitch project!

It started off as a "screw you, boyfriend" project that has, over the last 5 months, turned into a "this thing is gonna kill me" project.

So, that's the story of Sir Frederick!

This is my progress to date. Pictured above is approximately 50 hours of work, which has amounted to a couple of branches (I think), and some blue sky. My 1 hour a day resolution hasn't been going all that well because, well, life has gotten in the way :-) It happens! Last night I sat down and stitched for 2 hours, which pretty much just filled in holes. But every cross stitched is one more in the right direction! How's that for philosophical :-P
Anyways...Sir Frederick and I have a very important date tomorrow evening that will not be broken!!

Cross-Stitching and Fabric Cutting...

Well...I'm two days into my "I'm going to cross-stitch for an hour every day" plan, and it's sort of going okay, but sort of not. I'll explain.

On Saturday, I stitched for 2 hours. Technically, my "plan" wasn't supposed to start until Sunday, so I was working ahead. Those 2 hours counted for Sunday and today. In my mind anyways :-)

And if that doesn't work, I blame the time change. It isn't a big deal, unless, in my case, I start work at 6am, decided to spend Saturday night at my friendss house, which is an hour away from my home (and also from my work), which meant I had to get up at 4 to leave at 5, which really, was like getting up at 3, and it has really thrown me off. I'm totally exhausted but can't get to sleep at my normal times. Not cool.

On Sunday I started my quilt! I went to Rose's house and she helped get me going on it. And...6 hours later, ALL of my fabric is cut and ready to go! Can you believe that? It was one crazy day of cutting...Rose was working at her rack hand quilting and watching a movie and I decided to just get as much done as I possibly could before dinner. And that I did!

I was short on my border/binding fabric so I have to go back and get another meter of that because I want to use it in the quilt as part of the main pattern as well, just to tie it together, so I can't start pinning or sewing until I do that and get it cut too.

Tomorrow: Mission cross-stitch!!!!! (hopefully)

A Fabric Sale!

Well, it seems that I have another project to work on!

I went into my favourite little cross-stitch store last week because my best friend was visiting and I wanted to take her in and show her the amazing work Sue (the shop owner) has up on the walls. Now, Erin (my best friend) doesn't share the same love of needlecrafts that I do, but even she was amazed by the stuff in there. So while Erin was looking around, I went to chat with Sue about my current project, and her's. Before I left she gave me a flyer about her annual St. Patrick's Day sale, and she gave me one to give to Rose as well.

So...I gave Rose her's, and she freaked out and insisted that I choose a quilting project to buy fabric for because the prices were SO good, and the sale only happens once a year, after all!

I thought about it for a few days, and decided that Rose was right. And then, thinking about what to buy my little cousin Caroline for her highschool graduation, had a brilliant (crazy?) idea that I would make her a quilt rather than buy her something.

So back to Rose's I went, and spent an afternoon scouring her quilting magazines and books, eventually found a pattern that a) I could do mostly by myself, b) was beautiful, and c) could get done by the end of June.

The fabric sale is today. And conveniently, this is my day off! So I got up early to be there right when the shop opened, and was surprised to see that there were 15 other people with the same plan. So we crammed ourselves into the tiny shop and I started to gather fabrics that I liked.

Before long, about 6 other ladies had gathered around, asking questions. After their initial "you're awfully young to be quilting," and "you should join the quilters quild," and "have you heard of Victoria Quilts?" they started helping me choose fabrics.

Another 15 minutes and I had stepped back because they were all fighting with eachother, insisting that this fabric or that was better than another, which happened to be lady #1's favourite so there's no way we could throw that one out! But lady #4 didn't like it at all, she wanted a different fabric. But lady #2 liked the first fabric better. Hahahaha...I had to get out of their way..2 of them almost ripped my pattern becasue they kept grabbing it frome eachother.

I've gotta say, it was pretty entertaining, and also very helpful becuase I suck...and I mean suck at choosing fabrics. I can barely match my own clothing...I'm colour/pattern challenged, I think. so I most definately appreciated the help!


So these are the fabrics I chose! I think Caroline will love it (shhhhh its a surprise!), and I'm really excited to get started.

My Mid-March Resolution

...because it's just a little bit too late for a New Year's Resolution :-)

Starting on Sunday I'm going to try to stitch for at least one hour, every day, no matter what.

Key word: TRY

Projects of The Past...

This post is dedicated to both completed and incompleted projects alike. Just a few pics of some of the things I've worked on in the past...and...present?

This is my very first attempt at cross-stitching ever. My friend got me started on it on a blustery winter day, then I took it to work on when I visited my parents that weekend, got stuck, and my Dad, for some reason, was able to figure it all out and got me back on track hahaha. So when I finished this, I gave it to him.

I chose and stitched this pattern specifically for a friend I was visiting this past summer. She loves cats and sewing, so this seemed perfect. I loved the simplicity of the black and white and the craziness of the border. This is probably my favourite cross-stitch project so far.

This is a wall-hanging quilt that I worked on from September-December 2009. It was mostly just for fun, to practice sewing and use of scraps of fabric that my friend had laying around. I like some parts of it, and don't like other parts. It still needs binding sewn on. My next quilt will be a full-size one, and a more traditional pattern.

This is the first quilt I made, this past July. I did it one day, with a lot of help from my friend Rose. Before that day I had never touched a sewing machine, and had no clue about cutting fabric, seam allowances, bias, batting, binding, etc. Turned out pretty well!

This is an afghan, 1/3 of the way completed. It remains, 3 years later, 1/3 of the way completed. It was part-way finished when I had to abandon knitting. I've knit 3 other afghans of the same pattern, but differing colours before this one.

This was completed in April 2009. I was really pleased with the outcome, as my first "big" cross-stitch project. I gave it to my Grandpa, and visit it quite frequently :-)

Welcome!

Hi everyone, and welcome to my "crafty" blog!

My Grandma taught me to knit when I was only 6 and I've been addicted to working with my hands ever since. I knit, crochet, cross-stitch, and quilt. I also went through a short-lived beading phase a couple years ago. It didn't stick.

I had to abandon knitting and crocheting a few years ago because I was working in a garden center and spent most of my time watering flowers. Between holding a hose for hours on end every day, and knitting non-stop, my wrists became almost un-movable. I couldn't continue doing both at the time, and had to choose watering over knitting for the obvious reason that if I stopped, all of the flowers would die and my boss would have been really mad! I still make the occasional dishcloth for my Grandpa, and still teach a friend to knit every now and then, but I haven't made an afghan in about 3 years.

I started learning to quilt in July. I work in a grocery store and the cake decorator there is an amazing quilter. We used to chat about our projects every day, and she offered to teach me quilting in return for me teaching her to cross-stitch. It's worked out very well! I've completed 1 and 3/4 quilts, and am heading over to her house tomorrow to start searching for a new pattern. It isn't a consistent thing though. I have to be in the right kind of mood to quilt.

What I'm really into right now is cross-stitching. My best friend taught me a year and a half ago how to and I love it. I've made 3 small-ish projects and am now working on a BIG one. It's a Heaven and Earth Design pattern called Sir Fredrick Frosty. I bought it in December, worked on it diligently for about a week, and haven't touched it since.

I'm hoping that blogging about my work will help me to stop procrastinating! In the past when I worked on cross-stitch projects I've been obsessed with them and have worked on them non-stop until they were finished. This isn't quite the case with Sir Fredrick. Likely because of his size and intricateness. I'm trying to get over it, suck it up, and get to work!

So...here I am! Yay!