A New Sampler

Thanks to an injury I received to my ankle while working on my pond project, I have been advised to take it easy for a couple of days. So I finished my moon sampler. Click here to see picture.

In keeping with my promise to finish up some projects already on hand, I found this in the bottom of my sewing basket.

I got all the words done today, except for about 5 letters and ran out of thread. I love the frames that it is shown in. Wish I could find one like that.

Your opinion please...

I finished this sampler and tea dyed it. Then I had this idea, instead of framing it by itself, I would put it on a piece of coverlet.

A couple of weeks ago I went to the Stitching Post and they had some new fabric that resembles a coverlet. So I called them up and ordered a piece of it. The cost was $15.99 a yard and it is 54" wide. A fraction of what you can get an antique coverlet for. So I pinned my sampler on the fabric and now I need opinions.

Do you like it on the coverlet or should I frame it by itself? Thanks for your input.

A Little Dirty Work

Today it was very warm here in Southern Indiana. Since my shoulder was messed up last summer, I really neglected my yard. I have soooo many projects and general maintenance that needs to be done.

My first priority is the area around my pond. Originally, we put down inexpensive landscape fabric and we left a strip of grass between the rocks and the fence. Whose idea was that one? You can't get the lawn mower in there, so it mostly was a mess all the time. This picture was taken from the deck looking down on the pond.

I didn't get any shots of the area before me and my daughter started ripping things up. Last weekend, my husband and I pulled out the whiskey barrel. It had an old pump on it and was spilling into the pond. The rings had rusted and the barrel was falling apart into the pond. I am still going to use the pump, but have to figure out a way to incorporate into a waterfall that will now spill into the pond. And that water lily. I had tried to no avail to get a water lily to grow in my pond. I tried all the cheap ones in the box at your local garden center. I finally broke down and spend twenty something bucks for one from a green house. Oh my gosh! It has been three years now and it is taking over. The mass of roots is now about three inches thick on the bottom of the pond, and covers the entire pond. I cut a section off and am going to try to get another start for the pond in the front yard. I kept saying "if I reach in there and find the frog, they will hear me scream clear to China". You all know how ugly those darn things are when they come crawling from the depths of the pond in the spring. YUCK!!!

This is a shot from the backyard. In the upper right corner by the fence is a red twig dogwood. My co-workers bought this for me when my dad died. I think I am going to kind of have a memorial garden around the pond. I am looking for a stone of some sort in memory of my greyhound Brett. I have some really cool landscaping lights that I will put back up after the weed barrier and rocks are put back. I will post the "after" photos, hopefully by the end of next week. I don't want this project to go on forever!

A new project

Well, I finished my sampler and it didn't take me long to find another unfinished project in the sewing basket. My next project is called Primitive Moon by Ewe & Eye & Friends. It is not very big and is going very quickly. I like those kind of projects.

I have been very good and trying to finish a project before I buy anything for another one! We will see how long that lasts. I have been thinking about what to do with patterns that I know I will never use again. Any suggestions?

Second Time Around Tuesday

This trunk was my oldest daughter's toy box when she was a baby. It was one of those that was later deemed "unsafe" because children were suffocating after the lid would fall on them. I never quite figured out how this could happen if you were supervising your child, so we continued to use it. She is has just moved into a new place and the cats always laid on top of the trunk in front of the window.

I purchased this cute fabric last year with the intentions of making a pillow for the top of the trunk. It looks like a newspaper, but when you look at it closely, it is all about cats! The fabric is so cute and I hope the kitties love laying on it!

Tea Dyed Sampler

I finally finished my sampler that I have been working on forever!!! I just didn't like how the fabric looked. It was too blah, so I went on a search for a recipe to age the fabric. Here is the end result.I really like how it turned out. To "age" the aida cloth, I used 4 tablespoons of instant tea to 3 cups of water. I put it on the stove to boil, then I put the sampler in the pan. When I first took it out of the water the dye was too even. Then I remembered somewhere I saw to put it in the oven. So I set the oven on the lowest setting, about 200 degrees, put the stitchery in a glass baking dish and baked it! I looked at it in a frame, but I think I will look for a piece of coverlet to put it on and then frame it. I can't remember how much it cost me to buy a piece of aida cloth at the stitchery store that looked aged, but I think I will just do it myself next time!

This added April 23, 2009: I haven't had this problem before, but I was thinking you should probably make sure your threads are colorfast. I used DMC floss on this particular project. But some of the hand dyed threads might bleed.

Candy Cane Quilt Top

Last week I showed you a picture of a project that I was working on, this red and white Candy Cane quilt. Here is my version.

I love red and white. It isn't very big, probably 45 inches by 45 inches. I don't have a clue what I am going to do with it, but I will add it to the stack that needs to be quilted. I love to piece tops, but hate to quilt them!

Bottle Tree

Have you ever heard of a bottle tree? I had never heard of one until I went to visit my friend in Tennessee last summer. She had one by her back door and it had beautiful colored bottles on it. She couldn't really remember, but it had some type of legend behind it. So I started thinking...I want one of these!

I have combined information from several different sources, but this is what I have read. There are actually trees in Australia and Africa called bottle trees.

The slaves brought the idea of the traditional bottle trees, live trees with colored bottles on the ends of branches, into this country. It has been told that bottle trees protected homes from evil spirits by trapping spirits inside the bottle, where they could do no harm.

Some say that bottles were hung from trees by strings, in hopes that any devilish spirits lurking near the house would be attracted to the colorful bottles shining in the dusk. The spirits would become mesmerized by pretty colored bottles and become trapped inside the bottles. The bottles were periodically corked and thrown into the river to wash away the unwanted spirits. Another swing to the story is that the spirits become trapped in the bottles, and are then destroyed when the sun comes up.

Sometimes the bottles, then made of hand-blown glass, were hung by strings. But mostly they were put on the tips of a tree. Although bottles of many colors were used, blue was thought to be an especially potent spirit repellant. It is still common to see homes in the south with their doors and window frames painted blue. It was thought that the color blue has the power to repel or overcome evil.

We ordered some bottle trees for the shop. Needless to say, I brought one home today. I already have a cobalt blue bottle to put on it first. Please feel free to let me know if you have any other information about bottle trees!

Thursday Fun

Today, my friend Lori and I went on a little road trip. Our final destination was The Stitching Post in Washington, Indiana. Along the way, we stopped at an antique mall and another gift shop called Graceful Lady. Oh yeah, I almost forgot our stop at a little hole in the wall ice cream shop in Vincennes, Indiana called "Zip n Sip". They serve flavored soft serve ice cream. I must say it is about the best ice cream I have had in a really long time.


I needed to go back to The Stitching Post to purchase another 5" charm pack. This is a Christmas pattern by Moda. I only purchased one the first time.
I also purchased coordinating fabric for the border and block centers. These charm packs are my new favorite. Already cut and ready to go. This is the pattern I am going to use to make my Christmas quilt.


Thanks to Lori, I also finished filling up my frequent shopper card and I get $15.00 off my next purchase. Yippee! Sounds like a good reason to go there again soon.


As usual, I have several projects going. I have been trying hard to not start anything new until I get some of my UFOs (un finished objects) done. I have had this project on my list of things I wanted to do for some time now. The red and white quilt in the right of the picture. I have the magazine that has the pattern in it though. I love red and white. I did manage to get about half of the blocks pieced tonight. Hopefully I can get the rest of it pieced soon. I should be working outside if the weather is nice, but we all know how that goes!

Second Time Around Tuesday

Thanks to Diane at A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words for hosting Second Time Around Tuesday. I have missed the past couple of weeks, but this week I am prepared.

I have had my eye out for the small oak pre-school type chairs for a while now. I got this one for $2.00 at the Men's Rescue Mission Thrift Store.

My goal is to have one for each of my greyhounds. Greyhounds are a breed that are prone to bloat and it is suggested that they eat from a raised feeder. So I had my husband cut a hole in the bottom of the chair to put the bowl in. I still need a couple more chairs. I have two that are a lot shorter than this one, so I am not sure if I want to use them or not. I want to paint each chair a different color and put the dogs' name on each one. Well, someday, anyway. Thanks for visiting!

Little Froggie

I was looking through my pictures, trying to get inspired, and I came across this.

For some reason or another, I had a sponge outside. It was a windy spring day and it blew into the pond. I guess this frog was being lazy, using it as his personal floatation device. He is pretty ugly as frogs go.

My friends, it seems that I brought back a nasty souvenir from the sunshine state. I woke up Sunday morning with a tiny cough. Just a little tickle every now and then. Well, it has progressively gotten worse. I feel like doo-doo. All I want to do is drink fluids and sleep. I hope to be back blogging soon.

Pictures

I have been working all day trying to get my pictures uploaded. I thought I had it figured out, but it is playing backwards. Drat. Oh well, enjoy.