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! 

:)

back in the saddle . . .

I'm just going to go ahead and admit that I had a hard time typing the post title without laughing.  I know me!

December got busy and then January did too, and now look, only two more days and it's February!  Good gravy . . . please don't tell me 2019 is going to move even more quickly than 2018?!

We had a lovely Christmas time. Our office closed midday on the 20th of December and didn't reopen until January 7!  What a smashing break!  We hung out with family and ate out and did Christmas things. Our Christmas Eve tradition is to go to church with Joc and her family, and then go out for dinner, and then head back to her house to for desserts and to read the Christmas Story. 

My contribution towards dessert was a traditional Bûche de Noël . . . 

I hadn't made one in ages and it was so fun to do!  It's a very light cake so while it looks really decadent and indulgent, it's really not!  Win, win!  All our desserts that evening looked amazing!

 

Jocelyn made figgy pudding and fudge, the girls made the gingerbread house, and my mom made the cookie platter and the eggnog cake!

And since I'm doing Christmas, here's my Panter kids! ♥

For Christmas, Todd and I had decided to forego getting each other big Christmas, and instead to get ourselves an Opal Nugget countertop ice maker for the RV.  It makes the pellet--sometimes referred to as Sonic--ice.  We have absolutely loved having it and I'm pretty certain it was the first time I've ever had iced tea on Christmas day! LOL! Of course, introducing such a significant countertop appliance to the RV meant we had to do some rearranging . . . 

So that whole end of the RV kitchen/countertop space is now ... a drink station. Haha! The corner space was pretty useless for anything other than decor, anyway, so I'm enjoying having my tea things there. Eventually we'll be a table to go over the trash can and put the Opal on top of that, and give me back some counter space!

I didn't do resolutions this year.  Or even goals.  Instead, after a lot of thought and prayer, I decided to do "disciplines" -- and even made DISCIPLINE my word for 2019.  

My thought is that each month, I'll choose one discipline that I want to focus on, to improve me -- whether physically, mentally or spiritually -- and by the end of the year, I'll have twelve disciplines under my belt and be the better for it. To help me stay focused, I got this cute little bracelet . . . 

I'm sure it'll make all the difference. Stop spending money was obviously not January's discipline. Teehee! :)

New Year's Day I started with my Stitcher's ETC. group ... we annually have breakfast at Cracker Barrel together, and then go on to an LQS to shop the sales.

It was a great group of ladies that morning -- fifteen of us!  Pretty impressive considering the date! These ladies rock!  :)

We celebrated Ellie's SEVENTH birthday on the 10th of this month.  Where has the time gone?  

It seems like just yesterday she was this tiny little baby, I could hold snuggled up to my chest, with her sweet downy little head tucked up under my chin.  Sigh.

I've not done a lot of sewing this month.  Though Todd did break our Christmas gift agreement and bought me a pretty little Janome for traveling!

I did stitch up a seat cover for his recliner . . . and a heart mug rug or two for our guild's February swap . . . but other than that, I've been lax. I'm saving most of my handwork for retreat in February! 

Speaking of stitching related Christmas gifts, Joc and her crew got me a lovely book by Kathy Schmitz,  Stitches from the Yuletide.  I've had her Stitches from the Harvest, and absolutely loved it, so I knew I'd enjoy the whimsy of the Christmas-themed book.  

She also gifted me with a gift certificate to Attic Heirlooms, which I promptly used on some fun things . . . 

And the Panter crew sent me a set of tiny-tipped clips!  

Mary Corbet, of Needle 'N Thread, had talked about using them in her stitching projects and I thought that was a must-have gadget ... for the win!

I also scheduled my left shoulder surgery for the end of February. The right one is back to 98%  and the left one is nagging me to no end, so it's time.  We go on retreat February 20-24, and my surgery is scheduled for the 28th.  Whew!

I can't think of much else to share.  Slowly switching from snowmen to hearts; does that count?

I mean, I'm sure there is tons, but this is only one post (and it's already heavy laden with photos), so I'll behave.  Auld lang syne!

:)

christmas ornament swap . . .

Greetings!! It's been so CRAZY!  I love this season so very much, but it is time consuming, ya' know?!?

Stephanie, over at The Enchanting Rose, hosted a sweet ornament exchange this year, and I participated in it!  I was gifted to by Deb, a non-blogger, who took some time to get to know me (via my blog) and really found the perfect little ornament for my tree . . .

Isn't that precious?!  A s'more snowman! Just perfect for me!  In addition, she added some fun little happies to go with the ornament:

What a happy package!

I had the privilege of gifting to Cindy at Creations by Cindy -- who, funnily enough, had gifted me in a prior teacup exchange!  So it was fun to be able to shop and gift her!

I chose a snowflake ornament (funny how the theme of both what I was gifted and what I was given was snow!) and a few little happies to go with it.  

This was a fun exchange and I so appreciate Stephanie for hosting it -- linking up to her blog for the swap exchange!

In other news, I went with Ellie and Evey to see . . .

We did the (home)school field trip performance, and it was a lot of fun! The director came out during the intermission and talked to the children about ballet and introduced some of the performers. The girls enjoyed the bird's eye view of the stage and being able to see the orchestra.

The girls took turns sitting next to me . . . and afterwards we went to lunch at a girlie restaurant. Terrific day!

The next weekend I watched the girls while their mommy and daddy went on a date.  We made ornaments!

Aren't these fun?!  They did such a great job making the dough, cutting them out, and painting their own ornaments (and handprints) Even Edith wanted in (and got in on) the action! "Cook -- I cook!"

These are such sweet sister. It's a joy to have them close.

And then there's these three . . . 

Gosh I wish I could be doing Christmas fun things with them!  Look how grownup and beautiful/handsome they are ... I miss them so.  :)

On the homefront, I did get the RV decorated . . . 

Yay!  I love turning on all the Christmas lights and the fireplace and just sitting quietly.  It's my favorite place to do my quiet time!

And I decided yesterday that I wanted to make something to gift to my co-worker ... tomorrow.  LOL!

So I've been busy working on this, too!!

Enough for now . . . if I don't make it back here before Christmas, have a very merry day!

:)

to sum it up . . .

It was a very quilty week! On Sunday and Monday, I finished up the seven hexie flowers that needed whipping together . . .

All forty-five flowers (and parts thereof) were together, stacked and ready to "landscape" my garden!

Monday was a dual purpose day . . . a quilty friend of mine and I headed to visit 3 Hens and a Chick, a local quilt shop in nearby Athens. 

Sarah's one of my co-conspirators in the Quilting Intrigue Club at guild and we've been ironing out the details for our guild's mystery quilt, which we'll introduce (fabric requirements) at this month's meeting. I actually picked out fabrics for the quilt while we were there (I've got to stay at least one step ahead):

The yardage on the right is for the mystery quilt. It's QT Fabric's Whisper (with the exception of the middle piece which was Oasis Fabric's Romance). Isn't this line yummy???!!! It's whimsical and sophisticated, all at the same time. I'm so excited to work with it! The fat quarters on the left were ... well, just fun finds (an in case you couldn't tell, I was already scoping suitable oranges for 2019's pumpkin projects)!  ;)

I mean gosh, there were a lot more shelves in the shop than the one that held the Whispers line. I had to browse shop them all!

From the quilt shop we headed into the square in Athens and stopped for lunch at the local tearoom. 

Aren't our spiced chais fun??

I had commitments after work on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings; generally I wasn't getting home until after 9 p.m., so not much evening stitching until Thursday -- I don't have to get up for work on Fridays -- so when I got home Thursday, Todd put a movie in and I started working on my 'gardening'!

Friday was a kicked back day.  Todd and I went out and had an early lunch and did some shopping. I also did a little grocery shopping so we'd have 'game day' food for the SEC Championship game on Saturday.  Sausage balls and pigs in a blanket! Plus I got ready to celebrate the Advent of Christmas with the Advent teas the Merkel family had gifted me with for my birthday . . . 

A different tea for each day leading up to Christmas! I thought it would be fun to hang a week's worth of them (and prudent, so I wouldn't forget) over our coffee/tea station! Do you want to know how hard it's been to wait over a month to start trying these teas?!?  :)

Through the weekend I've worked in earnest on the Mod Flower Fall project . . .

This sheet has been SO helpful through every stage of this project. I've now whipped up ten of the sixteen rows, and stitched the first four rows together. 

I don't think ... even though I knew the dimensions from plotting it out in EQ ... that I am prepared for how BIG this is going to be. LOL!  Just these first seven rows are over 4' in length. I'm stitching up the rows individually, first.  Then I'll stitch the rows together in sections ... and then finally I'll stitch the sections together.  I think that'll make it the most manageable. 

Saturday, in between the Texas vs. Oklahoma and the Alabama vs. Georgia games (Roll Tide!), I went out into the Nook for a bit of machine sewing.  I stitched together the first pole twist valance, backed and turned it.  It still needs to be quilted, but I love this look!

It'll be fun to have it hanging over the window across from where I sit, so I can SEE it. I also did some teeny, tiny blocks for the matching mug rug.

I was channeling my inner rogue quilter for this bitty thing -- 1-1/4" HSTs!!  I've got fabric cut for the second valance, and I still need to work on the matching runner.  But I'm confident after finishing the first one that it'll all stitch together quickly!

Today's slow stitching will definitely be back at the hexie flowers ... making that garden grow! Linking up with Kathy's Quilts for that.  May your Sunday be filled with blessing and rest ... so you're ready to face Monday and a new week!!

:)