Mid-week and re-adjusting

 

Mom's leaving - again. 

And they have to make sure :) 

Tuesday was extremely busy, frustrating and emotional. Lots of highs and lows.

It started well enough with Christmas S-A-L stitching and Bible study, which is where I was headd when my pups watched me go. At least they had Pops for a bit longer and all to themselves.

And that's one of the highs/lows. Pops was headed back home today. Those five weeks had their own ups and downs - as all families do. Ours is struggling with the extremes at the moment, so Pops leaving was filled with mixed emotions. We did talk about another visit next year and made some plans. I'll have to work on the timing. We said we'd pay for the next trip because we need him to puppy sit for us for a few days. And maybe the next visit will be longer. But I think after five weeks he was ready to be in his own environment.

So what do I do with all my time and the quiet. . . .

 

The gardens look so neglected. You can tell from the roses that we've had frost, a little more damaging than I originally thought. I've removed the spent tomatoes from the veggie garden. I still need to harvest more broccoli, the rhubarb (which I'll take to mom on Thursday), carrots and rosemary (unfortunately, it doesn't survive over the winter even in the house). Once all the harvesting is done, hopefully it will be dry and warm enough to do the weeding before we go into winter.

My rain barrels are brimming and need to be emptied. But the ground is so saturated that I don't even have anywhere in the gardens to empty them. It's supposed to warm up by the weekend, so there will be plenty of yard work to finish up in preparation for winter. November is breathing pretty heavy.

 So time - it's not that Pops demanded so much of my day. It was nice for a time to have someone else to talk to during the day, share coffee with, run errands. He didn't always, but enough. It was hard watching him go, knowing we are going to miss him, but we have next year to look forward to :)

Now it's time to get busy on some monthly goals that have been patiently waiting for my attention. After doing some chores that were waiting for me and cleaning up the guestroom, I set about prepping my next block for the Gardeners Quilt. It's adorable :)

I've also prepped new fabric for the 9-patches :) 

Looking forward to working on these and hopefully getting them in the mail this week.

Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a creative day.

This week's goals

After a relatively productive weekend, I'm thinking about this week's goals and the end of the month.
I know there are still about 10 days before November arrives - but if those go as quickly as the rest of the month has gone, I'm in trouble !!

Here's what else I managed to accomplish over the weekend:

I finished Noel as soon as the pattern arrived - which, if you are familiar with Craftsy, you know is instantaneous.

 

I've sinced purchased all six of these sweet little stitcheries. I have two more finished and working on number four. Right on goal :)

I have an insurance inspection coming up this week for new home owners insurance and have had to kick the de-cluttering into high gear.  I really should have put him off until next week.....

Don't you just love when the postman brings you bundles of love? I received another set of 9-patches. I LOVE them. Thank you, Dorothy :)

Thank you for stopping by,

Wishing you a creative day.

Sunrise

7 a.m. Sunday morning.

Sunrise takes on a whole new appearance mid-October.

It's been grey and wet all week - looks like more of the same today.

Temperature on Saturday was only in the mid-40s - a little unseasonably cool. 

I don't feel like we've had our Indian Summer yet - temperatures have only gotten to the low 80s and dropped again into the 40s. But there is still time, of course. There is still end of the season gardening to do, it's difficult to do in the cold and wet but will still need to be done. I've decided the tomatoes are finished. It was a good harvest throughout September and early October for them.  Broccoli is still sharing a handful every three or four days, but almost there. It does well in the cooler temperatures. There are a few squash and peppers that need to come out before the next frost, and finally the carrots before the ground freezes.

Time to get ready to go to church.

Thank you for stopping by,

Wishing you a restful, creative day.

And the results are in . . .

I hope everyone had a productive Friday night sewing and stitching :) Thank you Wendy for being such a gracious hostess. I spent some time this morning checking out what everyone was up to - so many wonderful projects being done.

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My Friday night started Friday morning . . . early . . . about 6 a.m. :)

I worked on my Tilda quilt.

I'm stuck on the binding. Having to decide on a color. Worst case, I'll use the border fabric for the binding - I have more :) And in an effort to use what I have and not purchase new, I think that's exactly what I'm going to do. It feels so good to be this close to a finish !

I added a few more rub-ons on the headboard of the doll cradle. I now, finally, consider it finished.

Saturdays aren't very productive on the crafting front due to family obligations, so I try to do things that I can walk away from during the day. Evenings are pretty much mine, except reviewing the Sunday School lesson.  

My afternoon project was inspired by a package I recieved in the mail . . .

I received these lovely 9-patches from Susan.  Thank you, Susan. I absolutely love them.  I can't wait until I've collected enough to begin a quilt.

So to that end, I worked on my own 9-patches. I have several more to finish for the swap.

These are leftovers from a couple of different projects, the most recent being my Tilda quilt :)

Not to worry, I won't be sending pink to a certain someone :)

I also managed to make some time to draw off five of the six Christmas Stitch-A-Long patterns from the lovely Wendy. 

My goal is to finish one each day and maybe finish the runner next weekend.

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Hope this Saturday has been relaxing and productive for all of you.

Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a productive weekend.

Friday "Night" Sew-In

I LOVE Friday nights - - - a good movie, some stitchery, a tasty snack :)

So what is everyone up to?  Here are my plans:

First of all, my Friday Night Sew-In began Friday morning.

My weekdays begin at 5:30 a.m. Once Honey-Do leaves for work, I do my Bible study, make my to-do list and begin working on my project for the day. BFF and I have a system we call 30/30. We spend 30 minutes doing chores off the to-do list and 30 minutes working on our projects. It's amazing how much we get done in a given day.

So my "Friday Night Sew-In" began early and will last all day - Lucky me :)

So, I'm working on Tilda :)

 

And I'm starting with putting away all the floss I used working on this project. YES !!! the applique work is complete !!!

Happy Dance 

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The top is all sewn, on to the border decision making process . . . 

  

  

  

  

I had plenty of fabric choices. But nothing really grabbed me. I enlisted BFF and Honey-Do to help me decide.

The final dcision is a red floral border. I decided on a wide border - nine inches !!!

It covers the top of our queen size bed.

Now the binding . . .

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Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a productive day.

And another week bites the dust !!!

This is just ridiculous that time is flying by.  October is officially have over !!

Here's what I've been up to:

9-patches 

Dueling sewing machines with Sister finishing a quilt she started.

I've been working furiously on my Tilda quilt. I have one more large to finish and a small one. I'm looking forward to adding borders to this one at FNSI, which is being hosted by the ever lovely Wendy of Sugarland Quilts.

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Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a creative day.

Dueling Sewing Machines

Today was a legal holiday in the United States and since Sister works for a municipal court, she got the day off and asked if I would help her finish a quilt she started. Of course, I said yes. 

In order to help her get some sewing done quickly we set up our machine opposite it other and went to "dueling". She sewed up one side and I down the other and before you know it the top was done !!

My bed is queen size and her quilt covers the top and down both sides.  She's a new quilter and did all this work on her own. This is only her second quilt !!  She's doing a remarkable job !! So proud of her.

We got to the sandwich stage and found that she was short of backing fabric. Since the top was so much bigger than she anticipated, we decided not to go out and purchase more fabric but to use the remnants she had left and came up with this strip on the back. Once it was all said and done, more than six hours had gone by and she has all the parts for her quilt. We'll get together in a few weekds to sandwich it on a flat surface - there wasn't enough room anywhere in my house to do that - and get it basted for her. She was a very happy lady when she left for home. :)

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When I wasn't helping Sister with the quilt, I managed to get some chores done and some stitchery on the first of the final four blocks for my Tilda quilt. So happy to be working on it. I had a pretty successful week with Jenny's tutorial, so am looking forward to giving some more of my projects some much needed attention.

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We are almost half way throug October !!! To help us stay focused/get focused there's a little gathering every third Friday - Friday Night Sew-In.  It is being hosted by the lovely Wendy. I'm positive she won't mind if I extend the invite to you :) Head on over and get all the details and sign-up. Looking forward to a crowded house :)

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Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a creative day.