Pretty stuff for a Slow Sunday...

Hello- well it was another busy running around week... Fall definitely showed up and that was nice... much cooler weather... even an overnight "freeze warning" which I was kinda hoping will kill off a lot of the flowers in the garden ... but it didn't ... they are still blooming... and I find it very difficult to dig up stuff that is blooming... so the garden clean up remains on hold... but I'm just going to have to do it. Right now I'm thinking about the 1st or 2nd week of November... but I have to figure out when I'm going to have time to do it.

A new "normal" schedule has developed which has me in and out of the house almost every day... some of it is of my choosing, other things aren't. After running around M/T/W/Th I was all ready to stay home on Friday and get something done... but then Friday came and I was exhausted and just didn't feel well and spent most of the day sitting in my chair vegging... not sure how to manage things yet...but I'm working on it. 

Okay... enough whining... onto some pretty things!  I want to start off with this beautiful quilt top!!

all hand appliqued with my favorite American Jane fabrics... a gift from my sweet friend Darlene... isn't it AWESOME??  So many pretty prints and a million different background prints... Darlene you have a great stash!  Don't the colors just dance before your eyes? You just look and look and look and keep finding something new... here are some close ups...

But wait there's more!  

Three little mini quilts that will be perfect for my displays! Thank you so much Darlene!  I will treasure all of these forever!!

As for me showing something crafty this week, well, I didn't do any cross stitch or sewing this week... I did do some knitting but as you will see I couldn't focus and instead of getting maybe one sock fully knitted... I have two partially knitted socks... sigh... 

First is this tan pair... I used one Opal yarn here for the leg and a different mini skein for the heel which you  can barely see in this pic... 

Next is this green pair... both Opal yarns... I'm alternating the two yarns every other round and I thought it would be stripier... but they are  very similar... it is pretty subtle IRL... which is okay but not what I was really going for. 

I do like the orange bits... it breaks things up... but I really want to do something stripier... sooooo I'm contemplating starting a 3rd pair with two of these...

I think I should definitely use that gold-y one the left and then pick one of the green-y ones... Need to find another pair of circular needles... I know I have them. 

Not sure what I'll get into this week. I stalled on the BBD The Bells on Christmas Day sampler as the last row of letters isn't a full alphabet ... it just peters out after LMNO... and that bugs me...

and I've been thinking what I could substitute ... it already says Peace on Earth in the bottom half so that's not gonna work, and then it hit me... I could put in the initials of my family members... I like this a lot... and perhaps that will motivate me to pick this up in the next week. 

It will be the last week for my Halloween decorations... Trick or Treat is Friday night and I'm hoping we have some decent weather... the last several years Halloween has been cold or rainy or both... currently the forecast is for a dry night... I'm counting on it as I picked up two ginormous bags of candy at Costco... if the weather holds we will have a ton of kids and with the new porch/steps it will be so much easier to give out candy. 

Back to the decor... this is  the big display shelf ... 

at the top I have Bent Creek's Spooky Row...

And right below is Prairie Schooler's Trick or Treat... this is my FAVORITE Halloween piece! 

I think the colors on this work so well and I LOVE the little trick or treaters at the bottom... I love them so much that I stitched all of them a second time as little pillows ... you CAN NOT go wrong with stitching anything from Prairie Schooler IMHO... 

Moving down ...

This is Tricks or Treats  by With Thy Needle & Thread...  this one is an older chart of her's ... and you know I love pumpkin headed gals and she's so happy!! 

On the bottom shelf MORE pumpkin headed gals... the one on the left with the cute little checked skirt outfit is Boo to You by WTN&T ... the Spooky pumpkin is from Lizzie Kate ... 

and the one on the right is Halloween Queen from Notforgotten Farms... 

and did you spot the little pumpkin headed gal tucked in the back...she's one of the trick or treaters from PS Trick or Treat.  

Of course I hung my Gourdy Guys wreath...

and next to the door is Lizzie Kate's Boo Club. 

I do have a nice collection of Halloween stitching... and I really like painting fabric for Halloween pieces because you can use so many colors... orange, yellow, green, purple!  Next year I hope to have enough pieces to decorate out on the sunroom porch... there are so many cute Halloween charts ... the hard part is choosing what to stitch!

As I said at the beginning of this post my weeks are getting busy and this upcoming one is no exception... going to work out with Anna on Monday and  doing dinner that evening with friends. Elliott on Tuesday. Work out again with Anna on Wednesday.  Appointment to get my hair done on Thursday and Friday morning Elliott's school is doing a  Halloween parade... can't miss that!!! And none of these is an all day affair but somehow getting dressed and getting out of the house and then coming home disrupts my mojo to get something crafty done. I know I am blessed to be able to run around like this... so many wonderful people in my life and so far I can get myself where I need to be when I need to be there... but sometimes I feel the need for a little whine... and cheese...with crackers...LOL

Oh as a follow up to last week... I got a cortisone shot in my left hand on Monday.. it does seem to be helping the trigger finger... doc said to give it a week or so, if I don't get relief come back we'll do it again, and if that doesn't work then we'd talk about surgery... and on Tuesday last week I went and got a cortisone shot in my right knee... my "good" knee... it also seems to be helping. My left knee that I got the PRP shot in is giving me some trouble ... at the moment I'm probably going to try it again as  the only other option is knee replacement... arghh... getting old sucks! And going to get the cortisone shots involves two different doctors at two different locations but from the same provider... the doc who will give you a shot in your hand doesn't do knees and vice versa... so much specialization..

Thanks for listening to the whining today... I'm in a mood ... can you tell? LOL Plans for today are a birthday dinner for a family member and maybe some stitching on the sunroom porch... maybe...

I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts and check out what's happening over there... hope you have the kind of week that you want!!

and I'll leave you with this pic... 

Elliott made a fort out of the many quilts I've left at his house... and he Facetimed me to show me his creation... and then he said "thank you for making the quilts Grandma Carol"...needless to say I was a puddle of goo!

happy stitching-

carol fun