wrapping it up . . .

The month, that is . . . wrapping up August!  It was a good week.  The Merkel girls went back to school this week!

I love Edith's face in this one . . .

They won't be able to call it the 'School for Girls' in a couple of years!  

Thursday I left work for a moment and skipped next door to Barb's Sewing.  Social media really does work for advertising.  They had posted some cute new fabrics on the Instagram, and don't you know I came back with yardage from several of those they advertised and some from those they didn't!

But check out those Halloween prints!  Aren't they darling??  Those two and the three on the bottom, right, were advertised.  It obviously, in my case, pays off. ;)

Friday we hit the lake.  Again, the forecast held rain, but it's so hit or miss in the summer, we hate to scrap a whole day because of it.

This time we did run into a little shower.  You know, just enough to make everything wet and have it feel more humid and stickier!  LOL!

But afternoon storms often bring . . .

Rainbows!  First we could only see half of it.  But then the clouds shifted and we got to see the whole glorious thing!

I mean — there's no other word for it — just glorious!!  Plus the stormy clouds heading out made for a most fantastic sunset:

I can't ever get enough of that sight, even though it's bittersweet (because it means we're headed back to the marina).  Todd and I talk about getting a houseboat some day.  Not sure what I'd do with my fabric stash, but otherwise, I can imagine it!

Saturday was a stitch-in with my stitcher's group.  We had a good turn out.  

I brought my machine (I brought it to retreat and to a stitch-in ... the gals thought the world was ending) and worked on the top-stitching of Ezra's pillow sham.

Today is our last day of service at Essential Church.  We've been there for a while; nearly three years.  I will miss worshiping and serving with this group.  We will take a furlough through the end of the year.  With Ezra on the way and both Todd's dad and my folks struggling health-wise, we need to have a little more flexibility.  It's all in God's perfect timing!

:)

a birthday and busyness . . .

Todd and I rang in the New Year sick and have pretty much stayed that way the entire first week of 2017.  BLAH! Oh, you know ... not seriously ill, just icky.  I made it to work on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday (my worst day was Monday), and Todd was about two days behind me.  I'll be glad when we're BOTH feeling better!

Our last day at Wears was sweet and I took selfies with all my gals and a few of the fellows . . .

And they did a presentation at the end of the service and gifted us with roses. 

Aren't they just beautiful? I will sure miss that sweet church family.

Ellie celebrated her 5th birthday a little early.  We went over there for a birthday dinner, cake and presents.  She elected to wear her "Cinderella" dress . . .

She's so precious! She wanted a pink cake with flowers . . .

Huntsville has a new bakery (Edgar's) and I'd say they did a marvelous job! Evey was also very excited about the cake . . .

I've never seen her (or Ellie, for that matter) clean her plate so quickly!

Even Leia was sociable. Fancy that!

I managed to complete my little wool project:

I love how this finished! It was a bright, happy spot of color during this cold, grey week!

Speaking of grey, I also started a new project . . .

The hexies are almost finished.  I'll continue whipping them together as part of Sunday's slow stitching. Then it will be on to part two of the project which involves wool and more hand work.

And I've been playing around with bullion knots.  Bullion bunnies.  

For a potential project that involves a line of children's clothing.  Have mercy.

And last but not least, I also stitched up a quick pair of lounge pants for Ellie's bitty baby:

The pattern calls for knit, but I used cotton, hoping it would fit okay.  It does. (Whew!) There's a story here, but I'll share it for a later post.

My stash report was going to have changes, but Todd needed to go out last Saturday afternoon, so I went with him and went into Hobby Lobby.  They had exactly the fabric I needed (for the grey hexies), so I went ahead and got it instead of waiting until Monday (when I was too sick to have gone anyway). But stash had already been reported for 2016 and since 2017 starts a fresh slate, it just goes unreported . . . until I use it!  Bwaaahahaaha!!

Needless to say, my report is unchanged. -wink, wink-

Linking up with Patchwork Times and Kathy's Quilts and the Feline Friday post at Sarah Did It!

Happy Sunday -- this is the day that the Lord has made!  Rejoice and be GLAD in it!!

:)

stash report and *so* much more . . .

This past week has been so busy . . . probably the busiest of the season so far!  And even though today has been busy too, it was good to stop and celebrate my favorite Sunday in Advent . . .

The Sunday of JOY!

My Stitcher, etc. Christmas party was Tuesday evening and that's where the nominal change in my stash report occurred.  (And can you believe we're at week 50?!?)

The bottom line didn't change, because there was an even exchange of fat quarters. We do an ornament exchange and the "wrapping" is a fat quarter of Christmas fabric.  Here's mine ready to go in Christmas plaid (with a bonus yo-yo candy cane ornament):

And here's the pretty fat quarter I received:

I also received a darling little teapot ornament from my darling friend Kari:

Isn't it sweet?!  I opted to 'spruce' up my tea corner with it, instead of putting it on the tree. This sweet little thing may stay out year 'round!

With regard to stash, thanks to all of you who share input on de-stashing.  I've got thirteen days over Christmas, and I have decided for sure to spend at *least* one of those in the Nook, sorting and reorganizing (and de-stashing)!

I had a little time to get in some handwork in spite of the busyness.  For example, the yo-yo candy cane ornie was finished, and I stitched up another wool tree . . . this one in pinks, white and red.

I think I like this one even better!!  The white and blue one I gifted to our hostess on Tuesday.

I also will be working on some more felt poinsettias.

I've always done these in regular craft felt, but I think they'd be pretty in wool felt. I may have to try one out. The hardest part of finishing these is trying to decide which button to use for the center! I'll probably do a little slow stitching on those to carry me through my Sunday evening!

Wednesday we had church and packed Lunches of Love, Thursday we had our MSC missionary Christmas dinner, Friday I finished wrapping anything that had come in late, boxed it all up and got all my out-of-town gifts in the mail!  Whoa!  Is this really me?!?  Ha!  Speaking of gifts for out-of-towners, we also got to do a little FaceTiming with this crew . . .

Their first California Christmas tree!

Sawyer and June were busy 'working' on colorings for us.

Liv was happy to blow kisses to Neesey and Pawpaw!

Saturday was an outing to Miss Mary Bobo's, in Lynchburg, Tennessee.  A group of ladies from Wears Chapel have now made this trip two years in a row!  

The food is always excellent, and it was fun to walk around the square of Lynchburg (home of Jack Daniels), too!

Then today, after church, I met Jocelyn, Ellie and Joc's mother-in-law, Marilyn, at the Von Braun Center for the matinee performance of The Nutcracker!

Ellie was really excited to see it again and told us her favorite part was the Mouse King!  She really was entranced with the ballet and watched through the whole thing quite intently!  I think this year was even more enchanting for her, because she's been taking ballet lessons!

And she was able again this year to wear the pretty little Nutcracker dress that I hand-embroidered the "E" on!  In another year or two, Everley will be able to wear it, too!

I'm linking up to Patchwork Times and Kathy's Quilts.  And I'm off to see what little stitches I can make before bedtime!

Have a fabulous week!

:)

happy holiday chaos . . .

This was a perfectly busy week and next week is only going to be busier . . . holiday chaos (of the happy kind) has kicked in!  I spent Tuesday with Ellie and Everley.  Ellie got her tree put up in her room . . .

Girlfriend *loves* Christmas!!

On Thursday, I watched the Panter crew while James and Kim went to an office party.  Sawyer and June watched the live Peter Pan with me . . .

That is, they watched it until they the passed out in their respective seats--I think they decided that their dreams were sweeter!

Friday was filled with errands and running here and there.  And today our ladies ministry headed to Lynchburg, Tennessee to Miss Mary Bobo's for dinner.

It was marvelous!  We had a great time and the food was just marvelous.  When I got home I stopped at the gate and hung the Camp's Christmas wreath:

Isn't it gorgeous?! A lady up the road make them and was selling them. I knew this would be a perfect fit! I pulled in just in time to watch my beloved Crimson Tide win the SEC Championship game . . . pretty handily with a final score of 42-13!

My stash report is pretty uneventful . . .

A quarter yard out for some quilted potholders I made for a StitchMAP swap (which I forgot to take pictures of).  And nothing in!

Ellie and Jocelyn picked this "E" for Ellie's dress:

So this is how I'll be spending the next few evenings.

I plan on doing satin stitches and padded satin stitching (where there's depth to the letter) in one ply of regular DMC floss.  I've never done satin stitching on a shape like this, but so far, so good.  To give it a little glimmer I'll use a single ply of a red metallic floss to outline it all when I'm finished.  I'll be sure to get a picture of it -- preferably with Ellie in it. I hope to be able to slow down the 'chaos' and get some good stitching time in on Sunday!

And finally, guess what I found?  Another Melody Carlson book!

And it's about a Christmas feline! Adding this one to my December reading!

Linking up to the stash report post at Patchwork Times, the Slow Sunday Stitching post at Kathy's Quilts, and the Feline Friday post at sarah did it!

:)

fabric, prizes, books and bling . . .

I had a little action both in and out on my stash report this week . . .

Yeah, a little bit out and then a pretty little selection that offset it . . .

I picked up these beautiful prints from my sweet friend, Kris, over at Lavender Quilts.  Check her blog out on Mondays -- she's got a weekly Moving Sale Monday post going on that, as you can see, includes some very prettiful fabrics! Won't these make gorgeous pieces for POTC blocks??! 

And Kris, being the darling that she is (we met when she was my Secret Santa, several seasons ago), included the sweet little fat quarter on the end (right) and this darling pin . . .

SOOOO me!  LOL!  My husband laughed equally hard.  He knows me too well.  :)

It also occurs to me I've had some fun wins over the past month that I haven't shared.  Shame on me!  First, I won this wonderful set of Jacqueline Steves patterns from Lily Pad Quilting!

Aren't these darling?! I adore the little flowers, especially!

Next, I won a copy of Carrie Turansky's audiobook, The Governess of Highland Hall.

Carrie is a marvelous writer and her books are such fun to read!  If you're a Downton Abbey fan, you'll definitely enjoy these!

I was also the lucky recipient of some $5 coupons to TeaVivre . . .

This was compliments of my friend Melissa, at High Altitude Beauty.

I'm so blessed!  Some of this will make its way around . . . once I've listened to Carrie's book, for example, I'm sure there is someone who'd love to give it go!

We'll be having our Thanksgiving fellowship after church today . . . and right after that, an extended choir practice (which we desperately need).  All that to say that I'm not sure how much slow stitching I'll get in this afternoon.  If I do, it'll be on these pretties . . .

I've got quite a few cut out, but they need stitching on the petals--or *fancifying* as I like to call it! It's probably going to occupy my week, not just my afternoon!

Linking up today with Patchwork Times (twice) and Kathy's Quilts.  Enjoy a peace-filled Sunday!

:)