Warm Fall Days

I love it when we have an indian summer, well half the week at least. It seems we have a few cold days, a few rainy days and a few warm ones. The saying in New England is, "If you don't like the weather, give it five minutes". We took advantage of the nice weather and went for a walk at the sanctuary. It is a beautiful walk, and I never tire of it. We saw a few small creatures scurrying about, getting ready for winter and the ducks and geese were enjoying the shelter of the pond.

The trails are very diversified. It starts out in the fields and takes you to a path in the woods which comes out to a point, where you can see water on both sides.



At the end of the point, they have a little tower that you can sit at and enjoy the view. The cove is surrounded on the outer edges by a beach barrier, but you can see the ocean and Block Island on a nice day.



The inner cover is filled with wild birds, duck, geese and swans. The birds were all hiding behind the small islands to keep out of the wind. You can see a bit of foliage, but along the coast the salt air tends to lessen the colors on the trees.

The rest of my Sewing Room

I took some shots of the other areas of my room, so you can see how I have it set up. I retook the corner shot first, I changed the wall quilt and put a larger one that I made. That was done for a quilt challenge, where we had to send each other fabrics and embellishments and create a quilt with them and this is what I came up with.



This area is my work station. I used my old large dining table, so I can cut, piece, or pin my projects on a larger surface. It also hold assorted items for now and my serger for rugs. Eventually I will get a real iron board, need a bigger one for the quilts. Shows you how much I iron;) On the wall I have baskets which will be filled with precut squares from scrap fabrics. I plan on having more baskets and filling each one with different colors. I hung my rulers on the wall with hanger tacks, they are great for rulers and easy to put in. Then books and assorted items on my shelf.



The other wall holds my larger cabinet. It is perfect for all my fabrics. The cute kitty in the corner was a gift from my husband last christmas. It is nice to have a husband who doesn't mind my obsession with cats;) The beautiful cat rug was made by my friend Kelley, it was a late christmas surprise, I just love it. Eventually I will add more wall cabinets and curtains, but it is a nice place for me to work and be creative.

New Fall Turkey

I finally got around to mounting my punch needle turkey. I wanted to put it on a basket and couldn't find any good ones in the stores, so I took one of my old ones and repainted it. I love how it came out, it has a nice prim green finish. I made this pattern once as a hooked rug. It came out really nice and it was for a rug swap, that was three years ago, still waiting for mine, haha.

If you like this piece, I have it on ebay tonight and would love to see it go to a good home. I am not sure how much I will sell on ebay this season, but will try to make one item a week. I have lots of friends and presents to make, so will be working on those soon.
http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/kitane

Funny faces

Today was what I call a down day. My rheumatism makes me stiff and tired some days so I just do whatever I feel like and relax. I worked a lot on my new rug. It will be a cat and dog antique reproduction. Since it is getting cold, I still use my old office and power book to go online and threw whatever was left in here. I call it my crash pad and put an old mattress on the floor, so i can sit and draw or relax when I want. It seems I have lost it to my two babies, they love having it on the floor and it is so comfy. The dog likes the piles of wool I need to shelf. His expressions can be scary looking, that is his yawn face. Dora woke up and gave me that look, what is he doing here. She seems to know exactly when to close her eyes when the flash is on;)

Some new decorations in my sewing room

My husband redid a room, so I could have a room just for sewing. I am enjoying sewing again and making quilts and it is nice to have to room to sew and places to work on projects. This is a section of my sewing room. I used my big old desk for the sewing machine, love using it and the drawers are perfect for putting the accessories in. The little cabinet is where I hide my paints and other items. Eventually I will change it out for a larger unit with shelves for my fabric stash.
To the left of that, along the wall, I have my old dining table, perfect for piecing and cutting. I also have my serger there, which I use for the edges of my rug backings. It is a mess right now, so pictures of that side will have to wait;) I still need to make curtains and add more wall decor, but it is getting there.

New Rug Project

I have been busy finishing projects. One being a UFO challenge. We had to pick a pattern we never made and finish it. Since I make my own patterns, I used one I made years ago and never bothered to do. It was on rug warp, so it was a pain in the neck to hook, I only use linen now. This is what I ended up with, I still want to redo things and working on shading, so hopefully it will be better when I am done playing with it. I cannot get true colors with the red background, it is not as bright as it looks. THe original pattern was from a postcard and I decided to make the kitty look a bit like Dora, not an exact likeness, but some similarities.



Well, I was going to show some more pictures, but blogger is being finicky tonight and it is late, so they will have to wait.

Freebies: Online newsletters and patterns

I think we are all being hit with the cost of gas and living in general, so what is better than freebies. These sites are great for information and free patterns. Some have patterns that change monthly, so well worth revisiting. If you have any favorite places to find free patterns, let us know by leaving a message.

To start off, here is a free pattern from me. He would be fun for a punch needle piece or you print it out as a coloring page for your kids.



Magazines:

Rusty Tin Roof
Primitive Times
Creative Times Magazine
The Olde Prairie Register

Free stitchery and primitive patterns:

Twigs and Sprigs
Homeberries
Tennessee Ridge Primitives
MoonChild's Primitives

Here is enough quilting pattern links to keep you sewing all year.
Free quilt patterns

This site has great seasonal quilts and lots of animal patterns.
Fat Cat Patterns