Happy Halloween!

Well, we made it! The pumpkins are carved. The Halloween candy was purchased and handed out with only a half dozen candy bars left over. The trick or treaters are done and now I wait for the teenagers to make their way back to our house for a sleepover...
Yes, that is a knife sticking out of the laughing jack-o-lantern. Definitely my son's humor!

Now we will watch my kind of scary movie - Abbott & Costello meet the Invisible Man :) and I will hopefully finish my "Hallow's Eve" piece above by Betty Dekat of primitivebettys.

Happy Halloween!

Blessings, Patti

I'm running out of time...

The pumpkins aren't carved yet. I haven't bought the Halloween candy yet. And I'm running out of time! Hopefully it will all get done...

Don't you love those three little faces? This was the last Maggie Bonanomi club kit. At least this was finished on time as the next kit will be arriving any day...

I've been trying so hard to be good, but I did make two Halloween decoration purchases this year:

A Schneeman white jack-o-lantern.

And another white jack-o-lantern. I didn't realize I had a theme going on here until just right now. This piece is by the very talented Jenn Tavoletti of Rabbit Hill Primitives . I just love her work and she has a delightful blog as well.

These Halloween faces all make me smile.

You probably won't hear from me again until after Halloween is over. TDIPT Mercantile will be updating around the witching hour on Halloween. There will be lots of exciting news then.

Until then, I wish you more treats than tricks on Halloween!

Blessings, Patti

A haunting Halloween is heading this way...

It's almost Halloween and I thought I would share some of my favorite cross stitch finishes from over the years...

Blackbird Designs had a wonderful Halloween book out a few years ago and I think that I stitched almost every design.

I did this design teeny tiny over one. It continues to be a favorite. I was informed by my youngest son that he would like to trick or treat with his friends this year without his mother tagging along. He's in middle school and I know it is time, but I am so sad... it's the end of an era for me...

This was stitched before kids with lots of specialty and glow-in-the dark threads. I don't stitch pieces that take this much thought any more lol.

I am behind schedule for Halloween this year. We haven't even bought our pumpkins yet. No time for a trip to the pumpkin farm. Luckily the neighborhood community church partners with an impoverished community and picks up and sells their harvest for them. That's where we will go this year...

In the past few days the sun has either been too bright for pictures and non-existent. The pics aren't the best, but you get the idea.

My hope is to post one more time before Halloween with some fabric finishes. Hope your Halloween preparations are well under way...

Blessings, Patti

I just can't stop...

I just can't stop making pumpkins! I know that I should move on to Christmas creations and I think about it... but I keep making more pumpkins :) I find myself still inspired...
by an overdyed velvet

or a vintage orange quilt top

or an interesting pumpkin stem.

Say, an idea is coming to me... a Christmas idea... I wonder if it might work...

Oh how I wish I had my camera with me on my way in to the office this morning...

It's the time of year when all the sailboats are coming in from the lake for winter storage. I've watched the bridges going up and down and the parade of sailboats for years. But always from the street level or our office windows. Today as I was taking the water taxi from the train station to the office we found ourselves right in the midst of the sailboat procession. Of course we were going in the opposite direction. we had to manuever and snake our way through all the boats. Wow! I didn't realize how big and beautiful the boats were...

I truly enjoyed the 12 minute trip :)

Blessings, Patti

A Wonderful Autumn Weekend

Where does the time go? It flies by so quickly and sometimes I just can't keep up! I spent last week preparing for an incredible weekend and this week I've been recuperating from it...

We spent a long Columbus Day weekend celebrating my parents' 50th wedding anniversary in the scenic historic little town of Galena, Illinois. My parents, my sister's family of four and my family of four rented a five bedroom home in The Galena Territory of Eagle Ridge.

The leaves were starting to change and the countryside was just beautiful. The weather could have been better - we had a snowstorm on Saturday and we didn't really get past the 40's all weekend, but it didn't slow us down a bit. The boys cut the golf in the snowstorm to only 9 holes and we decided to pass on the outdoor craft fair, but otherwise we didn't miss a thing.

Here are my parents shopping on the bustling Main Street and trying not to shiver too much! Aren't they sweet together?

Chestnut Mountain Lodge is a ski resort along the Mississippi River. During the off season they have an alpine slide where you ride scooters down the ski hill and take the chair lift back up. The boys loved it, but I took a pass with my fear of heights :)

The view was beautiful from right where I stood.

We explored the back roads and did a little antiquing.

We even had a few visitors at the house...

Galena is very hilly and after breakfast on the last day the boys decided to climb the steps up to the next street.

They made it!

The best part was just spending time together - playing dominos and mancala, talking and reminiscing.

My incredible sister took all the family 8mm movies from 1958 to 1972 and converted them all to DVD! She even made a copy for each of us to take home! She also converted the VHS tape of me and my husband's wedding 24 years ago too! We spent each evening watching these movies remembering our loved ones who have passed on and laughing at ourselves. How special to see all of us in our younger days and to see movies of our parents dating, marrying and honeymooning. This was the very best part.

What a blessing to relive our memories and create new ones too.

My sister learned a new hobby on our trip - needle punch! And my sister and niece both took to it like a duck to water! (I on the other hand will stick to cross stitch and wool applique lol.)

I did a little hand sewing during our time and finished a Maggie Bonanomi kit that I have had for some time. Here's the outside of my new needle roll:

And here is the inside:

I just love the fabrics that Maggie chooses. And what a wonderful keepsake of a wonderful weekend.

We have a quiet weekend ahead, thank goodness. I hope to catch up with everything, but plan to keep the joy of last weekend in my heart...

Blessings, Patti