Thrifted Fun, Two Christmas Slow Stitching Projects

The world's oldest known bird, an Albatross named Wisdom, has returned to her southern nesting site for the 2025- 2026 breeding season. She is 75 years old at least now; this is an older video below. She had the same mate for 60 years but she is back this year with a new one. What a wonder!

And did you see there was a little fuss about the Pantone Color of the Year for 2026? It is Cloud White and some are calling it a cop out. White is a huge player in the quilting world that's for sure so maybe it's time to give it some praise. 

LeeAnna, Not Afraid of Color's prompt this week is how do we handle stress especially this time of year.  I don't do nearly the work I used to for Christmas like writing and mailing Christmas cards and buying, wrapping and mailing many boxes of gifts to relatives and friends. We always lived in remote places far from everyone we knew so it all had to get in the mail by a certain date too. My mind boggles when I think of it all. How did I do it with working full time too. And, of course, all the Christmas baking that had to get done too. And I know many women who were all handling the very same load, of course. But you know, it always all got done. Nowadays, for me, Christmas is a breeze in comparison. How about you? 

But when I feel stressed in general, it's a walk in the fresh air that definitely helps and inside the house, my hand stitching is my go to relief. I've noticed that cross stitching, in partiuclar, which requires the counting and close attention, makes me forget whatever was bugging or upsetting me. I highly recommend stitching/knitting/crocheting to help you get out of your head and into your hands, as Kate at The Last Homely House always says. 

 I pulled out a little Christmas Stitchery called Merry Moose. It's a PDF download at StitchDoodlesDesign on Etsy. We have a lot of moose in Newfoundland to the point they are a hazard driving on the main highway through the province. But they are fun to stitch.

Here's a better photo. I had fun with those winter twiggy trees too and I have to redo one moose's nose; it's too pointy. There are colourful tiny birds to add to this too.

And more appliqued trees and these have a delicious name- Peppermint. At least to me perppermint is tasty; is it to you? They are very easy to applique though the hand embroidery outlining is slowing the process but I've finished too many like it to stop now.

I've been enoying the search for odd pieces of fun fabric just large enough to make a tree.

 Here are my thrifted items that thrilled me. There were three bags of what I could tell was quilting fabric there and I picked up the blues bag. After seeing what I have here, I wish I had picked up the yellows too and in fact, yellow is a colour I need more of in my stash, not blues. Could kick myself.  But these blues are not like any in my stash so that's a plus at least. I didn't measure but there are several yards of some of these. The bag was very heavy.

And these scraps...

And these different fabrics as well, all good quality. I had fun sorting all this.

So do you think I did good for $6.99? Yes, I should have picked up all three of the bags. Sigh

I've always wanted a copy of Kathy Doughty and Sarah Fielke's book Material Obsession. Now I have one! $4.99

And there was a shelf of these Australian Homespun magazines; all were pristine, never opened. I chose three celebrating the seasons. $1.97 each

I always think about the like minded owner when I find stitching items like this at a thrift store. And I'm thinking the scraps, book and these magazines all came from the same person's stash or at least, the book and magazines did as they're both Australian. What do you think?

I think I scared some of you last post by telling you how cold it is here so early in the winter season. Thank you all for your concern. Yes, winters here certainly are remarkably cold and coming from St. John's in Newfoundland to here I wasn't used to such winter frigid temperatures. There, it is cool and brief summers and mild winters because of the ocean providing a classic maritime climate. Here in the center of Ontario, far from any ocean, it is just like Labrador west winter weather which I do remember well. The key is to dress for it. And we have all the gear - lots of warm hats, mittens and boots so it is bundle up time if going outdoors. I'm one of the weird ones who enjoys this kind of cold, fresh air and find it invigorating. And certainly perfer it to summer's heat and humidity. (It's the ice storms, tornado warnings and freezing rain here that I really hate.) For the record it was -24 C with the wind chill when I got up this morning; make no mistake, winter is in full swing here in the Ottawa Valley. 

 I bundled up to put out the garbage and made two trips up the laneway and back with my gorilla cart. I came into the house, into warmth and it felt so good to have worked my body a little in the cold air. Then for a cup of hot Red Rose tea. 

 I thank you for staying with me on my journey in blogland. Hope you are able to keep cool or, like me, stay warm where ever you are in this great world of ours. 

So happy to share this post with linky parties at The Inquiring Quilter, Quilting and Learning and Melva Loves Scraps.