Cabins in the Woods, Christmas Coins, Hearts Too

Our house yesterday-view from the feeders at 4 pm

I had lots of emails about the bunny photo I took through my bedroom window shown in last post.  These are cottontails and do not dig burrows but mostly make use of available spaces to huddle in and use as nurseries. We see them year round and the winter gives us more information about their numbers and where they are hanging out. We think they are also using the wood pile at the back door to hide in. Their tracks are unmistakable and we have many, many lines of tracks crossing the property. Perhaps they are healthy as a population, here anyway and pretty safe close to the house. They provide me with amusement when I generally catch sight of those puffy white tails bouncing along and away from me on one of our walks. Just on Thursday that happened twice.
Today's project getting my attention is the table runner I'd labelled Little Cabin in the Woods. I will begin the applique starting with the cabin and trees there around it. Hope to have it done by the weekend.

This is the week I also start sewing the Dresdens together!  Fingers crossed as I have a vision in my head of what they should look like. And also I want to finish up these Christmas Coins which I have begun.  So far I am pleased with how it looks.  Jelly rolls are so much easier than measuring and cutting long narrow pieces of fabric...with my crooked eye anyway.  No Kidding!!

What's percolating...something with hearts maybe after seeing some of your projects. I'm not a huge huge heart fan but I do like them.  So a smallish project for now.  And it will have to be scrappy.  I have an insane amount of red scraps...where the heck they came from I don't know.
I'll share a project made with hearts next time.  I've admired it for years.

I have this book below checked out from the library once again for probably the fourth time.  I asked the librarian if I could buy it as I'm the only one checking it out.  She said as long as it's being checked out it stays on the shelf.  I pointed out that I was the one doing the checking out but it didn't matter.
Bit of a catch 22. Oh well.

Loads of hearts in this book.  Cheri's facebook group is still going strong this many years after her sad passing. A huge file of free patterns now available there also SAL's, etc.  Quilts By Cheri~Friendship Group

Though primitive in style, I'm intrigued by how some folks can take such patterns and make them look completely modern by the fabrics chosen or a design tweak here and there.  Stitchers amaze me so much with their boundless creativity. That would be you I am talking about!
Hope your Sunday is going well...stay warm, dry, or cool depending on where you are, but all stay hydrated!
Happy to be linking with Kathy's Quilts.

January Cake, Three Beauty Products, Hope and Bunnies

I must admit I am worried about how much of our planet is being incinerated right now as I write these words. With a preschool understanding of world politics, I can only wish for any changes necessary be made and that help continues to pour into these areas.  And that the people who need to take on the mantle of environmental stewardship, do so in a meaningful way.  Hope!
                                  
This reminded me of another small cross stitch project I finished...I can't remember when exactly.  I think at the old farm when I was seeing cardinals for the first time and was amazed by their colours.
They stand out so much around here amongst our brownish/greyish coloured songbirds. Now that I have unearthed this, I will figure out how to use it somehow.  A little too big for an ornament, though but would work well for another small project finish.

I promised to show you my online shopping from Green Fairy Quilts.  I've had my eye on the Minick and Simpson Northport fabric and when it came on sale I decided to splurge. What I was actually shopping for was the Kona jelly roll in white...it is more of a light cream which I think will suit the project in mind better.  So now I have no excuse not to get these brilliant Christmas Coins strips sewn together.

 This was my first fabric purchase in a long time so it was exciting and it will be my very first time using a jelly roll!  Wish me luck!

A long time ago, I promised to show you three beauty products I've been using and liking. I never wore any makeup for decades of my life so this whole beauty product thing has been a later in life adventure for me.

First up is the L'Oreal Age Perfect Rosy Tone Cream.  I talked about this last year and I am now on my third jar.  My skin is very dry so this somewhat thicker face cream works well for me and I do think it brightens me somehow.
                              
The middle item is Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer.  I have ghostly pale skin and anything tinted is usually too dark...even once when I had a facial, the lady did not have a cream light enough for me. This one is ON1 Petal which is the lightest.  I use it sparingly and for special times and it is light and blends well...another problem I have with tinted creams.

I also have dark shadows under my eyes and I am always looking for undereye creams that would help with that issue.  This one, the Becca Under Eye Brightening Corrector, light to medium, works well for me. I use a tiny bit of this in the corners and it gives a little reflecting sheen depending on how you move.  I guess reflecting light is a good thing.
Pretty basic stuff.  (And just for the record, I absolutely do not have any affiliation with any of these make up folks in case you are wondering).

I love the idea of a January Cake recipe.  We still have Christmas chocolate floating around...But when I read this remarkably simple and delicious sounding cake from Julie at Sum of Their Stories, I had to bookmark it.
                              
So on this delicious note, my post today is done.  Oh, just one more photo.  Bunnies are once again hiding close to the house, especially under the rock landscaping in the back yard. Another favourite spot is under the bedroom window area where there is warmer air from the furnace pipe doohickey and the air conditioning unit provides some shelter. They are all cottontails.

A little comfort and shelter during the snowfalls.
Happy to link with Not Afraid of Color, Needle and Thread Network, Sugarlane Designs,  My Quilt Infatuation, Viewing Nature With Eileen, Clever Chameleon and It's a Small Town Life.

Bobby Bateman, Red Toile Fabric, Flu Shots

We have many large coffee table books, most from Hubby's parents. One is Robert Bateman Natural Worlds. One of our blogging friends shared why she thought hawks were her spirit bird.  I was pleased to see this beautiful painting of Robert's and thought of her.

But my favourite of his is this watercolour called Backyard Birds he painted when he was 14 and Bob Bateman...after Bobby and before Robert.  I love it.
                          
It brought back the memory of the day a hawk visited our front yard, hung around watching the feeder activity and long enough for me to get photos. It was thrilling and no small birds were lost that visit either as far as I could tell.

I'm almost ready to pull the plug on the Dresdens.  When's enough enough!

I almost started to stitch them together when I got sidetracked by this below...and did a little dreaming.
I look at this large piece of fabric, Christmas Classics from Northcott, often and wonder what I could make with it. It's been with me for years and moved from house to house with me.  Definitely something I still love, toile-like in design and rich in colours...burgundy running to a red tinged pink.

Remember my bedroom curtains are red toile. I'm so old fashioned.

But on the other hand, I'm seriously trying to quell a case of startitess. Which I notice some of you are succumbing to.:) Which totally makes me want to too! It's infectious!
✱Speaking of succumbing...I did get the high dosage flu vaccine for seniors while at the doctors last week. My doctor thought it was a good idea.

Hoping to squelch the startitess itch with some slow stitching of flowers today...while a wild winter blows outside my window.

Hope your Sunday and upcoming week are wonderful!

So happy to link with Kathy's Quilts, Sum of Their Stories, Our World Tuesday,  Paying Ready Attention, I'd Rather B Birdin and Life in Pieces.

Remnants- Christmas, Words, Garden, Fabrics, Home

 A while back I posted a little verse from Proverbs about using kind words.  I was thinking this morning about how some words said to us even decades ago, stay with us, maybe forever. It could be stinging words, but also may be kind or complimentary words. Like the first boy I liked when I was about 14 told me one day that I had nice teeth and I was ever so pleased-he knows I'm alive and he thinks I have nice teeth!  I always smile when I remember that-his comment and my reaction.  Do you have such a story about remembered words?

                     
                                    
Finding something of interest in the sad Hydrangea remnants is this little guy....can you spy him?  There must be something good there because they leave the sunflower seeds at the feeder and rummage around in these patches of my ugly gardening. His colours blend well.

Remnants of Christmas, some that will linger a long time,..
Small treats

This beautiful plant, a Madagascar Jasmine, will be my pleasure to try to keep alive! Must read up on it.

My sister sent me this lovely ornament, a cardinal.  I love it.

And my ex who is my friend gave me this...

So Christmas 2019 is pretty much all tucked away.

This past week I've been engaged in some pretty but kind of mindless machine sewing.
Sometimes I have to take a break from the stitching that is more concentrated like counting linen threads in cross stitching and do what I call mindless sewing.

Those thrift store remnants- the pretty Christmasy ones, yielded enough smaller blocks for me to make a number of chains. I added white and green or red from the scrap bin because I could see this could turn into enough for a small coin style quilt.

 Of course, like most stitching ventures, that didn't end there. Shopping became involved.
This led me to a little online purchasing-more about that later.

With that I come to the last item in today's remnants theme...
 North America is peppered with abandoned communities and my home province is as well.  One of these made the news recently when one couple made the decision to stay on even after the lights were finally turned off-literally.  The community is Little Bay Islands and the couple is Georgina and Mike Parsons.  Their story was told in the National Post and in this Washington Post article .  They have also started a facebook page called Kintsugi chronicling their days living off the grid in a ghost town that can only be reached by sea and that sea is the great North Atlantic. I invite you to check it out because Mike writes exceedingly well and also very touchingly about his feelings.                          
With their dogs, their chickens, solar panels and their wood stove, they are determined to not only just survive, but to live a meaningful life and enjoy the experience of supreme solitude that can be found in a deserted Newfoundland outport.
Great to link up with Not Afraid of Color, Floral Friday, The Inquiring Quilter, The Needle and Thread Network, Viewing Nature With Eileen, Quilting is More Fun Than Housework,  Tish's Adventures and It's a Small Town Life.

Free Quilting Patterns 2020 Style, Winter Projects, Icy World

One word for the weather lately, icy! But I'm not complaining. It has been mild and with cleats on our boots, we are good to go.  Ice rimed everything for several days; it weighed down the trees, broke small branches and turned the pond into an ice rink.

I need to update you about ongoing BOM's for 2020; it is always fun to take a look at the free ones with a hearty thank you to designers and their generosity in sharing.  Here are a few more links to check out. It's safe to say there is something out there for everyone. Or as the Spinster Stitcher puts it, to blow up your skirt. (I've been following Connie for years now.)

Barbara Backman will be offering a free BOM in two ways...pieced or appliqued.  Called Yankee Notions you can check it out here. Many of you enjoyed Hospital Sketches last year.

Suzy's Sitcom is offering a free bench pillow sized pattern for each month of the coming year.
First up is this one...nothing like a bright cardinal to catch the eye.
                               
Snuggles Quilts is also generously offering this free BOM for 2020.  Details are here and it looks to be primitive style-interesting.
                                 
At Stitching the Night Away, cross stitchers can find a comprehensive list of SAL' s for 2020.  I need to take my time to look through them,-there are so many, some free, others not.
I have another motif finished on my cross stitch project, Swirling Flowers.

Cross Stitched flowers and motifs in Pinks, Lavenders and Blues

I would have had more done but had to spend a session unsewing. I'd incorrectly assumed if one of the spokes was 10 blocks, all of them were. After finishing the whole outline, realized that was not the pattern, some are 8.  If I am one block off, my rule is I'm okay to leave it (depending on where it is), but two or more, no, can't do it.
It is our monthly SAL link up party hosted by Avis at Sewing Beside the Sea ...We are now heading into a new year together!
Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, Sue, Constanze, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, Linda, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Hayley, Megan, Deborah, Mary Margaret, Renee, Jenny, Carmela, Jocelyn, Sharon, Daisy, Anne, Connie, AJ

 A little winter scrap project I'm appliquing is this one I'm calling, not very imaginatively,  Little Cabin in the Woods.  Still testing out fabrics and colours, etc.  Hope to make it long enough for one of the side tables. This is fulfilling a promise to myself to work on smaller projects this year.

A Christmas present- Anybody else Bob's Burgers fans?

So think of me, the world outside my windows snowy white, as I sit here cosy inside waiting for supper to finish reheating...a combination of Thursday's chicken and rice and yesterday's Indian food.

Hope the first week of the brand new year finds you all off to a great start.
Linking this post with So Scrappy, Kathy's Quilts, Life in Pieces, Small Quilts and Doll Quilts, Letting Go of the Bay Leaf , Bambi's Show And Tell, Our World Tuesday, Clever Chameleon,  The Jesh Studio and Quilting is More Fun Than Housework.

Soul Sweet Words, Futuristic Year, My Limited Goal Making

If only everyone on Twitter and some of my Facebook stitching groups too(!!) would heed these words...
                                            
The property has become slippery with freezing rain, a daytime thaw and overnight freezing pattern. A layer of snow that fell in between has turned the world icy white.
 I've had to resort to the elliptical trainer for a little workout.  I am determined to keep my legs moving one way or another and this will continue to be a goal for the new year (as long as I am able).  Exercise and Jocelyn~ a curious thing...some days I feel like I can go on forever and other times it seems like an effort just to put on my socks and running shoes.

Kitchen window view of an icy wonderland

I ended 2019 with my health on my mind and the notion that I need to start paying more attention (but this is a yearly recurring theme for me). To that end I have a checkup in a couple of weeks and I will be requesting the Shingles vaccine. Any of you had it? This was a hot topic at the old folks table at one of our family get togethers over the holiday. Who had had the pneumonia shot, flu shot, took D3 drops, B12, etc., etc.  I don't do any of them because I've thoroughly confused myself with reading too much about all of it. Any of these on your must get list?

Other general goals will be to keep this blog going.
Read more books.
Watch fewer True Crime videos( truthfully, I'm a little addicted, that's why I need to back off).
Cook more interesting meals for us. I'm realizing with eating more vegetables, I'm not really cooking like I used to.  Not as many casseroles for sure. The most cooking as such I've done lately is make a large veggie frittata which was basically cutting and stirring.  It was good though and the kale and cranberry salad was good too.

In the Sewing Room goals
I'm enrolled in finishing school which I do every January.  Two major projects are on my mind...the baskets quilt...yes I do cut out the extra fabric on the back; mostly to lighten the overall quilt load.


 and the Dresdens.

 I'm now back to thinking of doing a center medallion piece for the baskets to surround. So I've been looking through my books for a design featuring a large basket.  You know what I mean?
I hope to have both of these sorted this month.
I worked on the Dresdens last night and will just continue to finish more blocks. Pointless to say a number because I never stick to it.  Just will get as many done as I can.
I'm so thankful my hands still work and my fingers can still stitch. Hope that continues!

Murphy is thankful too. I think, being such a diva, she enjoys having us all to herself. She covered her ears when she heard Hubby say something about getting another rescue dog.

I'm enjoying these last few days with the Christmas lights ( and my tiny computer tree.)

2020 has a neat sound to it; futuristic to my old ears.  Hope yours will be wonderful in all the ways possible!
Happy to join these link parties... Not Afraid of Color, Elm Street Quilts,  Clever Chameleon Quilts, Brian's Home Blog, Needle and Thread Network,  Quilt Fabrication, It's a Small Town Life and Home Sewn By Us.

Deep In December Finishes, Surprising Top Five Blog Posts,

Facing down another year with 2020 a few days away.  It does give one pause doesn't it.
But before looking back at the whole year I have to give December its due.  It was a wonderful month with lots of good things, family time and celebrating certain events as well in it. 
I was also pleased with my stitching this month. Though I did poke a few holes in two of my right hand fingertips, it was worth it.  I did not finish 10 more of the Dresden blocks as was the monthly plan, but I did prep 5 more to hand stitch.
In its place, I finished a project that consumed almost all my time and became a special Christmas gift.  I followed a pattern found in this issue of Quiltmania Simply Vintage, Winter 2017,

called Frosty Night by Emmanuelle Specque-Lafouasse.

Here is my version which also sits as my Blogger Header photo these days.  I wanted it large enough to use as a throw.

 The little recipient loves nature and the various animals I included especially the turtle and the fox.  It was his wild turtle that went in our pond and helped the turtle population so I added a little sleeping turtle too.

I hand stitched blanket stitch around almost every item plus filled the sky with quilting stars but used the machine on the binding and did a double row just to hopefully hold it all tight.
Such a fun applique piece to work on and my reward was an enthusiastic reaction as the animals and owl got checked out.

This month I finished this pillow with an old cross stitched piece, Just Believe with a Santa Snowman.

I also stitched and gifted these two items, a table topper and Kantha style stitched redwork runner, which were well received and I was happy about that.

Now is a good time to look back at Canadian Needle Nana and which posts garnered the most attention this year. While none of these posts received my highest pageviews ever, they were the highest in 2019.  This is the only time I pay attention to pageviews; I'm much more interested in comments and the possibility of connecting with you that they bring.
Beginning with the most pageviews....
#1 Links, Woolworths Famous Cheesecake, Flowers at Last.  This post included the no bake recipe and my photos of my version.  This brought back a lot of memories for many of you and I received many wonderful comments.
                               
#2 was Two Trends I've Noticed and I talked about how last January saw many stitchers anxious about finishing up old projects and also scrap busting. I was in the finish up camp which is right where I am this year! And I'm also, in my somewhat frugal heart, a happy scrappy quilter too.
#3 was titled Free Patterns, Stitching and Feeding the Birds. 
In this post I mentioned a link to free patterns by the wonderful designer Karen Kluba, my Cornwall Cottage piece and feeding the birds in a snowy February.
#4 Spinner Rings, Finishes, Domestic Minutiae
I was quite taken with a spinner ring Daughter gave me. I'm still on the library hold list waiting to read that book! It is immensely popular!
#5 Sensational September, Stitching, SAL, Squirrels
I included a photo of my Kathy Schmitz redworked squirrel. There are a lot of redwork fans out there!
                              
Roseanne at Home Sewn By Us mentioned this link, Ranked Blogs, so I went to the site to give her a thumbs up vote and it was a total surprise to see Canadian Needle Nana was on the list. I don't know what the numbers represent but having said that, perhaps I should learn more about it just because learning is good for the brain. But numbers don't really interest me so I probably won't. :)

 But what really interests me is hearing from you, learning about you, being inspired by your skills and creativity.  Connecting in this big, wide world of ours.
Also happy for these link up parties- Meadow Mist Designs, The Madd Quilter, Gone Stitchin',  Kathy's Quilts, Small Quilts and Doll Quilts, Love Laugh Quilt, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Devoted Quilter and Elm Street Quilts.