Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm all set for Thanksgiving tomorrow! The turkey is brining. I made our family's favorite sweet potato recipe - recipe above - click on the image to see it bigger. This is from my absolute favorite cookbook:

from the city where I grew up. I think it's one of the best selling Service League cookbooks of all time. It's still in print decades later. My copy is well worn and stained from frequent use!

I've made the cornbread dressing, and a broccoli salad. There's pumpkin pie and rolls and cranberry sauce. More sides and pies arriving tomorrow with my in-laws. Hubby helped with housework today and everything is polished and ready. We'll have a total of 8 for our late lunch, though none of them will be spending the night. I wish my Mom were coming, but my brother is taking good care of her. Actually, I think she's done a bunch of the cooking for their meal.

Friday we have out-of-towners coming to stay for the big game weekend here.

I'm usually a real stickler for waiting until AFTER Thanksgiving to put out Christmas decorations. But this year I made an exception because our next two weekends will be very busy. So the halls are decked.

It's really a bit of a relief to have all this done already. I've even finished my Christmas shopping! Oh my! Can't believe I'm so on top of things this year. I see a lot of sewing taking place during the month of December.

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Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Mystery Quilt Top is Done!

I worked on this all morning and got the border on - yippee! I'm very pleased with the results, though it needs a very good pressing. Click this picture to see it closer.

When I got near the end of this project I realized I was missing some instruction, but I just kept plugging away.

Now that the top is done I have one clue leftover. Hmmm. Not sure where this was supposed to go. Oh well, it looks good to me. This will go into the scrap bin.

ME Time

I've been treating myself to some "ME" time this week. I've been working on projects just for fun, just for me. I put together the background for the Sue Spargo Swag Bag this morning. Now it's ready to stitch down the wool and do the embellishments.  Instead of circles, I cut teal hexies from some of the wool. Gotta' put my own touch on it!

And here's a peak at one of my leaves in the Leaf Play sampler. Yes, I put a hexie on it! I think my new mantra is "Put a hexie on it!" Hexies make everything better, I think.

I'm also working away on my guild mystery quilt. The top is supposed to be done by Thursday evening. And I think I'll actually make the deadline.

Loving the weather we're having: sunny and mild. The doggies like it too.

Applique for Today

I spent the morning with a needle and thread. A bit of applique here.

And a finished wool/velvet leaf there.

The rest of the day we were at the football game. I'm glad to be settled in for the evening. Maybe I'll pick up the needle and thread again.

On a totally different subject, we bought new pillows for our bed yesterday. We'd been needing to replace ours for years and finally got around to it. OH. MY. GOODNESS! What a difference! We slept so much better and so much longer this morning! The ones we bought are by Beautyrest: Latex Bed Pillows. Love them! I never knew a pillow could make such a difference. Sorry for that brief bedtime interlude....

My Week in Review

This is my 1000th post - wow! Can you believe I still have something to write about?

Last weekend we traveled to Knoxville to go to a football game with friends - nothing like good friends and football!

Look who we met at our hotel:  Richard Simmons (with blue hair)! Here I am with RS and my friend, Donna. This was at breakfast and his hair was a bit flat on top.

And here he is later getting into his rental car - hair is now looking more like the RS we're used to seeing. He was an absolute delight. One of his travel companions was the woman who has been making his bedazzled tank tops for 30 years.

Hubby and I took the scenic route back to Alabama through the Smokey Mountains. Fall beauty!

The mountains really do look "smokey."

I then spent 3 days Birmingham taking a class from Sue Spargo. Her work is absolutely amazing! Oh, the things she does with wool, a bit of velvet, and a needle and thread!

I've done a few leaves on my sampler and I'll share the completed ones soon, but for now just drool over Sue's class samples....

I got home Wednesday afternoon. Thursday I went to Walmart and bought a tackle box to organize all my bits and bobbles of embellishments and threads. I adore this box of color and texture!

And now I'm settled in for the holidays - no more travel until after the first of the year. I will try to finish my guild mystery quilt (due next week!), do a bit of appliqué (Lollypop Trees), embellish a few leaves (Sue Spargo class project), prepare for a big Thanksgiving at our house, and of course, make some HEXIES!

Check out The Hexie Blog to see Sue Spargo with the hexie Peggy and I taught her to make!

Back at the Sewing Machine

I was itching to sew yesterday so I got out my mystery quilt pieces. I thought I was more behind on this that I actually was. I only had to make four blocks! Then I put the blocks on the design wall and the mystery was revealed...  Love it!!! I still have to sew all these blocks together and then there is a pieced border to sew. These colors will work perfectly in our great room.

Last night hubby took me out for a celebratory Mexican dinner - he knows how much work went into getting this book finished!

And here's a Cooper update. He's really becoming a wonderful dog. He's calming down a bit. We took him to the lake Saturday. We forgot to take a leash, but no worries. He ran, and played, and swam, and never ran away. The lake is his favorite place to be.

I'm still getting used to NOT having a book to work on. Today I may even begin the task of organizing my closet. Hard to believe, I know! It's nice to have time to do all these things I've been putting off for so long...

Have a great day!

Back from Houston!

Houston Quilt Market was FABULOUS! Peggy and I had a blast! She was a trooper, having just had knee replacement surgery 2 1/2 months prior. I know she was in pain sometimes, but she stayed on her feet the entire time, managing quite well. Here was the view out our hotel room - the massive convention center.

And here's a shot of part of the convention floor from above. So much color! So many gorgeous quilts! So many new products and fabrics!

I filled my lapel with the hexie pins I'd ordered. I kept more in my bag and handed them out all around the market. Our Schoolhouse event was crowded- standing room only! Everyone got a little kit and learned then and there how to make a hexie from a circle. What fun!

I met so many wonderful quilters. Here I am in Valorie Wells' booth - she is so sweet!

I'll be sharing more photos of Houston, but I have to share this with you now. This is a book's worth of quilts, all bagged up and ready to ship to Paducah with my FINISHED manuscript. I'll be shipping it TOMORROW! YAY! I'm really proud of these quilts and can't wait to share them with you. This represents a year of work for me. I hand quilted many of them and dearly love them all.

The only problem...what will I work on tonight? I'm sure I can find something!