fun days . . .

Not a lot going on in the Nook these past two weeks.  We've got Campers on Mission in the camp for their annual work.  This year they've been working on a new bathhouse for the camp.  It's so exciting watching it come together . . . 

Isn't that great?!  They've worked so hard for these last two weeks.  I am so excited for the benefit this adds to the camp! ♥  Speaking of the camp, one of the COM wives knew I sewed/quilted, and look what she made me:

Awesome, right?  That was so kind of her to remember me that way.  :)

Last week we attended the end-of-year program for the girls' Classical Conversation group, and they were so darling!

I'm so glad we're close to them and can attend things like this.  I miss our California crew (pictured here, camping in the wilds) . . . 

They're coming to visit at the end of June and I can. not. wait!!!

I had a GREAT Mother's Day!  We went to church and one of the gals I mentor gifted me with this beautiful bouquet and a lovely card.

Isn't that sweet? I was so touched! After church we stopped by and visited with my folks.  Then we headed back to the camp for a BBQ lunch with Jocelyn and her crew.

It was a lovely afternoon, and they all gifted me so well!!  Joc got me a new 60 mm ergonomic rotary cutter and a book of botanical embroidery patterns which I've wanted for a while . . .

And Todd got me THESE!!!!

Are they not just PERFECT??!  He knows me so well!  And, well, I got myself this sweet little wool pattern from Sentimental Stitches . . .

I mean, a girl's gotta do!

And for the cherry on top, I was a winner!  Janet, over at Rogue Quilter, was clearing out some patterns and I am now the proud owner of some very cute wool patterns, perfect for my little stand!!!

Am I right?!?  Thanks so much, Janet!  :)

So, that's it for what's going on here.  I hope everyone enjoyed as lovely a Mother's Day as I did.  Oh yeah, and I meant to say ... I have turned off comments on my blog.  It's just easier for me this way. ♥

:)

a stitch in time . . .

I've really been caught up in hand embroidery of late.  Not sure what has me so enthralled, but I *like* it!  I thought I'd share a few finishes and progress.

I finished the stitching on this little secret project . . .

I'll fill you in later.  Hahaha!

I started and finished this acorn . . .

Stitched by me; pattern from Kathy Schmitz, One Stitch at a Time Embroidery Club

I love this cosmos variegated floss; it's so soft and pretty! I'm not sure exactly what I'm going to do with this stitchery, but I'll figure out something.

The tea-dying was fabulous on my pumpkin piece. It's subtly mottled (so subtle you can hardly tell), and it's just perfect with the colors of floss I've chosen for stitching . . .

Stitched by me; pattern from Meg Hawkey, Crabapple Hill Studios

This is probably how I'll spend my slow stitching time today -- getting a good bit of stitching in with my extra hour! ;)

While I waited for the dye to take and then dry, I quickly traced out and stitched up this little honey:

Stitched by me; pattern from The Needle Crafter

I used a Valdani hand dyed variegated floss on this one. It was so cute in the hoop, I decided to finish it that way and now it's hanging in the RV! Can you tell I have a thing for acorns? Heh.

I have this wintry sampler traced out, ready and waiting in the wings . . .

Ready to be stitched by me; pattern from Kathy Schmitz, Snow Sampler

But I can't decide which floss to use for it! I'm kind of leaning towards the Cosmos variegated with the blues and purples, but I really liked the dark teal Kathy used in her sample design.  She's doing a stitch-along right now with it, in redwork!

And while I was perusing Kathy's website, I went ahead and signed up for her One Stitch at a Time monthly embroidery club.  My first pattern arrived on November 1 and look at what it was:

Kathy Schmitz, Tea for Two

How appropriate, right?!?!? Right up my tea-loving alley! Please note: this is a picture of Kathy's stitching, not mine!! (Credit where credit is due.)

And before I head out (will share the acorn tutorial Monday or Tuesday), I *have* to share pics of the grands!  We spent Halloween at my folks' house with the grandgirls . . .

And the California crew celebrated June's October 31 birthday with a reptile petting zoo coming to their house! Yikes!  Check out that SNAKE (it's real, not a fake prop) . . .

June (center) had a blast . . . sweet seven years old!  Love my grands!

Linking up today's post to Kathy's Quilts slow stitching post!

:)

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!

:)

feeling sketchy . . .

I like to doodle and draw and sketch.  I'm not a great artist (by any stretch of the imagination), but I do enjoy taking pencil to paper and sketching things out.  After finishing up the bike and the squirrel stitcheries (which, let me be clear, were transfers I purchased), I decided I wanted some more autumn-ish designs to stitch out.  

So I started scribbling . . .

My struggle in converting a 'doodle' to a pattern for a stitchery is that I have a hard time with clean lines! But it was fun to spend time on them and I feel confident that one or two of them will definitely find their way to cloth. In particular, the lone pumpkin caught my further interest.  I figured it I opened it up a bit, I could maybe add a monogram . . .

Wouldn't it be a cute stitchery on a white cotton shirt?? Edith Rose needs a sweet little fall tee-shirt.  And what if I did a little crayon tinting to it?

Oh yeah.  That's the ticket!  I'll do one of these for all three of the little girls (and only have to change the "R" each time)--Joc has already purchased the shirts!!

I guess sometimes sketchiness pays off!

:)

taking the plunge . . .

This past year has been a year of taking breaks.  Breaks from my blog, breaks from a lot of Nook time . . . and breaks from the guild.  I took the entire last year off from guild (our guild year runs from September through August), and all of the 'serving' that goes with it!  I tried to take a break from just the serving, but quickly saw that it needed to be an "all or nothing" thing.  

That being said, the first meeting of the 2016-2017 guild year was last Thursday, and there was a national guest speaker.  

Lisa Bongean came to visit us!!  For sure and for certain, I was at the doors promptly at 6:30 with my membership renewal check in hand. It was great to see lots of happy, familiar faces, and some new ones, too. The program was wonderful and I gleaned a few new tips about working with wool that will come in handy. And of course, her trunk show was completely yummy! I took a lot of pics, but I'll just share this one . . .

Because it bears relevance to my *purchases* of the evening:

The book she gifted to each member in attendance -- wasn't that generous??! 

I couldn't help but pick up the Christmas in a Jar ornaments kit -- that's three ornaments right there!! And the pattern is the pumpkin table runner.

No surprise there, right?!  Gracious, she has tons of fun stuff. The little wool Santa pattern was not hers, but actually a freebie I snagged off our "free to a good home" table:

I thought he'd make a fine ornament to add to the growing collection!  Anyway, it was a fun evening and I was glad to be back among quilty friends.

Friday, Todd and I hit the lake.  He fished the day away and I read, stitched, colored, studied, read some more and stitched some more.  LOL!  The color of autumn has just begun to kiss the trees on the shoreline . . .

And the moon coming up as we were coming in was simply glorious!

I got some work done on my Santa (from last week):

The jury is still out on this one.  I've lost the yellow star which I'd already stitched, but I wasn't really pleased with it, so I don't mind doing that one over. There is a lot of stitching on the beard, but it's tough to see in photos . . . 

In a week I may have given up! But for now I'll persevere; if nothing else, it will give me something ready to stitch on this afternoon.

I spent yesterday at my folk's house.  It's SO nice having them close by!! Mom and I baked the cake on the cover of the current Southern Living, while the Alabama vs. Ole Miss game was on.  Or rather, Mom baked while I paced and shouted and jumped up and down. Yes. I'm that fan. Not in a bad or ugly way, just a wholly involved way. 

But the cake turned out *beautifully*!  And she gifted me with half to take home! Wasn't that sweet?! Fall baking with my mom and a Crimson Tide win . . . Saturdays just don't get much better than that!

My stash report remains unchanged from last week . . .

A lot of  zeros up there. And can you believe we're 38 weeks into 2016? Do you know there are only FOURTEEN more Saturdays until Christmas?! And one of those is Christmas Eve!  Hahaha!! And on that note . . . linking up to Patchwork Times and Kathy's Quilts.  Y'all enjoy the day!

:)

let's make it . . .

. . . a wonderful Wednesday!!  (Did you think I was going to say something quilty-cutesy? Psyche!)

I'm just going to be straight out honest and say that I got in more napping than stitching on Sunday afternoon. (insert cheesy grin here) But I have done a smidge of stitching on Evey's quilt . . . 

"G", to be exact.

I found a cute pattern for bubble britches for Evey (to go with her turtle smock). I was prepared to buy a pattern when I remembered I've got a pretty decent arsenal of patterns for little girls' clothes saved on my laptop. Sure enough . . .

Just the bloomers. For now! Pdf patterns are interesting, because you've got to print them and then put them together . . .

Tah-dah! That was quick...luckily for me, these little cuties only needed five pages. But I still had to find some appropriate fabric! Luckily for me, there's a little shop *two*doors*down* from my place of work -- Barb's Sewing. I think I've got the perfect little print to hide a diaper and go with the smocked turtles . . .

Isn't that cute stuff??? Add that half-yard to my stash and out again.

I found a *GREAT* video tutorial for baby bloomers from Vintage to New.  

This tutorial is definitely worth checking out if sewing a pair of baby bloomers is in your future. LOL!  (insert another cheesy grin here)

So that's where I stand on Wednesday -- hoping to have bloomers finished on Friday and powering through letters "I" and "J"! Linking up today with Esther's Quilt Blog WOW (WIPs On Wednesday) post. Have a GREAT day!!

:)