Japanese Goldwork

Another embroidery UFO is now a top. it is called Japanese Goldwork. Border fabric is something from stash.

Pagoda

Bonsai

I have no idea what this is...do you? i don't even know if it is right side up. LOL

Saki?

Crane

Fan

Tea

Geisha

Noodles

Beetle....i think

Temple

Fish

Added to the to-be-quilted pile.

The adventure of the Cubes

You have heard of moving pods..right?  UHaul has them. but, UPack has 'cubes'.  same concept. about an 8x8x7' box that you pack your belongings in and they ship the cube to your new address, where you (or your mom...LOL) unload it and they come and take the empty cubes back.

My son is coming back to Illinois.....i sent him 4 cubes. they arrived in St. Louis on Saturday and they delivered 2 of them monday afternoon.  they didn't get here until about 6...and it was dark...so we were doing this in the dark. my son can pack. there was not a square inch of space left in there. took him a few days to fill them up....took us 2 1/2 hours to empty the first 2. 

By then, the garage was half full of hundreds of boxes....and the other half was full of furniture.  

Well, the next set of cubes were coming the next day, so we shuffled boxes into the house and some furniture into the house....and re-arranged the rest of it to take up less space.

So, the next day the last 2 cubes came. this time, they came in the daylight hours...thank you Lord.  another 2 1/2 hours to unload them. but a bit tougher. dryers on top of washers. a huge box with a bathroom vanity with a marble top...that sucker was H.E.A.V.Y.  and there was a riding mower and other yard equipment.

Then we opened the last one...oh, my.....run and hide.  a few boards fell out at us. it was the garage cube. did i mention my son is a pack rat? well, he is.  things were all tied together. at that point we had given up on untying and just cut the ropes. haha    we found another riding mower....with 2 flat tires. and, bless his heart, another dryer on top of a washer. 8' metal tables. boxes of stuff where we said...'what the hell is this?"  LOL

But we got it all done. more boxes distributed into the house, garage stuff moved to the pool house in the back yard. and garage re-arranged once again.

He and his family will be here next week....with a 16' truck packed to the gills with more stuff. we have yet to see a couch, refrigerator, bed mattress....and who knows what else. 

Thank goodness my grandson, Justin, came to help out. another set of muscles is always welcome. 

So, while you are having your Christmas celebrations and eating good food....think of us...we'll be unpacking a 16' truck. LOL     and hoping to have enough energy to eat some food that evening. 

BUT.....my son and his wonderful wife will be here.....100 miles away....instead of 700 miles.  so, it is all good.

Carol's Doodles....yet another embroidery UFO

This little wall hanging came from a CD from Anita Goodesign called Carol's Doodles.

They took a while to stitch out and used almost a spool of thread

I really didn't know what i would do with them. here are the individual blocks

The border is a piece i had in my stash....no idea where it came from. it is old advertisements for sewing stuff. had i known  i was going to use it for sashing and border i probably would have stitched out the blocks in blue rather than black.

It is about 42x55". i am happy to have another embroidery UFO out of the box. but not to worry...there are many more. haha

Thread Illusions

This is another embroidery UFO that is now finished....sort of.  these designs are called Thread Illusions. i don't remember where i got them. there are 7 different sets with 8 or 9 designs per set... different sizes.  these designs just come from the first set. there are over 50 all together but i decided these 9 were good for now. i can always go back later and do more. 

The blocks are 9"

Sashing is something from the stash....i used it because of the primary colors that match the embroidery

It is about 32" square and will make a cool wall hanging or table topper.

I'm not sure if i would want a whole quilt of these....kind of make your eyes cross after a while. perhaps if they were stitched out quite small they would make a cool border.  for now i am done with them. haha

Embroidery Crazy Quilt Sampler

In an effort to finish up all my embroidery UFOs....this is the next one to be done. there are 20 blocks....i had only done 1 of them and put them in a box. i now have 5 of them finished...but it will take a bit to get them all done. i have been doing 2 a day so far. but it is tiring.

So far, i have....

The heart.....i should have done it all in pinks and reds.

The dog bone....too cute

The seashell

St. Patrick's Day

The wedding bell

I am making them the largest size...8" square. I can see these being used in different quilts. for instance, make a lot of wedding bells....maybe only put the embroidery in the middle squares. or some of the designs in each bell, not all of them. 

Or just use the pattern and applique the fabrics in the spaces and skip the embroidered parts.

So many possibilities.

This is the CD...from Anita Goodesign. 

They do come up with some unusual designs....i have many of their CDs.

Christmas Crazy Quilt

Another machine embroidery UFO is now a quilt top. this one is a Christmas crazy quilt. it's about 58" square. The background pieces are appliqued (with the embroidery machine).. and then embroidery stitching over that. 

I like some blocks more than others....i like the gingerbread boy.

I like the Bethlehem buildings

And naturally there is a gingerbread girl

The snowman is funny. the cardinal is looking at him like he is thinking what the hell are you doing. haha

There is a jolly santa. i like the music block and the church showing through the window

I really like the santa and sleigh. the pattern showed it in black but i like it in red better.

The angel is pretty cool

There are several bells

I think the lamp post is pretty clever. the designer, Molly Mine, had her logo embroidered on the lamp post sign....but i skipped that part and just put an applique of pine cones there. I like the little house and the camel, too.

What i don't like....is these blocks are very stiff and unwieldy.  i used tear away foundation paper and it is extremely hard to tear it away in all the small places. i'm going to try and get more of it off, but some places are impossible.

Like this...

And this....

And the sashings are a hot mess. most of the blocks were embroidered in the 'applique' format....which puts a narrow satin stitch around the edges. that was a mistake. i could not stitch next to it to put the sashing on so i stitched over the satin stitch as close as i could get to the edge. BUT....a bunch of the blocks were stitched in the 'quilting' format....which just put a loose zigzag around the edges. and they caused other problems. so, it has varied sizes of sashings. haha

It will probably sit in the to-be-quilted cabinet for some time before it gets quilted.....if it doesn't get sent to the thrift store if i don't want to deal with it. 

But....i can say....it isn't an embroidery UFO any longer...and that counts for something.