Happy indoors

There are two creatures in my home not at all bothered by the wintery weather - my very much indoor cats. They're never interested in slipping out the front door because they know they've got a good thing going inside. All afternoon they've been snoozing on the couch, while I've been freezing outside like a dum-dum to walk the dog or shovel. Here I imagine Ariel was getting just a bit too warm curled up, so she stuck out one foot to cool off. I know I use that tactic when it's a bit too cozy under my duvet.

Oh, what a life.

Double duty

Two more tea towels made for Christmas presents. How amazing is the feather fabric?

I used it to wrap a present, tied with ribbon and a little Ikat elephant ornament made in Cambodia that I picked up at Ten Thousand Villages. If you're looking for unique ornaments while helping a good cause, it's a great place to go.

Big hairy deal

Well, it's official. Winter is here. Sure I can complain about the endless shovelling, but it's really my dog who's got it tough in the winter. Those big hairy paws sure do pick up a lot of snow.

You'd think a Russian breed would be better adapted to winter conditions, at least better than plunking her butt down in a drift periodically while on a walk to gnaw at the snow clumps stuck in her paws. Toe balls, I call them.

If you're looking for tasty meals to warm your belly on these cold, snowy days, I'd recommend either of these slow cooker recipes from Pinch of Yum. I made the chicken wild rice soup last weekend, and the queso chicken chili yesterday. So good and so easy! What's better than that?

Stack 'em high

I whipped up some pillowcases for Christmas presents. This time I topstitched a couple sets. Meh. I'm not sure the extra step is worth it. (As you can see by the set that didn't get it.)

I bought a half yard of each of these floral prints a while back on a trip with my dad to North Bay and Trenton - so bright but delicate and I love the doily-looking pattern. They became the cuff and I picked up a bright blue cotton for the body. They'll first stand in as stockings on Christmas Eve, with presents for my parents tucked inside.

While trying to exercise restraint at my favourite fabric shop as a CFF picked out fabric for her long Christmas crafting list, I saw this unicorn fabric and knew my middle sister would love it. Cuffs were made from co-ordinating star fabric.

'Tis the season

Now that December is here, the clock is ticking on Christmas crafting. Sadly, I am still a November birthday gift behind for a dear CFF. I'm gonna use the excuse that it was out of my hands when I sent it off to the quilter relatively early and she unfortunately had a backlog. Here's a sneak peek:

These cheery pillowcases became her consolation gift.

Of course my Christmas crafting will include a few pillowcase sets. Honest to Jebus, people have been really enthusiastic about the handmade pillowcases. It's not just me off my rocker about them. I whipped up these tea towels for a friend who is just as elegant as this fabric.

Now to get back to the craft room, for now Santa's workshop.

Soup's on

This afternoon I enjoyed a foodie and fabric outing with my dad (fabric not so much a stop for him). We picked up wonderful gouda at a Dutch cheese shop out in the country. You can peek in the aging room to see the shelves from floor to ceiling of cheese wheels - 3,000 or so of them! Next we stopped at Victoria Street Market, where I picked up a few treats including smoked European bacon. Mmm ... bacon.

Then after a leisurely lunch (partly to do with the slow service) it was onto my favourite local fabric shop Greenwood, which just got in the awesome Collage collection. Thanks to a couple sweet CFFs who kindly gave me gift certificates for my birthday, I picked up a FQ bundle of Collage and a charcoal Kona for the background that I'll use to make a lap quilt in this fun Tiny Dancers pattern.

I also picked up a wee bit more of the retro whimsy of Fort Firefly to add a border to a nifty quilt combining Fort Firefly and Camp Modern. These colours are perfect for my living room.

After a few more chores it was time to think about dinner. I whipped up a pot of this Ginger Coconut Milk Soup. Mine included lotsa ginger, sweet potato, baby kale and white mushrooms. So tasty and so easy.

Getting things done

This weekend I packed in some solid crafting time, starting with pinning my Moroccan tile quilt. I hoped to get going on the quilting, but ran out of time.

During a recent stop at Fabricland to pick up half-priced batting for an upcoming weekend quilting workshop with some great CFFs that my mom kindly offered to teach, I noticed off-the-charts cute flannel FQs. My mind started racing trying to come up with something to make with them. I recently read a blog post where the woman said she tries not to buy fabric without having a plan for it, and that struck me as being pretty wise. I'm not going to even imagine for a moment I can stick with that approach (there's so much irresistible fabric!!!), but it got me to thinking I should at least try to do that more often (after looking through my abundant stash).

I remembered my friend saying recently that her daughter was upset she had to leave at home her sock monkey blanket, so I figured I could make a travel-sized cuddly blanket for her. I didn't really even know that was a thing until a shot-in-the-dark google search brought me to security blankets and this sweet little one using ric-rac. Can't resist any project with ric-rac! Especially when combined with these ridiculously cute farm animals.

Then I spotted cute retro kitty and floral fabric in my stash and thought they'd make cute pillows to go with the blanket. Unfortunately I discovered I only had a half-metre of each, so instead I picked out these sweet and super girly prints that I've been holding onto for quite sometime.

But I still wanted to make something with the kitty fabric, so I went with a drawstring pouch to put the blanket and pillowcases in. How freaking cute is this bag for a little girl to hide away all her treasures?

I found a string of yellow flowers and sewed them on with a wavy stitch to add a little colour and fun. (Not so much fun for me because I mistakenly sewed the front side of the flowers down and then I lost my focus while ripping out the stitches and had to re-do a line of top-stitching I attacked with the ripper.)

I whipped up another two sets of pillowcases, including these with Jay McCarroll fabric.

Finally it was time to take a break from the sewing machine and head into the kitchen to tackle dinner. I made stuffed peppers with ground chicken, rice and onions topped with bread crumbs. With acorn squash on the side, it was a warming dinner for a cold day.

I hope everyone else had a lovely weekend with lots of time for crafting!