Stitch Me Up

How many love to embroider ? Well this is your time to browse blogs in the Stitch Me Up blog hop brought to us by none other than our famous cheerleaders Madamm Samm and Jane  and you can start right here right now as this is my day and this is day two of the hop .
I love to embroider although time only permitted me to do one of the sweet designs that were given as part of our participation in the hop .It was not a hard decision as to which design I would choose as I fell in love with the cute little sketches by Mdm. Samm , just too cute so without further adieu here is my contribution to the Stitch me up Blog hop :-)

 Isn't she cute all dressed up in her little yellow dress and blue pinafore with yellow daisies embroidered all over . She is wearing matching yellow socks and a pretty blue bow in her curly frocks .

Susie Q as I would like to refer to her was a pleasure to embroider and color  using  my trusty crayons to add some depth to give her life .I plan on sending this to my granddaughter . I hope you enjoyed my little creation and I want to thank everyone for stopping by today and be sure to hop on over to the others on the list below to see what they have created for this fun little hop .
hugs Sheila

 THURSDAY March 21st

Janice@ That Other Blog

Angela@ That Other Blog

piece peace

Stitchin’ By The Lake  

Phoenix Heirlooms

Sew Incredibly Crazy

Mamaccessories

 Molly's Place

Kath's Creations

Get More Done Today 

Sew Many Yarns

The Distracted Domestic

Sheila's Quilt World

UK City Crafter 

Meet my machine(s)

                                                      

I have been noticing all over blogland bloggers sharing their sewing machines as well as their sewing space with Stacey as the hostess for this fun little hop so I decided I would play along , after all I love my sewing machines , each and every one of them . How many you might ask , well I will only count those in this room at this time so lets see ....10 ,oops forgot my serger so make that 11. Did I hear a gasp , well truth be known there are more but for now I will share the main sewing machines that I use on a regular  basis.

This is my Pfaff 7550 , I do not name my machines but there is a story behind this machine. I believe the year was 2000 and we were going on a trip to the US so I decided I would do an online search for a sewing machine that I could possibly buy when we were there ,I knew what I was looking for and after quite sometime I came across an ad in a newspaper outside of Chicago so we called the number and I bought this machine sight on seen as it was far removed from where we were travelling but I felt quite comfortable even though I had never done any thing like this before , the gal on the other end owned a quilt shop and gave us the web address to check her out so we agreed on the price and the machine was shipped and arrived while we were away and I have been very happy with this machine . My favorite thing about this machine is the even feed foot , wonderful!
 Next is my favorite machine the Bernina 440 QE , I had wanted this machine since they were first introduced and my hubby bought this for me about 2 years ago .

Here it is all covered up with a sewing machine cover I made just after I got the machine , I wanted to be sure to protect it.

This machine is set down inside an old kitchen table, Bill cut the hole just the right size for another machine I had at the time and thankfully this machine also fits and I love all that extra space when machine quilting , not fancy for sure and it could use a coat of varnish but it works ;-)  Although I have not used the BSR foot much it was one of the reasons I wanted this machine and maybe if I practiced I would get the hang of it . What I like most about this machine is , well everything , but the stitch quality is wonderful and it was an easy machine to learn  which is a good thing as the lady who I purchased this through became ill just after my purchase so I never did get lessons . One of the questions is what do I wish this machine had that it doesn't , the answer would be more throat space . I would definitely recommend this machine to anyone , it is a wonderful machine as is the Pfaff .
If I could have any machine that I wanted , oh that would be the Bernina 850 , all that throat space and all those features but unless I win the lotto that is not about to happen ;-)
So now you have seen what machines I use on a regular basis I will show you some machines that are simply ornaments in my room , some gifts from our son Roger and some from Bill , each one special but none of them are used .At the time Roger was picking up these vintage machines it was common to find them for $10-15 but that doesn't happen anymore , they now put them up for auction at the Thrift stores .

 Yeah they are at the top of my bookcase , the first in this line up is a vintage Kenmore ,next a Singer then a pretty blue White machine .Oh the red box is actually a little mend stitcher , can't imagine it did much but it looks good.

The green machine is a Singer ,(love that color) and the black is a machine from Macy's and Co. .

This little cutie is a Bernina that I paid a whopping $5 for at a yard sale out in the country , it does work.

This one is a Singer 99K , similar to the Featherweight machine in size , I love this machine and wish it worked.

This Singer is slightly bigger than the previous machine , adorable too :-)
 I also have a Husqvarna serger but did not bother to photograph it and out in my entry is a treadle machine which was my husbands grandmothers a real special machine. I learned to sew on a Singer Featheweight which was my Mom's and my sister now owns it . My first machine was a Kenmore set in a lovely cabinet but I no longer own it , it was a great machine and I am sure is still working well today .
Would you like to see where I store my fabric and where I work from .Ok

I actually posted recently about this new to me cabinet and it is a wonderful place to store fabrics and also some of my threads are stored in one of the top drawers  .This cabinet became mine when the owners decided to move back to Scotland where this beauty originated from , it was once in a linen shop but I think it works best for my fabrics ;-) Next to this cabinet is a wicker dresser that also houses some of my ever growing stash and then on the other side of  my Bernina is a white pantry cabinet also with fabric but much neater now that I have the above cabinet. I have a design wall on the other side of this cabinet which at the moment is holding my nine patch blocks along with some other six inch blocks that I am combining .

Here is my cutting table which I had made by a local cabinet maker , one of my most valuable pieces of furniture in this room,I seriously could not live without this space , it makes life so much easier and my back says thanks  each time I use it . Can you see the glass jar on the bookcase ,well I got this idea recently from Sharon , she showed us her storage idea for scraps .  I had this large cookie jar that wasn't getting much use these days with our boys all grown and gone so I followed Sharons' idea and it is now there to catch any squares I cut from left over fabrics when doing a project. The two boxes on the end hold postcards , the bottom one is cards I have received and the top cards that I have made ,I love making and sending postcards. Above this and to the left are shelves of various quilt books and magazines so you might say my room is filled with creativity just waiting to happen .Why not join in on the fun and share your sewing machines with us , you can link up here .,it is happening all week so come on we would love to see your sewing space.
Thanks for stopping by on this blustery Monday , winter is really hanging on here so it is a good day to quilt .
 hugs Sheila

It's Friday !!

When you live on the East Coast of Canada you never know what Mother Nature has in store for you , yesterday was a beautiful sunny and mild day after a very heavy rain storm the evening before which caused some local flooding , today , well it is back to cold weather and snowing.It looks like a snow globe outside , rather pretty but not what I like to see about now ,I would like spring :-( March is not my favorite month of the year , the weather changes are never good for the bones and you are never quite sure how to dress but we are half way through so we can always hope things will change for the better real soon .
 Now it might be a nasty day outside but my day was made brighter by some mail from my blogging buddy Annette of In stitches and seams  .Annette is a wonderful friend and always willing to give me a hand when I am stuck with my quilting , she has a vast array of talents . Here is what was inside my package a little green just in time for St. Patrick's Day .

A lovely green dishcloth and scrubby , so sweet of you Annette , thanks a bunch . Also inside was some buckram , I make postcards as you know and several people had mentioned they used this for stiffening in the cards and I tried locally to find it but they do not carry it at our local store so she kindly sent some to me to give it a try .  Annette also included the Country Register newspaper , this is a wonderful publication with lots of interesting articles of what is happening in both Saskatchewan and Manitoba . Since I have a son living in Saskatchewan I love reading this , so thanks for including these papers Annette :-)On the very bottom of this little pile is a print out of my Autumn bounty quilt , I asked Annette for some suggestions in how to quilt it and she has kindly done some sketching in the picture with suggestions for different areas of the quilt , You see that is one area of quilting I lack skill so I really appreciate the help , now if I can just get the courage to get at it ;-)
 I am still working on my nine patch + blocks , almost finished , I took a break to work on these two blocks

This block is the Aurifil BOM for March , I did make some fabric placement changes as I didn't much like it first but by adding the pink in the last round it worked out wonderfully in my humble opinion .  I also completed this simple block .

A fence rail block which is this months addition for Quilt Doodle's BOM , check it out by clicking on the icon on my sidebar . This is such a simple block to make but really can be so dramatic in a quilt.
 What else have I been doing you might ask , well I completed my project for the upcoming blog hop by Mdm. Samm " Stitch me Up" , I think it turned out rather cute but sorry you will have to wait on that one as I will have to wait until my day to share :-) Have you all been following along with the Nancy Drew Blog hop , wow that is a fun one,I was a huge Nancy Drew fan as a young girl , also loved Trixie Beldon ,I loved to read so would be a regular visitor at our local library just waiting for the next book to come out .
 I recently won a giveaway from Cath at Bits and Bobs, I know I took a photo when it first arrived but for the life of me I can't find it so it must have gotten deleted , however here is a photo I took today of the lovely fabric and tassels that Cath so kindly sent to me .

Thanks Cath , always nice to receive a squishy in the mail :-)
 Time to see if I can get the sewing machine to sew those nine patches together ,I would love to get that top finished . Thanks so much for stopping by today and I hope you can take a few minutes to be creative .
 hugs Sheila

What's up on Monday

It is a lovely sunny day here on the East Coast , looks and feels like spring ,a little chilly but that is March .  First off I want to say I am sorry to anyone who received an email from me this morning with the word message in the subject line, I did not send that email and my email was hacked so I have since changed my passwords on my both email accounts as well as my facebook account thanks to some advise from Sunny and thanks also to Kaaren for alerting me about this email. Hope this solves this issue and I really think these guys need to get a life .
 So what else have I been up to , well I have not gotten a lot of sewing done  lately , busy with other life matters but I did make a start on my nine patch blocks , want to see , if not close your eyes now .

Oh you are observant , they are not all nine patch blocks are they ,well I will tell you why . I had started making 6"blocks last year with the intention of making the Farmers Wife quilt , I was plodding along quite well for a while then my enthusiasm took a slide in the wrong direction and they got shelved . So..... when it came time to put these nine patch blocks together into a quilt top I was trying to think of how I wanted them arranged to make this a larger quilt and in doing so a little light bulb came on and I decided I would add in the 20 some blocks I had previously made . The nine patch blocks are from an exchange with my Tuesday quilting buddies and are all very colorful as are these sampler blocks so my next thought was a way to blend so many colors and black seemed like a good choice and as they say the rest is history . The top will be 8 across and 9 down so not a bad size and I will add borders eventually but no plans on what that will be just yet , any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I do plan on framing the entire top with black first .
 I have also been making a sampler quilt and wanted it a tad larger so am adding a row to the bottom and have three of the four blocks I need to complete the addition .

 I love cats , don't have one but love them so why not add a real artistocrat Cat , isn't this gal just lovely , that grin is so cute . This was a free stitchery pattern that I googled and I just did the cat in fabric and then  did the embroidery . What to add next , hmmm.. , well I have a box of orphan blocks that I took a look through and there were two bird house blocks both tall and narrow so I measured and sure enough with some slight adjustments they could be made into one block and work perfectly .

There was no grassy area on the original block so I cut the blocks off and added the green area and made one slightly lower than the other , thought it would look better and added the narrow fabric between and voila a great little addition for my country sampler , photos to follow once I get this all sewn together :-)

 I am also working on a little challenge for our quilt guild , our Quilt Show is coming up in June and our president Carol presented us with a challenge , we can make anything we want that has a watering can  somewhere on it , Carol along with being an avid quilter is a wonderful gardener so this is where this challenge arises from . Oh I found the perfect solution to this challenge , I know you are dying to see it but sorry it has to be kept a secret for a while yet . Do you like challenges ? I love them , really I do , I get such a kick out of thinking of something to do for the said challenge and then implementing my idea into fabric is just the best thing ever . I know there are people who shy away from challenges but really you shouldn't as you never know just how creative you can be until you give that a try , it just may surprise you :-)

 I hope you are enjoying a lovely day where ever you are and I thank you for stopping by for a visit .

 hugs Sheila

A finish for March !!

Yippeeeee , I finally finished my SAHRR( Stay at home Round Robin) ,it has taken me a while but it is finished and I must say I am happy with how it has turned out . Yesterday I went searching for fabric for the binding and do you think I could find what I was looking for , you see this quilt was entirely from my stash and mostly fabrics that had appeared in earlier quilts . I was looking for the brown that was used in the pinwheel blocks but there was none to be found so I started auditioning several fabrics and nothing really worked . After spending a considerable amount of time searching for brown I decided to look in the containers I had used to make this quilt and look for the green instead and lo and behold there was a piece just the right size to make the bindings ,I was really happy about that :-) I actually am glad there was no brown I think I like the green far better .

This project came about through Sunny of Quilting Dreams and she gave us direction each month as to what the next round should be and it was challenging but I really enjoyed it and I am so pleased I took part , so thanks so much Sunny , this would not have happened without you .
 Another wee finish to share , I am in a couple of postcard groups and accidentally signed up for two exchanges for a landscape postcard so had to scramble on Sunday to get one made and it was mailed off yesterday .

It is a pretty basic design but it was fun to make and I hope the recipient likes it  .
 I am linking up today to the Needle and Thread network ,it has been a while since I have done so . Be sure to stop by and see what everyone has been up to . Thanks for stopping by and have yourself a wonderful creative day :-)
 hugs Sheila