road trippin . . .

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

This past weekend was the second annual retreat for our Sassy Sisterhood!  We hit the road on Wednesday morning and shopped and ate along the way . . .

We stayed in the same cabin (that suits us so, so well) as last year, tucked in the Smokey Mountains in Sevierville, TN.  It's really sweet and cozy, and just the right size for three gals stitching away.  (And I just realized I never did a post just on our reteat last year.  This is why I'm going ahead and backposting!  It makes me so sad when I look back on the blog for something and I didn't post about it!)

My intent this year was to finish the teacup stitchery and to finish appliqueing all of the wool blocks from the Hospital Sketches BOM.  I succeeded . . .

Yay!  I love it when a plan comes together!  Finishing my BOM blocks is my goal for January's UFO challenge (in our Stitcher's Etc. group).  I'm glad to have this off my plate!

We also had a group project that we worked on.  Last year it was "Ewenice" (which I did blog about).  This year it was . . .

TAHDAH! Pompom sheep! Aren't they darling?  We used the tempplates from Betz White. Mine is the bottom one.  Lavender.  ♥  She's hanging from my rear view mirror in my car.  She's so CUTE!

We had a light dusting of snow while we were there . . .

Idyllic! We decided that was the perfect day to stay put and have a fire in the fireplace:

And Downton Abbey on the screen. Ha! It was such a sweet, laid back time.  Perfect get-away.  We booked for 2023 before we left!

;)

weekend goings . . .

Todd and I got on the road yesterday afternoon and headed to Tuscaloosa for a missions conference.  We stayed overnight at the Bama B&B!

It's a really pretty place and I'll share more about that later.

I finished up granddaughter Olivia's patchwork doll quilt . . .

Just a simple finish.  It's sweet! I'll get this out in the mail to her on Monday.

I also finished block 20 of my Grandmother's Choice BOM.

I had trouble with the points on this one.  I may (*may*) go back and fiddle with it. I also may not. 

This is a better representation of what's done and what's actually left.  LOL! The holes in the first three rows are where I skipped a block that looked too tough.  Haha!

I prepped a little stitchery to take on the road and have to work on in our down time today:

Just a little heart. I had the pattern saved on my computer from somewhere. Quick work.

I've gotten a little done.  May finish it up on our way home today ... slow stitching and all!

Linking up with Kathy's Quilts.  Enjoy a slow stitching Sunday!

:)

this, that, and some more . . .

The calendar has been full, full, full, but I've still been managing to daily get at least (at least) 15 minutes of time towards some aspect of stitching.  It makes me so happy to be able to do this!  I did manage to finish my bee quilt in time for the guild's "parade of mystery quilts" . . .

Not great pics, but I'm so in love with this layout ... it's very pleasing to my eye.  I'll use this again, soon.

We had a great wrap-up of our mug rug swap, too . . . 

It was fun to end the guild year on a high note!

I've spent a lot of time with the girls, too. They started school last week (homeschool on Monday and Classical Conversations--their weekly trek--on Tuesday):

Two weekends ago I stayed with them Saturday and Sunday, and Evey, Ellie and I made clothes for Piglet and Owl.

Edith got a woobie.  Or as she refers to it, a tendu.  Yes.  When she got it, she exclaimed, "Mom!  Neesey made me a tendu!"  LOL!  Love these girlies!

The California crew headed back to school and Kim sent me first day pics . . .

All three are in the same school this year -- can you believe that Olivia is in Kindergarten?!  They're loving their new school!

This past weekend was spent at a friend's mom's house on the lake.  It's her birthday weekend and her mom opens up her house for a mini-retreat.  What a blessing!  

As per my usual optimum retreat experience package, I just brought handwork. I finished up block one of Barbara Brackman's Hospital Sketches, from Civil War Quilts blog, which I'm doing scaled waaay down and in wool . . .

I'm so in love with this!  I forgot to bring the templates I'd painstakingly printed, so I had to settle for finishing the one and moving onto something else.  I finished up one of last year's Attic Heirloom ornaments . . .

And prepped two hexie oven mitts/mug rugs . . .

Aren't these fun?  Easy to prep ... not much to the stitching, either.  I'll finish them up sometime this week and share later.

We also to a field trip into town on Saturday and hit Wilson's Fabric.  

I found some fun things--a LOT of purple! (Including another pair of embroidery scissors which I forgot to take a picture of.)  From there we went to lunch . . .

It was a very fun group of ladies and it was a lovely, laughter-filled, productive weekend.

And now let's conquer Monday!

:)

fanfare . . .

When I look back over the blog content for the last year and a half, it really makes me sad.  My little hiatus cost me the published 'memories' of what I'd done, both in and out of the quilty world.  Normally, I'd have shared the fan BOM that my guild was doing . . . the fan is our logo . . . a different fan block each month (for a total of nine), getting more technically difficult to piece as the year went along. It started easy, with this little fan . . .

And ended with a Cleopatra's Fan, that I opted out of (because I was in a sling). 

Actually, I opted out of all but one of the last five, because of a busy schedule and shoulders that were giving me more and more pain. But we only needed to have five assembled in a flimsy (and I stress, assembled), in order to share our fans at the final meeting of the guild year (which is in August) and be eligible for a prize!

Today, with sling gone and at least one shoulder feeling peppy-er (more peppy?), I spent some time and assembled . . .

I'm really pleased with this ... it's a fun "memory quilt" from our guild year.  The black corners (and the binding will be in black) give it the appearance of floating. Anyway, it was nice to be sitting at the machine today.

I also realized I hadn't posted (because I hadn't posted) a single of my little Attic Heirloom OOMs! I splurged this year and signed up for the automatic kits.  

I was really good in January and February and got them stitched right up.  The kits have sort of backed up ever since . . .

LOL!  Ah well.  August's is really cute and I think I'll work on that one for some slow stitching time.

We had a GREAT family reunion ... lots of sweet family all under one pavilion roof!

Plus, spending time with *all* my grands was the best! Gosh, they were so sweet and Sawyer, Ellie and June loved reacquainting ... and Evey and Olivia were the best of friends.  Too cute!

♥ Sawyer, June, Todd, Olivia, Edie, me, Ellie and Evey ♥

Okay, that's it for now.  Linking my slow Sunday stitching with Kathy's Quilts. Enjoy the remainder of your weekend!!

:)

design wall blitz and a winner . . .

Now that the urgency of finishing My Orange Crush has been satiated, all the poor projects that had suffered from lack of attention (due to my single-minded focus) can come back out and play.  For example, this would be a truly perfect week to work on my hexie-snowflake (considering temps are to dip into the single digits again this week):

And to play again (errr, for the first time) with my Little Boy's Breeches from the Grandmother's Choice blocks:

Plus I've added the CQ Valentine heart (which I did nothing with yesterday, because we started a new church assignment which I'm very excited about and were gone pretty much all day):

*OR* . . . I *could* get out the pineapple UFO (a BOM from....2007?!?) and start working feverishly on it.  Here's the finished sample front and back . . .

I have all the blocks completed and all the applique done (I did the center block in applique and embroidered the corner pineapple blocks) ... it's a matter of setting that huge center applique on point, and then assembling all the pieces of the quilt together. Hmmm . . . maybe before the end of February?!? Bahaha!!!

I'm also on the lookout for a pattern (or encouragement to create my own) that's somewhat similar to the one pictured on the sweet little dress here, from Well Dressed Wolf:

Kim would like an Easter dress for June with a similar motif on it.  Isn't it darling? Looks like it's time to put pencil to paper! I'm thinking this would be gorgeous with a sun filled with single strand French knots!  Any thoughts?

Linking up to the Design Wall Monday post over at Patchwork Times!

OH!  And before I forget, random.org generated the winning number for the traveling stash box. Congrats to Doniene from Now it's just quilts!!!  I hope to get this out the door TODAY!

Happy Monday!

:)