A Year of Saltboxes- 2022 Saltbox Stitch Parade

 Good morning, ya'll. 

One of my favortie motifs to stitch is houses, and I completed quite  a few this year . So today I am going to take a stroll down memory lane of saltbox houses that I have shared this year. 

 In January, I shared Winter Manor .  Hmmmm ! I always seem to want to stitch blue houses in the winter. 

In February, I shared Elizabeth Hartline's  Saltbox. which is named after a distant grandmother. It was surrounded with lots of roses. 

Elizabeth Hartline's Saltbox is nestled in a darling tobacco basket ornament gifted to me by sweet Shelly. 

Tulip House was the next house . It certainly was bright and cheerful. 

To celebrate strawberry season, I shared the Strawberry Saltbox in April. 

One of the most enjoyable houses that I stitched this year was Freedom House. It stitched up quickly. 

The Ole' Crow Saltbox

Aunt Mariah's Autumn Saltbox  was filled with kitty cats and pumpkins. 

For all of those candy corn lovers out there, I stitched Candy Corn House in September. It was such a fun stitch and worked up quickly. 

In November, I went turkey crazy , when I stitched Turkey Holler Saltbox.  

I began December with a tranquil house called Christmas at Underwood Lane . 

Well that is 2022's saltboxes and houses in a nutshell. I am over the moon with how they turned out. I am already brewing up ideas for 2023. If you have any suggestions , let me know . You just might see them in a future home.  Have a very lovely day and as always .

Happy quilting and stitching, ya'll

Melisa

When there is love in the home, there is joy in the heart! ❤💓💖

Hugs and Stitches!!! 🤗❤🧵

Dedicated to my dear sister, Amy. I will miss your call this year. Love and miss you., Amo ❤❤❤

Winter Wordless Wednesday- Winter in the Holler

Good morning, ya'll. It has been awhile since I have posted a Not So Wordless Wednesday post.  Today's photos are of Winter in the Holler. Not much to see here in the holler except lots of leafless trees.  I hope you enjoy seeing what's in my neck of the woods. 

A peek at where my Quilt Nest is - way up in that loft. 

Have a beautiful day, my friends and ...

As always...

Happy  Stitching and Quilting, ya'll

Melisa

Thank you for the sweet visit. 

"Living in the holler, the sun gets around to you late in the day and leaves you early." - Barbara Kingsolver - Demon Copperhead

Hugs and Stitches!!!!🤗🧵❤

Dedicated to my baby sister , Amy who loved to hunt the holler. Love and miss you, Amo. 

 

Here A Quilt , There A Quilt

Brrr! It's cold out there! I just soon sit on the couch and snuggle underneath a warm quilt.  Welcome, ya'll! 

I thought it would be fun to look at some of my favorite quilt posts of 2022.  Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs is hosting her annual Best of -- Link Party ( Best of 2022) . This is the 2nd year that I am participating. Last year I shared several of my favorite or most memorable posts of 2021. 

 Again, this was a year that I worked on a lot of small quilts.  One of the cutest that I finished was a freebie from Temecula Quilt Company called  Box of Chocolates  . Chocolates always make me smile!! I posted about this quilt  in my Jan. 21, 2022 post .

I created "A Tisket , A Tasket , A Little Yellow Basket " in 2021 but finished the quilting this year. It looked so lovely  when I photographed it on the yellow hay rake . 

 Kathleen Tracy offered a  Valentine  Mini Mystery Quilt  ( A freebie on her blog. ). It was such a delight to work on this mystery.  Click here to visit Kathleen's  blog. 

SUMMER DAYS  is not completed , but I offered it as a free Stitch Along on Thursdays. 

 

There were 12 blocks that I finished in a double churn dash setting. I still need to add the final borders. What has taken me so long? Well I just have not found the border fabric I am in love with. Oh well, I will find the perfect border fabric soon. 

 

"One Big Star" by Duck Soup was a quilt pattern sent to me by dear Patricia. It was the fastest quilt top to piece. 

Oh, yes and I am still working on the Easter Quilt. It will be completed one of these days and I will be doing the bunny hop when it is!!!

And I can not leave out Frosty McChill. I began offering these embroidered blocks in November of 2021 and continued through the first of the year. 

I think I started the year out strong on quilting and ended with a Frosty finish.  

So have you looked back at all of the projects you worked on this year? Any favorites? 

Here's hoping that 2023 will be a productive year . And just maybe, just maybe, I say-  the Easter Quilt will see its final stitches.  Finger crossed. 

Thank you for stopping by , sweetie pies  and ...

As always...

Happy  Stitching and Quilting, ya'll

Melisa

Thank you for the sweet visit. 

A day patched with quilting  seldom unravels. 

Hugs and Stitches!!!!🤗🧵❤

Dedicated to my dear sister, Amy. I love and miss you so much, Amo.  

Leftovers?

Are you eating leftovers? Good afternoon, ya'll . I think we will be eating for days with all of the wonderful leftovers from Christmas Eve and Christmas. 

How was your Christmas? Whether you celebrated quietly at home or with a large group, I hope your day was filled with happiness, love , and peace .  On Christmas Eve the family came over to my house where we had finger foods. 

The youngins' worked on snow globes and decorating ugly sweater cookies.  

 The boys must have been extra special for Santa was good to them . 

 

 My little tree was all decorated in campers. 

 The shutters next my little camper tree was filled with Christmas quilts. 

All of this will be changed over to snowmen very soon. But I have to admit, I am tempted to leave it out a little longer for I sure would love to be camping right now. Brrr, it would be cold though. 

Just in time for Christmas , I finished The Scarlett House's  2022 freebie called Santa's Helpers. Thank you , Joan for the sweet finishing pieces.  

I am going to try to stick to my rotation this new year. So I have a wee start on  a Merry Monday stitch. Merry Monday is  the day I will dedicate just a few minutes to stitch on a Christmas piece in order to move  the project along.  

A project waiting to be finished is sitting in my stitchy chair. It is Cheri Payne's Wednesday's  Best  called " Santa Claus"  . The quilting was completed before Christmas. The binding will be completed by the night's end. 

Eeeeh! Flurries are in the forecast!!! Will it happen? Probably not , but I have my snow boots and toboggan  ready just in case. In the meantime, I will stay inside glued to the window ,  dreaming of snowmen and snow cream. 

Have a very lovely evening, ya'll and as always...

As always...

Happy  Stitching and Quilting, ya'll

Melisa

Christmas calories do not count!  

Hugs and Stitches!!!  And Snowman Kisses.

Dedicated to my dear sister, Amy. Who would  be out mom's along with myself each 26th of Dec. to enjoy the leftovers. Love  and miss ya, Amo.  

I am joining these lovely ladies' link parties. I hope you check them out; they always have so many wonderful projects going on and provide the opportunity for other needle workers to meet. 

Kate at Life in Pieces for  Stitching Stuff ( Sunday) 

Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun Than Housework for Oh Scrap - Sunday 

Melva at Melva Loves Scraps for Sew & Tell- Sunday

Brenda at Songbird Designs for Monday Musings

Beth at Love Laugh Quilt  for Monday Making

Judy at Small Quilts Doll Quilts for Design Wall Monday

Joy at Days Filled with Joy for This and That

Linda at Texas Quilt Gal for To Do List Tuesday - Tuesday

 

 

Always With Thee- A Christmas Gift

 Good afternoon, ya'll.  Are you hunkered down and staying as warm as possible?

Please excuse any Winter dust bunnies. 

 Winter Storm Elliot sure packed a punch . Didn't it?   It is bone chilling cold here and blustery as all get out.  We had a smidgen of snow this morning. When I smidgen I mean very little .😃❄

 Mr. Pinker went out to the barn and busted the ice on the ponds for the  cows and made sure they have all they hay they needed.  

  I checked the birdfeeders and yes they are filled as well. 

 I am staying in-   busy with all of the Christmas preparations and yes! I am still stitching Christmas!🎄🎅🤶

I had wanted to post this very special ornament yesterday for it is in memory of my sister who has been gone 1 year and 4 months yesterday.  

I still feel she is going to bounce through the door with a big grin on her face  and loudly  say" Hey! What are ya'll doing?"  And then she would be chattering away for she was a talker . 

 So in memory of my sweet sis. I created "Always With Thee" . 

If you are interested in stitching Always With Thee  ,grab the images below. Many of ya'll know but I always encourage you to read my little disclaimer and note about getting my charts. 

NOTE: Normally I have been able to create links to the charts and instructions which were in JPG form. For some reason, recent updates on Google Docs. has prevented me from doing that and I am not able to create a pdf without having to deal with storage issues.  Many dear stitchers say they right click, save the image and then print.  I think some have copied and pasted it to a Word document that they can print off as well. I hope you are able to find a way to enjoy this chart. You will have to click each page to save. Thank you so much for your patience and understanding and for all of the helpful tips and ideas. 

I stitch my little designs for fun and to decorate my home. I feel very blessed by this community and love sharing my little charts, but I am not a professional designer. And I do not have professional software. Thank you for understanding . I am always grateful for your kind encouragement , your visits, and for stitching my little designs.

OOOPSIE- I FORGOT TO NOTE IN THE INSTRUCTIONS TO USE 1 STRAND OF DMC 898 TO MAKE A STITCH BETWEEN HALO AND ANGEL's HEAD AND FOR THE CANDLE WICK.  I'm so sorry. 

 Last year's angel ornament was  Prim Winter Angel. 

The youngest grandbaby did some redecorating for me yesterday. He decided my cross stitch display needed a little something so he put his red empty ammunition shells with the deer strawberry. Lol.  He certainly gave me a chuckle . I know Amy would have loved it for she was a deer hunter .

Well sweetie pies, there is cookies to bake and presents to be wrapped so off I go.  I have a  pair of extra scissors and loads of wrapping paper if you want to help. 😀🎁

As always...

Happy  Stitching and Quilting, ya'll

Melisa

Santa works his jolliness right into your heart. 

Hugs and Stitches!!!  And Snowman Kisses. 

Dedicated to my sweet Baby sister, Amy . I love you, Amo.  . ❤ As you would say, Amo, "Overcome" 

Taken away before your time. 

Thrifty Thurday of December

 Good  morning ya'll. These last couple of weeks have been such a delight to visit the thrift stores . Last week, Mr. Pinker and I took a jaunt into Alabama where I made quite a haul. 

Now ya'll know me , I am no minimalist, and I do adore the crusty and rusty - what most people might call junk.   But that's ok for it's just my style. Let me show you some of my country goodies. 

Checkerboard, doilies and stoneware bowls.  

The little Bible was dated 1942 and has the Eastern Star symbol on it. 

 

 I have always wanted a big enamelware tea kettle.  I was doing a happy dance when I found the Coca Cola crate for a song.

A vintage Thanksgiving tablecloth will be put to use next year. 

Lots of odds and end . These were goodies I purchased in the dime buggy. Yep a dime!!! Except for the Rae Dunn mug .  I paid a whole whopping dollar . This is my 1st Rae Dunn mug, and you know I had to have it for my bee collection.  The lettuce teapot will be used in the spring time 

 

I wish you could see this grand old whiskey jug in person. Oooh how I love it !!! Granny used to have whiskey jugs in her old sheds.  The old bean pot will be put to use in the future as will the butter crock. 

This popcorn bowl is so big and heavy.  It is handmade as is the patriotic pincushion. 

 

These old scissors were just fifty cents. They remind me of my Nanny who was a doll maker. She always had a pair of black scissors in hand. 

So all of you junk lovers- How do you think I did?   I think pretty good. I will admit that the most expensive item was the whiskey jug at $10, but I just had to have it. Lol

After spending the day shopping , we made our way home, but not before we stopped in a small town park to see the Christmas lights.  My dear sister had told me about this park 2 years ago. 

Christmas music was playing from speakers as we drove through the park.  

The bike was a new addition . 

Frosty was there to greet us. 

Thank you so much for dropping by to see my thrifty clutter.  Have a beautiful day, my dears and ...

As always...

Happy  Stitching and Quilting, ya'll

Melisa

I take long romantic walks through thrift stores. 😂😃

Hugs and Stitches!!!  Warm Winter Wishes !

Dedicated to my sweet Baby sister, Amy who introduced me to the park with all of the Christmas lights  and who was my thrifting partner in crime . I love you, Amo. You are such a blessing. ❤  1 yr 4 months. - How can that be?