Homebodies Unite!

 

A few weeks ago, when I last wrote, we'd had a snow storm and more seemed to be on the way.  Yes, Gentle Readers, and it came.  There was no going anywhere on the Sunday after that post.  

Since then, we've had some more snow -- though nothing like the 60" that Nina-Marie describes, living near the Lakehead out East.  Whoa!  I'm 60.5" tall...so I can figure out the impact of that!

Instead, we've been treated to a smorgasbord of precipitation: snow, "mixed", rain and freezing rain.  I managed to get to the local Home Hardware (about 18 km south) for a load of eco-friendly ice melter...just in time!

All that said, it's been great for those of us who are Certified Homebodies -- who like to stay in our own homes, yards and gardens, doing...whatever we do!  Are any of you with me? 

The added benefit is that it's coming on to Christmas and the Holiday Season, and I've had gifts to make.  Now...yes... those of you who are in Canada are rolling your eyes a bit, because you know that, like you, I have some gifts that might not make it in time for December 25 due to our over-4-weeks-now postal strike.  That said, I live in hope, because a) the government is getting back into the fray; and b) "Little Christmas" -- Epiphany -- the Twelfth Day of Christmas -- Orthodox Church Christmas -- is January 6.  So...there's an alternative!  And who do you know doesn't like a gift when they least expect it?! 😉😊😃😄

So I forge ahead!  

Since my last post, I finished the tiny wrap-around spool project from Jeannette Douglas Designs (a collaboration with Evertote and Roxy Floss), and because the recipient lived nearby, I was able to find One Perfect Driving Day this week -- and deliver it to her:

Those are my scissors in the photo, taken in my living room.  She had her own pair, and promptly inserted them where they belonged, to the delight of both of us!

I've also finished the "Downton Gloves" (Downton Abbey-themed fingerless gloves) from stash yarn, and given them to my neighbour and friend, Claire, when we had lunch last week:

The yarn is a Malabrigo merino and silk blend, soft-soft-soft-soft.  She's a non-knitter and not fond of wool, but I was right; she couldn't resist these!

For my very-good-to-me neighbours, I've finished the 2024 Block of the Month from Sheri at A Quilting Life.  The last block came out December 2nd and I surprised myself by finishing mine that very day.  I've been making two per month in the smaller (8" finished) size, and here they are for December:

Because I knew time of the essence, I immediately began to plot out the rows and sashing:

In doing so, I exhausted the supply of the gold fabric corner-stone squares, and have only scraps left of the brown sashing print -- a win-win on the 'stash reduction' front!

Here's what it looked like once I got all the rows together, plus the inner border -- which I made twice as wide as called for -- and the outer border, a solid red-brown poly-cotton:

I found a couple of pieces of deep wine-coloured poly-cotton for a pieced backing, and had to add only a strip of additional batting to one side of a package of new Quilters' Dream 'Select' to make the batting.

I then decided that, given the flavour of the quilt and the colours used, I'd hand quilt it with a 'big stitch' format, using #12 perle cotton (DMC colour #640) -- also from stash.  I've made my way around the inner border and am now working on the blocks, with shadow quilting that I don't need to mark.  I simply echo the lines of the block pieces, or go from point to point:

If I can manage 3 (or 4) blocks a day, I should have it bound and ready to give by Xmas Eve (or the 23rd at the earliest).

Meanwhile, if the weather behaves, I'll be driving up to Edmonton to spend Christmas with my children and household.  Hooray!  So...

As you probably noticed in my last post, the knitted gifts for my son and his family are finished -- and gift cards are purchased.  That said, a 'squirrel' caught my eye last week in the guise of a 'reading pillow' -- and I just knew such a thing would be a great addition to the gift for my son's partner's teen son, who has a 15th birthday in January.  So I picked up a 16" pillow form (on sale!) at one of my LQS (Wild Flower Creations in Lacombe), dug in my stash for fabric, and made this:

Front -- showing the wide pocket
Free Pattern: Shabby Fabrics

And back, with a flap for removing the pillow form

The fabric was left over from the Canada 150 line of fabrics (2017).  Back in the day, I bought a quantity to make a table runner, which I still use.  

I liked the project so much that when at Michael's on Thursday this week, I bought another 16" square pillow form -- also on sale!

As for my daughter's Xmas/B'day Jan 2025 gift -- the [Not So] Presto Vesto -- there is light at the end of the tunnel!  Since my last post, I've done the twisted-rib trim on each pocket, made the inside of each pocket, and attached said pocket linings to the vest.

One of the pockets - outside view

One of the pockets - inside view.

What the front looks like with 2 finished inset pockets

All that's left is the zipper (28", already purchased -- from Wild Flower Creations in Lacombe), adding a strip of woven ribbon on the inside over the zipper (purchased at Michael's in Red Deer) and sewing down the collar.  Yes -- it's already been washed and blocked.

This thing has been a Labour of Love from start to finish...so I've been knitting intermittently on smaller projects as 'palate cleansers'!

I got the "advent" (non-liturgical) bug -- but I didn't invest in a series of yarny or stitchy gifts.   No.  I found a couple of patterns on Ravelry that were set up as "Advent" Knit-Alongs (KALs), and joined in.

One is for a pair of socks in a series of different stitch patterns.  Some are knitting each daily pattern offering in a different colour, but I opted for using up a couple of balls of Patons Kroy FX that I had in my stash (in the colour "Clay"):

Above is a photo through Day 2, but I'm now well past that, having done a heel flap, turned the heel and finished the gusset -- making my way through Day 9.  I've decided one repeat of Day 10 and I'll be ready for the toe of the first sock.  (This is a free pattern KAL.)

The other is for a colour-work cowl, which I've been using to practice my colour-work skills. (My plan is to try more colour-work in 2025).  I chose two fingering-weight yarns: Julie Asselin 'Fino' -- my daughter gave me a skein a few years ago, in the colour-way "Trench" and some very old wool 4-ply given me from a yarn cull, from The Bay (The Hudson's Bay Company) -- in a lovely pearl grey.  I'm about to start Clue 6 with is the last one in this particular KAL, and am very pleased that the motifs I've knit actually look like they're suppose to! 😆 (NOTE: This pattern was free for a limited time but is no longer so.)

I just might be able to do this stranded colour-work thing after all!

As for stitchery...aside from the spool, which I finished and gave to its recipient, I've finished two little pieces that may or may not arrive at their respective destinations on time:

Designer: The Sweetheart Tree
Kit: 28-count "Ray of Light" Cashel Linen
DMC floss, Mill Hill beads & a charm (not shown)
1 or 2 floss threads over 1 or 2 fabric threads
Some back-stitching and a Rhodes stitch butterfly

Designer: Lizzie Kate
Pattern included the little button
Done on 35-count "Royal Icing" from
Access Commodities
1 thread of floss over 2 fabric threads
DMC floss from stash

"Don't Bug Me" will be made into a small hanging sign for the studio of some friends, while "You Can Touch the Dust" will be made into a flat-fold for a friend of mine -- we have a mutual understanding of the insufferability of dust!  😉😄

I have a stitching plan for January 2025 too.  Recently I bought a pair of "Gatherings" samplers from Hands on Design, through Traditional Stitches, my LNS: "Gather Blessings" and "Gather Memories".  I got them -- and the called-for fabric -- early enough that they arrived before Canada Post went on strike a month ago.  I've kitted them up so they are ready to go, and I hope to finish one, if not both, as 'blessings' samplers for 2025.  I figure with the state of the world right now, we could use all the blessings we can get in the next year!

On the art front, the Under $100 Art Market in Lacombe at the end of November was a modest success for me.  I sold only one piece (of seven on show), but on the Saturday afternoon when I volunteered as a 'floater' on the floor of the exhibit, I had some interesting and lovely conversations with folks for whom this work was new as an art form -- but who remembered ancestors who'd done it to make utilitarian pieces for the floor.  I am hopeful that if I enter the largert Art Show and Sale in the spring, I might sell more of these pieces.

To that end, I've been pondering a larger piece.  I picked up some burlap from Michael's in Red Deer to try it out (shipping from Deanne Fitzgerald Studios in Nova Scotia or even from Legacy Studios in Cochrane, west of Calgary, is pricy and awkward at the momen).  So we shall see.  I got a 2 yard piece, 44" wide, and have cut it to fill the larger of my stretcher bars, so once I get that quilt quilted I'll be ready to make a start.  I'm leaning toward a sky-inspired intuitive piece...Stay tuned!

Once ironed and zig-zagged, it'll go on the frame...

And so, Gentle Readers, that's all the news that's fit to print for now.  As I close, I see out my windows in the early winter dark, that my 3 closest neighbours have joined me in turning on their Christmas lights, bringing delight to all who pass by, and reminding us all that there is still a light that shines in this world, whether or not we can see it.

I'll be linking you to Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday, where this week she gives you ideas for gifts for your favourite quilting family and/or friends.  I have all I need, really, and that includes those of you who've stuck with me on this little blog all these years.  I'll mark 22 years as a Blogger in February.  Whodd'a thunk it?!

Till next time -- holiday blessings, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah...and may the next year bring us ever closer to a world that's more hopeful, more peaceful, more civil, more just, more understanding, and more loving.  A bientot!

And Sew It Goes

It's a challenge to post even weekly these days, as I am in the thick of Christmas prep.  I have lots to share.

First up, speaking of sharing... My husband's cousin Larry and his family own a wholesale drapery and upholstery business, supplying fabrics for interior design.  When I was in Vancouver in October for the needle-felting workshop, I stayed with Larry and his wife, Miri, at their lovely home, and we got to talking about my work.  Larry offered to send me a box of remnants from their Vancouver warehouse.  Last week they arrived.  What treasures!  I've only had a quick look through them, but they are mainly drapery materials in a variety of prints and patterns.  I'm thinking of passing along Larry's generosity when I have my Blog Anniversary in February...so stay tuned!

The box, just opened.  Wow!

Yummy!

Look at that great reversible pattern!

Chanelling Charles Rennie Mackintosh

Luscious for landscapes!

I'm not too sure about these...

I didn't have time to dwell on the fabric treats, though; I had to get back to the sewdio!

I'm making headway on Bonnie Hunter's current mystery, Grand Illusion, and will finish the last stack of Clue #2 units today.   

THESE (below)

have become these...

That tub (above photo) is now almost full, with the goal being five stacks of ten pair of rectangles, each pair making a 4 1/2"-square unit.  Only 5 units left to piece and I can move on to Clue #3.

In other quilting...some years ago I made a top from a Thimbleberries block of the month project designed to create two throw quilts -- "Sunrise" (6 months of blocks) and "Sunset" (another 6 months of blocks).  "Some" years ago?  I just checked the pattern and the set was published in 2005!  

Anyway, I put the "Sunrise" top together at a quilt retreat in December 2008...and did nothing with it.  A few years later I sandwiched it, the idea being I would try to quilt it by hand.  I tried doing so in a small frame I had at the time -- didn't like it.  Sold the frame.  Tried a hoop.  Didn't like it.  

You see, I'm a long-time embroiderer, and find the rocking motion of hand quilting very difficult.  I also don't like to wear thimbles.  I put up with gloves when I am free-motion quilting but get them off as quickly as I can.  I seem to need to feel the fabric, and to control the piece on which I'm working by having it close to me.

This year, because my neighbours J & E are so kind to me, I dug out the top and decided to machine quilt it for them for Christmas (it was already heavily pin-basted from my earlier attempts).  I procrastinated, finding even it's relatively small size hard to manipulate (62" x 76" is BIG for me!)  

Trying my hand...

This past week, inspired once again by the hand-quilting practice of Joe Cunningham, I decided to try again to hand quilt it.  I am doing it in my lap, no hoop, no frame.  I've managed to develop a quasi-rocking movement and can put up to 5 small (but not infinitesimally tiny) stitches on the needle at a time.  I have either Craft in America or my Craftsy class with Joe or classical music on in the background, and away I go.  I likely won't be finished it for Christmas but there will be enough of it done to show them, and as E doesn't do this sort of handwork (I don't think she does any handwork to speak of), I'm not worried about criticism!  ;-)

The Annual Christmas Boxer Shorts are almost finished...

And the knitting, too...the latest being a slouchy hat and button-up "scarflet" for my sister, in the mail today:

Yarn: Diamond Luxury Gemstone in 'Onyx'
Pattern: "Veronica Slouch" by Brenda K.B. Anderson
Buttons: a thrift store find!

Still a pair of socks on the needles, and a cowl...and another scarf to sew up ends etc....so what am I doing still sitting at the computer?

Time to link up to Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday (okay; so I'm a bit late!) and the Monday Linky Party for Part 3 of the Grand Illusion Mystery...and get back into that sewdio!

Have a great week, everyone -- and a special Happy Hanukkah to my Jewish readers...their Festival of Lights begins tomorrow evening.  Blessings, all!

Getting ARound To It

Credit: Mouth Motions

Early in January I responded to Sandy's podcast, wherein she called for "Quilty Resolutions".  She had 3 categories, including, "One UFO I'm Committed to Finish".  Now I have Bonnie to thank for the impetus to Get (my) Round Tuit and get going.

For one thing, when Bonnie quilts by hand, she has several of the same preferences and habits as I do, and that has reassured me -- it's great to know one is not alone in one's quirks!

Gummi Bears - Haribo Co., Germany

For example, I have many thimbles -- including several of the ones Bonnie's illustrated: antique (from my grandmother's sewing basket), leather, one that looks like it's made from the same stuff as Gummi Bears...but I'm uncomfortable wearing them.  I'm not fond of gardening gloves, rubber gloves for dishes and dyeing, or quilting gloves either.  I'd rather have a calloused finger on my 'under' hand, as Bonnie does.  She got an e-mail from a woman who was taught to get used to a thimble by wearing it around the house, making the beds, doing the cleaning, etc. I might try this "just to see", but I strongly suspect I'd have that thimble off within five minutes!

Last spring, though, I met a woman who uses her fingernail on the same under-hand finger.  I tried that and it works quite well -- less chance of bleeding on the backside of the quilt, and the nail doesn't seem to mind.  It recovers its regular appearance quite quickly.

Like Bonnie, I prefer a wooden hoop.  I don't have room in my house for a full frame, and I tried a more compact one but didn't like it either.  I have to have the thing in my lap so I can get close to it and move it around to get at the areas I want to stitch.  For that reason, I also don't like a 'bottom' on my hoop -- that is, I don't like my hoop attached in any way to any sort of flat bottom (like this one), whether or not it swivels.  I prop my hoop against me if I need to, to get at any angle I wish.

Thimbleberries "Dawn"
Block of the Month ca. 2007 or 2008

And I really appreciated Bonnie's comments about consistency being more important than size.  My stitches aren't small -- yet -- and I've managed only 2 to 4 on my needle at a time, but they are consistent.

Here's that quilt I'm committed to finishing this year, when I was trying to hand-quilt it in the frame.  I've since sold the frame and moved the quilt into a hoop -- still pin-basted.  I'm not fond of thread basting -- it seems to take me an inordinate amount of time and waste a lot of thread.  The pins I can 'recycle' and use again!  I just make sure to remove any that would get caught under the hoop.

This quilt is throw-sized.  I don't think I'd attempt to hand-quilt a larger one in a hoop just yet, but I won't say "never" on that.  If I enjoy finishing this one, who knows what I might do next?

Black Gold: A Quilt Show

On Sunday afternoon I hiked on up to Leduc -- just south of Edmonton and the site of the Big Oil Strike in February of 1947 that put Alberta on the map, and gave birth to an industry that, while controversial, has kept generations of Canadians warm in our less-than-hospitable winters.

I was in search of warmth-providing gold of a different kind -- the 'quilty' kind, that is -- and I found it at the Black Gold Quilt Patch Guild's annual show, being held in the Leduc Composite High School.

It had all the components of a perfect Sunday afternoon Fibre Artist's Date: quilts -- both 'art' and 'traditional -- refreshments (coffee, tea, lemonade and an apparently endless supply of home-made cookies) and ...yep, a small Merchant's Mall.

Blue Days of Summer - Cathy Tomm

I behaved myself and bought nothing -- although I admit I was sorely tempted.  However, I was able to monopolize local quilter, Cathy Tomm, for quite a long chat about her work as a dyer, long-arm quilter, and exhibitor of art quilts.  I was particularly fond of her indigo-dyed piece on display in the exhibit hall, and gave her my card, just in case she decides to run a class on dyeing with indigo (which, I confess, intimidates me in a way that commercial dyes don't).

And then there was the artistry to be found in the more traditional quilts.  The show, as I mentioned, wasn't large; still, I viewed almost half of it before I found any that struck me as stunning enough for photographs.  The first of these was entitled "Stars Forever More" -- a very large quilt in creams and brown with a touch of black that bowled me over with it's 3D work, its quilting (machine done) and its design (including piping as one of the borders):

Stars Forever More -Gerri Smit

See the fabric folding?  The Piping?

In her statement, Ms. Smit says she was inspired by the original piece she saw, "Mexican Stars" by Annette Ornelas -- a piece that was a 36' wall quilt.  Ms. Smit has transformed it into a queen-sized bed quilt!  The one on display is the second that she's made.  The first was created for her granddaughter's High School graduation; this one on display was the one she made for herself -- and yes, she long-armed it herself too.

Then there was the unassuming Christmas-themed quilt by Pat Markley -- essentially a reversible, quilt-as-you-go piece done up in Christmas-tide fabrics:

'Tis the Season - front

Reading Pat's statement, I came to see that there was more to this quilt than meets the eye..."The reverse side was like a blank slate and I puzzled for a long time about the solution."  In the end, this is what she did:

'Tis the Season - back - sprinkled with star-flowers!

Continuing my journey through the last half of the show, I arrived at this charming contribution from Adeline Bilsborrow, incorporating hand embroidered blocks she created while recovering from surgery in 2010.  The pattern is "Aunt Bea's Parlour" by Judy Reynolds.  To set off the blocks, Ms. Bilsborrow chose 'Thirties' fabrics, which enhanced the delightful floral embroidery, and then she quilted it by hand.  A yummy stroll down memory lane to a simpler time!

Nostalgic Fragrances

The next one that caught my eye really shook me up!  Entitled "Medieval Earthquake", it was created by Diana Aponiuk in a 'Fractured Images' class.   Although there were another couple of pieces from that same class later in the exhibit, in my opinion, Ms. Aponiuk's was the best for her use of fabric and design to illustrate the technique.  It's hard on the eyes, though!

Medieval Earthquake

Another one that caught my eye was this original design -- "Gift of the Holy Spirit" by Myra Fraser:

Gift of the Holy Spirit

In her statement, Ms. Fraser didn't provide the impetus for making this piece -- simply that it was a challenge, and that she believes the Spirit guided her throughout the process.  The piece is machine applique and machine quilted by its creator.

 All of these were wonderful...but I was quite sure that "Stars Forever More" would be my 'Viewer's Choice'...until I saw this beauty:  All the Things in my Garden by Marge Hiller.  In her statement, Ms. Hiller writes that the pattern for the first block (not specifically identified) was inspired by a book on applique by Nancy Pearson.  Three more big blocks, four small ones and the side panel -- and the robin, upper left -- were her own design.  It is all hand applique -- and exquisitely hand-quilted by Ms. Hiller in what she describes as "Carol Armstrong style".   No matter that I am an 'art' quilter with a 'looser' style -- the artistry and skill in Ms. Hiller's work is clear!

Detail 2

All the Things in My Garden

Detail 1