My Happy Place

Happy Monday, everyone!  I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.  If you live in Florida, I pray you're all safe!

This lovely Monday morning, I finally managed to finish my Happy Place wall hanging!  I love this design.  It's just so pretty and scrappy and it'll look awesome up on the wall near my sewing machines.

My Happy Place Wall hanging pattern, $4 on Etsy

Now it's time to go get some cleaning done.  Hope you all have a great Monday!

Free Friday: Small Box

Happy Friday, everyone!  I'm trying to get this week's pattern done at a reasonable time instead of at the last minute like last week.  It's been a rough week for me and my creative pursuits, but thankfully things seem to be getting back into the gear. 

Well, I asked last weekend what kinds of patterns everyone would like to see on my blog, and Bella was nice enough to leave a comment saying that she likes boxes (among other things).  I don't have a lot of experience making boxes, so I thought that might be a fun little challenge for myself.  This is just a simple box to get used to making them, but I think it would make a lovely little holder for buttons or a cute little gift box! 

Small Box

Skill Level:

Beginner

Size:

2 ½ x 2 ½ x 2 ¼ inches

Materials:

• 7-count plastic canvas
• Worsted weight yarn in desired color
• #16 plastic canvas needle

Instructions:

1. Cut and stitch plastic canvas according to graphs. For bottom of box, cut one 14x14 hole piece (not pictured).
2. Whipstitch box lid sides to box lid top with chosen yarn color, and overcast raw edges with same yarn. Do the same for box sides and bottom. Enjoy! ♥

 

Click the image above to see it larger.  You may share this pattern however you please as long as you don't alter it or claim it as your own.  Please link back if you share this pattern.  You may sell items made from this pattern.  However, you may not sell this pattern.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!  I'm going to finish getting caught up with my house chores so I can get back to designing more! 

What's Up Wednesday

Hi guys!  Happy Wednesday!  AAAAH, I'm so glad my work today is finally done.  What a busy week I've had, and not in a fun way at all!  I've hardly had any time at all to work on my creative projects, so I don't have a lot to show you this week.  I do however, have a lot of canning pictures to share!

What's up with canning:

This has been the canning week this week.  My canning cupboard is about 2/3 full now I think, but I'm going to take a little break before doing any more canning.  I have sewing and stitching to do after all! 

The first thing I canned this week was ketchup.  Hubby helped with that, so it wasn't too hard.  We don't eat sugar, but we love ketchup, so I've been making our own for quite a while now.  Here's the recipe if you're interested.  We like it not only because it's sugar free but also because it's just really good.  It's got amazing pizzazz.  I told him this should last us for six months or so, and he was surprised.  He thought it might last us two months, lol.  He loves ketchup.

Next I did split pea soup!  I had to doctor it up though because it only had 1 cup of ham in the whole recipe, so I added about two pounds of ham, lol.  Yes, I love ham!

Then it was finally time to take care of those pesky pears I picked the weekend before last at my MIL's house.  They were beautiful pears, but because the tree is very old, the pears have what's called stone cells which are basically pebble sized that are as hard as rocks all through the pears, so they take forever to cut and peal.  I can't leave stones cells in the pears because my silly hubs chipped a tooth on one a couple of years ago which lead to his very first cavity at 35 years old (!!!).  So anyway, to make a long story short, I spent literally all day yesterday peeling pears, ALL DAY PEALING PEARS, and all I got out of it was 7 quarts.

After that, I was just done.  I quartered the rest of the pears and threw them on the stove to make juice, then canned it up to be made into jelly in the future.  And then next year, I'm going to let the birds have the pears.  UGH, no more pears!

By the way, if any of you are canners, I can't recommend highly enough getting a steam canner.  They're amazing!  They're so much faster and easier than water bath canning, and no more having to have an extra pot of water on the back burner in case you didn't fill the canner up high enough.  Plus, a couple of years ago, the USDA published a report that finally proves that steam canners are safe.

And I promise this is the last of my canning rants for a while!  I'm going to focus my energies on creative things for a while!

What's up with stitching:

Well, like I said, I haven't really had time to get into my creative stuff because of everything else, but here and there I have been working on my Happy Place wall hanging.

I love how it's coming out, don't you?  My MIL saw it today and fawned all over it, I think because she's a quilter too and loves the quilting themes.  I can't wait to see it all finished!

Well, that was my week!  I hope you're all having a good week too, and hopefully next week's post will be a lot more interesting.

Free Patterns Question

Hi guys!  I just have a quick question for anyone who's a regular reader or maybe you stopped by and you like my free patterns.  What kind of free patterns would you like to see next?  I noticed I'm getting into a bit of a slump with them and tend to do the same kinds of patterns a lot.  Let me know what you want and I'll make it!  Thanks!

Free Friday: Autumn Windsock

Happy Friday, everyone!  This is getting written kind of late for me because it's been a busy day.  I went out to Joann's today to get some clothing patterns on sale this morning (3 for $5!) and then I went to my nephew's 9th birthday party in the afternoon, plus vacuuming and mopping the floors and my other daily chores.  And now I'm trying to get this written before hubs gets home and I have to feed him his dinner!

I thought it would be a fun idea to make a windsock for every season, by making a kind of plain base design and then swapping out the details.  This is the autumn wind sock!  I'm definitely putting this cutie out on my front porch.  Don't you think it'll look nice with some red and yellow mums and some pretty pumpkins?

Autumn Windsock

Skill Level:

Beginner

Size:

4 x 20 inches

Materials:

• 7-count plastic canvas
• Red Heart Yarn in colors listed in key
• Hot Glue
• Size #1 Barrel Swivel (found in fishing supplies)
• ¼ inch ribbon in matching color
• #16 plastic canvas needle

Instructions:

1. Cut plastic canvas according to graphs. Stitch leaves according to graphs. Leaving red section unfinished, stitch windsock according to graph. Once finished, hold the two narrow ends together, overlapping red sections, and finish stitching.
2. Overcast unfinished edges of windsock with Warm Brown, and leaves with same color as the body of the leaf.
3. Use hot glue to attach 12” lengths of ribbon to one open end of the wind sock, spacing them about 1” apart.
4. Cut two 12” lengths of ribbon. Working on the end of the windsock without the ribbons, attach one end of the first piece of cord anywhere to the inside of the windsock. Slide the other end through the loop on the barrel swivel, and attach it directly across from the first end. Repeat with the second piece of cord so that when you're done, the four ends are attached at all four corners.
5. Use hot glue to attach leaves evenly around the outside of the windsock.♥

Click the image above to see it larger.  You may share this pattern however you please as long as you don't alter it or claim it as your own.  Please link back if you share this pattern.  You may sell items made from this pattern.  However, you may not sell this pattern.

Ok everyone, I've gotta run!  Have yourself a great Labor Day weekend!

What's Up Wednesday

Happy Wednesday everyone!  Wednesday is actually a long day for me because it's when I do my laundry and I really don't like doing laundry.  All that sorting, folding, climbing stairs, and having to wait around for the machines to finish, bleck!  I try to remind myself to be grateful though; it wasn't too long ago that laundry day meant washing your clothes by hand and hanging them on the line!

I've been pretty busy this last week!  I've been canning, sewing, stitching, cleaning, and even pretending to be a mechanic.  So here's my week in pictures!

What's up with canning

Over the weekend, we picked pears.  It was time.  The neighbor's pears were just falling out of the tree, so we had to get to it before they were all gone!  His tree didn't have many pears, but they were very big and nice.  His are lovely to just eat.  So juicy and sweet!  Pears in the store don't even come close to how nice these are.  Then we went over to Hubby's mom's house to pick her tree.  Her pears are smaller, but she had so many of them!  And they were very nice this year, hardly any defects or worm holes.  All in all, I figure we got about 3/4 of a bushel.  Here they are all separated out.  They need to continue to ripen before I can start canning them.

 I also started canning meals-in-a-jar, which are basically ready to eat cans of food!  These are so handy to have when I'm having a busy or tiring day, or I forget to thaw some meat the day before.  They aren't very pretty to look at, but they're very delicious.

Here's hearty chicken stew:

And here's curried chicken and beef stroganoff:
 

I have two more recipes I'm going to make probably in the next week: split pea soup and chili.  That should keep us well stocked in ready to eat meals for most of the winter.

What's up with sewing

I started quilting my ridiculous vegetable quilt last weekend too.  I plan on posting a Tuesday tip about my quilting method, so keep an eye out for that next week.

Here's where the pretending to be a mechanic bit comes in.  I'm not sure what got me into this, but I've been thinking about getting a vintage machine the last couple of weeks.  They're well built, easy to maintain, and in many cases, run so much nicer than modern machines.  After a lot of looking and research, I finally decided on a Singer 301A, and got a really good deal for one on Etsy.  The lady gave me a good deal because it's missing the tension nut, but that's easy enough to replace.

I've been having a ball cleaning her up and oiled, and she works like a dream!  Can you believe that this machine can get up to 1600 stitches a minute?  My Brother, a heavy duty all metal mid-arm straight stitch machine built for quilting, can only do 1500.  And the Singer is soooo much quieter than any modern machine.  It sounds like rain on a roof, even at high speed.  Lovely!  I'm just waiting for the tension nut to come in the mail, and then I'll be sewing on this beauty! 

(PS, yes, that brings me to a total of four sewing machines.)

What's up with plastic canvas

I've been working steadily on the new wall hanging design, too!  This is a big one, so I suspect I won't have it finished until next week sometime.  I really like how it's coming out so far.

This is going on the wall next to my sewing machines! 

Well, I hope you're all having a good week!  I need to get my butt moving because my to-do list is pretty long!  See you later!

Free Friday: Watermelon Magnet

Happy Friday, everyone!  Boy, another week gone already, and another week closer to fall!  I really can't wait.  Fall is the best season, in my humble opinion. 

But until then, it's still summer, and what's summer without watermelon?  Yes, I have yet another variant of the citrus coaster pattern, but this time it's a magnet and a cutie at that!  Stick this on your fridge to help you remember to enjoy summer while it's here :)

Watermelon Magnet

Skill Level:

Beginner

Materials:

• 7-count plastic canvas
• Red Heart yarn in colors listed in key
• Magnetic tape
• Craft glue
• #16 plastic canvas needle

 Instructions:

1. Cut and stitch plastic canvas according to graph.
2. Overcast edges using colors of nearby stitches (use the picture above as a guide)
3. Cut several pieces of magnetic tape to fit on the back of bat magnet. Remove paper from magnets and apply glue to sticky side before attaching to rainbow. This may seem like overkill, but it makes for a very secure bond. ♥

Click the image above to see it larger.  You may share this pattern however you please as long as you don't alter it or claim it as your own.  Please link back if you share this pattern.  You may sell items made from this pattern.  However, you may not sell this pattern.

I hope everyone has a fun weekend!  We're going to pick our neighbor's and my MIL's pear trees, then get all the materials needed for canning.  Sounds like a long and busy week ahead of me!