Only a Couple of Weeks?!

I don't know about you, Gentle Readers, but it feels like a lot longer than 18 days since I last posted.  "Time flies when you're having fun" is one way to look at it.  Another is my mother's maxim: "After you turn 21, time simply disappears!"

That said, I'm here, still trying to make sense of and make some beauty in every day.

Here on the rolling prairie of Alberta, somewhere northeast of Calgary and south of Edmonton, it's trying to be Spring, but Mother Nature is arguing with Ol' Man Winter, so we're getting it in fits and starts.  The trees outside my windows (front and back) are filled with robins, jays, nuthatches and sparrows at my feeders, while the newly-returned crows bully them all from the feeder out on the lilac at the end of my driveway.

Snow has fallen two days/nights running -- requiring shovelling each morning because I live facing a 'public sidewalk' that the County insists I keep clear.  I've done so, to the best of my ability, with a bit of help from a neighbour and his plough-front ATV as well as "Mr. Sun" -- and I'm grateful.

All that said, I am also grateful that I have the work of my hands to keep me going through nasty weather -- be it *real* weather or...well...international/political "weather".

In my last post I showed you a new hooked piece that I gave to the Lacombe Centre for the Performing Arts (LPAC) for their fundraiser.  I went to the opening reception and was delighted to meet one attendee who'd just placed a bid on it!  She was from the Atlantic provinces here in Canada and grew up with hooked mats, so was thrilled to see a hooked piece in the show.

Since then, I've finished 2 new small hooked pieces and mounted them on canvas to take to the Encore! Lacombe Art Show and Sale, which is now only 2 weeks away. 😬

I've just finished 2 more small hooked art pieces, and today I mounted them on their respective painted stretched canvases:

Dandelions On Forever! 
10" W x 8" L
Wool yarn hooked into linen

Blue Pot Reprise
10" W x 10" L
Wool yarn, silk strips hooked 
into linen

Some of you who've followed this blog for a while might recognize the 'Blue Pot' because...well...I created it from this photo:

into an art quilt for a fund-raiser for the Alberta Society of Artists back in the day...

One of my very favourites.  And yes, I still plant geraniums and lobelia in that big blue pot...

But 'creating beauty every day' is not just about hooked rugs/mats/art.  It's simply about making -- as you, Gentle Readers, well know -- making life and light in the midst of everything.

On the quilting front, there's not been a lot since my last post, but I have, at last, finished my version of Bonnie Hunter's 2024 Mystery, "Old Town" -- now a pay-for pattern.  Low on fabrics, I decided not to insert sashing -- pieced or otherwise -- and let the blocks come together to form their own secondary patterns which (because she is such a talented designer) they did!  Then I added a narrow solid border, an outer piece border (from left-overs) and a wide outer border.  It measures about 70" x 72 ". 

As my local long-arm quilter has retired 😞 I've had to find an alternative.  At her suggestion, I'll be taking this up the highway about 45 minutes' drive north to Quilting from the Heart in Camrose, Alberta.  I've been a fabric and notions customer there for decades and had them service my Pfaff last spring so...now I'm taking them this top for an all-over quilting design. The price is right and I trust their service so stay tuned for the finish!

Lest I've forgotten to mention it...this quilt is for my son's 40th birthday in early June.  I don't know how he's managed to turn 40, as he was  born just last week... 😉

As for knitting, I actually managed to start and finish a pair of socks this month!  They're very pretty -- all credit to the designer...

"Wandering Rose" socks

I confess, a much better photo was posted in my last blog.  It was of the first sock of the pair.  Trust me; they match! 😆 Either way, on the foot they're both lovely!

All that said, I got the pair finished in time for the two Sock-alongs I'm in the "Socks from Stash" March Challenge" and the "Sox-along 2025" (hosted by Soxy Nana Alice and Diane of My Pink Bathtub on YouTube).

I'm now taking a bit of time out from socks and focusing on a hat from left-over sock yarn (for charity) and a sweater (for me)...more later on those.

And lest I forget, I'm making daily progress on the Lenten MKAL from Quail's Knitting Nest, but because it's a mystery....shhhh. No spoiler photos! You'll just have to check out her Ravelry project page! 😉

And once the Art Show is over, I'll be returning to the Celtic Knot quilt project in order to get the second set of blocks pieced and the top assembled so that my daughter and I can take the top to a long-armer in early-to-mid-July.  It needs to be quilted and bound for delivery to the recipients in early September.  So...more on that later.

But what about cross-stitch?!

Well yes...there is some -- pretty much every evening.  

I've picked up Thea Dueck's monthly floral bouquets (see her FB Group for details) and have finished January, February and March:

Done with assorted unlabelled stash
flosses, mostly 2 over 2 on 28 count
pearl grey fabric

I've set aside Thea's other pattern, "'S' is for Stitcher", for the moment, as well as Jeannette's "Ann Perrin 1841", to focus on the "Flanders Fields Biscornu" I'm doing for a friend.  I'm on the last of the four poppies on the top section now, and really enjoying this stitch!  This photo was taken March 26.  Since then I've completely finished the poppy on the lower left and have outlined the last one -- where the needle-minder is in the photo -- on the lower right.

I'm using 36-count "Grey" from Weeks
Dye Works, and the called-for WDW flosses

As well, I've been continuing to work on the "Hope" sampler from Modern Folk Embroidery, which I consider my "Sunday Stitch".  I'm working it on a piece of 32-count Thornfield from Needle & Flax, using 1 strand of #8 perle cotton from the Sue Spargo line of threads:

Isn't it pretty?! 🩷

And so it goes, Gentle Readers...so it goes.  Finally posting this on a Sunday, I'll be having a second cup of coffee and taking out that 'Hope' stitch very soon, so I'll leave you with a link to Nina-Marie's "Off the Wall Friday" and the hope that you, too, will find some life, light, peace and (yes) hope in your making.  Until we meet again...a bientot!

A Bit of Everything

When I was a kid, my mother told me that one of her father's favourite expressions (he died when she was in her early teens) was "Six of a dozen assorted".  That's sort of what I have to share this go 'round.

The Madman to the South continues his threats on my country's very existence, so I continue to make, make, make in order to bring a modicum of order to the chaos swirling around us.

Blessedly, I have enough materials and ideas to keep that process going!

On Wednesday, I attende the Opening Reception for the "Piece by Piece" fund-raising exhibit at the Lacombe Performing Arts Centre (fondly referred to as LPAC).  My piece was one of two distinctly textile-genre pieces; there was also a piece that was mixed media (including found objects) and a variety of paintings, both in oil and in acrylic -- landscapes, portraiture and so forth.  Twenty-two artists in all.  

This is a silent auction and runs through May 2nd, so I hope my local friends will get over to the LPAC to see it -- and maybe place a bid!

"Prairie Gold" 12" x12" on canvas

I recently got word that I've been accepted for a booth at the 2025 Encore! Lacombe Art Show and Sale.  I was Featured Artist in 2023, but took the year off last year and will be returning this year with both quilted and hooked pieces.  Four of the quilted pieces will be the ones that have just come "home" from B.C. -- the ones I made for the 2022-2024 "Art in the Park" residency and touring exhibit.  Here's a shot of them hanging in the Revelstoke Visual Arts Centre gallery:

I'm very excited to present them to a new audience in Lacombe!

With them, there will be several new hooked pieces, including smalls that can be taken home for very little expense.  

But besides that, I continue to work on the usual...knitting...quilting (piecing) and cross-stitch.

Last going first, the cross-stitch.  I've been a bit all over the place but still focusing (a bit) on what is (mostly) Canadian.

I've made more progress on "Anne Perrin 1841", a reproduction sampler from Jeannette Douglas Designs, and made my way over to the "berry bowl" in the centre:

I've also made some progress on "'S' is for Stitcher" from Thea Dueck at The Victoria Sampler:

I also started Thea's 2025 BOM -- a floral 'Block of the Month' in stitches.  I've done the first two months and, having the pattern for March, will do that one soon:

And I've made my way to what is essentially the centre of the piece, but there it sits for now -- along with the "Quilters' Dream" from Modern Folk Embroidery, because, of course, there are other things...

Such as the "HOPE" sampler -- a section from a stitch-along created some years ago by Modern Folk Embroidery.  I mean, after all, we could all use a bit of hope these days, right?  For this one, I'm using a single strand of a WonderFil #8 Perle cotton in Sue Spargo's line, colour #EZM89 on 32-count Thornfield linen from Needle & Flax, from my stash since 2023.

And for now, another project that I want to give to a friend is a biscornu.  Some months (maybe over a year) ago, that friend gave me a pattern and flosses for this pattern.  Her birthday is coming up and I've decided I want to finish it for her:

Pattern: Flanders Fields Biscornu
Designer: Heartstring Samplery
Fabric: 36-ct Grey (Weeks)
Floss: Weeks Dye Works

My quilting has been focused on the Old Town Mystery from Bonnie Hunter.  I've finished all 25 blocks and, lacking fabric for the called-for pieced sashing, decided to put the blocks together as a top:

Then I added a narrow inner border (blue-green to match the centres of each block) and pieced outer borders.  The latter consist of 4-patches that I made from what I had for the four corners of each block and for what might end up in a border; and from a series of hour-glass blocks made out of 'bonus triangles' from the flying geese in this project.

Pieced borders: 4-patches on two sides,
and hour-glass units on the other two.

There will now be a wider (3" finished, I think) cream-coloured outer border all around, taken from the wide backing bought for this piece (the only fabric I've bought for this quilt).  Then...off to the long-armer to be quilted and eventually given to my son for his up-coming 40th birthday.

As for the "Easy Breezy" throw, that top is finished but not quilted yet.  That will come.

Finally, some knitting.  I'm trying to finish 2 pair of socks -- one cast on at the beginning of this month, and another from the formerly-ignored WIPs.

The "Twizzler Socks" that I mentioned in my last post have been finished.  I'm keeping them for now...they'll be more suitable for wearing when the weather warms up a bit.

I've finally reached the foot on the first of a pair of "Cornflower Socks" I cast on a couple of years ago, and am approaching the toe:

At the beginning of this month I decided I also wanted to join the "Socks from Stash" Ravelry group's March Challenge -- and I needed a pattern that reminded me of nature.  So...I found the "Wandering Rose" pattern and a ball of Lana Grossa Meillenweit sock yarn in a stunning shade of red and cast on:

As of this morning, I've fully finished the first sock of the pair:

None of this has stopped me from being smitten by a renewed case of "startitis", though.  I signed up -- and even paid for a pattern (!) -- for a Lenten Mystery Knit Along (MKAL) from Joy Jannotti of "Quail's Knitting Nest" on YouTube.  The first clue dropped on Ash Wednesday and clues drop every Sunday thereafter.  It's for a shawlette in mosaic knitting, but that's all I can tell you.  You can find the pattern on Ravelry, and there's a community on both Joy's YouTube channel and on (I believe) Instagram (I'm not on IG).  Sorry -- no photos at present. No spoilers! 

I also stumbled on another shawl pattern -- another freebie -- can't recall where now -- and cast it on at the beginning of this week, using luxury stash yarn I bought a good 20 years or so ago: the Freesia from Annie Baker Designs on Ravelry.  I'm making it with Peruvian Baby Silk yarn from elann.com, in the Raspberry colour-way (#2010) -- but sorry, no progress photos yet. It's early days!

I've not paid much attention to the "Lake Reed" toque I mentioned in my last post, but I'm making steady progress on the "Missoni Accomplished" pullover.  I'm within 4 rounds of splitting for the sleeves, so stay tuned for more on that.

And so it goes.  I watch the news, I pray, I knit/quilt/stitch/hook/repeat.  I go for walks or shovel walks, as the weather dictates.  I rally online with my Canadian compatriots and hug my American friends and family across cyberspace, as we all try to figure out how to deal with what's going on.  Canada has been attacked and pushed into a non-violent war that is designed to weaken us so badly we'll capitulate and become part of the US...which is simply Not On.  And so it goes.  

For all of you, I leave you with a wish and a hope that you can find some time in the midst of this mess to create beauty.  That you are still able to be kind to strangers and known loved ones alike.  That you can get out into nature and do what you need to do to restore your soul.

I leave you with my usual link to dear, persistent, consistent Nina-Marie Sayre and her Off the Wall Friday sharing platform...and with this, written by a Canadian, for Canadians, but also, I hope, for those from outside Canada who seek to understand us better:

Until next time, a bientot!

January Waning

Goodness gracious!  My mother was right; she told me decades ago (she's been gone for 21 years) that "Once you reach (age) 21, time disappears."

Yep; she was pretty much right.

So here we are nearly at the end of the Longest Month of the Winter (because it doesn't have 10 days of holiday in it).  I'm in the Northern Hemisphere, as most of you probably know by now, so it's been a very January January.  Snow.  Blowing snow.  Freezing rain followed by snow. More blowing snow.

The good news about that?!  I get to stay inside and make things!

And the good news about that?!  Making things helps me cope with all the STUFF going on in the Outside World.

So...what have I been up to since my last post?

First, a bit of "housekeeping".  Full disclosure: after I wrote that I used my Indigo/Chapters gift card to pre-order the paperback version of Deanne Fitzpatrick's Making a Life: Twenty-five Years of Hooking Rugs, I found it when I was sorting the bookshelf on the headboard of my bed.  And yes, I'd read it -- in 2023!!  (See what I mean about time?!)  Sigh. 

Well here's what I did: first, I cancelled the pre-order and got a full refund (a new gift-card) from Indigo/Chapters; second, I took down the hard-cover copy I had and began to read it again.  And yes; I thanked Indigo/Chapters profusely for their understanding.

Don't tell me that's never happened to you.  Just sayin'! 😉

Now then...back to our regularly scheduled Blog Posting...

As we're talking about hooked rugs as art...I've managed to finish that new piece I showed on my last post, when it was still in the early stages.  I've called it "Restless Sky"  and now need to take it to be framed:

"Restless Sky" (c) 2025
17" W x 10 " L before framing
Hooked yarn and wool fabric

There is a word hidden in the sky.  Can you find it?

I've now answered a Call for Entry for a fundraising Art Auction to benefit the Lacombe Performing Arts Centre (the folks who run the Under $100 Art Auction in late November)...and I await the results.

And the call for artists for the annual Encore! Lacombe Art Show and Sale is up.  I was last there in 2023 -- as Featured Artist.  I took 2024 off, but am gearing up to enter again, with new work that is hooked -- and some art quilts that really need a new home.

The other making continues, of course.

I spend a great deal of my morning time knitting.  I've just finished another hat to give away (sorry, no photo; the ends aren't sewn in yet!), and am working on another pair of simple mittens -- that would be the third since I last posted, for I've finished these:

Once again...The World's Simplest Mittens
Designer: Tin Can Knits
Size: child.
Yarn: red wool/synthetic blend - no label
Machine wash, hang to dry

I also finished the socks I started in December for the Advent Mystery KAL -- the "Christmas Smorgasbord Socks":

Pattern: Christmas Smorgasbord
Designer: Becky Greene
Yarn: Patons Kroy FX in "Clay Colors"

I know they look like they're not the same size but please note: due to the nature of the "smorgasbord" of stitch patterns used in the Mystery KAL, each sock has different textured stitch patterns in it.  This means that unless I photograph them on my feet or using a sock blocker (I don't own blockers), they look oddly mis-shapen in different.  They've been washed now, though, and I can attest to the fact that they are the same size! LOL!

I'm really focusing this winter on two kinds of knits: those to give away to folks who need them, and WIPs (Works In Progress) that have been lingering for far too long.  Finishing three projects has left me time to return to these items:

1. A pair of cabled socks I first cast on in 2009.  Yes; you read that correctly: 2009.  I finished one sock and then...well, all I can say is, I must have been visited by the Squirrel! 😃

Here's the first finished sock; the photo 
dates from April 8, 2009!!
Pattern: Guernsey Socks
Designer: Amy King
Source: The Knitter's Book of Yarn
by Clara Parkes

Second sock on the needles.  
Progress as of January 22, 2025.

Please note: the colour of the yarn in the second photo is much closer to real life -- probably because I took the photo against a clean white background.  It's a lovely deep blue-green.  One ball had a label -- Regia 3-fadig.  

2. And I've gone back to the "January Blanket" I started a year ago.  When I picked it up again on December 24, 2024, here's what it looked like:

Photo taken January 10, 2024

Here's my progress as of January 15 (I've knit another 2 1/2 pattern repeats since then, for a total of 10 repeats, 8 rows each):

Pattern: January Blanket
Designer: Leslie Weber
FREE on Ravelry
Yarn: Diamond Select 'Stonewash'
in the colour "Chalk"

The yarn is a nice blend of acrylic (not my fave option but...), wool and cotton.  It's chunky, so I'm using 5.5 mm (US 9) on a nice long cord.  And even though the inter-changeable tips I'm using are wooden (from Knit Picks), the stitches move nicely along and don't stick to them. (That's probably due to the plastic and wool in the yarn blend, off-setting the cotton, which can be hard to knit on wooden needles.)  I got it in 2016 at the LYS I worked at part-time -- the long-missed Crafty Lady in Lacombe, Alberta, which closed in February 2020, because the owner went online and on the road.  She's now retired altogether.)  Sigh.  I still miss that place!

I'm focusing on those for the moment, but there are several more items in project bags that are lined up...just waiting to be worked on (or may finished) -- not to mention the bags of projects that are on the "Start Me, Please!" list, kitted up with yarn and patterns, waiting for time and needles to be available to start them!

On the quilting front, I've made or prepped all the units for the "Old Town" Mystery 2024/5 from Bonnie Hunter.  I've only enough of the fabric for 20 of the called-for 25 blocks, which is fine; it'll make a nice-sized throw, or perhaps something a bit bigger.

So...I've made 5 blocks thus far, and they all look something like this:

"

I'm using "dusty" turquoise, red-brown or rust, pale grey or grey-white, and very pale peachy fabric.  The photos of some of the units might show this better:

Flying Geese for the inner star

Fabric for the central square-in-a-square

I really like the blocks - but the sashing and the borders are too "busy" for my taste, so I'll be simplifying those accordingly.  To each her own, eh? 😉

While constructing these blocks, I continue to make small "Easy Breezy" blocks as my leaders-and-enders project.  I've got 154 finished and plan to do another 14, so I can make a throw that's 12 blocks wide and 14 long.  Each block being 4" finished, that'll produce a top -- before borders -- that's 48" x 56" long, and borders will take it up to a nice throw size -- 54" or so by 62" or so.

Although this has been my focus this month, next month I've vowed to the Quilting Gods that I'll return to the Celtic Knot project and get those last 7 blocks made -- ones that are extras to "up-size" the top from queen to king-sized, as requested. 

Quilting takes up a good chunk of the afternoon -- and then I usually head out for a walk, depending on the weather.  On my return, and on into the evening, it's time for cross-stitch.

I'm still working on The Swan Sampler which, as I mentioned in my last post has been a very enjoyable stitch -- but it wasn't a good choice for a Blessing Sampler, one that is to be started and finished in January, in order to "bless the year ahead".  Ah well -- I'm still enjoying it and have made steady progress, even if it's not close to being finished!

Pattern: "The Swan Sampler"
Designer - Birgit of The Wishing Thorn
Using the called-for threads (DMC & Kreinik)
2 over 2 on 30-count mystery linen

As a palate cleanser of sorts, I finished two small pieces.  The first, "Winter Gingham", I started a year ago (January is a month of "startitis" after all!):

"Winter Gingham"
Designer: Ruth Sparrow Gendron
Publisher: "Twisted Threads"
Kit fabric - 28-count Cream/Natural Gingham
2 over 2 with DMC floss from stash

This is the last of a trio that included "Fall Gingham" and "Summer Gingham". Why there was no "Spring", I've no idea.  I bought them -- with the fabric -- on sale from Traditional Stitches in Calgary a good twenty years ago -- it's not even in their online inventory any more!  I haven't finished them, but they might make cute pillows, or an insert in a journal cover or something. They were just fun to stitch. 😊 

Then there's this little piece that I started in December as a possible Xmas gift (changed my mind).  Some days it really suits my mood! LOL!

"Say You Have"
Designer: Brenda Gervais
2 over 2 on 28-count
Antique White lugana
Floss from stash

Next month I'll be taking up a new start, to honour the fact that in February, fifty years ago, my love and I announced our engagement.  More on that later, so stay tuned!

That's really all my news for now -- at least, in this space.  I remain closely attuned to what's happening in the Wider World, and may speak on that here some other time.  Meanwhile, I take refuge in fabric, fibre, floss and colour -- trying to live out Deanne Fitzgerald's recommendation -- to create beauty every day.

I'll leave you with my usual link to Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday.  She's got the winter 'greys'...and could probably use a visit -- and a hug!

Till next time...a bientot!