Welcome to another post where I share more of the tiny bits that make up my days.
I was delighted to capture these two juvenile robins taking a bath...perhaps their very first, in our little pond. First week in October
It was our Canadian Thanksgiving on October 9 and we had the family here for the large meal. All my pots got used at some point in the process. I cooked a turkey, of course, and made mashed potatoes, oven baked sweet potato slices. buttered cabbage, mashed turnip with a little butter and brown sugar, and carrots. Standard Thanksgiving and Christmas Dinner fare.
That's a lot of cabbage but it was a good one. And the all important gravy, made the way Mom made hers, was good too.
I also baked dropped biscuits with cheddar cheese, parsley and chives. They were good but I had omitted any sugar which I think they could have benefitted from. Hopefully, a fact I'll keep in mind next time I make them. The last of them...
Serious Eats has a recipe for Quick and Easy Drop Biscuits similar to the very old recipe I used.
It was a fun time with some well needed laughs. Ever since I can remember, after a big meal with company, I enjoy doing the cleanup by myself. I put on music or these days, an audiobook, take my time and get everything in the kitchen cleaned and back to normal.
On the stitching front...
I am being so good...despite badly wanting to stitch other things, I am beavering away at quilting my Aqua hexagon table runner. Choosing a clam template was easy but then what colour of thread? I auditioned a few and chose the turquoise colour in the end. I figured why not. The piece is already flamboyantly turquoise, teal and aqua. When will I get to use such a bright colour again...not with what I've lined up for autumn stitching, that's for sure.
Gathered has the free clamshell template for a cute project called Panda Pop that I downloaded and am using.
Several of you have asked about the kind of stitch I use for EPP. I enjoy Ladder Stitch, sometimes called Blind Stitch, which, if done correctly, won't show on either side of the material. I try to keep my stitches small and as I've mentioned, I have to take care with my tension as I have a tendency to keep it too tight. Here is a brief video demonstrating how this stitch works. This stitch works especially well for EPP pieces that have material wrapped around templates.
Below is a close up of my quilting stitches. The challenge with this is to keep those stitches the same size and the same space apart. Here one side is larger than the other. Sigh
I found this pretty fabric below for the backing. It was left over from a pair of pillow cases I took apart about 13 years ago to use in just such as this. I had to sew a white strip onto it to make it fit but it is quite a good quality fabric.
I've sat around long enough writing this and need to get more fresh air. Drizzling a little but I'm going for a little jog. This week I'm hoping to visit a farmer's market and a thrift store. Hopefully more about that later.
I'm so thankful for you who read my blog. And the comments and emails are icing on the cake!!
I took this photo of Tony and Ned walking one of the 4 marvelous public walking trails within a few minutes of the house. This is the one where Beth walks Petey and Abbey. We wondered if Ned could smell them. Don't know about his legs, but his nose certainly got a workout!
Speaking of Abbey and Petey, here is a cute brief video Beth took of them. They are definitely lovable Labs.
This strange orange glowing dessert below is my Plum Crisp in the oven light. I'd bought a basket of small plums and they were bitter- so disappointing. Has that happened to you? They looked so good in their cute little basket. But anyway, perfect to use in a welcome October crisp. Tasty with a little ice cream. I used The Seasoned Mom's recipe to work out proportions of flour and oats but of course, I always add extra oats and this is something I will use real butter in too.
I'm ready to set a monthly goal again and join the party at Stories From the Sewing Room. I desperately need borders and bindings on the latest two hand pieced and quilted projects. So a two for one monthly goal is what it will be. And that will require me to get back to machine stitching, but oh well. Needs must!
A little veranda stitching...yes, afternoon temperatures are quite warm and enjoyable. The latest in the season I've ever been able to do this.
This Plus Quilt is 40in x 42in which is a bit odd as I thought it was square. 😕 I'm now adding lines in the opposite direction.
And of course I hope to get the layering done and begin quilting the aqua quilt table runner this week.
I came across this small quilt below, expertly sewn a long time ago by unknown hands...a happy thrift store purchase. The very deep greens are batik. Time to display it on one of my surfaces. It photographed well outside on the deck.
It was a deja vu moment; the pattern rang a bell because I've actually shared it before here on the blog.
And Donna also made a video called Fall Leaves Table Runner showing how she stitched it. My unknown stitcher stopped at one leaf to make a table topper.
" As I get older, I just prefer to knit." - Tracey Ullman
Unlike Tracey, the knitter, I am not monogamous. But I can certainly identify with the desire to stitch above all else as I age. HERE is an amusing article about Tracey and knitting. It includes a superstition about knitting I'd never heard before. Have you?
I love reading about your stitchy preferences, btw, and I'm always learning from you. And thanks so much for the kind words you take the time to share with me about my own stitchy endeavors.
My ring fingertip, right hand, that pushes my needle when hand stitching, is feeling a little sore this morning. I punctured it while stitching and the needle seemed to keep finding that one little hole but I didn't have the sense to stop, of course. Will give it a rest for a day.
Yes, it is starting. I'm wearing gloves on my early morning walks these days. Staying cool but sunny which makes it wonderful fall weather. Here is a little roundup of tiny but wonderful things I enjoyed this week.
Baker Beth gave us these wonderful blueberry muffins and extra chocolatey cookies. A great treat!
I didn't share Robbie's back to school photo before but here he is now soon to be 10! He's tall for his age.
And he gave me this...worms he caught for my compost bin. I told him they will live a very good life there, LOL. He is very caring of wildlife, birds, etc., a quality I hope stays with him.
Something I spied...Leslie, The Seasoned Homemaker, has this free pattern for a very cute mug rug. Anything with leaves catches my eye. Leslie offers many patterns and tutorials plus free patterns at her wonderful site. I love how she emphasizes simple patterns too.
The latest of Mom's Redwork patterns is the Bonavista Lighthouse in Newfoundland. This is special to our family as it is the area where Dad and his people before him lived.
Below is a shot of the back of that lighthouse showing how stark and rocky the edge of the Bonavista peninsula is; the lighthouse is much needed! This was taken by me in 2017 from a tour boat. When we no sooner rounded the peninsula and hit the open Atlantic here, I felt seasick.
Stitching these pieces is like a stroll down memory lane for me. A happy (mostly 😉) stroll.
My Hand Stitched Aqua Table Runner is 40in x 20in without borders. I'm halting the hexies at this point with 63 whole hexies sewn together. Now for figuring out how to deal with those borders. I still have the outer rows of templates left in. I liked how it pressed out nicely with just one obvious pucker. I tend to keep my tension tight with hand stitching and need reminders to relax it. Loved stitching this very much.
Hope there are happy things in your days now too whether quickly heading towards summer or winter in your neck of the woods.
Cooler temperatures, 5C on my walk this morning but warming to 15 the weather forecast has promised, and just like that I'm thinking of heartier fare. But first I need to catch up on the cakes...recently Beth made the birthday folk here a beautiful New York style Cheesecake with Strawberry Compote. The cake had 5 ! packages of cream cheese in it and was the most sumptuous cake I've ever eaten. It was silky and so delicious. And Tony finished off the compote over a little ice cream.
I loved the colours here below...the wild Goldenrod which grew in massive bunches like I've never seen before and one of the different kinds of Sedum, now in bloom. Late summer/ autumn when both these plants appear here. I read that Goldenrod supports more than 100 kinds of butterflies and moths and around 35 species of bees.
My aqua hexies...I had one slab (is there a name for a group of hexies sewn together? Slab does not sound professional, :D) and then started a second one. At some point the slabs will be joined. I'm working towards a basic large rectangle shape big enough to cover one of the coffee tables.
And the two slabs on the table I intend them for...looking a little more turquoise than they really are.
All in their cardboard templates still and my goal is to have the slabs large enough to cover the tabletop this week.
Gotta love paper piecing hexies...grows fast especially using this size. The aqua love continues at the So Scrappy Saturday linky party.
I recently purchased a needlework motif book for embroidery. Sarah Watson's Pen to Thread which features 750+ designs. So many cute motifs in all kinds of categories...easy to trace and stitch. I think I already shared the Ultimate Sampler Motifs Source Book by Brenda Keyes; that one is for cross stitching and also a wonderful resource.
And most of us stitchers do not need reminding of this but I read an article about working on old projects and simply not enjoying them anymore. In the end the stitcher decided life's too short, bundled them all up and took them to Goodwill. And who knows, someone like me just might come along, rescue them and give them a good home.
Next time I have to tell you about two things brand new to me...one to eat and one that's stitchy!
SIL was mowing the path by the pond and sent me this photo. He'd moved two of my lawn chairs down there and wrote what do you think...with a little outdoor rug, a small table, etc.?
I laughed but I have to admit it is much more comfortable than the step stool I normally sit on. I've sat there every time I'm down there now with the camera and it is very relaxing, especially when the mosquitoes are not around.
Someone is watching me watching him. I'd just refilled the tray feeder and he was enjoying it very much. They almost have fingers.
The mid summer to early autumn wild flowers are in bloom now. The yellow leaning to orange Hawkweed...beauty under our feet.
I just read an article about folks using canned meat more these days. With the ridiculous pricing of fresh meat, no wonder that is happening. Anyway the article included interesting recipes for using the various tinned products, some of which, I'd never known were available in a can.
But I'd forgotten how I used to buy a ham in a tin when first married to use with scalloped potatoes. My mother would keep one of them in the cupboard in case someone dropped in and stayed for lunch. I always thought Mom could make a meal out of anything.
Carolyn at her The Boat Gallery post provides a great list of recipes to make with canned meat should you be looking for ideas.
Stitching Temptation
The wonderful The Vintage Spool has many beautiful patterns and one that caught my eye for fall is this one. Though I couldn't find it on their site anymore I did find it for sale at The Quilt Spot. The work of talented Verna Mosquera...I love her fabric lines too. I like the colours in this one and of course, the hexies. I wonder how much of it I could stitch EPP. Though I love it, I won't be buying this pattern just now. I'm determined to concentrate on WIP's for the time being.
I got in a little veranda stitching on the weekend with my own hexies. These are in teals and aquas. I decided to include some in white as a contrast. Not nearly as interesting as Verna's design. Very relaxing all the same.
I'm hoping to finish the quilting on my Plus quilt this week. Depends on how many lines I want to stitch. I'm aiming for it to be a lap quilt so I will need to add a lot.
I've a pork roast in the oven and want to make a real meal for us with veggies and gravy. It is starting to smell good.
Hope you are well on this particular day filled to the brim with memories.
Another blast of humidity this week make us so happy that autumn is just in the wings now. Here are more of the Zinnia blooms with their starry stamens. They are annuals but very long lasting once in flower.
Not a great photo but I liked this capture of the female Cardinal sharing nicely with a Redbreasted Nuthatch. Though she appears to be giving him the eye, they were there together with the Nuthatch going back and forth, for quite a while.
Before I forget again, I want to share with you a SAL occurring now being hosted by Taryn the ReproQuilt Lover. She owns an antique quilt sewn with Ohio Star blocks that features many different fabrics in a block, up to 16! Yet the quilt looks so cohesive and lovely. Taryn thought this would be a great scrap busting project to sew some blocks using the same challenge so she started this SAL.
Read all about it here...Antique Quilt Repro SAL. Stars are always popular and folks are rising to the challenge and including many scrappy fabrics in each star block with wonderful results.
Another of my Facebook groups I enjoy is this one...
I love Tilda fabrics and their latest line called Hibernation is so pretty and features a small wildlife. Anyway, there is a Files section on the group homepage with free downloads of both embroidery and quilt patterns. Mostly the work of Fiona Fee Ramsey who is the administrator. So something else to check out if you like.
And my own stitching...
I've sewn together more of the aqua/teal hexagons. I've included a few white for contrast. The free template came from Jodi at Tales of Cloth and I think these are the 2 inch size. I enlarged the photo so you could get a look at my very old April Cornell table cloth in the background. It is a little faded now but a treat still to get out each autumn...one of my all time best thrift purchases. I will share this with the Aqua RSC party at So Scrappy.
One more block of Mom's Redwork project is done. This one, a fisherman in a dory. The fabric used is quite good linen and the needle slides through it beautifully. Rosy glow to the light in this photo.
And here below is my grandfather, Dad's Dad, who fished for a living, similarly in a boat. He's the one in the white cap. He fished with the same two men till his mid seventies. I got to go out with them once when I was eleven. It was scary...the waves were high and they had to push down the side of the boat almost into the water while pulling up the net. The boat seemed very small and of course, the ocean rough and very big.
But I got to see the little fishing village, Maberly, from the sea...a wildly different view than I was used to. The image is in my mind's eye still. I wrote a poem about it called Maberly From the Sea soon afterwards I was so taken with it. He's who Ned is named after, which since he liked dogs, I think he would approve of.
Writing this during another heat wave just when we thought that was behind us. Hope all is well with you and yours and you have a great weekend.
While Tony had put in his order for beans on toast, sausage on the side, I really didn't know what I wanted. I'm the cook of course, so I could get myself the same or anything if it's here in the fridge/cupboard to be found. But nothing was appealing to me and staring into the fridge didn't help. Does that ever happen to you? In the end I made a large cup of tea and had a bowl of yogurt and fruit with a slice of marmalade sourdough toast. I know...a bit boring mainly because I eat so much of this. Do you have a go to kind of simple quick meal in times like that? Thanking you in advance for suggestions...you were so good with the snack recommendations before.
Here are some things that are not boring that I am enjoying.
I read this book and liked it. Beth is reading it now.
I decided to make an Easy Hexagon Quilt out of those aqua fabrics I showed you. I'm done the quilting on Book Club. That's in the sewing room awaiting binding which I hope to get to this week so I began a few hexagons. These are such bright happy colours to work with. More next time about this and the free pattern I'm using.
This used to be our band-aid container till I bought a fancy new one. I love old tins!
While cleaning the windows outside, I noticed I could see the old and the new through it. Hydrangeas dried and in a vase from maybe my second summer here when I'd read you could do that... still looking good, and the ever growing larger English Ivy brought from the farm. Looking very healthy thanks to the sunshine of summer. As you can probably tell, I take a lot of satisfaction in trying to grow things...emphasis on the trying.
And old me... hair still with a life of its own...hmm, maybe this is what my white hair will be like from now on. You can see my kitchen window view there behind me; this time of year the greens surround this house. Do you think the colour of the hydrangeas could be called saffron?
I've changed up the order of my early morning activities. I'm now having my swim before the walk. It's better to get it done early I've found as things come up some days and then I feel pushed to fit it in. The birds join me...the hawk I glimpse in the back field from time to time flew low above me one morning. What a treat! Ned joins me-such a quiet fellow-doesn't bark or make a sound. Just lies down (he's a dog that will always choose lying down over sitting), contemplating his life; hope he thinks it's a good one. I certainly do.
And I hope your holiday weekend has gone well too.
The weather has been best described as indecisive lately...sun, cloud, cold and then warmth...this fluctuation ongoing all day long like Mother Nature can't make up her mind. All over the place and this week rain and cloudiness thrown in. The season is trying to change that's for sure.
So happy that Abby came along with SIL when he dropped by to do a few bigger outside chores (like straighten a chimney on the garage- Hubby is no longer allowed up on roofs). The two Labs get along well and Murphy tolerates the much younger Abby's intense friskiness no problem. Hard to get a good photo as Abby kept wanting to hug me. The friendliest dog we've ever seen.
Keeping with chimneys, we had our chimney sweep come for his biannual visit- he's always cleaned the chimneys here so knows just what to do. I watched him on the roof and was happy he was wearing special boots for walking on metal roofs. I'm always worried about bird nests in chimneys but he's never found one here. He mentioned starlings are prone to doing that and I've not seen any starlings so far. He made me think of Santa up there. 😊
I saw this on Facebook and just had to share it as it was so intriguing. Fascinating really. It was a great year for bees here; I've never seen or photographed honey bees before and so many of them. And this amazing sculpture below is controlled by live bees! This article at the Smithsonian explains how it works. Prepare to be amazed! I found this wonderful free pattern from generous Allison at Cluck Cluck Sew called An Hourglass a Day. Easy to sew (even for me), stress free and a great little pattern for those taking part in the RSC or wishing to use up those scraps.
My Hexagon Stars quilt is now a flimsy! It measures 56 by 70 which makes it a great throw size. I enjoyed working with the pattern enough to think of doing this as a truly scrappy version with white hexagons and multi coloured points which could use a lot of scraps because why are there always so many of them. This project started as a true squirrel...I was intrigued when I saw it and just had to give it a try. A great use of some old Kaffe fabric (with other brights) as well.
Something similar happened last week when I got inspired to try another pattern. I mentioned it in the last post and spent ages trying to work out a pattern. Here's part of that venture. Not much to show for like two hours...
The fans are too large I decided even though I was okay with the overall finished block. Well a few kinks to work out like the wonky curve and where those stitched lines are meeting in a mess there. Can't have that.
But at least you have an idea of what I have in mind. I'm going to call them Parachutes. I've since made the parachute pattern a little smaller but keeping it in an 8 inch block. I'm also going to stay with dark blue backgrounds and alternate patterned fabric with plain for the fans. Perhaps use up scraps of the Kaffe fabric and some very old batik material I have. I've since found another link which better illustrates this idea....Tokyo Jinga , an interesting site that sadly ended in 2015.
In this photo taken through the old sewing room window back in July, you can see two deer visiting our little side lawn, a popular spot for them.
They are extremely skittish and can alert to sounds made inside the house.
You can't see it but a little rabbit was grazing on the edge of the woods at the same time. I was happy to get photos of them all by changing cameras to the one with the zoom.
Looked like a healthy specimen too, happy to note.
Murphy and I often catch sight of their cottontails leaping away from us on our early morning walks.
I've forgotten to mention we have put out a trail cam and so far have photos of just two animals...rabbits and fox. It is a fun thing to do and Jenn at Cottage Country Reflections regularly posts their trail cam footage -loads of different animals and she lives in our neck of the woods. I'm curious if we will see some of them too.
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