all the things . . .

What a great weekend! Thursday evening kicked it off (I am so grateful that our office is closed on Fridays) with our monthly guild meeting.  We had a good turnout.

Our program featured our Comfy Quilts Committee, along with one of the services that receives our quilts.  There was also a nicely stocked free to a good home table.  I dropped off a stack of magazines and grabbed some pretty fabrics that caught my eye!

Speaking of fabric, Diann of Little Penguin Quilts had shared a cute stitchery she was working on, and it was framed with the cutest pumpkin print!  She shared with me the info on the selvage, so I could hunt it down.  Consequently, look what was in my mailbox on Friday . . .

I mean, it's so cute, right??  Pumpkins *and* acorns.  It doesn't get more me. <grin>

We had several different groups visiting the camp.  They had beautiful, crisp weather for it!  I took some foliage shots . . .

I'm so thankful I am able to live out here!

I prepped another (finally ... I've been so lazy with any kind of stitching this week) Thanksgiving bowl filler.  This one is the turkey:

He's so cute!  I've got three of the five done (or will have done before the end of the day). 

The turkey will be my slow Sunday stitching!  Linking up with Kathy's Quilts!

Saturday was game day!  Snacks were all about sausage today.

Sausage balls and Rotel dip!  And when I say snacks ... I mean our meal!  LOL! Roll Tide for the win and for a guarantee in the SEC Championship game!

And I'm just going to leave this here . . .

You're welcome.  Happy Sunday! 

:)

a repeat stitcher . . .

What a great weekend I enjoyed in Hendersonville, TN!  We went up early Thursday morning for a Lifeway Women's Leadership event.  Three days packed full of fabulous speakers, great teaching, encouragement, fellowship and fun.  But whew!  I was worn out.  Hence my slow stitching post didn't get written for yesterday, and that's a shame, because I have some fun stitchy stuff to share!  So Monday it is.  ;)

Ellie (oldest granddaughter) had shown some interest in embroidery.  For Christmas two years ago I gifted her with a sampler kit that I put together for her.  Once we started working on it, she finished it in record time! I asked if she wanted another stitchery, and she said yes -- she wanted a monkey.  So I found a cute monkey coloring page for her, kitted it up, and handed it over.  I've blogged about all of this, but I don't think I ever shared a finished picture of her monkey stitchery . . .

She was very proud of her finish.  She did a great job!

We put it in a wood hoop and made it ready to hang on the wall over her bed. So cute!

I told her when she finished that she should let me know when she was ready and I'd prep another project for her.  I didn't press . . . I didn't want her to feel obligated . . . so I was thrilled when she approached me two weeks ago and said she was ready for another stitchery project! I asked what she wanted to work on and suggested something seasonal, and she decided on a snowman.  She even drew out a concept drawing!

I love how she included the hoop! She had a vision ... so I put it together . . .

And kitted it out for her.  I even got a spool of metallic light blue by Au Ver à Soie from The French Needle, which is perfect for snowflakes -- the asterisk snowflakes ... not the french knot snowflakes! If it were just me, for such a small piece, I'll probably be okay using a DMC metallic—but I wanted Ellie to be able to use a super easy to work with metallic floss!

Within a couple of days of receiving the kit, Ellie sent me this picture her mama had taken:

The girl really loves to stitch!  She still had the french knots to stitch, but she needed some hands-on tutoring for those! I did ask if she'd like to finish it out in a patchwork setting, instead of just in the hoop, like her prior two finishes. She was really excited about that idea!

I decided I needed to test the whole thing before I put it in her lap, so I stitched up the design for myself (taking a few liberties, like satin stitching his nose, and using metallic floss for the holly and berries, as well as the snowflakes):

Y'all, I'm so glad I tested this out, first. Yikes! But I worked through the design issues and it turned out okay. I stitched-in-the-ditch quilted it, and then quilted simple snowflakes in the corners. 

Super cute! Well, I think so, anyway.  :)

Ellie's picked out the prints she would like to use to frame her stitchery:

The blue (Fairy Frost) print will be the star, the snowflakes will be the background, and the dark, starry night will be for the backing/binding. All of them have a little bling. Not only can the girl stitch, she can pick fabrics, too! I gave her the option of hand-stitching the patchwork or machine stitching it.  She's still contemplating!  If I can publish this in time, I'll go ahead and link up to the slow stitching linky party at Kathy's Quilts!

Sawyer had his last soccer game of the season.  I love this action shot . . .

He's kicking the winning goal ... Go Sawyer!  He was voted MVP for this game!  What a great way to finish the season!!  (All the exclamation points!!!)

From oldest grandson to youngest . . .

Isn't this precious?!  Such a sweet baby boy!  He's growing, growing!! ♥

Have a fabulous week!

:)

messing around . . .

I may <ahem> have mentioned before how much I enjoy playing around in EQ.  This past weekend, I was doing a little work on a particular project (I'll save the details on that for another day), and I came across a photo I'd saved so I could work up the block in EQ as a potential project.

Barbara Black—My Joyful Journey—blogged about this Scrappy Plus block she was working on.  

I actually saw the quilt (in progress) in person when I took one of her classes.  It really caught my eye because it's so striking, especially when you look at it as the collective quilt (shown in that linked post, on her design wall).

The two of us talked about it a little, and I told her I thought it would be fun to do in my favorite colors ... purples, teals, pinks, and greens. Which happened to be the colors of the focal fabric I was using the class . . . 

I love this print ... it's so yummy!  I used it here (the product of the class)—

With purples, blues, teals, pinks, and greens. Definitely my palette of choice (unless it's pumpkin season).

Seeing the copy of Barbara's block while I was playing around in EQ prompted me to throw it together and play with the colors.  Here's what I came up with . . .

But like I said, you don't really get the full effect until you see it in a quilt:

I'm just totally in love with this look. I even really like the secondary design you get with the hodge podge of greys! But what really caught my attention?  When I saw the thumbnail photo of the purple floral print, below the thumbnail photo of the scrappy plus quilt . . .

I know it's blurry (it's really pixilated), but you get the idea...a beautiful mess. The similarity made me decide I need to put this quilt on my to-do list of quilts.

Or just put the picture of it on my desktop and enjoy it that way. <wink> Happy hump day

:)

thanks-stitching . . .

Last week was a long week.  My coworker has been out sick for two weeks. She's coming back on Monday, but can only work half days, doctor's orders. Luckily it's a short week—we're closed for Veteran's Day on Thursday, and I'm off to Lifeway's Women's Leadership Forum!  

I'd ordered an assortment of flannel fat quarters from a vendor on Etsy.  She sells under Prairie Grove Peddler, and y'all she was fantastic to work with. I sent her a question about shipping, and she went ahead and bundled the assortment I was looking at into one listing, got it in the mail so fast (I ordered on Tuesday and had it in my hands on Thursday), and she sent me two bonus fat quarters to boot!

Isn't it pretty?  Such rich, yummy fall colors!

Anyway, I'd decided I wanted to do the Thanksgiving bowl fillers in wool on flannel.

It just made sense to me.

I've finished stitching one . . .

Working on the second . . .

This will be my slow stitching for today.  :)

These go together really easily and are fun to blanket stitch.  They will be perfect to share on Thankgsiving dinner day (which we are celebrating on the Friday after), as favors!

Yesterday was game day ... and have mercy ... it was definitely a day of upsets!  Thankfully, Alabama won, but it sure was a contest. I made an apple pie (first of the season!) and Warm Chicken Salad dip, which was super, super good.  (It was so good that we were halfway through it before I remembered to grab a picture, which I decided not to share.  You're welcome. ;)

The recipe for the Warm Chicken Salad dip comes from the Dessert for Two blog, by Christina Lane.  I enjoy her blog a lot, and obviously, over time, she's expanded to include dishes for two beyond desserts! I've tried a lot of her recipes and haven't found one yet we didn't like. It's definitely worth a check out.  Especially if you're an empty-nester like we are. Which is funny, because when she started it, they were newly-weds! It's been fun to watch her family grow. 

And I have two public service announcements to share.  The first is a just in case you've gotten to this point and have managed to miss it . . . 

Of the two time changes, this one is my favorite.  Ha!  The second psa is a little more stress-inducing:

Forty-eight days, y'all.  Forty-eight days. No need to say anything more.

And to apologize for introducing such stressful news, here's a first smile:

Isn't he precious??!  Ezra says, don't worry, be happy!

Linking up to the slow stitching post at Kathy's Quilts.  Happy Sunday!

:)

grand ol' time . . .

So with a crew far away in California, and a crew kinda doing their own thing this year, Todd and I just chilled (on the boat on the lake) and let the pictures of the good times roll in! First, I had delivered the placemats for the local crew . . .

I got a good one of the girls (well, two of them ... Evey had a headache that evening, poor dear) and a good one of the placemats.  So you get to see them both. 

Before I get too far into the Halloween antics, let me also remark that first and foremostly, Sunday was also June Madelyn's birthday!!  No tricks — she's our *treat*!!

Here she is carving her pumpkin!  Sweet girl -- hard to believe she's NINE! Thankfully, a quick trip into San Diego last week saw an end to her cast—after a good MRI! Yay and Happy Birthday, Junie June!

The California crew agreed to themed costuming this year.  They went as characters from Adventure Time.

Marlene, Finn, and Princess Bubblegum.  Too cool for school!

They appeared to have done very well in the trick or treating department!

For the local crew, Halloween is a family affair.  This year the girls and Jocelyn read through the entire series of The Little House on the Prairie.  May I introduce to you Pa, Ma, Mary, Laura, Carrie, and Jack the brindle bull dog . . .

Isn't that fun?  Ma and Jack the brindle bull dog actually stayed home and manned the door, while Pa and the girls hit the trail . . .

They've got their trick or treat bags! It tickles me ... the bags work quite well with the costumes (which again, I didn't make ... though I did hem three of the four dresses!)

And just to make sure you didn't miss this trick . . .

The little treat "Laura" is holding here is Jack the brindle bull dog!  How precious is that ... Ezra's first Halloween!

The local girls also did well in the trick or treating department . . .

It appears those bags were plenty big enough!

So ... good times all around.  Even for us . . .

Perfect sunset for the day; glowing and a soft, pumpkin orange.

And just like that, it's November. *blink*

:)