Cicada Bug Sings, Savouring Summer

 I heard the Cicada bug sing & I know what that means.

My Grandpa Haynes taught me that after it is heard the first frost arrives in 6 weeks but that was when I lived in London ON. Now living out east it means in about 7-8 weeks as the Atlantic waters keep us warm longer than inland.

So I am savouring summer days as the cicada sings its heart out.

I'm noticing the animals are eating everything up lately. Our laneway raspberry bushes have been ravished by the black bears, the blueberries have reported having had the same done but the first taking was the blue muffin bush outside the great room window, those berries were gone before even turning blue!

Early winter, long winter, I've lived here long enough to have had both so I'll be watching to see what this means. Animals are more in tune with the weather than I so I'll just watch to see what I learn from them.

Bridget having her morning yawn &  seat at the bistro table. This has become one of my favourite spots to sit this summer.

And as you can see it's Bridget's too! 

The evening sunsets are just so beautiful & a wonderful way to end each day knowing that the sun will come out tomorrow. We've had a lot of hot sunny days lately & rain is welcomed when it comes.

Baxter on the foyer black slate floor enjoying the sunshine through the upper windows. Both the Boston's enjoy having the sun on them even in the heat of summer. I made them both New Brunswick tartan scarves to wear on New Brunswick Day.

Christmas Carol Mystery Quilt 

I worked hard the last week to reclaim the kitchen area. The (COVID-19) Christmas Carol Quilt had taken over the counter & the dining room table, creating a chaos of Christmas fabric as I worked to bring it all together in one quilt.

This quilt just flowed through the room...

I had hit the point of the outline sashing in the center & had two choices...

This one? 

Or this one?!

This is the one I chose & I like it!

The back of the quilt has the vintage nutcrackers on it, I love nutcrackers at Christmas!

This is how the quilt-as-you-go comes together at the intersections & it was getting harder to hand stitch it to the back. The island countertop sure helped with that the process.

And here it is finished!! It fits in the garden door opening perfectly & will help keep the dining room area warmer as beyond those doors is the sunporch. The sunporch is glorious in the warm & hot days being mosquito-free & below 0 during the winter months. This is now an insulator that will be hung Nov 14th & stay up into 2021. 

My touch to it was the top left & the bottom right with the nutcracker fabric filling in the are made by the joining sashings.

 

It sure is nice having the countertop back!

That will be short-lived as I've many more projects on the go. lol

I was surprised to get my very belated Mother's Day gift from our Alberta kids. With COVID everything popular was on backorder. I'll tell you it was a surprise when it arrived! lol

And I have done every one of those sayings on the deck with Bill since Mother's Day! XO

The Ontario kids sent me a new cement gnome for the garden & a challenging quilt puzzle to keep me busy. XO

Embroidery Stitches on Wool 

Kathy Schmitz is doing a stitch along on a Snowdrift table runner & teaching how to do different stitches within the snowflakes. Here is the project at the beginning & I was loving the two colours together. It is the winter colours here, the sky is a beautiful blue & the snow is white!

Block number one! Buttons are used in the center & pearls are sewn into the design.

I did not have enough white wool fabric to use for the whole project so I used a beautiful blue & I think I like it better than all white!

I'm working on block number two, each design is released every Monday on her blog.

IDEAS!!

I've had these two cast iron wall hangings for years & was sitting in the great room & was looking at them on the chimney block wall & thought what if they were placed on the corner of the upper mezzanine? Bill auditioned them for me & I liked it!

For now, they are there & I want to paint them white to just melt into the corner.

I've many rabbits & roosters in the house, Bill is the Chinese year of the rabbit & I am the year of the rooster. 

I've started the wedding signature quilt & had some scraps that I started to play with & made this mini quilt to mail to the Alberta kids. Yes, the wedding is still on for this fall! 

I made a 'Thank You' quilt for a couple that helps Bill & I out with the Eel River Apartment.

They have a camper trailer & love to camp in the summertime.

It has outdoorsy prints on it with tents & campfires.

It's a lap size to snuggle under when the evenings begin to cool & with September just around the corner, it will be handy to snuggle under.

 

I signed it & dated it with this memorable year in embroidery & love the Roman numerals for this year MMXX!

Bill was out on the weekend with the Nicholas' drone & got a great aerial shot of the house & surrounding buildings.

The garden boxes by the potting shed are doing well & the mosquitoes chase me away every time I try to water them or just to walk to the potting shed I am covered. 

August mosquitoes are the worse biters & swarmers!

Looking at all the roof lines I can see why the engineer that designed the roofline to fit into the existing roofline said that he was going to lose more than one night's sleep over designing it. lol

And now I know why it is so noisy with the melting sliding snow from one roofline to another. lol

 This was early morning & the sun was just rising. I love how the white casing lines, outline the windows.

Thank you for stopping by for this virtual visit to see what is going on inside & outside here in the northeast part of New Brunswick. We still have just our bubble to move around within until it is safe to open our borders to the rest of Canada. 

I hope you too are being safe wherever you are during this pandemic.

Stop by again to see what is being cut on the kitchen counter & taken into the sewing room. 

Here are two William Morris quotes:

Bill's favourite, I read it to him & he liked it!

"Give me love and work / these two only."

William Morris 1834-1896

And my favourite!

"Have nothing in your home that is not known to be useful or you consider beautiful."

William Morris 1834-1896

Have a wonderful week wherever you are!

Cynthia