easily distracted . . .

Yesterday was rainy, cold and dreary.  A good day to stay curled up and stitch.  And I'm happy to report that I did do a little bit of that . . .

After taking care of a little administrative work on the home/ministry front, I stitched down four of the seven hexie patches.  Yay!

But after visiting Judy's design wall, over at Patchwork Times, I have to admit I was lured by the potential I saw in her blocks.  It's just a simple Bear Claw block, but she's sent it on point and used some gorgeous fabrics and my mind couldn't focus on anything until I pulled up my EQ and played and played and played some more. I have that sweet little pile of batiks just *begging* to be used and here are some of the results of my playing . . .

Like I really need to be distracted by another new project!  Oh but I was having so much fun ... and I'm thinking perhaps if I at least keep it on EQ, then it's not cluttering up my mind *or* my sewing room, right??  I think I may have Quilter's ADHD.  No where else ... just in my quilting mind.

Joc, Ellie and I are taking a trip to Hooked On Quilting to look at fabric for Ellie's stockings!  Hmmm....a fabric store trip.  Hmmmmmm.

And today is the wrap up day of the UR Priceless hop!  Be sure to *hop* through today's offerings ... *especially* Madame Samm's over at Sew We Quilt!!

Julia P

Tina

Dachsies With Moxie

Marci Girl Designs

The Sunflower Patch

Wish upon a star

Mary on Lake Pulaski

Greco Mara

Linda M

Mack and Mabel

Dreaming in Patchwork

Judith Handmade Treasures

Kaydie

Caesarea Scrappers

Patchouli Moon Studio

Sew.Darn.Quilt.

Sew We Quilt

And have a marvelous day!!

:)

the wall o' design . . .

Okay.  Got a couple of legit things on the ol' wall today, not just stuff that's been there for weeks that I still haven't gotten to.  No, instead, this is new stuff that's been there for weeks that I am actually working on!  Isn't that exciting??

First up:

Yes, I started this in mid-October.  It's how I roll.  It will make a darling mini.

Second up:

Owlie in a Ring of  Fire.  Yes, I started this right after the one above.  It will definitely be ready by Halloween 2013.  I'm right on target.

Next up:

This really is a *new* project!!  I've got a stack of tumblers cut, and playing around with the fabrics I want to go with it.

Finally, I've been doing a little designing in EQ:

What can I say?  I like options.

The foot is healing.  I'm not having to constantly keep it propped, though I can tell when I've had it down for too long.  I can hobble along without the crutches, unless it's too close to the time when I need to pop some more Tylenol.  I think that constitutes as progress!

Got to spend some lovely time with my Sawyer and June yesterday afternoon. Sawyer doesn't stay in one place long enough to capture him in a photo any more, though we did enjoy a couple of snuggle moments watching the movie Up. It was the first time I'd seen it -- I was surprised by how GOOD it was!

But sweet Baby June?  That's another story . . . 

*Happy sigh*

Linking up today with Judy Laquidara's Patchwork Times.  Be sure to head over there and check out what up on design walls around blog land!

And don't forget, after a weekend break, the UR Priceless blog hop starts back up!  Today's participants are:

Read, quilt, cook, pray...
The Learning Curve
Bacon Then Eggs
Nati's Little Things
by Mary
Feltfree på Åsly
El Patchwork de la Abuela
Amy's Crafty Shenanigans
Maryjo J
s.o.t.a.k. Handmade
Chloeandme
Janice M
throw a wench in the works
Everyone Deserves a Quilt
A Stitch in Time
Sew Me Something Good

Happy Monday!

:)

hopping along . . .

Heheh.  Both literally *and* figuratively!  Today wraps up the first week of the UR Priceless blog hop.  Today's participants are:

Polka Dot Classic

Geta's Quilting Studio

Busy Bee Free

Briarside Lane

Quilts and Dogs

Blueberrymoon

Debbie R

suebee's World

Englating

Les passions de Cliodana

Colorpoint Quilter

On the Go Quilting

Personalized Sketches and Sentiments

Freemotion by the River

grannygoodstuff

Scrapbook-ChickADoodle

It will take a break over the weekend and be back bright and early on Monday! In the meantime, yesterday Jocelyn and Ellie came over to keep me company, share a little lunch and Joc brought me dinner, too (which was great, because otherwise I'd have settled for peanut butter crackers for both meals).

I introduced Ellie to the UR Priceless purse . . . 

I am thinking this is a definite hit!  This was Ellie's first visit to the RV as a cognitive thinker.  She and I had quite a nice visit and she was perfectly content to sit with me on my little sofa.  

"Neesey, what is this thing on your foot?!"

"Neesey, your detail quilting is really quite lovely!"

And of course, what kind of Friday would be it be if there wasn't some sort of feline involved??  Here's an oldie but a goodie . . .

Merlin, in his heyday -- he could sleep *anywhere* in *any* position -- as is definitely evidenced by the above!  I think this was during the tornado remodeling.  He's in my former sewing room (along with almost everything else from my kitchen and Jocelyn's bedroom--the two rooms most effected by tornado damage).  Silly boy.  

Be sure to check out the other Feline Friday posts by visiting Sarah Did It! 

And have a GREAT Friday!!

:)

late start . . .

Had a tough time 'getting on my feet' this morning -- LOL!!  Thank you so much for your thoughtful emails -- surgery went very well yesterday, though it ended up being a *little* more involved than I'd expected it to be.  And recovery will be a bit more than I'd expected, too.  Based on the chat with my doc, I had really expected to be awake during the *outpatient process*, get a couple of stitches - a band-aid over each incision, and be sent merrily on my way.

Ummmm.  No.  I was out like a bad light bulb.

Not the 'band-aid' I had in mind.

And back in the boot.  And completely non-weight bearing if I'm not in it.  Sheesh! Although I can assure you I'm not bearing a whole lot of weight on that foot right now, even if I *am* in the boot! Anyway, it's over and I'm recovering and those pesky screws won't be interfering with my walking any more!

To be honest, I'm really kind of glad for the down time ... it gives me the perfect excuse to sit here at my laptop and go through all the blogs that are involved in two major hops/tours right now.  First, the UR Priceless Hop!  Hasn't it been fun? Each day there are purses that just blow me away!!  Today's hop participants are:

as sweet as peaches

Deborah B

Birgit H

Fish Creek Studio

A Quilter's Table

Lily Patch Quilts

Cherry Blossoms Quilting Studio

Mary F

Rose Prairie Quilts and Farm

The Desert Rat Chronicles

Sally K

Paris at a Certain Age

From Blank Pages 

Quilt Taffy

Barb H

And there's also the Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks - Volume 6 designer tour going on right now.  Gracious -- talk about some eye candy!!  I've had such a blast touring the different designer's blogs and hearing about their blocks and the inspiration for the same.  Fabulous stuff!  A few of my favorites (so far) include (in no particular order):

Sunflower - Victoriana Quilt Designs

Something Springy - from blank pages

BIG BANG! - Bonnie Hunter

Shabby Spin - Melissa Corry

Rainbow Dreams - Judy Laquidara

Springtime Spools - PamKittyMorning

Holiday Doily - Pieceful Chitchat

Indian Cabins - Wayne Kollinger

Lots and lots of eye candy to check out -- which is good -- eye candy doesn't go to your hips!!

Have a very happy Thursday!

:)

ur priceless . . .

Ahhhh . . . the lure of a purse.  From the time we are little girls, purses call to us. They are places we can hide our treasures, pocket our dreams, and capture our memories.  The older we grow, the more the things of our lives seem to find their way into our purses.  Often we carry purses *inside* purses!

The focus of this blog hop has been this *sweet* little purse . . . 

After debating for weeks on a theme and hunting for fabrics, I finally decided it just needed to be fun.  And pretty.  And so for the exterior of my little purse, I used a couple of fat quarters from Paula Nadelstern's Patternista line.  The front and back are Hills and Valleys (in olive and pink) and the sides are Sunstone (in olive and gold).  I have no idea what the interior is, except it's pretty and gilded in gold, so naturally appealing to me (and appropriate for a little purse's interior).

I was a little intimidated about starting this . . . I've never really created something that required *hardware* (zippers notwithstanding).  But it was really quite simple to put together and even my first attempt to stitch and assemble took less than ninety minutes ... including tracing and cutting out the templated pieces and stitching on the handles.  And isn't it just the thing a Neesey with two darling little granddaughters should know how to put together?!?  Think of the marvelous things a little granddaughter could put in her little purse . . . 

Perhaps she keeps her growing collection

Or maybe her secret treasures

Or perhaps her tooth fairy money and allowance

The seashells from her last trip to the beach

What's left of her Halloween candy
(there's no chocolate ... her Neesey ate it all!)

Finds from her walk in the woods

MOMMY!!  Brother took everything out of my purse!

Or perhaps, like her Neesey, she carries a priceless, eclectic mix ... of things she's collected and treasures that remind of her special moments and people, a quarter or two for good measure and something sweet to nibble on -- except there's still no chocolate.

Be sure to check out *ALL* the priceless creations on the rest of today's tour . . .

I Love Wool

I Like to Quiltblog

Keep Your Fork There's Pie

Retired to Quilt

Selinaquilts

From This to That

Jenny E.

Domestic Deficit Disorder

Pig tales and quilts

CherrysPrairiePrimitives

Espritpatch

Maria

Count it *all* Joy!!!  (this is me!  :)

Creative Notions

I would be much remiss if I didn't take a moment to offer a heartfelt thanks to our tireless and creative Madam Samm for this darling idea and the *marvelous* set of instructions ... and our hop cheerleader and organizer, Katherine!  And if you are thinking you'd like to make one (or two or thirty) of these darling little purses, patterns are available HERE!

Thanks for dropping by today ... I hope you were inspired to make a little Priceless Purse of your own

:)

stash on the run . . .

It's time for the traveling stash to move on!  I stuck the numbers into random.org yesterday and now there's a new stash winner . . . 

Lisa of Squares Around the Quilt

who said:

The stash is headed to your house for a visit, Lisa -- I'll have the box packed up and to the post office this very day!

By the way -- I wanted to take a moment to express my gratitude to Cherise of Sewingly Along.  She does an incredible job of keeping up with all the assorted traveling stashes and keeping bloggers posted as to their whereabouts and whatnot.  Thanks, Cherise!!  :)

In other news, I finally did finish my tree trunk:

I really do like the the way the stitching makes it look like the trunk of a tree!  One more exercise and I am finished with Lesson 3.  Whew! 

Also, as many of my fellow Americans will do today, I am heading to the polls and exercising my right to vote!  Regardless of your political leanings, it's such an honor to go and 'pull the lever'. 

                               Source                                                 Source

It's a hard won right and as a woman, an even harder won right -- which makes today the perfect day to go check out Barbara Brackman's Grandmother's Choice latest blog entry chronicling Susan B. Anthony's interpretation of the Constitution and her first vote.

Plus, don't forget that change is taking place all over blog land today.  

Change purses, that is!  The UR Priceless Hop, Day 2, carries on today and here's the line up:

Tuesday - Day 2 - Nov. 6th

The Crafter's Apprentice

Jane's Fabric and Quilts

Rosemary B

Why-Knot-Kwilt

Random Thoughts..do or "di"

Mary T.

Supermom No Cape

Lily Pad Quilting

.Quiltscapes.

Stitch, Stitch, Stitch

Rose Creations

The Treehouse

Gracie Oliver Arts

Quilting Prolifically

Stekje

Grammie Q's

Were you as amazed as I was at the fantastic creativity and diversity with these little purses?!  SUCH fun!!  Don't forget to come back here tomorrow to see my offering!

There's still a little time to get in on the giveaway of When Hope Blossoms.  That one ends at noon today.

I'm off to spend a little time with Sawyer and June . . . hope your day holds some wonderful plans, too!

:)

to be honest . . .

I could pretty much post the *exact* same pictures from last week's design wall post and you'd know exactly what was [still] on my design wall. What can I say? It was really that kind of week!  Unfortunately, with surgery coming up on Wednesday, I'm afraid this week will be no better.  *sigh*  I will continue to work on my Redwork course ... I've made some progress on my tree:

See how the stitching doesn't just fill in the trunk of the tree, but actually gives it bark-like texture?  I'm *so* enjoying this!

My projects are piling up.  I need to stop trying new things and finish some old things, already!  It's just that *new* things are such fun!  LOL!  It's a sickness, I tell ya'!  I'm sure if you head over to Judy Laquidara's Patchwork Times, you'll find far more interesting design walls than mine!

One thing I *do* know for sure, though, is that today kicks off the UR Priceless blog hop! 

I've been seeing snippets of these darling little purses here and there and I'm *so* anxious to see what fabulous creations folks have come up with!  You can start with this fabulous of today's participants:

Quiltin' Jenny

Hill Valley Quilter

Loopy Lou's Adventures Into Handicrafts

Just Let Me Quilt

Lixie Makes It

Beaquilter

Sunshine, Handmade

Buzzing and Bumbling

ANNIEOFBLUEGABLES

Needled Mom

The Slow Quilter

A Quilting Sheep

I Have A Notion

Quilt-n-Queen

Me?  Oh yes, I'm participating!  My day is the 7th.  That date ring a bell?? Gracious!  Here's a little tantalizing tidbit . . . 

I was going to stick a photo in here of the quilting bunk room (which needs my attention bAdLy), but decided I couldn't handle the pressure of putting that mess out there in front of y'all.  ;)

Instead, why don't I wrap this up with she-who's-responsible-for-occupying-most-of-my thoughts/energy/time of late . . . 

Love me some Baby June!  Photo credits go to her daddy.  :)

The Traveling Stash giveaway will close at noon today, central time!  Click HERE to enter!  And if you're a bookworm, check out my review and giveaway of When Hope Blossoms, HERE!

Have a great Monday -- make it count!

:)