halfway through…

How is it July already?!

But here it is, four days in, celebrating Independence Day, here in the good ol’ USA! Weather permitting, we (as in me and the Merkel crew) plan on taking the boat out for an afternoon of swimming and an evening of fireworks on the lake. Boom!

I’ve done some fun things this year. After signing on to be the 2nd VP of Programs for my guild, I decided it wasn’t as bad as I’d worried it would be. In fact, I really enjoyed getting speakers, managing programs, and writing blurbs for the newsletter and introductions. I was actually all set to volunteer to do it again for the next guild year, but the incoming president (who’s currently the 1st VP—a position which automatically rolls into President the following year) told me no. Or rather, she said she’d rather have me as her 1st VP. 😳 Needless to say, I sat on that for a hot minute, but in the end, I agreed. So here I am.  LOL! The position starts with close of our August meeting.

 

I took a very fun wool appliqué workshop with one very darling Vicki McCarty, of Calico Patch Designs. Each day we received four of the first sixteen blocks and worked on one block in particular. There were lots of goodies and door prizes, too—it was like going on retreat, but sleeping in my own bed! Loads of fun!

Our May program at guild was MJ Kinman. Our workshops coordinator was out of town, so I had the privilege of not only escorting MJ through the program, but the workshops as well. 

          

She was a fabulous speaker and teacher. Her classes were full both days and the inspiration level was high! I had planned on paying for both workshops, but since I had to coordinate, I didn’t have to pay…but it also means I had other duties that didn’t allow me to be fully present in her teaching. I did go home and make my topaz jewel!

Nine year old Edith (local granddaughter number three) decided she wanted to make a quilt. By hand. With my help.  She brought me a 5” charm pack of purples and asked. What could I say? I picked up a second pack and she laid them out the way she wanted. Six of the nine rows are stitched. 

 

She’s stitching the squares together and then I’ll machine stitch the rows together and add borders, to make it big enough for it to be a nice lap quilt for her. I’m thinking it would be the perfect quilt for hand tied quilting. We could do that together! With purple yarn, of course!

 

Twelve year old Olivia (California granddaughter number two) flew out with her mama for a wedding. It also happened to be Olivia’s birthday weekend and we were so pleased to be able to celebrate with her! 

Later in June I took a traveled north east to spend a long weekend with my sister and her local family, and then went on to Annapolis for a mini reunion with friend from high school. 

Same group I traveled to Charleston with last year. We had a really lovely time. It was so nostalgic and sweet, plus Annapolis is a hotbed of historical significance, which made being there in our country’s 250th year all the more exciting! And it was Plebe Week, which just added to the fun! I felt 16 again! Plus I got my fill of Maryland blue crabs:  steamed, crabcakes, cream of crab soup, crab puffs . . . ALL THE CRAB! We’re already making plans for next year. Quebec is at the top of our list!

My girls are doing great! 

 

 

They are definitely divas—but such fun and a complete comfort. I love them so much! Even when they are so bad.  LOL! And thank goodness they’re around—they save me from talking to myself! ;)

Happy 4th!!  :)

rabbit, rabbit

Trifecta day . . . not only is it the first of the month (hence the rabbit, rabbit), but its the end of daylight savings time!  Hurrah!  I look forward to falling back every year, and in fact, have turned all my clocks back already.  LOL!  That's only two things, but twofecta sounds dumb, so there's that.

It's been a fairly productive week.  I finished out three projects.  Two were the cute little nine-patch cross stitch designs that Ellie and I stitched in tandem . . .

Aren't these cute?  Ellie did such a fabulous job ... I had a really hard time differentiating between the two!

And the other project was one I stumbled across when I did all that organizing last week.  It was a sweet little pumpkin embroidery that Ellie had sketched out (I put it on fabric) and stitched on in 2022, finishing it up late that year.  I was supposed to construct a border and make a throw pillow slipcase with it.  Well, 2023 was a tough year, and 2024 wasn't much better, and so when I found it, I thought maybe it was time.  So cute!

Here's the back . . . 

Ellie was so pleased!  I brought it and her cross stitch pillow to her on the morning of Halloween, so at least she'd get a little use out of them this year before it's time to pull out all things Christmas!

Speaking of Halloween . . . more importantly, October 31 is June's birthday!

She turned THIRTEEN!  She's a beauty!  Three out of my seven grands are teenagers!!! How the heck??

Celeste agrees with me . . .

Starry let me know that she doesn't do costumes.  LOL!

All the sewing this past week made me realize I needed a way to keep a pair of snippers close to my machine, without getting lost in the shuffle.  A quick google search, and a text conversation with my son-in-law, and look what I had, less than four hours later . . .

 

Isn't that great?!  He made me a total of eight.  I used double-sided tape to mount it.  It's the perfect size!  Gotta love 3D printers and those who know how to make them! (Especially since this same thing was available on Etsy for $4 + s/h!)

What else? Oh yeah!  Another project I "found" during my re-org was a Thanksgiving wool project that I started in 2021. I had three of the five tops finished, but I guess lost momentum when I realized I'd not traced the words correctly.  Took care of that!

Mostly I worked on this today as I carefreely watched college football.  I say "carefreely" because Alabama had a bi- week. No stress! I got them re-traced, selected the wool, fused them, cut them out, and put them to fabric . . .

Whoohoo! 

I even had time to do a little stitching!

Speaking of which, Ellie decided to do some embroidered ornaments to sell for our Advent Market at the end of the month.  I told her I'd help, so she handed off the snowmen to me!

Between these and the wool project, I'll have plenty to keep me busy for a Slow Sunday Stitching!  Linking up with Kathy's Quilts.

Before I sign off, I wanted to see if anyone else had seen the Quilt Fusion online seminar happening November 13? 

I decided to go ahead and sign up for it; I'm really excited!!

Temps are dropping, the sun will be setting earlier . . . it's coming up on the most wonderful time of the year . . . 54 more days!!

:)

slipping away . . .

This is the last slow stitching Sunday in October . . . and there are only nine left in 2020.  How's that for an opening line?!

Between the birthday weekend and getting ready for the Blog Hop, by this past week I was ready to just chill.  LOL! But I pretty much had something every night last week, so not a lot to show. I will share this darling photo of my niece, Liesl . . .

October is Down Syndrome month and the colors of solidarity are blue and yellow.  My sister had the yard signs made this year. So sweet!  If you're familiar with the Stitch Pink BOD that Moda is doing right now, I'm thinking I'd like to work that out in blue and yellow for Liesl!

I spent Thursday evening with the grandgirls.  They'd had a busy week, too, and Edith was a little grumpy. Of course, even in her grumpiness, she's pretty darling.  I tried to capture a shot of the three of them . . .

Yes, that was about the best.  Here's Edith in the prior shot . . .

It only got worse going backwards!  The shot after the first photo found her laughing, but there was also a lot of movement (aka blurriness) in that photo!

Friday we ran a lot of errands and got things ready in the camp for the group that came in. We've had a bit of a cool snap and colors are finally starting to change here.  It's most noticeable around the pond:

There's a lot of sumac down there, and its leaves go red. It's so pretty, especially since it reflects in the pond. 

Saturday was a rainy, football kind of day.  I made a pot of stew and cookies to bag for the "Cookie Walk" booth a our church's fall festival. I thought about the Hospital Sketches project I started in wool last year. Then I realized that I'd tossed all the freezer paper tracings I'd done for the remainder of the blocks. (I've done three of the nine.) UGH!

So I went back and spent the Alabama game retracing all those pieces and kitted it all up so I didn't make that mistake again!

I let the random generator pick a winner from my blog hop post.  It selected Gail, who blogs at Shedding the Wolf.  I've been in contact with her!  Congrats, Gail!!

I've made slight progress on my Give Thanks stitchery.  But it's progress, nonetheless!

This will be my quiet time stitching for this afternoon/evening.  I'm already looking forward to it! I'm also linking up to Kathy's Quilts and her Slow Stitching post. 

Enjoy your Sunday!!

:)

birthday weekend . . .

It was a pretty crazy week at work, getting ready for our big annual meeting next week.  But that didn't stop me from getting some evening stitch time in . . .

Work progresses on this sweet little "Give Thanks" stitchery. It's nice to have something relaxing to look forward to at the end of the day!

I came home to some sweet snail mail happies this week, too.  This was a win from Life in Pieces as she celebrated her 13th blogiversary!

Isn't that fun?!? I love the stiletto! ♥

And this was an Instagram win from Kathy Schmitz!

I won one of her sample snow cones!  Total sweetness! I got several Etsy gift cards for my birthday; the pattern for these will be one of my first purchases!

Then I *ordered* these darling little wool candy corns . . .

Because candy corns are second only to pumpkins (and maybe tied with acorns) for happy fall decorating! ;)

Yesterday I celebrated the big fifty-eight.  Whoa.  The local grandgirls (and their parents) came out to celebrate with me . . .

Always a good time when they're around! Edith loves her Paw-paw! 

Last week I stumbled across Faye's post (from Slow Sunday Stitching) on her darling little crocheted pumpkins. SO cute!  Who am I if I didn't give that a try?!?!

So I am trying ... "try" being the operative word.  I'm not a crocheter by any stretch, but these were pumpkins! I'm finished crocheting the first body . . . we'll see how it goes from here!

So I've got my pick of projects for some slow Sunday stitching . . . and since we're still grey and rainy from Delta, stitching away the afternoon sounds just about perfect.  Along with a nap!!  Linking up with Kathy's Quilts and her slow stitching post round-up!!

I'll leave you with this . . . 

Seventy-five days!!!  Aye-yi-yi!!  

:) 

splashing into autumn . . .

Hey hey!  Just checking in before we head into the weekend.  We enjoyed a lovely, beautiful day on the lake on Monday.  The weather couldn't have been more cooperative.  We're at that time of the year where sometimes the water, at 85 degrees, is warmer than the air temp!

That means we spend LOTS of time in the water (because it's too cold to come out)!  The girls had a blast splashing and swimming. Edith even decided it was her day to jump off the boat into the water, multiple times.  She was a champ!  But we were all *in* the water already, so no photos of that!

As my Jocey said, it was the perfect way to squeeze one more day out of summer . . .

My signature "sun setting, heading home" photo.  ;)

Now my thoughts are turning to things of fall. Like pumpkins. All the pumpkins. On Sutton Place had this cute idea for a craft pumpkin on her blog today . . .

Isn't that sweet??!! Let me be clear, this is *her* picture, not mine. You can bet that I'll have one next week, though!!  She also had a link to a collection of her pumpkin recipes (Pumpkin Perfection Desserts) you can get.  Do you recall the scene in Forest Gump, where Bubba is talking about the "fruit of the sea"—shrimp—and all the things you can do with it? That is *exactly* how I feel about pumpkin.  Pumpkin scones, pumpkin custard, pumpkin pie, pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin bread, pumpkin coffee cake, pumpkin doughnuts, spiced pumpkin cookies . . . you get my drift! PLUS you can decorate with them and quilt them and craft with them!  

Pumpkins > Shrimp 

Just sayin.

I did get some diamond EPP pieces whipped up . . .

I did six, satisfied the itch, and moved my attention to the Lucy blocks I got with my estate sale purchase several weeks ago. There were seven or eight POTC blocks in several stages, but this one captured my attention because it was blue.  And sparkly.  

And all the possibilities! I think my favorite is the one of the top right.  You?

Today we celebrate six fabulous years with this precious little girl . . .

Evey Jade is the birthday girl! We're doing a family party tonight and looking forward to it.  This girl is fearless and bright and bubbly and spicy.  We love her so much!

We also celebrate my folks' 60th—SIXTIETH—anniversary!!  Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad!

And though I'm getting ready to immerse myself in fall, I'm going to leave you with this thought:

Baahahahaaa!

:)