Three Free Patterns, Super Scrappy Finish, Costco Buys, Autumn Poem

I just had to share another of my turkey shots in honour of the great American Thanksgiving 2022 occurring as I write this post. 

It's been a good week and I've managed to keep up my fitness, visit older daughter and older grandson, and do some Christmas shopping. SIL always drops me off a Costco chicken which I appreciate as I seldom get there myself. They are a good size and I get to use them right down to boiling the bones to make a little bone broth. Speaking of Costco...

Look what's on my bed...Black Bears flannel sheets. Snow time is flannel time here at the wooden house.  It is definitely time to have the extra warmth.  Hubby spotted these in a  Costco flyer and ordered them. They were at our house and in the washing machine the next afternoon! (I always wash new sheets, do you?)

LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color's prompt for this Thursday was our favourite Autumn song or music. I don't have a favourite song but I do have favourite Autumn poems. So I'll share this short video with you of Richard Burton reading John Clare's poem Autumn. (I didn't remember it being quite so rhymn-ie but perhaps that and the cadence it gives is why I liked it as a kid.)

Since Tuesday more Robbie Blocks got sewn...

and I had a finish too.  My Super Scrappy Coffee Table Runner is all hand bound and on the table. It finished at 55 x 20.

I backed it with a white fabric that had a neutral beige polka dot and brought it around and hand stitched it in place as a binding. That picks up all the white/light coloured blocks.

I haven't washed it which I usually do right away. I figured here on the main coffee table it won't be long before it will need a wash. Bright and cheerful for dark winter days!

Thursday's Three Free

I shared a photo of my foundation pieced Tiny Trees in the last post. This article below announcing a free Tree pattern arrived in my mail box yesterday.  Perhaps it's a chance for you to try FPP I thought, a method that ensures accuracy when stitching a pattern. From Leslie at  The Seasoned Homemaker, a pretty tree pattern for you to try with Christmas fabrics unlike my scrappy ones. Btw, thanks for the kind comments you expressed about those little trees. 

 In the Moda Fabrics ample free pattern bank is this one called In From the Cold. I've always wanted to make a mug on a mug rug and each of these would be pretty.

 Henry Glass Fabrics features this lovely free Christmas quilt pattern from the wonderful Australian designer, Anni Downs. You really have to see this quilt to appreciate its beauty. 

Here is Anni's site Hatched and Patched, for you to check out all the little embroideries and quilts she has created for us to stitch. 

From the site, Heartstrings Samplery, comes this lovely cross stitch design.  That link will take you to Beth's sweet free patterns. Like this one.

Which is a great way to end this post because I truly feel this way. Hope you are all having a wonderful day!

Linking this post with Quilting is More Fun Than Housework, Small Quilts and Doll Quilts, Songbird Designs, Days Filled With Joy and Kathy's Quilts. 

Embroidered Journals, Quilty 365, Tiny Tree Trains, Aging Thoughts

The Snow has arrived!

 Here is my Tuesday deep thought...

Now in my seventies (you have no idea how weird it is to write that), I realize my face is changing. My nose appears larger probably because my cheeks are sinking. My teeth look and feel bigger while my hair is thinning. It goes without saying but I'll say it anyway, how grateful I am to be here and still have my wits about me to be able to even note these changes. I also thank goodness I've never been overly vain, just the normal amount of vanity, enough to make me want my hair done and be nicely dressed for work. This natural aging process has given me to understand better why the beautiful actors indulge in cosmetic surgery...it must be quite the blow when they realize there is no cream known to humans that can halt these changes. And these changes happen to us all if we do the thing we dearly want to do, and that is to live longer. 

Having a laugh is good...

Pinterest

I notice lots of folks are making temperature quilts or temperature cross stitch projects. They are such a fun stitchy memento of a particular year.  My interest in such a thing led me to join Audrey's QAL- Quilty 365, A Year Long Journey back in 2015. I loved the idea of stitching a circle a day to mark the time. 

I enjoyed keeping them in a tin

A happy Russell Stover Santa tin (small things amuse me)

And the resulting rainbow like quilt is on the hall wall leading to our bedroom so I see it every day. Hubby can't get beyond the wrong sized birds that would be the size of helicopters, he says. :D

 Also I've always been intrigued by the idea of making an Embroidery Journal...this is a link to an article detailing how to make one... An Embroidery Journal is the Prettiest Way to Remember Your Year. Many such journals and ideas can be explored here at this Pinterest Link. 

Before I forget and while still on the topic of embroidery, I wanted to share this sweet design of Meg's from Crabapple Hill Design Studio. It's called the Polka Dot Mitten. You would learn how to do the Fly Stitch to achieve the knitted look of the mitten. Really neat!

Meanwhile, I spent a couple of hours in the sewing room finally joining the Tiny Trees blocks which are finishing at 5 and 1/2 inches. Hope to finish all that I've made so far this week.  I realized something while I was working with them.  I like this easy foundation paper piecing enough to turn them into a fun bed quilt, if I make enough of them of course.  It is such a great way to use up scraps too. So I think I will keep this going for now and see where it takes me. 

A Tree Rainbow

I have some veggies- carrots, cauliflower, broccoli and red peppers simmering on  the stove with a little chopped onion. I added a container of Campbell's Vegetable broth instead of my usual chicken broth. I had a sip of the vegetable broth and it doesn't seem to have much flavour. I don't like to have to add lots of stuff just to get a flavour but bland is not good for a soup either. I wonder what else I could add. Any suggestions?

Thank you all for the ideas of how to finish the Old Fashioned Redwork Santa.  

I'm off to do some shopping, online that is. I'm going to check out the Black Friday sales that seem to start earlier each year. Going to start my Christmas list. Be sure to drop by on Thursday to see another set of great Christmas patterns. So many generous creators!

Linking this post with Linda, the Texas Quilt Gal's party, To Do Tuesday. Also linking with Quilt Fabrication, Wendy's Quilts and More, Quilting Patchwork Applique, So Scrappy and Alycia Quilts.

Three Free Patterns, Sewing Tiny Trees and Poppies, Recipes Too

Our laneway in view there and one of several mother trees on the property. To the right-the overgrown area was a rock garden originally. A few plants flower there from time to time and I would love to revive it.

I mentioned I tried growing herbs in a planter this summer. This is one of the culprits caught red handed or red pawed in this case. Look at him happily munching that plant. I recognize him as a "regular" because of the notch in his ear. 

Recently I made us one of those breakfast for supper meals. I used Turkey Bacon. We both like it but I can imagine some thinking if I'm going to have bacon, I'm going to have bacon and sometimes I feel like that too.  

LeeAnna, Not Afraid of Color's prompt this week was do we like apple cider?  I didn't grow up with this and I still don't drink apple cider as such but I do keep a large container of apple cider vinegar on hand at all times. I believe it is good for you.  I shared Jenny of Elefantz's recipe for salad dressing before which also can be used in many recipes.

1/3 cup apple cider vinegar

1/3 cup olive oil

1/3 cup maple syrup (or honey)

I keep this in the fridge all the time because I eat spinach salads quite often. Btw, Jenny's link there will take you to her recipe page where she shares her delicious dishes, often simple but with a high yum factor, as she calls it. 

 So do you use apple cider?

We are watching the new (to us) seasons of an old favourite of ours...Endeavour.  Enjoying too Alan Cumming's cheeky introductions. Shaun Evans makes a perfect Morse I think. We are catching this on PBS.

                      

Since Tuesday, my stitching time was spent with the Tiny foundation pieced Trees.  On a whim, I got out my container and took stock. Like the Panama Pyramids, I want to end this project too by the new year and work with whatever I've got finished. I have 52 trees finished and another 50 in two stages of stitching. A hundred or so of these will be enough. I think. What a great way to use up scraps!

Thursday's Three Free

 When I shared a new favourite post in the side bar last time, I realized I'd forgotten about Bev's Flamingo Toes blog (reminders are good!) and her generous Free Pattern page. Lots of lovely goodies to see there. Like this one.

Since we have our Remembrance Day tomorrow, it's appropriate to share a Poppy Block like this one to be found HERE at Patchwork Square.

And from the wonderful Teresa Down Under comes this great YouTube video sharing how to very quickly stitch a 12 inch Poppy Block. 

Annie's Christmas Book is available for free with a $10 purchase from their site. Over 50 Christmas pretty patterns and detailed instructions for each.  

Annie's Catalog,  PDF's of the catalogs are on that site. 

And in keeping with the Christmas stitching, I'm sharing two SAL's from kind Melissa at Pinker n' Pumpkin who continues to share her talents with us. The first is cross stitching Christmas ornaments and is called  Barnyard Christmas. Christmas Cow wearing a wreath is so cute.

The second is embroidering snowmen going about their day to day happenings called Flurry and Flakes. Also very cute and a wonderful way to welcome Christmas and winter. 

Hope you have a great weekend. 

Also great to join so many linky parties where the inspiration abounds like here at So Scrappy, Quilting is More Fun Than Housework, Small Quilts and Doll Quilts and Kathy's Quilts.

Many Free Patterns, Favourite Snack, Quilting Tilda

                     

Happy Thursday friends! The season is moving forward with news of snow flurries north of us. Here we are comfortably still in autumn with all the little things in nature changing, some faster than others as my photo captured here.

I'm soldiering away quilting Plaid Tilda.  It is going smoothly so far with the handling of the size of it and I haven't hit any lumps or tucks. It's interesting how fabric can behave well sometimes and other times not. I keep checking the back to be sure there are no snags and it's good to see it is already taking on that nice crinkly, cozy feel hand quilting gives a piece.

LeeAnna's (Not Afraid of Color) prompt this week was what is our favourite snack food?  I don't eat when I'm nervous but I do feel I need to be treated sometimes. Potato chips are so good but I feel less guilty about eating popcorn. Recently I found Orville's popping corn using avocado oil and sea salt. I add a splash of balsamic vinegar to mine- strange I know but, as a vinegar lover, it works for me. I add balsmic vinegar to a lot of things actually. 

Thursday's Three Free

I'm sharing a true Squirrel-ly moment.  I had found this free pattern below to share with you. From Kim at her lovely Retro Mama site.  What a great way to use up small narrow scraps, I thought.

Really easy to create and so cute. I could see the uses for it...pin cushions-yes, mug rugs definitely, maybe a place mat as I want to make some of those. But I wondered about a quilt. I googled herringbone quilts and found loads of examples and lots of tutorials to make a quilt using that block.  Fave Quilts has a whole bank of them!  But one caught my eye.

It reminded me of a block I'd taken note of years ago- 2015, in a quilting calendar I'd gotten for Christmas. It is a pattern called Tiny Textured Trees by Carolyn Friedlander, a favourite designer of mine. Her quilt looked like a miniature work of art.

 Maybe it's because I'm loving the trees on the property these days as the colours change almost hourly it seems that this one stood out. There are many variations of this stylistic tree block. For instance, there is Anne at Springleaf Studio and her gorgeous Arboretum quilt that I know some of you stitched and had me in awe. Wonderful Wanda at Exuberant Color for one.

Of course I had to chase down the one that caught my eye and found this. Kristy in this Quiet Play post from 2012 shared a free foundation paper piecing pattern for this block. I've downloaded it and will give it a whirl this weekend.

Still in a scrap busting mood...The busy and famous Pat Sloan I Love to Make Quilts had a free PDF for this scrap busting quilt that she made in 2013.  She calls it Traffic Jam. I notice quite a few folks sewed it in all sorts of colour ways. 

Since I already have a mess in the sewing room, I may as well try this. If I am to cut down on scraps, mine would have to be scrappier than this one. Generous Pat offers one of the most extensive free pattern cache on the net.Here

And for my embroidery/cross stitch friends, Laura at her The YellowBirdhouse site offers a bunch of free Halloween patterns to stitch, 18 to be exact.

Researching these links was a fun journey around the net for me. Thanks for all the positive feedback about this Thursday feature of mine.

Hope your weekend will be grand!

Delighted to share this post with Kathy's Quilts, Small Quilts and Doll Quilts and Quilting is More Fun Than Housework.

Biscuits and Gravy, Scrappy Tiny Trees, Colourful Coffee Table Runner, October Photos

 

Haying time in the Ottawa Valley- as neat as it is to see these you don't want to get stuck behind it on a narrow country road..I had to wait for it to turn off to get past.

I'm a cautious driver-I will ever only pass one car at a time and seldom even that.

Thanksgiving dinner was a success.  It was nice to use the fancy glassware and dishes from Hubby's family. I enjoyed the preparation very much. I made biscuits for the gravy this time and used Melissa's Bless This Mess easy recipe for The Best Butter Biscuits. They were really good. I made two batches so we are enjoying the leftovers. They are great with a little butter and jam too. The big one in the front there is the cook's, the one made from leftover dough bits. My second batch browned nicely and the company ate those. The first batch was a little pale.

Having all the company here exhausted Ned...he was so happy to have them. He fell asleep as soon as they left and slept in till 8 the next morning. He usually wakes me about 6:30. He has stayed small for a Labrador, about a quarter smaller than Petey and his mother.I've added two more rows to my coffee table runner. The backing is a neutral polka dot, nothing exciting. I figure there's enough going on on the front.

And added the border as you can see. Also experimenting with a little hand quilting in red.

I tried quite a few fabrics to find a suitable border and kept coming back to black.  A bit boring but it seems to work the best with all those colours. Luckily I had enough of this particular fabric to go around all the edge. This week I have to settle on whether I like those red quilting lines enough to quilt the whole top with it. 

I keep forgetting to show more of the tiny trees project. I have their basket beside the machine and stitch a few bottoms or tops when I finish something else. Foundation piecing of this simple kind is good for that. Here in the pale autumn sun. I should put a push on to get more sewn because the end of the year is my deadline for this project.

A bit more focused garden work needed this week. I have to lop off all the old hosta leaves, the ones that have wilted and yellowed. I'll use my electric hedge trimmer which is so much easier on my hands. This is done every fall and I think it does aid their growth in the spring...the hostas are always healthy here.  The Goats Beard bush will similarly get its' used up canes all shorn. 

A failure...my attempt to grow kitchen herbs in veranda pots was a dismal failure. Something kept pawing the soil and eating the seeds. I wonder if I could grow them inside this winter. 

Thank you for the emails and comments about the Matisse painting I showed in the last post. Many of you know so much about art and Matisse in particular. I was told that piece was an experiment in scale for him. Interesting!

Hope your week is likewise interesting and as productive as you would like it to be!

Happy to link with Texas Quilt Gal, Brian's Home Blog, True Blue Quilts,  Wendy's Quilts and More, Floral Friday Foto, Quilting Patchwork Applique, Alycia Quilts, So Scrappy and Quilt Fabrication.

Thursday's Three Free, Basket Case Hand Quilting, Favourite Kitchen Gadget, Critters

We are still in the middle of a heat wave. Temperatures are reaching to the 30's every day and the heat alone without humidity doesn't bother me happily.  I'm just thankful we seem to be stuck at a tolerance level and not breaking records(yet!) like in England and parts of the U.S. 

The tiny peepers have given way to the green frogs and brown toads. I'm now hearing the distinctive rumble of a couple of bull frogs at the pond. 

This happens every year though I've yet to see either a peeper or a bullfrog. Just hear their sounds which I love to note.

We had fewer dragonflies this spring. One time I would have noted that with a bit of worry. Not now as I've noticed these creatures too seem to be somewhat cyclic in numbers from year to year. 

Last night I stitched more quilting lines on my Basket Case quilt. I'm outlining each basket and block in a variegated thread.

I love to see the pretty fabrics up close.

The giant basket was easy to quilt- that men's shirt fabric provided a natural grid.

But I am finding it a little warm on my lap so I'd like it to be ready to be bound and done this weekend.  It is my July OMG and this month is flying by. I just might be on track for a finish in time for once. 

This week, LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color is encouraging us to share our favourite kitchen gadget in this Thursday's post. 

I really like this one, my Danish Dough Whisk, and use it constantly for stirring and blending though rarely for actual dough. It works great on eggs, for instance. I like the comfortable wooden handle (no plastics) and how easy to clean it is. Daughter gave me this one and I looked it up. You can check it out for yourself here at Amazon.

I also love this apron I ordered from Simons. The range of purples are amazing. Aubergine and aubergines galore!

Perhaps you'd like to share your favourite kitchen gadget in a comment.

Thursday's Three Free-actually Four This Week

#1 Here Leanne at Devoted Quilter shares her free pattern called Tilted Flowers. She provides a very detailed and helpful tutorial for this as well. I just don't know how folks can write those things...kudos to you.

#2 From the clever folks at Quilting Daily comes this SAL, Free First Snow Block -First House As you know by now, I have a thing for house blocks and this one caught my eye. Love the little fussy cut appliques.

#3 Simple Simon and Company Is this your time to try Foundation Paper Piecing? I am definitely going to try a pineapple block using this method. There so happens to be a free pdf for that block and 9 others at that link. 10 Modern Foundation Paper Piecing Patterns To Make  The two sisters in law behind this site collated ten beautiful patterns and have links to the Foundation Paper Piecing history as well as a tutorial. Good Stuff!

And this time a #4... for my cross stitching pals, I have to remind you that The Fat Quarter Shop has three pages of free downloadable cross stitch patterns from a variety of designers. All of them very cute, imo. 

Thank you for the kind words you send me through this thing called the net. I love communicating with you and while I don't have time to respond to all the comments all the time, I will answer all questions or queries, etc. 

Hope you are staying cool or toasty depending on your corner of this wonderful world. 

Linking this post with Kathy's Quilts, Love Laugh Quilt and Small Quilts and Doll Quilts.