I love Blackbird Designs!

I've always loved the Blackbird Designs ladies.  I discovered them first when I was a quilter, back when.  Then when I moved into cross stitching, I happily discovered that they do cross stitch designs as well.  And now Alma has started a Blackbird Designs blog -- heaven!

Well needless to say, when Blackbird Designs came out with their Honeysuckle Manor book at Nashville this year, I went gaga.  In fact, I drove my LNS owner a bit crazy when my friend and I went for our Nashville stash.  "Where's the new Blackbird Designs book?"  I kept saying over and over.  I think she was ready to stuff something down my throat.  lol!  (Not really.  Tawny is very sweet and would never do such a thing.)   Anyway, I came home with the book in my eager hands, checked my floss and fabric stash and happily started stitching Margaret Harris asap.  And here's the finished result. 

Margaret Harris

from the HoneySuckle Manor book by Blackbird Designs

30ct WDW Straw linen using cross over one

called for Belle Soie silks

In case you're wondering, no, I wouldn't have chosen to use the Belle Soie silks on my own.  But I do tend to use whatever fibers are called for, thus my choice to use them.  No bleeding problems this time around, thankfully!  And the linen is actually a pretty beige brown color -- it looks washed out in the picture.

Since I did the piece over one, I had to change the name/date/place parts of the design.  Which was fine -- I loved Alma's idea of using a grandmother's name and date.  My maternal grandmother was the ideal grandmother to us grandkids so of course I thought of her.  Thus I put her name where the "Walnut, Iowa" was.  And in place of Margaret Harris' name, I put my grandmother's birth year.  I love being able to have her name on this piece.

In other news, the tree service finally came on Saturday bright and early.  Hallelujah!  They took the widowmaker branch down, and also trimmed the tree some more.  And they took away all the branches that were strewn all over the yard as well, and cut any log sized wood into usable sized pieces for the wood stove.  Yay!  So now the yard looks normal again.  Whew!  It's been nice and warm so huge amounts of snow are now gone.  Of course, there are still huge plots of snowiness everywhere too, but hopefully not for long!  I'm hoping there will be no more snow!

Thanks for stopping by and saying hi.  I love reading your comments!  Have a great week! 

Now for a change of pace......

So when I last left you, I was wondering what to tackle next, feeling my usual overwhelmed, panicky feeling of too much stash, too little time. 

Well, here's the first thing I turned to -- the Margaret Harris Sampler from the new Blackbird Designs Honeysuckle Manor book.

Now my version will have to be a bit different.  I had a piece of 30ct WDW Straw, not the 35ct Straw called for.  So I decided to do it over one on the 30ct.  Which means I won't be able to do the name or date over one since I'm already stitching the whole thing over one.  :D   But that's ok.  I'm planning on putting my maternal grandmother's name in where "Walnut Iowa" is, and perhaps my initials and date where Margaret's name is.  Or my grandmother's birthdate.  If I can remember what that is.  Here's as far as I've gotten (I'm using the Belle Soie called for):

Pretty boring, I know.  Well, so anyway, I was stitching away on this, and thinking about the fact that I have this other project that I need to get to.  So I ended up putting Margaret Harris down long enough to do this.  Tah dah!

My first quilt project in years!!  It's the first block of a BOM from Material Obsession called Tessellation by Brigitte Giblin.  Isn't it cool?!  I've never done fussy cutting before!

I have to say that Material Obsession had me obsessing about amazing fabric combinations in wild fabrics that I normally wouldn't think of using.  (I'm usually a repro fabric kind of girl.)  And when this BOM came up, I had to go for it -- it's English paper pieced, my favorite thing in the whole world!  The finished piece does have to be appliqued down on that background fabric, but that's ok -- hand applique is my other favorite thing!  :D   I have to say it felt good to be quilting again.  I also have to say that if I actually finish this quilt (I hope I do!), I may have it machine quilted -- a shocking statement coming from me, the hand quilting snob.

Laurie, thanks for urging me to start a quilt -- I'm glad I did!  And Loretta, if you're reading this, this BOM is your fault -- I discovered Material Obsession because of you! 

So now you know why I've posted again so soon -- 2 posts in one week just doesn't usually happen.  But I'm just so psyched about my new quilt project!  Now to get around to using the millions of fabrics and kits I've managed to collect from Kim!  lol!

In other news, the tree service still hasn't come to take that widowmaker branch down.  Sigh.  Which means we've had to adjust to not using the garage, not using the back door (which is the door we ALWAYS use), and not using most of the driveway.  Such a pain!  But I do understand -- after all we had so many branches down, I can just imagine all the jobs that must have come in to them after the storm.  The nice thing is that it's so warm that the snow is melting nicely.  The ground is still totally covered, but at least there's a lot less snow!

In the unfinished business category, lots of you were wondering why I need to use a toothbrush on Sarah Woodham.  Well, I actually ended up using a lint roller -- the fancy equivalent of wrapping a piece of tape around one's fingers and using it to get the lint.  I think it helped.  I'm assuming the fiber just left tiny bits of lint on the fabric, although I guess it may also have very slightly bled onto the fabric as well.

Someone else asked about the new Quaker designs in the new Goode Huswife Book of Designs IV.  I think the best I can do is to post a link to Ann's webpage with a picture of all the designs in the book.  Go here.

Quick Edit:  Forgot to say I won this perfect bottle cap pin cushion from Lynn.  I was so thrilled!  I've been using it constantly -- it's the perfect size!  Thank you so much, Lynn!  I love it!

Thanks for stopping by and saying hi!  I really appreciate all your comments!