happy sighs . . .

What a great weekend we enjoyed! On Friday, Todd and I were able to take the boat out. The weather was just absolutely perfect for it! We launched at Honeycomb, which is a state campground . . .

Which was full for Easter weekend!

After a bit of cruising around, we finally (aka, Todd finally) found a spot that was very fishy! To the point that I put down my handwork and picked up the fishing rod!

Yup ... that's *my* first catch (to keep) of the day! We ended up catching about 75.  WOW! Yes, a very productive day!

And the ride back to the docks was pretty spectacular, too.

Easter Sunday, after church, my folks and Joc's crew came up to the camp for dinner and baskets and an Easter egg hunt . . .

The girls were both so cute and had a marvelous time. The camp is the perfect place to 'hide' eggs in plain sight.

Both Ellie and Evey were quite happy to sit with Neesey and Pawpaw to check out their haul!

And I even managed to do some slow stitching this weekend, too. I've done all the blanket stitching on my 'card tricks' -- now it's on to the decorative stitching.

I love all these colors!

And I worked on my pretty little orange hexie flowers, too . . .

In fact, I'm nearly finished putting together this second flower -- just six and a half more pieces to stitch down . . .

And I'll be ready to applique these to the runner! I haven't even thought about how I'll quilt this project. But I know where I'll put it!  Linking this up to HeLP at sarah did it!

I've had several folks show interest in our RV living space. I've taken some pictures and uploaded them to the RV Living page on my blog. You can take a little tour of our home, sweet home!

I'm on baby watch for the next week or so . . . so if things are quite here for an extended period of time, I haven't gotten lazy (again) . . . I'm engulfed in Neesey-ness!!

:)

winging its way . . .

Spring, that is.  To the interior of the RV, that is.

Besides all the crafty little projects that got my attention this past weekend, I also [finally] felt compelled to remove the reds and pinks and hearts and put out the "SPRING"! So, for your viewing pleasure (hahaha!), here are my little Spring vignettes . . .

I got the eggs ... they're multiplying ... and I'm losing control!
#truestory

Spring banner printable courtesy of On Sutton Place.

I adore that yellow fluted vase.  It was my Grandma Willie's (and it's older than me).

This may be one of my very favorite wool pieces, ever.

Those Easter eggs are REAL eggs that I blew and decorated 15 years ago!
I did a dozen and Joc did one.  There are five of mine and Joc's one, left. They're almost vintage.

Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue. Which is which?!

Wednesday I woke up feeling not-so-great. A quick trip to the doc revealed a case of bronchitis. Nice. Thank you spring allergies. Ah well, a dose of steroids and antibiotics and we'll clear it all up. Hopefully I'm miraculously all better tomorrow.  I'm watching these sweet girls on Friday and Saturday . . . 

Aren't they precious? This photo was taken during the family maternity shoot. Baby Merkel is due in the next three weeks or so! 

Isn't Baby Merkel's mommy just beautiful? She's glowingly gorgeous!

Time with the Merkel girls means time with the Merkel cat.

Oh Leia, how I've missed you! She almost looks sweet and cuddly in this photo, doesn't she? We'll see just how sweet and cuddly she is come Saturday afternoon.

And with that, I bid you happy Friday, happy weekend!  (and Happy Feline Friday!)

:)

working weekend . . .

I *did* get in some good stitching time over the weekend . . . yay!!  And I managed to play in a wide variety of mediums/techniques, too, so double points for me!

I started off the weekend by tackling the sixth block for my fairy frosted orphan project . . .

I think this block fits right in with the other five, don't you think?

Oh yeah -- can't even tell it's not an original!  LOL!  I didn't get the short block fixed.  Fiddle-dee-dee.  There's always next weekend, right? ;)

I also set my hand up for this little wool trick . . .

Hahaha!  Get it? Card Tricks in Wool! I'll be slow stitching on this for the next week.  I like having projects like this on hand for evening slow stitching. I can't wait to share a finished photo of it!

Sarah, who's one of my favorite enablers, caught my interest in her 'thirds' hexie project, so I decided to order some templates for myself. I had lots of Civil War fabric left from an earlier project and decided it need to be put to use . . .

Have no idea where I'm going with this.

Only that I need to do a LOT more, Hahaha! That's okay -- more evening stitching, right?

I also added to my fabric "Fabergé" eggs collection. Another great use for frosted fairy scraps.

My bunnies are so happy! So am I. I'm really digging these fabric eggs!

And look who we found out and about this weekend in the sanctuary . . .

He's so happy to be above ground! In honor of his 'coming out' for spring, let me share a link to this darling, darling, EPP stuffed turtle ~ Tilly the Turtle ~ to be precise. Another dear "Sarah" friend (who's local and also a pretty good enabler) sent me the link.  The tutorial and pattern are free on Abby Glassenberg's blog, While She Naps.  TOO CUTE!  Hmmmm.  That block that needs repair may have to wait yet another weekend...I think this weekend might see some turtle stitching!

:)

rooting for a finish . . .

Phew! It's been busy.  Really busy.  I didn't get to spend the time in the Nook over the weekend that I wanted to, but I did sneak in there long enough to finish this topper I'd started earlier in the week:

And to make a couple of fabric eggs, (beware: if you click on the link, you'll be compelled to make them) which I'm totally in love with and plan to make kaboodles of.  (:

I finally found a use for these scrumptious fat quarters I purchased YEARS ago at Cindy of Custom Creation's booth at Paducah . . .

They make the most perfect, ornamental and elegant fabric Easter Eggs!

I was delighted, in my recent purge cleanup of the Nook, to find I had enough of the carrot batik to make the topper for me.  I'd made a couple (one each for the Merkel and Panter crews) three years ago, and had tucked the extra fabric away.  

Yay for me, because I totally love, love, adore this carrot print! In fact, if you look closely at the green and orange egg I made, you'll see I fussy cut a carrot on my Easter egg!  I had to make my topper a little smaller than the first two I made (and the template I made for mine is a little more rounded), but I live in a smaller space (and *I'm* a little more rounded), so it works out nicely. I'm glad I went back and read the post from three years ago when I originally constructed these. That's when I remembered that I'd used green felt for the 'batting' on the leafy stems, which enhances the look, in my very humble opinion!

Saturday we took One Accord out for the first time this year. It was sunny, but cool and WINDY. And I spent most of our day looking like this:

LOL! We were exploring some parts of Tim's Ford we'd never been on before (like, navigating by the map and everything), in preparation for our vacation in May. I saw a couple of homes for sale that would make great B&B or quilter/crafter retreat locations . . .

My favorite was the latter. Absolutely gorgeous location on the point. I did a virtual tour of the grounds and scrolled through pics of the interior - whooooeeeee! 

This week is busy with meetings/events/something every night.  I'm really looking forward to Saturday -- I have yet to try anything with that pesky block (besides trying to block/stretch it, which didn't work) and I want to get on it! Thanks for all the good ideas and encouragement -- I think I know what I'm going to try next.

Happy Wednesday -- have a great rest of the week!

:)

minutiae . . .

It's been a nice week . . . the weather has been gorgeous!  It's definitely Spring and that means baseball and softball season! Sawyer and I went to his first ever ballgame yesterday afternoon. Our church has adopted the Lady Colts of Central School (it's a K-8 school next door to the church) and yesterday afternoon they had a double-header, so our bunch cooked burgers and dogs for the girls between games.

Sawyer was full of questions and enjoyed cheering and encouraging the girls from both teams on. He's such a sweet fellow! Luckily for the two of us, the Lady Colts went ahead by enough to call the game during the fourth inning. Sawyer felt like that was the perfect amount of time to allot for a ballgame!

I've gotten in some good time to work on my next wool egg . . .

One bunny done and the rest marked and ready to stitch!  Normally I'd have taken stitch work to the ballgame, but with Sawyer there, I felt it was best not to -- in hindsight, I can say it was a smart call!

I've also gotten my strips cut and pressed and ready to attach to assemble the midsection of the pineapple quilt:

I'll probably get all the machine stitching done on it tomorrow morning, and save the hand stitching for Sunday.

Tonight we're off to Joc's house for a little celebration.  She's been playing on pinterest and found the cutest idea . . .

Isn't that fun??!! It's a homemade scratch off ticket. At the appointed time, we'll each be given a card to scratch and the person with three of a kind will be able to announce if the baby is a boy or a girl!! And haven't I been good at keeping that little gem off my blog since January??!!!

That's right -- sometime early in September, Ellie is going to be a big sister! Hurray!!

The whole idea of another human has put Leia on her back ... she isn't quite sure how she feels about it!

TGIFF (Thank Goodness It's Feline Friday)!!!!

:)

design wall tuesday . . .

I had an unexpected change to my week right off the bat . . . Ellie was not feeling well and Joc needed to go into work, so I switched up my Tuesday for Monday, which meant I kick-started my week with a happy Ellie day!

First, we snuggled together to watch Tangled.  Of course, Ellie loves taking pictures when she can see the picture being taken!  And of course we had to have tea, too . . .

Little Miss likes to 'sip' her tea from the spoon.  And not just any spoon (believe me, I know), she needed a "teeny, tiny spoon."  Haha!  Silly girl! She also helped my put my last embroidery stitches in my wool egg:

I heard her mutter, "Sharp!" several times as she was handling the needle, but she didn't back off!

Speaking of the egg, I stitched it together, filled it, and closed it up last night:

It's sweet, but I don't think I'll use the 'invisible thread' to stitch up the next four. It was impossible to work with and doesn't give a nice clean edge to the egg seams. I may go back and do a blanket stitch with some matching floss (I just didn't have any that quite matches the color wool I used).  

I also (finally) finished up putting together the pieces to set the center of the pineapple quilt on point . . .

The back of this quilt will look very striking with it's solid (sorta) purple and blue and black.

I love the hand quilting I did on the pineapple center (I machine quilted the blocks I've yet to attach)-

But it's hilarious (and a little embarrassing) to look at the backside . . .

This UFO was the third quilt I ever started (my second LQS BOM) and it was the reason I *finished* my first quilt (and first BOM).  I did a little wall hanging in between . . . but this is all the subject for another post. My point is, I did the hand quilting in 2007 -- I think it's fair to say I'm come a long way, baby! (At least, I certainly hope it is!)

So, even though I finished up my goals from last week, my design wall for this week looks much the same -- another egg and more work on finishing up the pineapple quilt.  This week I'll work towards connecting the block sides to the center square.  It's more of the same -- making the strips (which I'll make *correctly* this time), attaching them, zig zag stitching the units together, and then hand stitching the other side of the strips down.

Sounds like a fairly productive week, non?!  Linking up (a day late and a dollar short) to Patchwork Times. And right on time to Esther Aliu's WOW = WIPs on Wednesdays.

Tonight, Todd and I are settling in to watch The Desolation of Smaug (part two of The Hobbit series) on DVD -- it's been released today. YAY!  

:)