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It's the very beginning of a new year. And here I am this morning, filled to the brim with thoughts of the past- my old days, people that meant something to me and the many many ways I passed my time. All the ancient memories live on in this head of mine. Sometimes they are more vivid to me than what I did yesterday. 

 December 19 was my mother's birthday. She would have been 93 if she were alive. I've had this Blackbird Designs pattern, What Remains is Love, in my little collection for some time and ...

I read widely in 2025, but only a handful of books truly stayed with me. These twenty—across memoir, nonfiction, fantasy, and fiction—are the ones I couldn’t stop thinking about. **Read the full list → Continue reading →

 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. 

With 20 adorable woodland animal blocks to paper piece for your sewing fun, this book will give you hours of creative projects! Plus, all of these blocks are interchangeable with the projects from my previous books.

Adorable “Zippy Pouch” and large enough to hold a tablet.

Sew a Winter Woodland Christmas Book

$22.95

“Sew a Winter Woodland Christmas” book contains 20 mix & match paper pieced block patterns and 9 projects; including lap quilt, Christmas tree skirt, apron, pillow, table runner, stockings, zip bags, and gift bags.

Sew a Winter Woodland Christmas Book quantity

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 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 ...

The lone rabbit is still hanging around. I glanced out the kitchen window and ears caught my eye amongst the old vegetation.

 This is an Eastern Cottontail and he will stay mostly brown/grey all winter. I wish he would move on into the forest but there are so many places to provide sheltar for him here; I understand why he wants to stay ...

The world's oldest known bird, an Albatross named Wisdom, has returned to her southern nesting site for the 2025- 2026 breeding season. She is 75 years old at least now; this is an older video below. She had the same mate for 60 years but she is back this year with a new one. What a wonder!

I read that the last full moon of the year, called the Cold Moon, is tonight and it is going to be very special by how high in the sky it will rise. Such a height won't be seen again till 2043. It's dark here now at 5 o'clock. Yesterday I took this photo of the back yard bathed in moonlight at that time. Unfortunately, the clouds kept sailing past hiding the moon. Sometimes, clouds add much beautiful moodiness to a December winter sky but my photo didn't capture that sadly. 

The copies of Modern Scrap Quilts are on their way from the warehouse, so if you preordered your copy, it will be heading out to you soon!

I’ve shared some sneak peeks, but here are all the projects in the book! Copies are available here.

If you’d like chances to win an e-book version of the book, hop on over to the blog tour going on now for a new chance to win at every stop!

I'm not sure what it is about my scheduling, but I always seem to be getting to the long arm later in the afternoon, rather than early in the afternoon as I originally planned. Why is that? It doesn't matter; another quilt got done! I'm usually finished with the sewing/quilting day by 7:00 or 7:30 PM. Good grief - I'm a morning person!

Customer quilt - DONE

Yeah -- I love this quilt. It's Spice Market from the class I taught last year. I have some trimming to do this morning, and then these quilts ...

Well, it's November, a harder month it seems and more than a few steps closer to winter here in Ontario. We had a week of heavy rain which I think the earth needed but there were driving winds with it and so cold. It's freezing overnight regularly now here in the Ottawa valley. 

But I'm very thankful those rains have restored our little pond. It is very muddy looking from all the downpours. It will be interesting next spring if I hear the sound of peepers and frogs, etc. because we keep wondering where did they go ...

Below is Brian Stauffer's "Winds of Change", a marvelous painting for The New Yorker cover on October 13. I wondered if this could be worked into a design for a quilt or embroidered piece. I do like curlicues. And I also wondered about what he meant by featuring these two things together. The noisy leaf blower and the beautiful design of nature. What do you think he's telling us?

Yesterday was another day not at the sewing machine.  It was time to figure out where to put the house plants and set up plant lights that I decided to get this year.  I did get some more work done on the hexies though so will show that first – I planned on stitching that […]

It was supposed to be hot yesterday I thought they had said near 90 I was surprised that it was 82 for the high and a nice breeze on the front porch – I spent more time sitting and reading outside than I had in a couple weeks.  The current author I am reading free […]

OOH -- I forgot to mention that my second toenail fell off at the gym on Monday. Why am I telling you that? My foot feels a whole lot better now that the toenail is gone and the new one is growing nicely. I also don't have to be so careful that the nail would get caught and ripped off. Let nature do its thing, and all is good! It appears that it takes about a month for the new nail to push out the old one. 

I overheard the ladies discussing ticks in this area the other day. When ...

 Richard Scarry books were a favourite of my children and then the grandsons. So many things on every page to point to and talk about. We had to make a rule with younger daughter, Beth, that she couldn't choose one of Richard's books for a night time read in bed book. She was the one so reluctant to give up on the day and she still makes the most of her busy days starting with a very early morning run.  

We had geese flying overhead yesterday and turkeys trotting through though not in a cute little red car ...

 Hello again and thanks so much for stopping by. I heard the Barred Owls hooting early morning around 4 am and stayed awake till they finished about half an hour later. Then I slept in till 9, so late for me that Tony woke up enough to ask if I was alright.  

Last fall I watched a wonderful moment...an adult male Cardinal was feeding two young ones in the big fir in the back yard. It took a long time to get this photo and I never did capture a good photo of the three. But here are the ...

Well, there is no doubt fall is coming and it's set in a little early here. Single digits overnight for the last week but everyone is saying how welcome this is. I don't think there's ever been such gladness to have summer over. 

Meanwhile, Tony calls this little guy below my trained squirrel or my very smart squirrel that has trained me. He appears on the back deck most days and, of course, I give him a handful of sunflower seeds. When he first appeared here, he was skinny and ragged looking. Now he appears to be ...

All quiet just now here at the Wooden House. Morning chores all done including the best and most important one- a big walk about with Ned and Petey. Heavy rain showers are forecast for most of the rest of the day which are much welcomed. It felt marvelous outside in the much cooler temperatures. Even the dogs were friskier. Ned especially doesn't like heat which may have something to do with his very dark brown coat. 

Here is a side view of the overgrown Hydrangeas outside my sewing room windows with Petey taking his morning sniffs. These bushes are ...