always changing . . .

Not a whole lot going on to show here today. I managed to change up the design of my class quilt (again) . . . 

Here's my EQ layout. It's a respectable 60" by 60" now, so I think I'm done changing things!  I added the four corner blocks (which are just a tad different) and increased the width of the sashing and borders.

The blocks (laid out here in the order I planned to stitch them together) are now sashed and ready to have the borders stitched on.  I'd like to have that done before class on Tuesday!

I worked on it yesterday, until I had to leave to help with our guild's New Member Tea.

We had a pretty setup for our finger foods and tea station, and a great crowd, too!

It was a fun day!

I know what I said earlier in the week about what I might stitch next, but I got to looking through my rather extensive collection of files on my laptop (close to 4,000) and came across this heart . . . 

It's actually a coloring page I downloaded from Don't Eat the Paste.  Coloring pages really lend themselves to double as embroidery designs! I thought it might be fun set on point, in a crazy quilt-like patchwork block.  Plus, it looks easy to transfer. LOL! I'm thinking I'll use cotton perle and stitch out a pierced backstitch.  

That's enough from me this morning.  Linking up with Kathy's Quilts this morning; be sure to check out all the Slow Stitching that's happening this Sunday and have a terrific day!  Happy Groundhog Day!!  (I'm banking on an early Spring ... what about you?!?)

:)

this, that, and everything in between . . .

Looking back, it's been a fairly busy week/weekend!  It started snowing Tuesday afternoon, and continued well into the evening, giving us a full inch of pretty ground covering . . . 

Coming into the camp.  It took me ninety minutes to get home from work on Tuesday evening!

It was still pretty the next morning, too!

Wednesday I finished up the binding on the last of the Christmas quilts . . .

Three little lap quilts, all with their binding neatly stitched up! Ijust need to pop labels on them.

Thursday we had our annual Christmas Open House at work.  I enjoy getting things set up for it.  We generally have a good number of visitors come through the doors!

My favorite table of visitors . . .

The Christmas tree always makes a great backdrop for this pretty trio of girls:

Does that not just deck your halls?!!

Friday morning we had several visitors over for breakfast al fresco . . .

And along with running some Christmas errands and lunch at a new restaurant in town with Todd, I tried my hand at this darling fabric origami hexi ornament:

Well, I tried my hand twice . . .

These whip up very quickly and make a darling addition to a gift!  Not Afraid of Color shared theirs in a recent Slow Sunday Stitching post and also shared the video tutorial she'd used to make them.  You can find it right HERE!

Saturday, was all about tea!  My mom, Joc, Ellie, Evey and I headed to Chattanooga for a Victorian Christmas tea at Polly Claire's!

Four generations!

We had a very lovely time.  :)

Over Thanksgiving weekend, Mary Corbet at Needle 'n Thread released a darling set of snowflake embroidery patterns.  SO pretty!  I'd been watching the sample pieces on her instagram feed, and knew which one I was going to want to stitch up first . . . 

I couldn't wait for Sunday and have taken a few stitches, but this will definitely be my project for some much anticipated slow Sunday stitching!

And I'm using metallic floss, so it sparkles.  ♥

Linking up to the slow stitching post at Kathy's Quilts--stop by and see who's doing what!  

Have you seen one of the latest ornaments on my tree??

Isn't this hand-painted snow fellow the sweetest?  If you haven't entered my 'giftaway,' and you'd like one like him, be sure to check out my Pearl's Peg post!

Happy Sunday stitching!

:)

in and out and again . . .

I had high hopes for February, but they didn't carry me very far, huh? And then I went and had surgery on my left shoulder yesterday, which means March will be very hit or miss . . . 

one day post-op...huge, football-like shoulder pad

the rotator cuff tear, halfway repaired

Because I don't enjoy typing one-handed, and my laptop doesn't auto-correct or do speech-to-text!  LOL!  I know, I know, first world problems!  :)

I purposely scheduled my surgery for the end of February so that I could attend our Stitcher's retreat on the 20th.  What a glorious long weekend!  I love the group of ladies that attends, and particularly love the women--dear friends--I'm grouped with.  The five of us are a group of introverts, so we don't stress each other out!

I worked mostly on handwork. I felt productive at just the right level.  ;)

mug rug sample for April's 'Spring" theme

the third of these sweet little dresses I've embellished with embroidery!

I finished (finally) whipping together my Mod Flower Fall quilt.  What's funny is that I started this quilt at retreat 2018!  

the tables are 5' tables...yikes!

I really hope to have it finished by October of this year for the Fanfare Quilt Show, but I just don't know how realistic that is!

Earlier in the month, Joc and the girls joined me at work for a Valentine's Day tea party . . .

I was solo that day at the office, so it was just them and me, and we had a glorious time!

We also had a guild meeting in there somewhere . . . February was a mug rug swap month,  This was my offering: 

hand-quilted!

And this is the one I received:

It's such fun! The theme was "Think Pink."

This is the sampling of the rest of the mug rugs that were turned in for swap.  HQH membership is so talented and creative!

Our guild's overall theme for the year is collaboration.  To that end, members who collaborate on projects will be able to share their collaborations at the July meeting, and be eligible for prizes!  My friend Gail and I decided to collaborate on a patriotic version of the twisted pole runner, modified!

We're both very excited about working on the project!

Okay, enough for now.  I'm tired of typing!  LOL!

Happy March, happy Spring, happy weekend! 

:)

teabloom party for five . . .

So, bear with me. Here I am nearly two weeks out from surgery, but still have no use of my right arm/hand. Which means typing is a joy. Not! The easiest way for me to do this was to use my speech to text on my phone, and email it to myself so I could cut and paste it into my blog. LOL!

All in all, though, I'm recovering well and feeling good. Jocelyn and her girls paid me a visit this week and that was such happy medicine! We had a tea party (of course), with a lovely new teapot and tea from a new-to-me company called TeaBloom. 

When I updated/freshened up my blog, I spent a good deal of time checking/adding links and content on my All Things Tea page. Evidently it must have caught the attention of online merchandisers, because TeaBloom contacted me and asked if I'd be willing to try their products and add their link to the tea page. Of course!

Pre-surgery I shared a pic of a pretty glass butterfly....which graced the lid of the teapot I chose....the Wings of Love teapot.

Isn't it pretty? I knew the grandgirls would love it! It came with two blooming flower teas, but it also has a pretty glass infuser for loose teas. 

I showed the ball of tea to Evey and Ellie and they wondered over it and sniffed it (and it had a wonderful 'bouquet')....but let's face it. It was a brown ball and nothing special. 

Until you added hot water. 

The girls were captivated watching it unfurl into a beautiful flower! I have to admit I was pretty captivated, too. 

Not only was it pretty tea, it was tasty tea!  It was a light green tea, but very full flavor and bright. A nice pick-me-up tea! (Plus, it could be re-steeped with fresh hot water.) I highly recommend TeaBloom for their teas and tea wares.  

Even Edith Rose thought it was delicious! And don't let her diminutive size fool you ... girl knows what she wants and she wanted her own cup of tea!

Mind you....neither Jocelyn nor I managed to get any other pics of the girls. My brain was still muddled from surgery. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!

No stitching yet...but I do go back to work Monday. I'm doing a lot of blog reading, just not so much commenting/typing. My PT is going well and the therapist tells me I have great range of motion. All positive things! The sling comes off July 30th. I *am* counting days (and it *will* be a JOY)!

Happy tea-drinking and happy weekend!

:)

it's tea time . . .

Guess what today is?  It's the day of the big reveal from the ninth annual tea cup and mug exchange!! Which, incidentally, I participated in for the first time this year. What a huge and fun blessing this exchange was! It's organized and sponsored by Stephanie, who blogs over at The Enchanting Rose (where a link up of all the participants can be found today!).

Being a lover of all things tea, I couldn't resist signing up and joining in on the fun! (And a huge thanks to Sarah for sharing it with me!)

The name I "drew" was Marilyn, from Mountain Top Spice, and it was *such* a pleasure to explore her blog and get to know her a little, so I could find the perfect tea cup to send to her! I forgot to take a single picture of what I sent her ... but she's done a nice job of it here (if you want to check out the pretty little Royal Albert Christmas cup I sent)!

As much fun as it was to shop for Marilyn, I have to say, it put quite a smile on my face to find this huge parcel in waiting for me at the post office! Cindy, who blogs over at Creations by Cindy, was my gifter, and she REALLY outdid herself and spoiled me ROTTEN!

Opening it up, my first thought was "Christmas"!  

Yep, I felt like a child on Christmas morning, coming out and seeing all the packages under the tree. Brown paper packages tied up in string?! Yipppeeee!! I spent the next thirty minutes or so unwrapping each little gift and oooohing and aaaaahing the entire time. By the time I'd finished, there was quite a large little spread of goodies . . .

OH MY GOODNESS! Do you see all this?!  Everything from teas, to cookbooks, journals, devotionals, fat quarters, socks and sweet little treats were in this box. I mean everything! But the focus was this beautiful, beautiful tea cup and saucer:

Wait. Take a closer look . . .

Isn't it beautiful?!  And it's a pedestal cup!  I just adore that! In all my favorite colors and trimmed out in gold leaf -- so, so very pretty.

What a treasure . . . Royal Crown 1969.  Wow! I was really tickled by this darling teapot frame, too:

I am trying to decide what picture I'll put in it. In the meantime, I'll put these two fat quarters to good use -- and in my favorite colors, blues and purple!  Just like the cute little socks!  

Gosh, Cindy really did a great job of filling my box with special treats that were meaningful to me. I think besides the precious tea cup and saucer, my favorite thing was this precious little box:

It's filled with encouraging verses from God's Word!  I just love this and have enjoyed pulling one out each day to meditate on and think about through the day -- Cindy was so creative putting this together, and I really just can't thank her enough for her generosity and thoughtfulness!

I so enjoyed this experience . . . and it will definitely be something I look forward to next year (especially since it all happens right around my birthday-haha-and y'all know how I feel about that!). A huge thank you to darling Stephanie for arranging this so faithfully, for nine years now!

Have a great day; tea is served!

:)