Friday Finish!

 First I wanted to say, I have not gotten any emails from the postings. I do enjoy reading your comments and hopefully I will figure out how to get them back, so I can respond. 

I needed a wreath for the front door and the ones in the stores, are just too cheesy looking. I have so much fabric, that I thought a rag wreath would be perfect and a good way to use my Americana fabrics. I used a wire wreath and cut the strips into 5" x 2" pieces. I made up three stars and sewed them up around the entire edge and cut a slit in the back. That way it kept the shapes better and no one can see the sewn up slit. The bow was an old piece of heavy ticking. I attached the items with a jewelry wire. Something fairly easy to make and a great way to use up fabric.

Last week we had a nice walk at the farm sanctuary. This time they had goats in a closed in pen. They were fun to watch and seemed to have fun watching us.

This one wanted our attention and followed us around.

And this one was just silly looking.

And this was was just too cute and pretty, makes me want one.

At the end of the field is another path that leads to saltwater inlets and a bay. I spotted a few shore birds in the inlet.

And a lot of Yellow Warblers in the trees, in that area.

I also got myself a new car, so I could get out more by myself. A Ford Bronco sport, so I can park easier and use off road if I want. I parked behind the old mill which is now home to different artists. The waterfall runs down the path in and goes to the larger pond.

I had no idea where the troll was, but when I got on the main path, I noticed a new path, so I went down that. It was a nice walk through the woods and then I noticed little foot prints on the trees, so I knew I was going the right way. It was fun seeing him and finding new paths to explore later.

I hope you all had a nice week and enjoy your weekend. We have a heat wave coming in and of course Bill has to work, so I will be getting things done in the trailer to get ready for camping, on the holiday weekend. 

Saturday finish!

 As usual, I get so wrapped up in so many things, I forgot other things, including doing my blog on Friday. This week I made a Christmas stitchery. It is an older design that was gifted to me and it was time to make it. The design is by Mulberry Folk Art. There were more stars on hers, so I cut back on those.

For the stars and snowflakes, I used glitter thread.

I enjoyed going to the lake with the boys and wanted to do a paddle, the next day. When we got to the launch, there was no parking left. We decided to head inland and go on a river paddle. 

It is a long river that goes under bridges and mostly state forest. We only saw a few people along the way.

We ended at the waterfall, where we usually land and rest, but it was running too fast for me to get to the top edge. So, we paddled back, which is going down river. Which was good, I was getting tired. I forgot how long the river was, we paddled for 7 miles and I am not in shape for that. I also forgot the lotion for my bare legs and got a good burn, so a week of sore muscles and lots of aloe on my legs.

At home, I am getting more of my regulars and a few new birds. Today I was delighted to see a House Wren with her young one. I also have a sparrow that seems to like to rest on the porch, especially in the heat. She found a nice place to keep cool.

I hope you all had a wonderful week. I also need to find a place for quality quilting threads at a good price. None of the stores here carry anything like Joannes had.

Friday Finish!

 I realized tonight that I forgot to post my blog. It's been a busy week with unpacking and cleaning from the trip, to getting ready for the weekend. We have been taking it easy and getting some things done and spending some times with the kids. I got a bag of fireworks for the kids and let them have some for their house last night and tonight we had them for dinner and outdoor games, then a few more fireworks. I got all kid friendly and from a shop in NH, so I knew they were safer.

I had started a needle punch project a few weeks ago and finished it this week. It's been a while since I have done punch, so I made some old mistakes in my color choices and in the lettering, so not perfect but good enough. It is a pattern in an issue of Primitive projects by Tonya Robey.

Hinsdale, a town down the road from our camp, has a few historic buildings. One is their town hall, a beautiful building but hard to get it without warping, using a wide angle.

Another building is the oldest Post Office, still in operation in the US. New Hampshire has a lot of beautiful towns, historic mill towns that are sadly, run down, but a lot of buildings still remain.

I hope everyone had a nice week and enjoying the holiday weekend. It is sad to see the floods in Texas and I hope you are not affected by that.

Friday Finish!

 This week I worked on my bed quilt and was all excited when I got it all together, then I saw it is too short. The guest bed is a long, so I need at least two more rows, then with a border, it should be the right size. Luckily I found some more old fabrics that I can add to what pieces I have enough of, to blend it in.

At night I do hand work and finished a little mat to put on my old bench. It was from a Need'l love book with a Christmas theme, so I changed it a little to make it more Americana.

I also finished the rose I was working on. As usual, I over painted it by trying to follow the instructions and made more of a mess, so I gave up. The next one I am working on is a design I redid from a photo I took.

I have also been working in my gardens. My DIL gave me strawberry plants a few years ago and this year they are finally producing. Some are growing strangely and a lot have bites out of them, but I still get a few for myself.

On nice days we are getting out for walks. The bird sanctuary is one of our favorite places. Always a nice walk and lots of birds. I caught an Eastern Towhee along the path.

At the end of one point, you can see an Osprey nest. I am not sure what they were doing, but the dad was moving a large stick and the female was helping. 

We also stopped at the ocean to check out the waves and caught this fishermen, coming around on the rough side of the rocks. 

With rain on and off during the weekends, we get out when it stops. We went to another bird sanctuary that is down the road and enjoyed walking around the pond. Lots of birds in the area, but none sit still or are hiding in the bush.

I hope you all enjoyed your week and have a good weekend. I need to get going on old projects and now I have to get ready for a trip in two weeks. We will be celebrating our 50th anniversary this year, but keeping it simple by going camping. 

Friday Finish!

 

This week went by fast, so I spent most of the day yesterday, finishing my patriotic mat. It was a cheater cloth so I hand stitched white pearl cotton around the squares and in the middle designs. I enjoy mindless projects when I am resting and watching tv. 

Last weekend we spent a day with the boys. We took them shopping since Nick needed a new backpack and Alex had on shorts, so we bought him a sweatsuit since it was too cool for shorts. They also loved the silly shark sandals, so another treat since it is their birthday week. Of course they had to wear them at the beach.

And even though I got him long pants, Alex rolled them up and went in the water.

Another day we took a walk on the bike path. We start in the middle and walked to the end, where there is a beach.

Lots of Birds along the way, but most are hidden in the bushes.

We also passed a small pond in a neighborhood that had gardens and spotted a few turtles.

Today we walked at the lighthouse. The ticks are bad this year and with all the rain, most of the hiking paths are swamped. A few fishermen were fishing off the rocks, not a place I would stand.

A lot of birds are in the bush along the paths and inbetween. Lots of nesting blackbirds and lots of Song sparrows. It was getting foggy, so I could only get a few decent shots. I love this one, the Song bird is just watching the waves, not a care in the world.

I hope you all have a nice weekend and not in areas where the smoke is coming in. 

Friday Finish!

 

This week seems to have gone by too fast, but I have been busy putting away the Christmas decorations and cleaning as I go. I also had to get the basement cleaned up quickly since we discovered our heater is too old to replace parts. With no idea how long the fan would hold, it was time for a new one. Today they were here all day and got it all done, along with a new air conditioning system. I have wanted one and this way it was included with price and labor, so made it more feasible. Our house has windows in the wrong places for air to circulate properly, so now I can stay cool, no matter what room I am in. 

One thing I needed was another sunglass case. I throw them in my purse and they tend to get scratched and ruined. I found a cute design on the internet and made it up on a wool backing to felt. Nothing fancy, but fun and kept my hands busy. The photo makes it look messy and fluffy, but it is flatter and nicer in person. After felting, I did a simple wet felt to smooth the fibers.

Another thing I did was, prep a couple of projects. One is a long pillow with appliqué that I am working on now, so hoping to have that done by next week. Another is two more panel for the Christmas quilt. The appliqué is on black background, so I tried a little trick. After cutting out the appliqués, I laid the freezer cut out on the background and traced around it with white chalk pencil. This way, when I go to needle turn, I know how much to pull under by keeping under the line. Not the perfect method, but it works for me.

And this is how it looks when done. The pencil stays on long enough for me to work the appliqué. 

I hope everyone is not affected too much by the storms coming through. We will not get much, maybe a dusting when it reaches here. My prayers go out to all those who are devastated by the fires in California.

In the works!

 

This week I have been getting some pieces ready to finish for Christmas. I have a lot of unfinished projects, so for now, I am working on ones I really want to finish. Then I can decide what to do with other projects later. 

One project was a tree skirt. I made this years ago, all pieced by hand. I decided to sew it inside out with the batting and backing. My idea was to do ties in each hexagon, but not so sure now. I am wondering if it would look good if I quilted around the design elements from the outside in, then left the gold pieces, as is. Any suggestions are appreciated, but I am lazy, so simple is best, but I want it to look nice. I messed up the center, it's a bit wonky, but not noticeable when it is around the tree.

The second project is a large wall hanging. I have a rod hanger over our front entry, so this will be perfect to hang there, hopefully it will fit. I have the stockings and stars done, so next is sashing to piece those together. Next will be side pieces with trees and stars, then the top and bottom will have a saying. I realized I didn't have enough of the original black, so hoping to find the same type at the store this weekend.

I decided I wanted to have fun this halloween. We don't get kids anymore and live on a road, so no one stops by. So, we went to the kids and got to have fun with them. I changed my look a bit, went with an ugly witch look. The black spots on my face are spider stencils and I used the face paint to enhance my wrinkles. The kids live in a rural area, so the houses were more spaced in some areas. We took our truck and I got out with the kids and walked to houses when they were closer.

The funniest thing was, Alex would not go near me when I came, I guess I was a bit too creepy for him. Once he realized grandma hadn't turned into a real witch, he was fine.

Some of the neighbors had some cool displays and at one house, they had beer and pizza for the adults. It was fun to see the boys having fun and see the displays and other kids. This is one of the best displays we saw, they had a lot of other items in their yard and a fog machine.

I hope you all had a fun halloween and enjoy your weekend. 

Final Finish!

 

This week I finished my wall hanging. I had a few touches I wanted to add, one being the stars I forgot. I also added some buttons to the flowers. Then I finished with an outer stitching on the edge. I also started a punch needle piece, that I started years ago. I had it in a hoop and left it on and crushed some of the floss areas, so I took those out and doing a bit at a time. Another project I found, is an old quilt I made a long time ago, so I just need to add a backing and do some quilting, to finish it. 

I also found another punch needle piece, the exact same one I just did with the sheep. Well, now I have two and the first one is one I like better. It is narrower and better contrast, so that I will keep to make a key rack with and the other will be fixed and sold.

Last week I was able to get a few good hikes in. One place we went was a pond walk. It goes in and out of woods, along the pond, into a farm field and back around the pond. With all the wind storms and flooding, there is also a lot of downfall.

We were sitting on the deck, overlooking the pond and I spotted this guy. A Great Blue Heron, too busy to notice me as he was fishing. 

And a few birds that I spotted; a Hairy Woodpecker, a Black Capped Chickadee and when I got home, I spotted our first Hummingbird.

Our next hike was two new areas. The first was an old road that went along fields and I did notice after, there are lots of trails on the other side, so something to explore another day. Down the road, we found another trail but no parking spots. Luckily I have a trail finder and found another parking spot, on the opposite side. 

It was a beautiful place to walk, lots of birds that I couldn't catch and it opens to a field, where you can do more birding. Another place to come back to and explore more of the trails.

On the way in, I spotted this bird and grabbed a shot, before it flew away. I had to do a lot of editing to get it to show up better, but a first for me, an Ovenbird. 

I hope you all had a good week and not too much flooding this week. Lots of areas here got flooded, so we won't be able to hike in a lot of areas, that are swampy. I also got my garden started and need to do some shopping for more plants, so hoping to get that done this week, while we have nice weather.

Friday Finishes!

 

This week I had more rest time, which meant more stitching time. I was able to finish two pieces this week and started a third. After this I need to start thinking about Christmas, I have gift ideas with my glass and quilts I want to make and finish, so hopefully I can get more done this year. I tend to make more gifts and I think it is time to get back to quilting and make some for my house and for the kids, I love the idea of having seasonal quilts around the house.

This is a design by Kathy Schmitz for the One Stitch Club. I made myself a pillow but not sure if I like the bright colors, or if I should antique it. It does look out of place since most of my halloween decorations are darker. The colored pencil orange, was a bit brighter than I like. I will have to see if I can find some darker shades and also have more for blending.

I also made another, this one for the kids. They like bright, so perfect for them. The stars and coat strips are done with glitter threads. I had old halloween fabric that was gifted to me, so it was perfect for this piece.

I did get to spend some days at the beach and as always, hunting for beach treasures. Sometimes I find odd shaped items and take them home, not sure what I will do with them. I do plan on making ornaments for my family so they have a piece of RI to hang on their tree. 

The last few days seemed to be calmer, so not as many larger pieces were thrown up, but I did find a few nice ones. A long weekend ahead, so hoping to get out and try some biking and scenic drives. Some places are starting to turn, so hopefully we can find a few places to enjoy the foliage. I hope. you all have a good weekend.