Busy Couple Weeks - Whew!! (warning again - picture heavy)

So I guess when you don't update weekly, the post can be a little picture heavy and cumbersome with information. With that in mind, I will put in the quilting/stitching updates first in case you really don't care or wish to read about what else is happening here...gasp! Hard to believe people wouldn't want to be all in the know (huge amounts of sarcasm in this sentence)!!

I am in a friendship sampler/round robin project group with my great friends. This was the first month passing around - here is what I did on Roz's...now I know, you'll see the same design each time but the colors will vary!!


Don't you just love this? Halloween is second only to Christmas in my book and I had to do this freebie!! It's from blog, plain & fancy merchant - the August 25th post. I've seen it finished on a few other blogs and my bff Mary (no blog) finished it...gave me the bottom half of her linen (which the color is almost true in this photo)...love it. I am going to attempt finishing it with wool as done in Vonna's tutorial...wish me luck!



Last weekend I dropped off my nephew's quilt (for Christmas) to my LQS - had some scraps of his choice of fabric and his birthday is today - so I decided to make a coordinating pillow. I think I will do that with each of their quilts...uses up fabric I may not use otherwise - especially when it's this specific. He loves UofM and after high school, I would think he will attend school there...my husband wasn't wild about this one - Notre Dame fan that he is - LOL!! Was good practice for matching corners and I don't think I did that bad!

I bought the fabric yesterday for one of my niece's quilt - perhaps I will get two for Cmas this year and then I will only have one niece left. How did this start, you may wonder...I probably posted it at the very beginning of my blogging earlier this year...I made a bug jar quilt for DS and it was over 10 years the making. I had the quilter do a dragonfly pattern and one of my nephews loved it - so with my scraps I made him a random square quilt and found backing on sale (but I did blow the limit we have on the kids) and he loved it. Well, you can't make one a quilt and not the others, so I did a black/white with pink for my niece last year...that brings us to the one mentioned above....I will put my pics of the beautiful (and stunning) fabrics once I drag the camera up to the sewing studio!! (sounds so much better than sewing room...or glorified guest room - although nary a guest have ever slept there).

It was homecoming week here at DS's high school! This year he decided to really get into it. He dressed up for a couple of the spirit days (hasn't done that since elementary school); he said since he's a senior, he really had to do it right. He went to his first dance - never really was interested in it. He has quite a few friend-girls (not girlfriends) and they all went as a group...he went out to dinner with a small part of the group. Don't they look great?

Driving home from the "photo shoot" last night, I saw several other groups of kids, dressed in their finest, heading to dance the night away. That's my ds to the far right! Can't believe he's here in his senior year already most days - it's been a long, hard road and I am so proud of his perseverance!

The other day was a perfect autumn day here in Michigan!! I love this time of year, my very favorite. This is the sky - in a couple weeks that tree should be more yellow - but if it's too windy before it turns, it will have naked branches!

Aren't these raspberries absolutely beautiful - they were delicious too! DH and I went apple picking a week ago...it was a little chilly, nice bite to the air when we arrived at the orchard at 8 with all the "serious" pickers - it becomes a family outing a little later and was packed when we left. In less than one hour, we had picked the apples we wanted and headed over to the raspberry bushes. Picked about two pounds and ate them, just as nature made them...only ds and I like them - dh doesn't like the seeds...had a few with vanilla ice cream, but the rest were just popped in the mouth. YUM!!

The main reason we went to the orchard (an orchard which I have picked apples ALL my life - except when I was away at college) was for the yummy apples. We picked Empire, a couple Golden Delicious, Mitsu and Northern Spy (for pies, of course). I currently have a variety of them up in my banner header picture...and here's another beautiful shot. Don't you think nature makes beautiful photos!


I made a couple pies - one for my husband to take to my Grandpa (still fishing and hunting and living alone in his nineties)...and the other for us to enjoy at home. DH has gone bow hunting for a day or two - hope it's nice there today! Woke up to 47* this a.m. Brrrrr...no heat in the house yet made for cold toes! My furnace doesn't work until November 1st - house rule...LOL!

We still have Northern Spy apples left - not quite what we eat, just as God made it...so I may make some applesauce. DS loves homemade applesauce in the winter...

Well, I must get to some fun things now - you know, laundry, dishes, uncovering the tomatoes I protected from the maybe spotty frost that didn't happen, but rather be save than sorry. I am still "harvesting" tomatoes and don't want to give up the fresh taste!

So until next post, I will let you get on with your life - thanks for checking in...and welcome to new followers, thanks for coming back to the (dare I say) old followers. Enjoy your Sunday and the rest of your week!!

Do what makes you happy - stitch, sew, read, smile!!

Sherry