Friday Finish!

 Another week zipped by too fast. I spent most of it, decorating the house. I have a mix of prim and fun around the house. One thing I wanted to try was a rag garland. I looked up ideas and found one that I could base mine on. You can find it at Ikorn crafts.

I used up the scraps and smaller pieces to make it, and used a red twine to tie them onto. I was going to put it on the banister, but it was too thin, so I used it on top of my curtain rod.

And I decorated with what I had in the basement, and there is more that I had no room for. 

I found a new place for my Grandmother's quilt.

And some of my nativity collection with a bit of cats mixed in.

And a few trees. This year I decided to put up my cat collection. I could only do so many and I have a lot of larger ones, that don't fit on the skinny tree. I have quilts hanging on the banister and decorations in the kitchen, so it is fun for the boys when they visit.

I hope you are all enjoying the holiday. I am finishing up my cheater quilt and next is getting my cards done. After that I will work on my other quilt, even if I can't finish it in time. 

Friday Finishes!

 I finally finished my pillow. It was a large design, so lots of stitching. It is 36" long and I love being able to have it done and displayed on the back of the couch. The design is by Bird Brain Designs.

I also finished a piece that has been sitting in a box, way too long. It is a gift I made for a friend and this is the year, she will finally get it. This is a design by Kathy Schmitz.

Last weekend we went to the seaport to see the Mayflower. It came from Massachusetts to have some repairs done at the seaport. She is docked for now, but they have a large dry dock to put her on.

We walked around the village and saw the decorations on the buildings.

And the old Mercantile.

We also got to see the Garda. Last time it was in a spot, we couldn't see it.

And the fascinating story behind her.

Another building we were able to access was the museum. This is one of the examples of the glass models. Some are so realistic, you cannot tell the difference. These were done in the 1800's.

I hope you all had a nice week and are enjoying the holiday season. We have gotten most things done, so I can enjoy it more without the stress. I still have to do up cards and a few gifts that are going out.

Friday finish and Freebie!

I hope everyone is done with their holiday shopping and can enjoy some time to relax and enjoy the holidays. We will have the kids over on Christmas Eve, so dinner and gift giving, then on Christmas Day we go to their house. I always save a present for the boys and I will have a little something for guests. 

This week I wanted to try something new, a cookie cutter gingerbread boy. The first one I kept simple and the second one, I added a fun outfit and bells. I love doing these and I think it would be fun to make more as gifts for next year and make them in different styles to fit the person, who gets them.

Another item I made was a gift card holder. I needed something to put the kid's card in and made up a mitten with a nativity scene. The nativity is a design I found on the web and then fit it to the mitten. The mitten is a pale green and the cuff is a green roving that I needle felted, into the felt. The appliqué is all wool, and a few touches that I add as I go. My shapes were different than the original so I just added some facial features to fit. 

The  mitten is a little over 6" long. The stitches are done with a khaki wool thread, but it stands out more in the photo. It's a great, last minute gift idea, that can be done in a day. 

May you all have a wonderful holiday week, no matter how you celebrate, may peace and love fill your lives and homes this year.

Friday Finishes and Freebie!

I have been busy this week, finishing up things and now I am done with gift making. I will make more Christmas for fun, which I love doing at Christmas and I will have them for next year. I have tons of snowmen stitcheries that I can do. One thing I am thinking of is, making the larger ones into pocket pillows, so I can just send that and the recipient can put in their own pillow form. It will be easier to ship and less cost, what do you think? Would you be happy if you received just the pillow cover?

This week was the new stitchery from Kathy Schmitz, so I had to do that and have one more gift. I wasn't happy with the bright colors so I antiqued this one.

I also made the last of the snowmen pillows. I wish I had more to give, it seems everyone likes this one, especially my family members, but I will have to decide who gets one, since there is no more time to do more.

Another project I worked on was, my pillows I made last year. I never got a change to send them out and I decided I should add a touch of color. I used a red and gold trim, so it pops, but not in the photo.  I like how it looks on the square pillow better, the wonky one would have looked better with a bulky yarn to hide the bad shape.

And this week's freebie is by Diane Knott. I made mine more simple, in the penny style, but it is a fun idea to use with thick wools and small designs. We all have patterns that can be reduced and fit into a smaller circle, so it is a great project to use up leftover wools. You can find the pattern at her facebook page, with the link above. I over cut the scarf pieces, so they are not placed right.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and time to enjoy holiday making, without the stress. We did some early shopping for Bean. We got a new couch and I am retraining him, to stay off. He is not happy but he loves his new bed and gives him his own comfy space.

Friday finishes and Freebie! - Plus a Holiday recipe!

I have been busy this week, a great way to keep my mind and hands busy while I finish off the last of the flu. My first piece is the second of the set from Blueberry Backroads. I colored this one with pencils, but it didn't pop, so I used my ink markers and love how that looks. I will recolor the first one, as well.

The second piece I finished is a stocking with a design from Cheri's Friendship group on Facebook. The design is free and another member did a design on a stocking and gave us the template to copy. She had machine sewed her stocking and I left the seam allowance on mine, so a little fatter, but it is nice for those wider design elements. The stocking measures 10".

I also tested some recipes, this one is my new favorite. It is Sweet Potato flat bread and so easy to make and only two ingredients. I was doubtful that it would work, but it does and it is delicious. Today I made up some apple - pineapple jam and it went great with them. For Thanksgiving I plan on making small ones and using cranberry and fruits to go with them. It stays moist in a sealed container, so you can make it ahead and just reheat before dinner.

And for Friday's freebie, a cute little reindeer. I found the photo at another foreign site and no pattern, so I did up my own. The wools I used were not as dense as I thought, but they still came out nicely. I will definitely make more of these, great to hand out or add to gifts. These are about 4 1/2 x 3 1/2.

And here is the design that I used. You can add your own buttons, different appliqués and colors. I hope you have fun, making your own. Have a wonderful weekend!

Friday Finishes!

This weekend we went for a few drives and found out, one store was closed on Monday, but the good thing was, Colchester Mills was open and I was able to get some nice muslin and a new pattern, as a treat.

This design is by Blueberry Backroads, called Just for You! I love the fact that it is small and has the perfect saying for gift giving. I made the first one into a pillow, but they also have a flat version. I think the flat one would be fun to fill with balsam but I didn't get any this year. It is also nice since the flat version can fit in a small yellow envelope, along with a card.

I gave it a little color and some bells.

My freebie for the week was a design I found online, a simple tree with cut out hearts, but I decided to try some of my buttons. It was simple and quick to make up, so a great giveaway item, and something simple enough for kids to do. I think I like the smile face trees, better.

I saved the site these came from, but it seems to be an iffy site, isn't taking me to the same post, so I am including the pattern I downloaded and it does have the name of the site it came from. I wouldn't bother though, I already cleaned out my cache to be safe.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. It is going to be cold again, so we won't be hitting the beach, anytime soon.

Friday Finish and wanderings!

This week I tried a stitchery from a free painting design at Deco Art. I modified it a bit so it fit into a smaller square, since it is something I will give away as part of my DSmiles4miles group on facebook. The material was horrid to work on and the photo makes it look, even worse.

I think it is a fun design to give to people during the holidays, we can all use a smile. It is a painting on wood, so I maybe see if I can find some mini wood pieces and paint some, It is a fun design and easy to do, even if  you are not a painter. It could also be adapted by making the bird with applique, which I will try too.

We also got an extra day this week, since my husband had to work on Sunday. I picked Tuesday since the weatherman said it wasn't going to rain. It didn't rain but it misted all day, so it was damp and wet and we got out for a ride, but most visits to places had to be quick, so we couldn't enjoy any long walks.

One place I had seen online was Pumpkin town, we took a little detour and I got a few shots from the road. It wasn't worth going in, since it was too wet, but it would be a fun place to take the boys, next year.

This guy was hitch hiking on the side of the road.

We were lucky that the mist stopped long enough to visit the falls. I found a new function on my camera, so I was able to take a nice photo with a smooth look to the falls. It was gorgeous and the area was surrounded by color, but too wet to hike up the hill to the view point.

And no visit to the park would be complete without a photo at the covered bridge.

I got photos of churches and grave yard stones along the way and our last stop was the castle. I really wanted to see the views from above the river and the castle would give me some cover from the mist. Well, it was closed for repairs, so no castle this time. We went down to the ferry landing and watched the ferry go back and forth, this one is fast and always on the move, since it is easier than driving to a bridge area.

I thought it was fun that they decorated the area.

Tomorrow we are going to try another ride, this time going down the coast to an old coastal town, then up river and back across, and hopefully the castle will be open. I plan out our route online and look for interesting things along the way. So, a few old cemeteries, ocean views and hopefully some eagles along the river. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and made it through the last storm without damage.

This is what I woke  up to, but at least no trees fell this time. Bill had started putting up new sides and they made it through, but all the old ones are gone.

Friday Finishes!

I was able to get a few things done this week and it is nice to finally make some progress on my unfinished items. The first is a BOM by Buttermilk Basin. I made the blocks, except for the largest one, so that got done and I was able to put it all together.

I know my piecing is wonky, it always is, but I can live with that. I added a single border to keep the main fabrics from raveling while I did the stitching, that will be trimmed down and another darker border will go around that. I did a feather stitch on the seam lines, hard to see in the photo, but I will take better photos when I finish it. I plan on quilting around the designs with a matching thread once I put the batting and backing on. There isn't a lot of room, so I think an outline, would be enough for this one.

I also finished some more pillows, using stitcheries that I made last year and some simple snowflake ones.  I have two more bags of balsam, guess I need to make a lot more and most will be with regular fabrics like the snowflake pillows and some with other designs, that I have in my stash. Some will go into gift boxes or as gifts and some will be hidden for others to find.

I hope you all have a wonderful week and holiday. I am finally feeling better from another bout with the flu and Bill has it now. I am hosting dinner so I will have to spend time getting the house rearranged and clean for company.

Wonderful start to the New Year!

Today was another cold day, they all seem to be. But, I wanted to get out and thought a walk on the beach would be good, since I was all bundled up. But, it was still cold and it got through and my fingers got cold trying to get a photo, so I gave up.

This evening I wanted to get the moon rise. It is still cold, but we could sit in the car and I could get out when I wanted a photo. We went to Beavertail lighthouse and the sun was setting fast and I couldn't see the moon, so we stopped to get a few photos. It was fast, but beautiful.

We drove to the other side to catch the moon and it had already risen. I really wanted to catch it as it came up, but it was still beautiful. It is rising over Newport's Castle Hill Inn and you can see the lighthouse to the right.

We came back around through the town and stopped at the wharf. It was getting darker so my photos had to be lightened and I lost quality with the slow shutter, but it was still beautiful with the Christmas lights and the bridge.

On the way home, we stopped in the village to get a shot of the moon, over Wickford Harbor. Love how the lights play on the ice.

On the way out, I took a shot of some of the buildings in town, they always look so beautiful, decorated for Christmas. It was a nice way to end the first day of the new year. And to top it off, when I got home and went on the porch, a meteorite flew overhead.

I hope you all had a wonderful New Year and will be blessed with love, joy and good health, in the coming year. I am ready to relax and start working on new projects. I decided to start with the brighter fabrics and even found a fun print, that I will use for the middle section and the border, so the stars and trees will be on this and the stockings on the shiny, solid black. I may give this one to the kids next year and make a primitive one for me.

The day after!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, or just a good day for themselves celebrating in their own ways. We had a nice time with the kids, it wasn't perfect but spending time with the family is what was important.

My son decided he wanted to cook and he wanted to smoke the turkey. Well, he put the turkey in and a few hours later the power went out. It was a few hours, but it finally went back on so we ate a little later, but that was ok. I am not sure what he did with the turkey when the power went out, but from the gastric distress we got after, I would say he might have let it sit out too long;)

We relaxed at home in the morning, still fighting off our own flus so we enjoyed some quiet time and a little Christmas with Bean. Bean loves presents and knows a wrapped package means a treat for him. He loves his new colored balls.

I didn't go overboard with the kids, Alex is too young to care so he got more clothes and Nick got some trucks to go with his big block set. I also got him a coloring set with a magic marker, it only shows color when he draws on the book, so that saves on marks all over the house. Alex has a unique way of opening presents, he uses his teeth but he loved ripping them open.

Alex is also getting his personality, he was making a lot of funny faces at me, maybe because grandma makes them back.

Nick loved all the attention I gave him and the presents. A set of books with an electronic reader, he loves anything electronic, so a good way for him to get into reading, his way.

The boys are ready for dinner, was hoping to get all the family at the table, but the boys were happy to ham it up for me.

Now it is time to get back to normal life again, whatever that may be and where ever my creative motivation takes me. Lots of projects to finish and new ones to start and ideas to try. I hope everyone has a wonderful week and can enjoy creating new things for the new year.  Here is a blast from the past. I got a new dress for Christmas and it wasn't home made, lol.