degrees of done . . .

I had a lovely, productive Monday off ... I love extra long weekends!  First of all, I made scones from scratch. Here they are ready to go in the oven . . .

They are a bit of work! But I made additions and adjustments to the basic recipe I have on file and they were worth the effort.  Cranberry Orange Pecan & Cardamon Scones.  Delish.

I short baked ten of them (it made twelve) and froze those, so I could bring one into work, pop it into the oven, and have it with my afternoon tea at my desk.  Again ... delish!

Then I got busy in the Nook.  I had everything prepped and just had to sew, trim, and sew a bit more.  And now look what I have . . .

I got them all done, plus my bonus three!  Yay! I've been playing around with different settings, trying to determine if I want to finish it exactly as the class sample is finished (well, plus the extra row).  I still really haven't decided.  But I've got time ... and the fabric.  *wink*

In the evenings I've continued to work on my Snow Sampler.  Look what I did:

I *finished* it!  LOL!  I believe I'm going to back this with batting and frame it.  It would look cute on my snowflake mat with a jaunty little snowman figurine, or a white snowflake candle (or both!), don't you think?!

Yeah, I think so too! ♥  I'm also thinking I probably should have participated in The Winter Blues blog hop!  

That's it for me.  Today's my Friday and Todd and I are headed south to a missions conference this weekend, but I'll be back with some slow stitching to share on Sunday.  Have a great weekend!

:)

productivity . . .

It's been a productive week and I've gotten in some quality time towards my crafts (and I use that word in the highest sense of its definition) almost every day, thanks to some lunch time stitching.  In the class I'm taking we started to put together our first block, which I was able to finish:

It's a small class this go around, which is nice ... everyone gets the one-on-one if they need it. I'm learning some new things, too, which is awesome!

I decided to go ahead and make a fabric spreadsheet, to help me keep straight which fabrics were going where . . . 

I love organizational stuff like this; I daresay it's my forte! 

I also decided to go ahead and add another row of blocks, so it'll be 3 by 4, instead of 3 by 3.  I input it into EQ, just to get an idea of how much more fabric I'd need (if any).

The only print that's actually from my quilt is the focal/border fabric.  The rest is just pretty close. Close enough to give me a fairly good representation.  The only thing I needed more of was the focal, and that's only because I fussy cut my center blocks.

Our Stitcher's Etc. group had a stitch-in on Saturday.  That allowed me to get everything cut and prepped!

I like production/assembly work, so now everything I need to construct each block is pinned together and I can focus on stitching them together.  We also discussed our 2020 block swap at the stitch-in . . .

This should be very fun and very scrappy happy!  We have 20 participants!

I went home and took my stuff out to the Nook.  Since I was already there, I went ahead and made a  second block.  

Yeah, I'm loving this one!  I have Monday off, so I'll be out in the Nook at work on the rest of the blocks! Our class homework was to have four to six blocks finished. But we don't have class this week, so I will try to have all twelve finished. Since two are done and everything's prepped, I feel that's *very* doable.

If you visited last week, I talked about my owl and pussy-cat scissors and alluded to a bigger story.

I posted about it here, just in case you're interested!

My handwork is coming along, too!  Last night I finished the final block in the piece. 

I had left this one until last because it looked the most difficult, but it was so much fun to do those cross-hatches on the scarf!

Now all that's left are the border stitches.  I hope to make that my slow stitching for this afternoon!  :)

I really do need to finish this one up ... because guess what came in the mail on Friday?

LOL!  I can't seem to help myself!  This is another Kathy Schmitz sampler.  Isn't it cute?  ♥ Viva l'amour! ♥

Linking up today with Kathy's Quilts and her slow stitching post!  Have a happy Sunday--and if you're off tomorrow, enjoy that, too!  

:)

happy 2020 . . .

Happy New Year!  I have so much to share since I posted last, which was before Christmas; the day after which I hopped on a plane heading to the sunny west coast to visit my son and his family!  It was a marvelous trip, though it passed way too quickly. I so enjoyed spending time with these three:

Baaahaaahaaa!!  No, no ... not those three, THESE three . . .

My California Crew!! ♥ ♥ ♥

I also got some sight-seeing in . . .

Yup.  James moved within a ten mile radius of BOTH the Temecula Quilt Co. *and* Primitive Gatherings!  Whoop!  I share more on those (and my purchases) in a later post. ;)

June and Olivia both came away from that trip with some fabric and wanted to do things with it, so I also got in some slow stitching . . .

The girls and I shared the work on their respective projects, but they both did planning, cutting, and stitching!  They were so proud of their finished pieces!  ♥

Just about the only thing that made leaving those three behind the slightest bit tolerable, was being able to spend some time with these two, seeing Little Women yesterday afternoon . . .

Did anyone else go to see it over the holiday?  We *loved* it!  I pretty much held back sobs off and on through the whole thing.  LOL!  :)

I do have some Slow Sunday Stitching I'm working on (still) . . .

It's slow snow progress, but it's progress!  Oh, and it's fun to get away and visit, but it's lovely to come home, too!

Linking up with Kathy's Quilts.  Happy (sunny, for a change) Sunday!!

:)

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!

:)

time well spent . . .

The association I work for had its 182nd Annual Meeting last Tuesday.  It's a big deal for me and a lot of prep work and a long day . . . but we get the Wednesday and Thursday following the meeting off, giving me a long, five-day weekend.

And I made good use of that time!

Wednesday, I met Joc and the girls at Tate Farms for my annual pilgrimage to the pumpkin patch.  I didn't bring home a single pumpkin (can you believe it?!), but we spent an hour or so hanging out in the corn crib!

Literally. 

We all sat (or lay, as the case may be) in the corn crib for an hour and talked and played (and napped). Needless to say, I did bring home some corn, though not intentionally.  I think we all did! LOL!

I also spent quite a bit of time cleaning, organizing and making the Nook habitable (again).  It was bad.  I have 'before' pics but I daresn't show it!  However, I'm quite happy to share a couple of 'after' pics:

I work so much better when my space has, well, space!

One of my quilty birthday gifts was Creative Grids 8" hexagon trim tool.  I wanted it specifically to make these fabric trivets . . .

So easy to make and such fun! These will make good hostess gifts over the holiday season!

I also spent a couple of minutes finishing up my little squirrel embroidery--just a simple border and in-the-ditch quilting.  Not a great pic, I know . . . 

I'll get another one (cuz it's really cute) before I gift it.

I spent some $$ on Kathy Schmitz's website and picked up a couple of patterns. I've already finished up one (that's some secret stitching), and am ready to work on this cutie . . .

Isn't that fun?  My whole reason for going there was to get this darling new pattern:

It makes me SMILE!!  And while I was there, I signed up for her monthly One Stitch at a Time monthly embroidery club!  I adore her designs.  ♥

If you're working on new stitcheries, you've also got to have new floss . . .

It's almost as satisfying as new fabric!  And costs way less! 😆😏

And finally, while I was cleaning the Nook, I came across a bag of felt and templates for the poinsettia pins.

So I decided I start working on those, too.  Because they also make a sweet (and easy) hostess gift or "tag-a-long" for gifts. 

So, there I am.  Stitching pretty much daily.  I've still got the bicycle stitchery that needs to be finished, as does the secret stitching project.  I'll share pics of that after the fact!  Have a great week ahead!

:)