Oh my, a week has gone by and I haven't posted a thing. The week has been super busy with classes and watching my girls and fall decorating and just life I suppose. I have had my camera at several classes and just plain forgot to take pictures. Did the same thing today. I let one whole class get out the door without one picture so I made up for it with the second class where the ladies were creating witches. Yes, more witches. I have had more fun with this classs and watching how creative everyone becomes at the end of class when it's time to "dress" the witches. A great relaxing day with some very nice ladies.

These turned out to be some very classy witches. They were certainly all decked out for the Halloween Ball! You really need to see these in person.....the pictures just don't do them justice!Sorry we missed your picture Laura (of the witch!)
For those of you in the recipe card classes, I've finished the October card and almost finished the November card, so I feel very much ahead of the game right now. Might even start working on December. Looking forward to October and hopefully some fall weather to go along with the fall card I've created.
Also, there was discussion at one of the classes about possibly bringing books to the classes at Laura's house for a book exchange. Any of you that want to start bringing books to share are welcome to do that. So many of us are avid readers and by bringing books you've already read and are willing to share will give someone else a chance to enjoy a good book and maybe learn of a new author. Laura and I will be clearing off a shelf. Thanks for sharing your space Chris!!!
Happy weekend to everyone.

Wow, what a busy week with classes. Started off with Boo Black Cat and then another Wilomena Witch class and finished with a City of Oaks wool penny mat class. I have had a great week helping many ladies create beautiful projects. I hope everyone had a great time and love their new creations. This post will be full of pictures for everyone to see how much fun the classes are. New friendships are made, ideas are shared, books are discussed........................a wonderful, relaxing time of fellowship.

Sorry gals, we were having such much fun making our cats, I forgot I had my camera. So one quick picture at the end.

While Sue and Laura are busy stuffing their witches, Christina is on the sewing machine stitching hers up.

Everyone is so busy stuffing, they don't even realize I'm taking pictures. They want these witches to come to life. You may not be able to tell it from the picture, but Stephanie has on a candy corn shirt. I love that she came dressed for the ocassion! And thanks for the beautiful Mums Steph. I love them.

Barbara and Tonya are having a good time while working on their Wilomena's. Barbara brought some wonderful snacks to share with everyone. And, as usual, she was toting them in a couple of her beautiful Longaberger baskets. They were yummy as well as beautiful. Thanks for being so thoughtful Barbara!

Sarah and Christina are looking rather serious at their witches. Come on girls, RELAX!! I love that younger ladies come to the classes. It makes me hopeful that we can still pass on some of the wonderful sewing skills that seem to be getting lost in this generation.

Christina is ready to start the dressing phase of the project. This is where the real fun starts!

Everyone is dressing their witches now. This is where individual personalities will start to show. Debby (who drove all the way from Greenville) decides that standing up will giver her a better perspective on her witch. Here's one Wilamena that's almost done. Christina is trying to decide what else she wants to add to her witch. We have lots of trims and embellishments available to embellish our gals with.

And what a lovely group of witches we have. The ladies all did a wonderful job and they are turned out quite witchy!! Happy witching hour to you!

We moved right from witches to autumn penny mats. This was a smaller class since there is a lot of hands on teaching involved.
As many of you know, we had to move our classes from The Rusty Bucket to a new location because the store is just full of fall merchandise and will only get fuller in the coming months. It was becoming a challenge to find space to have the classes and not disrupt the shop. So Laura (sitting in the foreground) graciously offered me a room in her home to hold classes and the good thing is the house is just around the corner and down the street from The Rusty Bucket. So a great convenient location with a little room to spread our elbows. Thanks a bunch Laura (and Chris, the wonderful husband) for opening your home to all of us creative ladies! And how funny is it that I teach at Laura's house but here she is in mine taking a class. Love that dedication to wanting to get a project started, no matter where I have to go!

To me this is the most fun part of creating a penny mat......choosing the wool. I had lots of beautiful fall colors ready for the ladies to choose from. Wonderful vibrant reds, golds, rusts, oranges, greens, browns.............how much fun! You won't see a finished picture of the project from these gals. Unfortunately, they have homework to do in order to get their mats finished. Can't wait to see their finished projects!

What a fun class we had last night. It was the first Wilamina Witch class and the ladies were in rare witchy form. Everyone left with their own one of a kind witch dressed to the nines in organzas and silks with lots of accessorizing trims. Great job gals. We even had a paint fight in the middle of class that the teacher had to break up. Something to do with spells or toads or warts..........................

Uh-oh, a paint fight has broken out between Janie and Robin. The teacher can't turn her back for a second on those two!!!

Finally, the witches are getting their skirts, hair and hats. They are sure looking witchy!

Even after a paint fight, these two witches are still friends!

Ginger and Joan came to the class without a great deal of sewing experience, but both left with beautiful, creative witches. Good job ladies.

Dolly looks tired, has a long drive home but still had a fun time creating her witch. Thanks for all your support Dolly.
How's this for dedication.....Carol (left) came to class with a heart condition and had to stop a couple of times, but persevered and went home with her witch. So glad you're OK Carol. And look how sweet Gerry's witch turned out.

Becky proudly displays her Wilomena Witch. This witch is looking a little tired!

I'm so blessed to be able to work with such wonderful ladies. Thanks so much.

Fall is in the air and what better time to create wool pumpkins! A wonderful, patient group of ladies got together Sunday afternoon to work on a pumpkin pincushion. The project was a little more time consuming and difficult than they expected, but they all hung in there and the end result was a darling little pincushion. Thanks ladies for a fun afternoon (and evening)..................

In the process of getting supplies ready for the upcoming week's classes, I decided to make another Wilomena witch just to make sure I had all the bugs worked out. I think the ladies are going to have fun creating their own Wilomena's, adding their own flair and creativity. I decided in the wee hours of the morning that I would like to give away my latest Wilomena. So any of you ladies that have signed up for the Wilomena class will be entering your name in a drawing and at the end of the classes, we'll draw a name for someone to take home this Wilomena. Happy stitching everyone.

You know Fall is in the air, especially when your sweet friend shows up with a surprise.............a beautiful one of a kind created by her little hands witch mannequin. How lucky am I??!! She is so beautiful and so well made and so creative and so much fun and will be a great accessory to my fall decorating, which I am so ready to do. Thanks for such a nice surprise Evette!! I've also been working on my workroom/studio rearranging furniture and trying to get wool and "things" in better order. Couldn't resist a couple of pictures of a wool cubbie hole cabinet nicely stocked with wool just waiting to be turned into something fun and my tomato pincushions all plump and stuffed. The room is slowly getting back to normal. Fall classes have started and already we've had a Boo Black Cat class. Not too late to sign up if you're interested in something new and fun to do for the fall.

The weather outside was beautiful today, low humidity and low temperatures. A perfect day for dying wool! I realized that I needed quite a few colors for the upcoming fall classes, so I got out the dye pots and got busy. I started dying wool at 8am and it's now 6pm and the pots are still cooking. Didn't realize I had so much wool laying around that could be dyed. That was a nice surprise. Dying is such a process I usually make a day of it and get as much done as I can so I only have the mess to clean up once! At least I should have enough wool for classes now. Look at the pile of wool I started out with. I eventually went through crates and added to that pile. That's a lot of wool to dye but I was determined to get it done since the weather was so nice.

Look at the huge pile of wool I'm starting out with. All that needs to be dyed!

The nutty professor's formulas
The pots are simmering but sorry Markie, it's not dinner!Wonder what colors these cups hold?

Dyes and measuring spoons and wool samples, tools of the trade

Look at all the beautiful colors, just ready for fall applique projects......all in a day's work!