so much to say . . .

Do you know how long it's been since I've submitted a stash report??  About the same length of time it's been since I had anything to report!

Isn't that sad?!?  But finally, I do have a little something to throw out there, so there it is.

I finished up my wool apple stitchery . . .

And it's just fitting perfectly in its little spot.  

Glad I got it finished in time to give it a little 'air' time before moving to the big guns . . .

Which, who am I kidding, the pumpkins have already started making a pretty strong showing . . . 

Tea (which a sweet friend brought back from her trip to Gatlinburg, TN, for me).

Creamer (which my sweet husband spied and brought home).

Even my coloring sheets! Do you color?  I adore coloring -- it's so relaxing and fun!

Here's a fun freebie I pulled down off the Dover Samples.  I subscribe to their weekly samples, not just because of the coloring -- in fact, that's secondary -- but because of the potential *stitchery* and crayon tinting patterns!!  Always thinking, this one.  ;)

My coloring has taken a turn to Bible art journaling, which I'm loving.

I'm working my way through the Book of Proverbs (part of a challenge for a Bible study I'm facilitating, Lysa Terkeurt's The Best Yes).

Todd and I spent a good portion of the past two days over at our house, clearing out the painting supplies, touching up trim, and thoroughly cleaning it all . . .

I'm so ready to be done with this house!  Hopefully the market is at a point where we can successfully sell it. I do not want to rent (ever again) it, if we can help it. Anyone out there wanting to move to Alabama?! It's got a GREAT room for quilting! Haha!

And it's the land of cotton!! Bahaha!  

Anyway, as we were leaving, I snagged up some leaves from the magnolia tree out front.  I've always wanted to make a simple wreath from magnolia leaves and saw one a couple of months or more ago on [I *think*] the Better Homes & Gardens website.  For the life of me I couldn't find it again, but I had the picture in my mind pretty solidly, so this is what I came up with . . .

Have mercy, I think it took me longer to pick the leaves than to make the wreath! I already had the ribbon, so that was nice, and I actually used cardstock for my 'base'. I sprayed the finished piece lightly with a little gold glitter. Yay! The Nook's door needed a little something something!

Speaking of the Nook, after I finished up the wreath, I used up some of  that stash fabric . . . I made a simple little pillow cover for my love seat. 

I've been meaning to do this for a long time -- and eventually want to do something a little more involved with some quilting -- but this will suffice for the time being! I love the colors in that purple. It's hard to see, but it's burnt orange, purple, brown, and just a tad red. It's true autumnal fabric to me. One look around the camp's Serenity Pond and you can see what I mean . . .

The sumac trees are always the first to start changing and gosh, they are just beautiful right now!

And finally, look what Todd brought in to me yesterday morning . . . 

A new turtle hatchling!  They're so darling when they've just 'broken free'!  And not shy in the least little bit!

Time to hit the road to church this morning . . . linking up to Patchwork Times.  Have a wonderful day and thanks for indulging this longish post!!

:)

i'm still around . . .

Ummmmm . . . it's been a while.  But I have NOT fallen off a cliff, been swept away by a flood, or been the victim of turtle anarchy.

Just busy!

Ellie came over and had her first RV sleepover!  She did a great job and was the perfect little overnight guest.  She even helped me make meringue cookies . . .

By being the royal taste-tester!  Haha!

Then I spent a lovely long weekend with Sawyer and June . . .

While their mommy and daddy were in the hospital, having Olivia Mae!

Isn't she just darling?!  I'm completely enamored all over again and so is Sawyer. Can you blame us?! June, on the other hand, is still not quite sure. She's not happy with the fact that her spot in mommy's lap has been usurped!

I've done absolutely nothing quilty/stitchy in forever (unless you include purchasing patterns -- I got two -- more later). In fact, last week I told Todd I really felt the need to get some crafting on, or I'd burst!  We had a ladies' event at church and the theme was flip flops, so I made a little wreath.  

It was fun, fast, and relatively inexpensive . . . only $15 and all my materials came from Dollar General!  I was very tickled with the way it turned out and the winner (we used it as both decoration and door prize) was very pleased!

We had all the kids and grandkids up at the camp for Father's Day.  It was a wonderful afternoon/evening of celebrating and eating and listening to the grands laugh and play!  I'd wanted to get a photo of Todd and I with all of them, but forgot to mention it until *after* we'd eaten dinner, ice cream cake, and played in the hot, humid, buggy camp!  Oh well, this is REAL life!

I wouldn't trade it for all the bug spray in the world!!

:)

a whole lot of ho-ho-holiday fun . . .

Thanksgiving was lovely and fun . . . 

. . . and the holiday somehow slipped into December without me realizing it! I'd say I was shocked or surprised--but really, it's the eleventh time it's happened this year, so I'm just accepting it. C'est la vie!

Ellie and I started the month off right by making our first Christmas craft of the season on Tuesday:

A hands and foot print Rudolph!  Isn't it darling?  We made four . . . one for me, and three for Jocelyn and whoever she wanted to share them with.

Wednesday, Kim and James brought Sawyer and June and a friend and her three children up to the camp for a candy cane scavenger hunt!  Isn't that awesome? They brought a picnic lunch and then after they ate, while the kids played on the playground, James and I hid the loot.

They all had a great time and went home with buckets full of fun Christmas cheer and treasure!

Thursday was my Stitchers Etc. stitch group Christmas party.  As always, we're to bring an ornament to exchange, wrapped in a Christmas fat quarter.  I found a darling sewing machine ornament at Cracker Barrel:

I spruced it up by making its own mini quilt out of the same material it was wrapped in.  It was really cute--so much so that I may go back to Cracker Barrel and get another two or three of those!  I also came home with a really darling ornament . . .

I adore holly, so this really made me squeal with delight!  It was wrapped in a darling fat quarter, but I'll share that later (wink, wink).

Friday morning, I picked Sawyer up and we met Jocelyn and her kindergarten class at the Von Braun Center, where they were showing Disney's Princesses and Heroes on Ice!!  It was *awesome*!!

I think the look on Sawyer's face speaks volumes!  He and I both had a blast -- he was transfixed by it all and I spend half my time watching the show and the other half watching his sweet face!

Friday evening, I worked on/finished up a little button craft I'd started . . .

I've seen these all over Pinterest and had determined I was going to make my own!  I finished it up and Todd and I declared it The Polar Express night.  Of course, you can't watch that movie without a nice mug of 'gourmet' hot chocolate!

I'm proud to say I still hear the bell ring.  Just sayin'.

The week has been *so* busy ... non-stop motion ... so I decided today would be 'stay in your pj's' day.  It was lovely!  Todd had a Sunday school get together with his class (at someone else's house) this afternoon, so it was just me and my sewing machine!!  Remember that FQ my ornament was wrapped in?  I put it to perfect use . . .

As the background for my Christmas tree!  The brightly colored packaged made the perfect backdrop, don't you think?  I started and finished it today.  I love, love, love this and I'm so glad to have a festive Christmas something to replace the pumpkin in my mini quilt stand.  Hahaha!! Working with all the buttons and beads for the wreath ornament got me wanting to play with more beads.  I used holographic thread to criss-cross the tree like garland (or lights) and then took a metallic silver and *paired* it with a dark, glossy red to quilt the cross hatches. I'd never run double thread through my machine before ... I liked the effect. So FUN!

Friday kicked off The REAL Studio Tour sponsored by Vicki Welsh of Field Trips in Fiber.  This week we were to share our favorite non-traditional tool.  One that wasn't a standard tool, but one borrowed from the garage or the kitchen or wherever.  To be honest, I had a really hard time with this one.  Because as non-traditional as my quilting and my quilting space are . . . my tools are pretty darn traditional!  The closest I could come up with is my window design wall . . .

The windows in the bunk room of the RV are slender and long . . . and one is the perfect place to hang an end of a vinyl tablecloth, so I can audition blocks.  Right now it's filled with assorted stitchery projects. Including the cornucopia....Ooops! That window is also doubles as a great place to hang my thread collection *and* my square hoop. I like having my threads just an arm's length away. Be sure to come back next Friday when we share our favorite storage methods!!

Time to tuck in . . . there's a whole new week of activities starting tomorrow morning . . . I *need* my beauty sleep!!

:)

my new obsession . . .

Gracious.  As if I needed a new obsession on top of those I've already got, right? Right.  There's no *help* for me . . . 

Or is there??!!!!

I'm talking about English paper piecing, which I absolutely adore!!

I've finished up my apple core columns and am now ready to stitch those together.  I'm hoping they go together as smoothly as the 9 columns went.  I numbered them (and marked them with an ↑) so I ensure I'd be able to easily figure out which one was first, last, and how they went in-between!

I was having so much fun EPP'ing those, that I decided to take my original design and put it together that way, too.

I've got the center done and have the pieces cut for the balance.  I decided to leave the outside edges of the yellow and orange pieces un-stitched, so that I can trim them to a 1/4" and stitch them to the purple fabric I want to use to set the block on point.  We'll see how that works.  Linking up my EPP projects to the HeLP linky party over at Sarah Did It!

In other news, we had a fabulous guild meeting last night.  Our guest speaker was Shelly Zeggart, of Why Quilts Matter fame.  Her program was wonderful, and we got to watch one of the episodes of the documentary.  If you've not heard of this program, you really need to check out the trailer for it:

My friend Melissa (of I am Beautiful Bee) and I went in together and purchased the DVD set.  I can't wait to watch the whole thing!

Another perk from last night?  My darling friend Jane gifted me with a pattern for a pinwheel wreath.

She'd made one last year and I fell in love with it -- you can see hers HERE;  it's about halfway through the post.  Isn't it DARLING!?  And wasn't that sweet of Jane to remember how much I liked it?  I also came away with a tidy little bundle of fabrics and some romantic stencils.

My cup (aka my fabric bin) overfloweth!  That will put a little spike in my stash reporting (and my fabric obsession) ... but I'll wait until we return from Maryland -- just in case I happen to acquire some fabric while I'm gone.  Who knows, right?!

I found a REALLY CUTE youtube tutorial for making origami dresses.  As soon as I saw the finished product, I thought it would make the *perfect* place card for a little girl's tea party!  So of course, I tried my hand at it, because I also have an obsession for all things tea!

They got better/easier as I got them done.  I made one and figured out where I'd put the name -- then I was able to run the paper through the printer and cut out my squares.  The tutorial can be found HERE.  For these particular dresses, my paper was 4.5" by 3.5".

And let's wrap this post up with an *old* obsession of mine . . . 

CHOCOLATE!  I had just enough ingredients to make a batch of my favorite fudgie One Bowl Brownies and frost them with ganache!  Doesn't get much better than that, does it?

Cheerio!

:)

fancying up the place . . .

For as long as we've lived up at the Camp (which was three years on November 9 -- this year is our fourth Christmas here), I've always, always wanted to do this:

The first year, though, we didn't have an electric powered iron gate -- we had cattle gates (and you had to get out of the car and unlock the chains, drive through, then get out again and lock 'em back up).  And Todd said he wasn't sure he really wanted to advertise that people were living up here.

The next year, I wasn't walking very well -- and I didn't do a whole lot of shopping.

In 2011, I wasn't walking *anywhere*!  I'd had the second surgery and was non-weight bearing.

But this year??!  This was MY year!  LOL!

I love how it looks -- so festive and pretty!  Isn't it amazing how a simple wreath and red bow can gussy up a place?!?  I mean really;  what's the point of having a pretty iron gate, if you're not going to hang a wreath on it at Christmas time?!

Don't forget -- the pillow fun continues on!  Be sure to check out today's hop participants:

Quilt n Queen

Keep your fork There's pie

Quilts My Way

Grandma's Stories

Quiltscapes

Espritpatch

Quilt on the Edge

Farm Road Ramblings

Rose Prairie Quilts and Farm

Peach Patch Quilts

Cherry's Prairie Primitives

Mary Jo - that other blog

Make it a great day!

:)

stitchin' and stashin' (report #47) . . .

Since I didn't do *any* fabric/craft shopping this past week, I really didn't expect to have *anything* to report . . . but I had a happy little surprise from Barbara, at Cat Patches.  I won her Fun Fact Freebie Friday giveaway last week and this pretty little fat quarter found its way to my PO Box this week:

Isn't it perfect??  Christmas PLUS metallic PLUS purple!!!  ♥Love!♥ 

Used/donated this week: 1.5 yards

Used/donated year-to-date: 47.0 yards

Purchased/added this week: .25 yards

Purchased/added year-to-date: 172.75 yards

Net used/donated for 2012: -125.75 yards

Be sure to head over to Patchwork Times and check out what stash *enhancements* happened this past week!

I had a very productive, if quiet, day yesterday!  I got my sewing bunk room back in ship-shape order and I finished up my Snowman Wreath:

Isn't he darling?!  Although he rather blends into the white door, doesn't he?!  

I also worked a bit on my Holiday Lane Pillow for the blog hop.  My day is Tuesday!  Wanna a little peek?

I took the construction of my little pillow . . . outside the box, you might say.  I can't wait to share it with you!

I'll probably work on this little piece this afternoon for a bit . . . 

Poor thing.  It's been so long since I started this series, the trace marks are barely visible any more!  I may have to go over them again before I start my Slow Stitching Sunday afternoon!

Have a GREAT day!

:)

drab design wall . . .

I got nothing for you this morning.  Nothing I can show.  My mini-hexies quilt is still being quilted . . . I've got gifts I'm working on (no peeking!) . . . a hop pillow I'm working on (Holiday Lane Pillow blog hop begins Wednesday!) . . .

a couple of swap quilts I'm working on . . . and June's baby quilt.  I guess I could show a picture of that . . .

I *did* convert the bear paw block to a 3.5" block in EQ ... so it's ready for mini-quilt construction (some day)!  

I think this is the setting I've settled on.  This was inspired by Judy's design wall last week.  It probably still needs some tweaking, but I decided I really like the darker sashing, especially with the lighter strips offsetting the bear's paws in the blocks themselves.

I've got another wreath I want to make.  I've got all the materials, so perhaps soon.  This one, that I saw in the craft shop in Maryland . . .

Only with a hat.  He's calling me pretty loudly (I think you can probably see why).

The sewing bunk room is still a mess and that tends to crush my will to be creative.  I need to do something about that (other than take pictures that I'm too embarrassed to post).  

But being on my feet for too, too long has been something I've resisted over the last two weeks.  The stitches are coming out of my foot this morning, though, so perhaps this week will be the week!  (Yeah, because tidying the sewing bunk room rates right up there with my Ellie day, taking Sawyer to the fire station for dinner with Paw-paw, and getting ready for Thanksgiving.) 

Maybe next week?

Maybe I need *more* inspiration . . . so I'm heading over to Judy Laquidara's Patchwork Times to look at other design walls.  If her internet has been up and working.  If not, maybe it's all a SIGN!  

Happy Monday!

:)