Off to a Slow Start (sort of)

Ah...January.  The first month of a New Year (of sorts; September is too).  The Month of Resolutions...or promises...or goal-setting.

And if you read my last post, 'wa-a-a-ay earlier this month, you'll know I had my share of New Year's Optimism goin' on.  While I'd vowed to "Keep It Simple", I didn't realize how well the "Universe" listened to that vow, and took steps to help me by Slowing Me Down.

I've been pretty good at setting aside Wednesdays as 'charity' days, working mainly on charity knitting projects.  All the ones I showed in my post have been taken to the church and a narrow scarf that languished at 20 inches is now 34 and growing (the pattern calls for another 17 inches), while a pair of simple mittens is half-finished.

I've made all 9 of the blocks for the "Barn Quilt" Block of the Month:

Set #1

Set #2

Set #3

Can you find the "OOOPs!" in the third set?  😉

(All of these will become a quilt top for charity.)

I've been working on art pieces...with second thoughts about having a full booth at Lacombe this year.  There's an option called "The Gallery", which will take a few (3, I think) pieces...and I don't have to be there all the time.  That's becoming more appealing as I work through "Keep It Simple".

But for now...I showed 2 pieces at the Deep Freeze Festival in Edmonton -- a juried exhibit.  I made no sales, but am working with a client to fulfill a commission she would like.  It looks like she might go for a mixed media piece on stretched canvas -- a small one, featuring trees.  Photos will be on the way to her this week -- snail mail, as she's an older lady and (her words) "I'm illiterate" when it comes to the computer (she doesn't own one).

As for finished work...awaiting 'floater' frames... there's one small one in the "Wintry Skies" series:

December Dusk (C) 2018
5" x 7" before framing
water colour, Pitt (R) pen, quilted fabric
on stretched canvas

And there's a larger one -- my first attempt at this technique in a larger size! -- in the "Inspired by Scotland" series:

Storm Brewing Over the Lowlands (C) 2018
12" x 12" before framing
water colour, quilted fabric
on stretched canvas

I confess I am particularly thrilled with this last one...and the thrill of it is almost intimidating when it comes to trying another.

Do any of you have this happen?

You know what I mean?  You make something wonderful and have no idea how you'll top it, or duplicate it, or create a similar success with another piece/subject/size/technique. 

Does this happen to you?  I'd love to know I'm not alone!

And so...I've spent a lot of time "recovering" (or "refreshing" or whatever one might call it)...by...working on pieced quilts.

As a result, my "On Ringo Lake" mystery from Bonnie Hunter is coming along.  I've finished the first four clues and am working on Clue #5.  As a "leader-and-ender" project I've been clearing out my "crumb bucket" and creating blocks made of bits and bobs of fabric, which will be placed with sashing into some sort of crib-sized or throw-sized quilt, thus:

On the left...6 "crumb blocks" -- each a four-patch of 3 1/2" blocks made of 'crumbs' of fabric.

On the right, some of you will recognize "Wall" from last year.  Below it is "Scars", with its binding that needs to be hand-stitched down on the back.

I quilted and hand-stitched "Scars" when I was laid up in bed with a head cold last weekend.  (It's composed of a fabric from tree rubbing -- Mountain Ash from my back yard, known in the U.K. as 'Rowan' -- cut up and reassembled, then cut into and backed with black fabric, then quilted and hand stitched before binding.)

Yes, another way of slowing me down so that I would Keep It Simple.

I still don't know exactly what I'm going to do with those two.  They're each 12" x 12" so could go into the SAQA Benefit Auctions for this year and next (you can only enter one piece at a time)...but they're hardly Home Decor here in Bed Quilt Central!

So...There you have it.  The month is fading fast, and I'm still muddling along, trying to figure out what I should be doing.  I have a bed quilt commission that will be started this week (a (4) Rail Fence for my daughter's Air B'n'B) and along with that...more of the same, I think, until the Spirit of Simple says otherwise.

Meanwhile, I'll link up to Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday while I still can, and leave you with Canada's Own Rick Mercer Reports and Rick's take on the Deep Freeze Festival 2018.  Enjoy!

Trying to...

I don't know how the FB 'quizzes' and 'name tests' are created, but this is one I decided to try tonight...it used my photos...and presented me with a "Motto for 2018". 

The odd thing is, this particular practice -- keeping 'it' simple, not over-thinking, over-analyzing, not getting lost in details, seeing every tree in the forest instead of the forest as a single entity -- this practice has plagued me most of my 65 years.

And most years, right around this time, I return to it.  "Always [I] begin again," in the way of Benedict.  

This year is no exception.  For weeks now, even as I finished gifts and readied the house for Christmas, I've been wondering how to go forward in this new year, with all I'd like to do.

The challenge?  To prioritize and fit it into weeks that seem to grow shorter every year.  Tuesdays and Thursdays are set aside for work in The Shop, music practice at church and Knit Night. 

Sunday I've managed to keep as a 'Sabbath' day most of the time, with church in the morning, followed by a walk, and a quiet afternoon of reading, stitching and/or napping, ending with a visit, every couple of weeks, with an elderly friend.

Yes, there is knitting as stitching as part of those days, as every day...but not for long, concentrated periods of time.

Then there's the periodic online work that I do as a volunteer...which has to be fit in somewhere as it is not yet time to give it up for others to do.  In some cases there are no others, so it wouldn't get done.  Perhaps it wouldn't be missed; I really have no way of knowing.  Clearly I need to give it more thought before the end of this year...if I am to simplify as I mean to.

So...how do I intend to fill the remainder of my week-days in this new year?

For one thing, I want to enable simpler living by finishing old projects, and using up fabric and yarn for things that can be given away to others who need them more than I do.   I've begun by designating Wednesdays, as much as possible, as days to focus on this work.  I started last week, and have managed to knit up a toque and finish a scarf that's been languishing in my UFO basket(s) since the fall of 2015.

Pattern: Chevron Leaf Shawl - by Patons
Yarn: Patons North America
Country Garden DK (discontinued)
- donated to the church some years ago

Today, I took up a prayer shawl begun in March 2014 and last touched in September of that year -- with only one 20-row pattern set and the edging to do!  It's one of those that starts small, and increases steadily, so when I left it there were almost 300 stitches on the needle, so each row takes more time than the last.  Still, it's a lovely, meditative design and not particularly difficult, so I've made progress, confident that it will be finished next Wednesday.

On the quilting front, I've decided to participate in The Quilt Show's 2018 Block of the Month -- using not the kit but my stash.  The quilt is made with a series of 24 small (6" finished) blocks, as well as three applique sections and a large central motif, which I may or may not do.  Three patterns for pieced blocks will be given out each month, and ideally one makes three of each of the blocks, or nine blocks per month.  Monday, I made three blocks from the first pattern.  My aim is to make the other six blocks this month in similar colours -- as far as my stash allows, knowing full well that in February I will have to hunt down different colours for the next nine.  This will make it fun -- and use up that stash as I go!

On the side, I hope to get that treadle machine I bought last year up and running with a simple 'squares' quilt, so I can practice plain, straight sewing with it as I get into the rhythm.  Maybe treadling my spinning wheel would help with that...as well as using up some of my roving...

Then there's my artwork -- and three projects under consideration this year: the Annual Lacombe Art Show and Sale (April 20 - 21); a "Scotland collaboration" with my friend and colleague, Mary Wilton, for entry into the Annual Camrose Art Walk in August; and an entry into a SAQA juried show, with an online entry deadline of May 31 (more about that later).

Design: Carol Leather

Finally, this year there's embroidery in the mix, also in an attempt to use materials stashed for far too long -- so there's a hope I will make up some small pieces from kits I've collected, as well as studying various stitches through the year as part of "Beyond TAST" (Take A Stitch Tuesday), a project under the auspices of the talented Sharon Boggon of Australia.  We begin by playing with the Running Stitch; Sharon recommended doing so by way of 'Pattern Darning' or Kogin, a Japanese embroidery technique.  I've dug out some 14- and 18-count Aida cloth, a tapestry needle, a simple pattern (courtesy of stitcher Carol Leather), and will begin a sampler in two colours.

"Keep It Simple"?  I'm not sure it's going to happen...at least not this year...but I'll put one foot in front of the other, "begin again" each day in earnest, and with God's grace, well...who knows?

Wishing you all a Happy -- and Simple! -- New Year, Gentle Readers, and linking up with WIP Wednesday over at the Needle and Thread Network.

And so to bed.

Tomorrow's another day.  😊