To complete my Kathy Schmitz fooler quilt, I needed two more blocks so I made this one twice!
Those blocks are located in the top left & bottom right. I had purchased an extra panel of the printed blocks to enlarge the quilt & added extra scallops on the inner blocks & voila! It's off to the longarm quilter to have a leaf pattern put into it, then a black binding to complete it.
I finished my rug design of the crows & ravens & like the way it turned out! Some more steaming is needed to mat it together more, I had just sewn the back binding on in this photo.
I spent time steaming this rug down too & after this photoshoot... Baxter had a huge mishap on the rug & I had to wash it in the machine to remove all diarrhea & I have to say I LOVE BRIGGS & LITTLE yarn. It is the most durable easy to work with yarn that my hands have ever touched!! The rug came out beautifully & I just air dried it!
Rexton is a very mischievous cat, she helps me make the bed every morning & loves when I work in the foyer with large fabric pieces!
She is the lump in the fabric & when I lift it to look & talk to her she seems annoyed to be disturbed!
The fabric that Rexton is under is a William Morris Strawberry Thief pattern for the back of my Baltimore quilt done in Maryland fabric designed by Kathy Schmitz.
When the Alberta kids left, so did Bill for a week of work in Brampton. So, I took to decorating for fall on the inside & out. I came upon my April Cornell collection of linens & in it were nine very large napkins. I unpicked all the seams to create squares, I think the last quilt I finished spurred this idea!
I moved the center design around with altering it so there is no one direction nor other. I want to use this as a quilted table cloth for Thanksgiving. I found a large yellow & white buffalo check for the background & binding. Now I have another piece to that yellow & orange collection that I can actually use!
Autumn Decor
The bright foyer now has some fall colour to it too!
This little fellow is just inside the door to greet you! He was a birthday present from my London friends Beverley & Gary who gifted him to me when visiting me several years ago. Creature comforts that warm my heart from loving friends xXx.
The front door has a bright glow to it too! And now the foyer when you enter has the same feeling!
I found this wonderful metal art piece in the Salvation Army when the Brampton kids were visiting. They too are loving the thrill of the find & I like recycling & supporting a good cause. What a win-win, it looks great on our porch!
The poor robin felt the rath of Hurricane Ida & was knocked down & the tail was broken. It too is in the cue for repairs because if it's broken round here we fix it!
I've been enjoying the front porch these days with fewer & fewer mosquitoes around.
The geese are ready for fall & the scarecrow has hitched a ride on the back of one! What a trio!!
This is a new feature to the porch this year, a small water fountain. We've had it for years & Bill uncovered it in our many moving boxes this summer.
The wicker heart is one of my fall favourites & I've had it for over ten years now. I'm becoming a regular at Lockerby's Farm for their harvest of veggies & mostly the pumpkins!
Heather taught me to make limelight hydrangeas with potting soil & placing a rock on top of their lower branches & it worked we now have two more to plant this fall!
I enjoy sitting in Edie's rocker that she gifted me in 1989 when Nicholas was born. Now it's used on the porch again as she once did when she was alive.
Wicker gathering baskets, the tomatoes are so plentiful this year & now the grapes are ready to be brought in too!
I pulled the IKEA swivel chair in from the sunporch & have started decorating with the black & white buffalo check. The cat statue is really life-like & has been with me since it sat in my office at work. The pillow is another piece to the quilted table cloth, I love the sunny feel that orange & yellow give you!
The flannel & wool banner is hung too, I really enjoy Bonnie Sullivan's designs & hope to make a few more before Christmas which is only 96 days away!
This is the only Halloween decor in the kitchen & I like it there & so do the corn people! lol
Leslie & Nick gave me this card & it still makes me laugh!
The autumn colours of golds & orange really bring out the blueness of the sky & water!
Here is the ding table with more of the April Cornell collection, the votive candles will add a nice ambiance to the Thanksgiving dinner.
I purchased the turned bowl with lid at Open Door Antiques, wood is such a warm inviting decor to any room & I have a fondness for turned wood from the exposure to it from my friend Gary that is a published craftsman in that art.
These two make their appearance every year, filled with memories, Grandma Richardson gave me the burlap to make them, the ditsy print is from the boys' crib sheet, the dress is from the kitchen door curtain that was in our Ontario home many years ago, the corduroy is from a Vogue pattern channel style top I made in the mid 80's...so many memories that warm my heart!
And they sit on a box that my girlfriend Sandy mailed out to me as it made her think of me, there is a nautical scene to the lid! xXx
Don't they just make you smile?!
The FALL hanger really accents the hanger that Beverley made & gifted me several years back.
I do miss my girlfriends from London ON but I don't miss the chaos of that city to where I now live with my life on the Miramichi Bay NB.
Rexton has claimed this as her bistro table to watch what is going on in the dining room & kitchen or the backyard when the birds are around.
Bill has found a new dish that everyone loves, cauliflower pizza! The crust is just cauliflower, egg, & cheese that is put in a hot 400' oven for 15-20 mins then sauce & topped with more cheese & put back in the oven. It is so filling & delicious we eat it nearly every week!
When the Alberta kids were here Nicole asked me how to make a Roman shade for their bathroom that had an odd size of 36" wide by 24" long.
I took out books on the process & explained it the best I could as I had made about a dozen in my lifetime but I was a sewer Nicole is not.
Then it came to me! I had a shower liner & shower curtain in a buffalo check that would look perfect in the bathroom with the tile work that Mitchell had done years ago when he 1st moved in.
The kids did a COSTCO run for me & I put together the Roman shade for them!
It worked out perfect for me, I was just hoping it would custom-fit the Alberta home!
And it did! here is a photo that Mitch sent me & it does enhance & mimic the colours in the tile work that he did. It is a small bathroom & he added big interest to that small area!
The other consideration was something that could take on dampness & not create mildew, the shower curtain fabric was the perfect solution!
I thought by adding more length than needed it could be installed higher above the window creating the illusion of a larger window when opened just above it.
It was great to see it go from an idea sewn, to the install on the window! I was glad that years back in 2013 Mitch helped me install Roman shades on the guestroom window so it must have been familiar for him.
I'm happy that you took the time to visit me here today. I've been busy organizing my sewing room with so many projects on my to-do list before HoHo arrives.
As we enter the autumn take some time to stop & see the beauty that nature has to offer this season.
Wishing you health & happiness always.
Cynthia
I made a Spanish Bar cake from scratch, I loved this cake when the A&P would sell it. It was made into my birthday cake for all to share with yogurt ice cream.
