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!

Happy New Year and All the Things...

 Happy New Year, Gentle Readers!  (I'm trusting that at only slightly less than 1/3 of the way through January, it's okay to greet you that way -- still.  😊)  

It's been a busy almost-month since my last post.  I began that post with the weather report -- a favourite topic of conversation everywhere up here in Canada...as it is (most likely) wherever you all live too.

Today?  January 10, 2025?  In central Alberta?  RAIN!  Say what?!  Not enough to melt much of the snow, but definitely enough to cause traffic problems when the temps drop over the course of the evening and through the night.  Sanders are out in force to keep even good drivers from killing themselves on the highways!  

Me?  Today, I stayed home and stuck to making, which is what I do best. 😊

I won't bore you with a Holiday recap, but I had a lovely Xmas Eve and Xmas Day with my family.  Got a gift card to Indigo/Chapters (Canada's version of Barnes & Noble), and put in a pre-order for the paper-back version of Deanne Fitzpatrick's memoir, Making a Life, which is due out in May.  (You can do that HERE if you want to; no, I'm not paid to say that!)

Deanne's outlook on life is similar to mine -- but, I confess, I'm not as able as she is at incorporating some of her behaviours with which I agree, even if I do so whole-heartedly!

My kids can take hints, though, and this year they took one of mine and bought the 3 of us tickets to an Edmonton Symphony production on April 1st -- "The Music of Simon & Garfunkel".  They did something similar several years ago for my birthday, and it was wonderful. This one features different guest artists than we saw before, but no matter.  It will be the perfect combination of music, my children, memories of their father and me, and all that we hold dear.  What's not to like?

But you didn't stop here to read about all that, did you?  You're probably more interested in the MAKING of...whatever.

There was, indeed, making for Christmas -- most of which I showed you earlier.  My daughter's vest was finished on time.  It fits her like a dream and she is very happy!

I know; I need to get a photo of her wearing it!  But I've seen her in it, and it's lovely!  (And NO, I won't make another.  You can't make me! 😉)

My son and his family appreciated their neckwarmers and -- BONUS! -- discovered they could also wear them as wide headbands -- over their ears.  Who knew?!  Perfect!

Xmas knitting over, of course, this means I've moved back into Other Knitting for 2025.

First: more charity knits.  I've finished another pair of "The World's Simplest Mittens" (Tin Can Knits -- free on Ravelry):

Unlabelled yarn - probably wool (match test)
Pattern: Tin Can Knits - child size - 36 sts

Next: another charity hat cast-on -- another "Mash It Up" using fingering-weight scraps. Sorry, no photo yet, but it will resemble this one I made a while back, as I've begun it with similar colours:

"Mash It Up 1" (finished 2024)
Designer: Babs Ausherman

And...I'm getting back to socks.  I'm on the second sock of an "Advent" mystery project -- no longer a mystery as it's no longer Advent -- from Becky Greene: the Christmas Smorgasbord Socks.  I chose to make mine textural in a self-striping/tonal yarn: Patons Kroy FX in the "Clay" colour-way.  I finished the first sock in a timely manner and then let the 2nd one languish, but I'm on it again and am approaching the separation for the heel flap.

Sock #1 on my right foot!

I've now joined another Ravelry sock group: "Sox-along-2025" -- with two Canadian YouTube podcasters: "SoxyNana Alice" and "MyPinkBathtub" (Diane), in hopes of finishing this pair and 2 other languishing sock WIPs...and maybe recovering my Sock Knitting Mojo this year.

As for larger knitting projects, I've resumed work on my January Blanket (started a year ago) and try to knit at least 4 rows a day on it.  It's all-of-a-piece, which is great, because I have an aversion to sewing large squares together to make a blanket. That's it for the moment!

What about quilting? (I can hear you quilters asking!)...Well, now...

Why have one project on the go when you can have...four or five?! 😉

My neighbours were delighted with the quilt I gave them for Xmas, made with the 2024 Block of the Month (BOM) from A Quilting Life and using stash Thimbleberries fabric:

I enjoyed the process so much that I've joined up for the 2025 BOM.  It's quite different from last year's project.  This year, it features a 6" (finished) centre block that can be turned into a log cabin setting for an 18" (yes: 18 inch) block for a quilt top OR can be used in a smaller setting for a table runner.

I've no need of a table runner, so today I finished the first 18" (finished) block for the year - once again digging into all of those Thimbleberries fabrics that I've had for 20 years.  (Yes. I checked.  The selvedge of one of them reads "Thimbleberries Club 2005".)

And here's a close-up of the centre of the block:

Please note: the log cabin and other fabrics are far more golden than seen in the photos -- and the walls of the house are *green* with gold stars, not blue.  My camera and my laptop aren't communitcating well as to colour!!

No matter what the camera reads, I enjoyed the process -- even though that's one large block!  I'm not sure I've enough of my Thimbleberries fabrics to get through all 12 blocks, but time will tell.

Meanwhile, work continues on Bonnie Hunter's "Old Town" Mystery 2024/2025.  I've finishe Parts One through Three...and am pondering fabrics for Part Four, as I may be running out of my chosen neutral!  Ack!  Stay tuned!  (Sorry; no photos to share at the moment! 😩)

I am also continuing on the "Easy Breezy" blocks (tiny things, leaders and enders).  As of December 31st, I had 125 blocks done -- at 4 1/2" each -- but I'ver more than that now, and 4 prepped for assembly.

In addition (because, why not?!), I've dug out a long-ago project.

Yes, friends, decades ago I began a quilt using Japanese-influenced fabrics and black fabric.  I lost the magazine with the pattern -- it was in the days of Dying Hubby and All is Chaos, so you can probably understand why.

But I never got rid of all those swaths of fabric -- prints cut up and sewn together with narrow black sashing.  What to do with them now?

I decided to make four-patches...and once I get them all made, they'll become a quilt top...and maybe a quilt to be given away for someone who needs one for comfort and warmth.

First two types of blocks

Second two types of blocks

More to come on that front later.

Now then...Stitching?

I have sorted my stitching and am currently working on a "Blessing Sampler", which is supposed to be started and finished in the first month of the year.  I doubt that will happen with this one, as it appears I've bitten off a bit more than I can chew.  So...what else is new?! 😉

But first...I decided I wanted to do a "Christmas Day Start" and took supplies up to Edmonton, where I was staying with my daughter for the holiday.  I started it on time, and...finished it here at home on New Year's Eve:

"Gather Memories"
Designer: Hands On Design

I stitched it on 32-count Platinum Belfast linen from Zweigart, using 2 threads of floss (DMC) over 2 fabric threads.

I have the companion piece, -- "Gather Blessings" -- to do on the same piece of fabric before I decide how to fully finish them.

For my "Blessing Sampler" I chose the Swan Sampler from The Wishing Thorn.  I bought the pattern last year, and kitted it up on my own.  I love its sentiments: Faith, Hope and Love -- with Joy added -- as essential for Life.

Little did I realize how ornate the outer border is -- and how stitch-intensive!  A piece not need be 'full coverage' for the stitching to be dense and detailed -- so be forewarned!  😉  Still, I am quite smitten with it and whether or not I finish it by month-end, as a "proper" Blessing Sampler, it will have blessed my by its presence this month!  I'm just coming up to the upper right-hand corner, as you can see in the photo below:

"The Swan Sampler"
Progress Jan, 10-2025
Called-for threads; 2 over 2
30-count pale green unlabelled linen

And here's a close up of the upper left corner:

In my last post, I also shared my last two (of three) finished-but-not-fully-finished stitchy Xmas gifts.  I was able to finish them and put them in the mail earlier this week.  I'll show them here...hoping that the recipients will have already received them, or will have, by the time they read this!

Designer: Lizzie Kate
Mostly called-for threads (DMC)
?35-count Royal Icing from
Access Commodities?
(sorry...how soon we forget!)

Designer: The Sweetheart Tree
A "Knob Knocker Collection" kit
Included 28-count "Ray of Light" Cashel Linen,
Thread pack (WDW and DMC), and embellishments

Here's a close-up of the embellishments:

I finished both of these by quilting, and attached a hanging sleeve.  I find this is an easier way to ship little things like this rather than using framing etc.  I hope they are enjoyed by the recipients!

And what about art?  As in 'original work'?

Well...I'm now working on the hooked piece I was pondering in my last post.The working title is "Peaceful Sky" and thus far it looks like this:

It will measure about 17" wide by 10" long (deep).  I had darker grey around the central words and took that out; now to ponder how to fill that in as I do the rest of the sky.

I've started no other original work BUT I've answered a call for entry for a fund-raising art auction in aid of the Lacombe Centre for the Performing Arts and today the Call for Artists for the 2025 Encore! Lacombe Art Show & Sale has come out, so there are plans...

Again, my friends, stay tuned!

As I close, once again I wish you all a happy, healthy, safe, creative year now that we are in 2025.  I am posting a "daily word" on my personal Facebook page; thus far, it is keeping me on a calmer, more even keel -- and I hope it's doing so for my FB connections too.

In this blustery January weather, when time outdoors is at a premium, our making, our creative hands-on work, is able to fill our souls, ease our minds, and keep us sane and sensible.  Create beauty every day, my friends -- no matter how you do so.  Use your hands to clear your head.  Celebrate whatever creative gifts you have been given -- and look at the creative gifts left to you and all of us by those who have gone before.  Listen to their music; read their words...

And be blessed.  

A bientot!

**Linking as ususal to dear Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday.  This week she's sharing American art.  Enjoy!

Is it Spring Yet?

 In my last post, I reported that I had "Spring Startitis" and wanted to start all the things -- especially knitting.  I was soooo optimistic that Spring was just around the corner, but Mother Nature's been fickle in this part of  Canada.  We long for rain as we're in a drought here, but aside from an over-night drop of sleet and wet snow Tuesday night, we've had only empty skies and, especially in the last few days, cold, bitter winds that sucked up all the moisture and made fools of us for thinking the sunshine was warm.  Hah!

The dry air has wreaked havoc on my skin.  I've been struggling with an extensive bout of eczema that my doctor thinks is a combination of the drought and stress.  I'm slathering myself with unscented lotions, and have a prescription for a steroid cream to apply sparingly to the most seriously-irritated areas.

Sigh.

This has affected my mood, leaving me "dumpy, frumpy, and grumpy" -- the phrase I used to describe myself when I saw the doc earlier this week.  Otherwise I'm fine -- but if this continues beyond another month, I'm thinking I'll have to go back and see if he has any better ideas.

To add insult to injury, last week I had a major security threat on my laptop, and had to have Windows techs clean it up.  I ended up purchasing Symantec security soft-ware, having learning that an anti-virus program isn't enough protection from the nefarious souls out there with too much time on their hands, who spend their days dreaming up ways to complicate the lives of others.  Symantec was the company we used in the financial services offices in which I worked for over a decade, so I'm hoping the $$$ I spent on that will be worth it.  It's a 5-year plan, so over time, it really works out to be not that costly -- and MUCH better than an invasion of cyber-idiots.

Meanwhile, distraction is the name of the game!  I'm listening to an abundance of calming music available on YouTube (I can minimize the window and not watch the screen) and on the radio (classical on CBC), and have turned to my most repetitive activities: knitting and cross-stitch.

First, the stitching.  This week I had the satisfaction of finishing the piece I'm doing for my friends' 50th Wedding Anniversary, which is next month!

"Arabesque"
Designed by The Wishing Thorn

Beading close-up #1

Beading close-up #2

Beading close-up #3

Beading close-up #4

This is really a very small piece, as I stitched it on 36-count "Grey" from Weeks Dye works, using a combination of 1 strand over 2 threads and 2 strands over two.  That was really unintentional, but when I'd discovered I'd done so, I decided not to frog it and just work the pattern so that it was balanced.  My friends don't stitch; they won't care -- if they even notice!  (The flosses were the called-for DMC plus 1 Caron Waterlilies floss -- the variegated sections you see in the photos.)

As they live in another province, my plan is to lace the piece to acid-free mat board, and let them frame it to suit their decor.  I think it's beautifully exotic, and really hope they like it!

I've also made significant progress on my #JacobSleeperSAL ("Jacob Sleeper Stitch-ALong") piece.  The SAL was organized by Carmen of the "Cardamen Pins" YouTube podcast, to encourage those who love Jacob's Modern Folk Embroidery designs to stitch one of his lesser-known or earlier pieces.

As I mentioned in my last post, I selected a piece that was a free pattern -- a section from one of Jacob's annual SALs from a few years ago: "Light a Single Candle".  I've been using it as a weekend stitch, and am now approaching the bottom border:

The remaining word is 'darkness' -- and then there is a lovely border that echoes the one at the top.  I'm using a piece of unlabelled scrap linen and working 2 strands of floss over 2 of linen.  I began with some leftover unlabelled red cotton floss, and when it ran out, I found some DMC 815 that works perfectly.  I've just enough of that to finish the piece.  I could make it into a little pillow, but I think I'll find a small frame for it instead.

Discouraged about Spring's 'non-arrival', I've not done much on the "Buttercup Alphabet" piece from The Victoria Sampler; more on that when I get back to it.  Even though it suits the "Something Floral" (my #18 from WIPGO that was called for April), I've just not been inclined to work on it of late.

The other WIPGO number this month was 21 -- and for me that could be a plethora of things that are "under 50% complete".  I've focused on the hap I'm making for the Woolly Thistle's Shawl KAL (Knit ALong).  I finished the central piece and have moved on to the first part of the lace border:

Centre: Heirloom Fingering - Black Welsh
Mountain - Innisfail, Alberta
Border #1 - Gotland/BFL Lamb Fingering,
Riverside Farms, B.C.

Close-up of the first border colour

There are 93 rows (!) of lace border, which I've decided to divide up so I can use four colours.  In my last post, I'd shown you only three neutrals: the black, the grey and a natural cream...

BUT on April 6 I went with some friends to the Rose City Fibre Festival in Camrose, Alberta, and came home with another yarn from Riverside Farms: this time a glorious skein of North Country Cheviot/BFL, hand-dyed with cochineal!  Yum!

So now I have a plan to inject a pop of this colour between bands of the natural cream, which in turn will be banded by the grey, and -- I hope -- ended off by more black on the outer edge.

In other knitting, I've finished the first of two mittens for a neighbour (except the thumb), and have completed the ribbing of the second.  

Pattern: "The World's Simplest Mittens"
Designer: Tin Can Knits
Yarn: Schoeller & Stahl "Limbo Mexiko" in
colour #2586 - Mango

And I've finished two more chemo caps for my UK friend -- something a bit lighter to wear if needed, before the heat of summer arrives:

Pattern: "Eyelet Rolled Brim Hat"
Designer: JoAnne Turcotte, from 
Knitting for Peace 
Yarn: Noro Silk Garden, colour #415 - "Rainbow"

Pattern: The Martine Hat
Designer: Lisa R. Myers
Yarn: Queensland Collection
Uluru 'Rainbow' in colour #1010 -
"Waratah Bouquet"

They're packaged up and will be mailed off to her later this afternoon.  😊

There's been "Happy Mail" in the last few weeks too -- which adds to my supply of Delightful Distractions:

First, the two braids of spinning fibre I won last September in the "Summer Spin-in" from Two Ewes Fiber Adventures arrived at last!  (Sorry, no photos as of now, but as I spin it up...stay tuned.)  One is 100% Falkland; the other, 100% alpaca.  Both are hand-painted in shades of magenta through peach through light grey to dark grey.

I decided that I want to marl one of them and simply two-ply the other.  At the Rose City Fibre Festival I found a reasonably-priced package of natural off-white alpaca roving -- 100 grams -- so I'm set to give that a try through this year's Summer Spin-in:

Next, I received the goodies I bought for stitching, with some of my annual tax refund.  The first is a pattern, fabric and hand-dyed floss that I planned for when Jacob of Modern Folk Embroidery introduced "A Quilter's Dream" as a new pattern several months ago:

Pattern from Modern Folk Embroidery
Fabric: Roxy Floss - 40-count "Porcelain"
Floss: Roxy Floss "Pippy" (red) and
"Greater Porpoise" (blue-grey)

The second is the pattern, floss and hardware for a scissors holder that Jeannette Douglas has designed to be kitted with Roxy Floss.  Those of you who've followed me for a while may remember that I used to do office work for Jeannette when I lived in Calgary, and consider her a dear friend as well as one of my favourite designers.  For this project, she selected small motifs from a larger sampler reproduction.  When Caroline of Evertote showed this new kit on one of her floss-tubes, I fell head over heels.  I have a piece of fabric that's perfect for this tiny thing, too.  (NOTE: in the photo, the scissors displayed are my own; they don't come with the kit!)

The last bit of "Happy Mail" is adding to my 'Dreaming of Shetland' collection.  Some weeks back now, Misa Hay of Shetland Wool Week and Shetland Knitting Tours fame, offered back-issues of the Shetland Wool Week annuals at fifty percent off!!!  I decided to take a look, and see if -- after converting the British Pound to Canadian dollars and figuring in shipping -- I could afford one.  Yes!  That discount was large enough -- and the Brit's flat-rate shipping for certain items, like books, of a certain size and weight -- meant that I paid less overall than what the book at full price (before shipping) would have cost!

So...now I am savouring Wool Week Journal #3 with it's patterns, articles of the isles, history, geography, recipes and gorgeous photography.  

And...to add to that same collection, along with my friend Anne, I've registered for a class on knitting Shetland lace -- which will take up the day at the Prairie Fibre Festival down the road in Lacombe, in mid-September.

Ahhhhhh...

I've not done any quilt piecing for over a week, but now have well over 60 "Four Patch Fun" blocks finished, and another 3 prepped.  I also finished the April blocks for the Block-of-the-Month project from A Quilting Life:

As I think I've mentioned before, there are options for an 8" finished block and a 16" one.  I've chosen the 8" finished block -- but decided to make two per month.  I'm using up Thimbleberries fabrics, and have plenty of that background neutral, I'm sure, to get through the rest of the year.  The outer star border colour is currently dominated by red star points but that may change as time goes by.  These are fun, and require a certain accuracy which, despite 30 years of quilting, I still struggle with.  That said, this designer's patterns, like those of Bonnie Hunter, make my piecing look great! 😆

On the art front, my Artist's Talk at the "Craft and Care" exhibit in Red Deer's Viewpoint Gallery went very well; it was an enjoyable evening.  I began by talking a bit about my start as an art quilter, and showed four of my landscape pieces, made between 2012 and 2022 -- moving from "pretty" to "statement" work.  Of the three pieces I have in the exhibit, of particular interest to the viewers seemed to be my piece, "And It's Only June", a wholecloth done on raw tussah silk from MAIWA in Vancouver.  

The show comes down April 26th -- how the time has flown since it went up in mid-February...

April 26 and 27th are the dates, too, for this year's Lacombe Encore! Art Show and Sale.  I'll be taking it in as part of the viewing audience this year for the first time in over a decade.  

I confess...I've been thinking for some time now of just letting go of the original work -- or, at least, the pressure I've been feeling to keep trying to make original art work when my heart just isn't in it.

I've let go of my Quilting Arts magazine subscription, and will pick up an issue here or there only if I think there's enough in it to interest me.  I've finished my term on the SAQA committee on which I served for 3 years.  I've not found the SAQA Journal to be all that interesting (for me) for over a year now -- and this year's online SAQA Seminar (for members) held little fascination for me.  Ditto for the topics at the 2024 conference, which is currently going on -- also online, because it's being hosted by the UK, Europe and the Middle East Region.  I just felt my money would be better spent elsewhere.

Even the SAQA Members Only Facebook group is holding less of my interest.  Blessedly I am friends -- in person and across cyber-space -- with several of them, and I don't think that will end if I retire from the organization.  

I'll never stop making -- with fabric, fibre, floss, yarn, and in my yard and garden, where I'm "making" a meadow.   

The only thing that gives me pause, Gentle Readers, is the thought that after taking years to acknowledge that I was an artist, will 'retiring' from making original work mean that I no longer am?  Or -- worse to contemplate -- that I never really was?

That's a rather pitiful note on which to leave you, though, so cheer up!  I'm linking to Nina-Marie's wonderful Off the Wall Friday blog, where this week she reports on a "Sewing and Quilt Expo" she recently attended.  

Her post brings up thoughts of my trip to Red Deer in early May to see the Central Alberta Quilt Show, and later, in June to go to Quilt Canada, being held in Edmonton this year.  There I'll be taking in a lecture by Lucie Heins, a curator at the Royal Alberta Museum, and author of Alberta Quilters and Their Quilts, a beautiful history book that I purchased when it was first published (I might take mine and ask her to sign it!)

Those events are so full of colour and life, good ideas, new fabrics and notions, fabulous displays by those creative with fabric, thread and stitch -- and so rich with connections to friends old and new.

Maybe being an "artist" will be whatever I decide it is.

A bientot!