A Fall Hardanger Gift

I designed a trio of Hardanger pumpkins for you to stitch up. 

I purposely only charted out the Kloster Blocks, Back stitching and Cross Stitch, I wanted anyone who decides to stitch this piece to put their own stamp on it. Algerian Eyelets, Woven Bars, Wrapped Bars, Doves Eyes, Picots, Woven Divided Branch, the choices are yours and many. So pick out your favorite pumpkin pearl cottons and floss and stitch away.

This one is for fall. 

And for those of you with a tiny bit of spooky in you .......

This one has two cute little spiders for Halloween.

I would really love to see how you end up stitchin' one of these smalls. Each one is only around 6" x 3" when finished. If you need help with the stitches the Nordic Needle Stitch Dictionary has lots of stitch explanations and diagrams. 

Other Links for Hardanger
http://www.needlework-tips-and-techniques.com/learn-hardanger.html
http://www.lynxlace.com/Hardangertutorial.html
http://maryjoanstitching.blogspot.ca/2011/01/hardanger.html

Thanks for the links Marl.

Thanks for stopping by I hope you enjoy the chart.
So until next time .........

Take Care & Happy Stitchin'

 Hugs, Sandy

A Halloween Gift From Me to You

Decided to design a couple of Halloween gifties for all my followers.

Hope you like them and as always I would love to see a pic if you happen to stitch one of them up.

Introducing "Spooky Halloween" and "Scary Halloween"

I think they would make cute pincushions, pillow's, wall hanging's or even stitched on a Trick or Treat bag.

Here's the chart, you might have to fiddle with the size a bit. 

I have it set to print at 8.5 x 10.

And the color list. Everything is stitched using two (2) strands of floss except the black back stitching which is one (1) strand. Each one is about 6 5/8" x 3 1/2" on 14/28 count .

That's it for today, so until next time ..........

Take Care & Happy Stitchin'

 Hugs, Sandy

More Canning from our Garden

I went out into the weed patch that is my garden on Saturday and harvested a large basket of cucumbers, don't know what I'm going to do with them yet, and a 5 gallon bucket of assorted tomatoes. There were beefsteak tomatoes, Roma tomatoes and a medium small red that I can't remember the name of. Plus a small basket of little Yellow Pear tomatoes for salads and snacking.

After all of our hard work of harvesting, peeling, coring and seeding, then cooking for 20 minutes and then putting them through the trusty 'Squeezo' food mill not to mention chopping peppers and onion and sauteing those and harvesting herbs then back into the pot to cook for another 4 to 6 hours to thicken it up, we got a whopping.............

Four Quarts of very yummy Spaghetti Sauce.

Recipe from the Kerr Canning Book.

My hubs said if want to do that again he would rather buy tomato puree instead of going through all the peeling, coring and seeding. 

Of course he did most of the peeling and I did most of the coring and seeding, on the bright side all of our tomatoes are heirloom varieties so I now have three jars of tomato seeds going through the fermenting process to save the seeds. This is my first time trying this, so I hope it works. I'm following directions from gnowfglins.com.

Well that's it for today, so until next time..........

Take Care Everyone

Hugs, Sandy

I'm Still Around

Just want to let everyone know that I'm still around, been busy with the garden and other summer type activities like camping and day trips and now getting our jeep back in drive able condition. 

I've canned another 28 quarts of pickles and four pints of pickle relish, so now we have bread and butter, dill and sweet pickles in the basement pantry. I think I'll have enough cucumbers for another batch then I think the patch will be done for the season. I've also used a lot of cucumbers for salads and snacking. Now I just have to come up with some great salsa and sauce recipes for canning our tomatoes and can't forget the beets that I'll need to can in the next couple of weeks.

This was our camp site for our first camping trip at Basin Creek in Montana. It was beautiful right along the creek (that I couldn't keep Jack out of), but had lots of flies buzzing around so no eating outside and only being around 8000 feet it was still in the 80's during the day.

The hub's and Jack doing a little gold panning in Basin Creek. The creek had a lot of mica in it but no gold that he could find.

This was my view from inside the trailer on our second camping trip up in the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming at the Tie Flume Camp Ground. No bugs and at 10,000 feet the temps were in the upper 60's every day, so nice. We left a day early because it snowed a bit that night and Jack was having tummy trouble from the canned dog food and had me up every two hours.

 Cody chillin' in the shade at Tie Flume camp ground.

On the way home from this trip we lost our rear drive line just outside of Graybull, Wyoming, so after pulling it off we had to limp home at 50 to 55 mph down the highway for about 80 to 90 miles.

Here's Jack just chillin' in his baby pool. He gives new meaning to the term 'Dog Days of Summer'. He would literately run down the porch steps across the yard and hop into the pool dipping himself up and down like a tea bag a few times and then lay down.

This is all the stitching that I've done lately. I started in August at the camp ground then stitched a bit more at home. So of course I've missed several of the TUSAL and 2015 Smalls SAL updates since I haven't had anything to show.

Well, that's it for now, hopefully I'll have more to report later on. 

So until next time......

Take Care Everyone

 Hugs, Sandy

 

Got Myself Into A Pickle

Wholly Cheese and Weasels !!!! I got into such a "Pickle" this weekend, and by "Pickle" I mean 22 quarts of home canned Bread and Butter Pickles to grace our pantry shelves and two quarts plus giant sized mayo jugs of refrigerator pickles.

First 12 Quarts canned on August 8th, then.....

10 Quarts canned on August 9th and

two quarts refrigerator pickles. 

Didn't take pics of the jugs since they are the white Kraft mayo jugs that I get at Costco so you can't see the pickles. All of this came from at least eight dozen cucumbers from our garden and there are still lots more getting ready to be harvested. I'm not complaining though, the less I need from the store the better and these are 100% pesticide free.

Wish our tomatoes would start to ripen up, we harvested all of the radishes, but sadly most of them had white larva eating away at them only got about a dozen good ones. Been harvesting Italian sweet peppers and cutting and freezing them for later use. Will harvest the rest of the Basil, Dill, Oregano, Rosemary and Mint this weekend if it doesn't rain again.

I can't believe I didn't update at all in July. 

Not that I really had anything to show for the month, I did stitch a bit, but that is locked away in our pop-up camp trailer until the hubs decides to open it up again. And I had two sewing finishes also locked inside the pop-up. Went on a three day camping trip and two day trips that I need to sort out the pictures for where does the time go.

Well that's it for today. Until next time ......

Take Care Everyone &

Happy Canning and Stitchin'

Hugs, Sandy

Primitive Fabric Pumpkin Tutorial

Primitive Fabric Pumpkins

What You Need:

Pumpkin
1/4 to 1/2 yard Fabric of choice (enough to fit circle template)
Fiber-Fill to stuff pumpkin
Crochet Cotton or strong thread to gather top of pumpkin

Weight Bag
1/4 yard fabric for weight bag and a 6"-8" circle template or a Ziploc baggie
dry rice, dry beans or sand to fill weight bag
(weight bag is optional)

Leaves
Felt for leaves
Embroidery Floss to stitch leaves
Batting or stuffing for leaves (optional)
Leaf Template

Stem and Vines
Piece of branch trimmed from your tree
Jute Twine (two ply for stem, three ply for vines)
Craft/White Glue

Extras
Marker, Glue Gun, Sewing Machine, Fabric Flowers

What To Do:

1. Prepare your fabric. If your going to be tea or coffee staining or hand-dyeing your fabric it needs to be washed first. If not, there is no need to wash as the pumpkins are not washable, toys or child safe (to many little bits and jute).
You will need to iron the fabric to remove wrinkles or fold lines.

2. If using one, now is the time to make your weighted bag. Cut out two 6" or 8" circles of scrap fabric, nothing fancy it won't be seen. Using a sewing machine, stitch using a 1/4" to 1/2" seam leaving a 2" opening. Add the rice, beans, sand, etc. then finish stitching the opening closed.

3. Mark and cut out your circle for the pumpkin. Remember the pumpkin will be around half the size of your original circle. A 16" circle will make about an 8" pumpkin.

4. Using a doubled length of crochet cotton knotted on the end, baste 1/4" to 1/2" from the edge, all the way around. Start to lightly gather the opening.

5. If using one add the weighted bag with a layer of stuffing under neath. start to add stuffing to the pumpkin while gathering the top.

6. When you have the pumpkin stuffed gather the top as closed as possible without breaking the thread (you may need an extra pair of hands for this). At this point you can add extra stuffing to even out the sides to get the look you want. I use either my finger a wooden chopstick or a crochet hook to get the extra stuffing where I need it.

7. Using a Pearl Cotton or other heavy thread and a long needle (mine's 3-1/2") make the wedge shapes as shown by running your needle either from the top or bottom middle through the pumpkin and back out, pulling snugly to make the indentations. I start at the bottom so I can tie off the thread at the top where it will be covered later. There should be 8 wedge shapes when your done. Tie off the thread. You can add a button or felt circle to hide where the threads gather at the bottom.

8. Gather up your supplies to embellish your pumpkin. Stem, Jute, Felt Leaves and hand made Fabric Flowers. I use two ply jute to wrap the stems (optional) and three ply for the vines. I cut leaf shapes out of felt (two for each leaf) then buttonhole stitch around the edge and lightly stuff, then hand stitch the veins for the leaves.

9. Using a glue gun add a generous amount of hot glue to the center of the opening and add the stem, holding until set. Using the thee ply jute, cut a couple of lengths for the vines, knot one end and unravel the plies then glue in place.
To make a Jute covered stem: Cut a piece of branch to slightly fit the opening. Add a layer of white/tacky glue to the top of your stem. Using a long piece of jute, make a flat tight coil in hand and carefully attach to the top of the stem, hold for a minute or two for it to set. Cover half of stem with glue and start to wind the jute around the stem adding more glue and wrapping until you get to the bottom. Leave about an inch of jute and secure with glue to the bottom of the stem.

10. Glue the leaves in place.
To make the felt leaves: Cut two felt leaf shapes. Put them together, one on top of the other and stitch around the outside edges. I used a buttonhole stitch, but you can use a whip stitch, satin stitch or even a back stitch starting 1/8" to 1/4" from the edge. Leave a 2" opening and add a small amount of stuffing for more dimension or add a layer of batting between the felt layers before you start to stitch, this is optional. Finish off the edge. Next I stitched veins in the leaves using a back stitch. Tie the thread off on the back of the leaves and your ready to glue them on. There are tons of leaf templates on the internet, just search "pumpkin leaf template" or do like I did and just look at leaf pictures and free hand your own. I made several different ones and increased and decreased the size.

11. Using hot glue, attach the flowers. Your pumpkin is now ready for it's new home.

Hope you enjoy the tutorial and can make some really cute Primitive Pumpkins of your own.

Take Care & Happy Stitchin'

Hugs, Sandy