July Cross-Stitch, Sampler Blocks, and a New Dress

This past weekend I worked on the July cross-stitch pattern from Sylvia. It is so cute, and I think very German or European. I say that because I've not seen anyone hang fish after a catch so I'm assuming it's done where Sylvia lives. If I'm wrong, let me know. Now I'm all set for the August design.

I completed my blocks for this week's Simple Sampler: The first is the hourglass block and the second is the 6 grid chain block.




I like the block called 6 grid chain. I can't wait to check out the other participants' blocks because the different fabrics make every block look like no other. We are all going to have a very nice quilt top when we're done. Thanks again, Amy.

Here are all of them so far:

This is my Claire Cami Dress. I bought the pattern and fabric with the Sew Mama Sew gift certificate I won. I love the dress. I do need to alter the armholes because they gape a bit, but that's not a big problem. I love the fabric. It's from Kate Spain for Moda called Verna.

At Saver's today I bought a Marcia Adams Cooking from Quilt Country cookbook, three Just CrossStitch magazines, and a package of Aida cloth, all for $4.14. I live in an old mill town, and workers at the mills got to bring home big spools of thread, or as in my Mother's case, ribbon binding and buttons that were used on the Garland sweaters that were made in her factory. At Saver's today I saw many of these types of things, and couldn't help but think that the worker's children were cleaning out stuff. I say this because I have done the same thing. But I kept lace, and the ribbons and buttons. My father used to bring home thread, and we still have a few old, big, wooden spools of very old thread.

Listening to Anne Perry and Charlotte Hart books helped me get my projects done.

God Bless You.

Strawberry Lady, Dancers, and Birds

Yesterday I completed the June pattern for Sylvia's My Little Heart cross stitch along. It's a cute lady with a strawberry skirt. I love her flip. If you don't know what I'm referring to than you weren't around fifty years ago (it's her hair style.)

I visited my sister last week, and we went to Katrina and Brenna's dance recital. Great job, kids. (They are my sister's granddaughters.) They worked very hard, and it showed in the performances. We're always impressed with the dance recital because it is high caliber dancing and fun to watch. And the outfits are gorgeous. Anyway, while I was there I began to make a lapghan for the hospital, and I'm at this point:

On Friday I received the layer cake that I won from Darlene of Quilting Daze. It is Heritage from Moda's Collection for a Cause, and the fabric is so pretty. There are four pieces that have birds in them which are my favorites:



There are a shades of cherry, colonial blue, and lots of chocolate, tans and browns.




My plan is to make a quilt for my bed with this fabric. Thank you again, Darlene, for the great giveaway.

Also on Friday, I got this book from the library:

What I saw that I liked is the simplicity of the patchwork patterns, most of them anyway. The other thing I liked was that Lise Bergene used decorative machine stitching to quilt some of the items, mostly the smaller ones. I imagine the quilt sandwish would have to be relatively thin for it to work, but I am going to try it. I also liked the crow's feet hand quilting.

God Bless You!

A Soft, Warm Body That Purred Like an Engine

That describes my cat, Puff. She's purring for the angels now. Moxie is confused, and I'm feeling the quietness in the house. I'm afraid I might go out and adopt a bunch of cats and dogs to fill the hole.


I didn't get the job I was angling for. Oh well. I have to say Life's Lemonade is getting boring, and I want something different, like a Life Hot Fudge Sundae...with a whole bunch of cherries on top!



This is the sal I'm doing from a blog originating in Germany. The blog name is Sylvia's, and she has some very pretty cross stitch patterns that attracted me. This sal's theme is hearts, so every month the pattern will have a heart somewhere. March has a four leaf clover with a heart petal.

Les Chroniques de Frimousse is a favorite blog of mine. Her patterns for counted cross-stitch are very sweet, especially her "lutins", or elves, maybe imps. They are so cute, and she puts them in all kinds of scenes. This is her pattern that I used to make a casual scissors fob. It isn't stuffed, but I used one layer of batting. I might make another to use as a key chain. I didn't use Aida cloth, but monks cloth which I guess makes it really, really casual.

Yesterday I listened to Round Robin by Jennifer Chiaverini. I love the characters in her books. I was wishing I was at quilt camp even though I was happy cross-stitching. It must have been the hand-sewing I was enjoying. I worked on the Mary Poppins pattern during most of the book, and today I worked on it again while listening to Joanne Fluke's Plum Pudding Murder. I have made mis-counts if that's what they are called. I consider they make my work personal, not necessarily wrong because I am choosing to leave them in the work. I corrected an error in one corner, but I am not being a perfectionist about this work. I'll see what it looks like when I'm done and decide what I think of it. I think it will be fine for my first big project in counted cross-stitch. God Bless You.