Saturday, October 11, 2025

creatively speaking this week, needle holder Halloween progress and an elephant

 

time for another creativity round-up for this week in October starting with a box of embroidery perle cotton balls. It just makes me happy seeing it all orderly, and all the colors! 

And I used it to do hand stitching on this week's brown scrap project (for rainbow scrap challenge) 

a needle holder
it all started with sorting through my bin of brown scraps. I got to know what was there by sorting into strips, squares, triangles and odd shaped bits. My migraines and big floaters kept me from doing much this week but here goes! 

After sorting I saw a lot of really little but pretty bits. Now, understand brown isn't my favorite color but
even non faves have worth and that is our focus color this month so 

first I sewed like to like, building a cute larger piece of fabric to start 
I actually liked it, brown as it was. I layered it with batting and backing, sewed around and turned right sides out, closed the opening and it was about 8" long by 4" wide. 

then I quilted it, couched on some pretty checkerboard like specialty thread to look like leaves




It looks sparkly but it's chenille, it's just the up and down that looks sparkly


used these to cut some batting to hold needles

and couched those threads on to create a spine and hold the batting sheets in place



I went around the edge with three strands of floss and buttonhole stitch. 

it was a quick satisfying project to make and could be a gift but it's kind of "primitive" as I didn't fuss with making it "perfect" 

I also operated on my Halloween wall quilt this week, pulling out the REALLY busy areas and deciding to stop here, sew rows together and start quilting it

the other bits will have to be used somewhere else. I'm calling it "Going Batty" as most prints have bats

Because it's a new month with a new focus color (brown) I started my hexie spiral too, and have basted about half the hexies so far

and because I was pushed to use pale color, I plan to do a pale brown, which is tan, version too

Brown seen on my walk this week... a neighbor's elephant planter
I LOVE elephants!! 
Ever since we visited a Nat Geo in washington DC exhibit, I have respected and loved elephants. They are wonderful mamas and care deeply for each other. I saw a man playing piano for them and one got a tear in it's eye as he was almost finished playing....  the herd protects babies, and mourns deaths of other elephants.... by standing vigil for about a week. 
AWESOME

I saw this set of bags to organize my projects as I work on them (or put them aside to think about them)

ordered from amazon, and will let you know what they are like



found here

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Thursday, October 9, 2025

I like Thursday # 472 cozy clothing, costumes, book

 

piles of golden orange leaves underfoot
welcome to this week's list of likes starting with the golden hue nature is giving us right now



conversation starter : as the weather starts to cool, do you have cozy clothes to start wearing? show pics!

the temps are in the 80's mostly still but I "want" to pretend it's fall weather so I have been wearing capri's and 3/4 sleeve tops.... 

Seems like the weather now goes from hot to cold/snow here now but I'm holding on to the idea of "Autumn" 

this is my coziest cardigan sweater, so soft 


old and covered in quilting threads! 
with gorgeous ribbon embroidery

here I am in a halloween shirt






I actually needed a sweatshirt to walk one evening, (also holding on to memories of Lake Placid too)

and because it's Colorado where the temps can change 60 degrees in two hours
shorts are still out
shorts at the ready
(people here wear "winter" shorts, once our neighbor was snowblowing in his shorts

speaking of Halloween LOL here is another one on display at chez Lana

might have been last year's

a neighbor's display... LOVE this one


this one was cool too

not exactly Halloween but a flamingo is ALWAYS appropriate

the moon wasn't full but was striking this week, as dusk approached


Reading by audio, the next in the Hanna Svenson mysteries

I always enjoy Dancing with the stars on Disney Week.... this year was good but they offed one of my favorites. ( do you ever vote for competition shows that rely on them?) Amazing Race is great this season as is Survivor. Murdoch Mystery is back (CBC)  
still sewing while watching TV





Great sign and the spider makes it a Halloween decoration 

in a world where you can be anything.... BE KIND



halloween costummes

thought we were adopting a dog but the breeder ghosted us. Still hoping to find a small dog that could fly with us if we are able to fly to Europe as we planned. I found a 9 year old mini poodle to adopt but it's 22 lbs without the carrier and the limit is 20 lbs including the carrier... anyway.... 

 please visit these fine folk to see what they have to like this week







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Saturday, October 4, 2025

creatively speaking, this week, mostly sewing

 

I sewed on my big hexie quilt as you go blocks this week, and finished  the 24 I need to make a wall quilt with them. 

You basically stack backing, batting, hexie then quilt it. Next you fold the backing to the front one side at a time, fold twice to hide raw edges, clip in place, then do the next side, around. Now the block is quilted, edges finished and sewn into place 

and now I have 24 finished quilt blocks to hand sew together into a quilt. I love how they came out, love the different backing purples and know it will look like a patchwork when I turn the quilt over. 

I hand sewed a hexie section to put into the other scrappy halloween runner 
when I cut out the hexie shapes for those large QAYG blocks, I was left with some triangle shapes. Instead of throwing them away I sewed them to each other to make that top row. 

these rows are components not sewn to each other, just on the design wall

the next row is small rectangles sewn to each other
the bottom section is made of the small hexie EPP blocks 
I have another set of hexies ready to add to these to make an 18" row

I signed up for a painting workshop I hope to do tomorrow, at least a couple of them

I have put up some older quilts around the house... I do love this one....



the focus color at rainbow scrap challenge this month is brown.... 

I note things on my walks that are brown

we live in Colorado, most things are brown! 

this gingerbread cake is brown (recipe on last Thur post)

many shades of brown here, click on the image to see better


I want to try this easy painting trick... let me know if you try it! 

(hint it's done by painting a string first) 



https://youtube.com/shorts/UPe3PIgcSHU?si=d345rDX8OnJMB9Zv



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Thursday, October 2, 2025

I Like Thursday # 471

 

Well, here it is time for another list of likes.... starting with my Halloween mug for coffee. I like strong coffee with milk in the mornings, how about you? 

I liked seeing my favorite donkeys and horse again thisb week

Hello Beautiful! 
all three responded to my cooing and baby talk, and raced to the fence

What?!! no carrots again? (your pawrents said no, honey) 
we had a long visit then continued our walk into another neighborhood. It has a sort of town green in the center with these statues, I LOVE
it has a gazebo, playground, picnic tables, and more. Nice! 



this is some unusual horse chestnut tree with inedible nuts that look like lychee's
some trees are glowing in golden colors



here is another Halloween yard ornament seen along the walk

one perfect leaf, outstanding in it's field! sometimes just  one of something stands out as more beautiful
A yard full of leaves wouldn't showcase this the way I got to see it... is there a lesson for us there? Be brave enough to stand out? 
I saw this on youtube...
true that for me. I'd like to feel safe again. 

fine dining

I made bean quesadilla's for lunch this week, tortilla, refried beans, green onions, tomatoes, cheese heated in butter on the stove, topped with salsa and sour cream
also in fine dining
the base layer cake waiting for icing and whipped cream

Conversation starter this week: do you have a good gingerbread type recipe to share? or what is your favorite gingerbread style food to eat? 

first of all, we   tried this gingerbread cake recipe this week

https://tastesbetterfromscratch.com/gingerbread-cake/ 

I use fresh ginger (grated) and as always used just egg whites (I'm allergic to the yolks) but stayed to the recipe otherwise

with vanilla sauce plus whipped cream

 my favorite gingerbread was found in Historic Williamsburg. We used to go fairly often when we lived on the East coast. Our first stop was the bakery where they made fresh gingerbread cookie/cakes. We'd buy a dozen for the long weekend, sit on the cobblestone patio bench, the three of us, DH, Cole the poodle, and I. 



We would savor the first cookie of the weekend, warm from the oven, each of us with their own. 

It was usually late afternoon by then, time for a tea and cookie, breeze rustling leaves overhead, peaceful, people in period clothes calling to each other, the three of us content and anticipating good times to come. Cole just watched the squirrels coming ever closer for a crumb, people watching Cole. 


cole enjoyed shopping too

I miss everything about that time. 

Watching on Videos

still chuckling at this,   making friends (short)

https://youtube.com/shorts/cMMKH6xkk8Y?si=90J_icaiof9RTRjD

a girl's thoughts on love

https://youtube.com/shorts/bYvQyiiAxd4?si=LdV9bJZGNTHZkda3

I've had a migraine pretty much daily since last we met.... hope that stops soon, sorry this is short today

for now, please visit these fine folk to read about their gingerbread stories

https://wordweaverart.blogspot.com/



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