Empty Nest Again....

Here's my progress on Dorothy Walpole.

The flowers are so pretty!  But I don't feel the love for the satin stitch ones.  lol!

I also worked on my Wearwithall Stole.  I'm two rows from starting that luscious purple color!

We have an empty nest again.  This past weekend, we took the boy child back to college.  We helped him set up his new apartment a bit.  And then we spent the weekend with my sister and her family.  Saw some sights in Boston too.  Then dropped the boy child off and drove home.  Boy child starts classes today.  I'm hoping for a great year for him with new experiences and lots of learning and fun.

Mia knew something was up as soon as the boy child started packing on Thursday.  I'm sure she knew he was leaving again.  When the father type and I got home from Boston, she was happy to see us, but she seemed sad too.  She knows.  We miss our boy.

Thanks as always for stopping by and saying hi.  I hope everyone has a great week.  US Open men's finals tonight!

Lovely gift and Maine.....

I thought I'd be starting all the pretty flowers right away after my last post, but I found that with the US Open being on, finishing off the border was the perfect thing to do -- nice and mindless.  So I did that for most of the week and just started on the flowers yesterday.

I love the colors!

The second flower isn't all filled in yet, in case you were wondering.

I received a wonderful prize in the mail from Cucki, of Cucki's Stitching Cove, whose giveaway I won.

I was so excited to open this up!

Look at all the lovely goodies!!  I especially love the hand made items -- so pretty!  And an angel fob!  How did you know I collect angels, Cucki?  :D   Thank you so much, Cucki, for a special prize!

Now in case you were wondering, yes, this past week we went to Maine for vacation again!  Hooray!  We haven't been as a family since 2010.  And the best part was the whole family was there, including my girl.

We don't get to see enough of her, so it was wonderful to have both her and the boy child with us -- it felt like old times!

I will let the pictures do most of the talking.

This is where we spent most of our time at the house we rented.

Our favorite place to eat

Fried whole belly clam roll -- the best!

Never too old for a good toy from our favorite bookstore

The kids on a rope obstacle course

Girl child waaaay up high (she's the one up top there)

The intrepid adventurers

Poor Mia missed us terribly.  When we got home, we were worried about her.  Usually she's right there watching out the window for us and is there at the door to welcome us, but this time she was nowhere to be found.   Turns out she was sleeping on the couch in the living room -- she had given up on us, poor thing.  She was very glad we were home.

Thanks as always for stopping by and saying hi.  I hope everyone has a great week.  Enjoy the tennis!!  Yay, US Open!

Bad mommy

Only one project this week to show.  My Dorothy.

Sorry for the weird picture -- it was taken on my lap.  lol!  The bargello section is done and dusted.  It was fun to do!  Now to finish another herringbone border and on to the fun part!  (I suppose I should work a bit on that over one wording section too.....)

Now for why I'm a bad mommy.  A couple of weeks ago, the girl child's birthday happened.  But for the first time we weren't with the girl child on her birthday because she was off doing this.

Now I did know it was her birthday when it was her birthday, and I noted with sadness that we couldn't wish her a happy birthday on her birthday since she was out on the ocean somewhere.  But.  I didn't make a birthday post.

I think something's wrong with my brain.

We've seen the girl child since she's gotten back, so that's good.  But her birthday was never mentioned on the blog.  So here I am, very late, to say happy 23rd birthday, my sweet girl.  I can't believe what a wonderful person you've grown up to be.  Love you, bunny.

Isn't she pretty?  (Caught her off guard for once.  lol!)

Thanks for stopping by and saying hi.  I hope everyone has a great week!

Dorothy and Jane

I only worked on two projects this past week -- much more typical for me.  Stitching-wise, I worked on Dorothy Walpole.  Got to the pretty part, skipped the over one section for now.  I needed some pretty!

For the clamshell section, I'm stitching rice stitch instead of the called for eyelet stitch.  I've been told by a couple of friends that the original antique was done in rice stitch and I like how it looks.

I also had to put in a color for the W in the clamshell section -- the chart says that Z and W are the same color, but of course that won't work here where there are obviously two colors side by side that are different.  Very odd.

The other project I worked on was my Dear Jane blocks.  These are the blocks I finished this week.

And all my blocks so far.

I still have two applique blocks to do.  Hopefully I will get to those sometime soon.  But otherwise, I have to wait for the next BOM package to arrive.

Somehow, the boy child and Mia seem to be cuddling a lot these days.

Or having a staring contest.

Thanks as always for stopping by and saying hi.  I hope everyone has a great week.

Late TUSAL, a gig, and flitting

I was all over the place working on different projects this week.  I picked up Dorothy Walpole again.

But then I hit those satin stitch letters.  Ugh.  So I picked up my Wearwithall Stole.

Worked on it on and off through the week and managed to add the next color.  Yay!

Then a certain BOM came in the mail.  So I also worked on this.

The first blocks of a Dear Jane quilt.  I'm using the foundation paper piecing method (except for the 9 patch) on this.  Boy, am I rusty on my machine sewing skills!  I hope I can keep up with this one!

Finally, I picked up this longstanding WIP.  Somehow this project is one that I pick up for a few stitches and then put away again.  Kind Fond Love by Brenda Keyes (The Sampler Company).

Kind Fond Love by the Sampler Company

32ct mystery linen -- done over one

NPI fibers

I'm currently wondering which of my many projects to work on next.  lol!

I'm very late for a TUSAL report.  I actually skipped July's report all together since at the time, I'd mostly been doing hand sewing work on my hexie quilt.  So I guess this TUSAL is for both July and August.

Quite a few threads in there, considering how I usually don't throw anything away that's longer than an inch or so.

The boy child had a gig with his friends at a local cafe this past Thursday.  It was folk music this time, my kind of stuff.  :D  I think the boy child would have preferred something else that had more challenging bass lines, but he was ok with it in the end.  Here is a pic of my baby on stage.

It was a great show!

The two kids have been enjoying each other's company as usual.

Thanks as always for stopping by and saying hi.  I hope everyone has a great week!