Knot-y Girl's Stitchery Club

Well, today I put away my Halloween decorations & re-arranged the "Autumn" deco that was left. That should see us through another couple of weeks until I absolutely HAVE to decorate for Christmas. I have to admit that I'm kind of a holiday decorating nut! Any excuse to decorate & hopefully put up lights!! LOL!! I think we need to come up with another holiday for that "dry" period between the 4th of July & Halloween. Something in early September............. it should have a color scheme, certain foods & possibly a song or two..................... by the way, Halloween desperately needs a couple of songs, don't you think? The only one I know of is "10 Little Pumpkins Sitting on a Fence" & it's really hard to hum..............................I've tried!
Anyway, time to move on toward Christmas. I'm MORE than ready to put up a tree or two! I've convinced Phil that we're going to NEED to get two or three potted pine trees this month, put lights on them & arrange them on the front porch of the shop. (I call it "the shop" but it's not a "Shop" shop. It's the building that was originally intended to be Phil's dream shop complete with an air compressor, big tool boxes etc... & another street rod to tear apart & rebuild.... but I kind of took it over, stole it from him, girly-ed it up, added on, frou-frou'd it & now it's Crabapple Hill................. I feel SO bad about doing that............NOT!!!!LOL!!) Anyway, back to the trees... my excuse was that we needed them so that we could plant them when we're through building our new house (OH, by the way, we're building a new house, I'm a little bit excited, I may SHRIEK occasionally, they should break ground this month, WOOHOO!!!) There, I got it out of my system. I'm all better now. Well! Back to the trees............ We need them desperately, you understand don't you? They need to be smothered in sparkly white twinkle lights & we may NEED them by next weekend. Sorry, I'm a little giddy!
We've been stitching away on new designs. I finished the stitched blocks for the quilt that I gave you a sneak peek at in the last post. Sheila has a 2nd copy of it stitched (the blackwork part) and is starting on the color fill stitches. Cyndy has stitched two copies of another one of the new patterns called "Midnight's Crow". They'll need some wool touches added & I'll be ready to sew them up. I think I'm going to frame them. After all, how many pillows does one person need??
The closer we get to the holidays, the more quiet it gets around here (just the opposite of your local quilt shop I'm sure!) I think it's because everyone has already purchased all the patterns & supplies to make gifts & as the weather gets more "if-y" everyone wants to cuddle up at home & stitch, sew & just appreciate their families. It gives the Girls & I time to relax a little bit, take a deep breath & most importantly.... stitch (& for me, DRAW!) We've had Christmas music playing in the studio for a week or so now..........you know, to get in the mood! So that I can design Christmas stuff! NOW you see why I desparately NEED those trees!!!! I'll let you in on another little secret..... when we get into drawing & stitching mode......... we watch/listen to alot of TV here! I have a large collection of old movies & British comedies (have you seen "The Vicar of Dibley"??? It's SO funny!) We also have Tivo so we can pause whatever's on when someone calls or things get busy. We record things to watch when we're all together.... you know, the shows that need a serious group discussion..... like.... The Bachelor, Ghost Hunters, Wife Swap & our favorite..... that Redneck Wedding show on CMT. Our favorite episode by far is the one where the bride can't find her teeth on the morning of the wedding & her mom offers to lend her daughter hers!......... Brings a tear to my eye every time! LOL!!!:)
We got a lot of emails about wanting more recipes so.......... the recipe below is for a favorite bar cookie. I find when I start to copy my recipes, they're missing vital information. They say things like.... beat till it looks right..... bake till done .... or they're just a list of ingredients with no measurements or instructions.... YIKES!! When I made these bars this morning I had to hover over the oven because it didn't say how long to bake them. I usually go by..... Can I smell them? Do they smell done? & the old stand-by, Do they look done? It was really wierd taking a photo of them too! Normally they'd go directly into a rubbermaid container or ziplock bag. There's no way they'd ever actually touch a pretty plate or anything. They had to get "gussied up" for the photo though!

Thanks to all of you who've commented & emailed notes & photos. We'll get the photos of your projects up to share with everyone ASAP!! It's still astounding & really humbling to see how many of you stitch up my "doodles". It may sound dopey, but sometimes it's truly shocking to me that anyone wants my patterns. Thank you... I really appreciate it!!