interesting times . . .

Has anyone else struggled with what day it is?! LOL! I stayed home sick on Tuesday and the boss shut us down for the remainder of the week, so I worked from home. The days start to run together after a while!

It's been a busy and fairly productive week, though. I have enjoyed some super domestic time ... I made bread and have done a lot of cooking (which I don't typically do during the week). One of our favorite meals is . . .

Italian Loaf Rustica aka Double Crust Pizza! It's so very good, but very time consuming to make. We had this for several meals, actually!

I've gotten in several lovely long walks around the camp this week. Thursday was super warm and look what I found hanging out in the nursery sanctuary . . .

Two toddler turtles! We figure one's a two-year-old and the bigger one is three. They still look sleepy and have dirt on their tiny faces! It's gotten cold again, so they've gone back down under.

Todd and I also watched the sun go down from the back deck that evening.

It was just a lovely day through and through. I love sharing all my camp nature pics, but I hate making these posts so picture laden (not that you could ever tell). I share a lot on Instagram as @daneesey, too! :) There are a number of duplicates, but ah well.

I also got in some quilting/stitching time. First things first, though. My Nook was in desperate need of attention. I'd not taken the time to set things straight after retreat and it had already been in need of tending after I finished my class quilt. So I spent a couple of hours and took care of it. Happy National Quilting Day to me. ♥

It actually wasn't as bad as I thought it was, once I scooped up trash, put fabric and rulers away, and swept! Then I got on to stitching.

I finished up this small quilt kit from Temecula Quilt Co. Then I hand quilted the heck out of it! In honor of the first day of (astronomical) Spring, I quilted a pink dogwood blossom in the center.

It's sort of hard to make out, but I know it's there! I also had gotten the week 10 block finished on my Peppermint Purple stitch along.

I guess block 11 and the binding for my Temecula piece will be my slow stitching for today! I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts for that.

One last thing I want to share before I head to the living room for church (!!!)...

I've seen this in several places and have posted it myself on social media, but I think it bears repeating. It's been comforting to me to re-read this and reset my focus!

Be blessed today!!

:)

the weekend of thanksgiving . . .

This is going to be a culmination post ... covering the long weekend which isn't really over, because we get Monday, too -- but that will be for another day's post.

Wednesday was pie and prep day. I love pie and prep day! This year's was particularly good because I found the *best* pecan pie recipe. Pecan Pie is Todd's favorite, and for years I've struggled to find a recipe that felt no-fail and tasted delicious.  

This year, thanks to Genius Kitchen and PCrocker, my search is over. I admit that I made a few changes right off the bat ... because I've never met a recipe that I couldn't tweak ... but I don't feel they were terribly significant. The recipe calls for 3/4 cups each of light and dark corn syrup. I had light only, so I used 1-1/2 cups of it and instead did 1/2 cup each of white and brown sugar, instead of the 1 cup of white sugar.  I upped the 1-1/2 teaspoons of vanilla to a solid 2 teaspoons (I mean, c'mon) and used pecan halves instead of coarsely broken pecans. And it was stellar. Five stars from Todd!

Thanksgiving day was beautiful here in North Alabama!  Sunny and the afternoon temps were in the low 60s, which was great, since we were eating al fresco!

Todd had a lovely fire going in the fireplace, and we had tarps up on both sides of the pavilion to keep the breeze at bay. I cook the turkey at the oven in the pavilion ... because turkeys do not fit in the RV oven! It means a lot of back and forth for basting, but I do believe it was worth the effort . . .

Oh yeah! He was pretty spectacular! We had a lovely spread and something about mid-way down the buffet must have caught Ellie's eye--I'm pretty sure it was apple pie!

I love that we share the day with family! We missed our California crew very much, but got to spend some FaceTime with them. ♥

Friday was Turkey Soup day. This is a time-honored tradition that dates back to at least my childhood and it's one of my favorite Thanksgiving foods!

I had a bit of a mishap with the process, which I won't go into here, but we recovered nicely and had soup to share. (Along with homemade bread and semi-homemade eggnog!)

Saturday was a play-in-the-Nook day and Iron Bowl day! Roll Tide! Mary of Needled Mom had shared a photo of a Twisted Pole runner she'd made.  I found the pattern source at Vicki's Fabric Creations.  Vicki is incredibly talented; she had created the pattern and very sweetly emailed it to me.  I plugged it into EQ (see comment above regarding tweaking recipes) and then resized it for a window valance. And then again for a mug rug.  I'll be all Christmas matchy-matchy!

Runner - 36" X 16"

Valance - 37" X 11"

MugRug - 8.5" X 5.5"

I started the process yesterday and got all 48 of my 2-1/2" HSTs cut for the first valance; now to trim them to size! 

It is a process. But making them was really easy -- I used the 'eight-at-a-time' method (as described on Blueprint). So stitching them up was quick. 

By 2:30 it was time to come in for the Iron Bowl! Roll Tide!  I admit that I struggled a little bit to stay with it in the first half. I was a little anxious! But the second half was a little more relaxed. Enough that I was able to work on whipping up some hexi flowers. 

I've made a LOT of progress this week--all things considered--and only have seven more flowers to go!

Whoohoo!!  I'd love to finish those up today -- perfect slow Sunday stitching, no??  In no time I'll be connecting flowers!

Enough from me . . . linking up to Kathy's Quilts this morning . . . be sure to stop by and see what others are working on this lovely Sunday!

:)

pick a pumpkin outtakes . . .

Bet you didn't expect to see that in a blog post title today! But I thought it might be kinda fun.  I shared the final projects on my Pick a Pumpkin day (which included a giftaway!) . . .

But you didn't get to see the *process*. 

I shared that originally I was just going to do the valance and added the placemats on the spur. But that's not quite true.  Originally _first_ I'd thought to do a wall-hanging . . .

Designed it in EQ and everything. Not sure what changed my mind, but it was after I'd done the first two pumpkins . . .

I thought about the Five Little Pumpkins song.  Only in my head it was four. 

But wait, you might say, that's not the border you used on the final!

You'd be right.  Because I had the row of pumpkins stitched and ready to add the backing, and I decided the sashing/border fabric wasn't what I wanted. When I was looking for my batting, I opened a bag that had the gold leaf print, and I knew that would be perfect (plus I had enough to do both the valance *and* the placemats).  And it would fit in the RV's decor. And gosh, I actually thought, Oh well, let's just get on with it and be done. But I couldn't physically make myself go any further. I tried, really I did, but I just couldn't do it! So then there was this . . .

A lot of ripping. Good grief! 

But I was very pleased with the change. So then I was looking for an appropriate backing. Because this is what happens when you take on a project, flying by the seat of your pants, without a thought-out plan in place before you start working on it.  I had a piece of a fun print I'd used for some autumn mug rugs . . .

And it was the *perfect* size with a small exception. Yeah -- that tiny rectangle missing from the bottom corner.

What do you do when the perfect print falls short, literally? 

Throw a pumpkin label on it!  And they all lived happily ever after.

Almost. A quilter *was* harmed in the making of this Pick a Pumpkin project.

But I'll live to quilt another day. The Nook, however, needs some serious attention before I can go back in there and let the creative genius flow . . .

Yikes; it may be a while before I tackle anything else . . . !

And look . . . there was one more pumpkin cookbook Kindle freebie.  I know you desperately wanted one--you'll be rockin' the pumpkin recipes next season.  LOL!  This one is Pumpkin Cookbook: Seasonal Pumpkin Recipes by Martha Stone.  Pretty straightforward, non?  I just browsed through the pages really quick, so I can't do more than say it's pumpkins and and it's free! 

Q:  Why was the Jack-o-lantern afraid to cross the road?

A:  It had no guts!!

Okay...maybe I'm ready to retire pumpkins for the year.  Or maybe not?  I believe I've got some seasonal baking left to do . . . pumkin la vista, baby!

:)

stitchers in the wild . . .

The week finally settled down (personally) a bit. Of course, with September here, things at the Camp are in full swing! We had three different groups scheduled over the weekend! The first was a big senior adult group that hadn't been up here in many years.  They invited us to eat with them, so we spent time with that group. The next group was an overnight children's event -- this group frequents the camp, so no hand-holding required.  The third group was . . .

Gals from my Stitcher's Etc. group!! (Doing the obligatory group shot with the Camp MACOBA sign--we're missing a few of our ladies...this was an impromptu stop on our way to check out the cabin.) With one exception, it was the first time any of this group had been to the camp, as well. We had a great time.

We spent the afternoon stitching and talking, while husbands (and one son) fished or talked football. I worked on my pumpkin mug rug while sitting on the pavilion's porch swing . . . 

Gosh, the weather couldn't have been more perfect! I finished the hand quilting, so today's task is to put the binding together and stitch it down.  That'll make for some nice afternoon slow stitching.

My Stitcher's girls can quilt *and* cook!  Todd did a fish fry for us (with hot dogs thrown in for those who don't care for fish) and we feasted!

That's all the angles -- it was a fun group.

I did give tours of the turtle sanctuary, Nook and RV . . .

We found a newborn baby turtle in the sanctuary (the females were very prolific this summer)! Isn't he cute as anything??

And...our group's leader made reservations for our first ever rustic quilter's retreat! That'll be a first for the camp, too!

Linking up with Kathy's Quilts for slow stitching Sunday. Make today a blessing for someone else!

:)

rooting for a finish . . .

Phew! It's been busy.  Really busy.  I didn't get to spend the time in the Nook over the weekend that I wanted to, but I did sneak in there long enough to finish this topper I'd started earlier in the week:

And to make a couple of fabric eggs, (beware: if you click on the link, you'll be compelled to make them) which I'm totally in love with and plan to make kaboodles of.  (:

I finally found a use for these scrumptious fat quarters I purchased YEARS ago at Cindy of Custom Creation's booth at Paducah . . .

They make the most perfect, ornamental and elegant fabric Easter Eggs!

I was delighted, in my recent purge cleanup of the Nook, to find I had enough of the carrot batik to make the topper for me.  I'd made a couple (one each for the Merkel and Panter crews) three years ago, and had tucked the extra fabric away.  

Yay for me, because I totally love, love, adore this carrot print! In fact, if you look closely at the green and orange egg I made, you'll see I fussy cut a carrot on my Easter egg!  I had to make my topper a little smaller than the first two I made (and the template I made for mine is a little more rounded), but I live in a smaller space (and *I'm* a little more rounded), so it works out nicely. I'm glad I went back and read the post from three years ago when I originally constructed these. That's when I remembered that I'd used green felt for the 'batting' on the leafy stems, which enhances the look, in my very humble opinion!

Saturday we took One Accord out for the first time this year. It was sunny, but cool and WINDY. And I spent most of our day looking like this:

LOL! We were exploring some parts of Tim's Ford we'd never been on before (like, navigating by the map and everything), in preparation for our vacation in May. I saw a couple of homes for sale that would make great B&B or quilter/crafter retreat locations . . .

My favorite was the latter. Absolutely gorgeous location on the point. I did a virtual tour of the grounds and scrolled through pics of the interior - whooooeeeee! 

This week is busy with meetings/events/something every night.  I'm really looking forward to Saturday -- I have yet to try anything with that pesky block (besides trying to block/stretch it, which didn't work) and I want to get on it! Thanks for all the good ideas and encouragement -- I think I know what I'm going to try next.

Happy Wednesday -- have a great rest of the week!

:)

something about that space . . .

When it's clean, anyway, there's definitely something about my Nook space that stirs the creative juices!  Since being in there most of the day on Saturday, I've dreamed of sewing and UFOs that become finished, and fabric that I'd forgotten about, but am suddenly anxious to put to work and ideas for new projects.

Whoa, slow down there Tiger . . . beware the ides of March!  ;)

I recently saw this photo on Instagram, posted by Lucy Brennan of Charm About You fame. 

When I saw it, I *immediately* thought of the five orphan fairy frost blocks and the pile of fairy frost fabric (Michael Miller's) that Jean (Creates) had picked up somewhere and sent me (see this post). 

(Oh, and pay no attention to the fact that it was sent nearly three years ago, okay?)

I've played around and used the fabric in projects. A wall hanging here. A table topper there. But I've never been able to decide what to do with those block and how to really use that fabric up.

Until I saw that IG pic. BAM. It clicked and all the pieces fell into place and I knew *exactly* what I wanted to do with those blocks and that fabric. Oh my yes, I did know. And I have a burning desire to work on it immediately, too!

I have two problems.  One is not so big.  I need a sixth block.  I wasn't sure what I wanted to do about that, until I got to looking at the blocks in My Orange Crush.

Surely any one of those blocks would fit in well with the blocks already prepped. I feel better already.

The second problem I need some help/advice/coaching on. All of the blocks are 10.5" (unfinished). Except one. 

This particular block is 10"ish. One side measured 10.25", one measured 10". What do I do about that?  I've got more of the background fabric--should I just sew a generous strip around on all sides and then square it down to the appropriate dimensions? Someone please tell me how to make this work using the block!  I don't want to create an additional block if I can help it.

Any idears?  Please and thank you!

:)