fifteen-new-slow-stash . . .

Yup, that about sums it all up!

I got my fifteen minutes every day this past week except for Friday ... but since I spent Friday with Sawyer and Friday evening with the family (gender reveal party), I think I'll cut myself some slack on that one . . .

Most of this week's time was spent on the CQ Heart -- a lot of hand work in that.

It also ended up being my NewFO for the month of January.  It's crazy . . . I felt like January was a productive month, but I have so little to show for it (well, except for the heart and MOC).  At least they're both *finished*!

My stash report is looking good (for me, anyway) this week, too.  I put a little more than I took out of the second stash box, plus the CQ heart and another heart project (every little bit helps):

So, hanging onto the black!  It's going to have to slide the other way before the  month is over. In order to finish up the pineapple quilt, I'm going to have to purchase some yardage of black. Ugh. But then I'll hopefully have another finish in same said quilt by month's end, too.

I mentioned another heart project.  I'd planned on hanging the CQ Heart from my quilt stand, but it didn't fill enough space, so I opted out.  I really wanted something Valentine-y.  Then Kathy Tracy uploaded the "small quilt" of the month on the Yahoo! group SmallQuiltTalk, and I knew what I'd do.  I modified it to make it longer for the stand . . .

Isn't it darling? In retrospect I probably should have switched the red and the pink that I used for the heart and spool, but that could just be the muted colors in the picture. I'm doing some very simple hand quilting on it and then I've got the binding ready to go.  I imagine stitching on this will be the way I spend a "slow" Sunday afternoon!

Linking up today's post to the stash report at Patchwork Times, slow Sunday stitching at Kathy's Quilts, and the NewFO linky party at Cat Patches.

Oh, and before I go . . . 

It's a GIRL!!  Olivia Mae is due to arrive mid-June!

Happy Sunday (I'm certainly going to smile my way through mine)!!

:)

family, fun and fabric too . . .

Oh my gosh, what a marvelous evening we had last night!  It was so terrific to have my mom and dad pull in and catch up!  And any time my dad and my son are in the same room, hilarity is not far behind.  I laughed so hard last night I considered that I might need to purchase Depends to make it through the rest of the visit!

It was fun to introduce Ellie to her great-grandparents, too.  My dad caught this shot . . .

Four generations of Fowler girls!  Okay, so they're Fowler-Panter-Merkel girls.  You get the idea!

Sawyer would have NOTHING to do with my dad.  To the point that it was quite humorous!  He warmed up a little by the end of the evening, and the remote controlled fire truck they brought him helped a little.  Of course, it didn't help that Sawyer had just gotten up from his nap ... and that's his clingiest time.  

He was okay with Aunt Joc and wanted his picture taken with her and Ellie.  Easy enough!

I have a couple of projects I'm auditioning fabrics for, but they're both 'secret' projects so I'm not sharing yet.  I can share the April doll swap quilt I made, now that it's safe in the hands of its new owner:

I so loved the fabrics for this little piece!  Luckily I had enough left over that I'm going to make a smaller one for a table topper for the RV.   I've got the beginnings of it up on my design...window (really).

I think that's called having your cake and eating it, too!

Head on over to Judy Laquidara's Patchwork Times to check out other inspiring design walls!  As for me, we're having a Mother's Day luncheon at Emma's tea house and then we may head over to JoAnn's to peruse the fabric section.  Mmmm.  Then tonight we're having a fish fry up at the camp tonight -- should be another fun-filled day!!

:)

you indulged me...

...by watching that "I'm going to be a grandma again" video yesterday, so now I'm going to give you a sweet little something to indulge in.

For Ellie's Sip & See, Jocelyn made a fabulous carrot cake.  

The recipe came from her dear friend's mom.  It's the best carrot cake I've ever had (and Joc made it again for Easter, just so I could make sure), and it's definitely worth sharing:

Carrot Cake

2 c. flour

2 c. sugar

1 tsp. cinnamon

4 eggs

1/2 c. chopped pecans

1/2 c. vegetable oil

2 tsp. vanilla

3 c. grated carrots

Mix and sift first three ingredients, then add the remaining ingredients.  Pour into two 8" cake rounds.  Bake for 45 minutes at 300 degree Fahrenheit.  Allow to cool

Cream Cheese Frosting

8 oz. cream cheese (room temperature)

1/2 c. margarine (room temperature)

1 lb. confectioner's sugar

1/2 c. pecans

small amount of milk, if needed

Beat all ingredients together and ice cooled cake.

Leigh Ann (Jocelyn's dear friend) was Joc's roomie in college.  They did something that I think is pretty spectacular ... roomed together for the entire four years. 

That they both finished and got their degrees in four years was pretty spectacular, too!

 Ellie was quite taken with Leigh Ann, too ... she didn't take her eyes off of Leigh Ann, whenever they were together.  It was so cute!

If you make the carrot cake, let me know!  I'm off to watch my birthday boy's video.  Again.  For the hundredth time.  Because I CAN!

:)

one or two happies . . .

In lieu of a design wall ... because I don't have things that together yet ... I thought it might be kind of fun to share the video of Sawyer's birthday that James (Sawyer's daddy) shot and put together.  I know it's a little bit dated, but there's a purpose.  

If you watch it, you'll notice that Sawyer's shirt changes after he enjoys his birthday cupcake.  Watch that shirt!

And then of course, there's my dear little dolly Ellie who just celebrated her 15 week old birthday!  

She's growing so fast!

Our kick-off GLOW event was superb . . . we had such a marvelous time!  We're gearing up for our next event which will be called, "Batter's Up".  Get it?! 

We'll be enjoying a Gigi's Cupcakes buffet and putting together bleacher cheer bags for the moms and grandmas of the boys on the baseball team our church sponsors.  Should be fun!

I'll have a marvelous recipe for a carrot cake, something quilty, and something campy later this week.  Happy Monday!!!  :)

*sigh* . . .

Just a quick update so no one thinks I've fallen off the face of the earth:

Sewing machine - all better and home where it belongs!

Computer - another sad, sad story.  If you're wondering *why* I haven't posted anything since last Friday, my crashed and burned laptop is the reason.  Hopefully by sometime next week I'll be back in the swing of things.  I do not enjoy blog posting, reading, or commenting from my phone, though I'll try not to get too far behind.  My blogging friends are so wonderful!!

Diet - I started South Beach on Sunday.  This morning I weighed in 13 pounds lighter than I did last Thursday at the doctor's office.  I'm too happy and excited about that to be too upset about the computer.  Hey, you gotta take it where you can get it, right?!!

Grandbabies - are still a sweet, sweet joy.  Ellie gets bigger everyday (in fact, Jocelyn was lamenting this week that she's grown out of most of her 0-3 month clothes) and Sawyer is incredibly sweet and all-boy at the same time.  And they are both the chattiest children ... I love it!

My darling husband - celebrated his 50th birthday on Tuesday!!  Happy birthday to the love of my life!   

:)

a wordless wednesday . . .

Ellie's week ten shot, as captured by her daddy - don't you love this fabric?! 

Sawyer, chilling, as captured by his daddy.

If you look closely, you can see the split pumpkin seed still hanging on at the top of the plant!

:)

week #13 stash explosion . . .

Week 13 stash report is yet another a good one, depending on your perspective.  I added to it a good little bit, but I didn't purchase a single inch of fabric, so I'm NOT complaining!  In fact, I'm cheering! If you're interested in how I got my gain this week, I tell all HERE in yesterday's post.

Used/donated this week: 0.0 yards

Used/donated year-to-date: 9.75 yards

Purchased/added this week: 20.0 yards

Purchased/added year-to-date: 51.75 yards

Net used/donated for 2012: -42.0 yards

 

I'm linking up to Patchwork Times for the weekly stash report. Be sure to check it out!

Joc wants to blog all the fun pics from her Sip & See yesterday, but I thought I'd share this fun capture of her gorgeous table.  

It was all wonderful -- the food, the company and especially Miss Ellie at her first tea party!  

Isn't she gorgeous in her pretty tea party dress?  She was a most excellent co-hostess, charming all her guests.

 

Speaking of charming, Sawyer also put in an appearance late in the day.  He found the food offerings to be quite to his satisfaction, especially the cream cheese mints (until mommy and daddy put an end to that).  He kept sidling up to the plate, pointing to them and saying, "I need one of theeeeeese!"  

 

I'm having cream cheese mints for dinner.  But don't tell my hubby!

 

Or Sawyer!

:)

day late and a dollar short . . .

Once again I find myself playing catch-up!  This weekend was the first time a in a long while that I missed a day posting.  Ah well, I expect that it will happen again soon . . . like this week.  Priorities!

Week 12 stash report for this week is a good one:

Used/donated this week: 5.0 yards

Used/donated year-to-date: 9.75 yards

Purchased/added this week: 0.0 yards

Purchased/added year-to-date: 31.75 yards

Net used/donated for 2012: -18.25 yards

Even though I'm a day late, I'm still going to link up to Patchwork Times for the weekly stash report.  I'm really hoping I get to add a huge amount to next week's intake!

Glad Joc is not doing a weekly stash report.  Remember these sweet photos?

Each week she uses a new yard of fabric, which means there's a LOT of fabric purchases by Jocelyn.  When I was watching Ellie last Friday, Joc purchased some new photo 'props':

 

Aren't they pretty and fun?!  Glad I'm not having to make a quilt out of ALL of that fabric!  We're thinking some cute outfits will come out of this stash, too!

The outage is Sawyer's dino quilt . . . which is also what is not on my design wall.

It's sandwiched and ready for the machine.  I remembered last week why I'd sworn off any quilting projects unless they were "quilt-as-you-go" projects as long as we're living in the RV.  Gracious!!  That wasn't even a full twin-sized quilt and it was a booger to put the layers together.  But don't you love the fabric I'm using for the back?  A perfect match for this darling little quilt.  Again, stash ... I've not had to buy a single thing for this quilt -- it's really practically made itself!  Be sure to head over to Patchwork Times to check out other design walls!

Saturday we celebrated Sawyer's birthday.  Kim did a great job setting out a wonderful spread!

And little man had a blast.  He was so much fun to watch!  Especially when it came to birthday cupcake and blowing out the candles . . .

 

 

Oh yeah, that cupcake was goooooood . . . or at least the frosting was!

Ellie joined the party ... but just barely!  She had her party outfit on and everything ... such a cutie!  She's already whispering ideas to her mama for her first birthday party.

I saw this photo and had to include it here . . . do these kids have a chance?  Between Jason and his super-huge camera, James with all his high-tech video gadgetry, and me with my point-and-shoot ... yeah, like Todd says, the most highly photographed kids in the world!!

They're betting today's temps set a record high for our area.  Upper 80's.  Tomorrow is the first day of spring.  Wow!

Hey, ya' know what?!  Have a GREAT Monday!!

:)

stash report #11 and action packed . . .

Whew, what a busy -- but fun-filled -- weekend!  But before I get into any of that, lemme take care of stash report business.  It was real easy this week; nothing added, nothing subtracted.  

Used/donated this week: 0.0 yards

Used/donated year-to-date: 4.75 yards

Purchased/added this week: 0.0 yards

Purchased/added year-to-date: 31.75 yards

Net used/donated for 2012: -27.25 yards

 

Something should be coming this week that will *drastically* change those numbers . . . but hopefully something will be in the used column for next week, too!  As per the routine, I'm linking up with the Patchwork Times stash report linky!

 

Now, on to the weekend.  It started Friday afternoon ... Todd and I drove south about a 170 miles to Talladega, Alabama to go to a Mission Service Corps (MSC) training and retreat event hosted by the Alabama State Board of Missions (ALSBOM).  This is an annual event, but our first, since we were commissioned as missionaries by the North American Mission Board (NAMB) late in March last year.  (Gosh -- there are a lot of acronyms, aren't there?!?)

We had a marvelous time, met some terrific folks and really did gain some useful information to take back with us.  There are a lot of changes taking place between NAMB and ALSBOM and it was helpful to hear our state's take on it.  It was also terrific to meet several couples who are doing what we're doing as church strengtheners.  It was very reinforcing! We were there overnight and left at noontime on Saturday.  Todd and I drove back to Huntsville and picked up his truck so he could go on to work.

 

I, on the other hand, had some time to kill so I took Princess Buttercup to the car wash for a badly-needed bath and some interior detailing.  Look how pretty she is, now . . . she gleams!

I had time to kill because I was picking Joc up and we were heading to Decatur to see Chonda Pierce!  Todd had gotten me two VIP tickets for Christmas!

We got to go backstage and do a meet and greet with Chonda and Natalie Grant.  Both are darling, down-to-earth women and we were very excited.  Especially since our VIP tickets guaranteed us terrific seats -- second row, center!!

The evening started with Warren Barfield, who was quite funny in his own right.  He was quite the charmer, too.

 

Then Natalie Grant took the stage.  Wow.  What an incredible set of pipes this young mommy-of-three has!  Joc caught this photo of her - great catch, huh?!

And then came the main event . . . Chonda herself.  Oh my goodness, I laughed and laughed and laughed!!!  She is such a riot!  It was very good to sit and laugh and to hear my girl laugh.  We had a great night!

Of course, the weekend wouldn't be complete without pictures of my favorite little people, right?

Joc texted this one to me while we were in Talladega.  What a chunky, happy girl!

 

And James posted this one today ... today is Kim's birthday and tomorrow is Sawyer's birthday.  She's a beauty and my little man, well ... he looks like a little man, doesn't he?!

Between the events, the late nights, and the time change, I see an early bedtime in my immediate future.  And that's after having had a nap this afternoon!

:)

settling back in . . .

What a fun day yesterday was ... and I didn't even spend any time sewing!  LOL!  I spent the day with Sawyer, while Kim put in time working to set up for the big Kid's Consignment shop for the spring sale.  The weather was so glorious, we spent most of the morning outside.

Little man really enjoys being outside and could find things "to do" for hours!!  He's *so* busy!

And everything outside is interesting to him.  A blade of grass, an acorn, a dandelion, a leaf -- they're all worthy of his inspection, wonder and awe.  Ah, to view creation through the eyes of a child again.

And then there's balls . . .

Kicking, throwing, catching and fetching . . . balls make for endless hours of outdoor entertainment!  We had a lovely day together and I enjoyed spending so much time with him.  His vocabulary has gotten bigger since the last time I saw him and it's such fun to listen to him try out new words.  And he parrots *everything* he hears, which is such fun!

One of his new words is "dinosaurs".  I was *so* glad to learn this!!  I recently won some dinosaur fabric from Frances, over at One More Quilt -- she had leftovers from a project she'd made.

I had originally thought to use it in an I Spy quilt, but I guess I hadn't paid close enough attention to the picture of the fabric . . .

Because the dinosaurs are WAY bigger than the blocks I'm using for my I Spy quilt!  But the minute I saw it, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with them.  I've got six blocks from a 6-month BOM I did in 2008.  The fabrics were bright, primary colors with worms and wigglies.  The demo quilt in the shop matched these blocks with applique animal blocks -- cats, dogs, ducks, etc.  

 

But those blocks didn't appeal to me, and I never did find something that I wanted to put it together with.  Until the dinosaur fabric arrived!!  I'm going to put six different dinosaurs in the center of blocks and put together a "big boy" quilt for Sawyer!  My only concern was that Sawyer might be intimidated by the dinosaurs, so I took the fabric with me to show him.  I was so tickled to see him point to the stegosaurus and hear him say "dinosaurs!"   And then he 'roared', because that's what dinosaurs do.  I think this is a quilt that was destined to be!!  Thank you, Frances!!

After my day with Sawyer, I went and spent the latter part of the afternoon with Joc and Ellie.  It was a quiet afternoon of snuggling and cooing and rocking ... and since I was contentedly holding Ellie, I didn't capture any snapshots!  I did want to share this one that Joc had from Everett's birthday . . . 

Do you see that sweet little smile on my girl's face?!  Joc did a lovely post about their day over on her blog. 

Today I need to get back into the swing of things ... laundry, cleaning, cooking ... I need to work!!

:)

tid bits . . .

Stitching and sewing has been slow this week, but I keep hanging on to the fact that this time next week, I'll be packing up and getting ready to head to Scottsboro, Alabama, and the Grand Oak Retreat for five day and four nights of sewing, laughing, eating, and more sewing.  Whoohoo!

I did get some crafting finished.  One project will have to wait another day before I'll share . . . and I finished this sweet little silhouette of Sawyer (which was one of my secret projects from Monday):

Have you ever tried to convert a picture into a silhouette?  I used the instructions I found at Loo-la-bee Simplicity.  It's not difficult, per se, but it is tedious and time consuming (if you're really paying attention to detail).  But the end result is so worth it!!

My plan was to fit this to a frame Kim had hanging on her living room wall and surprise her with it -- I knew she'd wanted one.  The surprise was on me, though ... when I got to their house on Monday evening, I found that she had taken down the whole arrangement to redecorate!  

Oh well.  She loved it (as did little man -- he was quite fascinated with it and knew it was "Sawyer") and I'm sure I'll see it hanging when the redecorating is done.

I also crafted a sweet little card for my Valentine.  I got to thinking about Valentine's Day and how as a child we spent a week carefully crafting all the cards we were going to give out, and how much they meant because they were crafted with love ... and I decided I wanted all my cards from hereon out to be done that same way.  Crafted with love.

And I made some sugarless heart cookies as a treat for my darling man . . . 

He was really pleased!  They turned out nicely and had a lovely flavor.  I got the recipe from one of my favorite tea blogs . . . Tea at Prim Rose Hill.

And then there was his Valentine to me . . .

Oh definitely, I know I'm spoiled!!

Today is an Ellie day ... I can't wait to hold her again!  Joc told me on Monday that she was weighing in at nine pounds -- gracious!  I may not recognize her today -- LOL!  Today is also our first Wednesday at the new church and I'm looking forward to it.  I need to get this show rolling!

:)