Merry Christmas Finishes!

This week I took it easy and worked on some new projects. I just wanted some down time to make things for fun and not think about anything else. Last year I made a mitten with a pattern from The Teacher's Pet. This year I used the same pattern and made some punched ornaments and another felted ornament with a few changes.

I reduced the pattern to make the ornies, perfect size for my pencil tree. For the back I use a piece of wool. I like to keep them bright instead of staining, since I may regift them later and my sister who loves snowman has a tendency to buy my snowman pieces when she comes to visit.

I also made it in a felted version. I used a loose weave piece of wool and punched the snowman and hat. For the scarf, I felted in a bit to tack it on, then I did stitches to keep it from falling out. If I over felted it, it would fall apart, and I wanted a 3D effect. A few buttons and a felted cuff and it was all done.

We have snowy weather coming in and I am hoping it stays further north, since we are going to the kids. Just in case, I decided I better buy some extra food in case we get stuck at home. 

This is the house I grew up in, it was one of the original farm houses in the area. May the light of love  shine on you and your families and your home with blessings.

Friday Finish and Hikes!

Last week I was shopping at a discount store and they had needle felting kits. They were only 4.00, so I thought it would be fun to try one. It came with all the materials, a needle and a small foam block to punch on, so the extra tools are worth the price.

The stocking comes all cut out with the printed design, so all I had to do is punch in the roving. I used a bit of my own roving to give it more variation, and swapped the blue for the light green they had. I thought it was too close to the back material. The stocking is felt, so for me it was hard to felt on. It was fun to do and I Think I will embellish it a bit, before I put it together and decide who gets it, so I can put a name on it.

I think it would be fun to get another one and make them for the boys, maybe the baby blue for Alex and I can do Nicks with a gold.

We had some nice days this week, so we went for some walks. The first one was at the park, we walked around the lake and put in 3 miles.

Today we went to the bike path. We hiked down the bike path, which follows the cove.

Since we got an early start and had time, we walked further down and decided to follow an old road path into the woods. It was a nice walk, surrounded by woods and no people around. It came out the the other side of the harbor. Looking back to the area where Bill is standing in the first photo.

Of course Bean was thrilled with coming to a beach and since there was no one around, he got to play off leash. This is the bay side, you can see the ship at port in the distance. On the other side of that dock is the dog beach, that we usually go to. We will definitely come back to explore the area and enjoy walking along the beach, when we have more time. Today we walked 3.7 miles and I didn't realize it was going to be hot, so I  was in jeans and a sweat shirt, definitely a good workout today.

I hope  you all have a wonderful weekend. We are getting rain and high winds, so not sure what we will be able to do in that. I do need more apples before the orchards close, so hopefully we can go apple picking on Sunday and maybe take Nick and get him on a tractor.

Working on!

This week I finally got my Buttermilk Basin blocks made up. Now I am working on them, but not finished yet, life got in the way;)

I did two so far and one more to go, and I still have embellishments to do. I really love this BOM and it will be a fun piece for Christmas. I still have the S to do, that has a sled and lots of little pieces, so I saved that for last. Next will be the W and a long side piece, can't wait to finish these and just in time for the next one.

One of the things that is keeping me busy this week is slides. I got a smaller slide viewer that loads right into my computer, so I can view the slides and just take the ones I want. There were a lot of old slides and most were from trips, so scenery and ones my brother took when he was in the navy, but I finally got through that batch and got some fun ones. I need to learn how to do them into photos if I can and my nephew said he can try some, he does graphics, so he may be able to do it better than I could.

This is one from a camping trip to Maine. I am pretty sure it is on Sebec lake, they had a camp then, now it is just house rentals. I loved going there and one year Bill and I drove up there, but it was not the same. A lot of good memories, camping with my family. This week Bill has off, so we may just stay home, I have some places I want to visit and if I change my mind, we can always go camping for a few days later in the week. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

This is my mom and me and one of my twin sisters, they look alike at some ages.

Monday Finish!

I decided not to post on Friday since I didn't have anything to show. I seem to have over did it and all my joints from my hip to my neck are out of alignment and so painful, I have been laying on the couch since then. It is frustrating for me since I hate laying around and if I have to, I need something to keep my hands busy but I was flat out, most of the time.

Yesterday I was able to move more so I got my snowmen ready to finish and was able to finish the rest today. It is for my sister so I kept it fun and brighter. I like how it has a prim feeling but also fun and a pop of color with the off white stitching. The one problem I had was, getting the blue ink off, it went through 4 rinses and it is still there so I may have to add a bit of stain to see if that will tone it down. I used a fabric that may not have been all cotton, so that could be it.

The designs can be found at Christmas Coloring Pages. They have a lot of different designs and lots of similar ones that can be used to make a mini quilt or a larger one. It is a bit wonky from shrinking up, but I will be rewashing it and then I can block it better.

I also got a new photo of my sweet grandsons, I sure miss Nick and I can't wait to meet Alex, but they are not due home until September. I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and hopefully I can get out more next weekend, I do miss paddling and was hoping to get out more this year.

Friday Finishes!

I am still making pillows and it is fun to do new designs and with all of the blog hops this month, there were plenty to chose from.

The snowman design is by Kathi, from Heart to Hand. Kathi didn't have a blog so you had to email her for the pattern and it is wonderful and fun to make. You can now download the pattern, on her website. I only did one snowflake on mine since I wanted to keep the pillow size down. I used stuffing and balsam in this one.

Another design I have made before is the Christmas Angel by Pieces from my Heart. I reduced the design to fit on a little pillow. Balsam and stuffing in this pillow, as well.

I am working on the Christmas Hop piece so that will be finished this weekend, but you have to wait until December to see the reveal;) If you are looking for some free designs to do your own stitchery pillows, I found a french site that offers a lot of Christmas designs, some I have never seen before. Check them out at Cathy Creatif's.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. I will be spending the day with Nicholas, so I am planning a fun party day with a special dinner and I even got him a present, a fisher price nativity set. He loves playing with my figurines so I thought this would be a fun gift for him and hopefully Bean won't try to eat it.

Friday Finishes!

I actually finished two items this week. I had so much fun making the first snowman, that I had to try another. I started out by using a drawing from a coloring book page, but then I messed up and had to redo things and change things and now he is, what he is.

I use a variety of roving, whatever I have on hand is what I use. Some is loose and harder to felt and others like the spongy type roving, work up quicker and they are easier to sculpt. I really messed up on his boots, the shape and position was not what was on the original, so I had to pull them off and redo them a bit smaller, but they still looked odd. So, I stared at it and thought, items would cover up the bad look, and the snowballs came into play.

I wanted to give him a shovel and I realized after, I forgot the handle, so I added a little topper handle, after I took the photo. The camera makes the roving look loose and fuzzy but it is tighter than it looks and some items are more like thick felt.

Here is a side view, you can see I sculpted the scarf. I felted the scarf before I put it on, then I did more sculpting, once it was on him.  This one may go to my sister, I have been making gifts one at a time, as thanks you, for those who helped us this year. It makes me much happier to make a gift and surprise someone than to sit down and write thank you notes.

I also finished another stitchery block, from Theodora Cleave. Two more to go and I will be making them into a quilt. I think it will be a fun spring quilt and I can use a floral print, with them, we shall see.

If you have not been receiving news or following Stacy's blog, Buttermilk Basin has started their Christmas blog hop, so don't forget to follow along. 

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. I will be watching Nick again and Bill is working and our new bed is coming and I am not ready. 

Friday Finish!

When I am sick, I like to keep my hands busy, but too lazy to get up and gather supplies or cut out shapes, so I like to work on projects I can just grab and create. Needle felting is one of those. I decided I wanted to try a snowman, so I got my felting box out, which holds my supplies and some rovings, picked out a few more extra colors and I was all set.

I started out at the beginning of the week, but I crashed for a few days, too weak and sore to move much and I didn't think holding a very sharp needle was a good idea;) Yesterday I finished it, and I worked a bit quickly and it didn't come out exactly like I wanted, but it was fun to make and I find that I can work for hours and the time slips away.

The snowman is about 5" tall, all wool roving from various sources. I do not use forms or wires in my pieces. I had an idea of what I wanted to do, but no pattern, I tend to work as I go, sort of like sculpting, so it isn't always perfect, since I am learning and it gives me ideas of things I want to do for the next one.

I may be sick and needing rest, but Bean doesn't think so, he still wants to play. He has been pretty good and stopped bugging me so much and then I can save some energy for outdoor play. We have large balls for kicking and some for throwing and we go back and forth in the yard as he chases them. Now the leaves are falling, we can make leaf piles. He basically flies through the air to catch them and we do that till his tongue is hanging to the side, lol. A great way to tire him out without me moving too much. This is Bean after a chase and jumping workout.

Looking for a fun, new idea for making scrap pillows? I love the pillow that Jude Hill made and she has a tutorial on her blog. I am definitely going to try this, maybe a bit differently, but I like the idea of weaving a top and doing prim stitching and maybe some small appliqués on top. Great way to use up those scraps. You can find the tutorial at Spirit Cloth, as well as, beautiful work by Jude. She also has online classes and tutorials.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and a fun Halloween. I am better than I was days ago, so hopefully I can keep fighting this flu on my own now. We have Nicholas for the day, so I am trying to decide something fun that we can all enjoy without tiring me out too much. We still have foliage so maybe a ride to the orchards in Connecticut, since it is the last weekend to get fresh off the tree. One can never have enough apples, lol.

Christmas Pillows From Free Designs!

One of my favorite places to visit is Dearie Dolls. She has been posting her designs for free and this past month has put up a lot of wonderful Christmas designs. They are fun to make and a lot of them are in series so you could make a whole quilt with a set of them. You can also do a search for a particular type, try typing in snowmen, enough to keep you busy all year.

This one was from her series, twelve days of Christmas, he is two turtle doves. There were some extra critters in the design, but I kept it simple. The snowflakes are done with a gold glitter thread, I wanted to try a little sparkle.

I added a hanger since this is for residents, I wanted something they can hang on a door or their bed.

This one was a fun one to stitch, it just says happy and makes you happy as you stitch it. She has silver glitter thread for her snowflakes.

VOTE NOW! The voting has started at This-n-That Fabrics for your favorite Christmas quilt. Be sure to visit and cast your vote for your favorite quilt, lots of wonderful pieces.