A Big Finish!!!!!

Happy dance!!! Happy dance!!!!! I finally finished Mary!!!!! YA!!!!!! Checking the date, I first started this sampler on Aug 17, 2009. and I finished it on Aug 19, 2013, a full four years of work!!! Sure took me long enough to finish it!!! I have to admit I kicked myself for deciding to do this in one over one, but after seeing the result, it is all worth it. Will I do it again? Not for a long while…. :-p

Pattern: Needleprint “Mary Wigham SAL”
Thread: Hand dyed silks from Hand Dyed Fibers
Fabric: 28ct light mocha cashel
Size: 10.25” x 10.25”
Done in One over One
Beginning Date: 08-17-2009
Completion Date: 08-19-2013

This is also my first time using silk threads. I like how it kind of shines, and the color variation just adds to the sampler feel, it’s also very nice and smooth. I will sure be using silk again~

Well, since my WIP basket is empty now, what should I work on next?

Summer!!!

Hello my darling friends!!!!! Anyone still there?? I can’t believe I haven’t post anything during July, and now we are already entering August!!!!! Besides being busy at work, the main reason I haven’t updated is because there’s nothing much to report. I was constantly working on Mary and I’m finally done with all the motifs!!!!! YA!!!!!! Now all is left are the initials~~ I can finally see the end!!!

To reward our hard work, hubby and I went for a short vacation in the mountains. Central Taiwan is known for its beautiful mountains, and we enjoyed waking up in the forest and the fresh air.

In the mountains laid the gorgeous Sun Moon Lake. This is a very famous tourist destination. The last time I was here was more then 20 years ago!!!! Although the Lake is as beautiful as before, the surrounding areas are now filled with hotels and small tourist towns. I can’t say this is a good thing or a bad thing, at least right now it all seems well organized.

In one of the aboriginal towns that we stayed in, owl is their guardian, so you can find many owl themed ornaments in this town. But what caught my eye is this quilted owl bag, isn’t this the cutest thing?!

So how is your summer going? Went on any trips recently? It is soooo hot here lately. Stay cool!!!!!!

Sunny and Bright

I’ve been back on stitching Mary these past few days. Mary’s name finally appeared~~ Love those bird motifs!!!

Here’s the progress as of today~ Noticed I’m avoiding the blank space on the right? I miscounted on one of the motifs and is trying to figure out how to adjust the other ones to fit them in…. Do not want to think of that now….

The sun is out and it’s in the 90’s, and I’m sweating like a pig… and summer is not even officially here yet!!! But it is such a pleasure to see the sun again after a long rainy season. I brought all my winter blankets up to the rooftop today for some sunshine, and thought I should take some better photos of my quilt~ Well, here it is baking under the sun!!! Still loving it every time I see it~

While I was on the rooftop, I also took some photos of the surroundings. This is Taichung, Taiwan, where I call home.

Hope you’re enjoying some sunny days as well~

April Rain…

It’s that time of the year again, where it has been raining NON-STOP for days… I feel like I shouldn't complain, as we really need the rain here in Taiwan. But I’m so glad to see the sun out again today~ It’s such a nice break from all the wetness~

Another thing that made my day was Melissa’s package~ I was very lucky to win a giveaway from her blog Words and Blooms!! This package had to travel half way across the world and I’m so happy that it arrived safe and sound last week. I absolutely love these two charts, and cannot wait to have my hands on them. Thank you soooo much, Melissa~

But before I can start any new projects, I have to finish my Mary first!!! I did made a little progress on it, finishing another motif. This one is quite challenging, as I had to pay more attention on the rose buds. I love how it turned out, though~

And here is the whole progress of my Mary. It’s such a joy to see the gaps slowly filling in~ (Sorry about the wrinkles!!! I’ll deal with that later!!!)

That’s it for now~ So what do you do on rainy days?

Alive Again!!!

Hello my darling friends, how’s your Easter weekend? I can’t believe we are entering April already, and I have been absent for one month!!! I had a good excuse, though, cause March was not the best month for me. First I was buried with work, then I got really sick. I did not know what hit me, but I was down for almost two weeks!!!! Anyhow, I am grateful that my family is close by and mom was at the rescue. I am almost feeling myself again, hopefully this will not happen again anytime soon!!!!

As the result, I did not make too much progress on my Mary Wigham Sampler. I tried stitching in bed but the over one made it almost impossible to do so. So here is my latest progress, and of course I made a big mistake but was in too deep to correct it so I just let it be. Anyways, right now my motto is any progress is good progress~~

Back to catching up with my stitching!!!

So Close… Yet So Far!!

Has this ever happen to you? You put something important in a special place, but could not remember what that special place is…. Well, that is exactly what happened to me here!!!!! I was so happy that I finished all the hand quilting, and have everything ready for the binding, even made a quilt tag that was going to go with it.   

But where did I put that roll of binding?! I had it cut and rolled before our move back to Taiwan because it’s easier to store. I even remember unpacking it and put it at a special place for ease access, but now I can’t remember just where that special place is…. I went through all the shelves and drawers that I put my craft things and couldn’t find it. So much for being organized!!! After two days of digging through all my stuff, I am giving up. I’ll just have to put it aside for now and hope that the binding will turn up when I least expected. So here is my quilt minus the binding….

Moving on to my next project – the Mary Wigham Sampler!!!! Another UFO for such a long time!!! I decided to pick it up again, because I want to finish all my UFOs before starting on a new project again. Besides, I’m quite enjoying Mary’s company~ The last time I’ve worked on this was on September 30,2011!! It has waited long enough, won’t you say?!

Mary Update and a Question….

It has been another month and I finished the bottom portion of Mary Wigham~ This time still not without mistakes of course, but I’ll worry about that later….

Here is a look at the whole thing as this moment. Keep this up and I think I would be able to finish it by the end of the year!!!

I actually have a question for you. Does anyone know how to finish cording on a wood box? As you can see, there is a little gap between the stitched piece and the box edge and I plan on covering it with a piece of cording. But how do you hide the ends? Also, how do you stop the cording ends from fraying? Do you burn it? Stitch it?  If anyone could give me some tips, it would be great help~~

Can’t believe another week just flew by, and starting tomorrow, it will be October!!!! Wish you all have a wonderful weekend~~~

Revisiting Mary~

I haven’t visited Mary for sooooo long. It has been two years ago since I started this. Maybe it’s the over one stitching that intimidates me a little, every time I saw her laying in the WIP basket, I just keep skipping right by her. Then recently I saw a beautiful master piece that took my friend two years to finish. I was really motivated by it, and that’s when I picked up Mary again. Over one is still a bit intimidating, but I managed to finish two and a half motifs this past week, and starting to fall in love with this piece all over again~

This bird motif gave me quite a challenge, though. I must have miscounted somewhere cause when I was working on the bird on the right, something was just not right. I did not want to rip it all out so I just made it work. Hence, if you look closely, one bird is wider then the other, and the center doesn’t line up. But this did not bother me too much, since I learned from Mary, sometimes mistakes do happen, and it could be a beautiful thing.

So this is where I am at right now, a little more then 1/3 done. I hope I could ride on this motivation, and maybe, just maybe, I would be able to finish this one soon.

Thanks for visiting~~

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Edit 08-25-2011:

I just noticed that today is my 3 year blogoversary!!!!! Thank you Teena for reminding me~~ I might prepare something to celebrate this occasion!! Stay tuned~~

1/3… Almost…

While I was waiting for my ordered fabric to arrive, I went back to my Mary Wigham. I’m on to the last motif at the bottom left corner, that means I’m 1/3 done on this piece – well, almost… For some reason this motif is giving me so much trouble!!!! I can’t remember how many times I’ve frogged it, and last night I had to fix the tail of the bird 3 times and still didn’t get in right!!! I was sooo hoping to finish this before the fabrics arrive so I can go back to my quilting!!

And of course these beautiful fabrics arrived today, which made me feel much better when I saw them. I did a little web surfing last week and was so excited when I found these fabric from the same 1974 series of my tumbler quilt~~ So I’m going to set Mary aside for the moment and work on my quilt again, just to change the scene a little bit and hope the frog will be gone when I get back to it.

Did you see Jennifer’s awesome finds at market? She is generously giving away some stash on her blog, be sure to go check it out!!

New Discoveries~

It’s time for an update on my Mary Wigham Sampler again!! I’ve finally moved into the second page of this sampler.  I’m actually quite surprised at how much I have done on this page already since I did not think I put in a lot of time on this.

I discovered I really like the black motif, the black on white just jumps off the page!! It’s almost like black lace~ I should try making something just with black next time!!

DH and I had been embracing the spring weather and visited a fairy land called Summers Past Farm last week. It’s a small farm that kindly offers their beautiful property for people to enjoy for free, with a coffee stand and handmade soap shop within.

We enjoyed a great afternoon sitting in the courtyard drinking coffee and tea, enjoying what nature brings. This is our first time here, and actually stumbled across this place by accident. But what a great discovery it was!!

 

And of course we had to bring some wonderful stuff home with us!!!

So how was your weekend?

A Little More Progress…

Thank you for all your comforts in my last post. I am very touched!!!  After a few more little scares, things have finally settled down here. I haven’t have much time to stitch lately, but here is my progress on Mary Wigham Sampler. I’m almost done with the first page……

This is where I left off since last November…

And this is where I’m at right now… Not a whole lot, but nonetheless, it is progress.

My to be finished pile is growing larger and waiting for me to do something with them!! I already have ideas for all of them, but just need a whole day or two to put them all together!!!! I’m still buried in my work, though, so they’ll just have to wait a little bit longer……

I hope you all are having more fun stitching time then I do~

Stitching, Stash and Fall Colors

After Melissa finished her Friendship Sampler from Birds of a Feather, she decided to sent it on a tour. I was very luck to be the third stop on the list, and even more fortunate to be the first one stitching it. I decided to use the Sampler Threads it called for and 40ct vintage light examplar from Lakeside Linens. I just love the color combination!!!

Now I actually have a question for all of you since this is my first time stitching on 40ct linens. Do you use one thread or two threads when you go over 2? I tried using 2 threads but felt that it was kind of difficult to pull my needle through. Maybe I need a smaller needle??

While I was ordering the threads and fabric for the Friendship Sampler, I couldn’t resist to add a little bit to my stash… Since I was already paying for shipping, a little bit more won’t hurt, right? ;-)

I am also very proud to say that I have been keeping up with my 12 stitches a day plan on the Mary Wigham Sampler. I’ve made quite a bit progress in 2 weeks!!! It’s so much fun seeing each motif coming to life~

Last week my DH told me the Maple Trees on his campus have started to turn red so he invited me for a lunch date so he could show it to me. It truly was very beautiful!!!! Just look at these brilliant fall colors!!!! I can’t resist but sharing it with you~

Thank you for visiting~~~ Have a wonderful week!!!

I am Blessed!!

Hello, my stitching friends, sorry for being MIA for such a long time. The past couple of weeks had been pretty hectic, first being a little bit under the weather, then running around places with a visiting friend. This week wasn’t very relaxing, either. I wish I can just have a whole day not needing to go anywhere but stay at home all day…

But it seemed that I was not the only one being so busy!! The postman was also overworked delivering packages to me!! I have received so many packages this past week that my DH was soooo jealous of me~ First it was a PIF package from Jessie. She knows that I like Lizzie Kate and tea so she combined the two in this stitch!!! Isn’t this adorable?! I love how she added the lace around the frame!! She also included some extra lace, buttons, and a beautiful fabric that she dyed herself. Thank you so much, Jessie, I will cherish this forever!!!

I must have dome something right cause I have been really fortunate recently. I have won several giveaways in the past few weeks which was a total surprise!!! I even thought of getting a lottery ticket at the grocery store the other day but they did not sell them there. I guess someone is telling me not to use up all my luck in one time!! ;-) Thank you Cindy, Melissa, and Cameo for hosting such wonderful giveaways!!! I am truly blessed and inspired by your generosity!! I will think of someway to spread the love~~

Although I didn’t have a lot of spear time, I did not forget about my stitching. I’ve read from Lesley’s blog a few weeks ago that she has been doing 12 stitches a day. This inspired me to be doing the same, so I started to do at least 12 stitches a day on my Mary Wigham Sampler. Twelve stitches doesn’t sound much, but little by little, I’m getting closer and closer to the finish line. Here is my progress so far.

Thank you for visiting me today~ Have a wonderful weekend!!!

I Saw Flowers Blooming…

… on the quilt I have been working on~~ I’ve finally finished quilting the edges of the blocks and am now moving on to the flower pattern in each block!!

I’ve learned to quilt the hard way, and have definitely made some mistakes, like which direction to press the seams does matter, having a good teacher is important, and lighter fabrics might be better for beginners!!! Silly me got a blue marking pen and realized of course it won’t show on blue fabrics!!! I found a pink one but it doesn’t show really well, either, so it kind of added to the challenge. Nevertheless, I was soooo excited when I finished my first flower~~ It’s kind of difficult to see but I swear the flower is there!! Can’t wait to see it all completed!!!!

Several flowers also grew on my MW sampler. I finished my first motif the other day~ It’s not much, but I’m liking it a lot!!!

Now this has nothing to do with the topic, but Dr. Sam and I went to see Wicked last night and I just have to tell you all that it is AWESOME!!!! Love the story, love the music, love the setting!!!! I enjoyed every minute of it. Strongly recommended!!!

I don’t know if you all have notice, but there seemed to be so many wonderful giveaways recently!!! I think there’s one time I had 5 or 6 of them posted on my sidebar at the same time!!! Maybe there’s something magic about summer, that makes people feel like sharing the joy and spreading the happiness~~ Beside all the wonderful giveaways I had on the sidebar, you might also want to check out Cameo’s blog cause she is giving away 2 charts everyday!!!! How generous!!!

I know it’s the end of summer, but there are still flowers blooming everywhere. May you all have an abundant weekend!!!