hop hop hoppin . . .

Hello!! Welcome to my contribution to the Hallowe'en Trick or Treat Mystery Phrase Hop, hosted by Jo at Serendipitous Stitching!  I'll scare...errrr....share some spooky stitching with you, along with a letter, and a link to the next blog!  You collect all the letters and guess the mystery phrase!!  Doesn't that sound like fun?

Fall has definitely found its way to the camp . . . 

I love the changing leaves!  We have such a variety of trees, we get all kinds of color when the season arrives!

I love to decorate seasonally, and this is my favorite time of year for it.  I've gotten to the point where most of my decor is hand made!  And while I'm not really into scary stuff, a tad of Hallowe'en "fright" can be fun . . .

This hexi table topper is spooky enough with the owl and the black cats and spider webs!  But stars and candy corn temper the ring of fire!

Full moon . . . adds to the spookiness of the season!

Tell me though, how spooky can a jack-o-lantern really be, with a great big grin like this one is wearing?!

This was a fun wool felt project that I really enjoyed stitching up!

I haven't done a lot of stitching this fall . . . my Nook is a mess (and needs a dedicated week of tending), and what with Todd's treatments and retiring, life has been crazy!!  I did get over to visit the grands last week for a paint day . . .

We had a hauntingly good time painting spooky little touches on pre-printed pictures!!  Of course, any day with the grands is going to be the best!

Okay, okay . . . enough of all that and let's get to the alphabet!

My letter was "G" (just in case it was hard to tell).   Now be off with you and hurry on over to Beth's Needlework Stash for your next clue!  And be sure to stop by Jo's blog — she's such a fantastic hostess!!

I'll be back soon with a proper update!  Happy Hallowe'en!!

:)

taking a turn . . .

Backposted (because how ever many years from now I'd regret not having posted these pictures along with their stories)!

Well.  The week started out just fine.  We woke up one day to a lovely blanket of snow.  I love March snows!  Remember, just the weekend before, we were out on the boat!

But, as is typical of March snows (not March ice storms, mind you), twelve hours later, it was back to Spring! And three days later . . .

By the end of the week, I was feeling poorly.  By Saturday morning I was feeling bad enough that, for the very first time, I took a covid test . . .

It didn't even take sixty seconds for the "positive" to show up.  Ah Bach. Talk about a turn for the worse.

Thankfully, I didn't feel terrible.  One day with a fever and bad headache, and then I was just tired.  I spent a bunch of time out on the deck (covered and with the heater on) . . .

And enjoyed the wildlife show . . .

By Monday, as hard as he'd tried to stay away, Todd had also succumbed. By Wednesday, I was really feeling fine, so I nursed Todd and took advantage of being home and worked on (and completed) my March UFO challenge project, which was to piece the T-block quilt (minus the border) that I'd tentatively named Oriental Tea Garden.

Yay!  I also worked on finishing the hand-quilting the silver spiderweb on my Halloween Hexi table topper . . .

This was actually May or June's UFO challenge project, but I've got the time, so I went ahead and finished it up! 

I did end up missing some big things. Ellie did her presentation on the fabled Babylon Hanging Gardens:

I was supposed to receive a Quilt of Valor at a presentation on Thursday, and our guild's quilt show, which is always spectacular, was over the weekend.

Luckily, I've got good friends who sent me some photos!

I can't believe I'm saying this ... but I'm ready to go back to work next week.  <grin>

:)

happy october . . .

Hello October, I'm so happy that you're here!  It's *birthday* month and it's blog hop month, too!  :)

I finished stitching up Mr. Jack O'Lantern!  

He's such fun.  But I felt he needed something a little more than a hoop or mug rug finish. I think I found (or rather, made) the perfect solution . . .

Yay!  It's a slipcover for a Christmas pillow I've had for ages. I may go back and quilt the face of it later.  Maybe.  Right now, I'm liking is just as it is, where it is!

I got some other stitching finished up and some started this week . . . 

The hexi pumpkin pins are always fun!

This Kathy Schmitz heart has been unfinished for a while ... since March, I think.  Which would be about right.  That's when the world went topsy-turvy, right?

Anyway, it's finished now and ready to display come February!

I stitched up the first of these in May (Mother's Day, to be precise), so it was about time that I worked on a second . . .

There are a total of six. At my current pace, I should have the complete set done by May 2022.  Hahahaha!!!  :)

Today I spent the majority of the day "falling" up the place . . .

While I watched a little SEC football.  There were (are) some good games on today!  Roll Tide!

I'll settle in tomorrow afternoon and pull out some "slow Sunday stitching" . . . 

I've got four of the nine floss colors needed for it.  I'll pick up the rest next week.  This will probably be my last autumn stitchery of the season.  I've got a wool project in the wings! Then I truly do want to get those mittens finished up for this Christmas.  LOL...really!

Linking up with Kathy's Quilts and her Slow Stitching post.  Y'all have a terrific rest of the weekend!! Oh, and you'll notice ... I'm being sweet ... no Christmas countdown reminder!! 

:)

beginnings and ends . . .

I love finishes!  This morning I can share not one, but TWO! Well, perhaps I should clarify. Not two completely finished, ready-to-put-up-and-enjoy-and-never-need-to-be-worked-on-again projects. But two projects on which I've finished the embroidery stitches! I wrapped up my pumpkin piece (by Crabapple Hill Studios):

I just love this sweet stitchery.  I love the character and variety of stitches and colors.  It was truly like painting a scene.  It's so yummy!

And I finished my teapot table topper . . .

I think the last time I shared anything on it, I was still whipping the hexies together! I finished the hexies up during the week, and spent Friday evening and part of Saturday stitching on the teapots.

I don't know what I was thinking, not stitching them up FIRST and then fussy fitting them to the hexie templates.  It made it that much more challenging to stitch!  Especially when driving down bumpy ol' I-65 to Tuscaloosa, Alabama for a football game!

(Like that segway?! LOL!) A dear couple had gifted us with tickets to the West Carolina game.  It's the first time I've been to an Alabama game since 1982 (and then I went as an Ole Miss student/fan). We had such a blast!  

The Million Dollar Band was phenomenal.  I adore marching bands, and they do a great presentation.  My favorite formation was when they got into the shape of an elephant (Alabama's mascot):

The stadium is beautiful and it was a fun game to go to.  Even though it was grey and COLD!  

Luckily, though, our seats were both fantastic *and* under cover and we were protected from the wind.  Otherwise it would have been hard to bear!

It was an early game time (11:00 a.m.), so we were home in time (5:30 p.m -- it's a long drive) for me to pick up a new stitchery.  I shared this one by Kathy Schmitz several weeks back . . .

Time to stitch on snowmen! I'd been in a quandary about the type of floss I was going to use.  I finally settled on this really pretty variegated dark blue perle from Valdani.  Another yummy!

I'm going to enjoy working on this sweet piece! But I'm going to admit right up front, that I'll go back forth between it and other stitchery projects.  Mary Corbet has a book of snowflake patterns she's releasing after Thanksgiving, and I'm itching to get my hands on it (so to speak)!

Okay, so that's quite enough from me for the time being.  Except to say that I'm linking up with Kathy's Quilts for slow stitching.  And also that I'm participating in the Christmas Virtual Cookie Exchange blog hop that's coming up SOON! There are lots of lovely folks participating and it should be a lot of FUN! My day is December 3, and I plan to have some very yummy treats to share!

Happy Sunday! 

:)

excessive stitches . . .

I've got a couple of different hand-work projects in progress right now.  Because I can't focus on just ONE thing.  No, I have to have THREE things (or more) going on simultaneously. LOL!

In yesterday's post I talked about a dream quilt (literally, a quilt I designed in my dreams).  I (day)dreamed up another little piece ... a hexie mat.  I'd done one years ago for my mom (the pattern for it was in a magazine, but I don't remember which one--I blogged about here in 2012!) . . .

But I ran across some really cute teapot embroideries that I thought would be darling in a similar setting. They were from an older pattern called a Catnip Tea Party by Betty Alderman.  

It was a freebie I recently found on the AQS blog.  I printed out the templates and then reduced them by 70% so they'd fit in my hexies!

I'm trying something a little different with the hexie templates for this project (if you look closely at the hexie templates in blue, you might be able to figure it out) and I'll share more on that if my idea works out.

Anyway, I'm working away, stitching my hexie pieces together. 

Not sure what colors I'm going to use on the embroidery, yet -- maybe by Monday (I'm off for Veteran's Day), I'll be ready to start stitching on those.

I've also made some progress on my pumpkin . . .

I love this piece! (Though I haven't decided how I'm going to finish it out.) I'm waiting on a variegated floss I ordered to stitch up the leaves in the center which are unstitched. I want all of the center finished before I stitch the pumpkin outline, the leaf and stem.

Sometimes you just need to stitch Christmas stuff . . . 

I love these felt poinsettia pins!  These have been a go-to Christmas hostess gift for several years!  They are fairly straight forward and easy -- and you can keep them simple or glitz them up.  The pattern and tutorial can be found on the lil fish studios blog. I've shared them before, but it's worth repeating. Good stuff!

If you follow Mary Corbet of Needle 'n Thread on Instagram, you'll know she's been stitching up the most glorious snowflake embroideries!  I asked her about those and she told me they'd be available sometime around Thanksgiving.  I can't wait!

Linking up to Kathy's Quilts and her slow Sunday stitching post.  Happy Sunday!

:)