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touching base . . . from Count it *all* JOY!

Greetings! Just checking in real briefly to update my shoulder progress . . .

Which, all things considered, is going extremely well! I'm very pleased, as are my PT gurus and my doc. What I need to be careful of is not getting ahead of myself; I feel so good I want to do things it's not time to do yet. Yikes!

And to say Happy National Quilting Day! I'm totally bummed that I'm not ready to do any quilting (or stitching of any kind, for that matter--typing is exhausting enough), but when I googled "national quilting day", I ...

added by Denise :) 1 week, 2 days ago. under embroidery , national quilting day , photo , recovery , shoulder surgery , tea , wool

christmas ornament swap . . . from Count it *all* JOY!

Greetings!! It's been so CRAZY! I love this season so very much, but it is time consuming, ya' know?!?

Stephanie, over at The Enchanting Rose, hosted a sweet ornament exchange this year, and I participated in it! I was gifted to by Deb, a non-blogger, who took some time to get to know me (via my blog) and really found the perfect little ornament for my tree . . .

Isn't that precious?! A s'more snowman! Just perfect for me! In addition, she added some fun little happies to go with the ornament:

What a happy package!

I had the ...

added by Denise :) 3 months, 1 week ago. under christmas , decorating , granddaughters , grandson , handwork , homemade , nutcracker , ornament , photo , rv , swap , wool

pick a pumpkin winner . . . from Count it *all* JOY!

I ~~PROMISE~~ am almost sure that this will be the last post that begins with "pick a pumpkin" . . . at least for another year!! It was a nice solid run of seven. :)

I had the random number generator do my dirty work and it pulled number 36. Congratulations to Karen of Tu-Na Quilts, Travels, and Eats! Karen, I'll send you an email to get your particulars. :)

So I did bake a batch of those Ginger Spice Cookies I blogged about yesterday. Oh they are SO good!

I like the ones rolled in the chunky colored sugar best . . .

Isn't that ...

added by Denise :) 4 months, 2 weeks ago. under cookie , ginger cookie , giveaway , hexie , photo , pick a pumpkin blog hop , slow stitching , sugar , veteran , veteran's day , winner

pick a pumpkin baking . . . from Count it *all* JOY!

You'd think I'd be tired of if by now, but I'm not. Yesterday I closed my post talking about seasonal baking. I thought it might be fun to share the recipes of two of my very most favorite homemade autumn treats. Cheesecake Brownies is the first -- a recipe that I found in Country Living magazine in 2007, and Ginger Spice Cookies -- a recipe I found compliments of Bon Appétit in 2000 (found on epicurious's site, link below) and is my absolute FAVE ginger cookie, perfect with a cup of tea.

Cheesecake Brownies (click to go to ...

added by Denise :) 4 months, 2 weeks ago. under baking , brownie , ginger cookie , photo , pick a pumpkin blog hop , pumpkin , recipes

pick a pumpkin outtakes . . . from Count it *all* JOY!

Bet you didn't expect to see that in a blog post title today! But I thought it might be kinda fun. I shared the final projects on my Pick a Pumpkin day (which included a giftaway!) . . .

But you didn't get to see the *process*.

I shared that originally I was just going to do the valance and added the placemats on the spur. But that's not quite true. Originally _first_ I'd thought to do a wall-hanging . . .

Designed it in EQ and everything. Not sure what changed my mind, but it was after I'd done the ...

added by Denise :) 4 months, 2 weeks ago. under autumn , book , jokes , neesey's nook , outtakes , photo , pick a pumpkin blog hop , process , pumpkin , recipes

pick a pumpkin; day four . . . from Count it *all* JOY!

Did you see my Pick a Pumpkin post yesterday? Have mercy, I sure hope so! Click here if you missed it and the GIFTAWAY! For that matter, if you missed my postings on Day 1 or Day 2, feel free to go back and check those out, too!

Today is the final day of the hop -- Day Four - and here's the lineup of blogs to check out today:

Creatin' in the Sticks

I'm going four for four on the ...

added by Denise :) 4 months, 2 weeks ago. under book , jokes , photo , pick a pumpkin blog hop , pumpkin , recipes

pick a pumpkin; day two . . . from Count it *all* JOY!

Were you able to check out all of yesterday's participants in the Pick a Pumpkin Blog Hop? Such creativity!

Today is Day Two and there's a whole new set of blogs to check out today:

Life in the Scrapatch

Clever Chameleon

Songbird Designs

Kathy's Kwilts and More

VroomansQuilts

Vicki's Crafts and Quilting

Super Mom No Cape

Quarter Inch Crafter

I found another Kindle freebie to share with y'all today, too. (Aren't I nice?) Simple & Easy Pumpkin Drink Recipes by Hannie P. Scott. I've gotten a number of her cookbooks and they're fun ...

added by Denise :) 4 months, 2 weeks ago. under book , jokes , photo , pick a pumpkin blog hop , pumpkin , recipe

early darkness . . . from Count it *all* JOY!

Daylight savings time ends tonight! To that end, this cartoon made me laugh, laugh, laugh!

It's funny ... but it's also very true, no? Be sure you turn your clocks back ... and enjoy that extra hour of sleep in the morning! It's a little ironic to me that we get that extra hour of sleep on the morning that sun rises an hour earlier. Why can't we get it right?! LOL!

The girls were SO cute as the fairies from Sleeping Beauty!

Aren't they just precious?! Of course, they were the tip of the iceberg . . .

Jason ...

added by Denise :) 4 months, 3 weeks ago. under christmas , christmas tree , costume , family , granddaughters , guild , halloween , mug rug , photo , slow stitching , snowman

pick a pumpkin blog hop schedule . . . from Count it *all* JOY!

Here' the schedule for the upcoming Pick a Pumpkin Blog Hop:

Monday, November 5th

MooseStash Quilting

QuiltFabrication

Elizabeth Coughlin Designs

Tu-Na Quilts, Travels, and Eats

Tuesday, November 6th

Life in the Scrapatch

Clever Chameleon

Songbird Designs

Kathy's Kwilts and More

VroomansQuilts

Vicki's Crafts and Quilting

Super Mom No Cape

Quarter Inch Crafter

Wednesday, November 7th

Adventurous Applique and Quilting

Beaquilter

Thursday, November 8th

selina quilts

Seams To Be Sew

That ...

added by Denise :) 4 months, 3 weeks ago. under blog hop , photo , pick a pumpkin blog hop

busyness et al. . . . from Count it *all* JOY!

It has been a busy month, which makes me feel a little justified in the huge gap between my last post and this one. Of course, this is the (so called) blogger who skipped out on blogging from December 2017 through May 2018. What's 26 days?!? LOL!

But I realized I need to get on in here and plug the upcoming blog hop I'm participating in! I'm so excited . . . and if you know me at all, when you see what it is, you'll know why!

It's the Pick a Pumpkin Blog Hop! It kicks off ...

added by Denise :) 4 months, 4 weeks ago. under autumn , birthday , costumes , grandchildren , guild , halloween , handwork , hexies , mug rug , photo , pick a pumpkin blog hop , pumpkins , sewing , slow stitching

Preparing Supper for Sheila from Life as a Quilter -- Julia Graber

From an old photo of my Mother peeling potatoes while my next younger sister Sheila watches with her dolly ...

... I tweaked it with a photo filter and printed it on fabric and ...

... and quilted it for a piece of fiber art. Sheila is delighted!

Preparing Supper -- 8"X11"

Linking to Nina Maria's "Off the Wall Friday."

added by Julia Graber 5 months, 2 weeks ago. under art quilt , fiber art , my mother , photo , photo editor , preparing supper , sheila

crazy cubed . . . from Count it *all* JOY!

I had every intention of posting over the weekend, but life is crazy and work is crazy and our weekend was crazy (with Boy Scouts, Disaster Relief training and church picnics all at the camp). Even so, I had time to do a little fall baking on Saturday . . .

I saw a recipe for and Apple, Honey and Brie Crostata in the current issue of Southern Lady and decided to give it a go.

It was very good with a cup of spiced tea as an afternoon snack!

I got some autumnal decorations out, too . . .

You know it's October when ...

added by Denise :) 5 months, 3 weeks ago. under baking , birthday , granddaughter , hexies , october , photo , presents , pumpkin , rv

weekend wanderings . . . from Count it *all* JOY!

Busy weekends and busier weeks (gearing up for our annual meeting at work) make for longer gaps between posts. But I am pleased to note that I've surpassed last year's number of posts by five, with this post. It's the little things, right??!

Todd and I did make time to take the boat out this past Friday. It was the first time I'd been out on our boat since prior to the surgery. I'd missed it ... but I was a little anxious about it, too. Turns out I had nothing to worry about . . . except how ...

added by Denise :) 6 months ago. under boat , epp , fish , friday , handwork , help , hexies , lake , photo , slow stitching , wildlife

bloggers quilt festival: ellie's quilt from Count it *all* JOY!

Greetings! It's been a LONG time since I participated in the Blogger's Quilt Festival (hosted by Amy's Creative Side), but I decided this was a new day of the week, and it would be fitting to get back into the swing of things . . . so here goes!

I went back to 2012 for today's offering. It was the year my dear little dolly, Ellie was born. My firstborn's second born. Her firstborn, Everett, was born to heaven the previous year. I'd made a sweet little owl quilt for him . . . but for Ellie, I couldn't ...

added by Denise :) 6 months, 1 week ago. under blogger's quilt festival , ellie , grandchildren , hand-quilt , hearts , photo , quilt

stitchers in the wild . . . from Count it *all* JOY!

The week finally settled down (personally) a bit. Of course, with September here, things at the Camp are in full swing! We had three different groups scheduled over the weekend! The first was a big senior adult group that hadn't been up here in many years. They invited us to eat with them, so we spent time with that group. The next group was an overnight children's event -- this group frequents the camp, so no hand-holding required. The third group was . . .

Gals from my Stitcher's Etc. group!! (Doing the obligatory group shot with the Camp MACOBA sign--we ...

added by Denise :) 6 months, 1 week ago. under camp , camp macoba , handwork , neesey's nook , photo , picnic , slow stitching , stitcher's group

multifarious mug rugs . . . from Count it *all* JOY!

This week has been a bit topsy turvy with a lot of personal stuff I won't go into (you're welcome). But I *did* manage to stitch up two more little acorn mug rugs . . .

I think I learned lessons from the first one and I was most pleased with the construction process the second go'round. These two still need to be quilted, and I'll get to that this weekend (the good Lord willing).

I got my hexie pumpkin mug rug sandwiched and started hand quilting on it . . .

I still have a ways to go, but again, there ...

added by Denise :) 6 months, 1 week ago. under acorn , autumn , cat , epp , feline friday , granddaughter , hand-quilt , hexies , leia , mug rug , photo , pumpkin

fall's fluttering in . . . from Count it *all* JOY!

It's been a fairly productive week . . . I love having a bunch of little handwork projects to work on because I can skip around and work in the evenings and at lunch time without a lot of fuss, and I get things done!

So now, along with the acorn mug rug, I've finished my little harvest stitchery mug rug. I really love how that turned out! It used a nice, wide variety of embroidery stitches, and I even learned a new one -- the wheatear or wheat stitch. Can you tell which one that is (aside from it being the ...

added by Denise :) 6 months, 2 weeks ago. under acorn , autumn , birthday , butterfly , embroidery , granddaughter , hexie , meet & greet , mug rug , photo , pumpkin , slow stitching , stitchery , table topper

quilter's meet and greet . . . from Count it *all* JOY!

Greetings on this happy Tuesday morning!

My heart/mind are in California this morning ... today is my son's 31st birthday (how can I have a 31 year old?!?) ... and I totally forgot I needed to have a meet & greet post! LOL!

So, my name is Denise and it's my pleasure to meet you! I've been quilting since January of 2006, but sewing for as long as I can remember; and had the pleasure of growing up with a mom who enjoyed sewing clothes for me and passed that love on down.

My first finish (mind you, not ...

added by Denise :) 6 months, 3 weeks ago. under camp , eclectic , grandchildren , meet & greet , photo , quilt

five day weekends are da bomb . . . from Count it *all* JOY!

That's right. I took Thursday and Monday's a holiday, so five day weekend. Bliss!

I've gotten a lot started and finished so far, too! I told you about my idea for an acorn mug rug, right? How that? Concept to actualization! It was a little tricky, but worth the effort. I'll probably make at least one more of these ... maybe two or three!

I was ~~bullied into~~ encouraged to finish the patriotic topper . . .

Really pleased with how this turned out, especially since I did use the pillowcase method to finish it. That's kinda hard to ...

added by Denise :) 6 months, 3 weeks ago. under acorn , embroidery , epp , football , granddaughters , handwork , hexies , mug rug , patriotic , photo , pumpkin , stitchery , turtle sanctuary

can it be . . . from Count it *all* JOY!

Y'all. Tomorrow is the LAST day of August, which means Saturday is the FIRST day of September, aka the FIRST day of calendar fall (as opposed to astronomical fall which begins with the September equinox--on the 22nd--this year).

WHAT???! I think my 'all caps' tell you how I feel about this.

Sigh. This year is going by so very fast. And the summer's gone by even faster! Probably because I spent most of it in a sling. You think? Speaking of that, the right shoulder continues to heal and I continue to do physical therapy. Yesterday I consulted ...

added by Denise :) 6 months, 3 weeks ago. under autumn , guild , hexie , mug rug , patriotic , photo , pumpkin , surgery

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