what a summer . . .

Wow.  Time really does fly when you're having fun, huh? Last I posted, I was headed to Hawaii!  I had a lovely two weeks seeing all the sights and experiencing the culture.  Really way too much to share; I'm not sure I've even processed all I saw and did—LOL...I don't think I've had time!

There were a couple of stitching-related things I did want to talk about.  One of our stops was the Polynesian Cultural Center.  They had a whole hut dedicated to the beautiful style of hand applique that is linked to the islands . . .

The woman working was such a delight to talk to and gave us tips as to what quilt shops we should look for! One of those was this little delight, which was tucked away on a hop on/off bus tour we did . . .

SOOO glad they shipped to the main land . . . my suitcases couldn't have handled my haul from Kapaia!

I loved catching the sunrises and sunsets from the balcony off our ship, and this one was as lovely as any:

Believe it or not, a sunrise!  One last photo from Hawaii and I'll move on <grin>.  One of my very favorite excursions was a helicopter tour over Hilo.  It was just exquisite! 

It didn't hurt that our pilot was such a darling!  The views were breath-taking!

I was home from Hawaii exactly one day, and my sweet California crew flew to Alabama for a surprise visit!  Well, I was expecting Sawyer, who was coming to stay with me for three weeks, but the whole family decided they wanted a week, too!  

We had a wonderful time together and spent the July 4th holiday on the boat, on the lake.  It was a beautiful, bittersweet day for me.  

At the end of the month, I returned with Sawyer to California and spent a week there.  We had a great time visiting the beach, shopping in downtown Old Temecula, going to Disney's California Adventure Park, and checking out the San Diego Zoo Safari Park!

We had some quiet days too, and it really was a sweet visit.  But between, Yellowstone, Hawaii, and the month of July, let's just say my watch was like ... what's up with this elevated step count???  Haha!

That brings me to August.  Yeah.  One of the first fun things I did was a trip to Nashville with my affirmation sisters to see the quilt exhibit at the Frist Art Museum . . .

It was a really special showing of quilts on loan from the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.  I was most tickled to see so many Gee's Bend quilts in the exhibit!  Anyway, the exhibit is there until October, so if you're in the area, it's definitely worth a stop!

Next up. A little utilitarian stitching. Evey started pointe this year, and needed some help getting her shoes ready!  

I always consider this kind of sewing a privilege.  ♥

Believe it or not, I agreed to be our guild's 2nd VP in charge of programs this year.  What was I thinking?!  LOL!  I'm actually excited . . . I needed something to get me out and back in the thick of things.  Our guild's show is in February, and at our August meeting we unveiled our Opportunity  Quilt (raffle quilt):

Isn't it pretty?!  I've got three tops ready to be quilted by the gal who made/quilted it.  She's so talented!

And guess what . . . Ezra started soccer!

He's so darling—it's hard to believe he'll be four this month!  He's a little go getter on the field; and he was VERY disappointed this morning when they got the call that this morning's game was cancelled because of storms (and it wasn't even raining yet!).  Everley, on the other, was NOT sad.  She was ready to learn embroidery, so she'd spent the night with me and I pulled out the heart sampler I had used to teach Ellie how to embroider. She's just as much a natural as Ellie is!

We had fun stitching and chatting.  She worked on the heart and I worked on a new cross stitch project, Lady Halloween by Jardin Privé.  It's really darling.  I'm stitching it on an ivory 20-count aida.  

Anyway, Evey wanted to finish up a couple of lines of embroidery, and was glad for the cancelled game and the extra time to stitch!  A girl after my own heart!

And speaking of Ellie, she's still very much into handwork!  She just finished this cute little pillow for the season . . . 

And she's working on a cute pineapple cross stitch project right now.  She, Evey and I will all be slow stitching tomorrow! (Linking up with Kathy's Quilts and her Slow Sunday Stitching post!)

In feline news, the girls are glad the summer is over and I was home for thirty days in a row!

They are spoiled rotten and I love them to pieces!  They are so purrsonable!!

And finally, what would a post from me be without a sunset pic?

Aloha! Have a great week ahead!

:)

one, two, three . . .

What a splendid weekend! Friday, Jason had to go to work to handle an emergency, so I told Jocelyn I'd fill the gap.  (I mean ... three active girls and a four-day-old!)  With Joc's permission blessing gratitude, I loaded up the three girls in Joc's mini-van and headed off to the Botanical Gardens!

We packed a picnic, grabbed the Picnic Quilt for its first real test, and scouted the grounds for the perfect picnicking spot. What do you think . . . 

I think it's a perfect fit!  Did you know there's actually a formula to determine the best size for a picnic quilt (or blanket)?  I think I definitely got it right with this one.  

We had such a blast walking the Scarecrow Trail ... it's truly one of my favorite fall things to do!

The girls enjoyed the day and the sunshine, running the paths and climbing and exploring.  It was a nice treat for all of us!

And of course, I got a little *extra* reward from it myself . . .

Oh yeah, that's what I'm talking about!

Saturday was game day.  I really enjoy doing handwork during games.  It keeps me from getting (dare I admit this?) too agitated during the play.  Well, mostly.

I saw this great tutorial for making embroidery acorns and giving them a little depth/dimension, by satin stitching the little caps, and split stitching the bodies. So I drew a handful out on my favorite Crackle, linen, and went to work in an assortment of colors (and notably, some Cosmos variegated) flosses.

I'm really pleased with how this is turning out.  And it'll be time to rotate my decor into fall (which definitely includes acorns) very soon!  I will say, if I ever do this again, I'll satin stitch the bodies and split stitch the caps. Hind sight is 20/20.

James sent me a dozen fabulous action shots of Sawyer playing soccer.  I'll limit what I share to these two . . .

Check out that steal! I'm not sure whether I'm more wowed by Sawyer's athleticism, or James's photography skills!

And since I gifted my Friday to Joc and the gang, Todd and I took advantage of a lovely Sunday afternoon and spent as much of it on the lake as was possible . . . 

A very good weekend.

:)

lots of goodness . . .

Super busy week at work . . . my poor coworker thought she had an ear infection, but it turned out she had shingles in her ear canal. Ugh. Needless to say, she went home and stayed home. I was very glad when 5:00 p.m. on Thursday rolled around!  On Friday, Todd and I launched the boat and took our last 'date day' for a couple of weeks.  

I never, ever get tired of this view.  Gosh, what a beautiful day we had! Not quite as fishy as the last outing, but Todd did pretty good. I opted to pick up my book instead of the fishing rod. LOL!  We've got Campers on Mission coming to the camp for the next two weeks, and they'll keep us quite occupied!  Our next opportunity to take the boat out will be mid-May, when we head to Tim's Ford for a bit.

Baby Edie and her family continue to do well as they make adjustments! They had a newborn photo shot and gosh, it makes me {happy} cry, how beautiful this family is!

Edith "Edie" Rose - isn't she precious?

Evey & Ellie - I adore this picture of them!

The Family - my hearts bursts with love for these guys!

Jason was home from work last week and a couple days this week, so I've not intruded.  But Friday I'll find my way over there to do some serious Neesey/Edie bonding (if Ellie will let me -- I'll have to fight her for holding time with Edie)!!

Yesterday I joined 45 other ladies and got on the bus our guild charters, bound for Paducah!

This was my 'hang out' group!  :)

It was a great day. I didn't take as many quilts photos; I should have brought the camera for this one. I'm so used to just using my iPhone, but the photo taking eats the battery big time, and I didn't want to kill my phone.  My absolute favorite quilt in both the large and mini categories was Christmas-themed (the mini quilt was under glass and I couldn't get a good photo due to the glare):

Interestingly, both of them won second place in their divisions.

I loved this one, too . . .

It was really fascinating to me! There were a lot of beautiful quilts. One trend I noticed this year was the number of whole cloth quilts with ribbons.  In the mini quilt section, four of the six entries were whole-cloth. A lot of Japanese winners, too.  

And then there were the vendors. Let's just say I did my part to help keep quilt vendors thriving.

No need to stop and look . . . keep moving . . . there's nothing to see here folks.

Actually, I'm really pleased with my purchases, which is 50/50/50 wool, hexie items, and fabric. LOL! And since I'm back at work, I'll count this toward retirement stash. Teeheehee!  Would it surprise you to know that I visited both the physical shop Paper Pieces has in Paducah *and* their booth at the show? No?

And of course I purchased something(s) at both locations, too! Another thing I noticed this year was the lighting. The strong overhead lighting really washed out the top of the quilts and photos of them. It may have always been this way, but I really took notice of it this year.

As we left the convention center and loaded the bus, I was so tickled to hear all the happy chatter as ladies got settled in and had impromptu show and tell . . . 

The long bus ride to and fro (about 4.5 hours each way) enabled me to both sleep and stitch.  I got some nice work done on my wool card trick . . .

Now on to the borders for it. And I *finally* finished that second EPP flower . . .

I really love the looks of this . . .

I've pressed it so it's time to remove the papers and applique the flowers onto the background. I hope to have this piece on my table come June! I have a really cute "orange" Yankee Candle that I'll use with it! Anyway, lots of slow stitching still to go.

Okay.  Enough for me. We have another major storm front pushing its way in, and it's given me a headache beyond belief. I hate being a natural weather barometer! Besides, I think we'll probably need to unplug all our gadgets in the not too distant future!

Linking up to Kathy's Quilts and hoping I'm not slow stitching in the dark this afternoon!

:)

happy sighs . . .

What a great weekend we enjoyed! On Friday, Todd and I were able to take the boat out. The weather was just absolutely perfect for it! We launched at Honeycomb, which is a state campground . . .

Which was full for Easter weekend!

After a bit of cruising around, we finally (aka, Todd finally) found a spot that was very fishy! To the point that I put down my handwork and picked up the fishing rod!

Yup ... that's *my* first catch (to keep) of the day! We ended up catching about 75.  WOW! Yes, a very productive day!

And the ride back to the docks was pretty spectacular, too.

Easter Sunday, after church, my folks and Joc's crew came up to the camp for dinner and baskets and an Easter egg hunt . . .

The girls were both so cute and had a marvelous time. The camp is the perfect place to 'hide' eggs in plain sight.

Both Ellie and Evey were quite happy to sit with Neesey and Pawpaw to check out their haul!

And I even managed to do some slow stitching this weekend, too. I've done all the blanket stitching on my 'card tricks' -- now it's on to the decorative stitching.

I love all these colors!

And I worked on my pretty little orange hexie flowers, too . . .

In fact, I'm nearly finished putting together this second flower -- just six and a half more pieces to stitch down . . .

And I'll be ready to applique these to the runner! I haven't even thought about how I'll quilt this project. But I know where I'll put it!  Linking this up to HeLP at sarah did it!

I've had several folks show interest in our RV living space. I've taken some pictures and uploaded them to the RV Living page on my blog. You can take a little tour of our home, sweet home!

I'm on baby watch for the next week or so . . . so if things are quite here for an extended period of time, I haven't gotten lazy (again) . . . I'm engulfed in Neesey-ness!!

:)