Little delay

Hi everyone.  I haven't been feeling well this week, so I'm going to take a little time off from blogging.  Hopefully I'll be back next week with lots of new stuff for you.  Have a great weekend.

Free Friday: Boo! Blocks

Happy Friday, everyone!  Are you having a good week?  I'm trying to get this post done quickly because it's my 10th wedding anniversary!  My hubs is home from work early and we plan on doing something nice together tonight, so I'll get right to the pattern!

Boo! Blocks

Skill Level:

Beginner

Size:

2x2x2 inches

Materials:

• 7-count plastic canvas
• Red Heart yarn in colors listed in key
• #16 plastic canvas needle

Instructions:

1. Cut and stitch plastic canvas according to graphs.
2. For block one, whipstitch together side 1 and five side 5's with Spring Green yarn.
3. For block two, whipstitch together side 2 and five side 6's with Dark Orchid yarn.
4. For block three, whipstitch together side 3 and five side 5's with Spring Green yarn.
5. For block four, whipstitch together side 4 and five side 6's with Dark Orchid yarn. ♥

 

Click the image above to see it larger.  You may share this pattern however you please as long as you don't alter it or claim it as your own.  Please link back if you share this pattern.  You may sell items made from this pattern.  However, you may not sell this pattern.

Have a great weekend everyone!

What's Up Wednesday

Happy Wednesday, everyone!  I hope you're all having a pleasant week so far.  It's been absolutely beautiful here this last week, with temps in the 70s and just the nicest weather.  The leaves are starting to turn pretty colors, and I'm excited to get out into the woods this weekend with my hubs. 

It was a pretty busy week, so let's get started!

What's up with sewing:

I went to the annual Quilting On The Bayfront quilt show in Erie, PA, and per usual, it was awesome.

It was quilting ladies and fabric as far as the eye could see!  My mother-in-law and I have been going to this quilt show together for at least 5 years now.  It's nice!  They have lots of cool quilts to look at, but really, we go for the shopping.  We have yet to actually get through the whole show.  We got as close as we ever have this year, but after three hours and about 80% through the show, we were both feeling really loopy and starting to go crossed eyed, so we decided to leave. 

Besides, by then, I had already spent most of my cash and I was excited to go look and what I got.

I got for bargains at the quilt shows.  There's a vendor that always has these $6 bags of scraps and you never know what you're going to get.  I got two of their scrap bags, and when I got home I found I had gotten at least 5 yards of fabric in standard quarters and half yards, plus lots of interesting little scrappy bits to add to my collection.  I also got three bags of Moda scraps, which are basically 2 1/2 inch strips cut along the bias.  They make really fun strip quilts, and are a super cheap way to make a whole quilt.  I got a couple of yards of fabric, a bundle of fat quarters, a yard and a half of border fabric, a 60 degree ruler (for $5!), and a flannel quilt kit I plan on making soon! Phew!

I have however decided I need to stop buying fabric.  I have so much now that I barely have room for it all.  So no more until I use what I have!

On Friday, for my birthday, I decided to sew a shirt for myself with some pretty rayon jersey knit I bought from Fabric.com.

The photo's not the best, but the shirt is very nice.  Flouncy and flowy, and it has nice shape.  It's more of a fall shirt though, so it's going into the closet for a couple of weeks.

Spices decided she wanted to model a piece of scrap fabric from my shirt.  I think it goes well with her fur.

What's up with plastic canvas:

Actually, not much is up with plastic canvas this week.  I finished my Turkey TBC on Monday, but I haven't started anything else yet.  I'm thinking of working on my free patterns for a week to get a good stock of them on hand.  I finished one today that I think is pretty cute.

I'll probably post that one this Friday, so keep your eyes peeled! 

In other plastic canvas news, Annie's finally posted some patterns I sent them!  It took them a small eternity for them to put these on their websites, but I was persistent and also patient.

Clicking on the images above will take you to Annie's where you can buy these patterns (or you can buy them at my Etsy shop).

What's up with everything else:

My mom is a borderline hoarder.  She collects junk, but she's usually ok with me going through it and throwing things away/donating them.  Since I bought her a new sewing machine a couple of weeks ago, I decided her sewing/plant room needed some tender loving organizing.  So on Tuesday, I went over to her house and spent an entire morning going through more junk than I would have ever thought possible to put in a 10x10 room. 

Here's before:

And here's after:

I filled two huge contractor garbage bags full of garbage, and had enough donation stuff to fill the back of my SUV!  Phew!  Hopefully she won't fill it back up again too quickly. 

Welp, that's all for this week, everyone!  Have a good rest of the week and I'll see you again on Friday!

Turkey TBC

Happy Monday, everyone!  I'm back to work today after a fun and relaxing birthday weekend.  I worked my butt off this morning to get this cute TBC finished, but it was worth it!

Turkey TBC pattern, $4 on Etsy

I hope you all had an awesome weekend too! 

Happy Birthday!

Sorry there's no post today everyone.  It's my birthday today and I decided I needed the day off!  See you next week :)

What's Up Wednesday

Happy Wednesday, everyone!  Are you enjoying September?  It's my absolute favorite month, and it's just starting to get really pretty out.  It was so cold the last two weeks, we finally had to turn the heat on (!) last weekend.  Thankfully it's warmer this week and I can actually open the windows again!  I don't know how long that will last, though.  The remnants of hurricane Irma look like they're coming our way.  We got blasted by the tail end of Harvey too, so it's been pretty rainy here so far this month.

What's up with sewing:

I haven't gotten a lot of sewing done lately.  I've really wanted to, but I feel way too busy to actually sit down and get to sewing.  I have several quilts I'd like to work on, including an xmas present for my hubby and a wall hanging for my mom.  I also just bought a bunch of Jersey knit to make myself some cold weather tops!  So I need to get started on something soon.

I do, however, have an announcement to make.  I've added a member to my family.

My mom heard about my new vintage sewing machine and she said she'd really like one too because she can't figure out how to use her more modern sewing machine.  Well, I thought maybe I'd go over and figure it out for her and then give her some lessons.  However, I got over there and discovered her machine is pretty bad.  It's the noisiest sewing machine I've ever seen, plus the most complicated to thread.

So I though, oh, why not, I'll see if I can get her a vintage 301A like I bought myself.  And when I saw that beauty on ShopGoodwill.com, I snapped it up!  I got it for $60!  I went cheap because some fool who posted it on the website took a picture of the back of the machine, and didn't mention what model it was.  I knew right away it was a 301A because I've been looking at them so much lately.  I would have paid a lot more for it if it was easier to tell what model it was.  But that's ok!  I don't mind cheap.  I think I'll keep the two toned one and give the solid colored one to my mom.

Because I'm weird, I took a family photo.

Two Singer 301As, a Singer 15-91, a Brother 1500PQ, and a Pfaff Ambition Essential.  My family <3  Lol!

Speaking of sewing machines, I told my sister she could have my mom's old sewing machine if she wants it.  She said she couldn't figure out how to use the machine either, and that she'd rather have one of those hand held sewing machines.  I was a little appalled.  I've heard those things are really junky.  However, I'm trying not to judge other people!  I went on Amazon and got her a little hand held Singer for xmas.  This one was rater a little higher than the others.  It's kind of cute, too.  That's a pint jar next to it for scale.

It's ridiculously loud and a little unwieldy, but I'm sure she'll like it.  Plus, it was less than $20!

What's up with the garden:

Well, the garden is winding down.  Try as I might to grow fall vegetables, the slugs always eat them to the ground.  Literally, they eat entire plants all the way to the ground in the fall.  Out of 64 pea plants I planted, only about 8 have made it, and let's not talk about the kale annihilation.  I should just give up trying.  However, the cucumbers are still churning out little beauties, and I finally decided to do something about them before they all rotted.

Refrigerator pickles!  I don't follow a recipe.  I just mix a good amount of equal parts water and white vinegar, add enough sugar and salt to make it taste good, then add in a broken cinnamon stick, whole cloves, coriander and dill seeds, and peppercorns.  Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes, then pour over cucumber slices.  Yum!

What's up with stitching:

I've started a new project!  I decided I need to do something for Thanksgiving.  It's a really hard holiday to create for because it's one of very few holidays that have been commercialized and it really doesn't have many symbols or icons.  The one thing that really stands out for Thanksgiving is the turkey!

So I'm working on a turkey TBC.  Cute, right?  TBCs are pretty easy to create, so I hope to have the pattern up by next week.

Spices was not amused when I made her move.

Well, that's all for this week.  I hope you're all having a great Wednesday and have a good rest of the week!

My Happy Place

Happy Monday, everyone!  I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.  If you live in Florida, I pray you're all safe!

This lovely Monday morning, I finally managed to finish my Happy Place wall hanging!  I love this design.  It's just so pretty and scrappy and it'll look awesome up on the wall near my sewing machines.

My Happy Place Wall hanging pattern, $4 on Etsy

Now it's time to go get some cleaning done.  Hope you all have a great Monday!

Free Friday: Small Box

Happy Friday, everyone!  I'm trying to get this week's pattern done at a reasonable time instead of at the last minute like last week.  It's been a rough week for me and my creative pursuits, but thankfully things seem to be getting back into the gear. 

Well, I asked last weekend what kinds of patterns everyone would like to see on my blog, and Bella was nice enough to leave a comment saying that she likes boxes (among other things).  I don't have a lot of experience making boxes, so I thought that might be a fun little challenge for myself.  This is just a simple box to get used to making them, but I think it would make a lovely little holder for buttons or a cute little gift box! 

Small Box

Skill Level:

Beginner

Size:

2 ½ x 2 ½ x 2 ¼ inches

Materials:

• 7-count plastic canvas
• Worsted weight yarn in desired color
• #16 plastic canvas needle

Instructions:

1. Cut and stitch plastic canvas according to graphs. For bottom of box, cut one 14x14 hole piece (not pictured).
2. Whipstitch box lid sides to box lid top with chosen yarn color, and overcast raw edges with same yarn. Do the same for box sides and bottom. Enjoy! ♥

 

Click the image above to see it larger.  You may share this pattern however you please as long as you don't alter it or claim it as your own.  Please link back if you share this pattern.  You may sell items made from this pattern.  However, you may not sell this pattern.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!  I'm going to finish getting caught up with my house chores so I can get back to designing more! 

What's Up Wednesday

Hi guys!  Happy Wednesday!  AAAAH, I'm so glad my work today is finally done.  What a busy week I've had, and not in a fun way at all!  I've hardly had any time at all to work on my creative projects, so I don't have a lot to show you this week.  I do however, have a lot of canning pictures to share!

What's up with canning:

This has been the canning week this week.  My canning cupboard is about 2/3 full now I think, but I'm going to take a little break before doing any more canning.  I have sewing and stitching to do after all! 

The first thing I canned this week was ketchup.  Hubby helped with that, so it wasn't too hard.  We don't eat sugar, but we love ketchup, so I've been making our own for quite a while now.  Here's the recipe if you're interested.  We like it not only because it's sugar free but also because it's just really good.  It's got amazing pizzazz.  I told him this should last us for six months or so, and he was surprised.  He thought it might last us two months, lol.  He loves ketchup.

Next I did split pea soup!  I had to doctor it up though because it only had 1 cup of ham in the whole recipe, so I added about two pounds of ham, lol.  Yes, I love ham!

Then it was finally time to take care of those pesky pears I picked the weekend before last at my MIL's house.  They were beautiful pears, but because the tree is very old, the pears have what's called stone cells which are basically pebble sized that are as hard as rocks all through the pears, so they take forever to cut and peal.  I can't leave stones cells in the pears because my silly hubs chipped a tooth on one a couple of years ago which lead to his very first cavity at 35 years old (!!!).  So anyway, to make a long story short, I spent literally all day yesterday peeling pears, ALL DAY PEALING PEARS, and all I got out of it was 7 quarts.

After that, I was just done.  I quartered the rest of the pears and threw them on the stove to make juice, then canned it up to be made into jelly in the future.  And then next year, I'm going to let the birds have the pears.  UGH, no more pears!

By the way, if any of you are canners, I can't recommend highly enough getting a steam canner.  They're amazing!  They're so much faster and easier than water bath canning, and no more having to have an extra pot of water on the back burner in case you didn't fill the canner up high enough.  Plus, a couple of years ago, the USDA published a report that finally proves that steam canners are safe.

And I promise this is the last of my canning rants for a while!  I'm going to focus my energies on creative things for a while!

What's up with stitching:

Well, like I said, I haven't really had time to get into my creative stuff because of everything else, but here and there I have been working on my Happy Place wall hanging.

I love how it's coming out, don't you?  My MIL saw it today and fawned all over it, I think because she's a quilter too and loves the quilting themes.  I can't wait to see it all finished!

Well, that was my week!  I hope you're all having a good week too, and hopefully next week's post will be a lot more interesting.

Free Patterns Question

Hi guys!  I just have a quick question for anyone who's a regular reader or maybe you stopped by and you like my free patterns.  What kind of free patterns would you like to see next?  I noticed I'm getting into a bit of a slump with them and tend to do the same kinds of patterns a lot.  Let me know what you want and I'll make it!  Thanks!

Free Friday: Autumn Windsock

Happy Friday, everyone!  This is getting written kind of late for me because it's been a busy day.  I went out to Joann's today to get some clothing patterns on sale this morning (3 for $5!) and then I went to my nephew's 9th birthday party in the afternoon, plus vacuuming and mopping the floors and my other daily chores.  And now I'm trying to get this written before hubs gets home and I have to feed him his dinner!

I thought it would be a fun idea to make a windsock for every season, by making a kind of plain base design and then swapping out the details.  This is the autumn wind sock!  I'm definitely putting this cutie out on my front porch.  Don't you think it'll look nice with some red and yellow mums and some pretty pumpkins?

Autumn Windsock

Skill Level:

Beginner

Size:

4 x 20 inches

Materials:

• 7-count plastic canvas
• Red Heart Yarn in colors listed in key
• Hot Glue
• Size #1 Barrel Swivel (found in fishing supplies)
• ¼ inch ribbon in matching color
• #16 plastic canvas needle

Instructions:

1. Cut plastic canvas according to graphs. Stitch leaves according to graphs. Leaving red section unfinished, stitch windsock according to graph. Once finished, hold the two narrow ends together, overlapping red sections, and finish stitching.
2. Overcast unfinished edges of windsock with Warm Brown, and leaves with same color as the body of the leaf.
3. Use hot glue to attach 12” lengths of ribbon to one open end of the wind sock, spacing them about 1” apart.
4. Cut two 12” lengths of ribbon. Working on the end of the windsock without the ribbons, attach one end of the first piece of cord anywhere to the inside of the windsock. Slide the other end through the loop on the barrel swivel, and attach it directly across from the first end. Repeat with the second piece of cord so that when you're done, the four ends are attached at all four corners.
5. Use hot glue to attach leaves evenly around the outside of the windsock.♥

Click the image above to see it larger.  You may share this pattern however you please as long as you don't alter it or claim it as your own.  Please link back if you share this pattern.  You may sell items made from this pattern.  However, you may not sell this pattern.

Ok everyone, I've gotta run!  Have yourself a great Labor Day weekend!