Three Free Patterns, Hubby Better, Hand Stitching, Cloud Faces

It was a two cups of coffee kind of morning. I just didn't have my usual energy level on my morning walk and I didn't get to sit by the pond. I spied deer in time to lead Ned away. They sometimes sleep overnight down there- we see the grass beaten down in certain spots in the undergrowth of the bushes that rim the pond. I've read deer are the poorest sleepers of all wildlife as they only have their ability to run as a protection.  Here is one that had been sleeping and I managed a quick photo a couple years ago.

 Hubby was feeling under the weather last Saturday with no serious symptoms, just a sore throat and a little cough but very, very tired and stayed in bed. This continued Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.  We did a phone consultation with his doctor who had his last blood test results and decided there was no need for further testing, that he probably had a mild cold. He is feeling stronger each day thankfully and while still tired, is now up and about. His throat is better but he still has a cough.  As so often happens these days, the doctor pointed out Hubby is 83 which as much as he doesn't like it, would account for less stamina to do some of the work he is used to doing. That is frustrating for him.

 Though the kindest, gentlest man, Tony is not a good patient for me. By that I mean obedient, :D.  Example...I would have him drink much more water than he is willing to. Dehydration is so common in older folks and can lead to all kinds of health problems. Anyway, I think I worried more than I realized and feel a little tired myself. But very thankful.

I did not get into the sewing room so far this week and just worked on bits and pieces of handwork. Like laying two more quilting lines on the Karnak Wall Hanging.

And finished another block of the Moda Holiday Stitch Along blocks. I will be using these in a quilted project, perhaps a large table runner.

A September side view of the garden below. Sedum in bloom if you can call it that. The serious heat we experienced this summer changed up the flowering of things. The Purple Globe Thistle hardly bloomed at all for instance. 

LeeAnna's, Not Afraid of Color, prompt this week was to look up and focus on the clouds. I had a capture taken down by the pond that immediately came to my mind. I see a face here. Do you? Good and spooky for Halloween.

Thursday's Three Free

Our fellow blogging buddy, Melisa at this post on her blog, Pinker 'n Punkin Quilting and Stitching, shared a very cute doodle design to stitch, applique, whatever. It features a house in a pumpkin... you have to go and take a look for yourself. 

And in this post Melisa shared a round up of free autumn cross stitch pattern links she called Autumn Freebie Parade. Each of them cuter than the one before. Thanks Melisa for these great links.

Auribuzz Below is designer, Vanessa Goertzen's free quilt pattern called Sunflower Power and I think it would look pretty in other colours as well. That center block would be a perfect place to showcase a fabric motif, embroidered design or small applique.

I'm sticking with the Aurifil site to show you this.  The Sanctuary SAL by Susan Ache which shared free small motifs to embroider. Though from 2020, the PDF's are still all there to download and stitch into a pretty quilt.

I think I may have shared Susan's lovely Christmas Quakers free download before. But in case I haven't the link is here to her Joyeux Noel. I love stitching Quakers as I find them easy to follow. This is just so Christmasy it gives me a lift just looking at it.

Hobbii That link will take you to 17 pages of free patterns to crochet or knit.  Everything ranging from dish cloths to blankets and many cute things in between like gnomes and Christmas ornaments. Hobbii carries many brands of yarn and crochet cotton. Presently having a September sale. (NOT affiliated!)

I'll share my best birthday gift next post. I've put it to good use already and am very pleased with it. 

Thankful me is wishing all who read this a wonderful day!

So wonderful too to link with Creations-Quilts Art Whatever, Wendy's Quilts and More, Traffic Jam, Quilting Patchwork Applique, Quilting is More Fun Than Housework and Alycia Quilts.

Three Thrift Store Finds, What Wanda Said, Embroidery for Christmas

Chicory is in bloom along the country road sides. It is a true late summer sight here in Ontario. I love the blooms and their unique shade of blue. Blue always seems like a special colour when found in flowers.

And I was happy to welcome bluebirds at the birdbath and the feeder all summer long. Here is a small one about to take a dip.

I got to go thrifting with Daughter last month and it was another great outing. It was a Tuesday so seniors get 20% off that day. I always challenge myself to see what I can find for $20.  Here are three of my finds that met my mark. 

This quilted bag is very large and beautiful with its bright red and green prints. It is also reversible and in perfect condition. Several people commented on it including the check out lady. $5.98

This new with tags tea cosy with the bright chicken on it and ripe corn speaks of autumn. I liked that it was extra large and could cover most of our large coffee turned tea pot. The tag said $4.99 and it was priced $1.99.

I was very interested in this necklace below...the tag said Kazuri and I loved how heavy the stones felt and the pretty designs. The turquoise and pale greens were so pretty together, not to mention the designs. $3.99 and when I looked it up I found out this was made in Kenya. Kazuri means small and beautiful in Swahili. Retails for over $50, made by women. I was delighted this came home with me. 

Thrift store shopping is so carefree and perfect recycling with the added fun of feeling like a treasure hunt.  Though prices have risen, things can still be found for a real bargain. 

✅From Wanda at Exuberant Color comes a point I second...she says she would much rather her scrap bag be in her estate sale than her yardage. So cut into that yardage!

I'm feeling a little tired which I will explain in Thursday's post. My TO Do list this week was and is to take care of Hubby.  In terms of stitching, I've been embroidering more of the Moda Holiday Stitchalong blocks that I started last year. I need time to warm up my running stitch I noticed. That's new. These patterns are still available HERE. Still to be discovered: how to incorporate these into a quilty project.

Nanette, A Passionate Quilter, has been embroidering these as well. 

Another one or two of these will be worked on during quiet times. 

Hope you find some quiet time this week to do what makes you happy too!

So happy to share this post with Linda's linky party at Texas Quilt Gal, Kathy's Quilts, Small Quilts and Doll Quilts, Traffic Jam Weekend and Floral Friday Foto.

Three Free Patterns, Bluebird Nostalgia, Birthday Cake, Karnak Colour Play

 I can make myself feel nostalgic with very little prompting. For instance, listening to Mandy Patinkin singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" always makes me feel a little sentimental. What a beautiful pure tenor voice he has!

It was my birthday last week and I marked another year gone by so quickly I hardly had time to blink. Thank goodness for this blog so I can at least look back and see how a goodly portion of my time was well spent.

 Daughter made me a birthday cake. 

It was white with lemon curd and she decorated it to look like embroidery, a nod to one of my hobbies. I thought it beautiful and very special.💕

I've got my colour play Karnak hanging all sewn together and layered up for quilting. I had to take it outside to get good photos of the colours.

My indoor photos weren't doing the colours justice. The yellow on either end strip is a wonderful warm gold with matching colours in the two  prints either side of it. 

I chose a black polka dot print for the back.

I have a few lines of hand quilting laid down. 

It's a struggle to keep it straight as I used a batting that is a little bit bumpy with bits of something kind of hard in it. ??? I discovered this too late to turn back.  I really must pay attention to batting for hand stitching. Interestingly, the very cheap stuff  I often use for wall hangings doesn't have that problem. I'm using yellow perle cotton and my hera marker to make the lines. 

To get this one all finished and ready to give away will be my September OMG at Elm Street Quilts. 

LeeAnna Not Afraid of Color's prompt this week was to think back to school start up in September and what things did we love to get.  Besides loving the brand new box of crayons I always got, I also got a new cardigan to wear with my uniform. The year I started grade 5 I got to pick it out myself and I chose a red one with green trees stitched around the tail. (Liked the look of embroidery even then I guess). At school one of the boys to poke fun said, you look like a Christmas tree and I was pleased, not hurt at all because I figured a Christmas tree was just about the most beautiful thing I could think of. (Those were the days when boys were named ie/y names like Billy, Davy, Jimmy, Kenny- all of whom were in my class). 

A silly kind of memory that has stuck with me because it was probably the last time I dared to wear anything that made me stand out and for many decades later on, I would absolutely never ever wear red except maybe at Christmas time. 

Three Free on a Thursday

 Two of today's wonderful free files come from the ultra talented Sandy Gervais at Pieces From My Heart. The first is her Follow the Bluebird Block that I've had in my list for over a year. She offers the pattern three ways- applique,  pieced and paper pieced. 

Here is Amy Smart's version as a mini quilt. To read her discussion about quilting it you can check out her post Here at Diary of a Quilter.

 Light blue is the colour for the September RSC and a bluebird fits right in. In fact this could be a great RSC project featuring birds in all the monthly colours. Riley Blake Designs  And number 2-Sandy also offers the free patterns for this Fall Ya'All small quilt with the bird there in the bottom corner. 

Jeannette Douglas is running a free 2022 monthly Mini Bouquet Sampler to cross stitch. Available the first of each month.  Many folks are stitching these as pin keeps/cushions as well as a sampler.  They are so pretty and Jeannette is also offering the border design for the sampler as a free pdf. Go take a peek. Again this photo is not doing these justice as they are individually gorgeous.

Sunny and cool today, 9C when I got up this morning. Warming up later and more rolling rain and thunderstorms in the forecast for late afternoon. That has been a theme this summer. 

To all reading this, I hope you are daring to dream, that the clouds are all behind you and all your troubles are melting like lemon drops!

Happy to also link with True Blue Quilts, A Stitch in Time, Wendy's Quilts and More, Kathy's Quilters, Quilting is More Fun Than Housework, Small Quilts and Doll Quilts, Quilt Fabrication and Alycia Quilts.

Serious Talk, A New Sighting, Redwork Hanging, Cross Stitching Feet

I  finished another biographical book about Eleanor Roosevelt called Eleanor and Hick by Susan Quinn.  Here is one of Eleanor's lines I like and wrote in my journal.

" You can not live at all if you do not learn to adapt yourself to your life as it happens to be." 

How to remain caring and sensitive yet adapt and accept the unkind things life throws at us. Not easy. Especially those times when "you think you've lost a lot and then you lose even more" times. One foot in front of the other with music in my ears is the way I coped at one such time. I think I logged miles. But this thought applies also to the bigger picture of learning to live with what seems like a lot more complexities in the world not the least of which is a war, drastic effects of global warming and a pandemic that just isn't coming to a clean end. I feel like nothing is simple anymore but maybe that's my age talking.

After that little serious bit, I have to show you something that I spied and loved.

From my kitchen window-late afternoon, nearing dusk which accounts for the odd colouring, sunlight through trees. That always seems like a symbol of hope to me.

And close up on the late July Phlox- first I thought this was a Wolf Spider but with a little research, I now think it is a Nursery Web Spider.  It was lucky to spy this one.

I've been a bit lazy about the indoor chores lately especially after I did a big clean up when the dogs, Petey and Abbey, went home. And I haven't really been putting a lot of effort into meals- just cobbling together easy meals with the excuse who wants an oven on when humidity is so high; it's 34C as I write this. I feel like I haven't made anything really tasty lately. So this week I need to get back to deep corners of the house and also think up meals with meat and vegetables, etc.  

My Flight of Fancy quilt is moving along. Ned was happy when I changed up those two adjacent striped blocks  I've added a border and got ready to make a backing. Here it is in the back hallway and it really suits a wooden house. 

 I was dissatisfied with what I was sewing together for a backing and thought, you know what, this piece deserves better than this.  So I've been looking online to order backing fabric that would suit the birds, colours, etc. That was a TO DO item but has now been done. 

My Jack Rabbit is also growing feet and a tail. Love when that happens!

A couple of things I want to share.  Piecing the Past Quilts has opened registration for a free BOM beginning September 26. It is called Harvest Gatherings and is quite lovely. 

I'm a little obsessed with keeping my hands and fingers mobile.   This article on How to Improve Hand Dexterity -and Why That is Important is a pretty good one for providing simple exercises you can do to help keep the fingers in good shape. I had to smile when I read the author's opening where she says she is 30 and noticing some changes in her hands.  30!

My Acer is acting up and also more odd things happening with Blogger. I found comments going to a whole other place and not showing amongst my emails. Sorry if I've missed some of your comments.  I absolutely love reading them and will respond to any questions or queries. And if you have a blog, I promise I will visit you back.

Hope you all are off to a good week in your corner of the world!

Sharing this post with Texas Quilt Gal, Floral Friday Foto, Creations, Quilts, Art, Quilting Patchwork Applique and My Corner of the World.

Three Free Patterns, Favourite Summer Spot, Panama Pyramids, Flight of Fancy Progress

August 25 view of the pond. 

In the midst of all the pleasures of this property is this little pond, I sit down here most summer mornings with my camera and Ned beside me. Both of us looking, looking, looking. Me for birds- haven't a clue what he is looking for but he keeps his head on a swirl and seems to enjoy the experience as well. We don't speak and seem to hold our breaths waiting for something great to appear/happen. It always seems we are both reluctant to finally give in, leave the peace and quiet, head back to the house and breakfast for Ned and coffee for me. 

As a matter of interest, you can visit a number of other calming sites on YouTube that offer live cams around the world. Like this one.  You could check out if your city is featured.

Thanks for the enabling(as if I needed it :D) that went on concerning the Pileated Woodpecker cross stitch pattern! Overwhelming number of you think I should order it. THIS POST

Meanwhile, here are a few more of the Panama Pyramid blocks sewn together...these are EPP so taking time. I have no deadline in mind for this project, just keep the triangles prepped and ready to pick up and stitch here and there. My goal each month is to stitch 6 of these together and so far this year I'm doing that.  This is such a great project to use up scraps and kind of have fun with. 

And I have the Crabapple Hill Design's Flight of Fancy blocks sewn together; it is a flimsie which was my Elm Street Quilts August OMG. I followed Meg's guide and sewed 13 four patch blocks using reds and tans/creams. Simple stitching. 

I need to choose the fabrics for the borders now. Ned is pointing out I have two striped blocks adjacent and he doesn't like it. What do you think?

Thursday's Three Free

I love Marcus fabrics and one of their lines in particular caught my eye. Aunt Grace Sew Charming by Judie Rothermel.  It features soft colours and prints, kind of reproduction style but many that would blend with more "modern" style fabrics.  Two of the free patterns that I liked using that line was this one called the Aunt Grace Sew Charming Heart quilt.  Here is the link to the PDF

And the second one is this Aunt Grace Sew Charming Flower Quilt-

Free Pattern Download Here

I found all this to love at the Hancocks of Paducah site.

Further digging and I discovered Judie's home is the Schoolhouse Quilt Shoppe in Canton, Ohio. A lovely site to explore and I came across her book, Aunt Grace Scrapbag 10th Anniversary on sale presently. It features 15 patterns for full size quilts. 

Susan at the very popular Quilt Fabrication site has a wonderful bank of free patterns both blocks and quilts as well as tutorials to guide you through.  Click Here to explore. Susan graciously hosts the weekly linky party Midweek Makers. Susan's Etsy Shop is HERE and I really like her dog patterns in particular. 

Melissa at  Pinker 'n Punkin Quilting is hosting a very cute Mystery Autumn Stamp SAL with free to you cross stitching patterns. The first is a beautiful basket of apples.  These are small so quick to finish. Perfect moving into autumn stitching for us here in the northern hemisphere.

Hope you found something that tweaked your interest on your visit today. I'm off back outside with garden chores. I've noticed the purple fall asters are opening. Summer is definitely waning. 

Always happy to share this post with Not Afraid of Color, Wendy's Quilts and More, Powered By Quilting, Kathy's Quilts, Quilting is More Fun Than Housework, Traffic Jam Weekend, Small Quilts and Doll Quilts and True Blue Quilts.

Bird Behaviour, Crochet Granny Stripe, Karnak Wall Hanging Sewing, Watching Love Me

Our week is off to a good start here at the wooden house. Weather wise, it has turned humid again with rain and thunderstorms. But that hasn't stopped me from  sitting down by the pond with my camera early mornings- so far I have captured nothing. But using the quiet time, Ned with me, to have my inside voice repeat how fortunate I am and grateful too for my days here on this wonderful land. 

Closer to the house I did capture something a little unusual. I saw movement in the flower bed one day and it turned out to be a Mourning Dove. 

It has returned often to the bird feeder. 

And one morning it faced off with a red squirrel three times and the squirrel gave up and ran away. I've often witnessed these small feisty squirrels drive away the big black and grey squirrels so to let a bird scare it off was unusual. Maybe it just didn't feel like a fight that day. 

This was the bird's display.

I've only known Mourning Doves to be very passive so this also was a strange sight. 

We enjoyed this Australian mini series we found on Gem called Love Me. It was interesting to see an older couple featured along with the two younger ones all looking for love.

Linda, the Texas Quilt Gal, sent me happily chasing several squirrels last week. The first was when I saw her circular afghan idea and of course, I had to check that out. I immediately got out my yarn stash to see what I had on hand.  I have this one bag of Stylecraft Special DK in blues that was ordered when I got a request for an afghan in blues.  Which I fully intend to do. 

Here Petey is helping with the inspection.  He's totally agreeing that though this looks like a lot, I need more yarn, :D. His very expressive eyes are saying "clearly you don't have enough here Nana. Remember the long winter months are coming-perfect crocheting weather."

 What Petey didn't see was the rest of the stash....And the afghan I'd started with , mauves, greys and pinks. I've brought that one out to include in the t.v. viewing stitching rotation and hopefully move it along this week. Simple granny stripe.

I also followed Linda's lead to Janie Crow and her wonderful July newsletter explaining the amazing mental health benefits of crocheting. And I fell in love with her colour choices, flowery style and the gorgeous Mystical Lanterns!

Below is a video about something I've never thought about...washi tape. If you have the one with quilting lines drawn on it, you never have to measure and draw on fabric again! In this short video here Melanie at Southern Charms Quilts explains how it works. 

I need this item!

 In fact I could use it right now in the sewing room as I continue what Christine at Tessellate Textiles calls colour play and placement. I am pleased with the accuracy of the stitching so far...no points sawed off...but I'm doubtful I have the eye for fabric choice. I do hope to get this-whatever it will be- to the flimsy stage this week. Miss the sun for picture taking and sadly my sewing room is the darkest in the house even with my solar light. Have I mentioned this is Christine's Karnak Pattern and I wish I didn't have to try to duplicate the fabrics/colours from my own supply. 

That being said it's good to feel challenged and learn new things so I'm not complaining.  

Hope your week is splendid!

So happy to also share with My Corner of the World, Life in the Scrapatch and Alycia Quilts. 

Three Free Patterns, These Shoes Are Made for Walking, Jackrabbit Is|Growing Ears

I have really enjoyed most of these summer days especially since the humidity moved out. The swimming and dog walking and playing have kept me on my feet and moving. As a happy consequence, my body is feeling fairly energetic and free of aches.  I feel like I've kept on top of the indoor chores too; it always gives me satisfaction to know the house has been tended to. 

We have our first basket of Ontario peaches for the season. Hubby loves crumbles and crisps so that's what will be made of those not eaten as fruit. 

Jackrabbit's ears continue to grow. This is a fun cross stitching project and so much smaller than the last one, the Floral Motif Sampler. Seeing steady progress is encouraging. 

I bought one of those magnetic needle minders and wish I'd bought one before. Any loose needle is caught by it which is a good thing for me. This one has an old fashioned lady in a field of poppies. Needle minders can get fancy and you can buy them to match your actual project. You can see examples of that HERE at 123Stitch.com.

Recently I showed you a photo of the Pileated Woodpecker I spied in our side woods as I call the area to the back right of our house.

Another of Cottage Garden's  A Year in the Woods series- this is #9, is that very woodpecker, the Pileated.  Very neat.

Think I should order it? I am very tempted.  Look at those wonderful autumn colours.

Our I Like Prompt from LeeAnna for this week was to share foot wear that we enjoy in the summer time. I have two favourites to share. I consider shoes comfortable if they stand up to a lot of walking in them and both of these did and do. 

First, are these espadrilles that are kind of fancy with two kinds of leather. Over the years, these have been to Newfoundland, the Dominican Republic and in May, to Toronto. I like that they are very comfortable for lots of walking and also look fairly stylish. They were expensive, from Brown's (for those who like trivia, that would be Jessica Mulroney's family business), but have paid for themselves by longevity. 

My second and fun summer shoes are these pink/fuchsia Skechers below. I'm really proud of these because I think they are my second or third best thrift purchase.  I don't buy shoes at a thrift store but these still had remnants of a tag on the bottom and looked brand new. And when I saw they were labelled Goga Mat, I had some idea of what they cost...very expensive. Though I wished they were a different colour- pink shoes are bold for me, I was torn as I do love Skechers. They work so well for my feet somehow. Anyway, fitting perfectly and with a $10 price tag, I decided they were coming home with me. These are very, very light-like having nothing on your feet and of course, so comfy with what Skechers calls "rebound technology", LOL.  I've also washed these in the washing machine once and they came out perfectly.  

Thursday's Three Free (and I always find more to share)

 Sewing With Scraps has a wonderful cache of free patterns, just right for using scraps including very small ones. I went to that site for the Mini String Quilt tutorial and wound up straying far exploring all their material. 

Ann Wood Handmade  That is the link to generous Ann's wonderful cache of free patterns to stitch her whimsical and interesting items. She has added a quilty book since I last shared her work.  Just love her chickens.

Jennifer of Elefantz writes one of my favourite blogs on the web and I've been following her for years. She is a talented designer of very cute patterns and a skilled embroiderer. Besides sharing her gardening, recipes and stories of her life in northern Australia, she shares many free patterns. Like this one which is called Books and Roses and she has worked it into a bookmark. 

In fact Jennifer is offering a free pattern for each month in this series. 

She just recently shared that all 6 grandchildren got Covid and lost their fingernails. I'd not heard of that as a side effect. Had you?

Not free but really really neat. I love this idea from clever Deborah at Fish Museum and Circus. Fabric with imaginative stripes that can be used as fabric or cut on the straight lines in it to use for amazing looking bindings. Very brief video shows what it is.

And at her fun filled site you can find a free PDF pattern for her colourful Circus Tent quilt. 

I hope I've shared something that struck your fancy and that you'll come back again to see what else I'll be sharing- a post of my latest thrift finds will be up very soon.

So happy to link this post with Traffic Jam Weekend and Kathy's Quilts.