Three Free Patterns, Bluebird Nostalgia, Birthday Cake, Karnak Colour Play

 I can make myself feel nostalgic with very little prompting. For instance, listening to Mandy Patinkin singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" always makes me feel a little sentimental. What a beautiful pure tenor voice he has!

It was my birthday last week and I marked another year gone by so quickly I hardly had time to blink. Thank goodness for this blog so I can at least look back and see how a goodly portion of my time was well spent.

 Daughter made me a birthday cake. 

It was white with lemon curd and she decorated it to look like embroidery, a nod to one of my hobbies. I thought it beautiful and very special.💕

I've got my colour play Karnak hanging all sewn together and layered up for quilting. I had to take it outside to get good photos of the colours.

My indoor photos weren't doing the colours justice. The yellow on either end strip is a wonderful warm gold with matching colours in the two  prints either side of it. 

I chose a black polka dot print for the back.

I have a few lines of hand quilting laid down. 

It's a struggle to keep it straight as I used a batting that is a little bit bumpy with bits of something kind of hard in it. ??? I discovered this too late to turn back.  I really must pay attention to batting for hand stitching. Interestingly, the very cheap stuff  I often use for wall hangings doesn't have that problem. I'm using yellow perle cotton and my hera marker to make the lines. 

To get this one all finished and ready to give away will be my September OMG at Elm Street Quilts. 

LeeAnna Not Afraid of Color's prompt this week was to think back to school start up in September and what things did we love to get.  Besides loving the brand new box of crayons I always got, I also got a new cardigan to wear with my uniform. The year I started grade 5 I got to pick it out myself and I chose a red one with green trees stitched around the tail. (Liked the look of embroidery even then I guess). At school one of the boys to poke fun said, you look like a Christmas tree and I was pleased, not hurt at all because I figured a Christmas tree was just about the most beautiful thing I could think of. (Those were the days when boys were named ie/y names like Billy, Davy, Jimmy, Kenny- all of whom were in my class). 

A silly kind of memory that has stuck with me because it was probably the last time I dared to wear anything that made me stand out and for many decades later on, I would absolutely never ever wear red except maybe at Christmas time. 

Three Free on a Thursday

 Two of today's wonderful free files come from the ultra talented Sandy Gervais at Pieces From My Heart. The first is her Follow the Bluebird Block that I've had in my list for over a year. She offers the pattern three ways- applique,  pieced and paper pieced. 

Here is Amy Smart's version as a mini quilt. To read her discussion about quilting it you can check out her post Here at Diary of a Quilter.

 Light blue is the colour for the September RSC and a bluebird fits right in. In fact this could be a great RSC project featuring birds in all the monthly colours. Riley Blake Designs  And number 2-Sandy also offers the free patterns for this Fall Ya'All small quilt with the bird there in the bottom corner. 

Jeannette Douglas is running a free 2022 monthly Mini Bouquet Sampler to cross stitch. Available the first of each month.  Many folks are stitching these as pin keeps/cushions as well as a sampler.  They are so pretty and Jeannette is also offering the border design for the sampler as a free pdf. Go take a peek. Again this photo is not doing these justice as they are individually gorgeous.

Sunny and cool today, 9C when I got up this morning. Warming up later and more rolling rain and thunderstorms in the forecast for late afternoon. That has been a theme this summer. 

To all reading this, I hope you are daring to dream, that the clouds are all behind you and all your troubles are melting like lemon drops!

Happy to also link with True Blue Quilts, A Stitch in Time, Wendy's Quilts and More, Kathy's Quilters, Quilting is More Fun Than Housework, Small Quilts and Doll Quilts, Quilt Fabrication and Alycia Quilts.