Happenings at Chateau Roman

Okay, lame title, but you know, you just run out of snappy titles sometimes.  Actually not much is happening in recent days at the Chateau, so nothing real recent - like in the last week.  Spring always seems to bring a flurry of things with the kids and once again, I start living out of my car - so not a lot of crafting is accomplished.  And I'm so behind on blogs and emails - I'll catch up soon!

Anyway, it's a beautiful day here in Michigan - bright, sunny (oh, is that what that glowing ball in the sky is? - scared me for a minute), and it's warm - so warm that I had to take a walk this morning (after the grocery shopping, that is).  Going through my neighborhood is like a nature walk.  This morning I had my path crossed by a red fox (rather scrawny looking and leering at my thighs and licking his lips, and eight deer roaming the woods - one of them an albino deer which I had never heard of or seen before - definitely need to take a camera next time)!

In my own Garden of Eden around the old Chateau, we also have those two half-naked people in Paradise.  They've been finished for a week or so, but I just got around to the staining:

Margaret Pence 1781

The Goode Huswife

40 ct. Daily Grind (Walnut Ink Stained) and DMC Threads

This was fun, although once again, I can't stitch these smaller pieces without making mistakes.  Luckily they're not glaring. The only change I made to this was the date - since the date of her sampler was 10 days before my birthday, I changed it to my birthday.  I'm on to my next A and E and another project, although not much to show on either one of them yet so I'll hold those till next time.

I don't know why, probably because of Easter and it being spring, I always seem to get into some kind of sewing mood - not to do quilts or things like that, but to make fun things.  I went through the same thing last year, and that bunny, from Country Stitches, is now my header for Easter.  Anyway, I saw this pattern recently in my web surfing and decided I needed to make one:

She's meant to be a pincushion, and I'm still waiting for the base for her, so I have her sitting on one of my grandmother's antique egg cups.  And I just realized that I didn't put blush on her ears!  I'll have to do that.  Anyway, this pattern is Cottontail Pincushion by Under The Garden Moon, and she was a snap to finish up!  For some reason, I've fallen in love with pincushions and recently bought a few patterns to do. She's the first and was so quick - one night!  A couple blogging friends, Siobhan, in particular, has been trying to get me to stitch some seasonal things.  I so stink at doing that, but do you think that this qualifies???  I know it's not cross stitch, but.......?????

Here's another one that I made, but it was a year or so ago.  This was from Lori Birmingham:

I finally finished up my Bullseye Quilt, too.  Taken as a whole I really love it, but when I was working with some of those blocks, especially after you cut them in quarters and put them back together again, well, they offended me:

This turned out to be a lot of fun to do and not quite as wonky as I thought it would be.  I can't wait until I get it quilted and washed so that the edges of the circles fray.  I had a couple people ask me about cutting the layers away as you sewed the circles.  Since I can't really describe it without too lengthy of a description, I'll have to construct a block and take pictures as I go along.  But it's very easy to do.

With that quilt finished I started another one.  This one is a Civil War quilt called Women's Voices, but I only have a little bit of it put together.  These are the first set of blocks:

And these are the second set although not completely put together:

This was a BOM and included fabric to make two blocks in different colorways every month.  It will end up being a king sized quilt when I'm finished.  I was surprised at the size of the blocks - 15 inches each.  I am very proud of myself that these are from stash from a few years ago, and not some of the new goodies that I bought, although those have been really calling my name.  These blue and green blocks are called different things depending on how you lay out the fabric.  It can be called Underground Railroad, Jacobs Ladder or Trail of the Covered Wagon in Mississippi and the prairie states.  I love how each month there is a little history written about each block.

I have barely done anything on my poor rug since my class last Thursday.  My last class, I might add, and I'm going to miss it.  I hope that I can get involved with the Monthly group that Kris has.  This is all the progress I've made:

Not a lot of progress and I'm seriously of thinking about tearing out the white yet once again.  I don't like working with white anyway - whether it's in xstitch or now wool, and I can see all kinds of glaring mistakes I did, but Kris told me it looks fine and will look better when it's steamed.  And it's my first - a learning process - but still, it bugs me.  Part of the whole problem is that I haven't had a frame so it's been hard to get my loop length consistent while trying to balance a quilt hoop in my lap - not the best thing to hook a rug on.  But Mr. Postman - hero that he is (don't tell him that though, he's really a crank), dropped off the frame yesterday.  Was I home?  Of course not, so I'm high-tailing it to the post office now to pick it up!

Well, that's about all that's going on around here.  I don't expect to get too much done in the next week or so with all the kids activities, etc.  Plus I just realized that this is the time of year again for my annual Spring thrifty/antique store time.  Seems next week is about the only free week (knock on wood) that I see for a while, so hopefully the weather will hold out, I can get my Cafe Mocha from Mickey D's, crank up some tunes in the car and drive in pursuit of fun things.  Maybe!  Those fun times are always subject to change.

Thanks so much again for all your wonderful comments.  I loved the comments I received last time, especially those of you that shared a little fun fact about yourself.  Have a wonderful week and make it stitchy!!!

Change is Good!

Happy Friday everyone!!!  I don't know about the weather in your part of the country, but it's an absolutely beautiful day here.  Sunny, warming up, snow melting!  In the 40's all weekend!!  Definitely has to put you in a happy mood.  For some reason I keep hearing Martha Reeves and the Vandella's singing Heat Wave!  LOL   But it's also made me have Spring fever in the worst way, so I have barely spent a minute in the house the past week and when I have, all I can say is that you can see your reflection in my shower tiles - okay, maybe not, but they're clean!  LOL  I even tried to clean up my blog, but I'm not sure that I like it.  I'll just have to play with it some more.   It also made me clear out my change basket for some goodies, but I'll get to that in a bit (beware - a lot of pictures).

I didn't get a lot of stitching done this week.  Another night or two and this baby will be finished:

Margaret Pence.  I do love stitching on this, but once again, those danged frogs came out of hiding and were snipping at my tail all week!  I don't know what it is about these smaller pieces, but they are the bane of my existence.  My next piece will definitely have to be a larger piece.

Quilting is going slow too.  I've made a little bit of progress.  I went from this:

To this - kind of scary doing that:

To this:

Kind of crazy blocks, don't you think?  I have a hard time with combining all these crazy fabrics together.  As we all know, I'm anal - I like things to match up, coordintate, live in perfect harmony when finished.  This doesn't even come close - not even the circles match up because you cut them freehand!  So this is a real learning experience for me - learn not to be anal!  I hope to have the whole quilt pieced in the next couple days - that is if I stay home long enough to do it!

Yesterday, I had my rug hooking class, and I just love it.  Problem is that rug hooking doesn't seem to like me.  This is my progress or lack of progress.  Instead of going forward, I've gone completely backward.  In other words, I sheared my sheep:

Poor sheepie.  Thank goodness it's getting warmer around here because this poor thing is bare!  I don't hook high enough.  I seem to have the hang of it, but my loops aren't high enough, so I pulled the whole thing out.  I do love going to class though.  Kris is a great teacher.  Yesterday we learned about binding our rugs.  I think I'm a long way off for that!  But you may want to check our her blog.  She's posting a rug a day and her rugs are just beautiful.  So beautiful in fact, that I just had to pick up this baby:

This was the beauty that was staring out from the background in my last post.  I just have to do her, but like I said, I've got to get those loops higher!  I'm going for a make up class tomorrow, so more fun and more eye candy.

Anyway, Spring brings change, and I had a whole lot of it:

I throw all my change into this basket.  When it gets full, I roll it and start over again.  If there are a lot of quarters when this baby is full, I rake in about $100.00  I could get rich with the amount of change that my kids leave laying around, that comes out of their pants pockets on laundry, etc.  I also collect those bills that come out of pockets.  I don't keep anything over $5.00.  Unfortunately, I think my kids are catching on to my change snatching because I haven't seen a lot of it in the past couple of weeks.  So, anyway, I collect all the change, roll it, and hide it away.  But, of course, I'm not a rich woman because I go on road trips and spend it all on stash.

First stop was a quilt store that I had not been to before as it's quite a distance from my house, but near my rug hooking class, and well, you just have to kill two birds with one stone, right?  So I came home with this:

A bunch of patterns!!

And more patterns.  The fabric in the front are my first three installments of the Farmer's Wife Quilt.  But I needed the book before I can start on it, so had to pick that up along with the BBD book.

Then I had to pick these up!  Done in Civil War prints.  This store, Wendy's Simple Stitches in Howell, Michigan, had a whole room of Civil War fabrics.  Oh, be still my heart.!!! I have a funny feeling that I'm going to be burning a lot of that Goodyear rubber going out to that shop.

Then I had to make a couple trips out to my not so local LNS' to see what new Market goodies there were.  Now mind you, I wasn't going to buy a thing (yeah, famous last words):

Obviously the bad won over the good in this case and I didn't listen to me telling myself that I didn't need anything more to stitch.  And I'm still not finished.  Becky RAK'd me with a gift certificate to Down Sunshine Lane that I have to use and I did do a little bit of web surfing too.  I just had to have those scissors to add to the collection, and the sheep and tape measure just because, well, I'm a hooker now too.  And I love, love the BBD book.  So many great projects to do in that book.  I can't wait to dive into it!    Most of these goodies came from Stitches 'N Things, but I also picked up a few things at the The Rocking Horse  This store is a feast for the eyes, but the only thing lacking is that they don't carry the linens us sampler lovers love.  But here are a couple pictures:

This is the upper level (sorry for the dark picture)

Part of the lower level.  There is more behind me, but I forgot to take a picture of it.

This shop has a ton of things in it.  I forgot to take a picture of the Shepherd's Bush area, but I think you can see that it's full of eye candy.  Models are hanging all over the shop.  But they're not into the sampler things that I particularly like, but still fun to go to.

So that's been my week!  I definitely had Spring fever.  I'm exhausted.  All that shopping can really tire you out!  LOL  I do try to rationalize these purchases with the thought that my summer is really crazy with the kids and road trips are not something that usually happens.  So I need to stock up now!

Well, I'm off to catch up on everyone's blogs.  I've barely read anything in the past few days.  Tomorrow I'm going for a make-up hooking class, and I'm hoping that my sheep will look sheepy again.  And on Sunday I'm going to rest and play with all my goodies.  Okay, I lie.  I see a lot of laundry (oh, maybe more change too) and more cleaning in my future, but I can think about all the stitching goodies.  Maybe next week I can play with them - I'm not getting back in my car except for my hooking class if I can help it.

Thanks for stopping by and leaving comments when you do.  I do love hearing from everyone.  Have a wonderful weekend, and I hope that it's warming up in your part of the world too!

Mary Corey, Stripping and Hooking

Happy Monday everyone!  It's snowing like crazy here in Michigan - up to 8" is what they're calling for.  And wouldn't you know it - everyone is home - DH and the kids!  ACK!!!!!  But they seem to be keeping to themselves which is a good thing (a very good thing if they know what's good for them that is - LOL).

I've been stitching, sewing and hooking my heart out and I'm having so much fun.  Cari left a comment about being a stripper and a whore and getting stitch ass daily!  ! I loved that!  LOL  So that makes me, what?  A stripper (quilting),  whore (scissors) and a hooker (rugs)!!!  And I do try to get my daily allotment of stitch ass in!  Just don't tell my kids or DH what I'm getting into!

I finished Mary Corey this weekend after having to frog out most of it because, well.....I just can't read a chart.  There was one symbol - a square - repeated in small, medium and large.  Obviously, I couldn't determine what was what and stitched 1/2 of it wrong which resulted in a lot of frogging!  UGH!!! I don't know why it is, but these smaller projects just befuddle me.

Mary Corey (aka Diaper Babies)

The Goode Huswife

30 ct. Apple Brown Bindy and DMC Threads

Distressed with Walnut Ink Crystals

This would have been a real quick, fun stitch if I could have read the chart!!!  I tried my hand for the first time with walnut ink crystals and really like how it turned out!  Bake in the oven for a few minutes, and TA-DA!!!  I may still add a little over to the left side - not sure yet.  I'm going to frame it pretty close to the design, so I don't think that's going to matter.  Oh, and if you'll notice, that fruit basket is just a tad too close to Eve.  I swore that I wasn't ripping out another stitch.  I decided that the basket could be close at hand so dear Eve could reach over, grab that apple, hand it to Adam and get that party started in Paradise!  

I have to thank everyone for their suggestions about the border on the quilt.  I decided to go with it since I had all the pieces cut out.  It turned out to be a biggie:

I have to thank my two helpers - Nick and Catie (whose polka dot robe you can see on the left) for holding this up for me.  I do love how it turned out even with the borders.  I was really on the fence with it and ended up staring at it for a couple of days before finally adding them.

So what to do next?  Well, I threw another sampler on the scroll rods, but haven't much to show for it.  But I did start cutting out the pieces for the Bullseye Quilt

This quilt is turning out to be so much fun.  I still have the two piles of squares in the front to cut into circles, but I can see that I'm going to have a ball with it.  I have to thank Kim for convincing me that even with my anal side, that I would have no problem cutting out circles freehand.  She was so right!!  I plan on layering this baby together this afternoon.

And speaking of quilts - you know, I just can't resist a good sale (I really need to stop trolling the internet!!!!).  Anyway, these things just somehow ended up in the UPS man's truck and into my waiting arms this week:

The bundles are for a quilt called The Farmer's Wife.  It's similar to Dear Jane, but not quite as labor intensive.  It's a BOM (Block of the Month) so I'll have a smile every time these arrive in the mail.  I don't have the book yet, but should soon and then I can get started.  I think that I'm going to have a partner in crime with this quilt (waving at ya Kim).  The tin in the back is for a Pineapple Quilt.  I have wanted to do one of these forever.  And looks what's inside:

You just have to love those rolls of Moda fabric!!!   Quilty goodness!!! This may have to be the next quilt after the Bullseye.  I don't know - it's going to derail my plans to get stash out of the way - but I'll have done two from stash, so time for something new me thinks!  LOL

This is what I accomplished in rug hooking.  I think that I have this baby crammed a little too much with wool.  I also didn't outline the pumpkin sections, which I should have done first!  But the beauty of this is that you can just pull the wool out and start over.  Which I did after I sent this picture to Melody so that she could critique my work.  She said that I've done good, but I did end up ripping this out and starting over.  But I can tell you, I'm going to love doing this!!  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that snow nor sick kids keep me from going to this week's class.  I really can't wait to get started (although I think I saw DH trying to get the credit card out of my wallet!).

One thing I forgot in my last post was to post something for Berit.  We have gotten into a small discussion about the goodies that you can find at Marshalls/Home Goods.  She liked the cabinet I got for my scissors and I told her that I found another goodie there the following week (DD's dance night and me having 2-1/2 hours of time to shop is deadly sometimes).  Anyway, I promised to post my latest find:

I liked the keys okay, maybe not so much what was behind it.  But then I saw that it opened up and that you can remove the keys and saying and that there were little hooks inside.  I still may keep the keys but line it with another fabric - or, perhaps put some scissors in the lid or some stitchy something - the possibilities are endless, I think.  And the hooks could hold fobs or small stitched pieces  (whenever I get my butt in gear to make them)!  So Berit - be on the lookout - I think it was just $14.99 - a deal in my book.

Well, that's it for me.  Everyone is off to their own pursuits.  DD's actually stitching BBD's Eiffel Tower and I hope to have pictures soon, plus she pulled out a needlepunch kit I bought her at Joanne's, so she may be giving me a lesson before the day is out.  That is one craft I haven't tried yet.  But until then,  I plan on going down to the craft room and making myself dizzy sewing circles!

Thanks for all the lovely comments and suggestions again about the border of my quilt!  It really makes me smile every time I read them.  Wishing you a wonderful, stitchy week!!