Thrift Shop Surprises, SAL Update

Early morning warmth, the first of the season, led me outside early and down to the pond with my camera.  I had in mind to look for the small flock of ravens that hangs out to the left around the little wetland area.  Sure enough five of them were there moving about on the ground with their hobbled, hoppy way of walking. I thought I was soundless, but of course, wasn't and before I even adjusted the camera, they took off filling the air with mad squawks. I  wonder what is their intention there every morning or perhaps they roost there overnight. I haven't figured that out.
One day I did catch a couple hurried shots of Canada geese gliding about the pond. Hurried because these alert easily as well.  Two are seen together often for several years now and I wonder would they be the same ones.  I was pleased with this shot when I got to look at it on the computer later.  Such a distinctive chin strap.

Thrift shopping is a fun outing for me and it is not just about the bargains. You can find things in these stores that are unique and different, items you do not see in any regular stores these days.   Here are some things I bought recently when I did my drop off.
My love of china, tea cups, plates, whatever, continues. I cannot resist looking through the well stocked kitchen area. I didn't question buying the large plate below. I love the blues but also can't resist the pink when I come across them.   This Old English Staffordshire piece depicts the French fort at Lake Chaplain, New York.  Each plate has a different floral garland which is interesting. At $20 US on ebay, it is a bit of a collector's piece.  I paid $1.99.

No need to wonder why I bought this numbered piece, Loyal Companion by Bruce Langton...so like our Murphy girl.  We both enjoy dog memorabilia celebrating the dogs we own and have owned.

I know what this book costs new because it had the tag still on it.  I don't think the cover has ever been cracked.  I love America's Test Kitchen shows.

This heavy bag of scrap fabrics priced at $9.99 was debatable but I am so happy I made the decision to buy it.

 Scraps on the outside but inside were hiding three yards of Sandy Gervais Nature's Christmas fabric for Moda.  Also other coordinating pieces too. I checked and it is $13 a yard Canadian.

As well as two large pieces of this fun fabric...Treelicious by Maude Ashbury.

I got a 20% off coupon for donating so that helped with the bottom line.  Pure guilt free shopping.

I had to push myself to finish my cross stitching goal for this month.  My arms were a bit tired from all the weed pulling and repotting which just shows me how out of shape my arms really are. I guess plying a needle doesn't build muscles. :) But most of the garden plots have had some attention at this point and I won't be doing any more planting so my weakling arms will have plenty of time to recover.  I like how the two shades of floss made this interesting basket weave like pattern.

Propped on our knickknack shelf...

I have vines and leaves left to finish and to add a date as well. In anticipation of finishing this slow stitching Sunday and veranda stitching (yah!), I have prepped an embroidery project from Nancy Nicholson. More about that later.
Meanwhile I appreciate the incentive provided by linking monthy with the SAL group led by Avis at
Sewing Beside the Sea.  It has been a great experience to visit each other and offer encouragement.
Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, Sue, Constanze, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, Helen, Linda, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Hayley,Megan, Catherine, Deborah, Clare, Mary Margaret, Renee, Jenny, Carmela, Jocelyn, Sharon

To those of you sweltering, stay cool and those feeling wintry breezes, bundle up. Our extraordinary natural world continues to fascinate.
Linking with Kathy's Quilts, Viewing Nature With Eileen,  Paying Ready Attention and I'd Rather B Birdin.

To Do List Sharing

To Do List for This Weekend

Pick more of these plants. SIL showed me where wild leeks or ramps grow on our property. Turns out there is quite a lot of it on the right side through the old deciduous woods.  These have a mild flavour that is not as pungent as regular leeks so I can tolerate them better...I've used them in roasting with vegetables and in two soups.
Ramp Up Heart Health With Wild Leeks

Finish binge listening to this.
 I'm up to Chapter 6 in two sessions of my audio version.  I mistakenly thought this was about a politician's wife, but no it is about an author's wife. Marriage talk always interests me and I'm enjoying this one very much.

You may have seen it around in movie form starring Glenn Close who I admire because she is a massive dog lover. Her dog, Pip, has his own Instagram account.
                                       
Treat my hands better. 
It is actually difficult to work with delicate embroidery floss when my hands are dried and nails cracked. Gross, heh.  As soon as I work in the garden, the skin and nails on my hands take a beating.  And I don't learn-I'm one of those people who don't think about hand cream till I need it. (And I must hate working with gloves on...I always start out wearing them; at some point they come off and then I forget to put them back on.)
Also To Do- finish cross stitching the basket on my Cornwall Cottage Sampler.

Filed down, no polish.  When the gardening calms down, I'll repolish.
I can't take strong smells for creams. Here are two hand creams I have, like and must remember to use! The fancy one from daughter on the left smells wonderful and is some sort of French Shea Butter and Argon Oil combination.
The Johnson's Cottontouch is for babies and is wonderfully absorbent and smells nice too-not just for hands.

Take these items to the goodwill store. 
 I have been doing what the experts say. Walking around the house once a month with a bag and putting in whatever I realize we no longer like or use.  I discovered one thing in this process...we don't have a whole lot of extras here.  Oh there's lots here, make no mistake about that, just it is antique/vintage things from Hubby's life that are not going anywhere.

Use up this cabbage and turnip.
I try to have greens in the fridge all the time.  Last week we had broccoli and spinach. This week end cabbage is on the menu. (Hubby is blissfully unaware of my attempts to feed us right.)

Share this with you.
Have you ever wondered what kind of money people make with a Youtube channel (if they've monetized it)? Darlene Michaud shares her earnings on this video called How Much Money Do I Make???Full Disclosure. Another interesting listen.  I have enjoyed Darlene's Crumb Quilting videos.

Lastly Show you these
My latest three stringed blocks with applique bringing the number to 10 blocks now.  A slow process (when not worked on, :))

We have dinner out and birthday cake on today's menu...younger daughter's special day. I'll share what we bought her later on. Hope she likes it-I think it's interesting.
Hope there are good things in your day too!
And it is always good to link with Not Afraid of Color, Sew Fresh Quilts, The Needle and Thread Network, Katie Mae Quilts and Esther's Quilt Blog where Esther admits she has over 100 WIPs to work on!

Recap of a Busy Week

This turned out to be a crazy busy week for us...with the caveat that this is from the point of view of two old retirees!
 Besides the vet day and all the puttering Hubby has been doing opening and getting things up and running for the summer, he had two medical checkup appointment days downtown. This means we may as well scrap the whole day as the getting down there through all the traffic and finding parking, etc. is time consuming. Also both of us feel apprehensive about the test results so overall a bit stressful as well.
 Friday, homeward bound, we got stuck for almost two  hours in the evening rush hour and we wondered how can people do this every day. Luckily we both enjoy cars so had a great time checking out all the kinds of vehicles while we were stopped/crawling along in the middle of the three packed lanes.  Saw one Nissan Leaf and two Teslas and declared the Honda Civic the most changed vehicle in our time.
The good news...Hubby is fine and can now go from yearly to every two years for these checkups so we won't have to face those runs for a while.

Some photos I took of the hospital neighbourhood gardens which are very posh and much further ahead than mine outside the city.

This "host" of yellow tulips lining a busy sidewalk; such a sweet sight for walkers.

I can only imagine the level of enthusiasm for container planting as evidenced here. 

So many beautiful blooms weighing down the branches of this tree... taken in sunnier times in May, 2016.  We noted it didn't have nearly the blooms this year.

Ask Rex and Murphy why so downcast?

 Because we woke to the sound of heavy rain on our metal roof which they know means our walk will be a little delayed.  Note Murphy the Diva commandeers Rex's nighttime bed for herself.

I did manage to sew another flower on a stringed block mostly to see if I liked it. I do and now have a bunch more prepped to applique today.  The upside of the rain...slowing down with indoor activities like stitching.

I have a beef roast thawing out for supper that I plan to pop in the slow cooker..still can't completely shake the idea that Sunday supper should be a special one.  Any of you feel like that?  Cooking a big meal as a little reward for Hubby.

I'm recalling happy moments stitching this... Kathy Schmitz's A Patchwork Year June block called Tweet Home.

So from my little corner of rain drenched Ontario, Canada, Happy June all!
Happy as well to link up with others enjoying hand stitching at the Kathy's Quilts post today. Also linking with Love Laugh Quilt and Em's Scrapbag.

Mostly Blues Happy Post

I've spent more time outside lately it seems than in. I've been raking, scrubbing, sweeping and replanting. It feels good to be moving and though I have a slightly sore shoulder and scratches on my hands, I'm thankful to have the strength to do these things.  As well as admire these pretty common dog violets that have crept into the flower beds and are in bloom now. I've let them be which may be a mistake as there are many more around than last year.  But they are so pretty.

And a favourite perennial of mine, the  purply blue dwarf hyacinths have cropped up here and there.  (A blue hyacinth symbolizes sincerity, btw). Blooming before I had a chance to rake the garden. White violets peeking out there on the left.

It feels marvelous to come inside, shower, check for ticks!, and sit back with a cup of tea (in my gift of a cup from daughter) and some stitching.

Applique has been my main focus in the sewing room. Prepped a pile of leaves and chose a new flower shape for more of my Stringed Blocks As Backgrounds blocks. This is a great scrappy project as I've been combing my little tins and totes for bits big enough to use.

Hopefully I will finish five of these and ten more of the basket blocks this month.  That should be doable so I'll make it my June OMG at Elm Street Quilts where Patty is doing some painting with colourful fabrics using foundation paper pineapple designs to great effect.

In between these two got taken to the vet for their annual checkups. A few fatty lumps between the two of them but otherwise great especially for their ages; Rex is 12 and Murphy is 8.  They both find vet visits stressful and sleep a lot when they get home. Poor things. Still very soggy down by the pond and with regular rainfalls, it will probably remain so for a while longer.

I had a flock of blue jays drop by to check out the bird feeder last week. I am always happy to see blue jays though I know some don't like them.  It was unusual to see such a large group of them at once. After much jabbering and jockeying, they disappeared in a flash. The oldest known banded wild blue jay was almost 27 years old when it was found off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada caught in fishing gear. So much about these birds is unknown which suprises me as they are so common.

And now to the sublime-
One of my friends on Facebook (thank you Linda!) sent me a link that led me to the amazing embroidery on the Game of Thrones' costumes..costume designer, Michele Clapton's stupendous work.  Breathtaking stumpwork!
I spent ages looking through The Wedding Gallery  I don't think I've seen anything like it before and I've been looking at embroideries for a long time. The rendering of the natural world- birds, fish, leaves, trees, insects etc. filled me with awe for such talented fingers.


And something else that is awe inspiring. It is Iceberg Alley time off the coast of my home province, Newfoundland and Labrador.  This is the video of Dylan Dreyer from The Today Show visiting Newfoundland and kudos to Dylan for learning to pronounce Newfoundland the way we do.

This was a post I tried to keep all blues but alas Rex and Murphy are not blue and none of my scraps are blue as such either so that didn't quite work out now did it.

Thank you, btw, for all for the kind comments on my posts...a real positive in my days. It is also the only way I know who is reading and an avenue for us to connect. If you visit me, I will definitely visit you back!

Thankful too to link with Not Afraid of Color, It's A Small Town Life, Paying Ready Attention, My Quilt Infatuation, Humble Quilts, Viewing Nature with Eileen and Brian's Home Blog.

Stitching Two Kind of Baskets

Ontario's provincial flower is in bloom and it is lovely. The white trillium.  It is the state wildflower for Ohio. It is also called wood lily and snow lily.

 Though it blooms for several weeks, it doesn't hold up for an indoor bouquet sadly. But it is wonderful to see them dotting the forest floor.

The sky lately...our weatherman said this would be wonderful weather we are having...if it were November!

Today, Sunday, there is more warmth flowing between the sky and the ground it seems. The breezes are not making me shiver, so maybe we are taking steps into the next season which now should be near summer. But I must hasten to add, the weather does not dampen my enjoyment of the daily walks about the place. No, not a bit.

I have not achieved my Elm Street Quilts OMG for May- yet. That was to get 20 more basket blocks finished.  I made 8 with 3 more in the works so well off the mark.  However, I did make better strides with the photograph blocks.
 My excuse, more time puttering in the garden including time spent splitting and moving wood with the immense indespensible help from a family member who came to help out.  I now have enough wood for the pool stove for the summer and our fireplace for next winter all close at hand.

The view from my pet chair...another rabbit much smaller than the one I showed you before. Can you spy him? He's flirting with a bit of danger there because this is the back yard and Rex and Murphy's domain.

I'm also working on my Cornwall Cottage basket. Love the slow and soothing stitching that is cross stitching. So soothing that I forgot to check the pattern and sewed far too many stitches across that middle line between the handles. A little unsewing will fix it but I was hoping the good luck I'd had with no stitching errors so far would continue.  Oh well.

Heads Up and prior notice for this SAL, the first ever from Shabby Fabrics.
The North Pole Sampler Sew Along promises to be beginner friendly.  Pretty fabrics.

I'm sure not thinking of Christmas but I know many of you are.
Happy Sunday all!
Linking this post with Quilting is More Fun Than Housework, Esther's Quilt Blog, Quilt Fabrication and Kathy's Quilts.

Links, Woolworths Famous Cheesecake, Flowers at Last

Neither fine nor entirely foul lately. We seem to be enduring a new season composed of sunlight in thin bursts, cloud cover, rain showers and winds at times cool enough to make us shiver. Overnight temperatures dipping down almost flirting with freezing. Springish, I guess you could say but keep a coat/umbrella/duck boots handy.

In spite of it all, we have flowers! In the garden!  They ignored the frost warnings and decided to bloom anyway. We have a number of small bunches of daffodils dotted throughout the flower beds adding just a touch of colour here and there. We've also let all the dandelions be for now hoping to help early bees but sadly we've not seen one.

And luckily the weather does not put a damper on all the loads of things to love.

I loved this tutorial on how to applique using freezer paper from Simple Bird Studios.  One of the best I've seen and somehow seems to be my favourite method as well.

Wendy in this excellent post at her blog Pieceful Thoughts shared her favourite ways to find fabric. I picked up a few ideas to note for future reference.

I saw this panel on One of Nanette's posts at Chopin- A Passionate Quilter; she is embroidering it and I fell in love with it.  Embroidery is like my first love and this is on my wanted list as well.  From the French General site.

                            
I enjoy Karen's videos at Just Get It Done Quilts so much.  Plain talking/explaining and she is real about life too.  This one is about finding useful quilting items from the Dollar Store.  I also liked the one about using masking tapes in quilting. Always something to learn!

I made this particular no bake cheesecake last Sunday.  The  Famous Woolworth's No Bake Cheesecake recipe which someone said is over a hundred years old!
 My mother worked at Woolworth's for over 25 years in the Ladies and Children section. It was a surprise when I heard she wanted a job later in life but it suited her.  She loved her co workers and the socializing and chatting with all the shoppers her job provided.  When I came home for Christmas that first year, I could see a difference in her. She was much more confident somehow and livelier. And she was making her own "bit of money" as she called it.  She also still gets her small Woolworth's pension after all these years.

This has been published often and I know I have a copy poked away in a scrapbook somewhere but who needs that with the internet.


 I did not have lemon jello and used orange instead. With a simple graham cracker crumb bottom and a bit of whipping, this is easy to put together as well as tasty. It is very light which makes it a great summertime dessert.  I made sure my Carnation milk had been in the freezer till it had thickened a bit before the whipping. Hubby is having no problem eating his way through a 9 x 13 pan of it. LOL

How does my Sweet Pea afghan grow!  It is keeping my knees warm as I crochet which is needed as our basement is cool where the t.v. is.

I showed you Lucy's colourwash version of her Dune blanket. Here is the regular version in shell stitch. A soft muted palette Lucy says inspired by walks on a beach when there is still a chill in the air. Could apply right now today! All the Dune blanket details can be found here at Attic 24.
                                 
More photograph blocks while I dicker about with the borders of those flower blocks.  Mindless fun sewing with my little Brother sewing machine which is such a workhorse.  It's small enough I can strip it down to fix things...would not dream of tinkering with the computerized Singer Quantum in such a way.

Littler grandson with an egg from their hens. He is enjoying the hen keeping very much.  They have "designer" hens this year which give them different coloured eggs...just for fun.  He tells me that he loves nature which is music to my ears.
                                
And with his happy face I'll close this post.
Hope you follow some of the links included today...so much information and inspiration to be found there! Happy Thursday all.
Linking with Not Afraid of Color, The Jesh Studio, Esther's Quilt Blog, The Needle and Thread Network, My Quilt Infatuation, Em's Scrapbag, Quilt Fabrication, Sugarlane Designs, Busy Hands Quilts and It's a Small Town Life.

Birds, Most Wanted List Continued, Hubby's Latest Toy

Hubby with his Ryker.  He's loving it and it has taken a load of worry off my mind. I now notice them on the road; many more than I would have thought.  I guess with the population aging and bikers wanting to bike no matter the age, it makes sense these rigs become more popular.

My hand stitching time lately was devoted to cross stitch and I made reasonable progress on the Cornwall Cottage Sampler.  I worked on that feathery kind of green border which you might miss altogether if not pointed out.
Before....

Repetitious and not that interesting to stitch but I got it done. Everything lined up, whew! And this month I will concentrate on finishing the basket.
Today...

I am so happy to link up with my fellow stitchers at the international SAL hosted by Avis at Sewing Beside the Sea. It has provided just the incentive I needed to get this project finished.  And I'm finding it fascinating to see what these folks are creating with their cloth and threads.
Avis, Claire, Gun, Carole, Sue, Constanze, Debbierose, Christina, Kathy, Margaret, Cindy, Helen, Linda, Heidi, Jackie, Sunny, Hayley, Megan, Catherine, Deborah, Connie, Clare, Mary Margaret, Renee, Jenny, Carmela, Jocelyn, Sharon

Quick question...can needlepoint designs be used for cross stitch?
 I started my stitching journey decades ago with needlepoint and hope to return to it when my eyes start to have issues with counting. I was given this gorgeous book by the wonderful needlepoint artist, Beth Russell. Inspired by William Morris.

There is this pattern I would be interested in working.  So please let me know if you think this is possible.

Most Wanted List-continued

French General Fleur de Noel fabric

Blackbird Designs Wild Orchid fabric. Some say this is gone forever.  Please say that isn't true! It was so popular!


Perky Pet Oriole Jelly Wildlife feeder. Kind Collette at What About Rheema?  sent me this link on Amazon to check them out.



I got no photos of orioles at the farm but was thrilled to spy one just a couple of times. I've yet to see one here but know they are around. So I would love to attract them.
Here is one of the rose breasted grosbeaks taken back in 2015 at the farm with my little point and shoot camera. It was thrilling to watch him at the feeder and he grew comfortable with other birds like the mourning dove being very close by.

I have a hankering for something baked...think I will make a cake today, the old fashioned way baked in the oven! (Definitely not going to be using my bread machine again for cakes).

Hope all is right with your world today!
Linking this post with Kathy's Quilts  and Viewing Nature With Eileen.