Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!
 I'm going to spend it with my husband Bill! with a  train ride to get to his place, it will all be worth it... having him at the other end, waiting for me. :-)

Here's a bit of homemade themed Valentine, warming the house right now.

This year's new wreath addition, paper pieced hearts held together with string, beads & cinnamon sticks. 

 The pattern was from the newsletter Loose Threads from  Quilter`s Connection Magazine, called Cinnamon Hearts Hanging Wreath.
 I just tied it to the inside of the Christmas wreathe that I left on the door & voila!

 The February block from the Tisket Tasket BOM from Bunny Hill. This is the appliqued version...

 and this is the embroidered version of the same pattern all done in red & white.

 I enjoyed this project a few years ago & leave it out on a vintage highchair year round.

 This is one of my pleading purchases with my husband. It's a red, handmade ceramic basket that you place in the oven at 350' for 15 mins. Then place a napkin inside with your warm buns to keep them warm while everyone comes to the table. I`ve never seen anything like it.

It was the colour of red...so I thought I would share this new find with you.
Happy Valentines everyone! :-)

Napkins...To Pillow

This winter is so unusual, it's feast or famine with the snow & tomorrow is the high of 6 Celsius  with rain for the rest of the week. I've decided to fight the blues with some creativity. This would involve up cycling a part of napkins to coordinate with the pillow shams I had made last month. Using one of each colour it could then be made reversible.

 

Here are the napkins...

 This is the ivory side to the pillow...

This is the blue side of the pillow. To think that the pillow shams were the placemats & now the napkin is also a pillow.

 This is the overall effect, I just love it when things go as planned!
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 This is another new idea that I came up with! I'm moving my bedroom from the back of the house to the front of the house. I've not slept there since the early 80's.
My husband Bill & son Nicholas did a beautiful job on this spare room. The plaster & lathe have been removed, insulation has been added & the new drywall & paint look great. There was also a new window put in just before Christmas too! The sound & feel in that room is so cozy.

 T

 The door needs to be shaved down to accommodate the new wood floor. The baseboards go on next week & the custom closet door & light fixture (one that I purchased from Laura Ashley on one of my England trips). One thing that is consistent with me is that I love change, change that I can make my own through decorating with the use of  colour & design. The use of my God given gift & one that makes me feel that I'm in my element.

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                                                     Stoneware Horse Update

 

 I had to use the wool to see another colour...with more coloured pennies to come!


 There's so much open black/grey space to hook! It's the colour pennies that will keep me going.

38 days till spring! My husband laughed at me today when I told him that, he said "most people count the days till Christmas, you count the days till spring." I love the spring season with all the beautiful colours from the earth emerging to greet this season & the fashion changes from the dull winter colours.

Mane And Tail...

Head & shoulders, mane and tail are now completed.


 The background is going to be the boring part as it's all the same old-same old...grey and black. So I'm doing the background before the end border. With my eye on the prize of being able to play with another texture & loads of colour.

 It will be fun choosing the left out scraps of colours from the last primitive rug I did for the outer border of this rug.

 I wanted  the mane & tail have a different look the the body so I used Briggs & Little Country Roving to add a new texture.

Head & shoulders, mane & tail are now completed! The Stoneware Horse is well on it's way to being used this summer at the cottage.

The Cat Rules While The Dog Drools.......

 This is the face of a very happy Tom Cat...

He's sleeping in Boris' basket again. It's so cold today, the wind chill is -28 degrees Celsius, burrrrrrrrr

 Boris is resting infront of the fireplace, havind a snooze on my unfinished rug.

 It looks like he's being an acrobat, balancing on the back of the horse!

 Squirrel is snug in his quilt bat box. The temp shows -12 in the sun. His water bottle keeps freezing so I've been giving him grapes & he's enjoying those juicy treats.

Here's the Stoneware Horse so far. I'm working on some background now with a string of dark grey & a string of black yarn. With the NASCAR weekends & hockey weekends, slow & steady has been productive so far... I think the background is getting to be a bore for me.

I'm off for my 2nd lesson of 'How to Play Bridge' &  I'm getting it! I thought it would be like Teflon on me & nothing would stick - I'm getting it & enjoying the game. It's a 7 week course for two hours each week. It's real social game as you need 4 people to play. Last year I was taught how to play SUDOKU, I want to use my brain so it stays with me longer. Challenging at times LOL

Placemats to Pillow Shams

 With winter another blanket layering was needed in my bedroom with no heat. It's proven that you sleep better in a cool room & cool temps preserve things longer too...like me!!  I covered the polyester duvet with this April Cornell one I had purchased years ago...it fit nicely & has been warm too.
The duvet was a sale item & the shams were sold out. The bed looked so unfinished without shams.  I did however purchase the only four placements left at that time, two blue & two ivory, both would co-ordinate with this collection. This collection was dated 2000...thirteen years later I finally got around to using the duvet cover & re purposing the placemats for shams.
I can hear my husband..."You still have everything that you've ever bought"! And for a good practice too, it's being used now at a fraction of the price to buy it today. I cannot believe the cost of things today!

 I chose to use the blue placemats. I unstitched the outer hem of the placemat & sashed the outer edge to fit the pillows I had with a fabric from my stash. I also made matching piping to go around the edge.

 Voila! a pair of matching shams now grace the head of the bed.

 Today was a sewing lesson with my new sewing machine on the use of buttonholes. I made a sample & it was so easy! The six to follow would go the same, what a joy when things go as planned. I like to button shams on the back or the use of ties or Velcro. The use of some kind of closure  on the back, makes the front look neater, specially after numerous uses.

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I put in a few stitches in my Stoneware Horse last night with some of the blue wool. I spent the majority of my time unwinding the twist of the new Briggs & Little yarns. I had to chuckle as my neighbour out east taught me to unwind them last summer ( it was for when I'm on my own back in Ontario!) I went over to have her hold or wind the yarn as I had seen my grandparents do during my growing up years. She showed me how to use my knees to hold the yarn as you unwind it off your legs to a ball in your hands. Merci, Madame Martin!

Hooking Begins...

I've just couldn't resist this pattern for the new cottage. It's from the Primitive Quilts & Projects Winter 2012, it's called Stoneware Horse. Those of you that know my past know I have a love for Mustangs!
These days I'll settle into other interests of mine, this week it's rug hooking.

 Here's the pattern on the red dot. It is a large rug - finished size of 30" x 50".

The pattern of The Stoneware Horse is now transferred onto a linen burlap fabric. The horse is done in a blue stoneware look, blues are what the kitchen & master bedroom are done in at the cottage. So the horse will be grey/white with numerous shades of blue polka dots, a black background, & the pennies will be done in left over wool's from my last two projects.
I'm going to use yarns, Briggs & Little & 1/4" strips of wool, & also thinking of using roving for the tail & mane. However being a woman my mind will probably change several times before this rug is complete!
Let the hooking begin!

Merry Mayhem Mystery Quilt-Case 135

 This is the Part one, the cut pieces have been waiting for today...

The fun began for me at 10am this morning as Part 2 was posted...

Part 3 is posted & put together.

Part 4 is complete...

Part 5, it's really starting to come together now!

The final Part 6, first putting the gingham sashing & corner stones in place...

Then the outer blue border, I see now why they said to 'really like' this fabric as it's seen throughout the quilt top.

This is the finished quilt top & as you can see it is just a lap quilt. It would look really good as a queen size quilt too! That's another quilt day...I've so many UFO's that will get completed first - one of my many New Year resolutions. lol Thanks for the use of your bed for my photo pics Nicholas. I like your Mr. Bean Teddy that your Grandma gave you years ago, nice to see you still have him.

Happy New Years to Everyone! This is going to be quite the year. I am excited for this year as so much has gone on last year & the best is yet to come!

 I love how life only moves forward.