October 2014-General Conference

Another L.D.S. General Conference has come and gone!  I meant to do some cutesy stuff but ran out of time. This conference everyone picked a favorite treat and I put them in paper bags (that is what I meant to make cuter with pictures of the general authorities and scrapbook paper etc.) and stapled shut with the name of a speaker at general conference. So when that speaker came up we had that treat that matched the speaker.  We also played the much loved conference bingo game, which I find much easier to just laminate the paper and use wet erase markers, than to use tokens to cover the squares.  October is a hard month for us as we always seem to have the boys in away football games  so we miss some of Saturday's sessions.  Conference is a lovely break from the usual church routine and whats even better we can watch it in our pajamas. The kiddos really look forward to general conference every six months. I guess because I treat it like the Mormon holiday it is--lots of tasty treats, relaxing, and home time.

Archer, McCoy, Declan with bingo cards, treat bags on mantle, red tin with bingo candy

Declan's chosen treat-Doritos 

(he usually picks some kind of chip)

McCoy is the first one to get bingo!

Archy wanted a cookie for his pick

so I picked out Mint Oreo Fudge Cremes I had them at book club 

for the first time last week and they are so good

Every General Conference since Quinton was little he always picks his beloved Bugles, we first had them when he was five and the treats that year represented gospel things and the Bugles were Moroni's trumpet you often see on top of temples. We have them twice a year (both conferences) as they aren't really a top pick when you think of chips.  Quinton really loves them though.

McCoy always picks caramel apples 

without fail, which I am glad about because I love caramel apples.

During some of the sessions Eddy helped me cut out quilt blocks and the scraps do make a nice mask.

Zany with her pick -stuckers

Besides cutting quilt blocks, I managed to do a bit of simple embroidery on a dish towel. This design is a Aunt Martha's Iron-On Transfer. This pattern struck my fancy, is that little plate showing off a naughty dance move to a innocent teacup or is he flashing some plate parts he shouldn't.  Who knows? 

Redwork Tea Towel

After Conference I always feel a bit like I do at buffet, stuffed and needing some time to digest.  There was so many great teachings and remindings and it was really nice to hear some speakers speak their native language. Although I think I would prefer to read the english rather than a voice over in English but the voiceover was better for the kids. One surprising takeaway for me from conference is I need to establish a long term exercise plan this was from Jorg Klebingat's talk oh yeah, and maybe not so many treats!

Embroidered Pillow: Trixiebelle the Ha-Ha

 I bought Zaynzley, lover of horses, some horse sheets at Target. The sheets came in a fabric pouch and I thought I would use the fabric from the pouch to make a throw pillow. So I looked on pinterest for quite a while before I found the perfect horse coloring page that I could use for my pattern. 

Original pattern

I traced with a water soluble pen which I wouldn't recommend using as it didn't wash out well. I decided to use some vintage ribbon I had for the bridle which completely changed my color scheme and so I didn't use that fabric from the sheets. 

Pinned on the ribbon

Machine stitched the ribbon

 I am terrible at taking pictures as I go so there are no more in the process pictures. I began embroidering it when I realized that there was too much white and so I got some fabric markers and colored in the mane and the horse. I appliqued fabric for the reins and used some buttons for embellishment.  I did use fabric from my stash for the back of the pillow and the four gold buttons are vintage from my stash while the other fabric is new from the quilt store as are the two cream crocheted looking buttons (from Wal-mart).   Is there anything more delightful than picking out some fabric from a quilt store?  

Zany with her horse pillow

Since she calls horses ha-has I embroidered the name Trixiebelle the ha-ha

Here sits the long awaited horse embroidered pillow

(You may wonder what that green yarn creature is, why a unicorn of course. I collect funky yarn animals for Zany's room this one is my favorite)

This pillow was very much a:

 figure it out as you go and embellishments are used to hide flaws, but I have never been a perfectionist if I were I would never complete anything being stymied by my own lack of talent. 

I have embroidered on and off for years. I usually stop for a couple years when I would have a new baby and then gradually get back to it.  I recently shared my hobby with my sister Ashlee who has really taken to it and now competes with me at thrift stores and yard sales for embroidery stuff but it is such an enjoyable hobby how could I not share it with her.  I like to keep a dish towel stamped with a Aunt Martha's pattern in my car to stitch on while I wait to pick up kids from practices.  Anytime Zany sees me embroidering she asks, "A ha-ha for me?" well, no there is just the one, but I do still have that fabric from the sheets that is crying out to be turned into something.