giving thanks where it's due . . .

:)

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! 

:)

a good deal . . .

. . . of fun.  A good deal of weekend fun!

It was a lovely, busy weekend with lots of stitchy-crafy things going on.  On Thursday I was inspired at work to turn our 3D Popcorn Box die cut into these darling little favor boxes . . .

I used Christmas images (I printed seamless background images onto the cardstock), but these could be done for *any* holiday or themed event. They were fast and easy to put together, too -- a happy bonus.  I love it when I find a fun something!

I found just the thing I needed in my floss stash to finish up a secret project I've taken over (by request). I worked on this project steadily on Friday and finished it up on Saturday.

I should be able to share it after Thanksgiving. Fingers crossed!  Don't you love it when you have exactly what you need? 

On Saturday we had our semi-regular 'stitch-in' for our Stitcher's Etc. group.  We had a huge gathering of ladies show up!

Lots of giggling and lots of fun.  Of course, you can probably guess that this is my work station:

No machine, set for handwork, some show and tell, with a tea cup on a mug rug!  LOL! I am who I am.  :)

One of the gals gave me a hands on tutorial/demo on making bowl cozies.  Of course I had to go home and make one for myself!

I'm so pleased with how my first one turned out!  It's not difficult, but it does take precision and patience (one of the reasons I'm SO pleased with my finish!).  I can see several of these in my gift-making future!  They'd be cute paired with one of the fabric trivets I've been making! 

I am in the last stage of finishing the stitching on my pumpkin.

Only the outline to finish!  I meant to bring it along to work to play with at lunch.  C'est la vie. This is going to be a very busy week ... I've got something after work every day this week.  Whew!  I don't know how much evening slow stitching I'll be able to get in ... have to take it when I can get it!

The huge SQUIRREL! in my life right now are these wool acorns . . . 

I had additional caps, so I had to make acorns.  I had extra wool circles cut so I had to get more caps and make more acorns.  There were caps leftover so I had to cut more wool circles and make acorns.  And so on and so on.  I'll be overflowing with them, soon!  They're such a happy distraction!

Linking up (just under the wire) with Kathy's Quilts.  Have a lovely week!

:)

swap happy . . .

It's said that it's better to give than to receive, and believe me, I'm all about that. But if you've ever been in a swap with Janet of Rogue Quilter fame, you know it's awesome to receive, too!  Janet and I did a little swap between our birthdays (mine is early in October and hers is later in November). I stitched up a mug rug for her and she stitched up one of her marvelous pin cushions for me. We both stayed in our comfort zones!

Along with this beautiful pin cushion (which reminds me of swirling snow), she sent a ton of lovely goodies, including some of her fabulous soaps, a lovely set of Temecula note cards, a note pad (I use the heck out of note pads in the Nook when I'm trying to figure out dimensions or measurements), Orange & Cinnamon Spice tea that's just lovely and smells like this holiday season, patchwork pins (because who can have enough of these?!), and a bag of raspberry flavored, chocolate dusted almonds.  YUM!

See what I mean??

Janet's mug rug was my secret stitching over the past couple of weeks . . .

I love this sweet Kathy Schmitz pattern!  It paired nicely with the patchwork, too.

And of course, I padded my envelope.  It tickles me how similarly we think when gifting each other! She's a precious friend. 

Monday was Veteran's Day.  I shared this pic (along with a couple of others) on social media . . .

Look at the tiny waistline!  This is March, 1985, right after I graduated from boot camp.  Just a baby. Of course, I didn't think so at the time!

I had off on Veteran's Day, but Todd didn't, so I took advantage of the alone time and walked through the woods.  This is one of my all-time favorite trees on the camp's property . . .

Todd believes it's close to (if not older than) 200 years old.  It's a massive oak.  I found a sprouted acorn under it.

I'm taking it to Joc for her to plant in her yard!  A walk deeper into the woods shows how green the trees still are were. (The bitter cold snap we had on Monday night took care of that!) 

The beech trees stay green longer than most everything.  And after they change, they stay on the limbs until spring!

It was a pretty afternoon for a leisurely hike.  I love that I live where I do and have access to God's creation like I do!  The afternoon netted me a good handful of great acorn caps for some more woolies.  

These have a lot of character!  They're all dried out and ready to craft!

Monday night I put stitching away and pulled out the makings for cream cheese mints:

Joc needs them for a baby shower she's hosting tomorrow evening.  The things we do for love! ♥

But last night I was able to pull out the stitching again.  Making very good progress on my pumpkin . . . 

I'm very pleased with it!  I just need to finish stitching the leaves in the acorn panel and do the pumpkin outline and then it's done.  Still not sure how I'm going to use it (the pattern intends it as a pillow, and I didn't want a pillow), but I'll figure something out, eventually. ;)

Have a great day -- make good choices!

:)

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!

:)

dreaming quilts . . .

I've been having very vivid dreams over the last several weeks. I think partly because finally, after four or five years of shoulder pain and then surgery recovery, I'm finally able to sleep through the night, pain free!

Whatever the reason, these dreams are ones that I remember when I wake up in the morning ... even days later. Which is unusual for me!  I've dreamed up a lot of stitchery/quilty projects, too.  One of which I felt compelled to act upon!

Last Thursday, I dreamed I created a quilt designed to hold an applique center or panel.  It was red, green and gold, and the center was a huge 'snow buddies' kind of scene.  Like applique or embroidery, maybe.  So when I got up Friday morning, I hopped over to the laptop, pulled up my EQ, and got busy . . .

With the exception of the (blank) center, that's pretty much exactly what I dreamed.

So it's pretty simple and basic and I recognized that it was definitely a piece designed to showcase the center.  So I got online to find something to either recreate with applique, or a panel.

I found this, which was really cute, and so I changed the outside colors to kind of match it. 

But when I tried to search for the panel to purchase, it wasn't to be found.  Bummer.

So then I decided to google search for an appropriate blue panel.  And found this Hoffman digital panel:

And it was perfect.

And it should arrive any day now.  I paired it with batiks from the Icicle collection by Kathy Engle for Island Batiks. 

It pays to follow your dreams! 

:)

acorn tutorial time . . .

These little fellows were just so much fun to make ... and to me they were especially endearing, knowing that their little caps came from our own trees!  They whip up really quickly and easily, so if my instructions are tough to follow, it's me, not them!

First, round up some caps!  We have a number of different types of acorn-bearing oaks in the camp, so I was able to find some different looking styles and sizes!  

We've been really wet over the past several weeks, so after I picked up all the caps I wanted, I put them on a tray in the oven at about 200 degrees for several hours.  They were nice and dry after that!   Then I was able to sit down and get busy! I used a variety of wool colors--because variety is the spice of life--but feel free to stick to more traditional colors/patterns if you desire.

Cut your wool in a circle (about 1.75" diameter). I didn't even trace it; I just held the circle to the wool and cut around it.

Using a sturdy thread or floss, knotted at the end (but with an inch or so of floss to work with on the tail end), stitch a running stitch around the edge of the circle (about 1/8"). 

End your stitching on the same side you began it.  This makes it easier to pull the circle closed.

Pull the ends of your thread together, slightly pulling the opening together (this will help you find the center/base of the acorn). Put a healthy dollop of hot glue (about pea-sized) into the opening, directly on the wool base. This will help you to shape the acorn and will also give the base some weight.

Take a pinch of polyester fiber fill and stuff it into the opening onto the hot glue.  Use your discretion.  If your cap is a bit bigger, your acorn can probably handle a tad more fiber fill.  But remember, you're putting it in over hot glue -- so it's better to start on the 'less' side of fiber fill and add more if you want to.

Pull the ends tight to close the opening and tie it off. You can snip off your ends, or do what I did and stuff them down into the acorn using the tools in the next step.

Using a stiletto or the pointy end of junkie scissors, stuff the excess thread and any fiber fill into the cinched opening. At this same time, work the hot glue in the wool into an acorn shape with your fingers.  This step is not pictured because I couldn't actually do what I was talking about and take a photo at the same time.  LOL!

Place a generous dollop of hot glue at the top of the acorn, over the opening , and cover with the acorn cap.

Set it straight on or make it jaunty!  Personality counts!

Finally, make a GAZILLION more!  Because they're so stinkin' addictive!!!

Happy Fall, y'all!

:)