Around the Homestead

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

IHSW

I went through all my WIPs on Saturday and figured out what I wanted to stitch on for the IHSW weekend:) Since I didn't get much stitching done on Saturday, I figured I could count what I did on Monday. I just shifted my 'weekend' a bit!!

This will become all 3 parts in the 'Summer/Autumn/Winter' Loose Feathers charts from Blackbird Designs. I am doing this on 40 ct Legacy over 2 and I love working on this small count fabric. You can see that I finished this vine all except one flower which will be a lighter red color, which I don't have right now, so I couldn't stitch it yet. Hmm, I think that means I need to take a bit of my birthday money and go shopping!! :)

It was fun to take a break from blog hop projects and other projects that NEED to get done and stitch on something just for me. I have one more blog hop to participate in this month (these have been so much fun!!!), and I haven't even decided what I want to do for it!! That is on the plan for today. Summer break has finally started, and I am hoping to be able to finish up a ton of projects this summer:)

Saturday, May 18, 2013

FNSI - May 2013

http://handmadebyheidi.blogspot.com/

I am super happy with my progress this month!! I finally got all the squares cut out and all the rows sewn. The rows aren't all sewn together, but that will be my goal for next month.

Here it all is and you can have a good look at the different fabrics I choose for this quilt. Patriotic colors, but not necessarily patriotic fabrics, except maybe that red star one:) I'm really looking forward to having this one finished up!!

Okay, now that my Friday (into Saturday) Night Sew In is all finished up and blogged about, I am going to enjoy some stitching time. The family all went to visit the in-laws so I have a bit of time left to myself, so I think I'll also watch a movie on Netflix as well:)

Friday, May 17, 2013

Lots of sewing and stitching this weekend!!!

This weekend welcomes not one, but two different SALs!!! The first is for tonight (or today if you cheat a bit and get a head start:).

http://handmadebyheidi.blogspot.com/

Heidi over at www.handmadebyheidi.blogspot.com hosts this SAL. You just sew on any project on the 3rd Friday of the month and post about it the next day. My progress post for this will be tomorrow.

And the next is for the whole weekend.

This one is hosted by Joyce over at Random Ramblings. This is a fun one where we stitch as much as is humanly possible for the whole weekend and post our progress on Monday:) It's been so long since I've stitched just for me that I'm not sure what I want to work on this weekend!! I need to go through my pile of WIPs and see what calls out to me:)

Anyone is welcome to join in on either (or both) of these, so click on a button to visit the blogs and then get started sewing and/or stitching!!!

Monday will be our last day of school here, it should have been today but we took off yesterday for my birthday, so we will need to finish up on Monday. Then the summer break begins!!! Looking forward to focusing on stitching and sewing and even housework as that has really gotten away from me!! Dd has lots of things planned as well, so I guess we will be doing lots of running around too:)

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Very late TUSAL

I kept meaning to post my TUSAL report, but kept forgetting to:) So I will do one better, I'll post the TUSAL and introduce you to one of our cats!!

This is 'Muffin' She is one of our mama cats and is super sweet and cuddly with us, but kind of cranky with the other cats!! She is really fine boned and delicate, and she thinks she is a princess:)

I thought I would take the strings and bits outside and the cats would all want to play with it, but it took me some time to get Muffin interested in the strings. She just wanted me to pet her instead:)

There were other cats out as well, but none of them wanted their picture taken.

I did stitch quite a bit this past month, but it doesn't really look like it according to my TUSAL report here. Most of what I did stitch on was small things, so I guess I just didn't have many leftover strings;0)

Sunday, May 12, 2013

It's For the Birds - My day:)

Well, it's my day to post my 'Bird' project for this blog hop. First I want to give a big Thanks!!! to Madam Samm over at Sew We Quilt for her fun and inspiring blog hop ideas and also to Mary over at I Piece 2 - Mary for organizing and supporting those of us who wanted to join in on this fun theme!!!

As always, my mind got away with me. I always seem to come up with lots of ideas, and not enough time to get them done!!! So I have one project to show off that did get done, and another that I can only show the materials I (still) plan to use.

These two photos (top and bottom) are the same project. I was trying to get a good pic in the tree, but I live in Kansas, and if you don't already know, it is windy here:) Almost all the time!! So the bird kept swinging around and the top photo was the best I could get. What is really funny is that one of the (many) cats we have climbed up right after this to try and get the bird:)

Anyway, this cross stitch and sewing pattern is designed by 'With Thy Needle and Thread' and is named 'ABC Pinkeep.' I've done this one once before, but really love it and wanted another birdy to 'hang' around the house:) Plus, this time I had some bird material to us for the backing.

I bought this bird material a few years ago from a discount shop. I love the little birds riding in the wagons:)

And this is the project that I didn't get to. It would have been my first embroidery (if you don't count cross stitch as embroidery). I found the free pattern at 'Bad Birds' (and look around her website, because she has lots of really cute patterns on there). I still intend on doing this, in fact, I've already started it. My stitches aren't straight or even, by it'll give me some practice. I want to incorporate it into a bag using some of the fabric that you see behind it.

That's all from me, but please visit all the bloggers in today's hop...

Quilt Smiles

Sew Darn Quilt

Cindy's Crafty Creations

Made By Me in Red

Feathered Nest Studio

Cherry's Prairie Primitives

UK City Crafts

Gracie Oliver Arts

Quilter in the Closet

Quilt to the Edge

Around the Homestead - This is ME:)

Sew Peace to Peace

Cali Quilter

Boston Bits

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Been a while!!!

Well, I'm just not doing so good with keeping up with the blog, am I? I'll try to get back to it, but until then here's a little of what's been going on around here.

First off we are getting real close to the end of another (home) school year!! It's always exciting to know you only have a week or two left for the year and then to start planning for the next year:) This year is a bit more exciting than most as our dd is finishing up her 8th grade year and we will be planning for High School now!! Our local support group held a Senior High/Jr High graduation a couple weeks ago, so our dd attended that. We will sign the diploma as soon as she finishes up with her work;) it's also just about time to switch from the school-year activities to the summer ones. Dd is thinking she might join swim team this year, but wants to make sure she'll be able to stay in gymnastics as well.

I've been fighting allergies/asthma something terrible this spring!! But we've gotten some much needed moisture and the wildlife that we enjoyed the first couple years we were out here (this is only the 6th year we've lived out in the country since we've been married), is starting to come back. We've had ducks in our front pasture and this morning I saw a box turtle in our driveway:) The birds are out and singing too.

I've also been stitching and getting ready for some blog hops that I signed up for. The first on was the 'Shake Your Pom Poms' and next will be 'It's for the Birds'. These are organized by Madam Samm over atSew We Quilt and are so much fun!!! My next day will be on May 13th and so I am frantically trying to get my project done for that:)

I also finished the next section on a round robin that I am part of. This one belongs to a lady named Sue and I love the soft colors that she picked. She also decided to use only one strand of floss which make it look even softer. It is amazing how different each of our projects are turning out even though we all used the same chart. Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of Sue's project before I mailed it off:( Oops!! So no pictures to show on that one.

That is all for now. I think I will post kitty pics in a day or two. I love the cute spring animal babies each year!!

Monday, April 29, 2013

Time to Shake My Pom Poms!!!

I'm so excited to be able to participate in this blog hop and want to take a min to give a big cheer to Madame Samm who comes up with these great blog-hop themes and to Thearica for being our Cheer Leader Captain for this super fun hop. Thanks so much ladies for all the work you have put into this for us!!!

My projects started out very simply. My first thought when deciding on what I should put a 'pom pom' on was that my dd had a shirt that had originally had a bright orange pom pom on it. She loved the shirt, but not that bright orange. So I went searching for the right color yarn to match the shirt and proceeded to 'fix' it for her. I think it looks just about right now:)

After this all I could think about was bunny tails:) So I went searching on Pinterest and found a couple of projects that I thought I could tackle. First I found these super cute crochet bunnies and even though my crochet skills are pretty basic, I was able to whip up these sweet little bunnies...