Chookshed Stitchers Challenge, Bramble Blooms, Free Redwork Patterns

I'm amused watching this small turkey flock trot through the front yard. The male is displaying constantly and looking so special. 

But as far as we can tell, the females don't even give him a glance. In fact, one day they all left and trotted off leaving him standing there alone. We felt a little sorry for him. 

What a great gift! My sister always hits the mark with the books she gives me. 

I've enjoyed reading it very much and just love the collection of over 50 easy and healthy recipes Helen has included with her tales of life on the farm. I was interested to see she made Custard using Bird's Custard Powder which was a staple in the house when I was growing up. Would you be familiar with this? I looked up the Rebanks and there are YouTube videos of them as well which I have watched. They herd their sheep and cattle with those Border Collie dogs that are always amazing to watch work. Here is Helen speaking about her life and the importance of women having choices. Amazon link to Helen's Book.

I've failed to mention my Chookshed Stitchers Challenge choice for May month. Deanna chose # 5 which is my Christmas Quiltmania Applique blocks. I just didn't feel like working on Christmas right now in May so I took out another old project, my #7, and put it on the sewing room wall...the FPP Trees and have been joining a few rows here and there. Here is a portion of my colourful scrappy forest.

And I should share an update of my Bramble Blooms...four rows of leaves and embroidered running stitch vines are finished. This was a bit labour intensive but you'll never hear me complain about hand stitching.

 I need to get them sewn on.

 This is turning into my summer of working with scraps which is a good thing. 

While researching spruce tree bark, at Anna Lena Land, I came across her recipe for Spruce Tips Syrup. It sounded delicious and that piqued my interest, living here in a mostly spruce forest as it were and all the trees sprouting such new tips. What you wonder, piqued my interest in spruce tree bark? I'd seen one of the contestants on the series Alone pare a spruce tree trunk and eat the inner layer, the cambian, of bark! I just had to look that up and yes, it turns out to be very nutritious. There is so much more to learn. Never lose your curiosity.

Oh, btw, HERE is the link to Anna's post where she shares the free Redwork chicken patterns she found on Pinterest. The ones she stitched for her kitchen curtains. I've noted these in the distant past so it's funny how things come back round sometimes. 

I hope your week will be a good one with lots of time for you to do what you love. 

Also love sharing with Songbird Designs, A Quiltery, Quilt Fabrication, Quilts Art Whatever, Quilting Patchwork Applique, Life in Pieces and It's A Small Town Life.

Three Special QAL's, Three Questions Answered

                                          

                                            It's Spring. Theoretically. 

From Sandra Boynton

So we have officially changed seasons but the weather is still a bit on the wintry side. Freezing rain and snow overnight Friday and into Saturday with about 5 cm of fresh snow on the ground. I got snowed/rained on with ice pellets while playing ball with Ned and it was a bit hard staying upright.All in all, a little like spring in the air but definitely winter underfoot.

I'm receiving this magazine after a three year break. Quiltmania is always inspiring and something I look forward to getting in the mail. Do you get any magazines in the mail these days?

I have access to hundreds of magazines for free through the library system but I just don't find it very satisfying to read them online for some reason. I've gotten used to ebooks so maybe I should try harder to like emagazines. 

I had a good weekend in the sewing room. Wheel Within a Wheel blocks got sewn together and into rows. Then I mislaid two rows which I was baffled and frustrated by. The space is not that large. Do you have sewing room mishaps such as this? They will turn up I know. 

And I cut and stitched a few more foundation pieced Tiny Trees. I can't seem to give up on this project as it and the stem three piece section use up scraps so nicely. I will sew another row of these together this week.

That's a corner of the Lone Star Medallion getting ready for a backing. Also something I want to have done this week. I'm happy to have it at this stage.

Three QAL's I Love

Sandra at MMM Quilts has announced her QAL this year called Rainbow Neighbourhood. |Like so many of you, I love house blocks and keep saying I want to sew some. I've purchased the pattern so we will see if I start this or leave it for later. It will be fun to follow along and see the neighbourhoods folks will create.

. Another stitch along I wanted to mention and that I like is being offered by the wonderful Temecula Quilt Co. Sheryl is calling this one Whirl. It is really neat looking...you'll have to go there to see for yourself how she is working out the very simple blocks- 9 patch blocks, into a novel design. Found Here. Sheryl is also generously offering a free pattern there called Egg Basket.

Most of you know Sheryl specializes in small, gorgeous quilts.

And Pen + Paper is running the lovely The Sparrows QAL that I would like to sew... of course!  However, it says it's for the Advanced Beginner Sewist which I don't think I am- definitely not on the machine. 

I've gotten a few questions that I thought I would take time to answer.

The header cross stitched picture is Strawberry Thief, a William Morris design. I have the book called The Art of William Morris in Cross Stitch that I used the pattern from.

The embroidery blocks I've shared lately are part of a large project called Snow Days from Crabapple Hill Studio. That link will take you to the Snow Days page.

No, our wooden house is not all heated by the wood stove. We have a propane furnace as well that cuts in early morning during the winter months. We also have AC but seldom use it as all the principal rooms have ceiling fans.  The wooden walls tend to retain heat in winter but also keep things cool in summer we've discovered since moving here- a good thing.

I'm running a doggy daycare this week which is keeping me on my toes. Daughter's two dogs, Abbey and Petey, are here during the daytimes to get exercised as daughter heals from her exercise injury. Ned is in his glee!

Hope your week is off to a great start!

Also great to share this post with Songbird Designs, The Inquiring Quilter,  It's a Small Town Life, My Quilt Infatuation,  Alycia Quilts and Quilt Schmilt. 

New Year Stuff- Gifts, Projects, Calm Yourself Goal

I've been busy doing everything but blogging. Out attempting walks with the camera in spite of all kinds of weather, baking muffins, embroidering, reading, listening to podcasts while putting together a jigsaw puzzle. It has been a peaceful, satisfying and relaxing welcome to a new year. Along the way I found two garbage bags of "stuff" to give to the Value Village.  So a little cleanout felt good too.

I decided to cook a turkey last week just so we could have a turkey dinner here at the wooden house and enjoy lots of leftovers too. A turkey is like the food that keeps on giving.

After the main meal, then leftovers, we enjoyed hot turkey sandwiches with air fryer fries. Finally came the soup. I've made a resolve to use the Air Fryer more from now on as I see folks cooking just about anything in them. I came across this Taste of Home post... 88 Air Fryer Recipes You Need to Try and was really surprised at the array of foods that can be cooked in an air fryer. No need of a frying pan!

I was happy to capture a scarlet Cardinal using our new Red Cardinal Feeder, as it is called. It is the best feeder I've found. It was windy and swaying so not the best of photos. 

And I'm happy to see the female joining the male most days.

I'm reading one of my Christmas gifts, this book from my sister. Each bird matches the 12 Days of Christmas song. For instance, the woodpecker is the 12 Drummers Drumming. This is my second Stephen Moss book and I do enjoy his writing.

I ordered a new set of ice cleats for my boots- from Amazon. Just cheap ones which work fine as I'm not mountain climbing. Though I'm second guessing my choice lately. There has been massive melting and refreezing with overnight temperature drops.  On occasion I've had to cut our early morning walks short, just too icy underfoot. Ned very unhappy but I really can't risk it. I noticed the pine needles show the ice more than fir needles as seen in the photo above. 

I've put together a bunch more of the foundation pieced scrappy Tiny Trees. Fun machine stitching...words I don't often string together. Thought I'd done them all then found a cache of ten or more "tops" so had to complete those too. I haven't a clue what size this will finish at but my goal for this week is to have these all sewn together. 

I've chosen this pretty leafy looking Robin Pickins fabric for part of the borders. 

I finished the Redwork stitchery. Just Snowman's buttons to add.

I've been crocheting too so the stitching fingers have been busy. Besides shovelling snow which I've done often since I last talked to you!

Better late than never to speak of New Year's Resolutions- I do sort of set myself goals (other than the fitness ones) from time to time.  The main one this year is I'm going to strive for calm. There are always things to keep us awake at night; for me it is always worrying about family. I'm a solutions kind of thinker and want to help naturally especially when the downs of life occur to them. But sometimes situations are like this. Thank you Joanne (who has no blog) for sending this one to me. Good one, right?

Credited to Ivan Nuru

Calming that tiny thread of anxiety that runs through me when thinking about things has always been a challenge, in particular, a middle of the night challenge for me it seems. I'm exploring homeopathic solutions while open to suggestions. I always enjoy what you have to say.

Anyway, 2023 is off and, not only running, galloping. Enjoy the ride!

See you later this week with some great free patterns.

Sharing with Kathy's Quilts, Small Quilts and Doll Quilts, Songbird Designs, Days Filled With Joy, Quilt Schmilt and Quilting is More Fun Than Housework.

 

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.

2 In Between Quilt Projects, Raisin Oat Cookies, Tulips For Planting Time

Emily's Quotes- Pinterest

I've just put another pan of raisin oat cookies in the oven. The smell is fragrant.  Make no wonder cinnamon is so prized among spices; it makes anything baking smell so delicious.  

Outside we have had rotating bouts of snowflakes, hail, rain and yes even sunshine all these recent days. There was snow on the ground when I got up Sunday morning...I suspected because the light behind the blind seemed whiter. That bit didn't last at all.  Today we have a promise of 12 C. 

Getting back to the cookies, I used partial whole wheat flour and also ground flax seed. Extra molasses and lots of raisins. I had soaked dates with the thought of   adding them to the dough but decided at the last minute, I had played havoc enough with the recipe. I'm saving them to add to my oatmeal tomorrow. Recipe is here at Sally's Baking Addiction.

Since I had the oven on and warmed up, I roasted chicken thighs afterwards for the meat to use in a curry dish too. Chicken thighs are good for that.  All of it was tasty.

Two IN BETWEEN Projects

#1   I have a few more blocks from my Tiny Trees project to show with the thought of stepping up the sewing of these blocks this week.  I've not kept up the six or so a week I had promised myself that I would do. Need to play catch up while using up scraps.

#2  I did test out the Confetti scrappy quilt block using foundation piecing I mentioned in this post last month. It really wasn't effective for me as I realized right away I do not have enough white fabric. Seems like a lot of cream, off white, etc. is in my stash.  I also wanted to use scraps and not many of my scraps are worthy of fussy cutting like Rachel did with hers that made them look so pretty. In the end, I went rogue and just sewed randomly with the smaller scraps especially.  Perhaps more confetti like in the end as I think of confetti as tiny bits. 

 The pattern is there if I want to revisit it but for now I'm just going to sew more blocks in a liberated style and try to use up as many scraps as possible in the process. The white fabric does showcase the colours well.  This will be a 9 inch square and the thing that really surprised me was how long it took to sew this. Putting it together so it doesn't look like a dog's breakfast takes time. Hopefully,the result in the end achieving an "unstudied, unpretentious, and more interesting" quilt...a quote from Gwen Marsden.

 And another  upshot, I need to buy more fabric!

The ground is softening up quickly. I have tulip bulbs I received as a birthday gift last year that I want to put into planters as soon as the threat of frost is over.

  I can't put them in the ground as the squirrels find them. Of course, they might find them in the planters too but I plan to keep them up on the veranda close to the front door. That may or may not help.

I have two robins combing the side lawn for worms already. They are off to an early start with the nesting. 

The Phoebes are back; it was music to my ears to hear their familiar calls. Migration is such a miracle. How in the world do those tiny birds manage it! 

I'll leave you with a photo of one of the red squirrels.  It was munching away on last years' spruce cones sitting on a branch outside the dining area window. It's a good thing they're so cute!

Hope you are having a great week!

Sharing this post with Not Afraid of Color, Life in the Scrapatch, Texas Quilt Gal, Quilt Fabrication, So Scrappy, Quilting is More Fun Than Housework and Love Laugh Quilt. 

Santa Quilting, Vintage Blocks, Tiny Trees, Jewel Box Blocks, Hope For Better

 I was a little concerned about our 95 year old Queen there for a couple of weeks. I was relieved to see her back on duty greeting this fellow, Thomas Trotter, and presenting him with the Queen's Medal for Music on December 8th.

I was a Girl Guide for a number of years and took my weekly pledge to do my duty to God, the Queen and my country very seriously.  This Elizabeth has been my queen all my life. She has never put a foot wrong and I feel very sentimental about her, foolish I know. And the Girl Guide motto, Be Prepared, has also been with me all my life. 

I've mentioned before the whimsical idea (so say meteorologists) that nature provides for wildlife by having more cones grow that fall when there is a hard, long winter ahead. This year there are massive numbers of cones on the trees. I've seen one year before with the trees so laden with cones and I noted that it was a hard winter. I do wonder what we are in for this year. I was aiming for the junco here and you can't see that the top of the tree was so heavy with cones, the branches were all drooping.

These little foundation pieced trees are really fun to sew. I prep a few in front of the tv and have them by the machine ready to go. I wish I had more interesting low volume type fabrics for the backgrounds. After talking about sewing from stash last post, now already wishing for more fabric. Sigh

We got our third shot or booster on Tuesday evening at a clinic in a nearby town. I was surprised to see families there, the children too, getting their vaccines. Everyone was so kind to us and each other and several times I heard we are all in this together. It made me think of the togetherness the world wars made of certain nations. 

With my brain, one thing always leads to another and I thought of the videos I'd watched about quilt making during wartimes. This one below is very good and explains too how women in different nations worked together for the common cause. Especially between Canada and the United States.

And speaking of vintage.  I recently tested a very old pattern called Jewel Box, which also goes by other names. I would really like to make a large tablecloth for Christmas use. I have a few blocks sewn and on the wall to try to decide if I like it enough.  I decided on adding reds for more or less the nod to Christmas. 

 Update: I've continued on and made enough blocks now. Photographing anything down in the sewing room, especially on cloudy days is certainly not showing them well. So I'll get a photo (in another part of the house) as soon as I've sewn them all together.

I enjoyed this photo when it appeared in my Facebook feed, the work of Tom Newsom.  Lots of comments about which pattern it is that Santa is stitching. Any ideas? 

The closest someone came was saying it was Rising Sun. I was able to find a tutorial for stitching this Santa's quilt at Victoriana Quilt Designs. And more of Tom's beautiful Santas can be seen here at Tom Newsom Art.

We have  about 10 cm of fresh snow this morning and the sun is shining. A brilliant Christmasy look to everything. I have my little Snowmen hanging, Bonhommes en Chapeaux, up. I have to smile when I look at them. I've seen tracks lately, but haven't spotted a fox in a while.

And it looks like we will again be sticking close to home. Too much of the new variant around and numbers rising rapidly. We just have to keep hoping this time will be the end once and for all. 

My hope for you is that you are fine, coping well with whatever life has thrown at you this week. And if it's something wonderful, enjoy every minute.

Also wonderful is linking with Kathy's Quilts, Small Quilts and Doll Quilts, Love Laugh Quilt, Our World Tuesday, Texas Quilt Gal and Quilting is More Fun Than Housework.