I have definitely jumped on the home made gifts train. This year I have been working hard to make many of my gifts home made, but sadly I haven’t been able to do as much as I would like do to time restrictions. My goal for next year is to step it up and make many more things home made and plan a little better for the crazy busy time of the holiday season. Your home made items are beautiful and a huge inspiration to me. I hope to learn more sewing in the future so I can make some similar projects. I will join you for the new resolution for next year.

I, too, make it a point to make something every Christmas that is homemade. I have been doing this for decades and I often have friends say how much fun it is to put out all of the things I have made them over the years. I love getting homemade gifts too and you have a lot of great ideas on your list. Isn’t Pinterest a great place to get inspired? Merry Christmas, Dori, to you and yours!

Wonderful, inspiring ! I just love hand made gifts.

Wonderful, super ideas!! I too do the hand made gifting. One year I did purchased and welll, politely it was suggested that hand made items were expected. So that let me know what would be best BUT I was running out of really nice ideas until you posted and now next year will be started the first of the year. Again thank you so much for sharing your special ideas. God bless Merry Christmas.

Oh Dori — to be so talented, a gift from God. My mother did a lot of sewing and nearly all our gifts under the tree at Christmas were homemade, BUT, much as I loved her, she couldn’t hold a candlestick to your talents. God bless you more, sweet Dori . . .

Marvene

Thank you for such a beautiful writing! I absolutely ADORE Fall and Winter! Not that I don’t love Spring and Summer also, but Fall and Winter are my time of year. Crisp fresh air and brilliant sunshine, or cold and wet rainy, misty days — it does not matter. I love Rainy Days — soft and quiet or hard and stormy — either one is okay with me. But I seriously enjoyed your writing and photos and felt a sense of peace and comfort as I read. Thank you for sharing! 🙂

Love the gratitude in your post. Honoring the seasons is something i started to embrace with our cold Minnesota winters.

I love going to bed early in the winter and getting lost in sweaters and lots of layers. Lastly, the lack of bugs!

Thank you, Dori, for bringing to mind some of the wonders of Autumn and Winter. I retired Jan.1, 2016, but due to a small house fire, it has taken most of 2017 to finally experience the joys of being home. I still feel guilty when my husband goes out to work, but with all the cooking and reading I am doing, he is seeing how joyful I am.
I look forward to sewing again (and hubby looks forward to me using up some of the material I bought over the years).
Thank you again for sharing!
Laura

I hate winter time but you are right that it is truly a time for rest from farm work. I like your idea of sitting on the porch with a quilt as that is one of the things that I miss. This summer the mosquitos were so bad I did not get to sit out much. Hopefully, next summer. Until then I will read and work on my quilts, the same as you.

Dori, I could have written this myself! You and I are kindred spirits. Thank you so much for sharing you thoughts on this. Now I don’t feel like such an odd duck! P.S. I love what you write keep it up. Blessed fall and winter.

Dori, I never liked the fall when my kids were growing up. It meant the start of school and I missed having them around. Now I love the fall and winter. They are beautiful seasons. The crisp air and some snow. One of my favorite books is The Key Is Love by Marie Osmond. It’s a heartwarming story.

Dori, I don’t have a favorite book but I do read a lot. I also look at a lot of pictures of homes that are in the process or have been remodeled as we are still waiting on ours to be started on, the reason being—money. Soon I hope, soon it will begin. But I love fall with all the beautiful fall colors, the leaves on the ground (compost) and the last of the pesky bugs. I am hoping for a cold and long enough cold winter to get rid of some of the summer pests that we have. They are getting so bad it is hard to be outside to enjoy the summer. I love the photographs and your story. The walk in the woods and the trails are my favorite thing to do also in the Fall. I love to bundle up with hat, scarf, gloves and coat and breathe in the crisp cold air of an autumn walk in the evening. It is invigorating and to top it off with a cup of hot chocolate upon arriving back at the house. I also love winter and the snow that covers everything and makes it look so pretty and clean; at least until it is trampled by footprints and ridden on by snowmobiles and ski’s. There is a reason for every season and I try to enjoy every one of them. Happy Fall to you.

Have you ever used those little potpourri heaters to keep your favorite beverage warm? They’re safe, plentiful and cheap! I have one in the kitchen and one by my reading/craft/tv chair. In-line switch and “on” light make them convenient! Oh, and you can also use them to heat potpourri! Great year round.

I love Autumn and Winter. I feel the same way about Spring and Summer the way you feel about Fall and Winter. I like when it is cold and dark early so you can be cozy and curled up with a good book. I enjoy going back and rereading some of my favorite books from my youth. The “Honey Bunch”series,”The Bobbsey Twins”, all the Lucy Maud Montgomery series,”Little Women” etc.
Marilyn

Dori,
We had the exact same duck experience when we got ducklings for our kids 30 years ago! Later, we found that if we let them get to “teenager” stage, but not yet flying, they were more prone to stay at the pond when we took them down. That first bunch remained yard birds for years, though they would visit the pond by day.
Lovely memories!
Susan

Happy Birthday and thanks for the very funny story.

I think it’s adorable that your little duckies preferred their kiddie pool over the pond! It’s so funny how animals find things they like and stick with them just like us. Your floating duck house turned out so cute and hopefully your next set of ducks will decide to occupy it! In the mean time I bet the other animals enjoy it. Happy Birthday Dori! Enjoy your time with your family!

Oh, Dori. That was a fun read. I always wanted to raise ducks, geese, etc. for my children to experience a bit of farm life. Sadly, we sold our rural home before I got around to doing it.

Will the ducks stay the winter or fly south? Thanks for the post.

This is such a happy and fun duck story! Thank you for sharing it! Pam

Great giveaway – thanks, thanks, thanks!

I love how colorful and inviting your sewing room is! I want to sit down and sew with you

What a great idea to have a jar full of pinnies so that when guests arrive (particularly as holidays are coming up) I could gift them a pin cushion that they get to pick out of the jar themselves. It would be like kids getting to pick a toy out of a box at a store or restaurant or somewhere. I’m going to get started on my jar immediately. Thanks

I hardly ever use pincushions , but I think of them as adorable mini-pillows! My issue of MJF arrived the other day…I will look for your article!

Hi Dori,
My new husband’s family had a tradition of spending Christmas Day together at the parents home with their three sons and all their families. It was always a great event with lots of celebrating and lots of food and gifts, leaving everyone so totally blessed. This was unlike anything I had ever seen.

One of the things my new mother-in-law gave each of her daughters-in-law was a pin cushion. I wasn’t into sewing at the time but was years later. The tiny pin cushion was a beautiful oriental design which I have always treasured and used all these years. I still have it 35 years later. It is/was as unique as my dear mother-in-law, whom I also treasured. What a simple, yet thoughtful gift. Over the years the gifts she gave were always useful things that one needs in everyday life. With that philosophy, I learned to pattern my life toward making life better and useful for myself and toward others.

when I first saw the great photo of pin cushions I thought hooray! now I know of gifts to
make possibly for friends for the holidays. We all have some kind of pins in the home that need to be in safe places, safety, straight, etc. So put them into a attractive cushion.
I love yours!!! I sure hope to win them to put throughout my home for safe keeping of all kinds of needles, pins, etc. What a great sewer you are!!! Winnie

So stinkin cute!! I love these. I am starting my winter quilting project entitled ‘Three French Hens. ‘
I am a beginning quilter and love, love, love fabric, textures and colors!!

They are very cute Dori. My favorite pin cushion is made with sheep’s wool from my brother’s farm. My sister carded it and made an apple pin cushion for each sister and Mom. I also have the one I made in Bible school as a child. It’s green felt with yarn lacing and has a cat’s face on it! I’ve used it for 40+ years.

Thanks for being so generous and talented!

Thanks for the chance.

My favorite pin cushion is one my daughter made while learning about carding wool. The girls clumped some finished wool into little balls put them in the dryer to felt them. When we took hers out & cut it in half inside was a little pink heart. Now I have a treasure to remember her little girl self as she is now a 23 year old college grad working with autistic little ones.

Adorable! All your pinnies are unique and charming. I always love the fabrics you use. I’ve noticed in previous blogs some lovely ones. And now I see reminants of them in your pinnies. I have made a few overtime. A couple of my favorites are a sunflower made from wool which is glued to a holder that can be clamped to something. I have it clamped to a basket handle. The basket, of course, holds sewing materials! The other one is a small hen. It sits beside my sewing machine. I would love to have a couple of yours and of course, will check MJ magazine for the article about you and the quilt camp. That was such a wonderful idea. I’m so glad it went well for all involved.

You have captured my imagination with this “Pinnie-A-Day” project!
I stopped what I was doing and wrote down the first 6 ideas that popped into my brain! … and the possibility of receiving a free subscription is very enticing.
Your brain must stay full-to-overflowing with artistic thoughts!…Your children are so lucky to have a mom that will never be boring, and will probably spur them to be constantly exploring what is around the next corner for them to discover!
Thanks!

The pin cushions are so cute. I find them to be very useful around the house.

I remember my mothers and my grand mothers red tomatoe pin cushions. I use to play with them while they were sewing I would take all the pins out and then push them all back in over and over ( I guess I found joy in little things.)

I love pincushions and your pinnies are just adorable. I have made a couple of pincushions, but they not nearly as cute as yours. I so look forward to your e-mails, and would love to get one of your darling pinnies as well as your magazine. You are an amazing lady and so fun to hear from. You give me so many great ideas. Thanks!!!!!

Having my great grandma’s sewing items like her pin cushion helps me feel more connected to her. She passed when I was four, but left behind a beautiful legacy of handiwork for us to use and celebrate her beautiful skills.

Pin cushions are so handy and useful. Your pin cushions are so pretty and vibrant. I remember making a pin cushion in elementary school. We have some pincushions in our sewing boxes. They are great tools to have when sewing. Happy for you that your quilting camp was a huge success. That picture you have posted tells it all, every one had fun.
Marilyn

The pin cushions are very interesting. I remember my grandmother having one that was red and looked like an apple. I however do not have a pin cushion, I use my window curtain. I can walk into any room and there is a pin handy.

What a fun contest! I, too, consider sewing my special down time.

My mother made most of our clothes growing up. I had a beautiful “Jackie Kennedy style” prom gown she made without a pattern. I can’t think of sewing without honoring her. She quietly and peacefully passed a week ago today at 95 yrs. I’m not sure I can sew right now but will try the pinnies soon. They are so sweet.

Read the article, well actually, I sat back and let myself be right there. Oh what a grand time and everyone did a fabulous quilt. You are a wonder. Love the ‘pinkies’, I have at least 10, most of them are from my great grandma, grandma and Aunt. Making these lovelies is going to be my next project. Thanks for the incentive. God bless

I already have the plan to set up my sewing machine prior to the holidays. I have the idea of sewing small ornaments made out of burlap then stuffed. How easy would it be to include some pin cushions? Yours are so cute!

I love pin cushions (pinnies) – all sizes and shapes, vintage and new. I’d never heard them called pinnies, though. LOL! I’d love to win one of your pinnies to go in my collection.

Thank you so much for this awesome giveaway! I love the idea of pinnies, they are so cute and a fun and great way to use up small scraps. I own a couple of pincushions, but none of them are special, just colorful and fun.

I’ve already purchased the issue. When I saw Quilt camp on the cover I just knew it had to be you and I wanted to read all about it. I love your pinnies…what a challenge, one a day! Lots of fun I’m sure. Thanks for all your inspiration.

We froze green beans on Tuesday and sweet corn on Wednesday. I had my youngest -not so young daughter helping on both days. In fact she did nearly all the work by herself except the husking and then the bagging as I wanted her to learn the process.

Aw shucks!!! Wish I was there!!! 🙂

Fresh corn is so good. I’m going to try the recipe, it looks delicious. You’re so lucky to have your grand-girls close to help. I enjoy your posts!

Thank you for the recipe. I an sympathize with you concerning he raccoons and cows. We have problems with squirrels, they rip up our bulbs and eat them. It is so frustrating to plant the flower bulbs and only to have them chewed up and destroyed. You are so right concerning The Amish. They are such wonderful people. Your granddaughters are beautiful. They are getting so big,quite the young ladies. thank you for sharing this post.
Marilyn

How wonderful to do all this all outside ! Just finished making apricot jam in my hot kitchen but now will treat myself to a nice cool swim in my pool – would love to have that soup for dinner but too tired and hot today !

Thanks for sharing your day with us. I always enjoy reading about your adventures!. Just yesterday my husband and I were discussing the best way to preserve corn for the winter. A local farmer has been selling wonderful corn the past couple of weeks and I hate for it to end. We do not have a vacuum seal system. I guess we’ll have to get one!

We stopped and got fresh corn on the cob on the way to our cabin this weekend. Your recipe for chowder looks like a perfect thing to have tonight. Thanks.

I plant squash & pumpkins with my corn. (Around the perimeter of my garden.)No more coons. They do not like the pickie vines.

We call it “doing corn”!! I need to do corn this summer because my supply from 2 years ago is all gone! I love fresh frozen corn to serve for company meals. Corn of this quality and flavor cannot be purchased! Soooo Good!

We froze green beans on Tuesday and sweet corn on Wednesday. I had my youngest -not so young daughter helping on both days. In fact she did nearly all the work by herself except the husking and then the bagging as I wanted her to learn the process.

Aw shucks!!! Wish I was there!!! 🙂

Fresh corn is so good. I’m going to try the recipe, it looks delicious. You’re so lucky to have your grand-girls close to help. I enjoy your posts!

Thank you for the recipe. I an sympathize with you concerning he raccoons and cows. We have problems with squirrels, they rip up our bulbs and eat them. It is so frustrating to plant the flower bulbs and only to have them chewed up and destroyed. You are so right concerning The Amish. They are such wonderful people. Your granddaughters are beautiful. They are getting so big,quite the young ladies. thank you for sharing this post.
Marilyn

How wonderful to do all this all outside ! Just finished making apricot jam in my hot kitchen but now will treat myself to a nice cool swim in my pool – would love to have that soup for dinner but too tired and hot today !

Thanks for sharing your day with us. I always enjoy reading about your adventures!. Just yesterday my husband and I were discussing the best way to preserve corn for the winter. A local farmer has been selling wonderful corn the past couple of weeks and I hate for it to end. We do not have a vacuum seal system. I guess we’ll have to get one!

We stopped and got fresh corn on the cob on the way to our cabin this weekend. Your recipe for chowder looks like a perfect thing to have tonight. Thanks.

I plant squash & pumpkins with my corn. (Around the perimeter of my garden.)No more coons. They do not like the pickie vines.

We call it “doing corn”!! I need to do corn this summer because my supply from 2 years ago is all gone! I love fresh frozen corn to serve for company meals. Corn of this quality and flavor cannot be purchased! Soooo Good!

Sounds like a delicious idea, but I won’t be making salsa unless I buy some tomatoes as we have had no luck with ours this year.

Do you have high winds I your area?

We have tried a camping stove but getting the temps high enough can take a long time.

I want to use my pressure canners also out of doors.

We do not have central AC and it has been around 105/109 some days at 5:30 pm.

Looks good and with a glass of homemade lemonade it is perfect.

I love homemade fresh salsa. I never make batches big enough to can (because I eat it all) but I’m hoping this year I will have enough tomatoes so I can. I am not a big fan of spicy so I add sugar to make it sweet! On Wednesday I made a small batch of mango salsa and it turned out delicious. Looking forward to when my tomatoes are ready to be made into salsa. Thanks for sharing your recipe!

Love salsa and won’t forget my first time i made it…i turned the mix by hand and couldn’t feel a thing for three days….the heat from the halapenos took away my migraine but my hands couldn’t feel a thing for days. Remind people to wear gloves when you cut and handke the peppers for the salsa, because the halapeno pepper are hot.,,.and you don’t have need to use more than four for the recipe.

Hello Dori, I wanted to tell you how good your salsa recipe is! The only problem is – we ate it all☺ lol. Am going to have to make more soon and double the recipe! Hope your summer is going good! Thanks for the great recipe. Looking forward to your next post☺ Ellen

Sounds like a delicious idea, but I won’t be making salsa unless I buy some tomatoes as we have had no luck with ours this year.

Do you have high winds I your area?

We have tried a camping stove but getting the temps high enough can take a long time.

I want to use my pressure canners also out of doors.

We do not have central AC and it has been around 105/109 some days at 5:30 pm.

Looks good and with a glass of homemade lemonade it is perfect.

I love homemade fresh salsa. I never make batches big enough to can (because I eat it all) but I’m hoping this year I will have enough tomatoes so I can. I am not a big fan of spicy so I add sugar to make it sweet! On Wednesday I made a small batch of mango salsa and it turned out delicious. Looking forward to when my tomatoes are ready to be made into salsa. Thanks for sharing your recipe!

Love salsa and won’t forget my first time i made it…i turned the mix by hand and couldn’t feel a thing for three days….the heat from the halapenos took away my migraine but my hands couldn’t feel a thing for days. Remind people to wear gloves when you cut and handke the peppers for the salsa, because the halapeno pepper are hot.,,.and you don’t have need to use more than four for the recipe.

Hello Dori, I wanted to tell you how good your salsa recipe is! The only problem is – we ate it all☺ lol. Am going to have to make more soon and double the recipe! Hope your summer is going good! Thanks for the great recipe. Looking forward to your next post☺ Ellen

Great life !

my dear Dori:
the first blooms of spring are wonderful!!! the photos brighten my day. And again, I wish I could experience them personally 🙂

You brightened my world with your beautiful flowers! We had a late winter so nothing much blooming here, hopefully later. And WOW the quilting room looks like great fun!! An update will be nice. Thanks for sharing from my fav state. God bless.

I love flower season! Like always I wish I lived closer so I could purchase some of your beautiful flowers. I have had a few of my own flowers come up and decided I would go cut my own bouquet today to brighten up my kitchen table. It’s amazing the wonderful feeling you get from having fresh flowers in your room. I hope your business is successful this flower season. I love how the girls quilts are turning out, very bright and beautiful! I’m excited to see how they look next time.

Oh, I would love to have a flower cart such as yours near to me! I’d buy two every week- one to sit on my kitchen table and another at my work desk.

Hello Dory, I wanted to tell you how much I enjoy all your posts! You inspire and encourage me with all you do. Thank you and have a happy day. Ellen

I just love your porches! I dream of one day having large porches like yours! Our current deck is small, uncovered, and very hot. My little guys love playing on our deck so we use an umbrella to help with the sun and heat. Just the past couple of weeks my husband and I have been talking about remodeling our deck. We would love to make it longer and wider as well as adding a roof covering. No official plans are set in stone, but I’m hoping to get started before the heat of the summer hits! Rocking chairs will also be a must for my deck when it’s finished.

I don’t care what we talked about! Just sitting and relaxing, drinking tea or coffee, becoming aquainted. Eventually conversation would drift to grandchildren I am sure! And hobbies, and collections, and sewing projects, flea markets, recipes, antiques….friends don’t need topics, it just happens!

I have always loved porches but not always had one, so your post was so enjoyable. I imagine our conversation would touch on how we got where we are, the beautiful valley below your porch, the trout stream in front of mine……..and spiders! I had to laugh about that last one because when we finally got our mountain home with porches the first thing I noticed was how prolific the spiders were; spinning and creating their own art every evening. For some reason I have many more on the front wraparound porch than the back porch. Maybe it is something to do with the wind? Anyway, we would have plenty to talk about. Enjoy your porching season!

Dori, I also wanted to mention I love what you are using for a flower pot on the porch. I remember those pots very well, as we used one on the farm growing up, and when I lived on a pig farm and took care of the owners pigs. We didn’t have indoor plumbing at either of these places. On my family’s farm, our outhouse was inside the barn which was up the hill in back of our farmhouse and not something we would use at night, hence the pot. On the pig farm the outhouse was below the house and a ways away and no one wanted to walk to it at night either. Those were some happy days though we didn’t have much we had fun all the time. Memories are precious.

Thank you for sharing your porch. As far as the spiders are concerned, have you tried peppermint? I read in a book concerning home remedies that spiders will stay away from peppermint. Have a great time on your lovely porches.
Marilyn

Dori, you are living my dream with your lovely porch! Thanks for sharing and Thanks for the tour!
~shannon
@browngirl_og

Porches, beautiful porches! I was raised with porches and always have had at least one my grown up life. Your’s are simple wonderful! I cleaned my front porch today, back porch tomorrow. You know, I think we would have some super conversations about everything from A to Z, especially quilts and quilting. Then just quietly enjoy the special Tennessee air. Thanks for sharing. God bless.

Sitting on a porch is just a perfect thing to do on a sunny Sunday afternoon. My farmhouse has a front porch and a back deck. Unfortunately, our house sits close to a road and I don’t like the noise of an occasional vehicle going by, but the back deck is perfect. Our property falls down in the back to a river, so sitting on the deck I feel like I’m in a tree house and listening to the river rush by makes for a perfect afternoon, book in hand, tea on the side table.
As a side note, I love when you share your house through blogs, your love for the property signs through, and that’s a wonderful thing to share.

Love your porches, I like to sit on my porch early in the morning drinking my coffee , by noon it is too hot to sit on front porch. At your place we could just walk around to the other side.
Till next time
Cheryl Turner

Oh, how I would love to share the view from one of those porches! They are absolutely beautiful. As to what we would talk about, I’m sure we could start with that…. the view. Then we could move on to our projects, past, present and future. Such a lovely place.

I love your porches,Dori, they are what I hope to have some day. I have a Verandah on the back of my house and I do ,one to sit out there. I have a table setting out there and some potted plants and our bbq, but one day on my own porch I’d love to have some rocking chairs, a porch swing and a hammock and a day bed as well as my outdoor table setting and bbq. A real relax place to unwind and treasure time.
I’d chat with you about anything and everyone, your favorite plants, life, sewing and whatever else we felt like chatting about, all with home baking, I’d bring some too, and some lovely tea or coffee and later a glass of wine. There’d be no rush to our time together and we’d savor the conversation and time together.
Blessing to you and yours
Denise
Australia