Thankful for the Tea Party Hostesses!

                 This is a repeat of a post I made about three years ago but it is contains important things I                                                                           I wanted to say!

As we get close to our Thanksgiving I want to say a huge thank you to the ladies who serve as hostesses for the various Tea Party events on line.  I know I wouldn't be here without them.
And for my followers who join me each week to see what I have found to show, Thanks to you all! Your kind comments make it even better!  And to the participants of the other tea parties.  What inspiration and fun are to be found!  Love it all!

I went out into my antique shop and started looking for things to display that would look like Thanksgiving.  No turkeys to be found but here are a few things that will look nice on the table I think.  The book I have shown " Autumn Accents" is one my own.  It is by Thimbleberries, designer of many great quilting fabrics.

The cute chicken casserole from Japan could be used to hold gravy, or a small serving of some vegetables.

For dessert, pie would look great on these dishes.  I am going to show the mark but have no real idea what it says.  If you know please let me know in the comments.  It is obviously some sort of gold.  And the set is made in the USA.

Also made in the USA is the large gold creamer.  I didn't get a close up picture of it but if you look closely in the overall picture you can see it.

And finally, we must have a cup and saucer so I selected this one from Royal Vale pottery.  It has a lovely yellow flower and nice fall colors.

I want to wish all my USA tea cup followers a Happy Thanksgiving.  And to those from other countries that don't celebrate the day please know I am thankful for all of you.

                I am joining with the following Tea Parties and blog parties.

                 These may not be available every week so check to be sure.

Hope you will visit them too.

Sandi at Rose Chintz Cottage *

 Martha at Martha's Favorites *

Bernideen's Tea-time Blog *
Ruth's Antiques  Teacups *
A Return to Loveliness *

A return to Tea Cup Tuesday

 Because I have gotten away from Tea Cup Tuesday visits due to the illness I had and life in general I thought I would get back to it by reviewing some of my early posts.  Many of you new folks wouldn't have seen them anyway.

I first discovered Tea Cup Tuesday in August of 2010...  a bit over 5 years ago.  And I kept with it pretty well since one thing I have is a LOT of teacups!!!!!

I have noticed that some of the old Teacup Tuesday posters have changed things a bit and I imagine I shall as well............... but........ for my first one back........  here it is.
Today I am going to go back to that very first blog entry....

I have collected tea cups for the 49 plus years of my marriage (50 in Jan.) due to the fact that my husband's family is Canadian and bone china is often what they give for wedding presents.... at least they did back in those days.

 I have pretty much been collecting ever since...............
Having an antique shop helps too because it gives me a chance to upgrade my tea cups fairly often. I don't have to feel guilty because I can always say I am buying them for my shop.  But.....  they may visit in my house for awhile.

Today I am going to show you one  of my favorites and probably one of the first I got. It is called silver birches by Royal Albert.  I love birch trees so it especially nice. We actually have a couple in our side yard in this house.  The first picture is the cup straight up, then on its side and finally one showing you the bottom.

I do love Royal Albert tea cups.  Probably my MOST favorite maker.  

I hope you enjoyed my little trip down memory lane.  I shall attempt to get back here every Tuesday from now on..............

Join me again next week.  I already know what tea cups I am going to show you!

And check in on Friday to see what I have been doing in the Quilt World!

Here are the tea parties I will be joining this week. There are only two this week but I hope you will visit them too. There are lots of links to more things. I will also be adding this post to Sandi's new party...........    NO PLACE LIKE HOME

Ruth's Antiques  Teacups * 

 Martha at Martha's Favorites *



More quilt projects!!

The Quilts keep coming..............


 AND so do the fall leaves. My husband is cleaning them up a fast as he can. This is the second load he has raked to the road.  And will probably have one more in a week or so.   Yes, all that is showing is from our yard.... Our township comes around with a truck that sucks them up and takes them to a recycling area to make mulch every week or so.

And here is that truck doing its thing.

  They keep falling and falling.......  There are still a couple of trees full of leaves.  Hope they are finished by Thanksgiving.    We can't leave them on the ground as some might suggest.  We have so many trees the ground would be thickly covered and the grass would die. We live on the edge of a woods and there are plenty of leaves there for the wild critters we see here....  The deer, BEAR, raccoons, wild turkeys, and on and on.......

This past Saturday I completed the third class of a Machine Quilting class.  I hope during the next year to learn a lot more.  They just say it is practice, practice, practice.  I don't expect to ever to do full quilts.  Don't have the set up for that but certainly can do runners, table toppers and such which are what I seem to do more of these days anyway.

Up to now my machine quilting has consisted of "stitch in the ditch" and cross hatch.  I tried some stippling and it will take a lot of practice.  As time goes on I hope to show you some of things I accomplish.  But just don't hold your breath... LOL

Here are a couple more recently finished projects.

This week I am showing two season runners.  I finally got them quilt and bound even though started quite a while ago.  The first would for the fall season and the pattern was called Autumn Spice.  It is from the September 2001 issue of McCall's Quilting Quick Quilts.  I started it back then and put it away.  The original pattern has some flowers and vines around the edge.  Perhaps I will someday add them but I wanted this done so here is it.  It is bound with the dark green.

   For this one I  used the "stitch in the ditch" method of quilting.   If you want to know what that is and how to do it here is a tutorial............... I imagine You Tube has lots of videos too.

How to "Stitch in the Ditch"

This next runner was  made using a pattern I found on line.  I like the colors for Christmas time but you could use it other times as well.  It was also quilted using "stitch in the ditch."  I found this quilt pattern on Quilting Bug.             I know I found it quite awhile ago and this might not have been the site where it was located. According to the pattern this was done as a charity fund raiser for Cystic Fibrosis.  But when I checked this time and clicked on the link I couldn't find any current info.  

For the final quilting on this one I also used Stitch in the Ditch.  It will be so nice to get beyond that one of these days soon.

 

So that is my sharing for this week.  I hope I may have inspired some of you to take your UFOs out and finish them.  It feels so good to have them done!!!

Come back next week for MORE.

I am posting this on a new link party at the home of one of my former Tea Cup Tuesday hostesses, Sandi.  Her blog Rose Chints Cottage is such a beautiful site. I am posting this on Fridays but will be adding it to  the link below on Mondays when she holds her party. 

 No Place Like Home

Be sure to visit. her and see all the other great blog postings.   

And check back next week  to see more of my recent quilt finishes. 

I do appreciate your comments.  Thanks so much for caring to do so.

Quilts and more quilts

 This is my dining room table centerpiece for fall.  The runner was one I made several years ago. I found the inspiration for the runner in the fabric department at Marden's, a favorite store in Maine.  The gourds all came from Leesport a couple of weeks ago.



Fall is definitely full under way...although we are having a bit of Indian Summer this week.  It was so warm Wed. we even took a trip down to the Leesport Flea Market....  My husband has been out clearing leaves for the past several days.  We have close to 40 trees on our property and after the pretty colors comes the ground cover..............
  Speaking of leaves, I took the first two pictures when I got into my car a few days ago.  "Almost" frosted over windows.  I thought they were so arty I took a picture of each side of the windshield. I may try to use them in some art journaling soon.

The leaves are from our pretty little Japanese maple tree.... so pretty and then they are gone.

 I did say I would show more recent quilting projects this week so here they are........

I found this pattern for a Candy Corn mug rug and knew I HAD to make it.  The pattern is free from the website called Craftsy.  Here is a link.  http://www.craftsy.com/blog/2014/10/free-candy-patterns/
There are some other patterns on that page too.  I was lucky to have most of the fabrics in my stash!

This next project is what has now become one of my all time favorite quilts.  I now use it to cover up when I watch tv on cool evenings.  It is from the book pictured here.

  By Heather Mulder Peterson

It is still available as an e-book at Martingale Press. I was able to purchase it back when it was a real book. There are over 20 bed, lap, and wall quilts shown.   All fun to do I imagine. There are still a couple in the book I want to make.

 

I had done another strip quilt lately and it was so much fun I decided to try this one.  This definitely used up a LOT of scraps though I did have to buy the black.  I did each square on muslin instead of paper like some strip quilts suggest.  It made it so much easier because I did not have to rip the paper off after.  I just left it in place.

I still have lots more recently finished projects to share so be sure to come back next Friday and see what I have to show you.

Catching up and Quilting

                   Happy Fall, Happy Halloween,

 (I won these letters as part of an etsy contest.... from Char at http://www.someplaceinthyme.com/ )



I KNOW I haven't been here in quite a while.  Life sort of got in the way!!!!!

I had a health issue that resulted in surgery and then 4 weeks of eating practically NOTHING... lots of liquids and soft stuff.  I am fine now, thank the good lord, and finally feel like perhaps I should get back to my blog!

During that time I missed out on my yearly trek to Maine and New Brunswick which was very sad.   And didn't really go anywhere to far afield as driving for long periods was uncomfortable so..............  I did a LOT of quilting.

I found I could sit at my sewing machine for awhile and then get up and do something else when I got uncomfortable.  As a result..... I finished a number of projects that were just sitting around half finished....  I thought today I would begin to show you the results of that marathon effort.  I did some of the quilting myself but the big ones got sent out to my long-arm lady.

Today I am starting out showing a quilt that was  part of a Block of the Month project with a group of ladies on the Connecting Threads website.  It is called Lasting Legacy and featured reproduction Civil War fabrics and .made with beautiful, traditional blocks within a classic setting. I finished it mostly as the kit  said but several of the ladies just used the pattern and did their own thing.  All turned out terrific.
Here is that first finished quilt. (folded a bit because I couldn't get it all in this picture... as it sat on my dining room table.)

 For the back I simply used all the left over fabric I had from the project.  It is almost another quilt of its own.  I was in too big a hurry to make any sort of design.  Just added pieces as I picked them up to fit the space.  But I really like the way it turned out.

The next quilt I am showing is one completely different!  I found the pattern in the magazine called
 Mc Calls QUICK QUILTS magazine July 2001.  It is called Secret Garden.  I started it right away when I bought the magazine but obviously was a bit slow finishing since I finally got it done in August of 2015.  I made it out of a lot of pastel scraps I had in my stash and some I picked up at yard sales.  The rick rack was bought at a flea market in Lewisburg, Pa at the time I was considering doing the project.  It was already QUITE vintage at the time.  The pattern calls for over dye but I didn't do it.  Just left as is.  I noticed some of the fabric was from old blouses I used to wear.  It is a good way to use up some of your fabric stash.  I now use it as a lap quilt when watching tv.  I may make another using darker colors, just don't hold your breath!

So that is it for this week.  Next week I will show a couple of more.  I figure I can keep this up for several weeks.  I lost count of how many projects I actually finished but it was quite a few.

Check in next Friday and see what else I finished.................

I will eventually get back to "TEACUP TUESDAY" posts too.  But that may take awhile. I am sort of out of the habit and need to find more tea cups to feature.

Serviettes and Nappies

          While reading the responses to my last weeks post....  my Australian friend referred to what we in the US call napkins as "serviettes".  My Canadian cousins also call them that.

  So that got me to thinking about another item that has a different name elsewhere. One such word (or words really) is Fruit "Nappies."  My Canadian cousins, at least the ones in New Brunswick, call the small small bowls, as pictures below, fruit nappies.  From what I could find definition wise, in this context, they are small bowls used to hold fruit and often were sold with a larger fruit bowl.
                       Here is a picture of my favorite fruit set.

I have other small bowls that are similar in size that we use to hold dipping sauce, small fruits and other side dishes.  We now call them "nappies" at our house too.

Even though I have given examples from English Speaking Countries the words are not the same. I think that is interesting.

I enjoy hearing and reading the different terms used around the world for various things.  These two, in particular, are certainly useful when talking about tea parties.  Are there others???

Walking about the garden today I discovered these Vibrant red tulips hiding behind a bush and just HAD to take a picture.

I hope you are enjoying a cup of tea today......

             Here are the tea parties I will be joining this week.  Hope you will visit them too.

Remember, these may not be available every week so check to be sure.

Sandi at Rose Chintz Cottage *

 Martha at Martha's Favorites *

Bernideen's Tea-time Blog *
Ruth's Antiques  Teacups *

More flea market finds

 

After a couple of weeks of nice, warmer weather, this past week has been cold and I have brought in my hanging baskets at night because of the threat of frost....  I hope it will eventually get to the point where we can count on warmer weather.

Speaking of baskets, here are just some of the ones I had to pick from at the flea market a week ago. 

And here are the two I chose this time.  I plan on buying a few more as time goes on.

Below you will see the things I did buy at the flea market.  The larger teapot and cups are a birthday gift for my friend Carolyn.....  don't tell.... LOL.

The wooden tea pot shelf was a fun find, a perfect place to keep my tiny tea pots and tea sets. 

This cute little set just had to come home with me.

As did this floral one.

And this little tea cup and saucer.

And this little birdie set.  I imagine originally there were a couple more pieces including a plate 

but couldn't leave these behind no matter what might have been missing!

And here are some tea cup and saucer and a teapot that are a set of napkin holders.

And finally here is a closeup of the set I bought for my friend.

I hope you are enjoying a cup of tea today......

             Here are the tea parties I will be joining this week.  Hope you will visit them too.

Remember, these may not be available every week so check to be sure.

Sandi at Rose Chintz Cottage *

 Martha at Martha's Favorites *

Bernideen's Tea-time Blog *
Ruth's Antiques  Teacups *