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!

:)

finally caught up . . .

What a weekend! Friday afternoon we headed out to make things ready for the 5th annual Pastor & Wife Appreciation banquet and retreat.We had about 36 pastors and their wives.  It was a great evening with fabulous food, worship and fellowship—not to mention a terrific speaker who spoke great words of encouragement.  We had about nine couples who were able to spend the night.  There was a fabulous breakfast that morning, and then we broke out into groups, for some more encouragement.  I think it was a success!

But I was itching to get home, because I knew what I wanted to get done . . .

Jack-o-lantern placemats! Yay! They aren't quilted and the faces are just arranged, not permanent, so there's still work to be done. But they're so cute ... I'll finish them up this week so the girls can enjoy them over Halloween weekend!

I also got my little pumpkin & sheep piece finished.  I think I forgot to share.  I also forgot to put it on display!  I rectified that . . .

It makes me feel all happy and fallish.  Todd doesn't think sheep and pumpkins go together.  I'm not listening.

And of course it's a football Saturday!  Todd challenged me to up my football snacking game, so here's what we enjoyed . . .

I adore this cool charcuterie/cheese board! Isn't it so fancy?! James gave it to me for Mother's Day, and this is the first time I've used it! ♥ Needless to say, I think I rose to the challenge.  Alabama also rose to the challenge and beat Tennessee.  Roll Tide!

The weather was looking fine for Sunday, so Todd and I decided to go ahead and go from church to the lake.  As we drove to church, I noted that the future quilt fabric was looking good!

They're harvesting it now ... so I was happy to get a nice shot of a field ready to be picked!

It was a tad windy, but still a beautiful day on the water.

We're stylin! In the live version of this photo, Todd's beard is just a'blowing in the wind!  There was enough of a breeze that a number of sailboats were on the water.

I counted seven that I could see (though they wouldn't all fit in one photo).  I've never seen that many out at one time!

We fished a couple of coves and around the boathouses.  Fall is *finally* starting to make an appearance in the trees.  

The seasonal color has really come in a lot later than is typical!

We stayed out until after sunset (and it was a glorious sunset . . .

. . . don't you think?) and then headed in.  It was a cool ride back!  But it was totally worth it!

Have a happy week ... this might help get it off to a good start!!

:)

into art . . .

It was a different week.  One that mostly, I didn't chronicle with pictures, which is rather unusual for me.  Todd and I spoke about our multiple ministries, to the Women on Mission at Whitesburg Baptist. I really enjoy speaking to women's groups ... and this introvert knows it's really a God-thing! Tuesday evening we had an associational VBS team meeting. So it was a long day.  But Wednesday was an unexpected day off, due to the impending threat of severe weather, so there's that. Thursday was long just because it's the last day of my work week, and I had several things that needed to get finished (that I didn't get to work on Wednesday -- gotta pay the piper), and after work Thursday, I headed to the contractor's shop for whom I keep books ... it was tax prep night. The good news is that I *did* have time off and on to work on my hexie project . . .

I got the first flower completely whipped together; now I'm working on the second flower. That may need some Slow Sunday stitching!  :)

Needless to say, when Friday morning broke fair and pretty, I was anxious to get my craft on. My craft of quilting, that is. I've been wanting to do a mini that had palm fronds in it, ever since I saw this post on Debbie Kratovil's blog. 

But I got out in the Nook and decided I didn't want to foundation piece a frond. So I went back inside and google searched "palm frond template" hoping to come up with something I could maybe fuse.

That was when I got saw Julia Graber had a new blog post.  Have you ever visited her blog?  Life as a Quilter -- Julia Graber. She creates some beautiful quilts. Anyway, a look at this post and I realized that was kinda the *look* I wanted . . . only with a palm frond and the word, "Hosanna!".  Her prior post had loosely walked through the steps for creating this pretty thing, so I got busy! Mind you, this is definitely an art quilt and definitely out of my comfort zone and it was definitely a lot of FUN!

Tah-dah!  I'm so, so pleased with how this turned out! And I really enjoyed the process, which makes the finish all the sweeter!

Saturday I spent the day with Jocelyn, helping her prepare freezer meals for after the baby was born. We got over 35 meals put up!  It was a looooooong day, but well worth it.  

Less than two weeks before Baby E is due!  And I can say that because both the boy and girl names they've picked begins with E.  :)

Whew! Glad it's Sunday . . . a day of rest. A day of stitching. A happy day!

:)

a week of whew . . .

Whew, what a week it's been! It kicked off with a *birthday*! I had a great day, and so appreciate all the happy birthday wishes! Joc and Evey came to visit at work (which was kind of a crazy day, getting ready for our Annual Meeting the next day) and were a bright spot!

Notice those smocked pumpkins on her dress??! Her mama has an appropriate appreciation for the finer things in Autumn/life! I also got my Autumn/Pumpkin Vignette fixed up on my desk . . .

LOL!  Did you not think I'd have pumpkins at work, too??!  ;)

That evening, we met up at Bravo's at Bridge Street for dinner.  I love Italiano, and I've really been craving eggplant parmesan.  It was quite tasty!

But this sweet family is what made the evening memorable! (And yes, the girls are wearing matching outfits! But what's funny is that I *just* noticed that Joc and Jason are kind of matchy-matchy, too!)

Tuesday was super crazy as we loaded things up and went off site for our meeting.  Best I can figure, we had about 200+ people there! I'm the association clerk, so I have to sit through all four and a half hours of the the meeting (taking minutes, no less), but when it was over, I knew I didn't have to be back to work until . . . tomorrow!

Still, as quiet as we wanted to be, on Wednesday, Todd and I appeared before the mission board of FBC Huntsville.  They've been, and continue to be, faithful ministry partners. Thursday was a morning full of ministry, but an afternoon of granddaughters!

We had a great time exploring Big Spring Park and downtown Huntsville . . . we even had pizza and gelato on the square, and sat next to a HUGE dog. And we enjoyed live music (or as Evey put it, "find dat muzak!") from several sources; it was very festive!

Friday, Todd and I took a down day and hit the lake. 

It was an absolutely beautiful day, and the autumn color was pretty spectacular, even though it wasn't as bright as it could have been due to the cloud coverage. We had the most sun when it set and the clouds cleared! We also found a pretty little spot we hadn't seen before . . .

Isn't that gorgeous? The sound of the water spilling over the rocks and into the lake was so soothing ... I could have sat there for days! 

I wasn't as prepared for handwork as I should have been, so I settled in with some Patchwork of the Crosses blocks I've had, but haven't pieced.  It was a good day to stitch and read and rejuvenate.

I got the majority of the block done and will take advantage of a slow afternoon today to finish it up.

I will link this up to HeLP on the 17th, over at Sarah Did It! 

I did manage to get my pumpkin stitchery finished . . . 

I thought I loved how this turned out, but looking at the picture, the pumpkin gets a little lost in the leaves a little.  Hmmmm. I used three plies of floss on the pumpkin and the outline of the leaves.  I should have taken it down one or two plies on the leaves so the pumpkin would stand out more.

Saturday was mostly a ministry day, too . . . in the morning, our church volunteered at the elementary school next door, helping with their fall carnival. Back home, we had a D-Now group in at the camp, and I visited with them for a while. It was this group's first time to visit the camp and they really enjoyed their day. I managed to capture a good fall foliage shot at the entrance of the camp . . .

I do love autumn! There's still not as much color as one would think, midway through October. And the brown leaves that frame the drive are as much from drought as anything else.

Saturday evening, we had a ladies' event which was fun. I had planned to make something pumpkin-y to share today, but lost the time.  Instead, I made a pretty terrific (and easy) apple cider punch to put in my pumpkin decanter . . .

It'll do... it was the perfect color and pretty tasty, too!

Not much to say about my stash this week . . . 

And since the picture's worth a thousand words, I'll leave it at that!

And that pretty much wraps up my week! Linking up, as per usual, to Patchwork Times and Kathy's Quilts.  Enjoy a day of rest!

:)

happy anniversary to us . . .

Yup, today Todd and I celebrate nineteen years of wedded bliss . . .

We were such sweet, young things! We're celebrating by giving a promotional talk about the camp to one church, and setting up for VBS at another church.  LOL! Just kidding . . . well, we are doing those things, but we also celebrated a little yesterday, and I imagine we'll celebrate a little more today!

It's also Flag Day!

I finished my mini tumbler flag just in time to celebrate!  I'd never worked with tumblers before so I learned a lot with this little piece.  I really do love it, though -- and it's a perfect tribute to the day!

And for some reason, even though we're just hitting summer full-blast, my crafty self keeps turning to fall projects, like this cute little patchwork pumpkin:

So you can imagine what kind of slow stitching I'll be doing (in the truck as we travel hither and yon) today. My sister gifted me with the pattern (and some pretty wools to play with, too)!  

Perhaps it's the fact that I've got volunteer pumpkins that are doing splendidly out front that has my mind on things fall??!

I've had volunteer plants shoot up before, but never like this, and they've *never* flowered!  I'm starting to get a little excited!

Speaking of excited, I was very excited to have this photo opportunity last week after Todd's ordination service:

Oh my gosh, what a precious family I am blessed with! Ellie had pretty much just woken up, and June had just gotten yet another 'boo-boo'.  Poor things!  I love the way Everley is patting her Paw-paw's back! It was a beautiful and moving service.  

My stash report hasn't really changed -- I included the mini tumbler in last week's report.

So that's all I've got this weekend!  Linking up with Patchwork Times and Kathy's Quilts.

Have a lovely, happy day!

:)

happy birthday baby . . .

We had a blast celebrating Olivia Mae's first birthday, yesterday!  All the grands were in good spirits (all had taken afternoon naps, which makes a HUGE difference) and Kim had decided to keep it just family, so it was cozy and casual. The birthday girl was all smiles . . .

Isn't she precious??  She also enjoyed her first taste of CAKE!

LOL!  She pretty much demolished her piece of cake.  Such fun!  She wasn't quite so sure about her birthday present from us~

But her mommy was!  Sweet little bonnet pattern that Joc purchased. This is my first go at it. Here is is with out the beautiful baby . . .

It's cuter with the baby in it! Once I worked through the first one, it'll be a cinch to make more.  And though I used the 12-month pattern for Olivia's, I'll probably go back and make another bill (it's in two pieces, buttoned together) more the 18-month size.  Fun days!  Joc is now imagining bonnets for Everley for every occasion!  LOL!

Our tiger lilies are just spectacular this summer!  Look at all the pretty colors . . .

They make me smile every time I step outside!

I'd seen a cute little quilting motif online somewhere (I've looked and cannot figure out where it was), but I immediately saw wool potential.

It translated nicely!

Now I'm trying to decide if I like the tips of the leaves floating free, or if I want to back it with a second, larger piece.  Any thoughts?

Due to several little finishes here and there over the past (mumble, mumble) weeks, I've got a little something to report stash wise:

And I will have some time for a little slow, Sunday stitching today, too!  Todd is being ordained this afternoon and before the ordination service, he'll meet with a counsel of six pastors for a time of prayer and questions. I'm so proud of him!! And while he's meeting with the panel, I'll continue working on my tea piece . . .

I have to finish outline stitching the 'n' and then I'll move along to the cup and saucer.

Linking up to Patchwork Times and Kathy's Quilts this morning.  Y'all have a wonderful day!

:)