Wooden House Still Winter Roundup

 Here is one of the Mother trees near our laneway featuring in a photo taken Wednesday. 

It's still mostly winter here and that's all I'll say about that. I suppose it's appropriate that I'm still knitting my very warm afghan. Here's how long it is now.

The male Cardinal is even more beautiful this far into what should be spring. He may be the showiest bird we have in Canada especially against a winter landscape.

And I'm so happy the Barred Owls have returned to Jim's nesting box in Indianna. They were a little late which made us worry it would be the first time in 13 years that no owl would choose the box. Here is the video after egg #2 was laid and Here is the link to the live cams run by the Cornell Lab folks.

Tony forwarded this to me. 😊 Fair enough, I am a little obsessed with them. 

Here are a few more of my little appliqued snowmen in progress. I decided I needed a teacup snowman, a sailor, and a ghost in the house snowman. It's fun to stitch these. I also machine stitched a couple 9 patch blocks to see if I liked the white better than the dark colour of the original pattern and I think I do. 

It's been a busy week with appointments every day including the vet. Tick season is almost here and we needed the special medication for the dogs that helps repel insects.

Here's a photo of the happy freeloaders. Petey would never join Ned on his couch but does so now, a sign of his comfort with us all. Ned disappears on this couch as his coat matches the colour exactly.

 I'm finding there are not enough hours in the day to get everything done. I fight the feeling that I am falling behind. Behind what exactly? Ridiculous, I know.

I hope you are not feeling behind on things and finding something to soothe you from the news out there that is all miserable. Even the Oscars, which I normally enjoy, upset me to see and hear about this new thing that some women feel they have to take to be thin. Madness!

Take care of yourselves!

Online Inspiration, Wool Applique, 3 Ingredient Squares

We were plunged back into Christmasy looking winter on Saturday. It was beautiful outside in my woods.

 I tramped about while the dogs ran madly around, sniffing new tracks here and there. The air was so cool and fresh and enjoyable. Below is the woods at the back door with a glimpse of the old tree house. 

This Wednesday morning is cool, windchill making it -18C but the sun is shining so another very pretty wintry looking day. But staying this cool means no melting today.

I've been trying to choose which of my quilt tops to get to the quilted stage. I found this one using pretty coloured wool appliques and decided it would be first up. I've picked a colourful backing fabric with the same colours as the lively flowers. Sadly this photo is not showing the gorgeous colours well. This is Laura Heine's pattern and her website is here at Fiberworks.

 I plan to hand stitch simple lines around each of the motifs. 

In the sewing room, I've been sewing more Flicker blocks in the March RSC Reds. This is such a great simple pattern to use up scraps. 

Here is the audio book I'm listening to presently, Rabbit Foot Bill. I like Helen's straightforward way of telling a story. 

 Listening is a convenience when in the sewing room and makes me feel good because I'm multitasking. I've tried to get Andrew Lownie's book about the utterly disgusting royal, Andrew (but yet I want to read it). There are hundreds of people in line for it. 

Online inspiration lately...

Kathleen Tracy is generously offering another of her very sweet patterns to made a mini in March. HERE is the link to her free pattern. It involves little houses which are very hard to resist. Kathleen's Website is Country Lane Quilts if you'd like to check out her other free patterns. 

And have you seen the little films being posted by Typewriters Voices on Facebook. I'm captivated by them and the words of wisdom too. 

I made the 3 Ingredient Apple Oat Bars that kept popping up in my online feed and love them. The recipe, if it can be called that, is just 2 cups of diced apples, 2 cups of oats, 1/3 cup honey or maple syrup and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon.  I diced the apples very small, mixed it really well and pressed as  hard as I could into the pan. Baked for 25 minutes. I let it cool completely but, as you can see, mine didn't come out very cleanly. Maybe when it gets to set up overnight. 

It was declicious with this wonderful honey yogurt from Costco. 

I hope your week is going well in spite of how the news is always unsettling these days. I'm so envious of the wonderful spring bursting out all over for some of you and love to see your garden photos. 

*The mug was the thrifted find in my last post. As the owner/Nana of two Labs, it was a given it was going into my cart!

Very happy to share this post with The Inquiring Quilter, Days Filled with Joy, Quilting Patchwork Applique, Kathy's Quilts, Quilting is More Fun Than Housework, Small Quilts and Doll Quilts and Alycia Quilts.

Guess?, March Mad Weather, Slow Stitching Projects

I can tell by the window's light when it's time to get up in the mornings. By 6:30 there is a certain brightness creeping in that tells me it's time to start the day. How wonderful to be able to start my days by the light rather than alarm clocks. I am always thankful to be retired.

I got to a thrift store recently and had quite a good poke about. One of the things in my header photo was a real find. I'd commented before that sometimes I think things in those stores are waiting for just me to come along. Can you guess which item it was this time???

I checked the men's shirts for a black 100% cotton...no luck. I'm going to need more black fabric for the moon parts on m ]y Quarter Dresden blocks so I'll check another thrift store soon.  Speaking of which here are a few in the RSC Colour, red, and I'm also still enjoying the hand stitching on this project very much which is good as it has far to go.

I've been cross stitching every day for a few minutes. I usually aim for 30 minutes which is enough to stitch one of the motifs or extend the border a bit. I'm still really enjoying this design. Here is where I am now.

 It's been dreary weather with rain, thunderstorms, freezing rain...the usual gamut of March weather. There was an ice storm Wednesday into overnight; school buses didn't run and we were warned we might lose the power. So glad we didn't. Underfoot it is an icy mess and the driveway even more so. I crept up and down it with a bucket of ashes mixed with salt, mainly pouring on the curves. Just enough so we won't slide off. 

 Before doing that, I had to launch one of my all too frequent house wide search parties looking for my boots with the cleats on them. Turns out I'd left them on a floor vent at the back door in the basement to dry out. I've just read that a Chickadee can remember where it hid the approximately 100,000 seeds it hides each season. Remarkable contrast!

Here are a few photos from the ice storm. You could tell where it had gone through; some areas of the forest were loaded with ice and others completely untouched. 

On Saturday night we went to Robbie's hockey game in a nearby town. We enjoyed the outing so much but then had a nightmare of a drive home. Low fog lay in heavy patches all the way along the winding country road completely shrouding the view in the dark. We put on our flashers and crept along, luckily able to keep sight now and then of either the yellow center line or the white outside line. Then Brad and family turned up...they'd taken a different route home, realized what we would be driving through so turned around, caught up to us and the bright red back lights on their truck led us home. What relief! We were so thankful to pull into our garage safe and sound.

 The worst fog I've ever driven in has been here in Ottawa, which says a lot since I spent five years before that in St. John's which is considered very foggy. Both those times were in the summer and I read it had to do with all the rivers here in the valley and the clash with summer's intense daytime heat. 

But here's what the Weather Channel has to say about fog here...  

"The main fog season in the Ottawa Valley occurs during the

autumn and winter months, particularly from late October through February. The region is highly prone to dense, stubborn fog due to its geography, which allows cold, dense air to settle into the valley, often resulting in prolonged periods of low visibility."

Fortunately we are seldom out after dark and can pick and choose when to go for the most part, another plus of being old and retired.

On a more fun topic, LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color's question this week is if we could bring back any fashion trend what would it be. I had to give that a think. I lived through the padded shoulders look for women and thought it okay but now looking at old photos, it looks ridiculous. But I only ever wore the light pads not those exaggerated ones and I was able to easily remove them from my work clothes when the trend died out. But that was just one of the trends that made women's clothes stand out. Women's clothes used to be very distinctive from men's especially in colour. Now I notice clothes are more unisex and people definitely opting for comfort overall, also more a requirement than it ever used to be.

 Sorry for the long post and so much of it about the weather! I hope the weather is great wherever you are, you are staying safe and sane, remembering where you've put things, and keeping busy doing all the things you love. 

Happy to join these parties...Alycia Quilts, Quilting is More Fun Than Housework, Small Quilts and Doll Quilts, Songbird Designs, Melva Loves Scraps, Quilt Schmilt and Kathy's Quilts.

Kindness Counts, Free Patterns, Flicker Blocks

We had a snowstorm ten days ago and I captured this shot of Petey from my tv room chair. Ned is still off somewhere in the yard. Neither of them seemed aware of the wild weather all around them. This is the most snow we've had on the ground since living in this house. I can touch the roof in places. It means the ground will get a lot of water this spring and after a couple of drier years, that's a good thing. 

 Back in 2016, just over ten years ago, I wrote this post called 5 Healthy Things I'm Doing.  I reread it recently and was happy to find I'm still doing those things most of the time; the oil pulling has fallen by the wayside but I've picked up a couple of other practices. Like doing 10 or so squats each day. 

You would think we had a beaver living with us. Ned still loves sticks and snuck in a rather large one by the looks of the leftover chewings. I have a high tolerance for pet shenanigans. 

I needed to find my button tin and had to do some digging. That's always a good thing because I come across so many things I'd forgotten about. Like these Blue Strings blocks I stitched last year. I couldn't settle on an arrangement, became overwhelmed by all the layout choices, hence became paralyzed and did nothing. Has that happened to you? Is that why you have WIP's too?

And finally the button tin was unearthed. It's an original Scottish McVitie's & Price famous Petticoat Tail Shortbread tin. The wedges had a frilled end like a lady's petticoat. 

I inherited this from the first wife and I wonder who she inherited it from. I'm hoping to find a few interesting buttons to use with my appliqued snowmen.

I stitched the first four Flicker blocks in the March RSC reds. Thought I'd switch up the backgrounds so using darker shades for this round. 

I still love this free cross stitch pattern from the amazing Teresa Kogut. I enjoy her YouTube videos too. HERE is the link to her website.

Kindness is Free and what a sweet design it is too. Teresa always puts a lot into each of her designs. 

And the Moda Fabrics folks still offer this project below that includes quilting and embroidering. Stitching Kindness is a beautiful red and white quilt from Susan Ache. The patterns are all there to stitch this quilt and copy the words. I was thinking this pattern would make one of those quilts you could put family names on. 

HERE is the link to Susan's beautiful quilting books for sale on Amazon too. 

LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color's prompt this week is about hair cuts we've had. Since I cut my own hair, I have no one to blame for several bad cuts I've sported at times throughout the years. Getting a professional cut hasn't always worked out either...like the last one. It wasn't a good cut at all and I came home and did some trimming. I felt sorry for the lady who did it. She was a single working mom and I gave her a big tip. And I've since wondered how she is doing because it is a competitive business.

I do hope all manner of kindnesses are surrounding each and every one of you. 💗

So happy to share this post with Small Quilts and Doll Quilts, Quilting is More Fun Than Housework, So Scrappy  Melva Loves Scraps, The Inquiring Quilter, Quilts, Art, Whatever and Songbird Designs.

Loving All The Little Things

Back in 2016, just over ten years ago, I wrote this post called 5 Healthy Things I'm Doing.  I reread it recently and was happy to find I'm still doing those things most of the time. Though the oil pulling has fallen by the wayside, I've added a couple of other healthy habits. I'm so grateful I am still able to do these things. Who knows what tomorrow may bring!

My unofficial words for this year are keep moving. They've been in my mind all my adult life so it's not special for 2026. All my efforts to keep Tony moving flopped. On my very first visit to the farm I wanted to head out on the trail he said went through the woods along by the pasture. He didn't really want to but had to show me where to go so off we went. He's a reluctant mover, preferring to keep busy by doing chores. He stayed slim by controlling his diet. I really did think I would change him and that he would learn to enjoy walking, especially with the added bonus of seeing nature up close on his beautiful land. But it wasn't meant to be that that would be one of his things to love.

 Below is the little video our real estate agent made when we were selling that 100 acre property. The farm land was rented to a neighbour. Those woods behind the house was where I walked just about every day and enjoyed every minute of it (except for that one time I got lost back there). I'd never lived in such a place before and it was just one of the many adventures I've had in my life. LeeAnna Not Afraid of Color's prompt this week was about just that. 

 Yes, how we learn as we age that love is in the little things, is different for us all and doesn't have to cost much. Like finding this Abercrombie and Fitch wool scarf/shawl at the thrift store. It was love at first sight and for $5.97, a real bargain. It came out of the wash feeling so soft and goes great over my shoulders in the tv room. 

I'm still loving my various stitchy projects. Here are the last of the So Scrappy RSC March green backgrounds for my appliqued Quarter Dresden project. I'll be happy to look through the red fabrics for March. Blues, reds and greens make up by far the bulk of my stash, such as it is. 

I enjoyed trying a new recipe last week for a hearty vegetable soup and it was perfect for the last day of an Ontario February. It uses chick peas, tomatoes and coconut and is one of those recipes you can add whatever you have on hand. I added leftover chicken and I didn't use curry. I used a couple of chicken cubes instead.

I used the recipe from Nyssas Kitchen as my guide, the one called 30 Minute Chickpea and Tomato Curry Soup. I'm getting to like chickpeas more. 

How true is this..."The person is wealthy whose pleasures are cheap."

I hope you are piling pleasures all around you and enjoying every little thing. 

Also to love are the folks who offer these lovely linky parties found at Songbird Designs, Quilting is More Fun Than Housework, The Inquiring Quilter and Small Quilts and Doll Quilts.

Costco Treat, Stitching Projects Progress, Still Winter

We had sun in spurts yesterday but today we are back to a white world out there both sky and landscape. It has continued to snow a lot- small flakes but they add up. The saying at home was "small snow, big snow" and when the snowflakes were large...."big snow, small snow". This has been a winter of small snow building up. The dogs love it all of course. I'm so happy that having obedient Petey, who comes when called, join us has meant Ned stays close too and no longer needs to be on a leash. This certainly helps his fitness.

I have a Cardinal pair who are regular visitors to the bird feeders. I notice them every evening while I'm getting supper. The female has such delicate colouring with reddish tinges throughout the wings and head.

I noticed the male is turning redder and I looked it up. Sure enough, this is the time of year he gradually becomes more brilliant ahead of the breeding season coming up. 

I just have the quarter moon pieces lodged there...now that is a Newfoundland usage of that word for you. I used it growing up when you want to put something somewhere temporarily and will move it later or pin it down. Perhaps everyone used it for that too. I'm wondering if I should make these quarter circle pieces a little smaller and show more of the blades. 

I've also been working on my Snowmen project. I'm trying to give each a little more personality and I thought of using the calendar months as a way to inspire embellishments. Like the baby snowman there with the giant candle...I so love embroidery and applique!

In my plan this week was to prep one of my flimsies for quilting. I have a few as you know :) and here it is Wednesday and no decision about that has been made. Sigh 

I'm 100 pages into this book and enjoying it very much. Lots of food/baking chatter that is very beautifully written. The premise in a nutshell is seventy-seven year old, lifelong baker, Jenny, decides to try out for the British Bakes tv show contest. 

 We are survivors here at the Wooden House...yes we made it to Costco and home again safe and sound. Tony is still getting his new glasses sorted and other than a scary ten minutes when I lost him and thought I'd have to get help, it went well. Turns out he'd left the agreed upon spot where he would wait for me and went off in search of socks- not part of the plan. What's the big deal he said when I lucked upon him.Thankfully, wearing his fur Mounties hat on his 6ft 4in frame had enabled me to spy him amongst the busy noontime crowd. And, indeed, in the end, it certainly wasn't a big deal and he got new socks. 

And we also treated ourselves to the Costco carrot cake with cream cheese icing. It is very tasty and goes well with a big mug of tea.

On that delicious note, I'll finish this post. I'll respond to LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color's recent prompts in my next one. BTW, I'm so happy LeeAnna has a beautiful new dog!

Take care all of you and thank you for your lovely and helpful comments.  

Very happy to share this post with linky parties at Creations Art Quilts, Home Matters, The Inquiring Quilter, Kathy's Quilts and  Alycia Quilts.

YouTube Stitching Stars, Flicker Blocks, Slow Stitching

 It is happening, the lengthening of the days I mean. It is already noticeable but of course, we are still under banks of snow and will be for several more months. March can be our snowiest month here so I won't be seeing buttercups any time soon. But still, the tiny steady slivers of extra light each day add up. 

And I finally managed a photo to show why this fellow is called an Eastern Cottontail. Isn't it cute! I called all rabbits "bunny rabbits" growing up. Did you?

Slow stitching- I should say really slow stitching has me at this point now on What Remains is Love. This photo shows the true colour of this linen and it suits the floss colours very well. That's my butterfly mug, a gift from grandson,Jack, who I'm so happy to say is doing really well these days. 

Thank you to those who mentioned to me this block below is called the Flicker block. I will call them that from now on. So here are my latest Flicker blocks using up green scraps too and my eye is drawn to more flowery fabrics... thinking of blossoms I guess. Loving linking with Angela's RSC party.

These work well with an assembly line kind of thing in the sewing room.  In reality, I'm using up just scraps, but inexplicably, the bin is still just as full. I have never heard anyone say And that was the very last of my scraps. :)

I watched this episode of Red Velvet Quilts on Youtube yesterday. This was a flosstube video but Carrie is a very talented stitcher and shares her quilting too. If I haven't already mentioned, you should check out her episode where she shares her quilting kits. It's a great way to see what's available from many sites.

 Carrie showed her fancy tea warming cup/thermos thingy and I thought that's neat so I looked it up on Amazon. It is a great idea but comes with a hefty price tag. I guess it would make a good gift sometime. That made me think of my old grandparents who, in my younger years, had a wood stove in the kitchen that they used for both heating and cooking. It had a shelf above with a door you lifted and where you could put food to keep warm. It also had a water tank on one end so you could always have warm water. And you could also place your teapot and cup there to keep your tea warm. It was connected to a brick chimney that went through a bedroom above the kitchen and into the roof so upstairs got one very cosy bedroom too. All this for the price of your own labour cutting wood. How far we've come from those days ( like me checking out a $139 tea warmer) and, as the old timers would say, are we any better off???

And that made me think about how I've always wanted to stitch the famous Dear Jane quilt. Whenever I think of sadly bedridden Jane, I picture her in an upstairs bedroom in a house like that of my grandparents. The Dear Jane book does not seem to be widely available, not even in a library. I really don't understand that, what with the runaway popularity of that project throughout the years and even today. 

Lots of stitchers have shared their Dear Jane journey on YouTube and in fact, a number are doing so just now. Jaynes' Stitches is one who is stitching the blocks using various methods and sharing tutorials.

I just thought I wonder what that smell is. I'd completely forgotten I'm making chicken soup and put the carcass in the crock pot which is doing its thing. Oh my. What can I say. Luckily some days I still seem to be sharper than others. 

I do hope you are staying alert, minding your stoves and keeping your stitchy fingers flying.

So happy and grateful to share this post with wonderful linky parties...The Inquiring Quilter, Kathy's Quilts, Creations Quilts Art, Quilting is More Fun Than Housework, Songbird Designs, Small Quilts and Doll Quilts, Melva Loves Scraps and Alycia Quilts. Thank you all for hosting!