Wisconsin Museum of Quilts & FIBER ARTS

Hi friends! How are you? Did you have a nice weekend? I did. Lovely weather. Saturday was our outing to Cedarburg. Such a nice town. We went to the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts & Fiber Arts. The museum is in the refurbished 1850's dairy barn. Love it. I love old farmsteads. We saw so many on our drive out to Cedarburg. :)

Lord's Prayer Sampler in German

So very many awesome crazy quilts on display.

Sweet, little doggies on this one, dated1833

Lovely colors on this 1868 sampler, stitched in Hartford, WI, where we last lived

Look at this lovely embroidery. It looks like a painting.

This quilted outfit is awesome! Look at the lovely embroidered details.

My mom bought me this wonderful book. ♥

I am soooooooo inspired! All the gorgeous punchneedle pieces featured in this book were in the museum. Marinda teaches punchneedle in the farmhouse. She was not there Saturday though. Oh boy! Just not enough hours in the day.

Here is Brewgrass, my brother's bluegrass band. Were you paying attention? Do you know which guy is my brother?

I finished stitching my current project last night, right before bed. It is a pincushion by Hands On Design called Pomegranate Pincushion. Today I hope to finish it into the pincushion. This pattern and linen was a gift from our friend Barbara. I am not making the Pomegranate Pocket that is also part of this pattern. There is enough linen to make the pocket OR the pincushion. Barbara is fine with me offering this up as a giveaway. Would you like this pattern and linen?


If you want to enter this giveaway, please tell me so in the comments below. You must be a follower of mine. I will draw a name on Monday, July 6th.

I am off to physical therapy soon. I am down to once weekly visits with the therapist. I have increased strengthening exercises at home to do during the week. I will be done with the therapist in a few weeks. :)

I will be back next time with a finish! Thank you for stopping by. I am so glad you did! :) Have a super day in the Lord, my friend!

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

Keepin' Busy

Hi friends! I have been busy stitching, but I cannot show you just yet. I need to get busy with finishing. I have several pieces waiting now. I can show you a giveaway win I received from our friend Sally.

I have been weeding in the garden.

All five of us went to see the movie Inside Out. An innocent, good movie.

Madeleine's first day of work is tonight. She got a job at a local frozen yogurt shop.

The boys work tomorrow, so it is just Brian, Madeleine and I off to Cedarburg tomorrow. We are going to the Wisconsin Museum of Quilts and Fiber Arts. Woo hoo! My baby brother is performing there in their Barn Gallery with his band, Brewgrass.  He plays mandolin. Tomorrow is the Strawberry Festival in gorgeous Cedarburg. So I can support my brother while admiring stitching! Great plan, right? I am bringing the camera. ;)

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

Garden Welcome

Hi friends! And a Garden Welcome to you! ;) Take a look here at my latest finish.

This pattern is called Garden Welcome, you can find it in the May 2014 issue of Cross Stitch & Needlework.

I have had this idea to add a sampler to the space above the pink and purple garden on the side of our garage. I decided this pattern was perfect for my plan.

I stitched this on 14ct perforated plastic. Three over two to make it bigger! I used the called for DMC.

The first pictures were taken on an overcast day. The last one on a sunny, early evening. I knew this space above the table and chairs would not be directly hit by sun or rain (unless it comes down sideways I suppose).

I am very pleased with this. I found the large wooden tag for cheap at JoAnn. Miss Madeleine offered to paint it pale pink for me. I used the pretty, pink ribbon that Noni sent me with her pink fabric gift. :) What do you think?

See my pretty, pink peony bush in that garden on the end? I know the sun is bright there, but you can maybe see the white  rain downspout at the corner of the garage, at the back.

The downspout has a hinge so it can lift up for mowing the lawn. When you lift it up you see my little garden friend. He has lived there several years now. We have named him Timothy Toad. He is the largest of our toads. We have many in our yard. Brian moves Timothy every time he cuts the grass. ;) And Timothy comes back every time.

Ha! Yes, we are a bit odd. ;) We name them all.

I am almost done stitching up another project. I have finishing to do on a few things. I have been putting them off.

I finished Love Letters by Beverly Lewis. Another great book by her. Do fellow Beverly Lewis fans also know exactly what is going to happen in her books? I always do, very early on. I sill read the stories though. She is such a talented story writer, that the books are always enjoyable.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend my friends! Thanks for stopping by! I appreciate you!

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

June

Hi friends! I want to show you the bookmark I made for Our friend June's birthday. She has opened her gift, so it is safe now. :)

June loves flowers and bunnies and of course butterflies!  I had this sweet freebie printed out since Spring of 2013. And I am glad I did! I can no longer find it for you. This is just a small portion of the pretty pattern. I had printed this pattern with June in mind from the start! ;)

Happy Birthday dear June!

Two varieties of lavender bearded irises. The ones on the right smell of grape!

Chris, these are the geraniums you gave me. They have a pinkish hue after all! ;)

We have been getting lots and lots of rain here. When it finally dries up, I will get back out in the garden to pull the fresh  weeds. I have the same problem Marly does. When the barometric pressure falls, my pain goes up. It is best to wait inside til these thunder storms pass. So I have been stitching. I will be back soon with a pretty FINISH! It turned out great and I love it! I hope you will too. :)

Have a super week my friends!

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

My little garden helper on a hot afternoon.

Cats and Dog

Hi friends! The last person to send me pink fabric for the Epic Pink Charm Quilt was our friend Noni. I made her up this thank you gift a while ago, but it takes a while to get all the way to Australia!!

Yes, a bookmark featuring her two cats, Oscar and Felix.

Also featuring Mitzi the King Charles Cavalier .

Last week I did a dumb thing. I was not thinking. I was making dumplings for dinner. A recipe I learned from my mother-in-law. I wasn't paying attention and the butter in the pan burned, way past just browning. I removed the pan and thought now what? I need this pan to burn a new stick of butter. I will just add a little water to cool it down. WRONG. BAD. I learned in grade school not to add water to a grease fire! It splattered on both my  hands and one wrist. It burned, scorched, seared, whatever you want to call it for hours. Oh the pain! Wow! I never knew pain in that way. It never blistered, just left dark brown splattered burns. The skin is now beginning to peel on my wrist. Not pretty at all.

Precious pansies that sprung up along the driveway.

Take a look at our apple tree now! We finally have tiny apples. :)

I discovered a robin's nest top the post at the back of the trunk. It is at the very top of the tree.

I am still going to the physical therapist twice weekly. She found my "hot spot". Oh man. Pain. She said if she could lift my left butt muscle, the tight band(not sure what she was talking about I was dying in pain) is way deep under there. Let me tell you deep massage there is not feeling great. At all. I shall persevere! Still doing the home exercise program. Doing well, I just have to use percocet after my latest visits with her!

Have a super day my friends!

Stitching and praying,
Vickie

A Year Younger

Hi friends! We just had the best weekend this year. :) Gorgeous weather on Saturday. Almost gorgeous (just a touch too hot and humid) weather yesterday. Saturday was my 46th birthday. I can say with all honesty I do not feel a year older. I truly feel a year younger. This physical therapy home exercise program is giving me my life back. I am able to do things, most everything less painfully. As you know from  a prior post, I am a gardener again! Yay!

On Saturday we went to my mom's for my birthday party. :) Yes, my mom still has birthday parties for me and my three younger brothers, along with parties for the rest of the gang. We open presents, sing Happy Birthday and eat birthday cake. ♥

Our friend June sent me birthday gifts.

Poodle patterns, ribbon, a bookmark, a lovely sachet, notebook, a PINK bird, and a file folder, which I use!! Thank you again my sweet, dear friend June.

Yesterday we went to Father and Matushka's. Their youngest child, Sophia just turned 14 years old and graduated from 8th grade. Their middle son, Dima, just graduated from high school. All three of their children are so nice and very close in age to our three. We both have two sons, then our daughters. :) We had a wonderful time, all five of us. Great food, conversations and fun.

Now the chocolate perennial garden does not look like much at this point. The irises are done. And the day lilies will not be blooming this year, due to being dug up and moved I believe. But I did take a picture of the new set up.

So very much work to remove every, single plant and pull out all the grass and replace everything in a new spot! Glad that is done. Glad every one of the family helped me. :)

I am reading Love Letters by Beverly Lewis. Very good. I have yet to be disappointed with a book of hers. Do not believe that will ever happen!

I am still reading the Bible daily too.

I hope and pray you have an excellent week my friends! I have thanked God for YOU today!

Stitching and praying,
Vickie