Things That Go Bump in the Day or Night

 

Happy Halloween!

Today's post is about some of the things that Lucky is afraid of...some logical some not.  To outsiders, he seems like a fierce dog all full of growling and jumping.  They don't know that a shadow or a leaf falling on the path can frighten him.  I still don't understand why he's afraid of garbage cans (except they are so much bigger than him).

They added some new features at the park.  Lucky was afraid of this duck.  It took him about a month to realize it wouldn't hurt him.

***

This fountain was terrifying.  

He growled and barked for anyone who would listen!

 ***

But one thing unglued him more than anything.  We walked along an alley in our neighborhood and Lucky could not run away fast enough.  Actually, I can't blame him! 😄

I would like to tell you this was for Halloween but actually it was July when this happened.  I had to look twice before I realized they weren't growing vegetables...

We live in an odd--but interesting--neighborhood.😂😂😂

Hope you have a wonderful Halloween!

Have a safe and happy weekend!

Thursdays This and That: Flea Market Stuff

 

I love red and white in a kitchen.  The old ad above is similar to my kitchen which has yellow walls and white appliances and cupboards.  Imagine my delight when I FINALLY found a rolling pin with red handles at Renninger's Farm and Antique Market.

Beth gave me some blue fabric in the perfect color I was searching for:

Besides pickles and produce the other thing I found that intrigued me was a heart shaped sachet.  Just when I thought I had seen everything up popped this:

It's big-- 9 inches long and about 9.5 inches wide.  In the back there is an opening held closed with a snap.  Inside was a gauze bag of potpourri.

Peggy--the lady at the stand said this was not just a sachet but that people kept them on their tables and put hot platters on them when serving food.  It's a sachet and a trivet.  The heat of the food made the potpourri infuse the air with the floral fragrance.  The sachets are quite flat as if to attest to their job of making the house smell sweeter.

I had never heard of this.  My great grandmother and my two great aunts just about sewed every kind of doo-dad you can imagine but they didn't do this.  I also never saw this in any of the old magazines I studied for years.  I couldn't find anything in newspapers.com.  Do you have knowledge of this?

It's an interesting idea.   Still, I'm not sure I want my meal to smell like flowery stuff.  Beth and I finally decided that a nice use would be to put a tea pot on it and fill the interior sachet with clove and cinnamon.  What do you think?

Have a safe and happy day!

Road Trip

 

My husband and I have been very busy with caregiving and taking people to doctor appointments.  So far, everyone is okay it's just hectic.  Dave and Nancy have regular check-ups that were shelved during radiation and chemo.  Dave also starts physical therapy focused on swallowing.  And that's not mentioning my own family...

I miss the blog and also miss sewing which didn't happen at all last week except for binding Jim's quilt.

So Hubby and I decided to get away on Saturday.  We didn't go far--just to the flea/farmer's market where our friends Beth and Bob have a stand.  The market is only 20 miles west of us but it's like another world when we go the backroad routes.  All farm land, Mennonite people traveling in horses and carriages, and even a few fields of sunflowers!

Brad loves going to these areas.  His father's family was Pennsylvania Dutch and he grew up hearing the language used especially when the grown-ups didn't want the kids to understand.  He was disappointed that he only heard it spoken only once while we were at the market but it is a dying 

language.😔

Beth and Bob's stand was really beautiful.  They did a lovely job decorating it.

I love this market.  I hadn't been there for years (well before Covid began).  Where else can you find "vintage men's underwear" for sale?  😂😂😂

The sign probably referred to this kind of underwear that Brad remembered his grandfather wearing:

While Bob and Brad held stayed with the stand, Beth and I walked around looking at everything and also for quilt inspiration.  I loved this quilt and want to make one.

Brad and I went to a little cafe in the market for lunch and I ordered Sasparilla, something I haven't had since I was a kid!  It still tasted good!  I wouldn't want it everyday but it was nice for a change of pace!

The pickles the cafe served were the best I've had and reminded me of homemade pickles my first MIL used to grow and can.  We actually bought some because the pickles were sold at a little stand.  Also came home with some vegetables that were nice.

I bought a few things and I'll show you those later.

Have a safe and happy day!

Jim's Quilt

 I made a quilt for my brother.  Lizzie quilted it and I finished binding it on Monday. I gave it to him right away. 

I used the Easy Peasy pattern again because I had an assortment of fabrics and that designs works great.

My brother loved the quilt and all through the evening he kept texting me when he found meaningful things in the fabrics.

He like the images of the dogs and cats,  especially Molly (below):

My favorite block was the Boy Scout block:

Jim and my mom wondered where I found the Boy Scout.  It was at a flea market years ago.  The handkerchief had a hole in it and I think I got it for a 25 cents.  I just thought maybe I could use it someday and then...someday came.

My brother said, how do you keep track of all this stuff?  Do you have a ledger or something?  I don't but I tend to remember where things are...unless I (occasionally) misplace them.  But the majority of the time I remember where things are stored.

I'm so happy he liked the quilt!  

Wishing you a safe and happy weekend!

Quilting in a Frame

 Have you ever hand quilted on a frame?

I tried hand quilting on a frame decades ago.  But I was used to quilting on a hoop and decided not to buy a frame.

I was pretty amazed when I recently watched a video about how quilting on a frame is an endangered craft in the UK.  You can watch the video here.  Of course I had to look this up and I was rather amazed at what I found.

Heritage Crafts, an organization focused on preserving crafts in the UK had some staggering numbers to share.  It considered this kind of quilting "critically endangered" and the figures quoted shocked me.  The total number of "serious amateur makers" lists 11-20 individuals.

Quilting in general is not considered endangered just the technique of doing it in a frame.  But here in the USA,  many people still quilt on a frame and there are often "sewing bees" still listed in newspapers in the United States.  

You can read the numbers the Heritage Crafts cites here.

Do you have a lot of hand quilting in a frame where you live?

Have a safe and happy day!

Flower Friday: October 17, 2025

 

Hello and welcome to Flower Friday!

I suspect this is the last Flower Friday of the season.  The temps are in the 30s here and there are less flowers blooming in our neighborhood.

I did find a few marigolds as Lucky and I strolled.

And some asters:

And even a St. John's Wort towering above a now dead plant:

Wishing you a safe and happy day!

100 Dresses

 

It was a rainy and somewhat dreary weekend which was fine.  I cleaned out the sewing room, got some prep done on new projects and enjoyed sewing videos in the evening.

I'm not a garment sewist but I do enjoy videos on sewing clothes.

One that really struck me was a real interesting piece was about the "Tailor Dad" from China who made his daughter 100 dresses.  This was a lovely piece on how he taught himself to sew and how this helps his relationship with his daughter.  The dresses are amazing.  An article on the Dad is here and at the bottom of that page is the video I watched.

This story reminded me of The Hundred Dresses by Eleanor Estes.

This is a wonderful book published in 1944.  I gave a copy to my granddaughter years ago.  It was also earned the Newbery Honor Award.

And all this reminded me of a panel that is available to buy.  It's called The 100 Ladies Embroidery Cloth.  The panel is meant to be embroidered and colored.  The ladies are small but it's an interesting concept.  It is manufactured by a Japanese company, Lecien.

Let me know if you watch the Tailor Dad video!

Have a safe and happy day!

Tuesday This and That: October 14, 2025

 

I keep the above sign near my computer  😄

Welcome Tuesday's This and That.  I don't think we've had one for some time.

Ellis and Higgs is a German website that has some really nice (free) tutorials.  You can see them here.

***

I don't order much these days for sewing but I made an exception for Daisy and Grace templates.  I really enjoy working on the quilt-as-you-go pieces while we watch tv at night.  

So I decided to order more templates because I found some tutorials of other things I would like to make.  The only place I knew would have the templates was Missouri Star Quilt Company.  Daisy and Grace has them but the company is in the UK and therefore subject to tarriffs.  

What I didn't realize was that Missouri Star now uses Amazon for delivery.  I ordered in September.  Two days later the package was shipped out and arrived at a carrier station.

The problem?  When the package didn't arrive on time, I tracked the order.  It cited that the order would be late.

The package was "in transit" for 12 days until it arrived in New Jersey.   

I'm just letting you know that if you order from MSQC, you package could take way longer than you expected.

Have a safe and happy day!

Flower Friday: October 10, 2025

 

Happy Flower Friday!

We got some rain early Wednesday and we might even get some more this weekend!  Yippee!  How is your garden doing?

I received chrysanthemums for my birthday.  One from my friend Molly, one from my brother, and another from my cousin.

I was surprised by this mound.  My neighbor threw a packet of 
"wild flower seeds" that they recieved in the mail with an advertisement.  We are all surprised at the results!

That's it for this week.  Hope all is going well in your garden!

Have a safe and happy weekend!

Temperature

 We're not officially in a drought again.

But parts of a local creek are dry.

Our county is considered "abnormally dry" while nearby municipalities are now officially in drought.  We are being asked to cut back on water use.  That is not difficult at this point.  The price of municipal water has gone up so much that most of us are really stunned at our latest bill.

A few weeks ago, I talked about making a temperature quilt in 2026.  A lot of you had really REALLY good tips and advice.  But I think one reader asked, "what will you do with the quilt afterwards?"   And that made me pause.

Enter Sarah Homfray.  I love her youtube channel on embroidery and other creative projects.  The project I was inspired was on her "Sarah Homfray Creates" channel.  

Instead of a quilt, Sarah chose to do a sampler years ago.  It was essentially a long ribbon of embroidery and can easily be hung up anywhere.  You can see the video here.  She even provides links on how to record your temps and weather.  For rain or snow she added beads or sequins and I'm going to be looking through my notions this weekend to see what I have.

Foruitously, I found some things I can use for this project at the quilt guild show.  The first important piece was this thread binder I bought for 1 or 2 dollars:

It even came with thread!

I also found some striped fabric that I'll use for my temperature lines.  I will sew about 4-6 inches across each line.  You can see the fabric behind the binder above.  I figured this is easy to do in the evening and I want to try and practice some new embroidery stitches.

The daily chart that Sarah shares a link means that I can easily keep track of precipitation and temperatures.  

So technically this will be a temperature sampler but I like the idea and it's much easier to complete.

What do you think?

Have a safe and happy day!

Jenny's Quilt

 

I finished Jenny's quilt last Friday.  It was a memory quilt of her mother's blouses after Paula was killed tragically by a boy who was high and crashed into her.

I won't lie.  It was a tough quilt to make for many reasons:  the shirts Jenny chose, the fact that so many of her blouses seemed to have darts everywhere, and most of all--the shirts still had Paula's scent on them.

Jenny visited my mom on Tuesday so  I took the quilt over for her.  It was an emotional day but she loved the quilt.

Anyway, here is the layout I chose.  I asked Lizzie to quilt it with lots of hearts and she did!

Have a safe and happy day!

Oh Deer!

 

One day a doe walked along the park path eating acorns.  She saw the old lady and the little poodle up ahead but continued walking towards them...chomping acorns all along the way.

She was passing the old lady when the poodle decided to stand on his hind legs.  It was as if he said, "Look at me!  I can be big too!"

The doe ran off into the bush and the poodle was very proud of himself.  That happened about two weeks ago.  

We saw the same doe last week.  This time she was eating the brush aside of the path.  Her photo is above.  Lucky stood on his hind legs, "Look at me!  I can be big too!"

The doe chewed her acorns and stared at him. "I'm not falling for that trick again" and my pup reluctant and disappointed had to continue on the path.

It's acorn season and we are nearing drought conditions so we are seeing deer at the park almost daily.  On Sunday we had this doe with two fawns.  One of the fawns and Lucky appeared to be fascinated with each other.

Pennsylvania and Maine continue to lead the cases of lyme disease so we continue to be vigilant about ticks.  We also keep an eye out for bucks.  The rut season has probably begun and bucks can be aggressive.  So we also keep a look at for that but so far it's only been female and baby deer.

Hope you have some wildlife to keep you entertained too!

Have a safe and happy day!