What Bores Me, Winter Panel Stitching, Snowmen Too

Growing up we were not allowed to say we were bored...well not allowed is a little bit strong...encouraged not to say it would be more accurate. I have no memory of either parent ever really putting their foot down. We would always be pointed toward a book, our school work, go outside and play or hobbies if we ever looked like we needed something to do.

Since I grew up sooo long ago, I always had a shoe box with paper dolls and paper clothes cut out of old Sears or Eatons Catalogues to play with. We also had scrapbooks made of those cheap newsprint type pages to glue things in and decorate with crayons- pencil leads never made bold enough colours on that paper to suit me. In the fall, I would always fill one with different kinds of leaves I'd collected tramping through the woods behind Charles Street.  This would inevitably become a crumbly kind of mess by February.

 Imagine pointing a 10 year old towards doing those things today! What did you do that would be a hoot for today's child to hear about?

This made me think about journals or planners or calendars with the 2019 versions fresh on the shelves. Is it me or is this getting to be an even bigger "thing" each year.
Here is a beautiful example, the Quilter's Planner from, yes, Quilter's Planner, pricey but what a great gift. And great video too.

A magazine comes with the planner and  it all seems substantial if you know what I mean.

                            

I've tried to write the way I do some things and I bore myself to death and then I think, if I'm bored then you will be bored.  So I admire those of you who write tutorials which I love to read and learn from.
A person who writes great tutorials is Connie at Free Motion by the River and this is a link to one of her over 100 tutorials; this one, Peace on Earth, is a sweet Christmas table runner design.  Pretty fabrics, heh. I like those greens.



I also dislike writing out recipes...you may have noticed I will always praise you when you do that.  I also find that kind of boring.

Rock Recipes, a food blog by fellow Newfoundlander, Barry Parsons, is one I love to search through.  Barry has gathered over 1600 recipes, many celebrating the kind of home made, home baked dishes we grew up with in Newfoundland and Labrador.  Obviously, it never bored him to write out recipes! 

 I also follow the blog, Lillian's Cupboard, where the amazing 86 year old writes out full recipes from her files of basic, old fashioned fare. I love it.  Just about anything you ate or heard of as a kid and had a mother, aunt or grandmother make is in her archive. Update, 2019...Lillian's daughter announced that Lillian has sadly passed away. I miss her.

A whole lot of Christmas stitching enjoyment in my pet chair...My After the Snow panel to be quilted and my Snowmen in Hats applique blocks at the start.

This will sound like heresy to you wonderful piecing quilters, but I find time at the sewing machine boring.  Just making those 46  blocks for the panel border was my limit.
 I tried to sandwich it on the floor but honestly, it hurt my knees too much so the kitchen island was the better spot.  I lashed it down with lots of masking tape- not pretty but it worked, and spent an hour doing the basting which I did not find boring.

I plan to hand stitch around the bits of batting I've glued to the roof snow. Thought of it after all the basting was done- I meant to show you a photo of that.

A little snowman start! Do you like the polka dot background fabric? Think I'll make 6 or 9 blocks...see how the snowman sewing spirit moves me.
Such an easy little project; definitely not going to stress myself about it, just going to enjoy the stitching journey! Great way to use some of those scraps I have under new management. LOL

Technically neither of these projects are Christmas, more winter; they can languish into January.  Now my Scandinavian Redwork pieces really are Christmas, so I must get that last reindeer's antlers stitched.  I think it was my OMG for November.
Anyway, so happy to have enjoyable projects in my hands, on this, the last Sunday in November, 2018.  No time to be bored!

Also enjoyable to link with Kathy's Quilts, Small Quilts and Doll Quilts, Em's Scrapbag, Love Laugh Quilt, Cooking Up Quilts, Sew Can She and Quilting is More Fun Than Housework.