A mouse in the house

We seem to have a mouse in the house and she has taken up residence in the basket of hearts! Can you see her nestled in amongst the hearts (she's lavender with grey ears)? Little dog thinks she'd like to play with it.

Le petit sac (the little bag)

This is my latest finish, a little bag (le petit sac). It would make a great gift bag and done up in appropriate colours would make a cute Easter bag. I found the pattern here on a French blog. If you'd like the pattern, open her blog and on the right hand side look for "catégories" and under that title you will find "mes tutorials" - Geneviève will email it to you. She speaks English. She also has photos of several bags that others have made .... oh my, there are some beauties.
Geneviève's photos in her tutorial (a PDF) are so good that you can likely understand what to do without translation. I chose to make this one using metric measurements just for the challenge.

If this is old age ....

Today I received my first Old Age pension cheque from the Government - thank you.  It seems odd because I don't feel old and when I look in the mirror I see a young chick.....until I put on my glasses ;).  If this is old age then I'm all for it.

For the birds

This fine fellow , a pine grosbeak, along with many others have been regular visitors at our feeders. The feeders are at the edge of the deck that is outside the kitchen window. When I took this pic he was waiting on the line whilst his lady dined. The ladies are not as pretty but their song is delightful. They and the flock of red polls that are also regulars at the feeders seem to get along very well. They are all very entertaining and certainly warm our hearts watching and listening to them.

I've got hearts

I've been filling a basket with hearts, which will be our February décor. All of these are handmade by myself. If you look closely you will see a fabric tulip amongst them along with one gaudy bright heart. I hadn't realized that I had so many and, in fact, I still have a few others that could be added but that entailed getting a bigger basket.  Besides, it's nice to have a few hanging up here and there throughout the house. 

I've stitched these since Christmas and they are now awaiting finishing.  I haven't decided on how to finish the "Christmas Wishes" ... any suggestions?  Sunbonnet Sue is destined to become a mug rug.  

Snappy bag

This morning I made a snappy bag from here.  The tutorial was easy to follow and was printable, which was a bonus.  It's one of those bags that you  squeeze the top to open .... used to be very popular years ago. 

A little knowledge can be dangerous

I guess it's Murphy's Law that it is easier to add stuff I don't want than to add stuff that I do want .... such as the Print Friendly button.  That was my "oops" of last evening - I was merely checking it out and now it seems to be a permanent fixture on my blog ... what happened to previewing?  I do realize it is quite ridiculous to have that button there since there is nothing worth printing  but I have been unable to remove it.  I believe this is a perfect example of a little knowledge can be dangerous.

Having fun

I was having fun in the sewing room today.  I decided to make  Katie's Poncho.  I haven't sewn for myself for ages and have very little knit fabric in my stash but I did have a lovely knit dress that I hadn't worn very often, didn't wear any more, and loved the fabric and colour; I'd been saving it to make a skirt  but I have enough skirts so nothing was happening .... am I ever glad I didn't part with it.  There was enough fabric to make this poncho - it's dead easy and quite attractive.   The bodice of the dress had a lovely scoop neck with long sleeves but was too short to be of much use and then the  light went on  "ahha" moment happened!  By adding some knit fabric to the bottom and trimming the long sleeves I now have a t-shirt.  I used to do this kind of sewing all the time for the children and myself so it was such fun to try my hand at it again.  

Now excuse the backdrop for the photos that were taken in our "under construction" basement.  The hanger covers were made from vintage hand crocheted placemats from which I could not remove all the stains .... they made lovely, padded hangers. 

I apologize for the photos ... I had cropped them but something did not work right and the poncho pic is not where I wanted it to go.  I am still learning how to do some of these things in blogger.

Credits

These are the credits from my previous post.  The little house ornie was from Retro Mama and the gift block was from Nan at Pots and Pins via Sew We Quilt.  Thank you ladies for sharing.

Experimenting ....

This morning I'm experimenting with adding pix to my blog - should have tried this sooner, lol.  I was fascinated with the blocks that looked like gifts that were available last month and tried a couple - this particular one was my favourite.  The larger one is an actual quilt block and the smaller one is a mug rug that I made for a friend, Betty,  ... she was delighted with it and said it was too pretty to use.  There was another quilt block with a 3D bow that I also tried but this design was my favourite. Unfortunately, off the top of my head at the moment I cannot think of  who offered the little house ornie tutorial - I'll check on that and post her name later.

No Picnik?

When I opened my email inbox this morning I was quite surprised to learn that picnik.com was closing .... my goodness, I had only been introduced to that site last week to make my header.  And here I am still trying to figure out how to post pix in my blog.  No doubt, Danielle , who is my blog Guru will point me elsewhere with picnik's closure.

Babbling

Last month I joined the Bargain Lovers Club at Sew Sisters and yesterday my second parcel of fat quarters arrived .... oh la la they are absolutely gorgeous!!!!  I had hoped this would be a good way to build up my stash and I'm not disappointed.  When I go into a large quilt or fabric shop I'm overwhelmed with the selection so it's easier for me to shop online. Sew Sisters provides excellent service and has a fabulous choice of fabrics very reasonably priced.  Now what to do with these .... I hesitate to even open the package because they are very nicely laid out in the plastic bag ... I kinda want to hang them on the wall or something.    I think this latest selection would make some gorgeous aprons using the pattern that I mentioned yesterday.

An update to Linda's Christmas Cake .... it is absolutely delicious!!  Definitely a keeper recipe.  Mr. BB said it was the best cake I'd ever made (ever?). 

I'm being Suzie Homemaker today.  I donned the new apron that my sister made me and proceeded to make Linda's Christmas Cake recipe from razzledazzlequilter. It's in the oven and looking good.  I know lots of folks don't like fruit cake but it is a favourite in our home and so versatile.  It's delightful on it's own or with a slice of cheddar and a glass of wine or warmed up and served with a butterscotch or nutmeg sauce. 

I washed out the pot that I mixed the cake in, threw in a small ham bone, some water, etc. and hopefully there will be some fresh soup for lunch.  I've added quinoa, dried green peas, and dried green lentils.  Quinoa is grown and processed in our area, which makes it readily available, and that's wonderful.  And with a load of laundry on I think I can stop being Suzie and spend the rest of the day sewing, stitching, or whatever.

The apron that my sister gave me is called a 'fat quarter apron' and she included the pattern.  She used an autumn print in moss green and a rusty red ... I feel very posh when wearing it.

I expect it's obvious that I'm under construction, and it looks like it could be a slow build.  So I shall try to post occasionally just to get the hang of it.  

In the last few weeks I've seen challenges to finish a UFO per month or make a new x-stitch per month or just make something each month that possibly might be a gift for next Christmas.  I must admit that I was tempted to sign up but told myself there was no way I could keep up.  But much to my surprise, when I survey all that I have done since the beginning of the new year, I've got quite a head start on accomplishing one something per month. YAY!

I have two more blocks of the Little Birdie Stitches BOM to finish stitching; as I finish each one I've been attaching the sashing (think that's the right word) so that by the time #12 is done I will be ready to sew these together for a quilt top.  Whilst stitching I have decided it will be finished as a baby quilt; and with a granddaughter getting married next summer perhaps it won't be too long before I will have a special someone to give it to.

My current x-stitch project is a small stocking ornament stitched in turkey red (#498) on white aida cloth.  It is quite attractive and I'm hoping I can do the finishing properly.  I have no problem x-stitching but finishing the projects can be a challenge - wish me luck. 

On the sewing table I'm working on a pair of placemats that I made from my stash - they are colourful - that just need the binding sewn on.  Perhaps that's what I should go and do now.

Here on the prairies we're in a deep freeze with wicked wind chills.  I am trying not to complain about it because it is January and to be expected but also because we've had a wonderfully mild winter till now.
 

Was away all day so nothing more got done on my blog.  Here's hoping tomorrow is more productive.

I did it!