Thrifting, Painted Lady Quilt, Nature's Medicinal Plant, Free Pattern

 Today is the first day in over a week with nothing on the agenda. There have been lots of appointments lately and visiting too. So this rare day stretches before me- I can decide myself when to exercise, read, stitch, roam about with my camera, etc. and up first is getting this blog post finished.

Below, the Day Lilies and my four pots at the further end of the veranda...I'm awed by the wonderful growth. I've let the wild Mullein grow...that's the two tall plants on the right. The leaves, seeds and yellow flowers have amazing nutritional qualities for people but I keep it for the bees and insects to enjoy. The flowers have a staggered opening, providing nectar for bees from early July to frost in the fall. 

Younger daughter Beth and grandson, Robbie, have collaborated to make a Youtube channel named The Adventures of Pete and Abbey. A little summertime in between camps activity for Robbie. They've had fun coming up with the music and ideas they could use. In this one, Petey came in and out of the room about 14 times before finding Beth which we all found hard to believe. 

Being intermittently frugal like I am...I do enjoy searching through thrift stores. Treasures are waiting there to be found has been my experience.  I don't collect as such anymore but if I see something special I will buy it and sometimes for others. Tony has had a number of Dalmatians in his life and the last one, Lacey, was still alive for me to care for at the farm in our early years together. I saw this mug and had to buy it and here it is amongst his little Dalmatian collection, belonging and looking like it was always there.

At Value Village that same day- the very one where I have dropped off books and quilting magazines, I couldn't resist buying ten of these magazines priced at 99cents each.  I'm incorrigible! That colourful scrappy Bear Claw quilt caught my eye and these were/are excellent magazines, still providing a wealth of quilting information in each one. 

Summer Finishing School is not over for me. I have one more project that I want to completely finish before September and it is this one.  A 2018 scrappy wool project called Painted Lady, design by Laura Heine. It is a flimsy and I've been enjoying adding embroidery touches here and there this summer. It would make a wonderfully colourful wall hanging once backed and quilted.  

I had to do repair work on my sewing machine recently. I woefully neglect it and couldn't remember when I'd changed the needle last. It seems like I resent the time spent doing these chores- time taken away from actually stitching. I keep the manual handy and there are a series of excellent videos online dealing with my particular model. So I have no excuse.  I must say my Singer Quantum must be good to keep on stitching the way it does with absolutely zero maintenance, poor thing. 

Free Pattern today is from Laura's Fibre Works site.  Mr. And Mrs. Claus Runner.

Love this adorable Mr. and Mrs!

Hope today allows you time to yourself to do what you love!

Happy to link with Kathy's Quilts, Quilting is More Fun Than Housework, Songbird Designs, The Inquiring Quilter and  So Scrappy.

Crabapple Hill's Autumn's Call, Painted Lady Wool Embroidery, Pesky Dresden Circles

Digging out the autumn projects and came across the one above.  A Crabapple Hill Design, Autumn's Call, that I stitched way back in 2013. The pattern is still available here .

It's been quite the week especially with the amazing marches for climate change occurring all over the globe. We live in hope that this will evoke change where it is most badly needed, at the top.
Meanwhile, I enjoyed reading this article 45 Ways People Did Something Clever About Saving the World Instead of Just Talking.  I think I'm pretty thrifty but I never thought of saving and reusing mascara wands. I could immediately think of so many ways they can come in handy.
                                 
I received some questions about the Painted Lady project in the last post.  Here is a fuller picture. It is a Laura Heine pattern, embroidery on wool, and her website called FiberWorks is here.

You may have seen Laura's collaged elephant around. Amazing!
                              
I've stitched the circles onto 5 or 6 of the Dresdens. Still wishy washy about their size seeing them on the wall.  I think I'll go with the smallest size on the left.  I will get this worked out to my satisfaction eventually! If only one of you wonderful quilters could pop by for a visit and help me with this! 
But today is the day I make a final decision with what's turned into a pesky debate.

We have no plans for this Sunday so will be puttering about. Out of the sewing room, I'm hoping to finish another little Quaker motif on my cross stitch piece. It's sitting on a woven throw Hubby brought back from one of his many travels.  I always think it would make a wonderful quilt design.

Last look at a beautiful display of purple asters in an overgrown spot of the backyard. To the left there you can glimpse the path through the woods we take for our daily walks.

Happy Sunday All!
Linking this post with other hand stitchers at Kathy's Quilts. Also linking with Creations- Quilts, Art, Whatever, Small Quilts and Doll Quilts and Life in Pieces.

Painted Ladies, Real and Wooly, The Affair, Dogs Riding Subways

An abandoned nest...from its looseness, I'm guessing a mourning dove's. Interesting to see what gets revealed with even a few leaves falling.

Mourning Dove and Rose Breasted Grosbeak at the old farm, 2015

I had a larger number than usual of painted lady butterflies show up in the garden this year. They particularly enjoyed the Golden Broadleaf flowers. They are a still kind of butterfly so easy to capture good shots. Coincidentally they are calling 2019 The Year of the Painted Lady Butterfly in parts of Europe because they have been recording high numbers. Some badly needed good news!

 Some of you may remember I stitched a wool project a few years back by that name.  Still waiting for quilting.

And the stitched flowers are very much like the Golden Broadleaf flowers too.

 Hubby and I have been thoroughly enjoying this series, The Affair; we think it's gotten better as it's gone along. Any of you catch it?  We are watching it on HBO/Crave, I can't remember which. Good acting and what a plot!
                                             
I liked this video of how New Yorkers are getting around the rule of no dogs on the subway unless they can fit in a bag.  New and hilarious use for an Ikea bag!
 

In between stitching
Making these little 4 square blocks when I have 15 minutes or so.  They're not perfect because I'm using up scraps of many different sizes... I can't give up on some of the better fabrics no matter how tiny. In my head, I'm imagining these as a border for the basket blocks. They look like autumn to me so seasonal stitching as it happens.

I like when I find a little hand stitched floral item at the thrift store. Here is one stitched by L in 1988. Very nice stitching and how nice that she "signed" it. An Aunt Martha iron on design maybe. (hints of blue markings can be seen under the threads)

Up close you can see how she filled in the open ribbon area, which is tricky to do, with long and short stitches. Interesting. L's work has now found a home with me.

Happy Thursday from these two!  Muggy weather always makes them pant and I don't think either has ever ridden a subway.
Downpours of rain as I finish this post. First real rain in ages.
Linking this post with Not Afraid of Color, Paying Ready Attention, Inquiring Quilter, The Needle and Thread Network, It's A Small Town Life, Floral Passions,  Brian's Home Blog, Floral Friday Foto and My Quilt Infatuation.

Celebrating My Year in Stitches

At Walmart, no one in Christmas finery except the greeter who is wearing a Santa hat and calling out Merry Christmas to everyone coming through the door; there I am too.  Actually I'm wearing my red sweater but it doesn't show bundled as I am in my down winter coat.
 Last minute shopping...some chocolate treats specifically ( I like the Russell Stover Whitman's Sampler for little gifts) and I don't mind at all being there.  There's a real hustle and bustle to the place on the eve of Christmas Eve, a certain excitement that I don't want to miss.  After all, excitement as such is kind of sparse in my retired adult life, so I will enjoy it where I find it even if it is the local Walmart. LOL

I hope your Eves went well as we close the days to the special one on the horizon . To think a new year is this close to rising boggles my little mind.

But before the new, a quick glance back at the old.

An invitation went out from Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs to write a new post highlighting any number of things that were great about 2018, including the suggestion to write about stitching finishes.



Since my blog is part journal,what a good idea for me to take stock of the stitching side of things and write about what was finished, halfway quilted and still a sad flimsy on a shelf.  But no, I shouldn't say sad as I'm not a bit discouraged to see what needs to be finished, I know I will get to it.

This one below was just finished in the nick of time.  I called it Scandinavian Redwork with no pattern for the quilting finish when it was begun.  I traced some of Zeena Shah's drawings from her Scandinavian Coloring Book and embroidered them with DMC floss.  Her book is available  here at the Book Outlet and at the end, I thought hearts made a suitable border.

This is my version of Edyta Sitar's Pumpkins pattern found at the marvelous Laundry Basket Quilts.
A great applique project and it did get bound and hung on the wall as glimpsed in the photo above.  I want to get her umbrella pattern to make a similar kind of quilt.

I loved embroidering this Leane Beasley pattern, Sew Laugh Love  from Leanne's House.  It hangs in my sewing room and while I'm not laughing all the time, I'm definitely loving (almost) all the sewing taking place there.

I wanted to work on something fun and brightly coloured and found lots of basket inspiration around the net.   I enjoyed displaying this one for the summer months.

I found this pattern in my files, a page torn from an old magazine so I can't credit the designer.  I use this as a little mat on a table in the entry.  I experimented with the hand quilting...fun.

These next projects are in the queue acquiring some quilting lines...

This is In the Garden of Contentment from the talented Allie at Allie Oops Design. It was a free Stitch Along and I loved making six of these pretty blocks.

This panel features Bob Fair's painting called After the Snow, a nostalgic looking piece.  I am trying to quilt by hand and machine.  I enjoyed the process of choosing a block for the border and liked the way the small diamond shaped blocks worked out.

Needing quilting
 The Indigo Snowballs- sigh, love this but it is so big!

Painted Lady by Laura Heine- so colourful to work with and stitching wool was surpisingly easy; the pattern is now on a little discount at Mad About Patchwork. Laura's site is Fibre Works and I visit it regularly to find inspiration.

This large block below was the free mystery project this year offered as a Stitch Along by Kathleen Tracey at CountryLane Quilts. Kathleen designs beautiful small quilts.  I struggled with getting the piecing straight and had to unsew a lot but learned as I went.  

Featuring my bank of projects like this has shown me one thing... as much as I love cloth, the way I like best to put it together is in combinations involving applique and embroidery.  

I know my projects are nothing like the gorgeous quilting I love to see over and over at your blogs.  I dream of a Brinton Hall or a Dear Jane quilt, for instance. Who knows, maybe someday!

Meanwhile, I am thankful for three things...my fingers that still can stitch, my continued pleasure in this great pastime of ours, and all of you in the blogging world sharing your work and inspiring me!
Happily linking with Not Afraid of Color, Sew Fresh Quilts, Quilt Fabrication, and The Inquiring Quilter.

Mrs. Tishell, Cabin Fever and Tidy Stitches

Still freezing outside, Hubby still coughing but a little less, and I think I have put on weight with this stretch of staying indoors.  I guess that last will happen if a person is soothing themselves with hot chocolate and baked goods and not getting in their two walks a day.  Oh well, this too shall pass, as one of my grandmothers always said.

A Bit of Foolishness

I think I've mentioned I like to mimic accents.  I'm terrible at it but that doesn't stop me.
I've been wearing a lot of scarves and turtlenecks around the house lately. This has prompted Hubby to nickname me Mrs. Tishell, a character from Doc Martin we both love.  And I love how Selina exactly nails a slightly seductive tone whenever talking to the Doc.

Just for fun, I tried to strike a Claire Foy pose as Her Majesty in The Crown.  Of course, neither of those lovely women have my square jaw!  But I think I have learned some of Claire's inflection in speech which, since Hubby is slightly deaf (luckily), amuses only me.   Thenk Ku!

And before I get an email...this hair is not a wig and it is not blue/purple. Weird lighting. LOL

  BTW, there is huge interest in the details of the accents in this show (not just by me!).

Here is an excellent aritcle about getting the accent and all the other details of the show just right.

I also wanted to mention the broach I'm wearing... a stained glass hummingbird a friend gave me knowing my love of birds and broaches. Very appreciated.

And lastly just to show "you know who" is always with me.  Hubby keeps telling him...I rescued you too you know!

I must get out of the house this week, I really must! Cabin fever is a real thing and thanks for putting up with me and my silliness.

More Serious Stuff

I have this piece, Painted Lady, up on my wall. I've completed more embroidery on it than in the pattern but I think I will call it done now.  Sandwich time!

Loads of enjoyable slow stitching still with the SC piece. I'm using one strand of thread in contrasting red around some of the figures (like in the pattern) and realizing how neat and tidy the stitches need to be in that case. Eek

Hope there is lots to enjoy in your Sunday!

Always a pleasure to link up with the following: Kathy's Quilts, Quilting is More Fun Than Housework, Small Quilts and Doll Quilts, and  Cooking Up Quilts.

October is About Leaves

I found the title of this post under my feet.  Literally.  I had to get a photo quickly while the reds were still present as they are the first to fade.  The weather has been changing things up this very strange fall by remaining remarkably warm.  But oh so wonderful for walking which I love.

Here is the very pretty L is for Leaves block from The Prairie Schooler Alphabet design (also on my watch list).  Goes without saying I love this.


                              


Got sidetracked by this when I was hunting for a link for you...their Fall Fields to cross stitch. The only one I haven't seen here on this property is the pheasant.


                                 

Are you like me and would have to live to be 120 to stitch all the things you love!

I usually walk a couple times a day and have caught sight of a Great Blue Heron down at the pond several early mornings.  Frightens easily so no photo.  Twice I've caught its great long legs up in the sky which just looks so odd  till it straightens out.

The walking trails on this property are wonderful for us old folks to toddle around.

Love how the ornamental grasses, which I guess you could say are leaves, are so showy this time of year.
And this about leaves- here is a photo of my Painted Lady hanging with the big leaf motif on one side.  These are such joyful colours to work with.  I'm enjoying the hand stitching too.

I just love this little poem which could have been written for our Canadian autumns.

October, baptize me with leaves! Swaddle me in corduroy and nurse me with split pea soup. October, tuck tiny candy bars in my pockets and carve my smile into a thousand pumpkins. O autumn! O teakettle! O grace!

Rainbow Rowell

Hubby would second the candy bars and the teakettle! How about you??

Please check out Not Afraid of Color where LeeAnna is hosting #60 of Thursday Likes.  Where has the time gone!! Happily linking with Good and Random Fun and It's A Small Town Life.

I Fall In Love

My head is not easily turned, never was and certainly not these days.  But when it comes to fabric, cross stitch patterns and lovely stitching, my head is on a swivel.  I spied this project at the local quilt shop and immediately fell in love.  (And what is that something about a project that grabs and holds our attention, while others go unnoticed.)

I even love her name...Painted Lady.  A favourite little butterfly present in every province of Canada.  This is a pattern by Laura Heine and you can get a closer look at the beauty of it at the Fiberworks shop here.

 I couldn't wait to have the patchwork blocks done to begin this piece and what a lift it gave me to be working with such vibrant colours.  The folks at Mad About Patchwork had put together a convenient bundle of all the materials needed to stitch it.  The materials are wool and included were the pretty Valdani threads to match.

A start has been made- above are the freezer paper pieces and  below, a couple of petals stitched on by hand using a blanket stitch.

Wool is such a forgiving material to embroider on; my main challenge with this will be to make sure the placement is accurate.  I think I can manage that even in my addled brain state!

Here is another lovely butterfly, not as common as a Painted Lady, but one of the green comma butterflies - I think; there are so many variations of this little fellow it is hard to be sure.  The hydrangea blossoms are a wonder in all they attract...loads of bees of different kinds and butterflies as well.

Painted Lady will get all my stitching attention today, this late September Sunday.
 I hope all is calm sailing where ever you are!