So, this is my new project! I had gotten a bunch of different butterfly inspirations so just put together a block. It's really large...about 18 inches...I think it's going to be a pillow...I've already started some beading on it. The butterfly in the center was given to me by the RMCQ group's Holly...who says it's a paint stamp not embossed.

I also (in an ever lasting attempt to get organized) made a list of UFO's...I have 13! Can you believe it! After just doing this for about 2 years! I think several of them will never be finished and a couple of those are in the "idea" stages. I'm also trying to get out a swap in the next couple of days and I have a birthday swap I have to do....so I'm really trying to get organized and caught up...does it ever happen? Stumble It!

The Craftster blog had a link to this article: Strathaven folk knit themselves a room :: ABC Tasmania . Now, now to bag on the "oldies"(as my hubby would say) in Australia - but GOSH...a little too much time on thier hands?

Just kidding, actually I thought it was a really cool project. Makes for great conversation anyway! Stumble It!

Well, I'm escaping work. I have almost finished the website I'm designing but I'm stuck on a couple of "finer" design points, so I'm messing around and redesigning my blog and header.

Arlee will tell you that she and I are having no end to blogger issues with putting all of our content at the bottom of the page. The funny thing is that when I was blog surfing my usual blogs this morning I found about 4 others that had the same problem - maybe we need to start a support group!

I resized my header and frankly it was too small, so....a redesign was in order. Someday when I have lots of extra time I need to ditch these blogger templates and do my own. Maybe I need to come up with a photo friendly embellishment/crazy quilting inspired one! :-)

It's all kind of like this website I'm working on...the site seemed dead easy...a simple design. However, the technical difficulties of getting it all to work has been mindboggling. I'm just glad it's almost over.

Oh, and on the family front - the kids are still sick! :-) I'm force feeding everyone a vitamin a day. Can you believe 3 back to back sicknesses! Ick! I'm totally over it...I'm SO glad I got my little vacation to San Francisco in the middle of all of this! Well, I promised more project updates so I'm off to post pictures.

Hey, you all have GOT to go see Leslie's Brazillian embroidery she's doing on our round robin....it's the same piece I did all of the pink beading on! Wow! It's going to look fantastic! Stumble It!

So, I went shopping while I was away (no shock there) but thanks to all the Crazy quilting lists I got shoved in the right direction!!!

This is what I got at Lacis:



The seedbeeds are fantastic....the edmar threads are cool, and the other two embroidery threads are silk. I got the little antique package of applique threads because I had one applique needle along! :-) Lacis is beyond description...it's a historic lace and costuming store, with a museum and lots and lots of things to buy. The BEST book selection for crazy quilters and needleworkers I have ever seen and they even have their own book series they have published! They were super super nice and I could have spent a fortune there...thankfully they sell online! :-)

Then, at a really cool little quilt/fabric store called Stone Mountain and Daughter in Berkeley - very cool...I've been looking at this fabric at equilter for quite some time and I finally saw it in person and had to have it there:



You can't seee all the comics there, but it's really funny. I'mgoing to do pillows in our living room (small throw pillows) with it and there should be some left for a purse or bag or something. The shop is fantastic with lots of imported stuff. I was just browsing their website and found this weekly tip too!

Then, at Cost Plus, I found this:



We have a Cost Plus here too, but I'd never seen a calligraphy set there! It has al lthe inks and the chop is ready for carving (not sure how I'll find someone to carve me a traditional chop in denver tho!!!)

So, came home with lots and lots of goodies! We went to Britex too! Which was fantastic but WHOOOOWEEE expensive! Great if you're a top of the line designer and can pass the costs along to a client tho....wonderful wonderful stuff! FYI they have moved...apparently they were renovating their original location and now are back where they were a year ago. The bad part is that it was POURING rain while we were running around trying to find them! The joys of San Francisco.

Ok, I must get some work done on a website....more about the trip and what I finished along the way (yes I did get some stitching done) and new projects I started with the inspiration when I got home! You have to love a relaxing inspirational trip! Stumble It!

I'm back from San Francisco! Before I blog a lot I'm going to write a couple of "thank yous" to all of my hosts and folks I met up with! I had such a great time...4 days away from kids and the stress of day to day life was just what I needed. I can't believe that yesterday I was here:



I have pictures of goodies I brought home...great scenery, etc...but must thank everyone first, so off I go! More later! Stumble It!

"Somehow the great cities of America have taken their places in a mythology that shapes their destiny:
Money lives in New York.
Power sits in Washington.
Freedom sips Cappuccino in a sidewalk cafe in San Francisco."
.....Joe Flower

So, I'm off...I'll be there tonight enjoying my freedom! :-) It's amazing how 4 days seems like an eternity with two little kids and a job I do at home! :-) I can't wait to not have to walk around thinking about vaccuming and what toys I have to pick up! :-) Anyway, I'm taking Missy C's cat quilt, so hopefully in the evenings and on the plane I'll get some time for that.

Thanks for all the sweet comments on my thistle! I enjoyed doing it and frankly it was really really easy! Speaking of ideas, when I get back I need to work on my next round robin and Chloe's Place has some fantastic ideas! I really like the lacy one....hmmm, might look really neat. I'll have to get some special lace in Berkeley!

See you on Tuesday! :-) Stumble It!

Ok, so the top isn't perfect, but for my first attempt it's not bad...I don't think!



I still need to wash out the design underneath, but I think that's going to wait until I get home from San Francisco! Speaking of San Francisco...I'm getting excellent suggestions for shopping from the lists! Thanks gals! All I need to do is to go and spend more money! Ha, ha!!!!

Anyway, I'm SO looking forward to this...no kids or husband, just my friend and I. We seem to already have more plans than time tho, so it could all be done at a dead run...only relaxing to two people who have 5 kids between them! :-)

We're staying at the Nob Hill Inn...looks pretty nice! I'll let you know when I get back if it really is that nice!



Okay, off to start laundry...ah, the glamorous life I have! :-) Stumble It!

I haven't mentioned how many folks are joining the webring! We're up to 16 members with a variety of interests...art quilters, crazy quilters, cross stitchers! All good bloggers! Great information and good reading!
You can visit the ring here and the site to join is here! Stumble It!

So this my attempt at the lesson on Saturday. I haven't done any of the hard part yet...that's tonight! :-)

I'll post the rest tomorrow...I hope! :-) Stumble It!

I'm tired tonight, I'm going to reorganize my "current projects", eat dinner, watch a bit of television and go to bed.

Our Rocky Mountain Crazy Quilting group got together today and had a fantastic Brazillian Embroidery lesson! We learned the stitches to do a thistle flower.

It was a lot of fun - I especially like the cast on stitch! I'll start work on it tomorrow and post my progress! We also swapped our blocks...mine looks fantastic and Ronni like her block too!

I ran across this site the other day about vintage sewing stitches - I thought it was interesting to see the names and approaches to stitches. Stumble It!

Well, I've been working on my first Round Robin...I have to have it done to swap on Saturday, and it's been a real interesting stretch for me. First I tend to agonize over things a LOT longer than this, and it's supposed to be really victorian, so that's a bit scary too...here are a couple of sneak peeks:


I used yellow embroidery thread for the "flowers" on the feather stitch...with clear beads....the same clear beads did the rose but with the pink embroidery thread through it...I think it's kind of a nice effect, a bit of an experiment, but frankly most of the really victorian designs are! :-)



This is what I started the block doing....flowers with mother of pearl buttons (from my grandmother's stash) in the center....they came off of the original card! My husband liked the french knot "grass"...I'm afraid it's still a bit contemporary looking for victorian, but I tried!

Annie, a friend of Sharon's has started using her blog again, and I really enjoyed this entry on keeping a journal of swaps! What a great way to remember where neat fabric came from...I've only been doing swaps for a bit now and I have already hopelessly lost track of who sent what...I think it's a fantastic idea! Stumble It!

So, I've been sorting. I didn't think to take pictures of my lace collection, but this is more of the buttons that I showed WAY at the beginning of this blog it's funny to now be able to take photos with my snazzy new digital camera, not sure they're a lot better pictures, but I tried:



These are some of the cooler individual buttons:




And these are fantastic! I wish I had a baby I could make something for! :-)


Stumble It!

Well, I'm terminally behind this week, but Loobylu has her A Month of Softies up and I'm on it! Exciting, eh? I'm actually pretty proud that I did it and finished it in time.

Unfortunately this week Missy C appears to have the rotavirus...Dr. speak for she can't keep anything inside her and it's going to last for 14 days. Ick. Today Alec is showing signs of getting it (went down for nap without lunch) and so between running back and forth between them and the laundry machine (you have NO idea) it's going to be an interesting couple of weeks.

Oh, in case my blog gets boring, my friend Leslie, has started a discussion on stitches and which ones are people's favorites...should be interesting...maybe I'll go weigh in on that discussion now! Stumble It!

Carrie Skinner is a really creative 29 year old, her blog at BelieveMagic - babblings also has an area with a store and all sorts of great crafts in her blog. I found her through a really cute cat on "A month of softies" and she's got some great journals, cards, art quilts, dolls and all sorts of fascinating stuff. Plan to spend some time! Stumble It!

Today was insane, lots of running around, etc, but last night and today I'm managing to get back to work on the border for my fairy and use the beading class from last month's Rocky Mountain Crazy quilting meeting!



This is a really bad picture, but the threads are silk...two different tones of pink and then a little garden of glass and pink beads at the top. It's kind of an experiment, but I like it so far!



Last night Missy C started throwing up again, so we're spending a quiet day here...watching movies and hopefully I'll get a lot of stitching done. Stumble It!

So my friend Anne and I are going on a "mom's only" trip to San Fransico at the end of the month....should be a lot of fun! However, she's taken up knitting again, so we got looking around for regulations on what you can and can't take on flights. I just purchased this little tool and if you go back in that section there are "airline approved" scissors too....blunt end. One of the gals in my RMCQ group mentioned that those little thread cutters don't work very well if you're doing applique! :-)

So, after a search this morning I came up with this all inclusive document from the "homeland security" department . I'm actually going to print this little document out and take it with me, just in case there are any questions. This subject has come up on a lot of groups I'm on, so I'm going to post it around a bit too...might prevent someone from being upset at the checkpoints at the airport...or delayed too much.

The list is really pretty funny, I can't imagine circumstances that lead to some of these things being "carry on" luggage...ah, the joys of government!
Stumble It!