Yet Another Day

spent outside the studio.  Errands in Red Deer and Lacombe...winter tires exchanged for summer ones.  Groceries.  Celebrant at Evensong in lieu of our priest who is on holiday.  Brief kaffeeklatsch with my friend, A, during which there was reciprocal show and tell.  Her latest hand-quilted applique quilt -- combination of applique and broderie perse is exquisite!

Now home to catch up at The Desk and move into the studio for some piecing of P's quilt (the Hunter's Star) during this evening's Quilt Cam.

Meanwhile, for your viewing pleasure, I have to thank my cyber-friend Pat of Altering Thoughts for sharing the wonderful work of Hilde Morin.  Enjoy!

Slow Stitching...

both Saturday and Sunday -- or at least, most of the time.  Yesterday I did manage to assemble the remaining 3 rows of my Easy Street top.  Here they are spread on my cutting table...waiting to be sewn to the other 4:

Yes...that's just the lower left (Southeast) corner and the two rows moving from that into the centre.  The top is constructed on point.  The block that's front and centre in the photo is part of the row that will join the remaining section -- what I call the Northwest corner!

But that's the only machine work I've done this weekend.  I began beading the 'leaves' on "Tree Line", accompanied by more wonderful pod-casts from On Being, as well as short clips from "82nd and Fifth", a new video series from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, about which I was notified by e-mail recently (I'm on their e-mail list).  No textiles in the ones I viewed yesterday afternoon, but inspirational nevertheless.

Though I'm still working on the beading, here's what it looked like when I ran out of steam yesterday:

Pookie came in for a closer look while it was still on the table where I was working:

Even at nine months, she's very discriminating!

Yes, I can hear some of you muttering about cat hair on my work -- never fear!  She wasn't there very long, and all work is thoroughly cleaned of hair and threads before making any sort of public appearance!

Once I set the beading aside, I turned to some hand embroidery, putting in another row on the Atlantic Seaboard Sampler I'm making for my friends' 40th wedding anniversary in May:

Looking through my magnifier, you can see I was working on Row 19 of 33; I finished it during the evening.  The next row will be more formidable; it's the Nova Scotia tartan...worked in single strands of cotton floss in tent stitch...over one thread at a time.  Please pray that when I've finished the row, I won't have gone blind!!

And today...the beading continued as I watched Bonnie's Quilt Cam, but the sunshine is calling so I'm off shortly for a walk while the weather holds.  Tonight...more pod-cast treats and more beading.  Happy Sunday!

P.S. Remember, any comments left on any of my posts this week will result in an entry into the first of my three 10th Blogging Anniversary give-away draws, Friday, February 15.  :-)

Christmas WIPs

Gift-work continues in Margaret's Workshop...and in the kitchen, too!  These fellows were made a couple of weeks ago and frozen.  

On the menu for today?  My batch of Annual Christmas Fudge -- from my tattered copy of  the Fun to Cook Book from Carnation Evaporated Milk.  I've been making Five-minute Fudge (chocolate) almost every Christmas since I was about eight, and my mother had to help me stir it!

Here's what the fudge-making looked like in process...

And here's what's happening in the "stewdio" in addition to Christmas gifts...

33 Clue #3 Easy Street blocks completed...31 to go!

I just love that hot pink!

I'm linking up with Monika and the gang for WIP Wednesday over at The Needle and Thread Network -- and hope to "see" some of you tonight when Bonnie hosts Quilt Cam -- 9 p.m. Eastern, 7 p.m. here in the Mountains!

Drum Roll, Please!

Though I didn't post this before I left my house early this a.m. (I was co-leading the Advent Quiet Day at my parish church -- and yes, thank you, it was lovely, but I am exhausted...).

WE HAVE A WINNER of the draw celebrating Blog Post 950!  The envelope please...

And the winner is... Dolores!  Congratulations!  As soon as I post this, I'll be e-mailing her for her snail mail address and The Art of Fabric Books will be on its way to her early in the week.

I hope to be tuning in to Bonnie's Quilt Cam tomorrow afternoon; if you're doing "Easy Street" (or even if you're not!), perhaps you'll join in too? I believe it'll start around 2 p.m. Eastern Standard Time (noon out here in the Mountain region...)  I'll be doing more of the hand stitching embellishment on "Trio", my Final Assessment Piece in the C&G.

Happy Hanukkah to my Jewish family (in-laws) and friends; as I type I am basking in the glow of the First Night candles.  May you have a blessed Celebration of Light and the historic miracle God wrought all those centuries ago.

And to all and sundry, have a great evening and a blessed day tomorrow.

First Snow (Dye) of the Year

was nothing to write home about.

I decided to focus on blues (sky) and greens (grass, leaves) as I have several 'tree' pieces to do in the coming months.  I mixed my dyes -- Dharma Trading's "Sky Blue", "Golden Yellow" and "Lemon Yellow" -- and then combined the three for an olive green per my wee book of dye recipes.

I put the prepped fabric in the bottom of each of two large plastic tubs, piled on fresh, clean snow, and poured on the dye -- blue on one; olive green on the other.

Then I went off to Red Deer for lunch with friends, a series of errands (including picking up the Winter Issue of Stampington's Art Quilting Studio featuring articles by my dear friends Kathie Briggs and arlee barr)...a visit to a new LQS in Blackfalds (Peaceful Patch Quilt Shoppe -- all of 3 weeks old!), grocery shopping, music practice...and got home 10 hours later.  By that time all the snow had melted and I had 'water dyeing'...and colourful but very ordinary fabric.

Sky Blue on Snow

So.  "Always we begin again," as St. Benedict would say.  Today, I did just that.  Mixed up more 'Sky Blue'.  Put more prepped fabric into the two tubs.  Topped it with fresh, clean snow.  However, this time I decided not to mix up the green in advance.  Instead I put blue in the snow of each tub.  I left one as blue alone -- and added both yellows to the second tub.  (Notice how the "Golden Yellow" looks orange next to the "Lemon Yellow"? It's not really, though, in the end.)

Sky Blue with Golden Yellow & Lemon Yellow

I left to help my friend C finish the decorations at the Community Centre for tomorrow's 'Santa Days'.  We followed our hard work with a sumptuous lunch at the Mirror Hotel's cafe and then virtuously walked it off by trekking across town to Messinger's, where I got my monthly chicken breasts, pork loin and lean ground beef -- and special bacon and a plump roaster chicken for Christmas.

By the time I got home and got the meats in the freezer, four hours had passed.  No problem! The snow had melted, but not completely.  I dumped each tub into the sink in turn, rinsed the respective fabrics, washed same in Synthrapol and dried 'em in the dryer.

Et voila!

Blue skies smilin' at me...in muslin

in crinkle cotton

and in cotton velveteen

Ditto for the grasses/ leaves -- first, muslin:

then crinkle cotton:

and finally, cotton velveteen:

As my friend arlee would say, "Yumpth!" -- or words to that effect!

Now for the evening's entertainment -- Quilt Cam and more hand stitching on my Final Assessment Piece (yes, the embroidery floss I ordered Monday arrived today!)  The perfect ending to a perfect day.  Now, where did I put my coffee?

P.S. Only 13 hours left till 8 a.m. Mountain Standard Time December 8th...when I draw for that book on fabric books.  If you want to enter, hop to THIS POST and follow directions!  :-)