Productive Insomnia

A bit of a sleepless night/morning. On mornings like this, I can't wait to retire. I am so so weary of waking up in the wee hours in a panic over some perceived mistake/bad judgement call  at work. I'm so tired of second guessing myself. I'm ready to enjoy life worry free (never happen), and unleash the free spirit within!  A friend told me about her son who falls into that category. He didn't have stamps so he taped cash to his bills and put them in the mail. Almost all of the checks cleared. When his car payment didn't make it and the bank called he told them not to worry about it. The next month's check would be a pay off. Would it be nice to live in that state of mind?   I don't know and I'm sure it has it's down side, but looking at it from my perspective right now, it sure seems like it.

Putting my insomnia to good use, I naturally started cruising Pinterest which eventually led me to this lovely website. Lots of vintage love there, embroidery, and some interesting photography. She has an Etsy shop too. I love the sweet, simple design of her embroidery.

Now's about the time I start getting sleepy again which means I can maybe get another hour of dozing before I have to get moving. You'd think I had a handle on this after all these years, but no.

UPDATE! Debra has got to be one of the most generous people I know. Yesterday I received a package from her full of wonderful stuff: fabric, embroideries

beautiful machine embroideries

and something that in my excitement over those beautiful things I had set aside. I got distracted and didn't open a second bag filled with these until this morning:

vintage embellishments!

Even more vintage love!

I took these photos in a hurry this morning so didn't have time to edit them, but wanted to share this with you. These pieces are absolutely perfect for my cq - all are very vintage looking if not in fact. They will absolutely make this quilt into what I had hoped. I know that a collection like this probably takes years to accumulate, so THANK YOU, Debra for sharing these. I have been looking everywhere for just this kind of thing. You are the best!

WIP Wednesday and Sharon's Band Sampler

Sharon at PinTangle shows today how she makes a band sampler. I remembered a beautiful piece of linen I have with what looks like a hand crocheted border:

The size of the linen piece is about 7", which would be perfect.  Whether I'll use this for the TAST challenge remains to be seen. :-)

I've come up with an arrangement for the cq that I'm happy with. I still need to work on the bottom center block, but I think this has a more balanced look. I'll use blocks in the corners without any of the linen pieces.

This nine block arrangement will work out perfectly for my plan. There were six sisters, who will have one of the six blocks on the top and bottom rows. The center rows will consist of pictures I have of all the sisters, as well as a little nod to my grandmother and a seventh sister, both of whom had passed away before their renewed interest in quilting back in the 1970's but who shared their love of needlework.

 I'm still testing various ways to do the center block. I think the blue is too much of a contrast - I'm looking for a way to blend it into the surrounding blocks. I'm happy with this arrangement - everything else is still in the WIP stage.

TAST began last night and I have begun work on my sampler pages. I've been looking for varieties of the fly stitch both on Sharon's web site, Pin Tangle and other web sites, particularly examples from the group on the TAST Group on Stitching Fingers. I'm so enthralled by the huge variety of work stitchers in the group are doing. There are some amazing embroiderers in the TAST group. What a great opportunity to master the art of hand embroidery.

AAQI July Quilt

Details from my July AAQI submission. I wove strips of fabric together, machine quilted, embellished with embroidery, lace, crocheted flowers, beads, ribbon. Lots of fun  - let's hope it sells.

Wonderful Embroidery

Annie Beez Folk Art is a great site. She's currently featuring a free Halloween BOM embroidery block which I should be able to finish by October. I love to combine embroidery with quilting. I'm thinking I'll do the embroidery in black and use Halloween and Fall themed fabrics. She also has fabulous patterns you can buy, embroidery, quilting, and dolls: all good things!