I just started a new yahoo group called NeedleworkFleaMarket. It is a place where you can sell charts, books, fabric, thread, etc. that you no longer want. And there is no middleman. You can also buy items from other needleworkers and search for items that you might want to buy. To get to the group, google yahoo groups. Then search for NeedleworkFleaMarket where you will apply to join. All the sales and purchases are between you and the seller or buyer. I based it on another yahoo group called SewItsForSale. So if you want to de-stash a bit or are looking for a certain pattern, join the group! Any questions, let me know. Nancy

TIME FLIES!!

Of course, I have been meaning to write since I last took pen to paper in January. Where has the time gone? I think I need to write less but more often. My friend Denise and I have been working on 3 quilts for the Golden Retriever rescue, As Good as Gold of northern Illinois, auction. It was held last Saturday night at the Brookfield Zoo—in  lovely meeting rooms. The first photo is Denise and me on stage with the auctioneer. Our quilt is on the screen. We printed photos of 30 rescued Goldens onto fabric and incorporated them into our quilt. It was auctioned for $1350!! We used the pattern Turning Twenty Around the Block. We were one of only 10 items in the live auction—including a trip to Africa. Our other 2 quilts were in the silent auction area. We started out this quilt with 16 Golden photos, but the dogs were so cute that it turned into a queen sized quilt. Now that it's over, I finally have some free time. 

The photo below is Denise and me celebrating our great auction price. We were taking phone videos of the auction when were dragged to the stage.

I bought a quilt stand to better display the quilt. It was very visible when you walked in the door of the venue. We were very proud of it and all our hard work. I had ordered the printable fabric from a Nevada company which has apparently gone out of business. When I called to complain that the 30 sheets were not 8.5" x 11" as advertised, no one answered my calls or later emails. We had do to a bit of adjusting in the blocks to accomidate (sp?) the crudely cut fabric. It's all a great learning experience. Now I'm thinking about what to do for next year!

Off to yoga class. Working on my mom's medicare/doctor bills this afternoon to try to get them organized and to figure them out. What a puzzle medicare is. We had to file an extension on her taxes so I could get the quilt finished in time for the auction!! Now no excuse to tackle it all! Talk soon. I sure hope so. Nancy

Happy New Year 2012

Wow! It's been a long time since I last blogged. It's never a dull moment around here, and I always seem to be busy with my 2x/week yoga classes, my Tuesday morning stitch/knit group, my neighborhood book group, my once a month sampler group that has been meeting for over 25 years, and life. I've been stitching most every night and lately have been sewing the cording on various Christmas ornaments. Will find those photos and post them soon and round up my other stitching projects for you to see.

This is some of what I have been doing since May.

I am the Bandanna Chairwoman for the As Good As Gold Golden Retriever Rescue group here in northern Illinois. Last spring several gals and I made a bunch of bandannas. They are about 22" square. These are each given out for a $5 donation to the group. We cut them out of fun fabric, serge them on a serger to finish the edges, iron them and then get them to the people who man the "meet and greets" of which there are over 25 in the Chicago area. Since there is a large membership meeting at the end of January, we will be getting together soon—me and other volunteers—to sew more for the coming year.

In the summer our next door neighbors moved to a retirement area nearby so that they would have a house on only one level, and I made them a quilt. The pattern is "Turning Twenty" made with 20 fat quarters. Fast and fun but a great size.

For my niece Corey's bridal shower in July I made another Turning Twenty quilt.

 I actually began to like brown! 

Showing the backing fabric that I found at Wal Mart! The quilts in the background hanging on my design wall are Quilts of Valor that I need to quilt. They're still hanging there. 

My niece Corey got married in October. This is a Strip Twist quilt from Bonnie Hunter's web page Quiltville. Even though the blocks appear to be "on point" they are not. I asked Corey what color she likes, and she said "brown" so here it is. A zillion different fabrics. It is a king.

My quilt guild had a small quilt auction in October. I made this turkey quilt and it is about 24" x 24" as I recall. Love the tail feathers. It went for a decent amount of money.

I made this quilt below from neckties and men's shirts for the auction. One of my best friends who was a guest at the auction purchased it for over $100! It's lovely to know who has one's things. Notice the tie labels around the border. Used 24 different ties.

This tie quilt was also for the auction. I wondered how the bright colors would sell—not as much as the conservative one. I used black velveteen for the sashing strips, and all the other fabric was from silk ties from the Robert Talbot tie company in California. I had purchased various leftover tie fabric from their company store. Beautiful, beautiful fabrics. Needed a very dark black and cotton wasn't as dark. Used 36 different ties.

IN THE KITCHEN—Hung some of my smaller stitched pieces. Had them framed under glass to preserve them. The 2 Quaker pieces are from a company in France. The 2 black background pieces are from Carriage House Samplings as is my adaptation of the Needlewoman sign which I stitched on 18 count linen needlepoint canvas. I hooked the rooster rug years ago. The blackwork piece on the left is an adaptation of two bookmarks from a magazine published years ago. I added other designs like the whale and mermaids and also a lovely verse. It is one of my favorite pieces that I have finished.

XMAS—During the first week in December I hosted 3 holiday lunches. This encouraged me to put my decorations up early and to get the house in shape for guests. It was a great idea to have the parties 3 days in a row as all I had to do between parties was wash the dishes and table cloth. I had them catered which was nice as I hate to cook.

This is my tree. I keep it in my kitchen. I have made 98% of the stitched ornaments.

I set up my table with all 11 of my brass candlesticks—both antique and new.

Needed an easy, non-messy project for my sampler group Christmas party. These were fun to make using old buttons from my button jars. They are 2 pieces of felt glued together with a glue stick. I searched online for the design I wanted and resized the designs on my copy machine. The half pearls were from Michaels and already sticky on the back. On some we used different sized pearls. The buttons we stuck on with Zots used for scrapbooking. They are small circles of a sticky substance and work great. You stick the button to the zot and then stick the button with zot to the felt. No messy glue and everyone was able to finish her projects. 

I gave out the doves as favors for my yoga group party on Monday.

For the book group I decopauged (sp?) 12 clear plastic ornaments with pages from an old paperback version of Pride and Prejudice. Had to have a book worthy of the ornament! I first lightly sanded the balls and then pressed the pages to the mod podged (sp?) balls and painted mod podge over them. Later I sprinkled clear glitter over the surface of the balls. My friend Marcia made little tags for each ball, and I used a nice silver ribbon as the hanger. They were a bit of work, but I was happy at how they turned out. I made sure that each ball had the words "Pride and Prejudice" on it.

My 3 grand children—and we're expecting a little girl in March!

Yes, that's her pet rat, Pinky!

There never was a cheerleader in my family!

My 2 daughters and me in mid-October celebrating Katie's 40th birthday.

Have spent the last few days cleaning out my computer room, shredding documents, going through my stash of books, and figuring out how to get rid of more stuff from my house. I want to get rid of some of my sampler books and will put a list of those remaining in my collection in the next post. I am also clearing out about 40 quilting/quilt history books to be taken to my quilt guild rummage sale on Tuesday. The proceeds go to the guild treasury, but I will have gotten rid of them to worthy buyers!!

Wanted to catch up in this post. Hope to get my act together to see you back here soon. --Nancy

SAMPLER FAMILY HISTORIES—Quilts—Stitching Projects

What I've Been Up To—Once again life has been busy and I haven't been able to find time to blog. Better busy than bored I always say. My little grandson Ryan, aged 9 months, spent 2 nights in the hospital last week with bronchiolitis that he probably picked up at daycare. He is slowly getting better, but his breathing still sounds terrible. Babysitting him twice a week has seriously cut into my free time. Why does a baby fight taking a nap? Why is it so much fun to play on the floor with a baby?

My mom turned 90 in March and is doing very well. She plays bridge as much as she can and is in great health. This is a photo of her and my oldest daughter, Katie. My Prairie Schooler ABC is in the background!

I have been trying to catch up on my quilting. I finished quilting a quilt for the Elgin Youth Symphony last week and also 2 quilts for the Our Savior's Lutheran Day Care. I believe all 3 quilts will be raffled as fund raisers. Yesterday I practiced my feather quilting on a crib quilt for a local charity. I have 2 more of these to do plus some others for Quilts of Valor for the troops. Time always seems to be a premium around here. I used my Innova long arm machine that has a 26" throat plate. Fantastic machine. Lots and lots of fun to use.

This is the Elgin Youth Symphony quilt. I only quilted it. Did not piece it.

Years ago Elgin was the home of the Elgin Watch Company so there is watch fabric in addition to all kinds of music fabric.

Great piano key fabric! 

Pre-school peace quilt. I did not piece this, only quilted it.

The kids made palm prints with paint.

2nd peace quilt. The kids were heavy-handed with their paint and I could not quilt through the thick layer of the painted hearts. Just quilted around them!

I took a Joanie Poole from Wisconsin class on "heirloom" machine quilting using my regular sewing machine through my local quilt guild, Riverwalk Quilters. I was amazed that I did okay—probably because I had the long arm experience. This is a tiny piece 18" square approximately on a silk/cotton blend with very thin thread. I have kept my sewing machine in the kitchen to remind me to work on the piece. The tiny gold pins keep the quilt sandwich together until I finish quilting it. The center grid was quilted with a walking foot.

I marked the ivy leaves with a washable blue pen and free hand quilted it with the feed dogs dropped on my machine. I pushed the fabric under the stationery needle of the machine.

When I finish with all 4 ivy corner areas, I am supposed to fill in the extra space around them with a tiny stippling free-hand design--which will probably take forever to do! Ha! Ha

A few weeks ago I taught a class at the Hinsdale Embroiderers' Guild on the technique of punch needle embroidery. I was the second choice for a teacher as the original person wanted $400 + room and board/day! Guess she really didn't want to teach it. I come cheap! Drives me crazy when they call punchneedle "stitching" or "embroidery!" Had a lot of fun as I know many of the gals in the guild and would be a member if I didn't have a conflicting yoga class at the same time as the guild. I taught this pumpkin and also a snowman which is now put away with my Christmas stuff. Always interesting to teach two different designs at one time. If you haven't tried this technique of punch needle, try it as it is fast and fun. The biggest expense is the punch needle and you need a good one. The Cameo brand is just fine. I like the small needle best. Most economical to buy one that comes with small-med-large needles. You can buy the weaver's cloth fabric at Joann Fabric. You'll also need a hoop with a lip because the fabric needs to be drum tight. Punch needle uses up a lot of floss but is a mindless technique--and sometimes we need just that.

I finished my "Naperville" town scene based on a Carriage House design and my friend Mary Garry's version of it. I changed colors and used any fast stitches that I could think of. No cross stitch for me but half cross or satin or scotch, etc. Haven't ironed it yet. I think I stitched on 26 count linen over 1 thread with continental stitch/basketweave. The photos are a bit dark as the piece is laying on my honey-colored wood kitchen floor.

WITHY DITCH SCHOOL SAMPLERS

I have been meaning to write but have been busy. Have been working on my Delta Gamma newsletter for the alums of my chapter at Michigan State classes1946-1970. Trying to get them to contribute to the newsletter is never ending. And with email, it is so easy. Yes, those who joined in 1946 probably don't have email. I understand. Well, the stragglers are sending their news and payment and I should be done with it in the next few weeks.

I have also been taking a wonderful on line class on learning to quilt feather patterns. You know, those glorious swirls of long ago. The class is 6 weeks long, and we have handouts, and see slides and videos on line. We practice on paper first before we even turn on our long arm sewing machines. It is really hard to draw feather designs, let alone sew them with a machine, but I am slowly improving.

Ancestry.com has drawn me into it's web. Once I get on the site, I can't seem to get off. I'm busy searching for lots of different ancestors and actually had a breakthrough this week when I found my great grandmother's family in Pittsburgh in the 1800s. But once you answer one question, another looms before you. Fun stuff that genealogy. Your own mystery.

I have been stitching every night on my Carriage House Samplings "city" "sampler." Just snapped a few pics to show you. I see my head is shadowing the shots, but you get the idea. My friend Mary Garry stitched it first, and I liked her colors better than the original, but I have changed some to suit my taste. I am stitching it on 24 count linen over 1 thread with half cross/continental stitch and other needlepoint/embroidery stitches to make the work go faster. The name of my town—Naperville—will be added at the bottom between those curly motifs.

At the top where that straight horizontal line is there will be a house and various motifs.

I am waiting to get the vegetation completed before I choose the building colors.

You can see that I have used a lot of diagonal satin stitches for my leaves on both trees.

WITHY DITCH SAMPLERS—

Emmanuelle in France  http://lemarquoirdelise.over-blog.com/article-22592520.html  wrote me that she also has a Withy Ditch School sampler! That is 3 that I know about. The first one I found at our local history museum, Naper Settlement. And then I found out that my friend in Michigan had one. Now France!! Emmanuelle has sent me photos of her sampler, and you will be amazed at the similarity between hers and the one from Naper Settlement.

The first group is of the sampler owned by my friend in Michigan. Margaret Saunders stitched her sampler in 1848. This is quite a bit later than the other two, but although the exact designs are not the same, the general set up is.

This is our reproduction of part of the sampler from Naper Settlement. Ann Carter 1852. We stitched it over 1 thread on 20 count linen. The count of the original fabric was very high.

This is the original Ann Carter. I know I have other pictures somewhere but they are probably with my slides. I don't think I scanned them. Sorry.

This is the sampler that now resides in France—Anne Weaver 1852. Anne and Ann share the same setup, same verse and many of the same motifs. Glad each girl was able to add her own personality. Love Ann Carter's Adam and Eve. It must have been a windy day!

I'd sure say that Ann Carter and Anne Weaver were students together at this school in England, wouldn't you? Anne Weaver is in much better condition than Ann Carter. Fun to see the comparisons--just like when we go to a workshop and no piece turns out the same.

Emmanuelle sent me the websites for the reproduction of the Anne Weaver sampler. It’s a french online shop called” Reflets de Soie”. The picture of the reproduction is below. Very colorful!

Here’s the link to the shop (home) http://www.reflets-de-soie.fr/epages/62027478.sf/fr_FR/?ObjectPath=/Shops/62027478

And to the reproductions of samplers http://www.reflets-de-soie.fr/epages/62027478.sf/fr_FR/?ObjectPath=/Shops/62027478/Categories/Reproduction

Gotta go now and practice sewing my feathers. I want to learn how to do this, and all it takes is PPP. Practice, practice, practice. Be back soon. Spring is coming here. Our snow is almost all melted and I saw some tiny tips of daffodils starting to come through the soil. --Nancy