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.

Nature's Blossoms, Kaffe Tablerunner, 83rd Birthday, Family,

 First of all thanks for the words of encouragement for what I talked about last post. I heard from so many of you with similar and even more surprising stories regarding episodes of forgetfulness. Leaving the house can be an adventure for some of us!!! A few of you are concerned and some not at all. Kudos to you who have had the gumption to take the test. I guess misery does love company because those stories did make me feel better. And on an encouraging note, dementia research is huge right now so who knows what they will find in the knick of time to help us baby boomers. 

Nature is putting on a show around the property...

Our form of Swamp Milkweed is in bloom and enjoyed by ants, I noted. 

Creeping Buttercup with its elegant shape and yellow shades is all over the backyard shaded areas

and the electric blue/ purple Viper's Bugloss is brightening up the trails.

Our  walks early morning and the night air is not clearing out the humid feel from the day before. This doesn't encourage me to pick up my step but that's okay. I take the time to try to name the bird songs.  And the dogs enjoyed all the walkabouts.

 Yes, I said dog-s. We had Abbey and Petey here for the weekend while the family took an impromptu trip to see baseball games between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Kansas City Royals in Toronto. They have decided this is the summer of adventures for them now all restrictions have been removed. Here is Robbie with SIL's friend who is in management with the Kansas City Royals AAA affiliate.

Before they left we got in a little party to celebrate Hubby's 83rd birthday! And his brain is still sharp as a tack! Chinese food and special cognac for toasting and a giant cake from daughter. More about that later.  It was fun. 

Robbie decided to stay over for a sleepover. He's a very easy guest, is not picky at all and brings his own things to amuse himself, mostly drawing supplies as he loves art. Here he is enjoying his morning boiled eggs. I love what he is wearing and want one. It is a Baby Yoda cosy fleecy top. 

I'm absolutely loving my stitching projects I have on the go at the moment! Moving from my Basket Case piece with its more traditional colours to the red, white and blue Wheel Within a Wheel blocks to this one below with its bright, cheerful fabrics is fun. 

I don't usually work with such vibrant colours. Someone once jokingly said Kaffe should give out sunglasses with his fabrics. :D

Speaking of which, the Kaffe runner layout got finalized and sandwiched up on Friday. With so many colours in these fabrics, it is easy to find a perle cotton that will match for a little hand quilting.

For the backing...This is the pretty fabric I decided not to cut further and use what I had left as is. With a couple of solid purples on each end, it fit perfectly.

That fabric for the binding was last used in a Halloween project. This was a block of the SAL, Sew Spooky, run by the Facebook group, Quilts by Cheri Friendship Group. It was fun to make these primitive style appliques.

This, as well as moving along those other two projects, is on my to do list for this week. 

Hope your week is fabulous and filled with enjoyable activities too.

Sharing this post with Texas Quilt Gal, Alycia Quilts, Floral Friday Foto, Creations Quilts Art and Quilt Fabrication.

Three Free Patterns, Chocolate Strawberry Cake, Kim's Flower Pots, Purples For July

I'm not feeling up to par this morning. Yesterday I turned my left ankle on a late afternoon walk (am I fit to leave the house anymore???) and it throbbed lightly in the night, enough to wake me around 2 and I didn't get back to sleep till 4 ish. Up at 6:30 per usual with Ned and relieved the ankle is a little sore but totally walkable. That's the good news.

And that aside, what bothered me is this... it didn't occur to me to get up and take a Tylenol. That link between feeling, thought and action was just absent, zero, zip, zilch, nadda as the Joker said. Because, though I don't take OTC drugs (or any drugs for that matter), I'm definitely not a martyr...I will take a Tylenol if I need it which I clearly did last night. Now I ask you, that loss of connections in the brain, is that not what Alzheimer's is all about. Was that a perfect example or what!  EEk! Thoughts??? ( For new readers, this is all pertinent because my 23andMe profiling showed I carry the gene for late onset Alzheimer's.)

Enough of that bit. Onwards and upwards, wobbly ankle, so so brain and all. Time to share some lovely Thursday things.

The indoor geraniums that were moved outside took a bit of a beating during the Deroche incident and subsequent heavy rainfalls. It looked a little bit ragged for a while but has bounced back which makes geraniums one of the most rugged of perennials. And the flowers are so pretty. 

I was happy to capture a couple of shots of a bird that is rather elusive though I hear its' very loud drumming on trees quite often. It was moving quickly from tree to tree so this is not the best of photos. The Woody of Woodpeckers, the Pileated.  Its' size, so much larger than the song birds, always thrills me. 

The latest cake from Daughter. Delicious with the fresh strawberry, cream and chocolate combination. Such a pretty presentation too.

A word or two about purple, July's colour as chosen by Angela at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  It's not a colour that comes naturally to me to either wear or stitch with. Though it just occurred to me I am wearing purple as I type this. 

This is a sleeveless sweater vest with cap sleeves older daughter gave me years ago and is useful for cool mornings. It is a deep plum kind of purple. HERE they say there are 80 shades of purple. Who knew!

Anyway, I thought about purple in the sewing room and remembered I had a few Kaffe prints left over  from an almost finished project, Kim McLean's  Flower Pots. That will be showing up soon as an OMG.  A portion below; I was doing hand quilting on it. Why I dropped it-haven't a clue. It was so close to a finish.

So I found the tote and pulled out a few of the prints that had purples, matched up a few solids and cut some triangles for a table runner. I don't know if you can tell what I'm trying there with having the prints run diagonally. Has this got a name? Does it work?

That's as far as I got yesterday and if I can keep my wits about me, I will work on it a little today.

 There are so many designers generously sharing free tutorials and patterns and their expertise, it is so easy to find three a week to pass along to you. 

#1 is from Tree House Textiles and called Stitching Sampler. I've already downloaded the PDF. Forgive me if I've shared this already.

#2 is  a page in quilting history namely  The Nancy Page Quilt Club. 

The real Florence La Ganke using a fictional Nancy offered free quilt patterns to newspaper readers in the late 20's and 30's, over the years, adding up to over 800. There is a wealth of  good information and inspiration to be found in those columns, not only in the main blocks but designs for borders, applique and embroidery included. It's well worth the digging about. Q is For Quilter offered a number of the patterns over the years, 

This site, Newspapers.com, proved to be the best source for the columns that I could find. Hope you enjoy having a look about.

Great Minds Think Alike...Michelle at her blog Pennsylvania Piecemaker, which I love, btw, just shared a lovely Zinnia pattern from this same source, the Nancy Page Quilt Club.

#3 For a little hand stitching...10 Free Embroidery Patterns for Beginners from here, Sprucecrafts. So appropriate I found a strawberry...have eaten quite a few lately.

That's my Thursday Three Free and my bewailing all done. Thanks for the ear this morning. I already feel better for having "talked" about things. 

Happy as well to share this with Not Afraid of Color, Kathy's Quilts, Quilting Applique Patchwork, Small Quilts and Doll Quilts and My Bijou Life.

Basket Case Embroidery, Panama Pyramids in Pinks, Garden Blooms, The Chucklings- Episode 2

A bouquet from the farm garden

 Summer is moving right along. I've gotten a good swim in most days so far and it is doing my body good. A lot of the achiness has left me and I'm sleeping better at night. I think that being in the water is therapeutic in many ways.  I swim with more energy when I listen to music. Since I don't have a fancy phone, I have my music downloaded on a device called a Synyn MP3 player that I wear attached to a small floppy hat. I got all the music I needed on YouTube.

 I discovered this during that process. That after about 2005, I know very little of the musicians and groups or the popular songs. Most are unrecognizable to me. I do know some of the biggies like Adele and Ed Sheeran but, by and large, not many more. So my music is quite dated like myself. :D  Here is Perfect,  the song of Ed's that I listen to.

I've continued with some EPP stitching several nights this week.  Have this many more of the Panama Pyramids made - this time in pinks. Such relaxing hand work. Stitching enough of these for a quilt is on my for now Forever To Do List. Luckily I love the whole process which I'm getting to move along a little faster. 

I've also finished the blanket stitch embroidery around all the flowers in the Basket Case hanging

and made a little sandwich of it ready for quilting. I used my kitchen island to do that. To do this weekend -get a start on that hand quilting. It will be simple just around the baskets and blocks I think.

This straw chair was one we found at a thrift store and quite cheap as it is in so so condition. I bought it because I thought it would look nice by our front door during the summer. The little bird house is a model of the home Hubby lived in during his teen years when they emigrated to Ottawa from England. 

        

Our veranda needs repainting. So many things need attention and our summer To Do list is lengthy. Sigh

The Spirea bushes are in bloom. There are many of these bushes around the property, all pinks. The bees like them.

Thank you for the warnings about groundhogs! So far they've not chewed any of the planted things like the flowers or hostas. They seem to prefer the wild stuff. I've found two holes, one under the pool house and another in a window well at the back of the house. I now picture a sophisticated underground tunnel system under the back garden.  We do have a humane trap that just might need to be used to move one or two. 

Meanwhile, there is lots of space for them to spread out...our 11 acres back on 20 untamed ones behind us and 8 to the left.  And the folks on the other side have very deep overgrown back yards, for the most part so thick we can't see their houses except for a glimpse of one in the winter when the leaves are down. 

Ned was despondent for a day when Petey went back home. Dogs really do have feelings. Luckily for him, Daughter brings Abbey and Petey over late afternoon just about every day for a ball play on the side lawn. Now Ned is back to his old self and enjoying a daily episode of the The Chucklings.

There is entertainment value in them at least.  He silently watches till he tires and sinks to the floor. :D

Stay safe and enjoy all the sweet little things you can jam into your day.

Linking this post with Texas Quilt Gal, Brian's Home Blog, Floral Friday Foto, Life in the Scrapatch, Creations. Quilts Art Whatever, Quilting is More Fun Than Housework, Alycia Quilts and Quilt Fabrication. 

Three Free Patterns, Hand Embroidery, Summer Baskets, Poppy Love, Great Banana Muffins

The Icelandic Poppies were in bloom. They bring very striking colour to the garden but my little complaint is they do not stay long. This particular orange is so glowing, you can't see details on the petals. If there is such a thing as electric colour this would be it.

The centers are equally wonderful. I have a small bank of reds too but they are not as interesting as these.

I bought a huge bag of bananas for $1 at Walmart  There were nineteen bananas and I ate most of them. But I also made a batch of banana muffins using up 6 of the smaller ones that were very ripe. 

                                    
I added walnuts, a little ground flaxseed, a few raisins and a little coconut to mine. Turned out really good. Recipe is here at Sally's Baking Addiction which never lets me down. Oh yes, I added a few pieces of dark chocolate to Hubby's as he loves that stuff.  Can you spot the really happy muffin?

My very old Summer Baskets is up on the wall in the back corridor. I haven't had it up for a couple of years and all the basket talk reminded me about it.  My inspiration at the time was from Podunk Pretties, a site I can no longer find. If you know of it, please let me know. I had corresponded with the writer of that blog at the time and she had also kindly commented on my hanging. 

The last several nights, I've enjoyed some hand stitching around all the fussy cut flowers on my Basket Case. Using a simple blanket stitch. These won't blow away, I can tell you. So fun to see these fabrics up close. Reminds me of seeing the poppy up close. 

Thursday's Three Free

 I have Carolyn of Quarter-Inch Capers to thank for this free pattern idea. Pot Holders and Oven Mitts.  Very cute featuring Down on the Farm fabric. 

From the Robert Kaufman site...Almost 2000 free patterns in the the Free Pattern section the last time I checked. Whew!

Like baskets and tulips, I have a thing for butterflies. When I saw this design, I knew I would chase it down to find the source. That took a few clicks but worth it to find the free pattern and templates tucked away on the web. McCall's Beautiful Vintage Butterfly Quilt  1936- I like the idea that this would have been something my grandmothers would have come across too in a newspaper or magazine. What a lovely summertime project!                               

I stitched this little fellow a few years ago. 

He was part of a free (at the time) monthly SAL called Joyful World offered by the very generous Maja, the talented lady behind The Snowflower Diaries.

She is reoffering the below pattern from 2013 for this very sweet design, Truly, Madly, Deeply . It's free at that link. 

Scroll through her posts to find other free minis to download. All so cute. Thank you Maja!

And thank you to you too, readers and blogging community, for the inspiration, the kind words that keep me buoyed up, and the sharing we get to do through comments and emails.

As always linking with Not Afraid of Color, Quilting is More Fun Than Housework, Small Quilts and Doll Quilts, Love Laugh Quilt and Kathy's Quilts.

Three Thrift Store Finds, Wheel Within a Wheel Block, Floral Motif Sampler

The American Robins love the bird bath. This is a young one who just wouldn't leave it one day last week. Despite his grumpy look, he took such enjoyment it put a smile on my face watching hm.

I had this very odd thing happen to my finger on Thursday last.  Felt a searing pain and saw a blood vessel swell very suddenly in my right pointer finger. As I was thinking I need to get to the hospital, it stopped as quickly as it had started.  I now have a reddish bruise in the spot.

 Google has told me I had a Paroxysmal Finger Hematoma. Never heard of it and did not know this could actually happen to people. Benign occurrence and two things -  being female and over 60 increase your chances of getting these, neither of which I can do anything about! Weird, huh? Any of you ever have this??

Out to a thrift shop with older daughter and had a good poke about...it had been a while. Here are three of my "finds". 

Love these two blouses. This first is Westbound brand, heavier feel cotton, a little longer in length with side slits. Very comfortable fit. I liked the paisley design and the pearl like buttons. A tiny bit dressier.

Daughter found this one below. She said perfect for you Mom...it's Olsen and has birds!

I thought that the little design would make an interesting quilt motif. Reminds me of Charley Harper. Who once asked the question...Can a nature lover ever find true happiness at the top of the food chain? So I love him.

And number three which we have had to press into service when our old teapot bit the dust. This matches my winter dish set, The Friendly Village by Johnson Brothers.

 It pours beautifully and Hubby likes the way it makes enough tea to hold him all day. He doesn't mind at all that it is actually a coffee pot. I enjoy admiring the little paintings with delicate colouring which feature The Village Green.  

I paid $14.98 for it and figured I could use it as a flower vase or planter.  I've found one online for $100 and at Amazon for almost $150 C.  I don't think it was used before now and when are we going to formally serve coffee in it. Like never.

I got one block of Wheel Within a Wheel almost finished. I really like the tiny American flags in that corner piece. A little nod to my American blogging buddies.

I wound up appliquing the whole piece onto the 4 piece backing block. Getting all the blades perfectly circular - well, tried to!, and lying flat was tricky for me for some reason. I learned a few things and think I've sorted how to make rest of the blocks go smoother. Hopefully, this will get its center circle and the corner quarters plus as well as another one finished this week.

Just look where I am with my Floral Motif Sampler.  Perhaps a finish this week too of this cross stitched piece. 

Some of you may remember that I enjoy using men's shirts in my quilting, ones that I find at the thrift store. In fact, the large center basket in my current OMG, Basket Case, is made from a man's shirt material and in the photo above, the top left stripe is from a shirt. 

 I came across this video and had to have a view. Here Cathy of The Catbird Quilts channel says so many things I agree with and I do believe thrift store men's shirts are an untapped source of both well priced and excellent fabric for stitching projects. Recycling is a good thing!

FYI   Frederique of Quilting Applique Patchwork and a weekly link up party has updated her 2022 QAL page. Here is the link.

 I've had a couple of questions about Michele's Basket Case pattern. Here is the link to Michelle's 2020 post where she shares the photo of her basket. She suggests we download her photo to copy the pattern. 

Hope your day and the rest of the week are wonderful!

So happy to link this post with Texas Quilt Gal, The Inquiring Quilter, Creations, Quilting, Art, Whatever, Alycia Quilts and Quilt Fabrication.