Strawberries = Jam

Today's post comes from my kitchen! Fresh strawberry jam! Mmmmmm . . .  Kitchen make-over is almost done (new counters, subway tile on the walls behind counters, new paint job, cabinets refinished - all that's left is the flooring). To celebrate, I made some jam! Actually, I found some nice strawberries at Costco this morning and had nothing to do with the kitchen. I was just glad to have a bit of free counter top space. Why is it that every surface gets used when working around the house! Nothing gets put away. My rant for the day.

• Pinterest HERE,  HERE, 
• Wild Strawberries Embroidered Quilt Block   
• Quilting Strawberries 
• Strawberry Mug Rug 
• Strawberry Applique   Another HERE & HERE 

  Enjoy!       

Playing Catch-Up

Well, it seems the plants in my garden are playing catch-up. The spring plants are in full bloom. Have a look!

• Flower Power Mug Rug (start HERE for more)  
• Mug Rug Spring on Pinterest   
• 3-D Flower Mug Rug Tutorial 
• Fiesta Flowers Wall Hanging 
• Spring Flowers Wall Hanging       

Enjoy!!     

Friday Finds and More . . .

Time to check out some of the Friday Finishes!

• Crazy Mom Quilts   (scroll down)
• Off The Wall Friday 
• Finished or Not Friday (scroll down)
• Free Pattern Friday    

 More links below:

• Mug Rug Binding Tips  
• Free Sewing Patterns 
• Sewing Patterns for Sewing Retreats & Getaways     

Enjoy!

From my garden:

           

Spring Has Sprung - in my Garden!

The sun is shining!!! Yes, that's a wonder as St. John's has had its fair share of RDF (Rain, Drizzle, Fog) this spring. And it's been cold so it's a wonder that any spring flowers / shrubs have survived.

 This old fella has survived another winter too. No, I didn't bring him in out of the weather!

Maybe things will begin to look up this week (weather wise).

• Flower Quilts / Blocks on Pinterest HERE, HERE  
• Applique HERE, HERE,
• Fabric Flower Patterns HERE, 
• Hexagon Flower Mug Rug   
• More Mug Rugs HERE,  HERE, 

Enjoy!

A Bit of Green!!

March 17 (this coming Friday) is St. Patrick's Day. As I was reading Wikipedia information on that day, I was a bit amused to note that the Lenten restrictions on food and alcohol were lifted for that day. I'm not Irish but many of my friends are. I hope you enjoy the following links:
Enjoy the rest of your day.

• Happy St. Patrick's Surprise
• Latticed Irish Chain
• Celtic Knot Work 
• St. Patrick's Day quilts on Pinterest HERE & HERE
• Mug Rug   
• Free Patterns 
• Clover Quilt Block Tutorial       

 A four leaf clover picked last summer by my granddaughter, Gale.

Winter

Today was another storm! What a pile of snow.

View from patio door

My poor Holly bushes!

View from studio. I opened the window to get this shot.

when we moved in about 25 years ago, this tree was about 4 feet tall.

Winter inspiration:

• Winter embroidery etc. on Pinterest HERE, HERE & HERE 
• Winter themed quilts on Pinterest HERE,
• Winter landscape quilts 
• Mug Rug Winter 
• Bird Patterns 

Enjoy!!           

Quilting 'Snow Happens'

I still don't have the binding finished on Snow Happens but several friends asked me how I quilted the piece. So here goes: the sky has loopy loops and the snow has gentle curves  Machine stippling is outside the inner blue border. I stitched in the ditch around the squares. I thought about stitching snowflakes in the sky but, as my granddaughter often says, 'I'm done' !!!!

Here are a few links to check:

• Snowmen Quilts on Pinterest   More HERE  
• Snowmen Quilts 
• Snuggle Snowmen Quilt  
• Paper Pieced Snowmen      
• Mug Rug 
• Snowmen Stitching Patterns on Pinterest    
•  
•  Enjoy!!

UFO in Progress & Links

Tonight I decided to finish up a piece that was started two years ago. It needed some borders so here's a look at my progress. After cutting out all the blocks, I discovered that I cut two of the blue strips too narrow! Drats! How did I do that? Now I know why I really didn't get into too much quilting (GRIN)! Guess I need to pay more attention and not let my mind wander. I didn't even have the TV on.

So, I've cut more strips cut but I am leaving the rest of the sewing until tomorrow.

Here's a few links to check:

• Handmade Holidays at Sew Mama Sew
• Embroidered Christmas Ornaments on Pinterest
• Gift Card Holder & Mug Rug
• Tree Table Runner  
• The Early Bird  
• Christmas Tree Cushion Tutorial  

Enjoy!!

Rainbows

The conditions were perfect last evening for this beautiful rainbow to appear. The sky was very dramatic. If you look carefully, you will see a second rainbow just to the right of the middle tree.

• Rainbow Baby Quilt Tutorial  
• Rainbow Quilt Ideas on Craftsy 
• Rainbow Quilts on Pinterest
• Rainbow Quilt PDF
• Mini Rainbow Quilt 
• Rainbow Paper Pieced Mug Rug 
• Rainbow Mug Rug  
• Rainbow Coffee Sleeve & Mug Rug 

Enjoy!

Bits & Pieces!! & UFO # 2

I hope you had a chance to view some of the shows on The Quilt Show this weekend. I managed to get a couple in but that was all. I spent today setting up for the Wholesale Show tomorrow as well as attend a lunch / lecture related to selling to the public.

Yesterday I spent some time cleaning up my email accounts. Then tonight I realized that I hadn't been very prompt replying to some recent comments made on my blog. Of course, by that time, I had to go and reply on each post as the old emails were gone. So, in case you are wondering if that person ever responds to comments . . . yes, I do, but if you were missed, please check back on my past posts as I commented there. Does that make sense? GRIN - I hope so. Anyway, you are very important to me as I love receiving your comments.

Here's another UFO that was completed last week. A friend gave me this piece of Christmas fabric as few years ago. I thought it was about time to make it into a mug rug for next December. I did some stitching around the squares and rectangles.

Enjoy!

Snowmen

It was 10C here today - wonder of wonders! I even saw a runner on the street in shorts and T-shirt. We have no snow (thank goodness) as I'm not a winter person. However, I found a few sites all about snowmen!!! Ironic, I know!!

• Felt Snowmen 
• Snowmen Star Ornaments  
• Cross stitch Snowmen on Pinterest
• Stitching Snowmen on Pinterest; more HERE
• Christmas Snowmen  
• Noel & Snowmen Crossstitch
• Free Snowmen Pattern
• More free patterns  (scroll down)
• Quilting ... Christmas and Snowmen on Pinterest  & more HERE
• Snowmen Quilt Patterns
• Snowman Stocking   
• Snowmen Mug Rugs  

Enjoy!

Recent Fabric Purchase

My latest fabric purchase was at Atlantic Fabrics in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. The multi coloured piece is batik. I think it will make a couple of very nice Pisci Fantasticus.

The other pieces just caught my eye. I'm thinking mug rugs at the moment but who knows what they will be used in. The white with black lines reminds me of sashiko stitching.

Happy Canada Day



 

Happy Canada Day!

I would like to extend a Happy Canada Day to all my relatives and friends living outside this wonderful country of ours and to those of us who live here!

Enjoy your day wherever you are.

 

You can find this cute mug rug HERE.


I've also hooked up with The Needle & Thread Network
  .

Projects for Canada Day 2015

I'm posting this today just in case you want to do something quick for Canada Day. Maybe a mug rug that you can use all year . . .

Here are a few links to get you started:

• Canada Day cross stitch motif
• Canada Day Mug Rug
• Quilt Block
• Canadian Flag

The following links are to previous posts I wrote for Canada Day:

• Canada Day 2010
• Canada Day 2011
• Canada Day 2012
• Happy Canada Day 2012

Enjoy!!

Freebies For You

Spring! We still have bits of snow in the northern exposures around here. A couple days ago, I did see some plants poking through the ground. Silly Plants!!! See the snow in the left corner?

 

 To celebrate the very first sign of spring in my garden, here are some free Spring patterns for you:

• Fiesta Flowers Wall Hanging
• Rise and Shine Quilt
• Bug-A-Boo Quilt
• Hens and Flowers
• Chickens in the Coop
• Bee It Ever So Humble
• Pin Cushion With Blossom Applique
• Live, Love, Laugh
• Needle Wallet
• Mug Rugs with Flowers Search (eye candy!)

Enjoy!

March of Mugs - Part Two

As promised, here are more photos from The March of Mugs! I have also added some sites with mug rug patterns.

Check out a few mug rugs to sew for your home or to give as gifts:

•  Collection from Pinterest
• Patchwork Posse
• Craftsy
• All Free Sewing
• Timnut

Enjoy!

St. Patrick's Day Projects

St. Patrick's Day Projects:

• All Free Sewing has lots of projects
• Free Sew, Quilt, Craft Tutorials
• St. Patrick's Day Corsage
• Quilting Tutorials
• Quilt Blocks
• Quilt Inspiration
• Mug Rugs HERE, HERE, & HERE

Trick or Treat!! Cabot Quilt Guild

The Cabot Quilt Guild program committee presented four Halloween projects at the October meeting. Here they are:

The mug rugs are quick and easy. Fusible web and stitching was used.

The table topper spider and web was cut out, fused and stitched to a background. The spider can also be hung in a window.

The triangles for the banner are sandwiched, stitched on two sides, turned to the front (left open at the top). Wide fold over bias tape is used to hold the triangles. The top of the triangles are put between the fold over tape and machine stitched. A knot was tied at the ends. Voila! Ready to hang. Put Christmas / Autumn fabric on one side so that the banner can be used for more than one occasion.

The pumpkins are so simple to make! All you need for the center is a roll of toilet paper and polyester stuffing to go around the toilet roll. A fat quarter can be used for the outside. Put the toilet roll / stuffing in the center of the fabric. Then start with the corners and bring them up over the inside. Stuff and tuck the end into the top of the toilet roll. Continue with the outer three corners. Next, bring the rest of the fabric sides up and tuck in too. For the stem, use a piece of a branch and stick into the toilet roll or roll some fabric and poke that in instead (roll around a length of cardboard to keep it stiff, tuck in one end). Curl some wire for the top and cut out leaves. Glue in place! Simple!  I like the ones with the glitzy fabrics.  After writing all this out, I found the tutorial.

Thanks, ladies for a great program!

Mug Rugs

Table Topper

Banner



Pumpkins

Chocolate

I love chocolate! Trader Joe's in Chicago, has fantastic organic chocolate. I couldn't resist bringing some home! I don't drink coffee but I have been told that it goes quite well with chocolate.
Here's a few quilted pieces with a chocolate theme:

• Mug Rug from A Legacy of Stitches
• Chocolate - Art Quilt from Quilting Daily (Valentine idea)
• Chocolate Fantasy from Up For A Challenge Art Quilts
• Chocolate Cross Stitch Pattern from Lula Belle Handicrafts

More Stuff for Valentine's Day

Here's a few more Valentine's Day ideas:

Valentine Hearts Wall Art
Valentine Heart Block
Hearts and Valentines 2014 (free patterns)
Free Valentine Quilt Patterns
Free Valentine Sewing Projects

Previous Valentine's Day Projects and Mug Rugs