Susan Rambo Sampler progress

Dear friends!

   Well, here we are getting ready to start another week.  It has been a glorious day here and I've enjoyed the wonderful weather we've had all weekend.  

I've also enjoyed these:  

Tomatoes right from the garden.  It's not really a garden - it's 3 tomato plants and some basil planted along the side of the house but hey, it produces these delicious delights so I'm a happy "gardener"! 

The crop has been so good this year and I've enjoyed sharing them with my neighbors.  I have eaten more than my fair share this summer!

Unfortunately, summer is coming to an end as evidenced by the fading colors:

 and the golden hues of fall.

Even the hibiscus is starting to look a little tired around the edges.

Kind of like me.

Luckily, there will be lots of projects to keep me busy 

over the Fall and Winter months.

This one:

Miss Susan Rambo.  

She's coming along slowly but surely.

Can you tell I re-stitched the squirrel's tail?  He's a little more grey than before. 

I like him - but then, who doesn't like a fella with a bit of gray?

I will be starting my other two projects in the next week, I think.  I'd like to make some more progress on Susan before moving to those two (see previous post about the two I'm referring to).  The idea of three, rather large projects going at once is foreign to me, and makes me feel kind of anxious - like I'll never get any of them done.   So, I'd kind of like to finish this one (or at least make some significant headway) prior to really getting going on the other two.

The problem is... those flowers in the border are taking me a long time to stitch.

I've stitched, frogged and re-stitched several of them and that is really slowing my progress.  Not to mention all the other mistakes I've made which have caused more frogging and more time lost.   I may take her to work and try to put some stitches in during lunch - maybe that would help.

Oh well...

In the meantime, I have another little finished project to show you.

Count Your Blessings

by Shakespeare's Peddler

It is sitting on the backing fabric and trim I used.

When I finished it, I thought it needed a little extra umph

so I added buttons all the way around.  I have to admit,

I'm kind of tickled with how it turned out.

This was stitched from a traveling pattern which I stitched right away but didn't finish until recently.

Of course I have a couple of vintage finds to show you:

This sweet, little pillow I found at an antique market:

 I love it!  It had a couple of stains on it but a good soaking and it is as good as new.

 I found these mending samplers at an estate sale a couple of weeks ago.

The folks holding the sale said the woman that lived there was in her 90's and was from Germany.  I recognized them as German mending samplers when I first spotted them but nice to have some verification.

I think I'll make a small pillow out of the smaller piece and I'm not sure what, if anything, I'll do with the larger.  

I got both of them for $6.  I wonder how old she was when she did them?

Finally, I have to show you this great project bag that my friend Carolyn sent me.

As you can see by the magazine laying under it, it is a great size and it's so 

expertly made.  Isn't that fabric on top cute!?  The mesh is vinyl, I think.

I love project bags and if you'd like one of your very own, contact Carolyn.

She's such a sweet gal and does really beautiful work.

Thank you so very much, sweet friend!

 Finally, camera shy Sophie and Gracie and I 

would like to wish you all a great week ahead. 

Thank you for stopping by and leaving me a little note, when you have time.

I appreciate them all a great deal.

Be well,

Peace,

Terri

What's Happenin'?

Dear friends,

Stitching news will follow but first...  

Matt moved to WMU a week ago on Sunday.  He and his pack of grade school friends are all sharing a 6 bedroom apartment.  I just hope they remember why they're there.  Here's a shot of the hooligans, I mean young men.

Matt is the 2nd from the left.  These are all great kids and they're great friends to one another and have known each other since kindergarten.  This was taken as Rob and I were ready to depart and the boys had all worked hard all day in 95 degree heat.  They were anxious for us to leave so they could get down to the serious work of arranging their apartment partying.  

Last night, Rob and I went to a Tiger's game.  It was a perfect night for a ball game, 76 degrees, a cool breeze blowing in and not a cloud in the sky.

Perfect.

Except the game was B.O.R.I.N.G. until.....

Rob caught a foul ball off Miguel Cabrera in the top of the 8th inning (I think)!  He caught it bare handed and while he was reaching to catch the ball, I ran and ducked for cover.  I am a big chicken.  Besides, had I not ducked, he probably would have knocked me out of the way to get the ball.  His hand was a little sore for the rest of the inning but amazingly, the game was suddenly much more exciting.  I was surprised by how many people came by to congratulate him (most of them were seriously drunk).

 The night ended with an awesome fireworks display!

Today, Rob and I went to a festival called Arts, Beats and Eats.  

I'm sure I don't have to explain what that was all about.

Anyway, this was Rob's highlight:

Please click to view the video of Rob in action!

Sorry, don't know why the pic from the video isn't showing up....

If you answered a trivia question correctly, you got to get in this money box thingy.

Did I tell you that Rob is an absolute font of useless trivia!   Catch as much cash as you can in 30 seconds without trapping it against your body, scooping it up off the floor (d'uh) or trapping it against the glass and you keep the cash.  It was set up to help raise raise money for Beaumont Children's hospital.  

Rob did pretty well... came away with $69, I think.

While he was in the box he couldn't tell there was a $20 bill stuck against his chin most of the time.  When he got out, he donated 1/2 of it back to the Children's Hospital and I spent the rest.

What'd I buy?  A pair of vintage boots at a retro clothing store.  They are labeled Maud Frizon, made in Italy.  Maud was actually from Paris, I believe and I was thrilled to find them in my size!  Her stuff was quite expensive back in the day and she was very well known in the fashion world.  I love boots.  I have quite a few pair but can always find room for another.  Plus, and this is exciting, they ALMOST fit tight around my skinny calves!

Without bulky socks on, normally my legs look like toothpicks coming out of a boot top.  These fit like boots are supposed to, I think.  Plus, they're beautifully soft leather and well made.  A bit of saddle wax or polish and they'll be good to go!

And, I got this great Michigan t-shirt highlighting some of the great musicians (or not, depending on your perspective) that have come from our beautiful state.  Don't know what it says about Michigan artists when Alice Cooper is the first name listed.  

Stitching - did you think I'd NEVER get to it? 

I have not completed a lot on Susan Rambo but here is my little bit of progress:

 Part of the reason this is taking so long is the colors (and the fact that I worked on a stitcher's heart last week).  I've stitched then switched the colors which means lot of frogging has been going on.  I stitched the dark part of the squirrel once, hated it, frogged it, re-stitched it then stitched the tail, ears etc and hate it, so now I've got to frog that, too.  The original looks like a ghost squirrel and I'm okay with that, but the colors it was charted for I didn't like.  They didn't look like the original in my opinion, so I'm working on it.  That'll probably be my work this evening.  

Ugh.

When we moved Matt last Sunday, I started the Stitcher's Heart by LHN and I finish-finished it yesterday.  I have to tell you guys... I am beyond thrilled with how it came out.  You know I'm afraid to finish things, but this came together pretty well, I think.  I pretty much followed the directions.

Go figure!

Here's my backing fabric:

Feeling confident, I finished another little project too but I'll save that for another day.

I am going to have two other BIG projects going at the same time as Susan Rambo.

First:

Susan Singleton from The Scarlet Letter:

I am going to be stitching her along with Deb and Sandra.  This is a huge project (by my standards) and we're going to break it up into a two year project, starting at the upper left corner.  Only problem is, my fabric has not yet arrived.  So, as soon as it does, I'll be ready to go with my floss, pattern and little floss tag I made.

My other new project is this:

photo borrowed from the Atelier-perdu Blog

The L'Atelier Perdu Stitch Me Club .....

2012

The Patches of Life Sampler

As soon as I saw PATTY'S PROGRESS, I had to order the charts and quickly got part one and two.

Isn't Patty's progress beautiful?  The fabric for this one is on the same order as that for Susan Singleton.

I hope they get here soon!  I don't know how I'll handle 3 big WIPs at once but I'm going to give it a go.  

Usually, multiple projects make me crazy because as most of you know, I'm a one project at a time kind of gal.  

So we'll see what happens.  

Okay friends!  That's it for today, believe it or not.  I have some great estate sale finds to show you one of these days but I think I've babbled on long enough!

I hope you have a happy Labor Day and that you don't have to spend it laboring!

Be well,

Peace!

Terri