a decluttering story . . .

Do you remember when you first started quilting (or any craft, for that matter), and all the tools and gadgets that seemed so necessary were overwhelming in both the scope and the cost of it all? 

I do.

The biggest for me was the rulers and squares.  They make such a difference in cutting pieces accurately!  And while you can get away with a few select sizes, it's just easier to have the range.  It just is.  So over the last twenty years or so, I've been diligent in collecting.  Let's face it; I've never been shy in my love of gadgets and collecting them.  Rulers were right up my alley.  

It started with the OmniGrid rulers, then I switched over to Creative Grids.  Then Quilters Select rulers were introduced.  And finally I replaced (almost—95%) all my OmniGrid rulers. 

Only I didn't really replace them.  I just added to my collection.  Which was unintentional . . . I didn't really want multiple sets of 2.5" squares, for example.  I just wasn't sure what I wanted to do with the ones I didn't use anymore. I sure didn't want to just <gasp> throw them away! Until I found a friend who has just taken up quilting (and taken to it with a passion), and you know what? She needed rulers.  So guess what?!  I don't have multiples anymore!  Well ... I may have multiples, but I don't have any more (almost) OmniGrid rulers . . . they went to a good home where they'll be used to make lots of happy quilt beneficiaries smile. 

The end.  :)

In other news, the drive to cull my rulers started a welcome chain reaction and I spent the majority of yesterday cleaning/organizing my Nook space. It had gotten a little (a lot) out of control; I'm much happier with it now! 

Large rulers and specific job rulers are easy to find.  I love this screen.  It does a great job of corralling my creative space, and is terrific storage.  Here's the front:

The entrance to the Nook is right there at my front door.  I hated the thought that the first thing people would see when they walked into my home, was (potentially) my creativity in the throes of progress.  We all know what that looks like! So the screen was the perfect solution, and provided both storage and display space.  Win/win!

I had started using the cubicles as catch all.  I went through each one and tamed that to manageable. 

Part of that was pulling fabric out and putting it into bins in some sort of system.  So this is what that looks like finished . . .

Bins of fabric, just waiting for me to sit 'n sew. Shew!

And then my cutting table had also become a bit of a disaster site.  Some of it was paper clutter, some of it was fabric clutter.  It was an easy drop off point.

Now it's just ready for projects! As you can see, my next wool project is ready to set and sew! Aaah, and you can also see where my finished cross stitch pieces go to wait some sort of final finishing inspiration. Ahem.

I still need to do some reorganizing with my Nook book shelf.  

I have magazines on it that I need to move to the cubes.  Magazines don't really do well on this shelf.  It's the rotating that does it in. (And the cats.)

Ellie and I found our next cross stitch pattern to stitch together.  Teresa Kogut's Give Thanks. 

At first I wondered if it might be too stitch heavy for Ellie.  But then I thought about the samplers 8-year-old girls worked way back in the day . . . I think 13-year-old Ellie can manage this just fine! I had to order the linen and some of the floss, but we should be ready to go sometime next week!

I continue to work on Lady Halloween. Actually, I had to go back and look at my last post to see if I had in fact worked on it!  I have.

Not much, but I've worked on other things, too!  Maybe this will be my slow stitching project for Sunday!  I'll link that up with Kathy's Quilts on Sunday!

Speaking of working on other things, I finished my little Halloween orts tray . . .

I'm so pleased!  The "BOO!" was an add-on by me.  I centered the design horizontally, but misread misinterpreted the instructions, so there was a whole lot of space at the bottom.  Which was perfect, because I really wanted some purple in that stitchery, and "BOO!" was the perfect place for it!

I'll leave you with a little game of Where's Waldo (aka Starry)?

Have a great weekend!!  :)

when we last met . . .

Gosh, I can hardly believe that September has come and gone and it's OCTOBER!  

We spent an extra long weekend at Guntersville Lake (the Merkel crew and I).  We came home on Monday, and I left for my sister trip to Alaska!  It was glorious.  We stayed with my nephew and his family in Kodiak, and checked off *all* the Alaska boxes!  We saw bears . . .

I caught a salmon (pink) . . .

Took a three sisters photo in front of the Three Sisters mountains . . .

And saw a LOT of incredibly beautiful scenery . . .

And did a LOT of shopping.  I even found a cute little fiber shop in Kodiak, The Rookery. 

While I was there, I worked (and finished—lots of airplane time to and from Alaska!) on a very cute little Halloween cross stitch piece:

It's October Nine Patch by Primrose Cottage Stitches, stitched on 25 count Vintage Country Mocha. And while I worked on it in Alaska, Ellie worked on it in Alabama!

Her first 25 count linen.  A big deal! Her thirteen year old eyes are much better suited to this than mine. LOL!  I may hand over my Mayflower piece on 40 count linen!  ;)

I continue to work on my Lady Halloween. 

I adopted a method that the gals in my "First Monday" cross stitch group use.  Stitch one strand of floss per day.  And I often find that a second strand follows easily.  It's so doable and you know the old joke . . . how do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time! 

Speaking of elephants, Roll Tide ROLL!! 

Great game yesterday.  I'll freely admit that I was concerned for the majority of the first half.  I was super glad we scored and tied it up right before the second quarter ended. Shew! 30-14 was the final score and I'm glad that one is behind us!

I watched the game with Sarah and Gail, my inner circle stitching sisters! It was our monthly Saturday gathering.  I worked on my cross stitch.  As did Gail.  She's working on this beautiful piece:

Isn't that gorgeous??!  And Sarah shared her finished center of the Halloween quilt she's working on:

I love this SO much!  The colors are just spot on and mostly all from her stash.  I'm so in awe of that fact!

We spent the day together, laughing and chatting and stitching and watching the game.  Before we realized it, it was after 6 PM!  I walked them to their cars and found this scrumptious sky—

Cotton candy clouds!

Coming up it's BIRTHDAY WEEK for me!  Hurrah!!  I'll kick it off tomorrow by working on my Halloween cross stitch; some slow stitching!  Linking up with Kathy's Quilts.

:)

what a summer . . .

Wow.  Time really does fly when you're having fun, huh? Last I posted, I was headed to Hawaii!  I had a lovely two weeks seeing all the sights and experiencing the culture.  Really way too much to share; I'm not sure I've even processed all I saw and did—LOL...I don't think I've had time!

There were a couple of stitching-related things I did want to talk about.  One of our stops was the Polynesian Cultural Center.  They had a whole hut dedicated to the beautiful style of hand applique that is linked to the islands . . .

The woman working was such a delight to talk to and gave us tips as to what quilt shops we should look for! One of those was this little delight, which was tucked away on a hop on/off bus tour we did . . .

SOOO glad they shipped to the main land . . . my suitcases couldn't have handled my haul from Kapaia!

I loved catching the sunrises and sunsets from the balcony off our ship, and this one was as lovely as any:

Believe it or not, a sunrise!  One last photo from Hawaii and I'll move on <grin>.  One of my very favorite excursions was a helicopter tour over Hilo.  It was just exquisite! 

It didn't hurt that our pilot was such a darling!  The views were breath-taking!

I was home from Hawaii exactly one day, and my sweet California crew flew to Alabama for a surprise visit!  Well, I was expecting Sawyer, who was coming to stay with me for three weeks, but the whole family decided they wanted a week, too!  

We had a wonderful time together and spent the July 4th holiday on the boat, on the lake.  It was a beautiful, bittersweet day for me.  

At the end of the month, I returned with Sawyer to California and spent a week there.  We had a great time visiting the beach, shopping in downtown Old Temecula, going to Disney's California Adventure Park, and checking out the San Diego Zoo Safari Park!

We had some quiet days too, and it really was a sweet visit.  But between, Yellowstone, Hawaii, and the month of July, let's just say my watch was like ... what's up with this elevated step count???  Haha!

That brings me to August.  Yeah.  One of the first fun things I did was a trip to Nashville with my affirmation sisters to see the quilt exhibit at the Frist Art Museum . . .

It was a really special showing of quilts on loan from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.  I was most tickled to see so many Gee's Bend quilts in the exhibit!  Anyway, the exhibit is there until October, so if you're in the area, it's definitely worth a stop!

Next up. A little utilitarian stitching. Evey started pointe this year, and needed some help getting her shoes ready!  

I always consider this kind of sewing a privilege.  ♥

Believe it or not, I agreed to be our guild's 2nd VP in charge of programs this year.  What was I thinking?!  LOL!  I'm actually excited . . . I needed something to get me out and back in the thick of things.  Our guild's show is in February, and at our August meeting we unveiled our Opportunity  Quilt (raffle quilt):

Isn't it pretty?!  I've got three tops ready to be quilted by the gal who made/quilted it.  She's so talented!

And guess what . . . Ezra started soccer!

He's so darling—it's hard to believe he'll be four this month!  He's a little go getter on the field; and he was VERY disappointed this morning when they got the call that this morning's game was cancelled because of storms (and it wasn't even raining yet!).  Everley, on the other, was NOT sad.  She was ready to learn embroidery, so she'd spent the night with me and I pulled out the heart sampler I had used to teach Ellie how to embroider. She's just as much a natural as Ellie is!

We had fun stitching and chatting.  She worked on the heart and I worked on a new cross stitch project, Lady Halloween by Jardin Privé.  It's really darling.  I'm stitching it on an ivory 20-count aida.  

Anyway, Evey wanted to finish up a couple of lines of embroidery, and was glad for the cancelled game and the extra time to stitch!  A girl after my own heart!

And speaking of Ellie, she's still very much into handwork!  She just finished this cute little pillow for the season . . . 

And she's working on a cute pineapple cross stitch project right now.  She, Evey and I will all be slow stitching tomorrow! (Linking up with Kathy's Quilts and her Slow Sunday Stitching post!)

In feline news, the girls are glad the summer is over and I was home for thirty days in a row!

They are spoiled rotten and I love them to pieces!  They are so purrsonable!!

And finally, what would a post from me be without a sunset pic?

Aloha! Have a great week ahead!

:)

half gone or half full . . .

Rabbit, rabbit!  It's hard to believe it's July 1st and we're halfway through the year already!

June was busy, but good.  We got the very good news that the PET scan images were good, so Todd was cleared for surgery.  That will happen on July 5th ... in four days.  It's a major surgery.  They'll remove the right lobe of his liver, his gallbladder, and ablate any mets they find on the left lobe.  They think there might be one, but they've never been able to get a good look at it, so that's the first thing the surgeon will do.  Todd will be in the STICU for three days post surgery, and then moved to a regular room for another seven.  BUT, if it means he'll come home cancer-free, then hallelujah!

We started June by celebrating Edith's graduation from Kindergarten.  

She's a rock star!

Next, we celebrated Olivia's NINTH birthday (from afar, which I hate, but I'm so glad for technology that allows us to be in on the fun, even if it's from afar)!

The sweet birthday girl enjoying one of our gifts.  She's a rock star, too!

We're both really enjoying the time off from chemo.  He's starting to be back to his old self!  We were able to enjoy a week on the lake, which was really nice!  

We've rented this same home for several years now — in June and then last year we added October.  It's a beautiful location, a simple home, and a terrific boat house.  It's really lovely.

Todd did a lot of fishing . . . 

I did a lot of project prepping (so I have plenty of things to keep my hands busy during surgery and hospital stay) . . .

This is a UFO from 2010 - Jaybird Quilts Hexagon Quilt Along - that I *remembered*.

And some fabric/scissor shopping (would you believe I forgot to pack a pair of scissors????) . . . 

Yes, lots of reds, whites, and blues (but, true to form, also some pumpkins—who am I, right?)!  I saw some really cute patriotic bowl fillers in the Summer 2023 issue of Primitive Quilts and Projects, and I knew I wanted to play around with them.

And so far, so good!  They may not be completely finished by the 4th holiday, but it'll be close!  This will be my Slow Sunday Stitching, for sure!  :)

We also had the grandgirls over one day to play and splash!  

We celebrated our anniversary while we were at the lake ... but no pics.  I was so sick!  It went from a stomach virus to a gastrointestinal virus and I'm still not quite fully recovered!  Yuck!

Things at the camp are going well . . . turtles are out and about (and starting to lay eggs!) and things are blooming! We had a wet June ... things are green and gorgeous!

And I'll leave on this sweet note . . .

Hard to believe this sweet (and saucy) baby boy will be TWO in just a few months!

Happy July!  Happy Slow Stitching Day! Happy Independence Day!  

:)