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!

The Summer of Slow...and Quiet

How many of you listen to the Happier Podcast with Gretchen Rubin and her sister, Elizabeth Kraft?  I'm a long-time fan.  

Each year around this time, Gretchen and Liz talk about "Designing Your Summer" -- deciding in advance how you want your summer to go, what you might like to do (especially if it involves others in your cohort or family bubble or whatever in these COVID days), that sort of thing.

I've decided I need a Summer of Slow and Quiet.

"What?!", I can hear you saying. "Haven't we been 'slow and quiet' for 15 months now, forced into isolation by a global pandemic?"

Maybe this is true for some...but the 'quiet' of enforced isolation hasn't quieted my brain, or my soul.  Quite the opposite.  I've found myself struggling with grief, anxiety, irritability and downright anger at the circumstances in which the world finds itself -- globally and closer to home.  I've never suffered fools gladly, and there have been many of them out there -- down the street and on the airwaves.  I was becoming someone I didn't like very much.  My public personna -- wherein I tried always to be polite and thoughtful -- was cracking under the strain.

I realized that I'd not internalized that personna deeply enough to ensure it was who I was all the time, not just out there on the street or online.   What inner peace I'd ever developed in my life -- which had taken a body blow in the years I'd been care-giver/bread-winner/parent -- had not been restored to full capacity in the almost-15-years since.  

So...I've decided to do something about that -- and it begins with, as Wendell Berry would say, "The Peace of Wild Things".

I've long had a habit of journalling early, with a cup of coffee; that continues.  Over the last year I've added Morning Prayer with Dean Robert Willis in the Deanery gardens at Canterbury Cathedral -- in all weathers, with his cats and other creatures in the Cathedral's care.  

These things start my day well -- but in these chaotic times, they've been insufficient.  And so in the manner of Benedictine practice, I've been trying to pause at mid-day as well (anywhere between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.).  I'm trying to spend more time outdoors, whether in the yard and garden, or on a good long walk.  I'm re-reading Wisdom Distilled from the Daily by Sr. Joan Chittister, taking my time over it so that the practical wisdom will seep into my pores.

And always there's a bit of Mary Oliver who, like I do, often woke early...

The 'making' -- of course! -- continues.  This month's "May-king" is focused largely outside.

"May Long", aka "May 2-4" aka "Victoria Day" Weekend in Canada is viewed by many as the start of summer (June 21 notwithstanding).  And that's when I began to write this.

Many of us -- weather bedamned! -- put in our gardens: seeds, seedlings, new shrubs, whatever.  Those of us in areas -- particularly prone to snow Every Single Month -- still do this, with plenty of covers at the ready.  I'm no exception.  

On the Friday, I mowed the front and back yards immediately surrounding my house and flower beds.  I added a columbine to one of those beds, and a bee balm to another.  I planted a new peony too. 

Saturday I planted my new geraniums, lobelia, baccopa and impatiens.  Monday?  It got colder and teamed with rain.  I didn't begrudge the rain and the cold didn't bring frost so I'm happy.

"Chinook Sunrise" Rose

All that said, in the last two weeks I've also put in my two new apple trees, three Saskatoon berry bushes, a beautiful hardy rose (gift from my daughter for Mother's Day), and have planted lettuce and green beans (seeds) and zucchini (risky!) from seedlings.  The zukes aren't happy -- despite being covered on a couple of frosty nights -- but everything else is fine.

The "East Lawn" is covered with dandelions this time of year.  I used to resent them, but in recent years celebrate them.  Along with the willows, they feed the bees.  This year they're feeding me too -- and some of my family and friends -- with their blossoms.  Yes, I've been making dandelion jam.  There are many recipes out there.  I prefer the simple combination of the liquid "tea" steeped from the petals, plus liquid pectin, sugar, and a bit of lemon juice.  Golden jam that is almost jelly, with a mild taste that resembles honey.

Removing the petals is a quiet, almoste meditative process.

Steeping the dandelion petals

The finished product.

There's not been much produced in the art department, but one give-away quilt is finished but for the washing and mailing; a second is getting its binding.  I've finished socks for the May Socks from Stash challenge...

Pattern: "Funfetti"
Designer: General Hogbuffer on Ravelry
Yarns: assorted -- wool/nylon fingering

There will be a new pair starting June 1 -- when the challenge will be to use a pattern that's not been "popular" -- that is, that's had fewer than 100 makers.  I've picked my pattern and my yarn from stash...stay tuned!  

That said, the other day I counted my hand-knit socks: I have fourteen pair!  That's quite enough, really, especially as that doesn't include two pair that need repair.  So.  Going forward, the next number of from-stash socks will be given away.

Meanwhile, I've just finished the second sleeve on the "Climbing Vines" pullover -- so this next day or so will find all the pieces lying around the house, blocking out, so I can sew them together, add the neckline -- et voila!  Another long-time UFO (since 2009!!) finished!

In addition, my friends keep having grand-babies!  There's a new baby girl in Toronto, who'll be getting these -- sized for 6 months, when it'll be cold again:

Pattern: "Baby Socks" - River City Yarns, Edmonton

Her grandma has told me that there's a baby boy cousin due in August, so a smaller pair -- again to fit in the fall -- is on the needles and will be finished later today.

As well, in another family, there's another new baby girl  boy, so socks for her him are next up.  (Editted May 30, when I checked the grandma's post, getting ready to cast on! Good thing, eh?! 😉)

 

And the embroidery continues.  Lizzie Kate's "My To Do List" fits right into my Summer of Slow and Quiet, as she reminds me to..."Just Breathe"...

On that note, Gentle Readers, I'll finish this post.  If you've kept with me thus far, thank you!  I'm linking this to Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday.  She's having some challenging times herself these days so I wish her -- and all of you -- peace, comfort and joy, whatever comes.  One day at a time.  

Order Out of Chaos

It is not the subject that makes art religious or sacrilegious, but the impulse behind it.  You sometimes get an artist who is spoken through despite his own professed atheism, because it's the creative impulse to look at the seeming chaos of the universe and then to express this chaos in terms of pattern and of order and of love and -- perhaps most important of all -- joy.

"From Chaos to Pattern", from Madeleine L'Engle: Herself, Reflections on a Writing Life -- compiled by Carole F. Chase, Shaw Books, Waterbrook Press, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 2001.

Now...I'm not an atheist (as anyone who's read this blog for some time has undoubtedly realized!)...so it's not really the first part of this reflection that captured my attention, but the last part: the part about "the creative impulse...to express...chaos in terms of pattern and of order and of love and -- perhaps most important of all -- joy."

Since I began my art practice in a serious way, I've sensed a tension between those whose creative impulse seems to express chaos...well...in terms of pattern and order...but also of fear, anger, darkness and a distinct lack of joy -- and those who include in their expression of chaos that love and joy, and...a certain light and hope.  Sometimes, yes, the former is needed to jolt viewers out of their determined complacency in the face of such chaos.  To make a point.  To inspire action.  And often times, putting those expressions "out there", sharing them with the world, can heal and restore peace and order within those creators.

But I believe that too much of it can lead to a diminished ability to see hope and light in the chaos around us.  Joy can become eroded and may even be belittled as naive and unsophisticated, in favour of cynicism and pessimism.

My 'statement' pieces and participation in such projects as Threads of Resistance and the Social Justice Sewing Academy have come about because I felt compelled by the issues at hand -- and I've learned a great deal from those experiences, from making that work.

But I can't live there.  I cannot dwell in the realm of despair, righteous anger, ongoing fear and anxiety.  Even as I resist the dull, grey wintry days with injections of "those little birds", I resist the temptation to be drawn into a permanent home in the sturm und drang of current events...

And so I find myself returning to colourful piecing and to making more of those little canvases of which I am becoming particularly fond.

Here's my latest offering...finished on Monday of this week...the first in my "Inspired by Scotland" series. (And yes, it will be put in a 'floater' frame...like this one.)

Highland Hills I - (C) 2017
5" W x 7" L (unframed)
Mixed media on stretched canvas:
acrylic paint, wool, wool roving
Needle-felted, machine quilted

The fun of this came at the end when I actually followed a "what if...?" to its conclusion (instead of ignoring it or dismissing it as silly or impractical)...

Side view -- see the clouds of roving?

Front detail

Another close-up of those misty hills ;-)

There will be more of these -- and some in other sizes (though not, I expect, larger than 12" x 12").  But these take time.  Despite the myriad of photos from my trip and the ideas swirling about within me like those misty clouds swirling on those hills, the ideas take a while to coalesce, a while for me to figure out how I want to express the loveliness, the light and the joy of being in a beautiful landscape -- whether it is in a far-off land or outside my own back door.

So, Gentle Readers, I leave you with my answer to Nina Marie's question this week, even as I'm linking up with her Off the Wall Friday.   She's written about 'creativity exercises' and wondered aloud what sort of 'calisthenics' her readers might practice when feeling 'creatively challenged'.  

My challenge, creatively, is of having too many ideas pulling at me all at once, without a clear way to sort them and get them out into the world.  My 'creative calisthenics' in this in this case is more akin to stretching, rather than jumping jacks!  As I mentioned in my last post, when I find myself 'tectchy' and at loose ends, in between specific projects, or 'coming down' from a major project (like this), I often turn to piecing and/or fabric cutting, or re-organizing my sewdio.  Creating order and pattern out of the chaos of fabric and scraps enables me to bring order to the swirling thoughts in my mind while bringing colour, light and joy to my world.

May your weekend be full of that same colour, light, love and joy.