ufo on the wall . . .

I think I may have mentioned that I *finally* finished this crayon-tinted stitchery that I started nearly a year ago:

My intent was that I'd have in ready for my mini-quilt stand this November.  I guess that means I need to figure out a setting, right??

These are the fabrics I'm playing with for it.  I thought a simple border of small, scrappy squares, in the browns, tans and greens, backed by the cream print, and bound with the rust.  Any thoughts?

I'm also gonna play with the construction of a cute little fabric box, instructions for which can by found on Seaside Stitches.  It was a Fun Friday Tute project from my StitchMAP group . . .

These are the colors I'm playing with for the first one.  Recognize the fabric? Think birthday present! We get a bonus if we are able to incorporate a little hand stitchery! I thought a simple little white flower stitched on the green would tie into the flowers on the blue print.

Plus I hope to finish up my little ol' acorn candle mat this week. 

Storms are rolling into our area tonight, so having the hand work will make life cozy!

Linking up to Patchwork Times.  Happy Columbus Day Monday!

:)

a week ending well . . .

I think you might be able to guess which project got my '15 minutes' each day this week, but so there's no confusion, here it is:

MOC definitely was the winner.  I wasn't counting on the driving momentum that kept me singly focused until that stage of it was finished!  So much for my snowflake and my GC block!  Ah well.  The other thing that I *had* to give my attention to was the stitching of an Ellie dress.  It was time sewing, so of course I counted it!  

Unfortunately, the fabric wasn't mine, so I couldn't include it in my stash report. Which, by the way, hasn't changed a single bit since last week.

MOC has *not* been deducted from stash yet, so as soon as I get this one assembled and bound, that will be a nice usage total to add.  Linking up to the stash report at Patchwork Times!

Whew, what a weekend!  Friday I spent the day stitching the dress and then that evening I got to spend some time with Sawyer and June, while their mommy and daddy had a date night.  Then yesterday morning was spent making a matching dress for Ellie's AG Bitty Baby.  Sheesh . . . it was tougher than Ellie's dress was!  Ha! And then Saturday afternoon we spent at Ellie's birthday party.

As always, Jocelyn did a beautiful job of both decorating *and* setting up a marvelous buffet table!

The food was great and fun and kid friendly!

I tried so hard to get a picture of all three cousins together, but they are *all* SO active, it's nigh impossible! This was the closest I came . . .

Sawyer, June playing with a balloon--her new favorite, Ellie-the-birthday-girl and a bonus child, Emma, Ellie's BFF (or at least Ellie's mommy's BFF's daughter). And they're all in a constant state of motion, so *every* picture I took of a living, breathing being under the age of 5, had a bit of blur to it!!

I did get Ellie to try on her dress for me . . .

But she was so busy, that getting a front picture was tough!

I did get one of her trying to put a necklace on her baby.  That's as close as it's going to get.  Still, she really liked that her baby had a dress like hers.  It was fun and I definitely see more of these in the future!

Today is our last day at Cornerstone -- our assignment has ended.  We announced it last week (you can't announce it too early or you become ineffective) and the sweet folks there are doing a little send-off party for us after this morning's service.  I'm packing an extra set of Kleenex in my purse.  Saying goodbye will be so hard -- especially to my sweet Sunday School girls.  I imagine Todd and I will be quite done in when we get home tomorrow afternoon and I'll probably settle for some handwork on Mr. Owl . . .

He's my go-to hand project that I need to get-to! Anyway, I may put in an episode of the Walton's and do some hand-stitching. A lovely, quiet afternoon! Linking him up to Slow Sunday Stitching on Kathy's Quilts.

Shalom and Happy Sunday!

:)

guildy remininces . . .

Last night was guild night.  I love guild nights!  We have such an uber-talented group of women in our guild -- it's really quite remarkable!  Our speaker last night was a local talent Elaine, who blogs at Messygoat.  She does fabulous things with scraps, really fabulous.  But before I share those with you, there's a couple of fun things by others I want to share first . . . 

Check out this amazing sweater . . .

Isn't this awesome??!  You know how I love buttons!  I may definitely give this a try on my own.  By the way, this was a Cracker Barrel find.

And then there's this piece . . .

My dear friend Kathy and her husband were discussing possible themes for non-judged exhibits at our bi-annual show.  They laughingly toyed with the idea of "Quilts made by the husbands of guild members." Kathy didn't think any more about it until her husband, Norm, brought her the above as a birthday present. He made it while he was out of town!  Kathy reports he had a little help from the hotel staff.  She also said it was her favorite birthday present ever!  My favorite is the back shot . . .

I loved the knots!  Norm was pretty proud of those knots, too.  Way to go, there, Norm!!

So, now on to Elaine and her presentation.  She shared lots of darling projects that's she's made with scraps:

My favorite are the fish and the owl pincushions.  I love the owl with the "angry" eyes!!  (Movie reference, anyone?!?)  She free-handed the fish, but there's a tutorial for the owls on EfermeraInk!

She also makes BIG things . . . lovely, wild, beautiful quilts . . .

I dubbed the bottom one "backgammon quilt" right away!  I'm taking her workshop tomorrow ... Yay! We're working on a scrappy variation of Bonnie Hunter's String-X.  Can't wait!

In the meantime, I'm going to turn this:

Into a dress.  And, I'm getting closer on my cornucopia:

Whoohoo!  It might just be ready to hang before Thursday!

And, look what I received in the mail yesterday . . .

Two pounds of candied ginger straight from the Amish market!  My mom sent it to me ... so now I can get started on more gingersnaps and almond ginger biscotti! Loverly!

:)

whoopsie . . .

I see that November is taking after October and sneaking up on me!  And we're already a third of the way through it, to boot!  I guess it's time for the ol' monthly stash report update . . .

Used/donated this month: 1.0 yards

Used/donated year-to-date: 36.25 yards

Purchased/added this month: .75 yards

Purchased/added year-to-date: 86.5 yards

Net used/donated for 2013: -50.25 yards

To be honest, it took me a minute or two to figure out exactly what, if anything, I'd purchased in the way of fabric last month!  I added two fat quarters to do Ellie's superhero cape and got a great Alabama Crimson Tide fat quarter as gift wrap for my birthday!  Roll Tide!  That was my addition.  After cleaning up the bunk room -- AgAiN -- I have sworn off fabric buying for the rest of my life! the next decade! the year! a month or two.  Maybe.  *wink*

I also was given a bag of silk ties and some velvet remnants for crazy quilting.  I can't even begin to count it, so I'm not, but I wanted to be forthright in my posting (for posterity).  LOL!

And once again, I have a plethora (don't you just love that word??) of pictures because I'm so delinquent in posting (gotta love me!), so I'll do a pictorial post with comments, instead of paragraphs!

First up ... last Saturday we celebrated June's "One-ness"!

Kim set a beautiful spread!

I contributed my signature cream cheese mints!
 I'll be posting the recipe for these next week.

June is all tomboy...she quickly abandoned her princess wand for the sword!

Ps...unless she's captive, getting a front shot of this girl is *tough*!
But since the back is almost as cute as the front, who's complaining?!

Birthday cake:  a success!

Next up:  Sunday -- all smocked up for a paint day with my youth SS girls!

Everyone with their works of art -- what a fun afternoon we had together!

I did a Christmas tree -- I love it!  I'm in the spirit!

Monday, June and I had one-on-one time while mommy and Sawyer went to the dentist! 

Monday afternoon, Todd and I went tooling around the camp, enjoying the day.

Tuesday, I spent the whole day going through my mess in the back bunk room.
It was a complete disaster, but twelve hours later . . . 

A pan of it's organized neatness!  (Clicking will make it bigger.)  When creative
genius hits, it's easy for the room to get out of control.  Bahaha!

The Panters came by for a visit on Wednesday.  Sawyer was having
a ball playing in the leaves!  Constant motion --out of about twelve
pictures, this one was the least blurry! 

Thursday I got to spend with my darling Ellie!

She was a *big* help in making a batch of my Holiday Biscotti.
And she learned that she's quite fond of pistachios!

The aforementioned Holiday Biscotti.  Isn't it pretty??  And it's *so* yummy!!
I'll be guest posting at Sew Crafty Angel next week, sharing the recipe, in case anyone is interested.

Then last night (Friday), Kim, Sawyer, and I headed to downtown Fayetteville
for theopening night of the town's Host of Christmas Past event!  We got to see
the lighting of the Christmas tree, hear carols sung by the high school chorus
(in which three of my SS girls  sing), and have dinner out!  Sawyer was enchanted by all the pretty lights and decorations!

And finally, I'll wrap this up with some fabric creations!

Finished up my stitching course with the lined butterfly bag and pattern weights.

Kim brought me some fabric to turn into a Thanksgiving dress for June!
(But the fabric is Kim's, not mine, hence not included in my stash! Whew!)

Working on my next crayon tinting/stitchery project for my mini-stand!

And, worked up my blocks for our guild's Starstruck Block Lottery.
The theme this month is "Christmas".  These were *so* easy, I may make a
couple more, seeing as how they're not due for two weeks!

Okay, so that wraps up this week for me!  We've got a camp full of Cub Scouts, an AL vs. LSU game tonight, and then tomorrow I'm headed to watch Ellie while Joc and Jason take an overnight road trip to Atlanta.  I'll be back next week with the Cream Cheese Mints recipe as well as a link to the Holiday Biscotti post!

:)