Turning Over the Page

Once again the month is speeding by -- and it was August when I last wrote a "proper" blog post -- one with news of Making Things, Growing Things and More.  

The leaves in these parts are beginning to turn.  Nights are colder, daylight hours are shorter, the furnace runs more often, the garden is waning, and more of my making takes place indoors.

Like so many do, I look upon September as a "second New Year" month -- when school starts up again (not that I've been part of that recently!)  And it's my Birthday Month.  Those of you who paused to read my short Birthday Reflections post will have noticed I was really feeling my age.  It's been a tough year -- replete with health challenges (resolved now, thank heavens!), the death of two friends in swift succession, and the falling apart of several items, costing varied amounts to repair or replace: a slow cooker, a microwave, the kitchen taps, my automatic garage door opener, my back-up sewing machine and most recently, the hard drive on my laptop which, the repair fellow told me, was so worn out (after 3 1/2 years of use) that he couldn't even extract the files in the usual fashion, and it would cost -- at minimum -- $1,800 to do it with special equipment. (I opted NOT to do that, and simply have the machine repaired, with a new battery added to the mix to give it extra oomf!)

What's a body to do?

Give her head a shake, that's what!

And that's precisely what I've been doing for the last couple of weeks: Serious Soul-Searching.  Counting My Blessings. And Creating Beauty Every Day with my blessedly still able and arthritis free hands.

Let's begin with the knitting, shall we?

It's decidedly "Sweatah Weathah" but I'm not working on any of those -- for myself, that is.  That's because it's also Knitting for Holiday Gifts (Christmas, in my case).  The first of these began to be knit in the spring, because it's the "Presto Vesto" for my daughter, a Christmas-Birthday gift because she was born 3 weeks after Xmas, so sometimes that's the way the gifts are given 'round here.  

This Vesto pattern is anything but "Presto"!  I last mentioned it and posted a photo of it in June.  Since then, I've completed the back, with the shoulder and neck shaping, and cast on the right-side front.  The ribbing is done and the complex cable pattern started -- to the point where I've now split for the inset pocket.

Knitter's Note: I've been knitting for about 64 years -- and this is the first time I've ever created an inset pocket in a garment!!  It took me about an hour of reading and re-reading the instructions in the pattern, of Google searching the technique and of trying to visualize the darned thing -- but once I began, stepping out in trust that the pattern really did make sense, well, now!  Off to the races!  I've got another 2 dozen or so rows of pattern to knit before I join the parts back together, but here's what it looked like as of yesterday, when I put it down:

Ta DA!

Yes, I'm pleased as punch with it!

The second Xmas gift is a newer cast on for a friend.  It's a relatively mindless garter-stitch shawlette/scarf that's asymmetrical.  The pattern caught my attention when Karen of the Recreational Knitting YouTube podcast showed the one she was working on.  "Just the ticket!", thought I, and I had just the right yarn in my stash with which to make it, too! 

I mentioned this project -- the "Back Bay Boomerang" -- in my end-of-August post, and while I've made great progress on it since then -- whittling the ball of yarn to almost 1/2 its size but alas, I've no new photo of it! Next time, perhaps.

I also began to knit a series of "Christmas Cowls" for my son and his family, using the "Simple Gift Cowl" pattern designed by Amy Curletto of Alligator Knits (free pattern on Ravelry). The pattern calls for worsted-weight yarn, but I used a DK-weight and simply made a larger size.  Started on September 9 -- and finished (not blocked) on September 13!

"Simple Gift Cowl"
Designer: Amy Curletto
Yarn: Schoeller & Stahl
Limbo Mexiko Color in Color #2583 

The colour name is "Green-white" but it comes across -- even in person -- as so dark a green that it's almost black.  It'll be just right for one of the two fellows in the household!

My carry-around knitting is, as usual, socks -- and I'm almost finished the 2nd of the pair of Long-Legged, Long-Footed socks for the dear gal who lost the first ones I made her in a housefire.  I've finally turned the heel and am past the gusset, moving down the foot!  Not a holiday gift, so I'm working on them a bit each day to get 'em done before month-end!

Pattern: Simple Ribbed Socks
A free pattern from Angela Law on Ravelry
Yarn: elann.com 'Sock-it-to-Me' Harlequin
From stash - Colour #80 - "Blue Stonewash"

My daughter assures me that the recipient will like them -- the colours go with her jeans!

Now, then...on to a bit of spinning.  I failed miserably at the Ravelry "Tour de Fleece" this year -- it was just too darned hot to spin (or knit or do pretty much anything hands-on with wool!)  BUT when the weather moderated a bit in August, I managed to get more spinning done (I love to do it outside), and so managed to turn the marl I showed you in my last post while it was still on the bobbins -- into a skein. 

My online spinning compatriots at Two Ewes Fiber Adventures (on Ravelry) suggested I turn the 85 grams of fingering-like yarn into mittens -- and I think that's exactly what I'll do!

Meanwhile, I've begun spinning singles from a hand-dyed merino batt I bought at the Rose City Fibre Festival (Camrose, Alberta) in 2023.  It's a bit challenging, given the softness of it (compared to Falklands roving and alpaca/wool blend), so it'll be a learning experience for the next while.  Stay tuned!

Moving from fibre to fabric...Quilting!  In my end-of-August post, I showed the start of the assembly of the Celtic Knot Quilt blocks.  Since that post, I've put all five of the blocks of one colour-combo and all four of the blocks of a second colour-combo together.  Here they are, stacked side-by-side on my design surface:

Left: "A" Blocks
Right: "B" Blocks

Yes, I know they look alike, but look closely. There is a subtle difference in the fabrics!  Now you know why I have to tread carefully here and pay close attention to assembly and layout!  There are currently 9 blocks made -- but to arrive at the desired size for this particular quilt, I need to create 7 more: 3 "A" Blocks (bringing the total to 8) and 4 "B" blocks (bringing the total to 8).  This will happen over the course of the winter, so by spring, the top will be assembled, with borders, and be ready for quilting so it can be bound and delivered to the designated recipients a year from now for their Special Occasion.  

Indeed, 2025 will be a Significant Year in my corner of the world.  It marks 50 years since I was married (and 19 of those as a widow).  Two other couples -- now with only 1 surviving partner -- will accompany me in that.  Fond memories, yes, but no sparkly celebrations there!  

But it marks 55 years since my younger sister graduated from our high school, and my son will turn 40 (he's the youngest of my two kids!).  So I've decided to make him a quilt, as it's been a long time.

For this one, my stash is calling -- and my choice is batiks.  I have a selection of dark blue and dark blue-green ones that have yet to be used.  At the Central Alberta Quilt Show last spring I bought several metres -- about eight on a 'skinny bolt' from a shop whose owner was retiring.  And I dug out this book:  Batik Beauties: 18 Stunning Quilts by Laurie Shifrin, which I bought eons ago. 

I've chosen a star pattern -- not the one on the cover! --  with the lighter fabric (from the skinny bolt) as the background.  Here's what I've cut for the block units so far:

The left-hand stack is actually a dozen squares -- each different -- for the centre of the stars.  The right-hand stack is background fabric but in this case, it's cut to go in the 4 corners of each star block.  I've got a lot of cutting of units to do before a block is assembled, so stay tuned!

Aside from the 'special' quilts I'm constructing, I continue to make scrappy quilts to give away.  One of them comes from the 'bonus triangles' created when I was doing one of Bonnie Hunter's mysteries (don't ask me which one).  I've managed to turn those into HSTs (Half-Square-Triangles), and from there into small-ish (5" finished) four-patches, thus -- as shown on the right-hand side of this photo:

On the left-hand side there's another trio of blocks -- part of the scrappy collection I'm gathering for another "Easy Breezy" (Leader-and-ender Challenge) quilt from Bonnie.  I have almost 50 of these made, but they're tiny (4" finished) so have a good 80 or more to go before I can turn them into something.  The centre 4-patches are all made up, and clipped in batches of 10, but the remaining 'borders' for each block have to be cut and attached!

Yep.  I'm just stacking 'em up -- both of these types of units.   Eventually, they'll become tops for comforting someone.  A local fella and his partner are expecting their first baby -- a girl -- close to Christmas this year.  I don't know her, but his mother died a couple of years ago and his dad is never mentioned -- neither are his siblings (if any). So that pink pinwheel quilt might be just right thing for a baby gift (with a pair of hand-knit baby socks attached!)

Meanwhile, the "A Quilting Life" 2024 Block of the Month continues to test my piecing skills! As you might recall, Gentle Readers, I'm aiming to make two of the smaller (8" finished) blocks per month, using my Thimbleberry fabric stash from years ago.  I gotta confess, a bit fiddly though they are, as the pieces get *very* tiny, I really enjoy making these up.  Here are my September blocks:

I ran out of greens so I'm making blocks with more blues and browns/golds.  So be it!  Scrappy all the way!

Now...what about hooked art?

In my end-of-August post I showed you the beginnings of my work in the online class form Deanne Fitzpatrick entitled, "Simple Shading".  My purpose in taking that class was to explore the technique of shading with yarn and fabric strips insead of with cotton fabric.  Also, I'm more of a landscape artist (or I was, before Covid had me trying to make order out of chaos) -- so I'd not really done anything in the way of still life work.  This project encompassed both techniques...and while it was a challenge, I learned a lot (including that I'm not fond of creating still life work!) -- and made, in the end, a pretty and comfy small pillow, and learned about shading with hooked fibre.  Here it is, finished but not fully finished:

And now, fully finished, on the bench in my Outdoor Studio -- including a close-up shot:

Yes, that cute l'il thing is all of 9" x 12" and now lives on a chair in my living room!

This week I finally set up a new piece -- this time, an original design -- on my standing frame.  It's 6" square and will likely be mounted on stretched canvas.  If I'm accepted, it'll go into the annual Under $100 Art Market in Lacombe, Alberta at the end of November.  It's a landscape, tentatively entitled "Turning", and here's my tiny start:

I hope to create 3 pieces that size. Anything not sold at that show will go to Curiosity Art & Framing in Red Deer, with high hopes to be sold there!

The Under $100 Art Market is not only an opportunity for the community to see and purchase all kinds of art and fine craft for less than $100 a piece, but also a fundraiser for the organizers -- the Lacombe Performing Arts Centre (aka LPAC).  In an area where sports -- especially HOCKEY -- are paramount, the Arts (visual and performing) have struggled to maintain a foothold in the minds of the populace.  I'm happy to play my part to keep the Arts alive in these parts!!

In the interests of adding to my "hooking" yarn supply, I happily went to the Prairie Fibre Festival in Lacombe on September 14*.  And I wasn't disappointed!  I came home with a variety of yarn and fibre suitable for my hooked-art pieces.

First, this trio of yarns from Brine Dyeworks of Calgary, Alberta -- 100% Finn wool, all light worsted weight:  

Left to right: "Canopy"; Rym"; and "Galactica"
All are classed as "DK/worsted" 

Next, a skein of single-ply "super bulky" hand-dyed yarn from That Yarn Habit of Grande Prairie, Alberta, in the colour "Thunder Cloud":

Third, a skein of Peruvian Highland Wool, aran weight and hand-dyed, from All Wound Up Kntting (Facebook link) of Castor, Alberta.

Finally, some curly locks for texture: Cotswold locks from Saskatchewan in the "Oprah" (!) colour-way (i.e. natural) from Imagine Yarn of Biggar, SK:

Such a quantity of fibre goodness with which to create new landscapes and skyscapes!

 *NOTE: Since earlier this year, Olds College permanently cancelled it's famous, decades-old "Fibre Week", the Alberta fibre community has been stepping up!  To that end, the Prairie Fibre Festival last weekend hosted MORE vendors and MORE classes than ever before -- AND have booked in for TWO events in 2025:  

1. June 14, 2025 -- in Olds -- put that in your pipe and smoke it, Olds College!; and
2. September 13, 2025 -- in Lacombe, Alberta.

Get on the e-mail list for news and updates, eh?

Of course, being a woolly wool fan, I couldn't pass up a chance to buy a bit of Black Welsh Mountain fingering being sold by Melanie Rudy, the gal from whom I and friends Anne and Sha took the 'Shetland Lace Knitting' workshop on the Saturday afternoon of the Festival.  I got it to go into a Shetland Hap...some day in the not-too-distant future.  Soooo beautiful!

I should note that the day was made rich not only by the finding of glorious yarn I can use, or by taking an interesting class, but also by the friends I had with me for part of the day: Barbara from Calgary, Mary and Sha from south of Calgary, and Anne from Gull Lake.  I/we shared the joy with Shauna from Westaskiwin, Erin from near Blackfalds, and Gail and Sharon from Lacombe.  I missed Lori (she showed up later when I was in class) but no matter.  It was all good.

Last but not least, what about stitching?  Well...it's Sampler September!

In my late-August post, I mentioned my plans, and as this month slides by, trying to hustle me along with it, I've pretty much stuck to those plans.

I began the month working on Jeanette Douglas' reproduction of Ann Perrin 1841.  I worked on it for the better part of the first week, and ended that time with two pattern pages completed - working top left to right:

I then moved on to my "birthday sampler" (begun last year) from Hands Across the Sea designs: "Memories of the Past".  Here's where I left it on September 18th -- again, with two pages finished, but this time on the left side only:

And as of yesterday (the 19th) I've resumed work on Emeline Hotchkiss 1846, making progress here too.  I've moved from the first page (top left) to the second (bottom left) and have started my very first 'berry bowl' motif!

Last but not least (and yet to be worked on this month) is the wee new start I made on 56-count -- "Frances Lawson 1848" from Sampler & Antique Needlework: a Year in Stitches, published in 1994 and given me by a friend.   Here's what the start looks like at the moment -- just a bit of the border from the top left corner:

I'm loving each and every one of these pieces -- for their history, their back story, their connections to my Quebec home, their colours, their expressed sentiments.  Sometimes we work pieces for only one of these reasons; sometimes, for more than one; sometimes for all of them.

And for reasons we don't fully understand, the work brings us comfort and peace.

Like any of us who are makers -- working 'hand-over-hand' as Deanne Fitzpatrick says -- knitters, spinners and weavers form community as do quilters, rug-hookers, and stitchers.  Many of us overlap our interests and so belong to more than one of these.  We take our passion for making, and our art, and use it for comfort, for teaching, for sharing and giving -- for developing harmony and the meditative peace that comes from these humble skills.  We create beauty every time we sit down at the loom or the wheel; every time we pick up needles or hooks; every time we stir a dye pot or share a pattern or gather around a frame or a table.

How are you creating beauty, community, harmony and peace every day in your tiny space in the world?  Never forget that every time you pick up a hook, a needle, a pin, some yarn, or fabric, some fibre or floss; every time you click a camera's shutter; every time you fashion clay or turn wood on a lathe; every time you put a pen or pencil or oil pastel or chalk or paint to paper or canvas; every time you warp a loom or move a shuttle or spin on a wheel or spindle -- every time you make with your heart, mind, hands and soul, you are making your tiny corner of the world a better place.

On that note, I'll leave you for the moment, Gentle Readers, with my usual link to Nna-Marie's Off the Wall Friday, and with wishes and blssings for good days ahead.

A bientot!

"Startitis" or "Finishitis"?

The last few weeks it's been a bit of both!  Once I decided to just enjoy life, throwing productivity and predetermined purpose out the window, I've been having a jolly good time.

First, I decided I'd enroll in a beginner's rug hooking class during this year's Fibre Week at Olds College, and a week from tomorrow I'll head down the highway to do just that.

Next, I signed on to the Rookies group for the annual Ravelry "Tour de Fleece" and get back to spinning.  In preparation, I've been practicing almost every day, working away at a wool batt I was given some years ago.  I refer to it as my "Mystery Mauve" fibre because it looks like this:

It's mainly wool, I think, but there are strands of synthetic -- fine as hair -- in it, as well as a few 'neps' or bits that, if there were more of them, would make it tweedy.  It's great for a not-so-great spinner like me, because I can practice and it's not cost me anything for the materials.  It's definitely not precious!

I've really enjoyed the occasional cool morning, spinning out in the sunshine:

This all came about because a friend, having "rescued" two bags of roving from an estate, gave them to me!  They're very colourful batches, some of which was apparently milled at Custom Woollen Mills in Carstairs, according to a sales slip in with one of the packages.  I decided that if I were to be worthy of this new addition to my fibre stash, I'd best get some of the "old stuff" spun up!

*******************************************************

In my last post, re: my Cross Stitch Rabbit Hole, I reported on my "May-nia" progress.  I was working on each of 5 pieces, one at a time, for five days each.  By the end of the month, I'd had another finish -- "Take Whisks" from Hands On Design.  And...drum roll, please!...as of yesterday, I had it Fully Finished.  Ta DA!

Journal cover - front

Journal Cover - back

Journal cover outside, open flat

See? The journal fits!

I took the instructions from this great little YouTube video by Alanda Craft, which I found easier to follow than other instructions to date, and enjoyed every minute.  As you know, Gentle Readers, I dislike "fiddly" projects, which is why I don't make many pouches, bags, etc. -- but this is a finish I'll return to.  As for this particular item, I've got to get it into the mail today for a friend -- a keen baker of cakes and cookies -- whose birthday is approaching.

I also finished the Spanish reproduction sampler I was working on, from Birgit at The Wishing Thorn.  This photo isn't great because the piece is in pastel threads on white linen...but there it is.  The photos on the Wishing Thorn website are better!  I used the called-for DMC floss and (as I recall) a 32 count white linen -- 1 strand over 2, except for the commemoration at the bottom, and my signature, which are 1 strand over 1.  This sampler was made in memory of my late cousin, Margo Davison de Martinez, who died in 2022, aged 80.

At the end of my "May-nia" I returned to "Keziah Campbell 1796" designed by Needlemade Designs but purchased through Traditional Stitches in Calgary -- the package of pattern, fabric and flosses given to me by my friends Sha and Mary for my 70th birthday last fall.  I started it in the New Year, and it's been a bit slow-going, as it's on 40-count Vintage Sand Dune from Lakeside Linens.  This is my first attempt at 40-count and I must say, it's going better than expected.  

Having finished my 5x5 program in May, I thought for June I'd focus on a relatively new start -- "Barnabee's Quest, Part I" from Just Nan, which I'd had in stash for over a decade -- but no.  I returned to Keziah...and have fallen in love!  I finished the border at the end of May, shown horizontally just before the finish:

Since then, I've worked on it almost every day and here's where I am as of last evening:

The hand-dyed cotton for the red letters is 'Country Redwood' from Gentle Arts -- lucious!  The curliques around the alphabet letters are challenging but so worth the concentration!  Because this a Scottish-style sampler and not a reproduction, I am going to modify it to memorialize my immediate ancestors on my father's side.  Three brothers from the family came over to Quebec in the mid-eighteen-twenties and settled on farmland near the new community of Huntingdon, in the Chateauguay Valley.  There are farms out there that are still in the family, though my relation to the owners is very distant.  Anyway, I'm going to insert the initials for my grandfather, my grandmother and their children -- my father, my aunt and my uncle -- in the space for them underneath the wee row of crowns.  Stay tuned for progress!

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On the quilting front, there's a bit more progress, but with this heatwave, it's hot in my south-facing studio, and there's no room for a fan.  Still, I've managed to make 33 Butter Churn blocks, such that I've had to move them to the "design bed" in the guest room:

The quilt under the blocks is an old Bear's Paw quilt made for me by my late Aunt Alice Rennie -- one of the aforementioned relatives whose initials will be on the Scottish sampler.  The fabrics are, in large part, scraps I sent to her after making garments for me and my then-little daughter, back in the mid-to-late eighties.  It always makes me smile to see them in that quilt!

And yes...I've returned to some knitting!

When I was in Toronto, I took with me a pullover I was working on out of a bright synthetic -- the now-discontinued Sirdar "Silky Look" Double Knitting.  By the time I returned at the beginning of May, I was ready to start the bottom ribbing -- 4" deep -- and this is now finished:

Pattern: "Millie"
Designer: Nice and Knit
Yarn: Sirdar "Silky Look" DK in "Brights" colour-way

Since I took that photo -- at the end of May -- I've finished one sleeve and put a few rounds into the second.  

In the aforementioned stash of roving my friend gave me, was a 'plate' of long-discontinued "Chinook" single-ply yarn -- which appears to be a precursor to the now-popular Plotulopi, though it's not from Iceland; it's from Australia!  I've not done anything with it yet, but it inspired me to get back to a simple shawl I'm making with a similarly-fragile Noro "Rainbow Roll".  

I've not taken an up-dated photo, but it's the "Rainbow Roll Shawl" from Benjamin Matthews Designs, and I'm using a colourway in blues and browns, with some pale pinks and creams (#1015).  I have to knit with care, as it's easily broken, but I think it will be pretty and cozy in the end.

Picking up that project again motivated me to return to another knitting UFO -- a Mystery Stole that originated in 2006!

It's the Swan Lake Mystery Stole 3 designed by Melanie Gibbons, which I'm knitting in JaggerSpun Zephyr Wool-Silk 2/18 in "Vanilla" (off-white).  I'd managed to finish the main body of the shawl, leaving off at the point where I'd have to decide how I wished to continue -- with a mirror image of the first part, or with the 'wing' of the swan.  I've chosen the latter, and after a short consultation with the designer about the chart in question, I've begun in earnest.  I've told Melanie that she's been a great help and I promised her it wouldn't be another 15 years before I finished it -- so stay tuned!

Again, with the current heat wave, I've reserved my knitting and spinning for early in the day, and turn to stitching in the afternoons, in my living room, blinds drawn against the sun, and fans going.  The heat is supposed to break over the weekend -- thunderstorms very likely on Sunday -- and more rain may come later next week, which is a Very Good Thing, and the fires, while they've eased, continue to burn up north, in B.C. and in Eastern Canada, with smoke and haze impacting those of us who live to the south of them, including our friends in the Eastern US.

I'll leave you now, as usual, with a link to Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday.  This week, while I've been dusting off what's old, starting assorted finishes, she's been exploring what's new -- in a technique, in assorted gadgets, and in audio books.  

Whatever you're up to, from wherever you're reading, may you have some time to lose yourself in creativity.  A bientot!

Existential Examen - Day 6

 The more research I'm doing about become more myself, and less who others think I should be -- even at this late stage in life! -- the more I'm becoming aware of the role creativity plays in this.  Not just for me; for each one of us.

Today, I'm grateful that each and every one of us has innate creativity, which we can choose to express -- or not -- and I am grateful that in choosing to express my particular creativity, I am learning to accept the opinions and perceptions of others as just that -- theirs, owned by them.  Moreover, ve-e-e-r-r-ry slowly, I'm learning that I can't control the perceptions and opinions of others.  

It's mind over matter.  As someone once quipped: "If I don't mind, it doesn't matter!"  😉

One corner of my creative space

A detail shot of what I'm currently working on:
Fallen Log (c) 2023

To Encourage

A poem from Miguel de Unamuno...

THROW YOURSELF LIKE SEED*

Shake off this sadness, and recover your spirit;

sluggish you will never see the wheel of fate

that brushes your heel as it turns going by,

the man who wants to live is the man in whom life

is abundant.

Now you are only giving food to that final pain

which is slowing winding you in the nets of death,

but to live is to work, and the only thing

which lasts

is the work; start then, turn to the work.

Throw yourself like seed as you walk, and into your

own field,

don't turn your face for that would be to turn it

to death,

and do not let the past weigh down your motion.

Leave what's alive in the furrow, what's dead

in yourself,

for life does not move in the same way as a group

of clouds;

from your work you will be able one day to

gather yourself.

*Published in Ten Poems to Set You Free, Roger Housden, Harmony Books, New York, 2003

Alberta grain bins - Hwy 23 South,  August 2011

Bursting out of the Gate

The starting gate, that is.  The starting of new quilted projects based on sketchbook notes and photos and ideas brewing and stewing as recently as this fall and as far back as a couple of years ago.

I've been eager to get going on this new stuff following my Christmas break, but yesterday -- whoa!

Does this happen to you?  You get going on a new design, and while you might fall into The Zone (or get into a state of Flow) you find yourself exhausted in a remarkably short time -- just a few hours and your head feels like it's about to explode, you barely remember your name and address, and your heart's just racing (figuratively, if not literally).  I had to work in stages -- break it up with a walk to the Post Office, or lunch, or installing the new baking element in my oven, or a 30-minute jog...just to get where I wanted to go.  It meant I worked into the evening, of course, but maybe that's not a bad thing.  And by 8 p.m. I was in bed with my book and a cuppa and some knitting.  By 9 p.m. it was evening prayers and lights out.  Looks like this will be my routine for the next while!  :-)

Oh?  You want to hear about the project?  Well then...

Yesterday I began work on "This is My Father's World" -- a door quilt for our priest's drafty office.  Her work space is the Vestry (also known as the robing room).  The building was built in 1894, and that corner faces east.  Old, very drafy windows have been replaced, and that has helped, but within the room is an old door leading to a wee landing from which one can either exit the building (another old door) or continue down rickety stairs to the unfinished depths below.  Br-r-r-r!  

I've been mulling over this piece for several months now, wanting to include all of the liturgical colours: green (Trinity, Ordinary Time), blue (contemporary - Advent), purple/violet (traditional Advent, Lent), red (Pentecost), white (Christmas, Easter, Epiphany, the sacraments), plus a touch of grey/black for Good Friday, and a glimmer of gold for glory.  :-)  Eventually it came to me: a landscape.  Specifically, a mountainscape, with a flowery field, and water, etc.

The piece, in the end, will have to measure 38" by 83" to cover the door frame and keep out that draft.  I'm beginning, however, with a sample about 1/3 the size.

You see, the invitation to enter the competition for a booth at the Annual Lacombe Art Show and Sale arrived in the mail yesterday, and on the agenda for the next few months (the Show is in mid-April) is the creation of several new pieces since I last had a booth (2011).  Ever practical, this 'sample' will also be the first of those new pieces, bearing the less spiritual title of "Mountainscape I".

I started with these fabrics.  Notice I'm including both a night and a day-time sky:

Then I narrowed it down and put 'em on the design wall:

Decided that though I loved the cloud effects, I didn't want a sky that looked more mountainous than the mountains. I also got rid of the over-sized trees in favour of tree-like quilting and perhaps some paint (later):

Next I fused the layers to a muslin foundation, and trimmed the piece up a bit, and sandwiched it with batting and an innocuous cotton backing.  I've put snow-caps on the mountain tops but I'm a bit undecided.  Perhaps I'll go for the subtlety of paint sticks there too:

Today the machine quilting begins to secure the fabrics and add texture. Then we shall see.  I have in mind a moon-sun combination in the upper right corner, to be done with quilting and paint...

And yes, Easy Street continues.  I've now completed 11 of 16 "A" blocks, and will likely do one more before I get into free-motion mode for "Mountainscape I".

Now to link up with WIP Wednesday on The Needle and Thread Network.  :-)

Friends in High Places

I am so inspired by my SAQA colleagues!  Earlier today I read about Jean's recent acceptances (legion!) and her being the featured artist for a period of time online over at Empty Easel.  Now I read that Elaine's just won an Honourable Mention, and is going to be tootling off to France next spring as a featured artist -- with a teaching opportunity.  Whoa!

Time to get back to work!

HERE

is where I am. Now. Today.  I feel as if I've opened a door and I'm standing on the threshold, blinking in the sunshine, having spent a decade or more in a dark room with no windows.

One step at a time, I'm moving forward into that light, stiffly, like one just up from sleeping, cramped.  It's scary and inviting, all at once.

Balance -- I must remember this: rest some, pray some, work some, study some, play some.  It is time.

Right outta nowhere

You open your heart

And let go of everything

You’re going somewhere

And all you need to know

Is that you’re free to go

Dream and the way will be clear

Pray and the angels will hear

Leap and the net will appear

Christine Kane

What S/he said...

As I tumble along on my 'Summer Sabbatical', I can't ignore the fact that this weekend will mark the ending of July and the heading into August.  It's a long weekend in most of Canada, and the weather promises to be perfect.  There will be lots of time for me to enjoy my Summer Studio with knitting, stitching and hand quilting -- the stuff with which I've been soothing my soul since the end of May.

But once in August, there'll be something in the air...High summer, yes, but just the faintest whiff of BackToSchool, and for me, BackTotheStudio with fresh eyes and a new outlook on my art.  Still pacing myself, but with a fresh flexibility and confidence.

And what Monika's client said is what makes it all worthwhile -- for her, for me, for all those of us who put our creativity Out There:

 "'you artists really bring us to the place where the world is a better place"

Thank you, sir, whoever you are.

Rounding a Gentle Curve

Pimpelliese Shawlette

This wee shawl is my current 'at-home' project.  Knit from one 100-gram ball of sock yarn, it's a 12-row pattern, which means I haven't memorized its entirety, and have to keep referring to it to stay on track.  Essentially, you knit, increasing as you go, till you've used half your yarn (by weight) and then begin the decreases.  This past week, I slipped around the curve and into the home stretch...

New by Christine Valters Paintner

...toward "a clearer sureness about what matters" (Jane Dunnewold).
...toward trying "...to do good and...to produce something" (Eval Zeisel)
...toward a life more in balance: creativity-as-blessing.

This book is due to arrive this coming week.  When it does, you'll know where to find me...

Found This

on Arlee's blog this morning:

The last paragraph expresses my thoughts these days so eloquently:  "...the handicrafts are out to create more life..." (emphasis mine)

The source isn't quoted, so I can't pass that on to you -- but perhaps Arlee knows and can enlighten us all.  

Vernal Equinox Shawl - pattern by Lankakomero on Ravelry