Friday finish!

 This week I finished the other Christmas pillow. It was from a design in my Christmas patterns booklet. I did the originals in rug hooking. They are fun to do in any medium and stitchery was something I never did with them. I liked using fun colors, since this is a whimsical design. I used glitter yarn for the edging.

Last week we spent time at the island beaches. It was a little cooler, but still nice to be out.

We spotted this starfish on the beach, it had washed in with the tide, so we threw it back in the water and hopefully it survived.

I also found a few treasures  on the beach, including a little ceramic dog.

This cove always has wildfowl, that winter in our area.

At another area I spotted a lot of White throated sparrows.

Today was a warmer day, so we went to the park for a walk. There was a bit of mud and some leftover ice, but we were able to walk along the dryer paths and got in 6 miles. A bit more than I have done in awhile, but it was worth a few stiff muscles.

After we drove the breakaway and saw that they were dredging the channel. The past storms had washed away all the stone borders and poured sand into the channel, which is where the boats come out to the ocean. They are doubling up on the rocks and getting the excess sand out of the channel, to get the depth back.

And we got to enjoy watching the Long-tailed ducks, diving for fish in the channel. I think these are young ones, they are a bit mottled in color.

I hope you enjoyed your week and are enjoying nicer temperatures, even if for a short while.

Friday Finish!

 I hope everyone had a nice holiday. As usual, ours was a bit hectic, but I was able to get everything done and enjoy time with the family. I have been working on hand quilting and a puzzle that I got for Christmas, nice ways to relax. I also need more sachets to replace my old ones that I use to keep my items fresh smelling. I made up this little pillow and stuff with lavender. The pattern was free and you can get this one, along with many others at Pinker and Punkin blog.

We got out for some rides and bird watching, but this week we had more rain, so we were stuck home more. I was able to catch this gull, enjoying a snack on the cliffs. 

I took a few photos of the family at Christmas but the quality is bad in low light. Alex wanted me to take a photo of him with his new gun, so I took the photo and had some fun with editing.

And this one, was edited with the new AI in photoshop too. I love how I can tell it to make backgrounds to have fun with family photos. I hope you are all enjoying your weekend and hopefully the rains will stop and we can get out before it gets too cold.

Friday Finish!

 

This week I wanted to use up some precut pennies that I had from my stash and some from a friend. I still have lots of wool, so it is fun to use what I have and make something new. I decided to do stitcheries on the pennies and used a loose chain stitch so it has a bit of a rope look. It seems a lot bolder since I used a lighter floss but I did wash antique medium over them, to tone it down. The camera seems to pick up more lightness. 

I just added what fit on the back of the piece I had and made it up, as I went along. It was fun to do and a nice way to keep my hands busy while I watched tv.

Over the weekend we had a family get together. My sister got a trip home for her Christmas present from her daughter and son in law, so they came this week, to visit and some sight seeing. My brother and nephew, as well as my son and family, so it was nice to have family get together. It was hot, so we enjoyed time under the trees when the breezes picked up.

I also spent some time at the beach. One day it was sunny and warm, so great for swimming, the next was cloudy and cool, which was so nice with all the humidity we have had. I even found a few treasures. 

Today we had an early dinner and went to the beach later. It wasn't as hot but the waves were rougher. I was able to slip into the ocean for a quick swim, in between the waves and found a few pieces of glass that the waves threw up. More heat for the weekend, so we won't be outside as much. It seems we wait all winter for summer, then it is too hot to be outside. I hope you all have a nice weekend and a break from the heat.

A Day Early Finishes!

We are headed off for a long weekend tomorrow so I thought I would post a day early. I lucked out and got a spot by a river, surrounded by trees, so nice privacy to relax and work on my quilt.

The first thing I finished this week was more lavender pillows. They are free designs by Deborah Cade for a Facebook group, Primitive Folk Art quilts and projects. These are so fun to do and the next ones will be roosters or chicken, something my brother and his wife love to collect.

The second project is a summer quilt, another freebie from the group. I have it all set to quilt, so I can sit and relax at the camp, and work on the quilting. It looks a bit flat in the photo, so I will have to take a nice photo when it is done. I used some of my new fabric with the blue wood, for the side edges.

We also got out for a bit on the weekend. I wasn't feeling up to too much activity, so we went to Beavertail and found a nice side spot with views of the ocean. It was nice to just sit and relax and we got a few walks in, as well.

I have also been seeing a lot more birds in our yard. I was surprised when I went out and saw two females with their young, eating under the feeder. There are 16 babies, in all. One just had three little ones, and the other had 13 or she may have adopted from another female, I did notice the male is not with them. They tend to run back and forth across the road and there are lots of predators in the woods, so they do lose a few of their young, but seem to keep the flock growing.

I hope. you all have a wonderful weekend. In these trying times, I try to keep up my spirit by keeping busy and trying new things.

Friday Finish!

First I would like to apologize to those of you, who have blogs. I see to be having a problem with my browser lately, so I am going to have to backup my data and clean out my computer and reinstall my browser and hopefully my computer will run a few more years without having to get a new one. I am not able to comment on most blogs, I comment and it disappears, but on blogs that have security pictures, they seem to work. So, I do enjoy reading your blogs, but I can't always comment.

This week I wanted to do something from my Seaside Ornies pattern. I made ornaments to hang on my tree, but I wanted something larger, so I enlarged the ship and lighthouse. The ship is 5" tall and the lighthouse is 6". Perfect sizes for shelf sitters and a summer display.

I added the pail and one of my felt starfish for fun, along with a piece of driftwood, I found on the beach. I think it would be fun to make smaller pails and items and make a whole scene. Maybe if I get creative, I can make an old salt man to add to the scene. Not sure if I would punch it or do one in needle felted, which would be a fun challenge for me.

Later I can make a better back drop for the scene, I do have plenty of larger canvases. If you have the pattern or would like to purchase this one, you can redo them into larger sizes, even for hooking, I was thinking, larger pillows would be fun. You can find the link to the pattern in the left column, or my Ecrater site.

Last weekend was spent with the boys, which is always something I love, no matter what we do. We took them to the bird sanctuary which they loved, but even the short walk, wore them out, so we will have to take shorter walks for now. The beach is always their favorite, they got to play in the sand and a small playground, just their size.

I am also enjoying my back yard, I am adding more flowers on my deck and garden, and the trees are full and green, and two of the bird houses have residents, so it is my own little sanctuary. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, looks like we finally got away from the rain, so we can enjoy getting out, both days.

Friday Finish!

I worked every day this week to finish a quilt for Alex. I never got a chance to make him one and since he is two now, I made it a bit larger. Something fun for now and I did add double batting so he can use it in the winter.

I hand quilted the motifs on the panel and machine quilted the borders. I really think I should have used the machine, it is a lot of work and with a time crunch, it was a killer on my joints.

The finished quilt is 48" x 32". This was from a bundle of fabrics that I won, by the Whimsical Workshop, years ago.

For the back, I used flannel, to make it snuggly. I also made up a quick tag, I was being lazy.

I did get some beach time in, last weekend. My SIL's beach has a new supply of glass, every day.
Day one yielded some nice pieces. I really don't need the new glass pieces, those I took to get off the beach and I will see if my friend can use them in her glass works.

Day two I was excited to find what I thought was yellow depression glass, but it amazing what bleach will do, it was just colored from the seaweed, it was clear when I cleaned it. The house shapes will be fun to paint, will be trying some beach houses.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. The kid's are finally getting their party, but Bill may be working and if the weather is bad, I do not want to drive into a flood zone by myself, so we shall see. Otherwise, I will be resting and working on some new pieces, if Bill is working.

Weekend finish and finds!

We were supposed to be camping this weekend, but it was windy and cold yesterday and today we got rain and wind, so I cancelled this trip. Hopefully the next one will bring us better weather, not fun to camp if I am stuck in the trailer all day.

I wanted to try some wool starfish and I love how they came out, but I couldn't get a decent photo, you can never get the look with wool and floss, especially with flash. I modeled them after real starfish and the actually colors, and I had the perfect lime green in my thrift stash.

I added a little stuffing and used a colored blanket stitch to mimic the border color on the starfish. They are easy to do and would make fun bowl fillers too. You can just draw out the starfish by hand or use a coloring book template, then have fun with the colors or look at real starfish online.

On Saturday we took advantage of the beautiful weather. I was surprised that there weren't that many people at the beach, but that means more glass for me, lol. We hit the tide just right and even when it goes out, the waves come up at different heights and crash against the slopes, and drop glass off. I was able to walk up and down a section and catch glass as it was swept up, so I got a nice haul this time. Bill was too lazy to bend, so he sat in the rock piles and dug for glass, he found me the pink heart. Some of the larger pieces are around 3", so you can tell what sizes they are.

My big find was the round one in front, that is a cobalt blue glass, a rarer find. We also did some shopping and I got a plastic container with compartments, so I am putting some glass by types, then I can bring it upstairs and play with design ideas. Another great find this week was a large white, rusty pail, with a blue lip, the perfect garbage can for my beach room.

Beach finish and finds!

I wanted to try some starfish in punch needle, so I looked online and found some pretty colored starfish that were not too detailed, perfect for punching. The yellow and gold one needs a better eye, maybe I will just do a large french knot. The blue one has main dots and lots of little white dots, but I just did a simple punch going up, so it is not exact, but close enough. There are lots of fun starfish and beautiful colors, I may try some larger ones and try more detail.

And we went to the dog beach, and found some nice glass. The glass on the right side is from the dog beach. Then we got out early and hit the island and I found more glass, a lot more glass. All the glass on the left is from that beach.

Today I just wanted to get out and enjoy the nice weather. One more day, then more cold coming in. So, we went back to the dog beach, I figured we could just relax and walk and if I found anything, that was a bonus. Well, we hit the beach at the right time, it was all over the place, I found big chunks just laying on the beach. So, I have a lot more glass, lol. I guess it is time to start making things with them. I do keep the best, older glass in a heart shaped bowl, those I keep to look at. I like the ones that are a bit clearer and flat, they will work nicely in art pieces.

It is hard to see, but that blue piece is in the shape of a fish, even the markings on the bottle, made an eye and fin, definitely making something with that piece.

And, I finally put up the lights on my netting. I got fake sea glass and bottle lights. They are heavy, so I put up some cast iron holders for the netting, and that holds the weight of the bottles. Now I need to get started on some pillows and a quilt, as well as, art work for the walls.

Friday Finishes!

This week I received the newest stitchery of the month, by Kathy Schmitz. I love this one, was the perfect design for my beach room and I think it will be a great gift for the beach lovers. I did mine as she did, I liked the simple pillow with the frayed edges. Of course I aged mine, I do like the primitive look.

I also made some pumpkin flat pillows. I wanted to try something I could use to hide and keep it simple, as well as easy to leave in places. I got a bit carried away with the size and they ended up more prim than I had planned, but once I start making something, I never know where it will take me. I think for the Facebook group DSmiles4miles, I will try some smaller wool ones and use the fun faces that I paint on rocks.

These are so fun, I had to place them in areas around the house.

I also made some more message hearts. These will be gifted since they are prim, but I will do more with seasonal fabrics. I always like to try things first, then I can see what I do and don't like, so I can improve on them.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Monday this and that!

This weekend we didn't do too much outdoors, though we did get some time at the beach with Bean. I spent the time walking in the water and playing with Bean, but no photos. We did go to the lighthouse and as we walked around, I found my first rock. It was done by another group, so I took a photo with my phone. I put it back so someone else can find it.

 One thing we did do, is go shopping. Bean needed a new leash so we went for that and I found one roll of netting, so I grabbed it.

What did I do with it? I made a curtain for the little window in my beach room. I had a pair of cast iron, blue anchors and I put those at the top of the window and dropped the netting over that. I haven't gotten a chance to get new lights so I threw up my starfish to see how they looked. I might try and find something large, since the netting is heavy and bulky, would be fun to find beach items on one string, or things that get caught in a net.

Not a great photo, just used my phone and I will rearrange the area as I go. The room was dark when I took it, so the lights look funny and a little figure at the end.

On Sunday we worked around the house. I also got my oar on the wall, I had to place it above my painting area, since it didn't fit in the other space with the longer mermaid hooks. My son and Nick came over for a visit, he had to return some tools and decided he would eat dinner with us, he loves shish kabobs.

He and Nick went in the jacuzzi, Nick loves to swim in that, but when my son went to cool off in the pool, Nick decided he wanted to try it, after all. My son was blowing up the raft and Nick decided he didn't like the deep water, but after awhile he got used to it and was having fun.

And of course, Bean was thrilled to have his buddy to play with, especially when they splashed water out of the pool. I wonder if Bean will ever slow down, wish I had half of his energy, lol.

I hope you all had a nice weekend. Today I started on the rocks I found, this time I am just going freehand, I make so many messes, having lines doesn't help. Next I need to work on some pillows and the blue jean quilt for my beach room.

Friday Finishes!

This week was a slow one, been fighting off the flu and it finally got me, so I have been taking it easy and today was a couch day, hopefully that means it is on it's way out.

I was able to finish my blocks from Cheri's Facebook Group. These are fun to do and work up quickly and she still has all the blocks and instructions in the files, so  you can still get in on the fun.

I oversized mine since the cloth is thin, next I will cut them down to size and add the sashing and work on the log cabins to go with them, a great way to use up scraps.

Since I had extra time and I wanted to take a day to just make something, I tried one of my cats as a halloween kitty with a moon and stars. I was trying to make it scrappy by changing the heights, and more loosely, a no thinking day of punching;)

We went to pick out our prize and there were no baskets left, was hoping to get a nice gift basket, but there were other prizes available. Some were just not my style and then she looked up and said, oh and this beach window. Well, that was fate, the perfect piece to put in the beach room. A bit shabby chic, and thinking I may put an ocean print behind it, or I can just paint a simple ocean and sky? It is on the wall shelve for now, not sure if i want to hang it, it does have a heavy chain on it, but I like that space and I can decorate around it. I also have a double oar to hang on the wall above it. I like how my starfish lights look, around it.

The saying is perfect for my room. I hope everyone has a nice weekend, we have rain, so maybe another rest day and hopefully some sun and a walk on Sunday.

Monday This and That!

I hope everyone had a nice weekend, I didn't get a lot done, but I did find some material to use with the baby quilt and today I cut some blocks and laid it out to get an idea of how it looks and what I want to do. I doubt I will get it done in time, but I also may not give it to them. I found out that she is leaving at the end of the month, having the baby in Malaysia and not coming back until September.

So, Grandma is not happy and disappointed that we will not be there for the baby's birth or see Nicholas for 5 months. She plans on having another shower and getting what she needs to use, there, so she won't be taking anything. I can't see giving her a quilt that will sit at home, so I may wait and until the right time or donate it for a raffle or charity. I can decide after it is made and see how it comes out.

I am not sure if I should do some small boats or enlarge the boat and maybe add some shadow seagulls. First I will do the blocks and top, then decide on how to set the appliqué on top. I am also thinking of adding a strip of solid around the design, then varying strips of the other fabrics in the same colors next, then another solid strip. That is the plan, but I may change my mind as I go along.

This is the layout of the base, the borders will give it just enough to make a large baby quilt. I may trip a bit off the top and bottom of the blue so the shading is there, but a little narrower for that space. I will also redo the blocks so they are laying in the right direction.

We had my son and Nick for dinner Sunday night. I was going through his old photos to do a birthday card and it brings back so many good memories. This is a photo of him when were were camping at the state park. He was playing in the camp and a bird landed on his finger, he was always a sweet soul.

This is my son now, he took a selfie of himself and Nick, father and son, time sure flys by.

Of course Grandma and Nick played while the guys did their thing. I always get little gifts from the bargain racks to give him when he visits and he told me to get the camera, so not sure if he wanted me to take a photo or he thinks he has a camera too, lol. I am going to miss the joy that he brings when he is here, it will be a long 5 months.

Monday Finish!

It was a long weekend, a storm on Friday so Bill took the day off and then today we got another storm so he stayed home again. That is the benefit of being salaried, he doesn't lose money and it is not worth driving 45 minutes in this weather.

Of course that meant I didn't get much done and we did get out for a few days so that was good.
I decided to make something quick and simple and if you are looking for something to finish in a day, this is the perfect heart to make, just in time for Valentines Day.

The design can be found at All Free Crafts and it was actually a design to paint on a T-shirt, but I thought it made a nice Valentines bowl filler. I traced the design onto the backing and then went around the design to get the heart shape. When I sewed it to the backing, I used the end stitching as a guide to go around the heart. The leaves would have been nicer if i stitched them, but I was lazy and wanted to go quickly, so I used a lazy daisy stitch.

I added the stitched heart in the middle, it was an empty space and I could not find a way to fit a word, so I went with simple. I also used walnut ink and it was not working right and kept leaving large dark spots in a couple of spaces and the rest stayed light, so I had to rinse and redo a few times.

We went for a ride down the back roads and enjoyed the views of snow covered ponds and rivers. This was an old mill and they redid the area into a park so everyone can enjoy it.

Of course we headed to the stores at the south end of the state, you never know what you will find and this time I found some starfish lights. They are perfect to put in my beach room to add a little magic. I just put them around the planter for a photo, but I have another set and will be redoing the room a few times as I add new things and get a better plan on where I want things.

I hope everyone had a nice weekend and not too much snow in your  area. We are getting hit with snow this week, so a good week to stay home and work on projects.