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 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.