right on time . . .

You would not think that I'd have much to share, seeing as I just posted four days ago ... but, surprise! I have another photo-laden post, with a variety of content! 

Thursday evening was our guild's last meeting of the guild year ... our birthday party, so to speak. It was decorated beautifully!

There's always a shot of the outgoing board.  You'll notice me at the very top, right. I won't be on the 2023-24 board; my plate is rather full right now.

The quilt behind us is our 2024 Fanfare Quilt Show opportunity (raffle) quilt.  Isn't it beautiful??!  Created by one of our members (with help from other members). It's so beautiful it deserves a solo photo . . .

Chance tickets are $1 a piece.  I've already sold twenty.  Ha! I haven't even bought my own, yet!

Friday, Todd and I got up super early and were on the water again at sunrise.

It was a beautiful day! < insert beautiful lake photo here >

The temps couldn't have been more agreeable, with a lovely breeze out of the west.  We didn't stay out terribly long, but we enjoyed the time we had.

Saturday I picked up Ellie and we headed to L'Etoile Patisserie!  

It's a sweet little French bakery in town, owned by a dear couple (the wife is in my book club).

After much deliberation, Ellie chose a pain au chocolat with a mug of tea.  She looks very sophisticated, non?! From the bakery, we visited an LQS - Patches & Stitches - because I needed a skein of floss.  Ellie informed me she needed a new beading needle, so we picked up a pack of those, too.  That's what Neesey's are for, right?! Then we headed to the grocery store, then back to the camp. I helped Ellie make a cheesecake . . .

She did a great job with it! And then we tooled around the camp for a bit. 

This is inside the new outdoor chapel.  It's nearly finished ... they just have to run the electricity to the building. I can't wait to see it clear of scaffolding!

Here's a shot from the outside.  It's so beautiful.  Our Campers on Mission volunteers got the building up in May.  A small group of volunteers have continued to work on it and the landscaping. It's almost there!

Ellie and I watched movies and worked on our respective hand work projects. 

She's almost finished with hers, and I'm just getting started! After dark, we headed over to the Firefly Cabin to spend the night. 

We push the bunks together and pull the mattress down from the top for a little extra padding! It was a true Camp MACOBA adventure!  Ellie even spotted this beautiful cicada:

Not that she'd get anywhere close to it.  LOL!!  Sunday morning while we waited for it to be time to go to church, Ellie finished her pumpkin stitchery . . . 

This is another stitchery that she came up with the concept, and I drew it out for her approval and traced it on fabric for her.

Isn't it wonderful?!  She does such lovely work.  I promised her that when she finished it, I'd stitch it up into a pillow sham for her, so I guess the ball is now in my court!

We ended our sleepover weekend by dropping her home, and celebrating her dad's birthday (which is why we made cheesecake)!

His birthday was earlier in August, but schedules have been crazy, so here we are!  And anyway, month-long birthday celebrations are a thing, right?  Well, they are for me, anyway.  ;)

Sunday evening a made some progress on *my* stitchery:

Another sweet cross stitched piece from Pinker 'n Punkin Quilting.  I love her little freebie designs and I was just itching to do something with pumpkins!

So this is me, on a Monday, all caught up; have a fabulous week!

Cioa! 

:)

one day in . . .

I love the new year . . . the roll out of new resolutions, new challenges, a new word, and a fresh opportunity to get it right.  A clean slate, so to speak!  Mind you, I do not do resolutions, but I do enjoy selecting a word to focus on for the coming year. This year my word is . . .

Yup, aware. That works on a lot levels.  Yesterday, it was important for me to be weather aware.

When your temps get up to eighty degrees ahead of a cold front, chances are good severe weather will follow.  It was a balmy, windy, day . . .

The sun kept popping in.  Dang it!  By early evening we were watching this . . .

. . . and heading over to our shelter.  Grateful we've got that space!

No damage in the camp, but our area of the county did take a hit as rotation moved through. When they say tornado season runs from November through April, they're serious about that 'through' part.

I did manage to prep a new little stitchery to work on.  Kathy Schmitz's One Stitch at a Time project was in my inbox first thing yesterday morning, so I printed it out and transferred it over.

I used one of my new frixon pens!  Then I spent a little time out in the screened room doing a little stitching. 

This year I'd like to make it a practice to keep some stitch work with me at all times so I can keep my hands busy if  I find myself waiting in the hospital or in the car or wherever.  :)

I can't get enough of these pom-poms, either.

I am thinking I might like a couple more sizes. Just in case.  LOL!

Linking up with Kathy's Quilts for some slow Sunday stitching.  Happy New Year!!

:)

counting down . . .

Happy, happy, joy, joy!!  Christmas is . . . 

Whoa! I think I've got a handle on it this year . . . our last day of work was last Thursday, which has given me more than a week of off-time to make sure I'm prepared!

Not a lot going on here that I could show.  Ellie spent the weekend with us, though, and she had a lovely finish!

I'm so proud of her! Her first time using the sewing machine, too. She did a fabulous job and enjoyed the process.  I think she was a little astounded that 1) she actually made it, and 2) that it took less than 90 minutes to make it!  Haha!  

The Panter crew sent me some pictures of Olivia, posing on her set (center)!

I'm so excited for her! Her mom said that she was absolutely in her element.  Here's one of the whole family on opening night . . . 

Olivia has one more performance today, and then it's time to start practicing for next year.  (Well, and mom gets a huge break!)

I am doing some stitching I can show . . .

Paper ornaments! They're so pretty!  I cut them out using the die cuts at work.  You fold them in half, stack them in threes, and stitch down the center.  Easy, but very sweet and vintage looking.  Of course, it helps that I printed out vintage sheet music (Christmas carols, of course), from which to cut!  Linking up with Slow Sunday stitching at Kathy's Quilts!

To make up for the alarming photo at the top of the post, I'll finish this way . . .

There's some real JOY!  That's a Merry Christmas smile if ever I've seen one! ♥

Happy Sunday! 

:)

all the things . . .

What a great weekend! Thursday evening kicked it off (I am so grateful that our office is closed on Fridays) with our monthly guild meeting.  We had a good turnout.

Our program featured our Comfy Quilts Committee, along with one of the services that receives our quilts.  There was also a nicely stocked free to a good home table.  I dropped off a stack of magazines and grabbed some pretty fabrics that caught my eye!

Speaking of fabric, Diann of Little Penguin Quilts had shared a cute stitchery she was working on, and it was framed with the cutest pumpkin print!  She shared with me the info on the selvage, so I could hunt it down.  Consequently, look what was in my mailbox on Friday . . .

I mean, it's so cute, right??  Pumpkins *and* acorns.  It doesn't get more me. <grin>

We had several different groups visiting the camp.  They had beautiful, crisp weather for it!  I took some foliage shots . . .

I'm so thankful I am able to live out here!

I prepped another (finally ... I've been so lazy with any kind of stitching this week) Thanksgiving bowl filler.  This one is the turkey:

He's so cute!  I've got three of the five done (or will have done before the end of the day). 

The turkey will be my slow Sunday stitching!  Linking up with Kathy's Quilts!

Saturday was game day!  Snacks were all about sausage today.

Sausage balls and Rotel dip!  And when I say snacks ... I mean our meal!  LOL! Roll Tide for the win and for a guarantee in the SEC Championship game!

And I'm just going to leave this here . . .

You're welcome.  Happy Sunday! 

:)

a repeat stitcher . . .

What a great weekend I enjoyed in Hendersonville, TN!  We went up early Thursday morning for a Lifeway Women's Leadership event.  Three days packed full of fabulous speakers, great teaching, encouragement, fellowship and fun.  But whew!  I was worn out.  Hence my slow stitching post didn't get written for yesterday, and that's a shame, because I have some fun stitchy stuff to share!  So Monday it is.  ;)

Ellie (oldest granddaughter) had shown some interest in embroidery.  For Christmas two years ago I gifted her with a sampler kit that I put together for her.  Once we started working on it, she finished it in record time! I asked if she wanted another stitchery, and she said yes -- she wanted a monkey.  So I found a cute monkey coloring page for her, kitted it up, and handed it over.  I've blogged about all of this, but I don't think I ever shared a finished picture of her monkey stitchery . . .

She was very proud of her finish.  She did a great job!

We put it in a wood hoop and made it ready to hang on the wall over her bed. So cute!

I told her when she finished that she should let me know when she was ready and I'd prep another project for her.  I didn't press . . . I didn't want her to feel obligated . . . so I was thrilled when she approached me two weeks ago and said she was ready for another stitchery project! I asked what she wanted to work on and suggested something seasonal, and she decided on a snowman.  She even drew out a concept drawing!

I love how she included the hoop! She had a vision ... so I put it together . . .

And kitted it out for her.  I even got a spool of metallic light blue by Au Ver à Soie from The French Needle, which is perfect for snowflakes -- the asterisk snowflakes ... not the french knot snowflakes! If it were just me, for such a small piece, I'll probably be okay using a DMC metallic—but I wanted Ellie to be able to use a super easy to work with metallic floss!

Within a couple of days of receiving the kit, Ellie sent me this picture her mama had taken:

The girl really loves to stitch!  She still had the french knots to stitch, but she needed some hands-on tutoring for those! I did ask if she'd like to finish it out in a patchwork setting, instead of just in the hoop, like her prior two finishes. She was really excited about that idea!

I decided I needed to test the whole thing before I put it in her lap, so I stitched up the design for myself (taking a few liberties, like satin stitching his nose, and using metallic floss for the holly and berries, as well as the snowflakes):

Y'all, I'm so glad I tested this out, first. Yikes! But I worked through the design issues and it turned out okay. I stitched-in-the-ditch quilted it, and then quilted simple snowflakes in the corners. 

Super cute! Well, I think so, anyway.  :)

Ellie's picked out the prints she would like to use to frame her stitchery:

The blue (Fairy Frost) print will be the star, the snowflakes will be the background, and the dark, starry night will be for the backing/binding. All of them have a little bling. Not only can the girl stitch, she can pick fabrics, too! I gave her the option of hand-stitching the patchwork or machine stitching it.  She's still contemplating!  If I can publish this in time, I'll go ahead and link up to the slow stitching linky party at Kathy's Quilts!

Sawyer had his last soccer game of the season.  I love this action shot . . .

He's kicking the winning goal ... Go Sawyer!  He was voted MVP for this game!  What a great way to finish the season!!  (All the exclamation points!!!)

From oldest grandson to youngest . . .

Isn't this precious?!  Such a sweet baby boy!  He's growing, growing!! ♥

Have a fabulous week!

:)