the unexpected . . .

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

Never in my wildest dreams would I have expected that covid would have wreaked the havoc in my previously healthy-as-a-horse husband as it did.  We were worried about me, because of all the co-morbidities I have.  But after the second weekend, Todd's O2 just plummeted and we headed to the ER.  It wasn't long before they determined he had covid pneumonia and he was admitted.  

Unfortunately, at some point early on in his hospital stay, he also caught bacterial pneumonia, which the doctors didn't catch for a number of days, so it went untreated, so he continued to spiral downward. It was a really scary two weeks in the hospital. I pretty much stayed with him for the entire time, so it makes sense that I "homed" it up:

Anything to take the drearyness away!  The grands did their part too . . .

Sweet 'get well' cards for their Pawpaw. The nurses were all impressed with their artistic abilities. So was I!

I had grabbed some EPP to keep my hands busy for a bit.

It wasn't enough . . . days in a hospital room are LONG days. My sweet stitcher friends (my SAS girls) put together a bag of handstitching projects.  Bliss! I got right to work.

Joc came by to visit a couple of times. We met downstairs in the cafeteria, or outside.  She brought baby lovings for me . . .

Sweet little round-headed baby boy!

:)

splashing into autumn . . .

Hey hey!  Just checking in before we head into the weekend.  We enjoyed a lovely, beautiful day on the lake on Monday.  The weather couldn't have been more cooperative.  We're at that time of the year where sometimes the water, at 85 degrees, is warmer than the air temp!

That means we spend LOTS of time in the water (because it's too cold to come out)!  The girls had a blast splashing and swimming. Edith even decided it was her day to jump off the boat into the water, multiple times.  She was a champ!  But we were all *in* the water already, so no photos of that!

As my Jocey said, it was the perfect way to squeeze one more day out of summer . . .

My signature "sun setting, heading home" photo.  ;)

Now my thoughts are turning to things of fall. Like pumpkins. All the pumpkins. On Sutton Place had this cute idea for a craft pumpkin on her blog today . . .

Isn't that sweet??!! Let me be clear, this is *her* picture, not mine. You can bet that I'll have one next week, though!!  She also had a link to a collection of her pumpkin recipes (Pumpkin Perfection Desserts) you can get.  Do you recall the scene in Forest Gump, where Bubba is talking about the "fruit of the sea"—shrimp—and all the things you can do with it? That is *exactly* how I feel about pumpkin.  Pumpkin scones, pumpkin custard, pumpkin pie, pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin bread, pumpkin coffee cake, pumpkin doughnuts, spiced pumpkin cookies . . . you get my drift! PLUS you can decorate with them and quilt them and craft with them!  

Pumpkins > Shrimp 

Just sayin.

I did get some diamond EPP pieces whipped up . . .

I did six, satisfied the itch, and moved my attention to the Lucy blocks I got with my estate sale purchase several weeks ago. There were seven or eight POTC blocks in several stages, but this one captured my attention because it was blue.  And sparkly.  

And all the possibilities! I think my favorite is the one of the top right.  You?

Today we celebrate six fabulous years with this precious little girl . . .

Evey Jade is the birthday girl! We're doing a family party tonight and looking forward to it.  This girl is fearless and bright and bubbly and spicy.  We love her so much!

We also celebrate my folks' 60th—SIXTIETH—anniversary!!  Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad!

And though I'm getting ready to immerse myself in fall, I'm going to leave you with this thought:

Baahahahaaa!

:)

sloooooow stitching . . .

Slow stitching is appropriate.  It feels like it took me *forever* to finish this piece, but finished it is!

I had to take some "staging" pics, too . . .

Heh. So I'm a stitcher, not a photographer. I think one of the reasons I took so much time is that this really was a new style of stitching for me. I'm still not sure if I'd choose to do it again. I like the dimensional aspect of it — but it's all big stitches with six strands of floss ... no delicate stitching for detail. Though I do love the French knots!

On another note, I got a stack of happy in the mail this week:

Meet Moda's Arboretum.  Isn't it yummy?!?? I'm thinking I'll use it in Diane Knott's (Butterfly Threads) mystery block of the month quilt!

For today's slow stitching, I think I'll play around with these . . .

Fun EPP shapes, don't you think?  They make cute hearts.

Right? I don't know what I'll do with them, but I have the desire to stitch up some hexie-like things, so that's how I'll roll.

Warning. This next photo is not for the feint of heart. Travesty of all travesties.

You can't have nuthin.

Not sure what happened to Mr. Pumpkin, but when you hang with foxes, deer, possums, raccoons and who know what else, this is to be expected. *sigh*  ;)

Enjoy the remainder of your Labor Day weekend!  We're taking off on the boat with the kids tomorrow to enjoy the day on the lake. Yay!  

Linking up to Kathy's Quilts and the Slow Sunday Stitching post!

:)

day four . . .

It's MY turn for sharing on the Witchy Stitchy Blog Hop!  Annnnd . . . it also MY BIRTHDAY! 

♥  Local grandgirls visited for a birthday eve visit yesterday!  ♥

Hexie Pumpkin Mug Rug
(this is the fourth or fifth I've made...but this one is for ME!)

A birthday means there's a giveaway in here somewhere. ;)

So when I signed on for this hop in July, I gave myself a couple of hours  several days  weeks  until five days ago to figure out what I wanted to make/share.  I love autumn and the less ghoulish elements of Halloween and I didn't want to do anything too creepy or ghoulish.  

I adore ... no seriously ... I ADORE pumpkins in all their glorious colors, shapes, and sizes, but pumpkins didn't quite seem to fit the Witchy Stitchy theme, so I could start there, but I couldn't end there.  With a little inspiration from where I live (Camp MACOBA) as a year-round camp host and from one of my favorite quilting books, I got an idea.

Spiders . . .

Oh yeah, no lack of live, creepy, crawly inspiration there!  *shudder*

I mean, c'mon...what respectable witch brews a cauldron of brew without a pinch of spider or a dash of web?!  Or at the very least, keeps a spider on a leash as a pet??!

Exactly.

So being that I'm a small project person and adore a darling mug rug (or two or ten) for *every* season, here's my offering:

A spiderweb mug rug and a couple of yo-yo spiders.  These yo-yo spiders are so super cute and easy to make!  

I found them in Simple Fabric Folding for Halloween, along with a lot of other spooky fun projects!

The pumpkin is also super easy ... one roll of toilet paper, one fat quarter, and a nice sized twig for the stem.  

They're a GREAT way to decorate when you have little, curious hands around, as are the yo-yo spiders!!

Okay, so I know I mentioned it was my birthday and a giveaway.  That's the kind of birthday girl I am!  I want *everyone* to have a happy day on my birthday!  So here's the deal.  Leave a kind birthday greeting in the comments and follow me in some shape, form or fashion (and let me know you do), and I'll draw a winner for a copy of Simple Fabric Folding for Halloween for your very own! I'll accept entries through the 11th and announce a winner sometime on Sunday the 13th.  :)

Many thanks to Carol of Just Let Me Quilt for coordinating another super blog hop! These are a lot of work to put together and she does a beautiful job of  it!  Be sure, also, to visit the rest of the blogs that are hopping today:

Beaquilter

Homespun Hannah's Blog

MooseStashQuilting

Cynthia's Creating Ark

It’s A T-Sweet Day!

this is me!  ---->Count it *all* JOY!

Bethni L. – Hosted at Just Let Me Quilt

Thank you for stopping by . . . and I'll have the final list of participants posted if you come by tomorrow!

Bewitchingly stitchingly yours,

:)

weekend wanderings . . .

Busy weekends and busier weeks (gearing up for our annual meeting at work) make for longer gaps between posts.  But I am pleased to note that I've surpassed last year's number of posts by five, with this post.  It's the little things, right??!

Todd and I did make time to take the boat out this past Friday. It was the first time I'd been out on our boat since prior to the surgery. I'd missed it ... but I was a little anxious about it, too.  Turns out I had nothing to worry about . . . except how many hexies I could baste up while Todd fished. What do you know?  Sunshine on my shoulder really *did* make me happy! (Thanks, John Denver.)

You can just make out one of my four shoulder surgery scars ... he glued them closed, so they're faint and hard to see, which also makes me happy.  ;)

It was a lovely day, and Todd had launched in a place I'd never been before, below the dam (Lake Guntersville). 

You can see the dam from behind us. It's pretty impressive and the launch is fairly easy. We Todd wanted to fish the bluffs, so that's where we headed.

Easily 100' or higher. But you can see where the fish were running the minnows! 

It was pretty exciting. Todd thought so especially . . . 

His final tally of the day was about 26. Mostly strip and spots.  It'll make good eating either way.

My final tally of hexies was 24 . . .

So I guess he won!  LOL!

But I was the one spotting all the waterfowl (and friends) as we tooled around and explored . . .

These buzzards (sitting on the rocks) were all hanging out for something we could smell but couldn't see. LOL!

Caught this heron mid-flight.  They were all over the place

And then we sited not one, but TWO bald eagles! Pretty cool.

Mid-afternoon, a small summer shower came up fast on us . . .

We rode it out and then enjoyed a really lovely afternoon.

About as pretty as can be!

Saturday morning I had a guild workshop ... which I'll (hopefully) share more about later.  I got home just in time for second half of the Alabama vs. Texas A&M game. It was a fairly comfortable game by this point, so I could sit (relatively) quietly and prep my next set of hexies . . . the last set . . . my yellows!  Roll Tide!  :)

After getting them all clipped, I even got a few basted.  The rest were my slow stitching for today.

I've got about a dozen more to baste, and then it's on to whipping them together.  I've really got to decide how I want to go about doing this.  I'm thinking I'll whip up the individual flowers, by color, first, and then put them together.  And I've finally settled on a name for this piece.  FINALLY!

Linking up to Kathy's Quilts Slow Sunday Stitching and the HeLP post over at Sarah Did It!

Have a great week ahead!

:)