the blahs . . .

Todd and I both kicked off Thanksgiving week with the crud.  He went to the doc on Monday; I went on Wednesday.  Luckily we had delayed our Thanksgiving celebration until Friday (to be able to celebrate with Joc and her family), but both of us left the doctor's office with antibiotics (among other meds), which meant by the time we celebrated, we both felt better, but still not great. It is what it is.  The two of us spent Thursday quietly.  We watched my one of my favorite Christmas movies . . .

The Homecoming.  It was the pilot for The Walton's series. Does anyone else enjoy/remember this one?! My kids do not love this one!

Friday we headed to my folks' house to celebrate.  My mom always sets a pretty table:

And my daughter always dresses pretty girls:

Are they not the sweetest things?  Speaking of sweet, the littlest baby bear loves her Paw-paw!

Isn't that just precious?  I love how much the little girls love him! ♥

I got to spend some sweet, solitary time wandering through the woods at the camp this weekend. I walked down to the ponds and enjoyed the mild temps and stillness . . .

I never fail to be appreciative of this beautiful landscape!

On the stitching front, I do have some progress to show.  I finished quilting the little hexie teapot topper.

Really pleased with this piece!

I've made a little progress on my snowman sampler, too.

I'll get some slow stitching time in on him today. :)

I pulled together this cute little wool candle mat, too . . . 

It's all ready to be stitched on.

Then there's the matter of a set of borders I picked up at guild last week from the 'free to a good home' table.

I'm really not sure why I picked it up, except some of the fabrics used in it are in my very first quilt.  I didn't even realize it was a border when I picked it up!

But when I got home, laid it out and realized what it was, it came to me exactly what needed to happen with it . . .

PUMPKINS!! Because can you ever really be finished with pumpkin stitching?!  LOL!  I'd love to have it finished by the next guild meeting to share for Show & Tell!  I'd also love to know who created it. Not sure where I'll go from here with this ... it definitely needs more ... maybe leaves and vines? We'll see.

Hey, and don't forget that the Virtual Cookie Exchange blog hop begins TOMORROW!  

My day is Tuesday ... I have some yummy, fun treats to share with you, so you'll definitely want to come back by

Linking up with the slow stitching post on Kathy's Quilts!  Enjoy your Sunday!

:)

time well spent . . .

The association I work for had its 182nd Annual Meeting last Tuesday.  It's a big deal for me and a lot of prep work and a long day . . . but we get the Wednesday and Thursday following the meeting off, giving me a long, five-day weekend.

And I made good use of that time!

Wednesday, I met Joc and the girls at Tate Farms for my annual pilgrimage to the pumpkin patch.  I didn't bring home a single pumpkin (can you believe it?!), but we spent an hour or so hanging out in the corn crib!

Literally. 

We all sat (or lay, as the case may be) in the corn crib for an hour and talked and played (and napped). Needless to say, I did bring home some corn, though not intentionally.  I think we all did! LOL!

I also spent quite a bit of time cleaning, organizing and making the Nook habitable (again).  It was bad.  I have 'before' pics but I daresn't show it!  However, I'm quite happy to share a couple of 'after' pics:

I work so much better when my space has, well, space!

One of my quilty birthday gifts was Creative Grids 8" hexagon trim tool.  I wanted it specifically to make these fabric trivets . . .

So easy to make and such fun! These will make good hostess gifts over the holiday season!

I also spent a couple of minutes finishing up my little squirrel embroidery--just a simple border and in-the-ditch quilting.  Not a great pic, I know . . . 

I'll get another one (cuz it's really cute) before I gift it.

I spent some $$ on Kathy Schmitz's website and picked up a couple of patterns. I've already finished up one (that's some secret stitching), and am ready to work on this cutie . . .

Isn't that fun?  My whole reason for going there was to get this darling new pattern:

It makes me SMILE!!  And while I was there, I signed up for her monthly One Stitch at a Time monthly embroidery club!  I adore her designs.  ♥

If you're working on new stitcheries, you've also got to have new floss . . .

It's almost as satisfying as new fabric!  And costs way less! 😆😏

And finally, while I was cleaning the Nook, I came across a bag of felt and templates for the poinsettia pins.

So I decided I start working on those, too.  Because they also make a sweet (and easy) hostess gift or "tag-a-long" for gifts. 

So, there I am.  Stitching pretty much daily.  I've still got the bicycle stitchery that needs to be finished, as does the secret stitching project.  I'll share pics of that after the fact!  Have a great week ahead!

:)

day four . . .

It's MY turn for sharing on the Witchy Stitchy Blog Hop!  Annnnd . . . it also MY BIRTHDAY! 

♥  Local grandgirls visited for a birthday eve visit yesterday!  ♥

Hexie Pumpkin Mug Rug
(this is the fourth or fifth I've made...but this one is for ME!)

A birthday means there's a giveaway in here somewhere. ;)

So when I signed on for this hop in July, I gave myself a couple of hours  several days  weeks  until five days ago to figure out what I wanted to make/share.  I love autumn and the less ghoulish elements of Halloween and I didn't want to do anything too creepy or ghoulish.  

I adore ... no seriously ... I ADORE pumpkins in all their glorious colors, shapes, and sizes, but pumpkins didn't quite seem to fit the Witchy Stitchy theme, so I could start there, but I couldn't end there.  With a little inspiration from where I live (Camp MACOBA) as a year-round camp host and from one of my favorite quilting books, I got an idea.

Spiders . . .

Oh yeah, no lack of live, creepy, crawly inspiration there!  *shudder*

I mean, c'mon...what respectable witch brews a cauldron of brew without a pinch of spider or a dash of web?!  Or at the very least, keeps a spider on a leash as a pet??!

Exactly.

So being that I'm a small project person and adore a darling mug rug (or two or ten) for *every* season, here's my offering:

A spiderweb mug rug and a couple of yo-yo spiders.  These yo-yo spiders are so super cute and easy to make!  

I found them in Simple Fabric Folding for Halloween, along with a lot of other spooky fun projects!

The pumpkin is also super easy ... one roll of toilet paper, one fat quarter, and a nice sized twig for the stem.  

They're a GREAT way to decorate when you have little, curious hands around, as are the yo-yo spiders!!

Okay, so I know I mentioned it was my birthday and a giveaway.  That's the kind of birthday girl I am!  I want *everyone* to have a happy day on my birthday!  So here's the deal.  Leave a kind birthday greeting in the comments and follow me in some shape, form or fashion (and let me know you do), and I'll draw a winner for a copy of Simple Fabric Folding for Halloween for your very own! I'll accept entries through the 11th and announce a winner sometime on Sunday the 13th.  :)

Many thanks to Carol of Just Let Me Quilt for coordinating another super blog hop! These are a lot of work to put together and she does a beautiful job of  it!  Be sure, also, to visit the rest of the blogs that are hopping today:

Beaquilter

Homespun Hannah's Blog

MooseStashQuilting

Cynthia's Creating Ark

It’s A T-Sweet Day!

this is me!  ---->Count it *all* JOY!

Bethni L. – Hosted at Just Let Me Quilt

Thank you for stopping by . . . and I'll have the final list of participants posted if you come by tomorrow!

Bewitchingly stitchingly yours,

:)

pick a pumpkin winner . . .

I PROMISE am almost sure that this will be the last post that begins with "pick a pumpkin" . . . at least for another year!! It was a nice solid run of seven. :)

I had the random number generator do my dirty work and it pulled number 36.  Congratulations to Karen of Tu-Na Quilts, Travels, and Eats!  Karen, I'll send you an email to get your particulars.  :)

So I did bake a batch of those Ginger Spice Cookies I blogged about yesterday. Oh they are SO good! 

I like the ones rolled in the chunky colored sugar best . . .

Isn't that pretty? It's perfect for both autumn and Christmas baking. And I have it on good authority from granddaughter Ellie, that it makes great 'prinkles' for popcorn.  I have it custom mixed for me by Sharon at Simply Baking Supplies on Etsy.

She's really great to work with and so pleasant! And when I emailed her today to say I'd used up all my supply and needed some more, she responded that she had saved my mix amounts and would send me out some more of the same right away.  That is customer service!

Anyway, once I'd finished baking, it was time to kick back upstairs with some handwork. And some cookies. (I mean, c'mon, right?!)

I've decided I'm going to stitch up each individual flower -- all of one color at a time -- then stitch the flowers together.  

There are a total of 45 flowers.  I finished three last night. Only 42 to go?!  Hahaha! 

This printout has served me so well at every stage of this project! You can see where I marked off the first flower. I'll X off each flower as I finish. Hopefully, by today's end, I'll have at least two or three more to go with yesterday's three.  That will make for some satisfying slow Sunday stitching. I'll be linking up to Kathy's Quilts for that!

Hey!  And don't forget to thank and hug a Veteran!  We have off on Monday in observance of the day, but today, November 11, is actually Veterans Day.  

If you've served our country in one of the armed forces, you have my gratitude.  Thank you for your service!

Have a great day -- and if you're off tomorrow, enjoy your Monday! 

:)

fall's fluttering in . . .

It's been a fairly productive week . . . I love having a bunch of little handwork projects to work on because I can skip around and work in the evenings and at lunch time without a lot of fuss, and I get things done!

So now, along with the acorn mug rug, I've finished my little harvest stitchery mug rug.  I really love how that turned out! It used a nice, wide variety of embroidery stitches, and I even learned a new one -- the wheatear or wheat stitch. Can you tell which one that is (aside from it being the one that looks like it's the first time I've ever stitched it!)? As for the acorn, I think I'll probably make several more of those.  It's really cute and a very easy stitch-up.

My hexie pumpkin mug rug is all stitched up and ready to be sandwiched, quilted and then bound.

That will make for some good slow stitching today! The template was for a big leaf that gave me an idea for . . .

Another mug rug, of course. I've found, though all of this, that I have no shortage of browns in my stash, which is quite hilarious to me!

I also finished up this sweet little butterfly topper as a little "happy" for Evey, who turns four tomorrow. I was very pleased with this "flying by the seat of my pants" finish.

I say that because I had no plan. I just sewed and added/embellished as I went. The label is a combination of two photos that rather document her experience with "Ella the moth" this past month.

Evey picked up this huge moon moth at the Botanical Gardens (it had already expired).  

She immediately named it, carried it home, and insisted that it sleep with her. 

We celebrated this joie de vivre-filled, spicey girl's birthday as a family last night, so she's already got her commemorative piece; she was thrilled with the photo on the back! She said, matter of factly, Ella's in pieces and mama put her in the trash.  This (referring to the topper) is pretty.  LOL!

I hope to have some more small, fall finishes this week.  Linking up to the Slow Sunday Stitching post at Kathy's Quilts.  If you've come looking for the "Quilter's Meet & Greet" post, click HERE.  I will say I've had a ball hopping around to all the M&G posts and hearing (via comments) from all that are participating ... but I was shocked at how many "no reply" commenters are still out there.

Y'all enjoy this beautiful Sunday!

:)