Finished for Friday: Acorn Hollow

I actually finished this last month and forgot to post it, but it still works for this month.  This was a fun wool piece to stitch up.

It's been sitting under my bowl of small things for this month.  The house is completely switched from Halloween mode to Thanksgiving now.

You can find the pattern or kit for this project here.

Autumn Harvest Festival Progress

My Autumn Harvest Festival from The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery is coming along.  The top half should go relatively quickly after this.  I love that the girl is holding a take-out coffee cup.  Must be a pumpkin-spiced latte.

Linking up with Kathy's Quilts today for Slow Stitching Sunday.

I've almost finished showing all the Harry Potter quilt blocks. They're yelling at me to sew them all together now. Today I have a bag from Weasley's Wizard Wheezes shop, and a little pygmy puff that has escaped.

10 Things I Love About Not Watching Football

 Kathy over at Mama's Losin' It has a set of suggested writing prompts for today.  I picked "10 Things I love about football." 

There's just one catch.  I don't watch football.  Haven't seen a game in years.  That doesn't stop me from loving it though.  Here are my 10 reasons why:

1. It's a great excuse to sit down and watch television on Sunday afternoons.  While I can hear the neighbors cheering on the home team, I am having an equally enjoyable time catching up on Downton Abbey episodes.  I don't feel guilty for being unproductive in the middle of a weekend day - everybody is!
2. Even though I graduated from college many years ago, I maintain bragging rights to my alma mater's football team.  When they're winners, obviously I'm a winner.  When they lose I just don't bring it up.
3. Having gone to plenty of games in the past, I now know exactly how long 100 yards is.  This is actually pretty useful.  Whenever some measurement is mentioned in a large number of yards, I compare it mentally to a football field.
4. There are a lot of great tailgate and football party food recipes on Pinterest.  There's no law that says a particular dip can only be used for a football party.  When cooks get creative, everybody wins!
5. Football pants.  I might have to endure replays on the nightly news, but I don't always mind so much. 
   
6. We Americans stubbornly insist on calling our game football, when the rest of the world has a game they all call football and we call soccer.  I love that we're just contrary like that. 
7.  Fewer crowds at the mall on game days.  The big crowds are all down the street at the stadium.
8. Special game-day sales.  These run the gamut from shish kabobs to electronics.  Nobody requires you to show proof you actually watch the games in order to get the discount.
9. "Football widow" events.  My local yarn shop hosts a big knit-in on Super Bowl Sunday every year, with refreshments and sales.  Count me in!
10. Last but not least, I can go through the checkout line at the supermarket with a huge bunch of chips and snacks and drinks and guacamole and nobody bats an eye.  Because of course, I'm just getting ready for the game.

 Are you a football fan?  Or more like me - someone who just takes advantage of the wonderful parts of football season.

Day 8 today for the Harry Potter quilt show and tell.

Just another set of books.  Wizards clearly love to bind books with all kinds of fantastical images.  They're wizards, they can do anything they want.  I'd like to think the book with the flames on it is actually hot to the touch in the wizard world.  The one with skulls is probably a book on poisons.

Slow Sunday Stitching: Acorn Hollow

Today I'm working on this wool piece called "Acorn Hollow" and I'll hopefully finish it up.  As you can see, I still have the border to stitch and then there will be a bit of embroidery to add.  This is one I'll almost be sorry to finish, it's been so lovely to work on.  I think that's part of why I drag my feet on some projects - I don't want to see them end!

I'm not sure where I'll put this when it's finished.  Maybe I should have thought of that before.  These soft woolly things are always cat magnets.  The cats must think I just make pretty beds for them all the time.

It has a bit of weight to it, with all the wool, so I don't think I want to hang it on a wall.  I need to put it somewhere that invites people to touch it.

It will be about 15" x 18".  Where would you put it?

Linking up today with Kathy for Slow Stitching Sunday.

In keeping with my slow reveal of my Harry Potter bookcase quilt this month, here is block 4, which includes Harry's glasses.  The bee fabric is a nod to Dumbledore.  Dumbledore is actually the Old English word for bumble bee.  J.K. Rowling knew that and mentions bees subtly in several of the books.