Celebrate Advent

Need ideas to celebrate Advent--look no further than Pinterest!

Reverse Advent

Printable calendars

Advent dailies filled with candy and activities

And for adults!--Wine each day!!

Decorate a gingerbread house--

Doesn't matter which one you choose--just Celebrate Advent in your

own way--prepare for Christmas!

 

Fall Comes.....................................Acorns Drop!

  A friend gifted me a huge bag of Acorns that dropped around campus==these are nice fat acorns!  I set out to make fabric acorns for house decorations and gifts for friends.  First, I baked all the shells--who wants any bugs in their decorations?!  Once, they had cooled, I set about make a pattern for these interesting accents.  The first ones I made were with plaid cotton fabric, not happy with those, I remembered I had a box of wool scraps--let's get cutting and deciding how to go about this.

I used a 3" circle--worked great.  Cut many circles

Cut slits even around by marking in half each way

Folded in half and stitch a dart

By sewing in each quarter, you have an acorn top--then

I wanted to do a short cut and decided not to cut the slits

And just folded the circle in half and sewed the dart in each direction--

that way worked too and saved some time. Next step was to sew a gathering 

stitch around the circle, pull up, stuff with fiber fill, pull up thread,

glue inside acorn half and place top--

There you have it!!  My acorn decorations for fall--

Was thankful my friend gifted me with these--in

turn I gifted her with a small basket stuffed with these goodies!

Veteran's Day

 

Project Handwork

UFOs on the Horizon!

As if you don't have anything else on your plate this time of the year--

here comes a few more projects to put in your UFO pile!

Jenny of Elfantz is graciously offering a free stitch along, Joy to the World, beginning

Tomorrow ( Friday).  Each Friday she will post a free pattern for her quilt.

To begin the stitch along, she is offering this free pincushion.  

Join Jessica for her Little Village Quilt Along that began October 30

and runs through December 4.  Each week a different pattern will be 

released-- Will you choose Red--like this one

or Red  

I'm leaning towards Red!  Who doesn't love Red or Blue?!!

And the Grand Mommy of all quilt challenges is

Bonnie Hunter's Fall mystery.  The introduction is ready--

giving us a chance to gather our fabrics before the first

clue drops Friday after Thanksgiving.

 

Grateful, Thankful, Blessed

 Thanksgiving is fast approaching, which puts me into the thoughts of Gratitude and blessings that I've received from far and near.  

Seeing this Gratitude quilt by Diary of a Quilter gave me the idea to use my saved signature

blocks (from friends in Venezuela) and add other blessings and make a quilt

similar to this one--I've saved those blocks for years and always wondered

how to display them.

I’ve saved these since 2008–a couple of those signed

Have their angel wings, several live in different states but

Many are in the same region—fond memories every time I 

Bring these out to admire

Another stitchery shows our Thanksgiving thoughts throughout the year.  This is designed

by Flamingo Toes

Turkey Trot by Sewing Loft  would make great placemats for the Thanksgiving table. 

Taking a Mental Health Day

 Do you ever take a mental health day??  My teacher daughter always takes at least one mental health day during the school year--we all need to take time to refresh our bodies and our MINDS!

Here is a list of 50 ways to spend a Mental Health Day.  During these Covid days, we should follow these steps to better minds and relaxation.

Another fun thing to do--Autumn Bucket List--this is printable in various styles.

Fall Happiness has another printable list of fun activities for the family!

Shoeboxes for Kids

Our Cowboy Church is doing Operation Christmas Child!!  This is in association with

Samaritan's Purse Organization.

We grabbed the last three bags to be filled--this will give us a total of 25 shoeboxes

We filled the bags, in next week we'll pack the shoeboxes to be sent

There is a list of suggestions to purchase--A lot of toiletries plus some goodies for play

and entertainment were our choices 

Car toys for boys, playing cards, along with coloring books, crayons, colored pencils,

some school items--

it was a good day when we went shopping.

 

Little Bits of Tough

I'm thinking of small wonders for Christmas gift bags--here is a favorite recipe for those little bits of tough for the kitchen.

These little things are called Tawashi

 

A different take on Scrubbers from Simply Notable  Check out the

web page for the instructions--Happy knitting!

Precious Fiber

 This precious fiber is much like wild silk and linen  yarn made from thousands of the finest fibers of the stems of lotus flowers.  The craftsmanship behind this fabric, originally only entitled to Buddha, is made by the weavers in a small village in the middle of Inle Lake in the Shan Mountains.

Here the procedure is shown by Viet Nam Weaver and spinner, Phan Thu Thuan--

Garments made from this lovely fiber

You might ask--how much for this fiber?  To me, it's priceless--so I'm sticking

to spinning the next best thing--silk!  At least, it's easier to buy--no need

to wade hip deep in water to find!

Tying Knots--Weavers Take Notice

 So Much Knots to learn!!

There are so many knots in the gallery of knots but the one knot that weavers' should use is the 

weaver's knot  

Weaver's should use this when tying two threads together-- Here are some other useful knots.

How about an alphabetical display of all knots known to man (well almost all knots!)

Fall Reading List

 

It's time to begin another reading book list--I've had some of these books

for some time in my library--why I by-pass them for others, is a question

I ask my self all the time!

Starting at the top:

• "Poison in the Pen" by Patricia Wentworth--if you haven't read any of her books, you don't know what you're missing.  This is book #29 of Miss Silver adventures.
• "100 Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez--I've been thinking of this book alot lately--time to pull it out--I also found a free audio version that I can listen to as I read
• "The Gates of The Alamo" by Stephen Harrigan--You can't read enough books about the Alamo!
• Sharon Kay Penman books are outstanding--she writes about early English history--"The Reckoning" The first of three books about the Welsh Princes.  I rather enjoy her writing about historical fiction.
• Another Sharon Kay Penman book, "Falls the Shadow"--second book about Welsh Princes
• "Billy Boyle" written by James R. Benn--a book about WWII--history!

What will you be reading this Autumn?

Orphan Blocks Become A Quilt

 Do you have leftover blocks from a quilt--and wonder why did I make extra blocks?  What in the world am I going to do with all these?

Let's build a quilt top with those orphans.

One of my quilter friends had seven cat blocks that were extra

and didn't know what to do with them--I said I like building orphans into

quilt tops--so here I am, several months later working on these

interesting blocks.

First off, I placed the cat blocks where I think they should rest

on the top--then I add other blocks to fill in the spaces.

Cat block at the top looks out of place so it was removed for

later placement--let's continue to build our top..

I keep moving those cat blocks around--didn't really want them stacked on top of each other,

but it just might be the only way to get this top together--

I've rearranged these cats so many times!  I think I like this setting so far--

let's see how it works out next time I'm in the sewing studio!

Finished!  I had some kitty fabrics left overs so used those strips for the borders.

I hope this will be loved by a little tyke who loves kitties. 

I'm now working on another orphan block quilt with this beginning layout

Don't usually like to work with blocks on point but this looks awesome so far!

Linen is My New Friend

 It seems when I shop for clothing now, I'm always looking for that label that says "100% Linen"

Yes, I've become a linen snob!  I found this interesting video on how linen is produced--since it's a manmade fiber there are many steps for plant to become fiber for use.  Maybe, you'll find this interesting as well.  But, Please, don't become a linen snob--leave that up to me!

Let's Play................................

 

Usually Mondays are dull after a long fun weekend--here is our chance to Play

with 37 designers with a different project each Monday beginning October 5 and

running through December 14--time to make some of those Christmas gifts.

Mondays with Marcus Fabric Designers

"Just Say Boo" from Fort Worth Fabric Studio has already begun  but

there is time to play catch up and complete a bat, some wonky stars and who knows

what else in this mystery Halloween adventure.

Play Along with Fat Quarter Shop in this exciting unique quilt top --

blocks are released 

Serendipity quilt benefits Make a Wish Central and South Texas,

which grants wishes of children with life threatening medical conditions,

giving them hope, strength and joy.

So, LET"S PLAY!

Spindles..........

During Tour de Fleece, there was discussion concerning our spinning equipment--Of course, there are a variety of spinners, foot powered; E-spinners, electrical driven; and hand powdered--spindles. This is an interesting spindle, one I've never seen.

Grab a spindle and get spinning!  These spindles are made from

various items--some are hand turned, others are made from wooden

door knobs that you find at craft stores

I have some special spindles that I keep in plastic bins--

they are so fragile, I don't want them to break while traveling--

I have several that are used with the bowls

I have fancy spindles too and hand painted ones as well

This was a complete surprise!  It arrived in my mailbox the other day!

It was a thank you gift from a friend

A lovely spindle from John Galen Designs--quite the lovely that deserves a

storage container all to its self

Upside Down World

Let's turn the world upside down!  I love this blog-- dedicated to Early American History Lovers, Civil War Reenactors, Living Historians, and people that love the past. 

Where else are you going to find recipe for WWI pickled eggs?

Or

Civil War Era Molasses Candy? 

and Civil War Era

Lemonade Powder

Yes!  Lemonade powder existed during 1860's

Here is a pattern for Shooter's gloves!

I get lost in this blog for hours on end!  I appreciate historians that bring us

these interesting facts and answer questions like"

Why is it called Egg Roll when there is no egg involved?