Time to be thankful

Trying to move some WIP's out of my stitching basket before the end of the year. This one is now done, well not in the photo above yet, but I worked on it all last night and now just need to iron it. It is Bent Creek's Thankful Quaker. I loved all the shades of brown/gold in it, very seasonal colors. 

I have also been doing a bit of Christmas stitching. I keep a small lap sized quilt on my couch, and am working on having one for each month of the year. So far I have six done, and it always bugged me that I hadn't made a quilt for Christmas yet. This is a Kate Spain fabric for Moda called Jingle. I'll post a close up next time, but I love the cardinals and the aqua/red colors. Fingers crossed this one will be done by December, I have about 5 more rows to sew together.

And these are my girls sewing with me at the kitchen table. My oldest is 12 now, and has her own sewing machine to work with. She was making a little doll for her baby brother. My younger daughter will be 9 next month, and I helped her make a small doll quilt. I hadn't planned on doing a sewing project with them, I was trying to work on my Christmas quilt, but it is always fun sharing my creativity with them, I can only hope they grow up crafty too (someone has to inherit my stash someday!)

A Sunday well spent....

One of my favorite quotes is:

"A Sunday well spent brings a week of content"

But I was thinking today that what it means to me is probably far different than how it was originally meant. Not that we don't take time for rest and relaxation and spirituality on our weekends (which is how I imagine the quote was originally meant). But for me I always like to use my weekends to get ready for my week. Meaning most of my time is spent cleaning/shopping/doing laundry. We have so little time during the week to run out to stores to get stuff or do extra loads of laundry, and it really bothers me to come home to a messy house. So I enjoy the feeling of having everything done before we return to work and the kids start the school week, it helps me start my week content.

On that note we did have a busy and fun weekend. Friday night we spent at the state fair. I had entered my Mirabilia mermaid. I didn't get a ribbon this year, but it was fun to see the pieces that did, and have my work shown. Here is me with my mermaid before dropping her off at the fair.

The girls and I also entered the decorative mailbox category, and Zoe took third place for hers. She painted a sunset with dolphins silhouetted in front of it. I was impressed with how much work and creativity she put into her project. I did a sunflower theme with mine and cut out little flowers to "plant" inside my mailbox.

 

Here is another cross stitch  at the fair (not stitched by me), a Rosewood Manor design I believe, that took third place. It's one of those pieces I didn't know I needed to do until I saw it in person. It was very cute. 

And my favorite quilt, this one took home a blue ribbon. I loved the Halloween theme, and their applique was beautifully done. 

And Calvin enjoyed all the animals at the fair. He especially liked the goats this year, I think because they let him pet them in their stalls. He was a little sad not to be able to ride any of the rides yet when big sisters got to go, but by next year he should be big enough to go on at least a few. He also loved the funnel cakes, though we couldn't get him to even try the cotton candy.