The Last Day of Aug.

I don't know about you but I am wondering what happened to the month of AUGUST?? It has been a crazy month for our family w/lots of happenings going on - b'days, anniversaries, surgeries(family members, not me) and taking in an 18 yr. old former foster kid(who is really sweet), has just kept me unusually busy this month!
More laundry, grocery shopping(seems like every other day lately) more cooking/baking and more errands ran. But I'm not really complaining cuz I get sad when I think of having 'empty nest' sydrome(altho' I was secretly looking forward to it). So I'm really thrilled (most of the time) to have a FULL house, just NOT the extra cleaning part! ugh!!

So I'm slowly gearing up for FALL, even tho' our temps here in Eastern Ky. have been anything but fallish, I decided the other day I needed to make something that maybe, just maybe, I'll get stitched up BEFORE fall is actually here! You all know how I have good intentions way in advance, but rarely do I actually get something finished beforehand. LOL

I cut out all the pieces to this cute pumpkin/crow pattern I've had my eye on for awhile now, and need to get it stitched up. It uses some wonderful yummy wools that I have in my stash and also some quilt fabric too! (two birds w/one stone, as they say). ha
Also, I've been in a sewing mood too, lately. I've had this gorgeous fabric(Madeira by Blackbird Designs for Moda) for a few yrs. now and never knew what to make w/it, until recently when I saw on somebody's blog, how they made a quilt w/a 'Jelly Roll'-(2 1/2 in. strips, cut the length of the fabric and you get about 42 strips in one jelly roll). It was a super easy design, so I felt confident that I could do it!
You basically take two strips that have a LOT of contrast and make 4 cuts - 6 1/2 in. long and 3 cuts that are 2 1/2 in. long. That's it and you have very little waste! Two strips make 4 blocks. Then you turn your blocks in the opposite directions(every other one, so you don't have to match up more seams), then sew your rows together, etc.
Which I haven't quite gotten that far yet(as you can tell), but they sew up rather quickly.....

I also made several more of these pocket tissue holders, this time using the slimmer ones and they opened a different way than my others, so I redesigned them, making them open on the sides....

One more thing I finished awhile back but forgot to show. I have a really cool idea for this one, but who knows when it'll get done??? LOL Maybe before NEXT summer??? :))

For all of you here in the states - I wish you a wonderful Labor Day Wkend!! Hope you find time to do something you enjoy~happy stitching!!

P.S. - For those of you who are interested ~ I just got in the rest of my patterns that were on backorder and listed them earlier today. You can click here to go take a peek. Lots of new patterns for FALL and CHRISTMAS!!

Country/Prim House Tour ~ Part Two

Well, I'm finally back to show you part two of my step~daughter's house. If you need to jog your memory, just click on the previous post. Amy recently re-did their b'room in a totally black/white color scheme. She bought new bedding, but then cleverly used contact paper on the wall instead of wallpaper to save on cost and added some sweet word phrases sprinkled around the room.
The quilt draped on the end of the bed was a recent b'day gift given to her from her paternal grandmother(my MIL). It does have just a bit of red in the border, but Amy loved it.
(Again, I will apologise in advance for some pics that are a bit blurry).
Close-up of the quilt design........
This is what the back looks like.........
I like the way she used painted wood letters to make the word stand out......
My hubby bought this fireplace mantel for her last yr. for a good price at her favorite junk shop. It's extremely heavy and we snuck into town and got it, brought it home w/us, and totally surprised her w/it when they came to celebrate Christmas w/us. She painted/distressed it a bit and anchored it to the wall.

She loves her sleigh bed...........
She also painted the 'his/hers' closet doors and trim.

This is on the wall opposite her bed. She uses cute '31' totes to keep all her essentials in. She also likes to switch this room around as well. ( I need to go back and take some more pics of a few other rooms in her house before they move), but I hope you enjoyed the little tour for now.

On another note, last wk. we got to celebrate my b'day in a very nice campground.........here's me w/my two sons. Oldest one on the left and youngest on the right.
This one is a bit foggy, sorry! As soon as we'd step out of the air-conditioned camper and into the humidity, my camera would fog up instantly!!
It's been crazy since we've been home....we don't just move furniture around in a room, we move ENTIRE rooms around!!! Our youngest son has a very good friend who'd been in foster care for several yrs. and needed a place to stay(he literally had no where else to go), so we moved him in w/us. Our son's room was way too small, so we moved him out to the downstairs part of the 'barn' and moved all my hubby's train stuff into his bedroom. What a mess for a few days, but it will give our son and his friend much more room and almost like an apt. (minus a kitchen and bathroom~LOL), but otherwise I think they love it out there for now. They both really wanted to rent an apt. together, but soon realised how expensive that would be, so I think they'll stay put for awhile, hopefully.
So instead of becoming empty~nesters, we are full~nesters again, but at least they have their own space out of the house, ha.

Anyway, I've been cross stitching once again, but nothing actually finished to show you this time around. I hope everyone is enjoying what's left of summer!