Crosstitch Retreat gift making

In a couple of weeks I will be going to a Crosstitch Retreat with the NW Stitchers in Missoula, MT.

Oh the fun we'll have...We make gifts and I will be hosting a trunk show and showing how I finish my crosstitches. I can't wait! 

Some of the gifts entailed Temu shopping

Whew what fun!

 

The theme of our Crosstitch retreat is houses...We stitched a smalls house design to give as a gift exchange but of course I can't show that until after the retreat.

I've been making a ton of project bags too and adding bling to the zipper pulls.

So next I will share our Family Fair Fun and then alllll of the details of the retreat.

A little more progress

 I wanted to show a little more progress on my Lori Holt Sew Scrappy Spools. It's been fun going to our cabin in the woods and sewing a little here and there in between swimming and dinners with the kids.

So Jolly July is over in the crosstitch world and boy did I come soo close to a finish!

This piece is huge so cant wait to get it fully finished.

I also have the privelege of stitching for a friend for her shop. It is a monthly

Stitch and I got Augusts done.

Wendy from From The Heart Needleart is the designer of these monthly pieces.

In my next post I will tell all about getting ready for an exciting  crosstitch retreat that I'm getting to go to thanks to a most gracious friend who is hosting it. We are sew excited!

Retired and Lovin' Life

 I'm just doing so many different things that a friend of mine asked, 'Shelly why aren't you blogging about all that you do?

So thanks to her I'm going to try my hand at it again and share with you all the things!

All of my sewing girls are grown up and living their own lives, happily, while I'm retired enjoying my grandkids and quilting and crosstitching mostly.

I am here at my summer home in the woods this weekend, building a quilt that I leave here for a project for me to do while I'm here. It's called Sew Scrappy Spools by Lori Holt. 

Each spool will have a different scrappy block in the middle of it.  This is my progress so far. Aren't they cute?

When I travel here to our summer home I do nothing but crosstitch in the car, so I'd like to show you what I stitched and my progress so far on it.

This is called Christmas Garden by Blackbird designs. Some of us crosstitchers do what's called jolly July and only stitch Christmas projects in the month of July. I am glad to be putting in a good amount of time stitching this so that I might get it done by this Christmas. There are plenty of mistakes in this but you'd never know what they are since you couldn't see them from a galloping horse....Hahahaha

I started another new book called All Things New by Laura Frantz, It has drawn me in Totally! 

I've also wasted lot's of my time here shopping on Temu, oh my was I hooked! I really love my project bags for crosstitch and their bling,

So I bought alot of charms and rings and cabochon making stuff. I hope I did the right thing! Have you ordered from them yet?

I hope you enjoyed my blog and anticipate seeing all of my projects and my progress on them, see you next time and Happy Stitching!

Crazy Quilt block all finished!

Here is my Crazy Quilt block all finished and ready to frame.  Kathy at Shawkl.com was so gracious to teach us how to create this art and I had a blast!
I love how the beads in the sequins showed up in color....The three different roses are my favorite....I'm sorry about the date stamp right in the middle of the butterfly, I really need to get rid of that.  I hope you love this eye candy and it sparks some kind of inspiration.  I'm ready for spring!

Falling Charms

So starts the quilting process!

As I was thinking about the name of the quilt, Falling Charms, I began to doodle and came up with this, what I thought looked like falling charms, 

Then the next thing I had to do is figure out the porportions as to how big I wanted the charms and how far apart.  SO I began mapping it out on graph paper in my Quilter's Journal.  Each square represents

1/2 in. which makes my grid 2 1/2 x 1 1/2 inches

So I drew the grid onto my quilt for me to follow

And here they are being quilted....They look totally Retro don't they?

Charity stitchery, Crazy Quilt class, and Mystery Quilt Along

Operation Sparrow is a really sweet charity and you can find all of the information about it here. I had alot of fun making this...I'm not too happy with how the stabalizer made this wrinkle, but they are going to stretch it onto a hoop so it will flatten out.

 I am also taking a crazy quilting class with an awesome lady Kathy Shaw at Shawkl.com.....You can't join the class now but this is my progress so far....It's really in depth and I really feel like I'm in a class. It has taught me sooo much and I can't wait to learn how to embroider ribbon. 

Another project that I'm working on is at The Inbox Jaunt with Lori Kennedy. It's a mystery quilt along, and it's a whole lot of fun. You join in with this one and catch up pretty easily. I'm a day behind but it won't take very long to do.  I loved working on learning how to fmq my name. It's in the lower right hand corner.

I've gotten to work on an all over feather quilting project which has been my dream to achieve ever since I bought my sewing machine with a 10 inch harp. I could use alot more practice but I'm happy with my first try so I thought I would share it with you. 

 It's called Forest Walk and it was a kit. This was a super fun quilt to do because the colors and fabrics were chosen for me. It came with a whole lot of extra fabric so that I can make pillow shams to go with it. The other thing I loved about it is their way of showing me how to miter the corners in their patter. It was so easy and they worked on all four corners.

These just make me smile

 This little doll is so dear to me as is the girl that made her. Her color picks are so adorable and her ideas are just fun!

 I enjoy having all of these girls in my home for these reasons.  

Don't they look like they're ready for a slumber party?  

 These little guys were a great idea to make too~We had so much fun watching them come to life......

                                     Hedgehogs and Walruses and Moose were promptly attached to her backpack the next morning to join her for her school lessons and a little show and tell I am sure.

 Now here is a recycled project that one of my girls 

is having fun with. She brought in some old wool 

sweaters and she's making little wallet/pockets

out of them and learning how to sew button holes.

Nice huh?

Three of the girls are making a rag quilt for one of their baby sister's to be.  I cut out the batting and backing squares to go with some flannel charm squares, stacked them up and gave them to the girls on 3 different sewing machines to quilt them up for me.....The soon-to-be big sister is in the process of sewing them together for us....We have alot of threads to clip and the seams to snip, but what fun we are having assembly line sewing for the wee one to be.