Finished projects #5 & #6

This one is actually finished project 6, fresh off the scroll frame today. I know that the wedding is still months away but I'm awfully excited and have plans for this little baby. I love it. It's exactly as sweet as I wanted it to be. And the little dots all over are white with a tiny bit of sapphire blue in the middle. The original had some washed out dots but I thought these were perfect because we have a plan to make my wedding ring out of his grandmother's diamond and my grandmother's sapphires. (I'm such a sappy one.)

And the finished project below was completed a bit ago. The Charleston Museum (oldest in the country) had a workshop last month where we were given a private tour of the crazy quilts on exhibit with the textiles curator and then we all loaded up in our cars and drove across town to Blue Heron Glass shop and learned how to make our own crazy quilts out of glass. (My English teachers are cringing over that run-on sentence. . .) I really like the way this one turned out. Crazy quilts aren't quite my thing because I like a bit of structure but it was lots of fun to make. Being a vain Leo, I squeezed in my initial and a not-too-literal heart. And those little creamy dots up in the right hand corner were supposed to look like little pearls. (Yeah, I know. I'm obsessed with this whole wedding thing. I tried to resist but what bride isn't??) Anyway, the class was so much fun that I'm taking another fused glass bowl class in a few weeks. And I've signed up for a calligraphy workshop at the museum. I'm going to be a busy little nerdy girl.

xoxoxoxo

Woodle

Our tiny girl was two years old on Friday. She is the the cutest, most frustrating little thing in the world. She will not be trained. She will not do what she's supposed to do. She will cry and bounce on her back two legs until you stop what you're doing and pick her up like a baby. But she will steal your heart with her sweetness. She's a huge amount of love in an itty bitty package and we wouldn't know what to do without her.

Happy birthday Olive, my darling little girl. We love you.

xoxoxoxox

WINTER STORM 2010!! . . .

. . . South Carolina style. This was the scene last night on the island. We got what most of the country would call a light dusting but grocery stores here were selling out of milk, bread and toilet paper and the news was all about the storm. It made for some slick steps but it really was no big deal. Very pretty. And by 11am today, most of it was gone. It's hard to tell but those are my little dogs in the upper right standing next to the rocking chairs. Oddly - for dogs who don't like to go out in the rain - they seemed to be intrigued by the snow. Roscoe even thought it was fun to eat. And here's my cute little car. I'm not sure if you can pick him out since he's so covered over with snow. . .

The other big excitement in my life this week was that I attended my first Quilt Guild meeting as a member. Which meant that I felt like I could participate in show and tell. You write a little blurb about your quilt explaining who pieced it and who quilted it and anything else you want to say. When the announcer read that it was my first quilt, the women in the audience hooted and clapped. One woman came over to talk to me and asked if it was really my first quilt (and it sorta was since I had the front and back assembled before I did Mom's quilt) and when I told her yes, she hugged me and said that I was going to be around for a long time. YES!! Success! And so with tears of pride in my eyes, I walked over to the volunteer table and signed up for two shifts at the quilt show. I'm a sucker. And my allegiance is easily bought. . .

(I'm the blur walking in front to retrieve my quilt on the other side.)

xoxoxox

She's on a roll! Finish #4

So this actually isn't my favourite fabric in the world. The colours are all a little too muddy and muted for my tastes. A little too. . . earthy. But I thought this second set of cocktail napkins turned out to be pretty cute. And they're going to live in the mountains so I think the tones will make more sense there. Another to do checked off my list. HOORAH!

One more coming up tomorrow I think and then I get knee deep in planning and other projects.

xoxoxoxox

Finished project #3

Woohoo! Zipping right along. I actually finished this last week but didn't feel like it could be checked off the list until it had been blocked and was hanging in my window. It isn't like it provides much screening from the world seeing in but my sad little window was sort of naked and bleak before. The previous owners had those cheap $4 blinds in the window which to me are more depressing than having nothing at all. Since I enjoy looking out of my window when I'm sitting at my desk, I knew that I'd never put the blinds down ever so off they went immediately. I've had this sweet little curtain on my to-do list for several years. It is from a pattern in my first ever knitting book. (Love you Kay & Ann!) I started it probably two years ago and abandoned it for some unknown reason. It didn't come out exactly like the book but I'm not terribly concerned. It's fulfilling its primary function, to pretty up my office a bit and make me happy. (And did you notice the "Knitta Please" postcard?? That makes me happy too. Thanks Karin!)

When I picked the curtain back up several weeks ago, it was meant for my kitchen window. Same issues there with crappy blinds and a window that would never be blocked, no matter how dismal the view of the above ground pool in our neighbours' backyard. . . While I was knitting away happily, I found this fab old stained glass window in an antique store. I've wanted one like it for years and HAD TO HAVE IT. The colours were absolutely perfect for my house. The call of it kept pulsing in my brain until I had to go back for it. So two ugly bare windows down. Hurrah!

Happy Monday!

xoxoxoxo

He loves me

I've been thinking for a week about how to announce this to blogland. I've started posts. I've scrapped them. I've added pictures. I've taken them away. But in typical stitch-nerdy fashion, this seemed the perfect way. I spent several hours on the sofa last night with some graph paper and coloured pencils and worked on this. It's going to be a cross stitch piece for us since WE'RE GETTING MARRIED!!! I've had this sweet little piece by a designer called La-D-Da for years now but it said "He loves me, he loves me not". So I just took that "not" part out and graphed in our names instead. There is a banner at the top that will have the date, if we can ever settle upon one. . .

More to come this week. I have tons of almost finished projects and even though it's a beautiful day here in sunny South Carolina, I think I'm going to hang out at the house and get things done. So that maybe, just maybe, I can start some stitching.

xoxoxoxoxox