brevity is not my strong suit . . .

This is going to be (relatively) short and sweet . . . I'm still in the wilds of Yellowstone, having a wonderful time with my daughter and her family!

I did manage to work out my next 3-yard quilt before I left. Fabric Cafe has a new pattern book out and it's BIG Block 3-Yard Quilts . . . for those quilts where you love a fabric so much, you want good chunks of it in your quilt!  

I chose this design, "Felicity" . . .

And these three fabrics . . . 

I'm sure you can work out what's going to go where!  I'll plan on working on this when I return. I got extra of the dark fabric because I like to make wider borders than they do. The finished quilt constructed by their specifications is 44" by 57", but mine will be a little bigger all around.

I also fully finished this piece . . .

So much for having it to work on during my travels! I'm really pleased with it, though, so I don't mind.  

I even love the back! It's really sweet and I'm also tempted to do a second.  I enlarged the template when I printed it, though, so I'll need to remember by how much I enlarged it!

I didn't bring my Mayflower project because it's so big, it's hard to carry around (and would definitely not be fun to work on while flying), so there's not a whole lot of change to it from last week. Besides, I caught an error that needs to be corrected before I can move on . . . so I probably won't work on it for month.  J/K!  

Sunday is a 'down' day for us . . . we've only got one walk *and* a 1.2 mile hike on our itinerary for today.  LOL!  I'll get in some slow stitching on my Spring Quaker project, hopefully!  Linking up with the slow Sunday stitching post on Kathy's Quilts!

I'll be back next week with fun pics from the trip.  Enjoy the Memorial Day holiday and have a great week ahead!!

:)

floss crossing ahead . . .

It's been a very stitch-intensive week!  I probably should've/could've been working on a 3-yard quilt, but I'm heading to Yellowstone this week and didn't want to leave a project in the making.  So instead I headed to my wool stash to kit the patriotic project I shared last week.  But I got distracted when I found this cute patriotic mini-Quaker cross stitch kit I'd ordered last year.  Squirrel!  

So I got busy.  Two days and two audio books later . . .

Yay!  It's pinned up (for now) next to this finish (another patriotic Quaker project):

I do love me some red, white & blue!

Evidently I also love small Quaker cross stitch projects, because this lovely little lavender project is also in process . . .

The Primrose Cottage designs make my heart happy!

I did finally make it to the wool stash and prepped this project to stitch on when I travel . . .

Isn't it cute??  I will really enjoy stitching on this!  

And finally, I did pull out my Coming to America project and got some significant work done on it.  

I mean, the ship is really showing up now! It's one of those I work on for five hours, and then I need to put it away for a bit.  I'm in it for the long haul (I'm using it for my Leap Year SAL 2024 to 2028 project on Facebook). 

Netflix just introduced a 35 minute documentary about a quilting prison program.  It was very good and I highly recommend it.  

I was so impressed with the work these men were doing!  Truly rehabilitating.  Worth the watch!  There was a bit of language in it, so be mindful of who's around if/when you tune in.

Finally, I'll leave you with this stylized portrait of me and the girls (and a few of my favorite things) that ChatGPT came up with for me . . .

I'd say it knows me pretty well! I know folks have mixed feelings about AI and how it could be misused, but ChatGPT has been so helpful to me over the last year. 

Linking up with Kathy's Quilts and her Slow Sunday Stitching post.

Have a great week ... me an' Old Faithful will be hanging out!

:)

what to do . . .

I've been thinking a lot about my posting frequency.  I love my blogging community and I've made some dear and wonderful friends ... LIFEtime friends, even ... through this medium.  But honestly, I missed *me* when I wasn't blogging.  I love flipping through old posts and reading what I was up to, scrolling through the photos, reminiscing and getting all nostalgic.  I really enjoy writing and this has been my best outlet for that for years!  So frequency . . . 

Weekly would serve me best.  Life is so busy, and because I tend to write about life (because the good Lord knows I don't do enough quilting/stitching/etc. to write a post monthly, much less weekly), weekly posts would be great. Just not sure if I can keep up with that.  Writing a blog post takes time, effort, and energy!  But I think that will be my *goal*.

All that being said, what a week! Tuesday evening was Ellie's band concert.  It was a fabulous evening of fun music.  Ellie is first chair clarinet.  It's fun to hear her each year and appreciate how far she's come.

I brought Edith home with me, and while she was there, this photo came up on my screensaver . . .

That was about six months ago.  Edith and I decided to recreate it for comparison . . .

Starry is a BIG girl kitten!!  We had to laugh!

Wednesday I had some work to take care of at the Camp.  I've got one last Eagle Scout project that I'm managing:  the deconstruction of the turtle sanctuary.  The RV and the Nook have been moved.  It's the first time I've been out there since that happened, and it hit hard . . .

But it's all good. Taking a walk, I spotted a little toad.  I've still got the "eye"!

I had lunch at a new-to-me (and I think, relatively new to Huntsville) restaurant, Tupelo Honey.  It had a really cute vibe, and the food was fabulous.  But what really made me happy was the water glass . . .

Yes, they do sell them, and yes, I did come home with one!

Thursday evening was the end-of-the-year program for the girls' homeschool community, Classical Conversations (which Jocelyn directs). While they'll continue to do math and reading through the summer, their Thursday CC days are done for the summer!

The program was terrific and it was fun seeing each class do a presentation, showing off all they'd learned.

Friday night was a Trash Panda night!  I love baseball games . . . the atmosphere is fantastic!  

And we live less than ten minutes from the Trash Panda Stadium, so we try and do a couple of games during the season–especially on a Friday or Saturday night, when they do fireworks!

Today I hosted a mini stitch-in for my inner circle stitchy girls. I totally meant to get a selfie of us, but got caught up in the cameraderie and it slipped my mind.  Not necessarily a bad thing.  I continued to work on my Coming to America project.  I think I've made good progress!  

This will be my slow Sunday stitching (see the lineup at Kathy's Quilts), if I'm able to do any!

I downloaded and proceeded to 'thumb' through May's Primitive Quilts and Projects, and came across this darling wool project:

If I have time this week, I'll kit it and get started! 

A very Happy Mother's Day to all who celebrate! ♥ ♥ ♥

:)

whirlwind moments . . .

Well. That didn't go as planned!  I knew I wasn't going to be an every day blogger, but gosh, I sure hadn't planned on more than three weeks going by!  C'est la vie. Life has been so busy!  Lemme share . . .

I finished up my March 3-yard quilt.  Whoohoo!  Of course, I never got to the April quilt, so March and April are just going to share this one . . .

The girls immediately gave their seal (cat hair) of approval!

And while it doesn't look like a lot, I finished the waves and started on the ship on my Coming to America project . . .

Thursday, April 17th was a long day.  It was Todd's birthday, so Ezra and I made the trek out to the marina and had a picnic lunch.  Ezra sat in the captain's chair and informed me that since he was sitting there, it was now his boat.  Love that little guy!

From there, we met Joc and the girls (who'd spent the day at their homeschool cover) at the cemetery. 

I'd picked up Todd's favorite ice cream cake and we sang happy birthday to him and shared sweet "Pawpaw" memories.  

All in all it was a sweet (bittersweet) day. But it wasn't over.  While I'd have liked nothing more than to go home and sink into bed, our guild's speaker was Jan Davis, the first woman quilter in space.  

Mind you, she didn't actually quilt in space, but she did bring fabric with her (as one of her two personal items), including this beautiful block of her own design.

I'm glad I went ahead and went, but I slept until noon on Friday!

That Sunday was Easter. I celebrated with the Merkel crew at their house.  It was a beautiful day!

Filled with beautiful kiddos, all decked out matchy-matchy for the day!

Then I was on a road trip to Charleston, SC!  This summer is my 45th (can you believe it?!?) high school reunion, and they're taking a riduculously expensive cruise. I talked to a group of gals I've kept up with, to see if anyone was planning on going, and we decided to ditch the cruise and meet in SC for a long girl's weekend!

It was such fun!  We did the Charleston City Market, the Magnolia Plantation, and even took a haunted carriage tour!!  

We also ate a LOT of seafood; to my heart's content! It was our last night, eating out on the water, that I caught this gorgeous sunset . . .

And then this past weekend, it was ballet recitals . . .

Dinner with the darling Marie Bostwick, who was in town on tour, promoting her latest book, The Book Club for Troublesome Women.  Quilters who are also book readers may be familiar with her Cobbled Court Quilts series. She really is amazing!

And then Sunday evening my mom and I traveled to Gadsden to see the Gaither Vocal Band.  It was a great evening of music and praise and fun.  

Whew! I was actually glad it was Monday, and I didn't have any plans until late this afternoon! Happy month of May . . . summer is just around the corner!

:)