turkey feathers

Felt Craft: Pumpkin Pleasure

First, I want to say Thank You for the encouragement and the well-wishes for my wrist (it's so much better now), and the general merriment that you guys bring to this blog.  It makes me happy and content knowing you're all out there somewhere in your own cozy corners, keeping those home fires burning.   

Such glorious weather here again.  The rain dried up and the sun peeked out and it turned into another perfect autumn day.  With night-time temperatures dropping, the trees are changing colors quickly now.  I'm hoping, (and keeping my fingers crossed) for a nice long fall season.  It just never seems to last long enough, does it? 

After such a busy week I stayed home most of the day and got caught up on a little housework; then managed to finish the wool pumpkins I'd started.  I'm really happy with how these turned out too and I think a huge part of it is due to the wonderful earthy colors.  ALL credit for that goes to this talented lady who hand-dyed this very wool using natural materials from her kitchen and yard.  Things like onion skins, marigold flowers, cherry bark, silver birch leaves and goldenrod...just to name a few. 

In fact, Simmy spent most of the summer experimenting with various combinations and techniques and achieved some really amazing results.   If you want to try this yourself, she also put together a wonderful and quite comprehensive tutorial here.  Anyway, I can't even tell you how tickled I was, when several months ago I received some of these wool pieces from Simmy all the way from the UK.  I've had my eye on them ever since, just waiting for the right project to come along.  I only hope these pumpkin gourds are worthy of all the work that went into dying the wool!  

  

The pattern for my mini pumpkins can be found in my book BLANKET STATEMENT: page 26 for 'Woolly Pumpkins' or you can download the PDF for WOOLLY PUMPKINS here directly.

It can also be found on my website under FREE STUFF. 

Kitchen Cruise

Signs of autumn are all around as I went through the kitchen this morning, camera in hand, looking for something to share.   The night time temperatures have dropped into the low thirties.  Time to gather up the last of the tomatoes and put them on the windowsill to ripen.  How nice they look lined up there tanning themselves in the sun.

Pumpkins from the farm-stand and a friend's backyard garden sit awaiting their fate on the counter.  The large bluish-gray one is an old heirloom variety called a "sweet meat" pumpkin, reportedly the best for pies.  We plan to put it to the test after we're done admiring it.  (Thanks Missy!)

Grace had just finished baking a batch of Gingersnaps.  The spicy aroma filled the house.  It's actually what lured me into the kitchen in the first place.  Her cookies (as always) turned out so yummy.  Just used the old-fashioned tried-and-true recipe that calls for molasses and cinnamon.  Here's the recipe if you are looking for a good autumn cookie.   It's one of my favorites anyway.  If you store them in an air-tight plastic container they become soft and chewy.  And Grace adds her own special touch with vanilla frosting in between two cookies.   The likes of which is just too good for words...so, I'll leave you with this mouth-watering picture instead.   It's the best I can do!

Just Browsing

I may not be back up to speed yet, but there's all kinds of crafty goodness out there that's getting me excited.  Like this wonderful small quilt, a WIP from my stitching friend Carol (who lives way over there on the opposite coast) that I've been meaning to share.  Ok yes, I'm wimping out on the WIP and showing someone elses work.  I know and I'm sorry, but my jaw dropped when I saw this.  And she's not just making one quilt... but two quilts, for seven-year-old twin girls no less.  They both love horses and horseback riding so she contacted me awhile ago in hopes of finding a horse embroidery pattern.  And as luck would have it, I had one.  Several actually, but this design is one from Vogart that we reprinted as an iron-on transfer, and it was perfect for her project.  There are other designs in the pattern too, along with a cute pair of Scottie pups and a sweet bird motif.  And this gorgeous fabric, called Stablemates Pink, which I really love, is from Alexander Henry, and was purchased from this site.  I did a double-take when I saw the price; nearly slipped off my chair.  Love the pink background too.  I can't wait to see how it all turns out and I bet those twin sisters will be doubly happy too!