Mid-December With Winter's Arrival

 Wow, it is already 1/2 way through December! 

Winter has arrived & the winds are nasty here on the shoreline, the evergreen trees are swaying so hard at times that I fear they will topple over.

The water is dark as there has been no sun shining for days. It is so important to keep taking vitamin D in the winter because of this!

Here are photos of Miramichi Bay yesterday.

The top of the breaker wall shows the division of land & water but soon that will be covered & it will look like the tundra until the spring thaws the snow on the black rocks.

The water was moving very quickly with the tide & then it stopped & the ice started heaving upward!

It stayed like that for quite a while & then it was gone.

 

The low spots on the lawn had melted snow on them looking like small ponds. 

Today it is snowing but the heavy snow starts tomorrow & into Sunday. Bill has his plow ready to go!

Bridget sits by the window waiting for activity outside & snoozes in between. The Boston terriers do not like the cold wet days & cozy in by the firebox every night.

Bridget & that tongue of hers, she has such a bulldog profile compared to Baxter.

Baxter wearing his Max antlers & his Christmas scarf, such a handsome terrier!

We had purchased real wreaths from a local maker & had them in the house to attach ribbons to them before taking them outside to hang.

Well, Baxter loved the feel of those pine needles scratching his back & rolled in them, he did smell good! lol

He does have trouble with allergies from outdoors & being too close to the firebox at night which I think dries his skin out.

Every Boston terrier we have had loves to take the lid off the water bottles and then crush them down, here's Bridget with one in front of the firebox.

Have you ever had one of these days, when one of these things is not like the other?

And here are those blocks resew the right way as I brought the quilt top together on week 12!

Here it is all sewn together & now the outer borders have to do with the Monday reveal on putting it all together!

I hung this Christmas sweet treat on a bookcase in my sewing room. I spend most days in there creating & finishing projects.

Memories of days past with the racing days in the rearview mirror, I really have had a charmed life full of fun & adventure. It was that road that brought me here to the present day. 

Bill & I laugh at the fact that we live at a resort setting here on the north Atlantic year-round. And we are over the moon that Leslie & Nicholas live 30 minutes away in the city.

It's this Christmas year that Mitch & Nicole go to British Columbia to spend Christmas with her parents, so missing them I made them each a hanger to put on their Christmas tree in their new home.

I did a YouTube class on how to make a rectangular crocheted rug, it is so much easier than I thought!

This is 20 batik jelly roll strips (2 1/2" x 42") It now sits on my ironing board for Rexton the Manx Cat to sit on whilst I sew.

The scrap round rug continues with 3/4" scrap fabrics from my many projects & it was this rug that inspired me to make another because the cat is always on my seat-mat when I get up to cut or iron!

Now she has her very own & is high on the ironing board to see what is going on!

I was watching the Fat Quarter Shop show the new fabric lines & kits for 2023 & a Lori Holt project caught my eye! It is a kit she's selling that finishes at 40"x 40".

I took out paper & drew her quilt pattern, this is it done in 2 1/2" squares & finishes at 20" x 20". I'm making it into a pillow to go with the Prairie Meadow quilt that I finished & still have to sew the binding on. But I had to get this idea out of my head! I am really enjoying working with colours these days as it gets dark so quick now & the sun rarely shines.

I made myself a project bag from these squares.

Here is my first project bag, the pattern of the crosstitch can be seen through the front plastic, making it easy to see what is inside the project bag!

The zipper pull was made by me from watching Lori Holt's daughter Cassidy teach it & Lori taught how to make the flower that is on the bag. I'm so enjoying working with Lori Holt of Bee In My Bonnet and working on her books & projects.

I chuckled at the projects I worked on this week & how they are so colourful. I usually work in primitive colours & always have black as my go-to. 

When my Pfaff 720 starts to skip stitches it is usually its way of telling me that there is too much lint in the bobbin case. Yes, there was!!

All cleaned and ready to sew again! 

  

I did get the rumballs made up this Christmas & have delivered many to friends. My friends are so generous at Christmas & I've been gifted with two meat pies, apple pie, raisin pie, chocolate bonbons, scotch cookies, and sugar pie ( that never made it to the end of the day, yum!) Christmas cake that was made just how I like it & I poured on the cognac. Food sharing is such a wonderful way of giving. xXx

These rumballs have walnuts in them, another batch was made for Bill that has no nuts but crushed sunflower seeds to give it that texture.

This is a box of vintage Christmas stickers that I enjoy looking at & warms my heart of Christmas's past seeing them. I kept them next to my chair & at night would shake the box & look at them.

Then a box arrived in the mail from my girlfriend Sandy and look at this paper she wrapped my gift in!!

I will be saving this paper for sure! xXx

I made this rum carrot cake as I'm making a rum cake for Christmas day's dinner & I had this Nordic mould for a very long time & have never used it. I was so pleased with the detail that was exposed when I took it out!

I'm trying the slogan 'Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without'.

We have become such a disposable society & it has really gotten us into trouble, it is now time to take a step back. And reduce our footprint in our everyday living by just a little bit every day the habit will form & take the time to breathe. 

I hope you too are enjoying the holiday season in a way that makes your heart sing, there is joy in the world that you live in.

Wishing you peace & happiness always.

Cynthia xXx

End of November?!!

 Oh my, where did the time go this month!

It's hard to get into the Christmas spirit with no snow but I'm loving it & not shovelling it!!

It is raining again today but they are calling for flurries later into the day either way the house stays cozy with the firebox burning in the great room. And all three pets love the warmth of burning wood!

I was surprised with an early Christmas gift this year from Donald, our eldest son!

It was an original painting of Santa with a snowman by Suzanne Leblanc of Moncton NB, she now resides in Calgary AB & does her painting in a more abstract medium that she has been taught when living in Houston Texas. 

I love this surprise!! And it evoked memories of Bill taking me outside to build a snowman after being bedridden for so long with the bulging discs in my spin. When I could move better he took me outside & we built a snowman together. xXx

It was an afternoon that I will always cherish.

Bill even took his hat off for the snowman to have one on for this picture. 

Bill took this Robicaud painting down & realized that the new Santa & snowman might fit... with just 1/8" shaved off on the inside it did fit perfectly!!

 And there it is, in the same place as the shore painting, just hung vertically instead of horizontally! :)

And the Santa in the painting is perfect for the memory of  Bill & me & all the boys with their Christmas past memories. A Christmas surprise for sure & one to enjoy for years to come! xXx

35 Christmas placemats are ready for distribution with the Christmas hampers that will be going out to our community.

The Lori Holt sew-along is now done & here is the Prarie Meadow quilt top as I was sewing the rows together with the saying & corner blocks.

And here it is all done!

I enjoyed doing this applique quilt in her styling of applique & will apply it to other projects in the future. It is now in to get longarm quilted in a floral design & will have a floral backing too.

Our niece/goddaughter has a horse that looks just like this one so I could not resist making her another quilt for cuddling with this winter. She lives in California & I added the Road to California blocks in the cornerstones. It was fun enlarging them to be 18" finished & I am happy to say that those math questions of patterning paid off! Margaret if you are reading this shhh it's a surprise!

Jasmine is so loved & such a beautiful horse!

This little chickadee magnet on the china cupboard door was my colouring model for a bird block in the Harvest Gathering quilt that I am still working on. Blocks #19 & #20 were released this morning!

Here is my finished block for the quilt, I love our New Brunswick provincial bird! They are so plentiful at the feeders now that it is late fall & soon to be the beginning of winter.

Block # 17 - #18

This is the finished quilt and we are nearing the end, just a couple me then it can all be set in place!

I joined  Primitive Folk Art Quilts & Needle Art & this was the sew-along! It's Kathy Schmitz's pattern called Frosty & Friends & it caught my eye last year. Now, with Praire Meadow finished I could not resist this little 16" x 20" piece that when finished is stapled to a canvas!

Rexton is extra fond of this warm cozy wool on flannel & before I could get a pic of it, she was all over it. Rexton the Manx also took a snowman off the board to play with when I was sleeping & I never did find it! Snowman #31 was made & I quickly sewed all of them down with a machine buttonhole stitch!

Now the hand embroidery, beads, & other embellishments can be sewn on, it makes for a nice evening sewing project.

We were putting out the Christmas 'soft furnishings' & Bill was having fun with the Christmas gnomes that I made many years ago before gnomes were so popular.

There are small, medium, & large ones that I made from a knitting book I brought back with me from England in 2004. They are sitting on a wool piece that I made in 2008 from an All Through The Night pattern by Bonnie Sullivan that was brought back from the Yukon & gifted to me by my girlfriend Liz. (RIP) Christmas is all about memories, fond beautiful memories.

I hope the Christmas spirit is starting to warm you up as the temperatures start to go down.

It is a time of giving of oneself & that itself makes my heart sing as I sew my gifts for giving to family & friends. 

It's the most wonderful time of the year! 

Hugs,

Cynthia xXx 

November Begins..

 November & the clocks have 'fallen' back with time & the weather has been unusually warm here in the northeast corner of New Brunswick. It has been wonderful not having to shovel snow.

The winds have been howling through the woods & making the house beam in the great room squeak, winds are normal here but have been 70km+ gusts for over a week now. The windows will all need a good cleaning outside again when the remnants of Nicole have passed. 

This is the garden, it is still blooming with colour!

The marigolds are very hardy & I've saved the dried blooms once again to plant for next year.

The black-eyed Susans are very showy amongst the dried fallen leaves!

The rose bush has grown into a beautiful bush & loves to display its blooms too.

Such a beautiful colour & the bees have enjoyed it too this summer!

The lavender bush has given plenty of lavender bloom for my wools to protect from nasty moths that may find their way into my stash. Such a pleasure to run your hands through the stems, the smell is heavenly!

It too is trying to show some of the lavender colours from the summer & has new blooms on it!

It makes my heart sing seeing nature's blooming colours in mid-November, a very unusual late fall.

Block # 12 & 13 from the Pieces of the Past - Fall Gathering BOW quilt along.

How perfect is the timing of the black-eyed Susan?!

I changed the bird out to be a red-winged blackbird as they were plentiful this fall. Now the blue jay, junco & chickadees are plentiful in the woods.

Block # 10 & 11 of the Fall Gathering BOW from Pieces of our Past Quilting.

I changed this bird out to a robin, we still have robins that stay all winter, they are large & hardy to survive the harsh winters here. The fruit in the basket was done with wool applique. 

Block # 9 &8 

I changed the bird to be a blue jay & loved how the tops of the acorns turned out with my Williamsburg fat quarter from many years back.

These are the block from the last post, the quilt still has many more as the finished size is 84" x 100".

It is not a beginner quilt for sure! I am finding some of the blocks to be challenging as there are techniques & blocks that I have never done before. 

This is what the finished quilt will look like, I'm getting there!

A Painting Idea For You!

This is a wicker table that was purchased in the 90s, oh my the poor top has shown signs of aging as all things do over time. I read how to give new life in a blog I follow called Home is Where the Boat is & Mary painted her basket with watered-down paint and then applied a sealer to it.

I was pleased with how it looked...

Then when it was dried I was not. It was too monochromatic and flat in colour! The rich tones were gone!

So I asked Bill to give it a coat of stain over the watered-down paint.

Bill used the stain over it & the richness of the wicker returned! What a beautifully easy way to put life in old weathered wicker! The table is ready for storage until its return to the porch, next year in the spring. 

I've been rug hooking in the evenings & I'm working on a "Mixed Farm" by Deanne Fitzpatrick. This is an older pattern that I won at the rug hooking gathering in Riverview many years back.

Then I thought I would add some pigs to the farmyard...

I could not resist 'Three Little Pigs' I'm happy with the new addition to the farmyard!

I have been busy with another idea I had after talking to a girlfriend that helps with the foodbank in our village. She was delighted that the school kids were making muffins in their cooking classes to place in the Christmas boxes next month. That sparked an idea for me to put a placemat in each box for the number of people that would be receiving their Christmas box in our village area.

I asked, with 18 boxes going out with 33 people receiving them.

So I started gathering Christmas fabric from my stash & my quilter did a meandering on them for free.

The spirit of giving is infectious! I have now made 27 out of the 33 placemats for the boxes.

Each placemat measures 14" x 18" a nice size to use & most have a nautical red/white/blue backing so they could be turned over & used year-round. Sewing is my God-given gift to be shared with our community this Christmas. 

The sunsets have been beautiful here, this is one from last week.

Thank you for stopping in for a visit to see what I've been up to. I have more sewing to do but it is gifts so I'll post those beauties after Christmas as I don't want to ruin the surprise!

Enjoy the season that we are now entering, it is one of joy!

Wishing you the very best of health & happiness!

Cynthia xXx