Free Patterns, Tulip Bouquet Quilt, Coronation Quiche, Books

 Ned and I encounter a rabbit just about every morning on our walk. So much so he is starting to get complacent about them. However, I took this photo through a window and it is not often I see a rabbit close to the house. All the rain is turning the grass green quickly.

I finished reading an ebook of Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishigura, his first novel since being awarded The Nobel Prize for Literature.

 I really enjoyed the first half of the book as I got to know clever Klara and how she was reacting to her human family. However, I lost my way with the second half because I found the storyline got a little boring and I'm happy to admit that was just me. Loads of folks absolutely loved this book.  AI is coming faster than we realize and will pose ever more dilemmas for humans. As if we don't have enough to deal with already these complicated days.

 I am now reading the wonderful Olive Kitteridge author, Elizabeth Strout...this one of hers is Lucy by the Sea. So far, I am enjoying it very much. 

Ahh, my dilemma- sort of. 

“She didn't like to be alone. Even more, she didn't like being with people.”

― Elizabeth Strout, Olive Kitteridge

LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color's prompt this week has to do with our singing skills. I sang in church choirs and even sang as part of a trio a number of times when in a junior church choir.  I sang well enough to pass the audition for my university glee club (remember those?) and I always loved singing in groups. I also enjoyed singing in the car- by myself. :D Sadly for me, I developed a nodule on a vocal chord from my talkative teaching career and the tune I carry now is a scratchy one.  How about you? 

I found a free pattern that I had to make- in a true Squirrel moment. It's Tulips Bouquet from very talented Fran at Cotton and Joy

Older daughter asked for a table topper for a sweet little table she has in her den. So I started and have cut out the pieces. She likes the blue and peachy pink too. 

My turquoise Chipper House for the Rainbow Neighbourhood is almost finished. I'm pretty pleased with myself that I'm keeping up with the timeframe. I have never spent so many hours in the sewing room just on the machine. 

Some sites to check out

At the site, Christa Quilts, there are many free patterns. This is one and is called Puzzle Box. It would make an interesting table runner too.

I saw this gorgeous quilt on Instagram and was so taken with it. I had to track it down and it turns out to be a free pattern from Art Gallery Fabrics made with their new Flower Bloom fabrics. Link is Here

It looks like Marit in Norway gave up on her blog in 2018 but her lovely quilts remain for us to ogle and enjoy. I'd mentioned 50 shades of green in my last post and was amused to see Marit had sewed a beautiful quilt with that very name. Quilt-It Blogspot

The pattern is called Chic Country and is found for sale at Sew Kind of Wonderful. Marit sewed hers for the 2017 Pantone Greenery Challenge. 

I am looking forward to watching The Coronation and plan to make this recipe as a little celebration- The Coronation Quiche.  Recipe Here at BBC Good Food. I'm going to use butter in the crust rather than my usual Crisco. I'll let you know how that goes.

I've rambled enough for this Thursday post. Hope everyone has a good weekend. 

So good to link up with Quilting is More Fun Than Housework.

Two Houses- One, Flower Power, Overwhelm Happens, Roguish Me

Rainy days do not get me down. That's good because we have had rain warnings with constant downpours for the last five days. Ned and I have gotten in our walks, me in raincoat and boots, Ned in his birthday suit.  Rainy days make me want to curl up and get cosy inside. How do they affect you?

Mary Anne created this sweet card below for a friend. She used paper scraps! How clever! She shows it in this Magpies Mumblings post where she also shares the reason why she doesn't sew clothes. Her story from high school left me dumbfounded about that home economics teacher-what was she thinking! 

In keeping with houses... here is the latest addition to my Rainbow Neighbourhood, an orange house or as I'm calling it, my Flower Power House. I was in university at the height of the Flower Power era in North America. When I saw Maureen McCormick's Flower Power for Moda line, I knew I had to have some of the prints just as a kind of souvenir of those wonderful days. Someone also asked and I had to dig to find this answer...the green is Kona's Tarragon. I picked it from stash as I thought it looked like a springish shade...there are probably more than 50 shades of green and often green can pose a problem to pick just the right one for a project. At least I find that. 

And that preamble leads me to another lesson to keep in mind in the sewing room. How many times do I have to tell myself this....Relax, take enjoyment in the process(and I am enjoying stitching these large houses now), take the time to look at the pretty shades and prints. It doesn't have to be perfect. Be okay with being a bad quilter too if that is what I am. So be it. 

But that last bit led me to the thought of why we want or have the desire to do something we may be bad/mediocre at...beats me.

I continued to take watercolour painting classes when I first came to Ottawa. Halfway through one of them, a student who was struggling became very upset, first crying then yelling. She accused the instructor of being a bad teacher because her painting was awful(so she declared). She was very angry and left the room in a state sobbing. Our poor instructor was horrified as were the rest of us. Btw, I thought the instructor just wonderful, both thorough and kind in her teaching. It would not have occurred to me to blame the teacher, especially such a sweetheart, for my own maybe questionable efforts. What do you make of that story? I guess Overwhelm happens, Frustration happens. 

This week work on the next Rainbow Neighbourhood house will begin.  I've a piece of grey and turquoise fabric with a chipmunk on it; I think it is Tula Pink. I checked online; yes it is Tula's Chipper in Mint line from 2015.

 I plan to coordinate that somehow with a few turquoise pieces in the stash to make my splashiest house so far. Wish me luck and do check back to see what I get up to with this! I am being a bit of a rogue where it comes to this QAL.

I am not raking outside yet and feel lucky we live where we can leave the lawns alone for a time. I like to leave things as they are till the overwintering critters can crawl away or whatever. But there is lots to do inside, always. 

 Here is one of my little "chippers"; three tiny ones appeared one day last week fresh from their den.

Hope your week is off to a great start!
 Linking this post with The Quilt Schmilt, The Inquiring Quilter, My Quilt Infatuation, It's a Small Town Life, The Quiltery, Quilting Patchwork Applique and Quilt Fabrication.

Free Patterns, EPP Scrappy Plus Quilt, Turkeys, First Flowers

The first and only flowers in the garden to open so far are these miniature Daffodils. They popped up in an area full of low growing shrub used for hedges - I don't know the name but may be Juniper. But I think the thick shrub kept them protected somehow during the adverse spring weather. 

The turkeys have been walking through lately and I was quite taken with this male travelling with four females. Wow to all those feathers!

He is surprisingly colourful with blue around his eyes and an interesting red as well. I'll say again I'm astonished by the tiny head in comparison to the large body.

LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color's prompt this week was do we speak another language. Sadly no, but I am taking French lessons still online with Duolingo...I'm up to Unit 8 now going slowly because I am repeating lessons. French is an official language of Canada and I'd love to improve...better late than never. What about you?

In my sewing room I've been working on my orange house. Most of my time has been spent sewing the little block because I'm stitching it by hand. It's just a 6 inch block so it shouldn't take long. 

I've also made great headway with the EPP Scrappy Plus Quilt.It is so boring to show you more of the single pluses. I couldn't resist sewing some together to see how it would look. I'm stitching these at night watching tv so grabbed a photo in there...not a great shot but you can get the idea at least. Love EPP!

Another great way to use up scraps...  This free Scrappy Irish Chain quilt pattern by Jessie Fincham is the perfect choice. Jessie shares how to turn scraps into 18 inch squares to easily create this quilt. I'm going to look more closely at this pattern to see how that works.

Pieces of the Past is running a free BOW starting May 15. It features scrappy (or not) Dresdens and is called Dresden Picnic. 

 Yarnspirations is an amazing site for free patterns in knitting, crochet, embroidery, sewing, etc. like this really delicate Tea Cup to cross stitch.

I do enjoy Mary's way of explaining feelings. 

“Ten times a day something happens to me like this - some strengthening throb of amazement - some good sweet empathic ping and swell. This is the first, the wildest and the wisest thing I know: that the soul exists and is built entirely out of attentiveness.”
― Mary Oliver

Hope your week is ending on a high note!

Linking with Quilting Patchwork Applique, Kathy's Quilts, Quilting is More Fun Than Housework, Small Quilts and Doll Quilts, Songbird Designs and Floral Friday Foto.

Rainbow Purple House, Strawberry Pattern, Gardening Chores

 Inside too there is more green and also white growth. I like how the white Polka Dot plant is becoming more dotty with the longer minutes of light. Like its true self is emerging.  It makes such a difference!

I cleaned several windows outside and liked how the outdoor greens were blending with the greens inside. I use a 3 step stool...don't feel comfortable going any higher these days.

I did get some items on my last Tuesday's To Do list done. I spent a couple of hours also cleaning and tidying the garage. I cleaned the inside of the car at the same time. Sure feels good when these chores are done.

 This week's chores include Ned's vet appointment to get his tick medicine and checkup. That's tomorrow. Great to have that done too as we are officially in tick season. Ugh! On that outing we'll go through a car wash so the outside of the car will match the inside. And pick up some grass seed too. Where the dogs have been playing ball, the grass has taken a bit of a beating. 

Now about the weekend stitching...

I said I'd learn a lot taking part in the Rainbow Neighbourhood QAL. Here is Lesson #2, Accuracy is so important in piecing blocks... I don't have to tell you seasoned quilters this. But me...I need reminders! I'm careless about this aspect of quilting, always wanting to hurry it up. Someone mentioned to me one simple way to improve accuracy was to attach this special seam tape to my machine to help maintain the quarter inch seam. 

Ordered off Amazon and already feel it is helping. It provides a sort of runway up to the needle. I received four rolls from here if you'd like to check it out.

Also reminding myself to not drift off when ending a sewing seam which I have a tendency to do. Ugh!

With that being said here is my purple house.  I had little purple fabric in my stash and was happy to find the piece with the magenta? flowering throughout it.

I did enjoy handling this pretty fabric and the search for a match among my meager solids. That being the pretty magenta/violet colour. Black bears have been sighted -alarmingly!- in the south Ottawa area which made me think of a Bear Claw simple block.

*Thank you to the quilters who've offered to help me and provided tips and suggestions. 💓 I love the supportive community I have found in our little corner of the web!!

 A huge thank you to Sandra of course for hosting this very successful Rainbow Neighbourhood QAL. 

I will start a little indoor planting this week too. The last spring frost can occur up to May 15 here so pointless to put things in the ground before that time frame. In my eagerness I have been known to start this process too early. I usually sprout marigolds, petunias and begonias for a couple of pots on the veranda.  This year I've got a little help having ordered a heating mat from Amazon...taking good advice from Texas Quilt Gal, Linda.

 Hopefully it will speed up the sprouting and encourage more of the seeds to sprout too.

And for you, when I mentioned Pat Sloan HERE, I had intended and forgot to include one of her free patterns to stitch cute strawberries. 

That's a season we look forward to...fresh strawberries are so good...mouth watering as I write that. The PDF is found at this link...

Download Pat Sloan Mar 2019 Button Club

Anyone planting strawberry plants?  We have a strawberry farm in the nearest town 10 minutes from us so I haven't bothered with trying to grow them.

 It probably would be a challenge with all the wildlife traffic through the garden. Like these herbivorous beauties who stroll through almost daily.

Hope you and yours will have a wonderful week!

It's also wonderful to link with The Quilt Schmilt, The Inquiring Quilter, My Quilt Infatuation, The Quiltery, Alycia Quilts, Wendy's Quilts and More, So Scrappy, Creations Quilts Whatever and Quilt Fabrication. 

Free Patterns, Lucky Thrift Finds, Slow Stitching

 It's an interesting time of year here in the north as we can watch the season change.  Each day brings new growth pushing up through even ice it appears. It is always fascinating how quickly the earth turns green once started. 

I got to go thrift shopping, one of my favourite kind of outings. I'll share two of my thrift finds with you in this post. One is in the middle of the table there and is that bird. I paid $3.99 for it and I think it was a good deal. 

In the photos are Tony and I at our marriage ceremony, us with Murphy in the back yard, and Tony as a little fellow on a bike.

#2 thrift find...I was happy to find this book below; it is in pristine condition complete with all the patterns intact. Shizuko specializes in hand quilting. I paid $3.99 for this too and I checked on Amazon- $24.95. I'll share my other finds another time.

Here is a video of Mypoppetblogs showcasing this book.

LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color's prompt this week has to do with favourite smells or scents. Here are three I love...

Salt water smell when I get back home to Newfoundland. The air in general is cleaner, fresher smelling there. I never appreciated that till I was away for a year and went home...walking from the plane to the little airport it hit me how wonderful the air smelled. But maybe it felt like that because it was home. Though come to think of it, SIL has told me he notices the same thing.

Ned's paws...they smell like corn chips.

Library smell...in the stacks amongst the books there is a certain smell to be found there that I love.

What are your favourite smells?

In the sewing room, I've started another house for the Rainbow Neighbourhood QAL. I found a piece of purple fabric that was large enough for the house front. I wonder what lesson I'll learn sewing this one!  Speaking of houses, I've also gotten this far embroidering another Snow Days house. Fun to see this too emerge from snow.

Thursday's Three Free

At Quiltatious there is quite a bank of free patterns- 23 pages of them. I downloaded one called Seaside Serenity. Those sail boats with those wheels appeal to me. I looked through the patterns and I liked how they broke down each block so I think they are also well written.

Quackadoodle Quilts Anna and Sarah have a 2013 post that is still active  featuring 25 Free Quilt Patterns. I'm drawn to the Peppermint quilt and seeing the list also reminded me that I want to make a Bow Tie quilt sometime. Perhaps you'd prefer this scrappy Chevron design.

Bev at Flamingo Toes has a bank of free patterns at her site as well. Included is this pattern which is neat. Her own Neighbourhood quilt. Window boxes with little French knot flowers...so appealing in a mini quilt.

Bev offers lots of really cute patterns and tutorials on her site, a great spot for a visit and look about. 

And for us who love hand work, Spruce Crafts has 8 Scandinavian Embroidery Patterns to try. The work of Mollie Johanson and I love them. 

I just saw this pattern for sale at the Posie Gets Cozy site and thought, yeah that's me. :D Any of you identify?

Alicia creates such pretty designs to cross stitch and embroider. Her latest spring designs are gorgeous.

As soon as it warms up outside, I'm off to give the inside of the car a cleaning...hasn't been cleaned since last fall.

Hope you can get outside too and enjoy the day!

 Sharing this post with Alycia Quilts, Kathy's Quilts and Quilting Patchwork Applique.

Rainbow Neighbourhood QAL Lesson #1, Days Filled With Joy SAL, Online Shopping

These days most of the wetland area is flooded and unwalkable which is too bad as the path winds through neat little treed areas. It was near this spot, I went through the ice and up to my thighs in water back a couple of years ago.  About August, this area will dry out enough to walk without boots. The tree in the middle is a monstrous size, one of the Mother Trees here and I call it a Halloween tree.

The mallards are back on the little pond- I wonder each year if they are the same ducks. I watched them glide up as far as this tree foraging. The photo below was taken from a great distance as they alert very easily.

You'll note the bits of green there. Everyone is talking about how we went from that horrid ice storm to high temperatures...30C and even a humidity warning in the space of one week. We could actually watch our banks of snow melt. So spring is here now and I'm going to ignore that the word snow is in the midweek forecast.

Now then, I had a successful stitching weekend.

 

First I made a bunch of EPP Plus blocks. Itching to begin stitching these together; I will love that part. These are beiges and neutrals.

Then I stitched another house in the mmm quilts  Rainbow Neighbourhood project- this is the most cutting and piecing I've had to do on a quilt ( except for Farmer's Wife).  I usually choose projects with simple shapes as I have little to no confidence with cutting accurately.  I say I enjoy learning so I think I'll share with you a lesson learned with each house I stitch.

 Using the same pattern certainly has its benefits but each house will teach me something new. This time...

Lesson Learned: Cut all my outer pieces a little larger so I can trim it all back at the very end.

With Ned who enjoys quilting photo shoots so much

and without Ned, LOL

The block on the side is from The Quilt Block Bible book by Rosemary Youngs. I've started another roof and am thinking of  purples for the next one. I will have to dig deep to find anything that colour. I have just a few pieces from old Halloween sewing somewhere. 

Online shopping recently led me to this site...Nature Reflection Jewelry that I thought you might also like.  Since losing what jewelry I owned in my fire, I don't buy much, just for my girls. This has a soft chime with movement that's supposed to be calming. (Not affiliated, just sharing).

For embroidery folks, Australian stitcher, Joy is offering another free SAL. This  Days Filled With Joy is for Spring and is just so lovely.

I did well to calm my mind and thoughts this week. I also upped my exercise level which I hope to continue. For me there is a direct link between movement and feelings, I've no doubt now. 

Also I will be busy continuing cleaning this week...closets, the car, the veranda, etc. Everything needs a clean sweep!

Sharing this post with The Quilt Schmilt, My Quilt Infatuation, It's a Small Town Life, Quilting is More Fun Than Housework, Small Quilts and Doll Quilts and Confessions of a Fabric Addict. 

Free Patterns, Lone Star Medallion, Stitching Stars

 I spied this mug among the mark downs at Winners the last time I was there. Still a bit expensive but I recognized the design. Sure enough when I turned it over to look at the maker, it said Rifle Paper Co, a fabric designer I enjoy. I used their Holiday Classics line for a quilting project two years ago. I think that is the same design there in the upper left. Beautiful fabric but costly. The mug is also beautifully made with gold trim.

 I didn't know they produced so many items featuring their marvelous designs- planners, vases, dishes, gift cards and gifts of all kinds including for Mother's Day.  Rifle Paper Co if you'd like to see lovely things.

SIL gave me these tulips for Easter. It's been nice to have a little flowery colour in the house.

LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color's prompt this week is are we a morning or night person? I was never a night person except when work or various deadlines loomed. These days I am a confirmed morning person and usually have my 20 minute walk with Ned done by 8 am. 

This now definitely applies to us. Does it to any of you???

This, the Lone Star Medallion, is now sandwiched and in my floor hoop. Made a mere start last night. Going to be lovely slow stitching- talking about the feeling not necessarily my stitches. That's tulips there in the middle too. I always start in the center or as close as I can get to the center to begin the quilt stitching. A debate raged on one of my Facebook quilting groups about where should the start be made with some saying at one of the edges. What do you think?

I've discovered quilting star, Pat Sloan- I should say rediscovered. I subscribe to her channel and recently began listening to her videos. I realized I like the quilting projects she chooses and she moves them along quickly. But what I've enjoyed most is her upbeat tone and that happy little giggle she has. 

Thursday's Three Free

I've been looking for blocks to use in the house quilt project. It would be good for me to try to improve my machine stitching with whatever I choose. So challenge myself a little. I saw this block called Double Aster and thought it interesting though mesmerising to me in how it could be sewn.

The search led to a free pattern at the Quilters Cache.

From Jessica Dayon comes this beautiful free pattern she calls The Fidelity Quilt. I like how those white spaces work out well both inside and outside the block pieces.

Jessica is running a Block of the Week Scrappy Sampler quilt now. 
Here at Skein and Hook, Jessica's old blog, you can find free cute crochet patterns too.

Fans of Blackbird Designs is a site that features cross stitching stars, Barb and Alma's free cross stitch patterns over the years. Links are there to downloads like this one.

Let me know if any links are not working; I will try my best to connect you.

Well, the sun is shining, snow is melting, chipmunks have left their winter burrows, birds are singing and yesterday the Spring Peepers began their spring song down in the wetland area. All attempts at photographing them have failed so I'll leave you with another photo of the female Cardinal enjoying my seeds. 

Happy Thursday and Happy Stitching!

Also happily linking with My Quilt Infatuation, Floral Friday Foto, Wendy's Quilts and More, Alycia Quilts, Quilting Patchwork Applique, Kathy's Quilts, Quilting is More Fun Than Housework and The Inquiring Quilter.