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

 

A Wonderful Autumn

 The weather has been so beautiful on the northeast coast of New Brunswick!

And time has been moving its wings again, it will very soon be November, with just 56 days to the build-up to Christmas! I keep track because I make many of my Christmas gifts & that takes time! The time just seems to fly by!!

Get yourself a cuppa & cozy in for a tour & a viewing of the weeks past.

This is a lengthy blog of photos & chatting. xXx 

I have been working on two free sew-along quilts & will soon be caught up with the Harvest Gathering.

These are just a few of the blocks that I've completed & see the robin? That was to be a Baltimore Oriole I changed out the colours & put my personal touch to it. Then a person noticed that the head was missing the corner, thank heavens it was an easy two-seam opening to fix!

Yesterday was the robin's head redo & these two baskets finished at 15"x15". 

This quilt top will finish at 84"x100", a large sampler quilt! I'm doing it all from my stash, not a kit.

The fruit & leaves are from my wool stash.

Two long checkerboard pieces to work on today & tomorrow the new blocks are revealed & I will be ready to start the catchup again! lol

Lori Holt's Praire Meadow is a 12-block applique quilt with a scrappy border, each block will finish at 16"x16". I am caught up with this sew-along!

With the beautiful autumn days & the help of Mitchell, Bill finally got the outside of the windows cleaned that bring the light into the front foyer. Bridget just wants to play 'stick', she is happiest with a stick or ball.

It is not a job for someone with a fear of heights! Lucky that these two are both elevator guys!

I watched from the inside on the upper foyer mezzanine as the sunlight came through!

And the beautiful colours of autumn were revealed once more in a vibrant state.

It was a perfect day for window cleaning. Fiona's wet winds placed much debris with salt water in the wind covering everything, including plants in the garden. I hope they recover & come back next spring.

The sun will feel so warm this winter with the thick film now gone!

Oh the colours of autumn, I just love sewing with the colours I see & feel!

Nicole, my DIL never stops amazing me, she splits wood for hours for our winter wood!

Mitchell our son, worked hard with his dad milling & slicing wood for the new bridge to go over the pond run-off stream. There is still water in the pond again this year!

The path on the other side of the wooden bridge has had mulch put on it & it has been widened, it is such a wonderful place to be now that the mosquitoes are gone!

Bridget & her sticks! Just hoping someone will take the time to through it. She has such joy retrieving it!

It was a large job doing a small bridge made with wood from the woods! 

\

Nicole worked just as hard doing all the splitting of the wood!

Bill does not trust me with sharp-moving equipment. lol, I make him very nervous. lol

It is going to be a lovely walk through those woods this winter, I am so enjoying the beautiful autumn!

Mitch is so clever at building structures, I can't wait to see his place in Alberta this spring & the 10 acres of land that he & Nicole now live on!

The paths have mulch & leaves all over them & look so inviting to bring you in for a walk!

So Canada!

This old dead tree was here when we purchased the property back in 2012 & I noticed the wood propellor placed into the tree, it is still there. It makes me think of my dad & his flying days so many years ago.

The pond has many bullrushes growing in it & it will look so cool as it freezes like a skating pond!

The Boston terrier's old swimming pool took a ride in the wind & ended up in the pond! It had holes in it so it is not missed but will be a challenge to get it out!

The autumn colours are now ending & soon a new texture & colour will be painted with Mother Natures' brush.

The front of our property from the road is so vibrant in colour with all the maple trees.

Donald spent a day on the tractor cutting & opening the laneway from the overgrowth of weed trees & brush.

This autumn has been the best I can remember & it is still warm every day!

The road view of the front of our property soon will be just the skeletons of trees with no leaves.

My girlfriend Deb was walking through the woods & took this photo for me as I loved the burst of colour the maples were displaying!

And Bridget & Baxter were enjoying the walk too! It is such a paradise of nature here & we all enjoy it! 

This is the new roadway into the woods, it is about 1/3 way down from the house. From there are paths through the woods & that will take you out to the new wooden bridge that once crossed, you are at the firepit! 

After Fiona, we took a trip to PEI to purchase these beauties for the woods. Mitchell had never been to the Island & Nicole was too young to remember it so the drive over the Confederation Bridge was exciting! The Lambe Concrete Company has the best selection of items that we have ever seen! And they are very reasonably priced items too! These beauties are now in storage until the spring when they will be put in place on our property. I have always loved gargoyles & whimsical creatures & items... it will be a fun place to be in the woods next summer!

Family Time xXx

Nicole & I are in the kitchen preparing a meal, it seems like so long ago since the kids were here.

I know I won't have them for Christmas this year so our time together was special. xXx

Donald even dressed in his 'good fat' shirt of avocados for our Thanksgiving meal. xXx

And Leslie & Nicholas are now living in Miramichi & it is a 30 min drive door-to-door now! 

I'm so happy for them & for Bill & me too! xXx

We had a wonderful feast together & all of us were grateful for the meal & for the family time together!

Rexton & the Boston terriers have been enjoying the cool evenings with the firebox burning. 

She is the last one on the pillow at night after Bridget & Baxter are in their beds.

I saw this sign & it was so Rexton! She will push things off dressers, countertops, and any flat surface to get your attention when she wants it! And yes has even gotten into my plants on occasion!

Thank you for stopping in for a visit during this beautiful autumn season!

I hope you too are enjoying whatever your area has to offer this time of year. Stay happy & healthy.

Cynthia xXx