wow . . .

aka, Works in progress On Wednesday!

I've gotten a bit more finished on Mr. Owlie . . . specifically, the red flowers at the top left.  LOL!

I think I may have spent more time trying to make sense of my flosses than actually stitching.  C'est la guerre.

I got a whim and headed out to the Nook yesterday morning to work on my book block. I was so pleased to find I had *all* the fabrics I'd originally used -- and in fact, it looked like that block was the only use for the red print and the shirting. So here it is now . . .

To back it, I thought it would be fun to give a nod to the whole reason I'm doing this to begin with -- it's in a book -- LOL! So I snapped a shot of the the block in the book, with the book's and author's name, along with Barbara's personal inscription to me.  I'll print this on white fabric and block it in the blue floral -- here's my mockup in EQ:

How fun is that??!  I'm really so excited about this project -- is that silly? All that's left to do now is to decide how to quilt it . . .

 

 

Those are my original top four templates. Still playing it out.  Hmmmmm.  Todd likes the fleur de lis (top right).  I'm not sold on any particular design. Regardless of which of these I'll use, I'll still have to find something to do in the setting and borders.

So that's my works in progress for this week! Linking up to Esther Aliu's blog today . . . head on over and take a peek!

:)

what to do . . .

For some reason, finishing off two big quilts (one of which was long overdue and a major challenge), left me a little at a loss.  And feeling devoid of motivation!  I have no idea what I want to do next.  I certainly have some UFOs I *could* work on . . . and there's always something new I could try, I guess . . . but I'm just not in the mood. *sigh* Can anyone relate?

All that being said, it should be no surprise that my stash report has moved not an inch:

Ah well. C'est la vie.

I did pick up some stitching that has been laying around for a while . . .

Mr. Owlie is needing some 'me time', so I put him in the hoop.

This will give me something to slowly stitch this afternoon, at least!

We had a wonderful snowfall last week . . . a record-setting 4th deepest in Huntsville's history (since records were kept) and the most snowfall in February ever. Todd and I got out and did all the cool snow things . . .

Snow Angels.

Snow Cream.

Snow Men (and bunnies and trolls). We even had a snowball fight -- but no pics of that, sorry!

The camp's a beautiful place, all decked in white:

Gorgeous, right? But today the high is supposed to be in the mid-50s, so we're back to green.  For now!

Linking up today to Patchwork Times and Kathy's Quilts.  Make it a great Sunday!

:)

confession time . . .

I have a couple of them, actually.  The first is, I barely spent any time stitching on poor ol' Mr. Owlie yesterday.

I stitched a red flower and finished a stem.  And then that temptress of a quilt sang her siren song and I gave in.

Which leads me to my second confession.  I'd already told someone that having so MUCH time pass between the beginning blocks I quilted and the last blocks I quilted showed differences in my quilting.  Eeek. You know what else happens when a lot of time has passed since you first started a quilt?

You forget that the yard-and-a-half of lavender Evening Mist was purchased for the assembly and binding of a particular quilt and instead use it to back a dolly quilt for Christmas.  

Aye yi yi!!!  First thing I did was jump online to see if I could find some somewhere, just in case my LQS doesn't have it any more (which it probably won't -- I purchased this three YEARS ago, after all!). Whew! I'm good. Then I went ahead and looked at my leftover piece and started cutting, just to see if I had enough to assemble my blocks into row. I did!

So then I decided to just put two blocks together . . . for old times sake . . . and one thing led to another and all of a sudden, lo and behold . . . 

One row.

Two rows?!

THREE rows??!!

FOUR ROWS!!!!!

This is a lovely thing!  I took lots of pics of the process and will 'whip' up a tutorial as soon as I get more fabric and can assemble my rows.  And I figure as busy as I'll be this week, it'll be nice to have some hand work for the evenings -- I can stitch down my strips.

So that's my design wall for today!  I *may* try to get the GC *or* the snowflake block finished this week, but no promises -- waaaay too much going on.  Linking up to the design wall post on Patchwork Times!

Our final day at CBC went really well, though I did manage to soak a dozen or more Kleenex!  And, in tribute to my sweet husband, nearly *everyone* showed up in camouflage!  It was SO great!!  We looked like it was Duck Dynasty Sunday or something!

At first I just thought it was coincidence that a couple of guys were wearing it (and Todd had worn it, too, of course).  But then when I saw several women and some youth and children all wearing it too, I knew it had been planned -- and I had my first cry of the morning!

My girls gave me this sweet gift:

I was so touched!  The daisy tag in the middle reads, "Thank you for helping us bloom!"   Awww....cry two!

Then they prayed over us and had a lovely going-away lunch.  Even the table decoration and the banner they put up were camo-oriented.

Such fun!  And such a sweet and gracious spirit in our brothers and sisters there -- what a blessing they've been to us.

Today.  Today I need to hit the ground running -- much work to do!!  Enjoy your Monday...make it count!

:)

a week ending well . . .

I think you might be able to guess which project got my '15 minutes' each day this week, but so there's no confusion, here it is:

MOC definitely was the winner.  I wasn't counting on the driving momentum that kept me singly focused until that stage of it was finished!  So much for my snowflake and my GC block!  Ah well.  The other thing that I *had* to give my attention to was the stitching of an Ellie dress.  It was time sewing, so of course I counted it!  

Unfortunately, the fabric wasn't mine, so I couldn't include it in my stash report. Which, by the way, hasn't changed a single bit since last week.

MOC has *not* been deducted from stash yet, so as soon as I get this one assembled and bound, that will be a nice usage total to add.  Linking up to the stash report at Patchwork Times!

Whew, what a weekend!  Friday I spent the day stitching the dress and then that evening I got to spend some time with Sawyer and June, while their mommy and daddy had a date night.  Then yesterday morning was spent making a matching dress for Ellie's AG Bitty Baby.  Sheesh . . . it was tougher than Ellie's dress was!  Ha! And then Saturday afternoon we spent at Ellie's birthday party.

As always, Jocelyn did a beautiful job of both decorating *and* setting up a marvelous buffet table!

The food was great and fun and kid friendly!

I tried so hard to get a picture of all three cousins together, but they are *all* SO active, it's nigh impossible! This was the closest I came . . .

Sawyer, June playing with a balloon--her new favorite, Ellie-the-birthday-girl and a bonus child, Emma, Ellie's BFF (or at least Ellie's mommy's BFF's daughter). And they're all in a constant state of motion, so *every* picture I took of a living, breathing being under the age of 5, had a bit of blur to it!!

I did get Ellie to try on her dress for me . . .

But she was so busy, that getting a front picture was tough!

I did get one of her trying to put a necklace on her baby.  That's as close as it's going to get.  Still, she really liked that her baby had a dress like hers.  It was fun and I definitely see more of these in the future!

Today is our last day at Cornerstone -- our assignment has ended.  We announced it last week (you can't announce it too early or you become ineffective) and the sweet folks there are doing a little send-off party for us after this morning's service.  I'm packing an extra set of Kleenex in my purse.  Saying goodbye will be so hard -- especially to my sweet Sunday School girls.  I imagine Todd and I will be quite done in when we get home tomorrow afternoon and I'll probably settle for some handwork on Mr. Owl . . .

He's my go-to hand project that I need to get-to! Anyway, I may put in an episode of the Walton's and do some hand-stitching. A lovely, quiet afternoon! Linking him up to Slow Sunday Stitching on Kathy's Quilts.

Shalom and Happy Sunday!

:)

in the name of love . . .

What a weekend ... in the middle of all the hustle and bustle at the camp, with over THIRTY volunteers out here helping to finish up the obstacle course . . . 

Joc ended up taking Ellie to the emergency room.  Little Miss flipped herself right off the changing table!  Joc said she was fine until she tried to stand up on her right foot/leg.  So in they went and sure enough, there's a tiny break on her right fibula.

The doctor told Joc that these breaks are so common in toddlers that it's actually referred to as a Toddler's Break.  It just showed up as a small abnormality on the x-ray -- and he splinted Ellie from hip to toe!  It's not slowed her down much ... she's already figured out how to crawl around with it, stand in it, and crawl out of it. 

I remember that kind of struggle ... same foot/leg and everything!  Just so you know, Ellie was *not* going to let that thing beat her:

Haha!  She's a conqueror! Joc will take her into a pediatric orthopaedist this week and he'll make the final determination on whether or not it needs to be casted.  Luckily, these breaks heal fast - usually within four weeks, tops.

My stash report has a little in and a little out this week . . .

Used/donated this week: 0.50 yards

Used/donated year-to-date: 4.5 yards

Purchased/added this week: 1.0 yards

Purchased/added year-to-date: 20.25 yards

Net used/donated for 2013: -15.75 yards

Another week of "I'll take that!!"  Linking up to Judy's Week #6 report over at Patchwork Times. 

On my design wall this week is really my crazy quilting block/course.  I'm working in Lesson Five, which is a lot of decorative stitching practice.  Here's a shot of my 'doodle cloth' along with one of my stitch templates!

I also pulled out Mr. Owlie and have been putting some more stitching into him.

Again, I'm taking full use of my last stitch course and putting my new repertoire of stitches to use!  I used the outline stitch on the little blue flower.  

I'll probably do some chain stitching around the flowers as well.

Also on my wall this week is a secret project.  I can't even show the fabric, or I'd give it away.  Next week I should be able to share pictures on that!  In the meantime, I'll link this post up to Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching and Judy's Design Wall Monday link ups!

With Valentine's Day looming, I thought I'd share a couple of interesting sites I'd found, in case you're looking for a creative way to say, "I love you!" to someone special!  The first site has been around for a while -- it's called You Are Your Words. You upload the picture of your choice and then type in descriptive words. I used one of our wedding day photos.

The site then converts your words to your picture.  Isn't that cool??  

I pulled it up in publisher and added our names and wedding date up there and the verse that I used as our 'words' -- 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 -- the love passage -- Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered,  does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.  And have this as an end product:

I also stumbled on this darling little freebie Floral Heart Monogram on Wedding Chicks.  You type in your name or initials or whatever you want, and it puts it in the pretty little heart and downloads it for you . . .

Isn't that cool?  And I loved the colors!!  I also did a couple using "Neesey" and each of the grands' names, too. All in the name of love, right??!

Happy Monday!

:)

hooded cats . . .

Jocelyn did me the sweet favor of showing me one of Ellie's Christmas presents ... on Ellie:

Needless to say, Ellie was NOT real thrilled with her gift-to-be.  

Perhaps she was upset that her mommy is already showing her the "under-the-tree" stuff?!

Leia was a better model . . . 

You get the true sense of the hat, don't you?  Isn't it darling?  And I love the irony of the owl face on the cat's head!

Leia, on the other hand, wasn't quite as thrilled.  Or she's bowing down before me, acknowledging my mastery over her.  Bahaha!!

Be sure to check out the rest of the cat antics going on around and about blogland today by heading over to Sarah Did It! and Feline Friday!

:)

the art of fondling fabric . . .

I'll just admit it right now.  I take great pleasure in picking titles for my posts. Perhaps it's the journalism major in me.  I dunno ... it's just fun!

As I mentioned yesterday, Ellie joined Jocelyn and I on her first trip to Hooked on Quilting.  I wish I'd thought to pull out my camera, but I was sitting on the floor with Ellie, surrounded by assorted bolts of blends, Christmas pretties, and batiks . . . teaching Ellie to pet and stroke the fabric.  She got quite good at it, too!  Before we left she'd even held up some minky to her face...that's my girl!  Here's what I ended up coming home with . . . 

Aren't they all pretty?  The orange houndstooth is for June's Thanksgiving dress. The yellow sparkly is just because it was *so* pretty, and aren't the Christmas prints just *darling*?!  And all at GREAT prices, too.  Nothing was more than $9.25 a yard ... and I get a 10% discount for being a guild member.  Nice!

And what could be better than bringing home such pretty fabrics?  Bringing home *more* pretty fabrics that I didn't pay for and aren't part of my stash . . . 

These are Jocelyn's picks.  Mind you, she went to get fabric for stockings.  That would be the two at the bottom of the picture.

These two are for a special Christmas dress for Ellie . . .

And these two are for a special tunic top and pants set for Ellie . . . 

Isn't this line darling?  It's from the Anna Griffin Pinelope collection.  Fun stuff!  I'm sure you can guess why it came home with me.  (Happily!)

Aside from shopping, I also finished up my stitching to my mini hexies . . . 

Today I'll try and get it bordered with this orange, and then get it quilted before the weekend.  I was going to bind it in a darker purple, but changed my mind when Todd said, "That's an awful lot of purple."  Can there really be such a thing as too much purple?  I'm thinking perhaps I'll bind it in black, instead.

And I finished the 'ring of fire' around Mr. Owlie and have now started on the outside ring.

Yay!  I really like having handwork 'handy'.  One of my youth girls had her first basketball game of the season last night, so Todd was kind enough to take me, so we could cheer her on.  I finished up the mini on the drive up and worked on Mr. Owlie on the ride back.  :)

And special mail yesterday!  Look what arrived . . . 

YAY!!!  My copy of Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks!!  I won this copy from Mary, over at Quiltin' Grandma's Blog.  She even signed it for me -- her quilt from her tester blocks!  And along with a very sweet note, she sent me a blank quilty note card ... and I have such an affinity for note cards! 

So kind -- thank you, Mary!

Today ... I'm not sure.  I hope to have a productive day with lots to share tomorrow.  Definitely!  OH!  And I did have a winner from the book giveaway of Harvest of Rubies!  Cathy of Eagles' Wings Quilts!  Congratulations, Cathy!!!

:)