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.

:)