Modern Sampler and the Rooster

I am just about half finished the stitching on my funky rooster.  The pattern includes two funky chickens and a funky rooster.  I hope to get this half done this weekend and move on to the second half.  I like the bright colours and fun shapes on this project. 

Here's Finn, modelling the growing book blanket.  My daughter is adding the book squares from May 2025 now. The gray squares mark the end of each month. 

I didn't have a lot of sewing room time this week but did manage to get started on the next three blocks for the Threadhouse Academy modern sampler.  I have a one year subscription to the Threadhouse Academy and every 4 months, three new blocks for the sampler are released.  I hope to get caught up on the blocks this week.  Then, the fabric and the blocks will get put away until the final blocks are released in a couple of months.  I am not doing every project that the Threadhouse Academy is offering but I still watch the classes and get ideas for future projects. I'm thinking of signing up again next year.  

I made the medium blue shoo fly blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this week.  These are put away with the other blue blocks as I wait to see what colour will be chosen for February.  

It's been a very cold and snowy week here and where Finn lives.  Great weather for staying inside and stitching!  Finn does like to go outside and stick his face in the snow...   Unfortunately, snowy and cold weather also means booties and his coat when he goes for a walk. 

 I will link up with the RSC, the Slow Sunday Stitchers and Frederique.   Stay warm if you are experiencing the polar vortex this week!

Funky Chicken Progress and More Blue

This week, I spent a bit of time working on my Funky Chicken cross stitch and added lots of stitches. When the stitching is done, I need to add felt wings and beak, etc. as I sew it into a 3D chicken.  I was running out of the darker red-orange colour and managed to get another skein this week. 

I have three Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects started for this year. I made a three shoe fly blocks from my leftover light blue scraps. These finish at 6.5".

Then, I dug into my medium blue scraps and cut out lots of squares and HST's.  This scrap bin has been mined for 2.5" strips before and it was tricky to find enough to make these blocks. 

My daughter asked me to repair a hole in her 17 year old university quilt.  The fabric was starting to shred.  Easy peasy I thought.  Won't take any time at all to fix...

Maybe I have some of that fabric in my light green scrap bin...  I did!  This quilt has been used a lot and has been washed many times.  It has faded just a tad...

I had to move on to plan B.  When I looked closer at the quilt, I saw lots of places where the fabrics had worn through. I decided to use the mending stitch on my machine and sew over the holes to stabilize the weak spots and the seams that were starting to come apart.  This quilt has been well used over the years and my daughter wants to keep using it.  In the winter, she likes two quilts on her bed, this one, and the one I made her for her graduation from university.  She and I have talked about picking out fabric and a pattern for a new quilt for her.  We will have to go shopping!

This is what my backyard looked like early on Wednesday afternoon.  We didn't have any snow in the morning. It was just starting to snow after lunch.  The second picture shows what it looked like on Thursday. 

I used my quilting ruler to measure how deep it was...nearly 10" and the snow had not quit falling yet.  It snowed again yesterday and its snowing again today.  It looks really pretty!  This is January in Canada. 

Finn and my daughter have lots of snow too and it is still snowing there too. 

Finn wants you to know that another row has been added to the book blanket.  He approves. 

 I will link up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, the Slow Stitchers and Frederique in France. 

Rainbow Scrap Challenge and some Knitting

Blue is the colour of the month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge for January.  I have been participating in this challenge for a few years now and I have still not run out of scraps to use each month.  I would like to make three projects this year.  The first one will be these nine patches with 8 blocks made each month.  I have 2 more to make.  You can see that I am making them so that they form a checkerboard when they are sewn together.  These are my light blue blocks and I would like to make some mid-blue blocks as well.  I will get started on those this week.  

My second project will be 10.5" blocks made with HST's.  I don't have enough variety in my light blue scraps to make these with no repeats but that's fine with me. 

The Oxford Quilter's Guild is doing a colour challenge this year--here are my blocks for each month since September.  September - light/lime green; October - orange; November - turquoise and aqua; December - red; and January - purple and magenta.  There will be sashing between the blocks and a border on this quilt to make it baby sized. 

I found a ball of yarn in my sewing room and decided to make a hat this week.  I will be adding a pompom next week when I borrow my friend's pompom maker. 

My daughter is working on the third row of her book blanket.  

I had a couple of friends over to stitch and chat this afternoon.  We were so busy with our projects that I forgot to take pictures.  Carol worked on a crochet blanket and Christine had a cross stitch sampler with her.  I finished off my had and added a few stitches to my cross stitch chicken--not enough to warrant a picture though. 

While out on a walk at the park this week, we came across these squirrels enjoying a feast of seeds that someone had left out on a log for them and the birds. 

Finn is happy to be home again, back in his role as supervisor when my daughter works from home. 

 I will link up with Kathy and Frederique as well as the RSC folks. 

A Christmas Kit

 My friend, Karen, gave me a little cross stitch kit to make an ornament for our tree for Christmas.  I decided to abandon my funky chicken cross stitch and do the kit instead this week.  I wanted to get it done before we take the tree down and put the ornaments away. My father in law drove a little red truck and my daughter called him the Red Truck Grandpa when she was little so red trucks have a special significance in our family. 

The ornament in the top right of the picture above was made for me by my friend Pat a few Christmases ago. 

Here is the red truck in various stages of completion...

I also picked up one of the books I received for Christmas and read it this week, instead of the book I had already started.  (I will get back to it now!). This was a gift from my daughter.  It was a great Christmas holiday read. 

We did not have very good weather for being outside this past week but the sun finally came out and the wind died down yesterday so we took Finn for a walk in the snow at a local conservation area. He loved it and was quite worn out last night. 

Here he is, midway through shaking all the snow off his face. 

My daughter brought home a couple of crochet projects including her book blanket.  She read 117 books in 2025 and made a granny square for each book. The gray granny squares will go in between each month's blocks.  There are 13 gray squares and 117 colourful squares for a total of 130 squares.  They will be set 10x13 with crocheted sashing in white and a few borders around the entire blanket.  

The gray square marks the start of the year.  The squares are in order of the books she read.  She found an online tutorial about joining granny squares together that she used for the white part. 

She has been working on her crochet along as well. My daughter and I both like to have several projects underway at the same time...it gives us a choice of what to work on when the mood hits. 

I will link up with Kathy and the Slow Stitchers on Sunday as well as Frederique and her followers tomorrow.  Happy New Year everyone!  I am looking forward to finishing some projects this year and starting a few new ones as well. 

A Crafty Week

 We are in the "between the holidays" period right now...I love this time of year...quiet after the busy-ness of Christmas and before a new round of activities start up in January.  I have been spending my time reading and crafting and watching movies with my husband and daughter.  

I have one more gift of Christmas to share with you...  I made this vinyl fronted zipper pouch for my daughter for her crafting projects.  As you already know, she is an avid crocheter and embroiderer/cross stitcher so this pouch will be put to good use.  I picked some library themed fabric from my stash.  She noticed the book card for Anne of Green Gables right away...one of her favourite books. I added one of my "Yo Mama made it" labels to the back of the pouch. 

I only added a few stitches to my cross stitch funky chicken this week.  I spent several hours working on our family Christmas album instead of stitching.  I started the album early in our marriage and do a two page spread of pictures from the holiday season for each year since then.  At one time, I did a lot of scrapbooking so I have all the tools, papers, stickers, etc.  Somehow, I got behind and the album was only completed up until 2014.  I had pictures for 2015 to 2023 printed last year and finally got around to working on it this past week.  I have completed 2021, 2022 and 2023 so far...I'm working backwards in time. I hope to get the rest of the pages done soon and have promised myself that I won't get behind again.   This is why I did not do much cross stitching this week. 

Someone decorated an evergreen tree along the trail where I walk each day.  It had rained overnight and the water droplets added sparkle to this tree ornament. 

Santa brought Finn lots of treats and a new Christmas bandana.  

We had an ice storm on Boxing Day so we stayed warm and cozy inside. After having a mostly white December, a thaw and rain before Christmas resulted in a green Christmas. 

We are all avid readers in our family and books are a very popular gift.  Here is our Christmas book stack.  These should keep us all busy for the next while!  

I will link up with Kathy and Frederique as soon as I hit the publish button.   I hope to do a quilts of 2025 post soon. 

Two Gifted Pillows and some Cross Stitch

Some gifts have been given and opened already so I can show them to you.  This first pillow is for a friend who just retired.  I made her a wall hanging a few years ago out of these Christmas FQ's that I have in my stash and decided to maker her a co-ordinating pillow this year. The backing fabric was not quite wide enough so a strip of brown was added.   Also, you will notice that the trees are green on one side and brown on the other.  It all co-ordinates!  There is a zipper under the flap on the back. 

The wreath pillow was finished this week too.  The fabric that I ordered was not an exact match for the fabric on the front of the pillow but it looks fine.  The store said this was Essex linen but it doesn't look like what I have purchased before.  Does anyone know if they have changed the way they make Essex linen???  Anyway, I now have 2. 7 yards of this new fabric.  I will use it for something. The young couple I gave this pillow to were very happy with it. 

This cross stitch is going to be a Satsuma Street Funky Chicken.  I will do all the stitching first and then make it into a 3D chicken.  I'm running out of the darker orange colour and will need to buy another skein of it.  

A few years ago, I made some cross stitch ornaments with old wooden spools.  I made three more this week to be given as gifts. 

Finn says he had to wear his booties again this week.   Sigh. 

Here are the little sleighs before they got put onto the spool. 

 Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, Everyone!  I hope you get some quiet moments during the holidays to stitch, or knit or crochet or read or just relax. 

I will link up with Kathy in the morning and Frederique now.