Summer Flowers, Autumn Stitching and New Start

I'm seeing signs that the autumn season is starting to take hold. The leaves are starting to turn and fall. It's been single digits overnight lately and staying cooler during the days. I like this time between the seasons and wish it would last longer here. 

 I transplanted two Japanese Anemone bushes to the right of the front path. This season they have really taken off. I didn't know they would spread like this! They have taken over the whole space but it is a plus that the bees love them.

Such a gorgeous little flower!

And here are two of my indoor plants that were outside since May.  My lovely Madagascar Jasmine  enjoyed the summer months on the front veranda. I've read it is also called Bride's Flower and I can see why. 

And my Coleus spent the summer on the back veranda as usual. It thrived as always and grew so tall. 

I'm reluctant to cut anything which can be a problem as most of the flower beds/areas need so much more trimming. I'm happy, though,with how much garden time I got in this summer in between the rain showers. And there is still time to do lots more. 

I'm also pleased with my summer stitching. I've finished a couple more houses for my autumn project

 and prepped the blocks for the appliqued maple leaves. I've finished a couple with my usual blanket stitch edging. Here is the first one. 

I've never had a specific plan about working on my cross stitch projects. I watch a number of flosstubers and several have a plan for when to work on what. One idea seemed to fit my way of doing things and that was to work on a designated project for a month. That way you can make seeable (is that a word?) progress. I'm going to give it a go. So I've put G.Legere away after spending August with him, or is it her. I've searched and can't find any information other than this is a reproduction of a French sampler. This is how much I've finished since last showing you...a bird, a tree, and a start on the house. I love working on this one very much and especially enjoyed stitching the scrolly alphabet. 

One of the things many cross stitchers do is make a new start for their birthday. So I thought I'd use that as my reason for starting Flora, a pattern from The Artsy Housewife I've had kitted for some time. 

It's time I stitched an owl and I love that decorative border. Gigi, the very arsty designer, is famous for her elaborate, beautiful borders. My fraternal grandmother's name was Flora; she was the wife of Ned who our Ned is named after. I always say if I get a cat, I will name her Flora. My grandmother never liked her name; she used to say it was a droll old name.

Here is my rather scant beginning on 32 count Belfast Dirty Linen.

Younger grandson, Robbie, has started Grade 8. Where oh where have those years gone????

It's blueberry picking time at home in Newfoundland. I really miss that. Growing up in Corner Brook, I could go to the woods behind our house and pick two cups of blueberries in a few minutes. That was just enough for Mom to make a cobbler kind of cake with the blueberries on the bottom of a square pan. The batter was more cake like than cobbler really and years later, she couldn't remember exactly how she made it. There was no recipe as such just what she had in her head. She remembered making a sweet sauce to pour over it which I didn't remember. She probably made that for Dad as he had a serious sweet tooth which I don't have and neither did she. Do you have a sweet tooth? 

On that happy note, I'll finish this post. My bank of free patterns has ballooned so I'll soon have to start sharing again. And I need to tell you about the marvelous books I've been reading too. So next time then. Take Care All!

Exploring Two Sites, Applique and Crochet, Family Time Too

Lately one lone younger deer is travelling with the turkeys when they show up at the bird feeders. Curious about why that would be.

This week Robbie turned 10 which had the old folks all shaking their heads wondering how did that happen so fast! As is tradition, we greet him with fanfare when he gets off the school bus. We wonder when he will want that to stop. 

It was a wings and pizza party with a beautiful made by Beth marzipan laden cake with a hidden layer of marshmallow frosting. I indulged myself and ate heartily... felt stuffed and it's been a while since I did that. The food was really tasty or maybe it seemed like that because I didn't have to cook it. 

I timed myself last night and I can crochet one row in 20 minutes. It's going to be a huge blanket!      

And below I've finished the blanket stitch around each of the leaves and have this little autumn table topper layered ready for hand quilting. 

I also want to set a plan for quilting my November OMG this weekend. The days have a way of slipping away from me so I have to make my time count. 

A couple of sites worth exploring...

It looks like this site closed up shop back in 2016 but their bank of free embroidery patterns under 14 categories are still available for personal use... Needlecrafter. I downloaded the Jolly Santa pattern.

The Uk Sewing Studio has collated a bank- 10 pages worth of free quilt projects. I downloaded Santa's Christmas Wall Hanging pattern and noted a few others. 

 LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color's prompt this week is whether we prefer a Corn Maze or a Hayride??? I would choose the hayride but not one of those super scary ones. I would choose that mainly because my sense of direction is ridiculously awful. I wrote a post once about being lost for an hour and half on our property back at the farm. I was at the point of genuine panic when I came to an opening in the thick brush big enough to see where I was. So a corn maze...no way! In fact I can feel my adrenalin rise just thinking about it. What about you?

Hope your November is off to a great start! 

Also great to share this post with linky parties at  Kathy's Quilts, Quilting is More Fun Than Housework, Small Quilts and Doll Quilts, Songbird Designs, Sew Can Do, Life in Pieces and Quilting Patchwork Applique.

Rainbow Neighbourhood Quilt Flimsy, Family

My week has gone well and included a visit with older daughter who lives about 30 minutes away. I love her little house so much; while it is ideal for a single person as herself it would also make the perfect retirement home. The back of the house has two huge bay windows and the side windows are extra large so a very bright house inside. 

When I moved here to Ottawa, I had intended to live with her in this house. We had a two bedroom apartment built in the basement for me and that has never been lived in. I met Hubby and the plan completely changed for me. 

In completely different other news, my Rainbow Neighbourhood quilt is a flimsy!

First up, here are blocks I sewed that didn't make it into the final houses for one reason or another.

And I used this fabric below for my cornerstones. I first had the plan to make each cornerstone a different colour since the sashings are all the same neutral and then I came across this. Here is what was left of the sashing fabric too...cut it a little bit close. 

I think the design looks like tall buildings and is called Homeward from Free Spirit. It was a special way to use up a small piece of fabric. 

I took it outside to see if the colours would show better in natural light. Somewhat successful but it's disappointing that the sashings black flecks don't appear at all. I'll get a photo later which hopefully will show the sashings are not completely white!

 And of course a breeze had to appear just as I was trying to take photos. I am happy with the accuracy of 7 of the houses. Right now this is 62 in. x 58 in. so a good lap size for sure. I especially enjoyed sewing the different blocks for the house side. 

 Imperfections abound. I am a scissors cutter and it could have been worse, LOL Lost a point here and I could go back and tease it out I suppose.

Didn't quite match up here. And there are others, sigh.

And for the backing, I'm looking at Diann's Little Penguin Quilts's post HERE where she shows excellent backing suggestions. I would like to use those orphan blocks I made if I can. That's a weekend job for me.

As I stated in another post, Sandra's Rainbow House pattern instructions are in depth and wonderful. Besides variations of houses, they include instructions for many star blocks, trees, and hearts to flesh out your neighbourhood.  I'm very pleased to have taken part in her QAL and would definitely sign up for another! Check out her mmmquilts link to see the wonderful (and precisely sewn!) neighbourhoods folks are posting. 

Below is younger daughter Beth, the cake maker, and younger grandson, Robbie. They live not that far from Lake Mississippi-less than a 5 minute drive and have a boat. They can go fishing after work during these long evenings which they did recently. I really liked this photo of the happy fisherfolk, which I guess is what they are called these days.

They had a fish fry the next night which they shared and we enjoyed the fish very much. So much better tasting than what I buy in the grocery store and am paying an insane price for these days. 

We have more ground hogs again. Three little ones appeared one day scrambling about the front yard. A quick look around and this new hole was found where I dump the weeds and clippings, not near a walkway thankfully.

I'm not that worried about the population increase as ground hogs are solitary and these will be encouraged to move on and find their own territory before too long. Just like the three from last year did.

LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color's prompt this week was about the fun of ice cream trucks driving around neighbourhoods. This did not happen during my time in my province that I know of but it is iconic in American movies and such a wonderful summertime thing. You can pop over there to read folks' wonderful ice cream truck memories. I do have fond memories of when Dixie Cups appeared with their dainty wooden spoon/spatulas and also when delicious Drumsticks came available. Do you have any such delicious ice cream memories? 

Summer Solstice was this week. Time is precious that's for sure. 

Linking up with Quilting is More Fun Than Housework, Songbird Designs, From Bolt to Beauty and Small Quilts and Doll Quilts.