Reminding Us It's Winter

January arrived for real some time last night, with snow and blowing snow, temps of -22C with a wind chill of -31C.   My furry companion, Diesel, knows exactly how to deal with this weather: turn one's back on it and catch a few z-z-z-z-z s.

Blanket Buttonhole Stitch Block - TAST Week 2

Me? I've been in the Sewing Studio.  Last evening I set my mind to this week's Crazy Quilt Block for TAST, and this morning, while listening to the podcast at Nonnie's Quilting Dreams, I finished it.  I had great fun with this piece, and got a bit carried away with the beads.  My in-line blanket buttonhole stitch is quite good, but it proved a challenge to use it for couching and on velour.  And yes...my 'wheels' need work if I am to do them on fabric that's not specifically laid out for embroidery (silk is quite different than aida cloth or even-weave linen!)

Then, with Peter Tongni and CBC 2's Choral Concert as accompaniment, I headed to my sewing machine and made up a couple more rows on the Orca Bay Mystery Quilt top.  So large that it now fills my design wall, hanging down to the floor, I've decided to make a separate unit of the last 8 rows.  I'll attach it to the first 9 once I'm finished.  Measuring for the borders will be tricky -- I'll have to move furniture to lay it out on the kitchen floor!  This is not the largest quilt I've ever made, but I lived in a larger house the last time I did something like this...

Certainly this top has more pieces than any I've ever created, and will have to be very densely quilted to deal with the bulk of all those seams and junctions!

What's in the plan for this afternoon?  As it continues to blow, I'm staying warm with The Quilt Show, (always lots to see on that site!), perhaps an episode of Antiques Road Show, my knitting...and maybe -- just maybe -- I'll curl up with Diesel.  Stay warm!

Photos Up!

As I mentioned in my last post, I've been working in my City & Guilds course over the past two or three days; my progress since early January is now recorded under the Polishing the Process tab.  Drop by and take a look!

Pieceful, Peaceful

Some months ago, my friend W gave me a box of squares, strips and half-square triangles she'd assembled to make into a quilt called "Sunrise, Sunset", designed by Joy Hoffman and included in the December 2002 issue of Better Homes & Gardens American Patchwork & Quilting.  When she gave me the blocks, W said she was no longer interested in assembling the quilt top, and that I could keep the magazine.  I'm delighted, because it has some very pretty patterns in it.  Even though I don't make many traditional pieces now, I still find looking at them and reading about them a restful way to spend time between projects.  This quilt is no exception.  In the past week I've turned to the box of pieces to bring some order to the psychological chaos created by getting 4 entries off in the 2 months since Christmas.  I've begun to assemble the star blocks, which W chose to create in 3 different colourways -- purple/cream; red/cream; and gold-orange/cream.  (The pattern had a 4th -- in a fuschia/cream combo.)  I've decided I will take time to make these blocks whenever I need to turn to the orderly and the methodical over the next few months.  When the top is assembled, I'll return it to W; she can find someone to quilt it, and then do what she likes with it -- likely give it away....unless, of course, I fall in love with it in the meantime...

"Abandoned"

Watching

My newest art quilt project is a series I've been pondering for well over a year.  I took the photos for it last spring/summer, and have been mulling over various interpretations.   It's based on abandoned buildings 'round about where I live.  The first piece, "Watching", shown here in the pinned stage, is almost completely stitched now.   The bit of roof you see at the top is a slice from the body of a sweater I found at the thrift store in Stettler where I volunteer once a month.  The other strips have been torn and cut from cottons and lining fabric.

Nobody Here But Us

The second, more a landscape, is now under construction  I call it "Nobody Here But Us".  It's inspired by a winter photo of the same stand of aspen that I used for my "Aspen" piece this past summer.   The trees still have more branches than you see here,  but I've chosen to show only their trunks -- it's how they spoke to me against the winter sky.  This piece is currently lying on my cutting table, waiting for the pins. (I don't like using spray baste much.  I like to have the option of changing my mind about the position of something, and I find straight pins give me that flexibility -- even if I'm pricked from time to time as I work!)


The fabric you see:

• The sky: my own hand-dyed fabric;
• The trees, bushes and snow -- commercial cottons.

Looking out my front window, I see that the rather tame snowfall that started this morning has turned to a full-fledged snow-and-blow, and is destined to accumulate to far more than the 1 cm (about 2/3 of an inch) that was forecast.  What better way to spend this day indoors than working on my projects?  Let's see...where shall I begin?

Snow Days...


have been quite productive.  I've been working on my City & Guilds Module 2, and finished up the last two activities (see "Polishing the Process" for details/photos), and managed to make a couple more pages in my book for The Sketchbook Project -- using some of what I've been learning under Linda's tutelage.  In the page to the left, I used rubbing and cut-back techniques to make the birds on the right-hand side.  The ones on the left were echoes showing through from the preveious page. 

A bit of Walt Whitman...

Butterfly Book

In the second photo ("Butterfly Book") I used the wings of a butterfly to create a mini book-within-a-book.  (The colours of the butterfly are purely imaginary, by the way.)

This afternoon I've been knitting away, Diesel on my lap, coffee at my elbow, and "The Tale of Hilltop Farm", an audio-book by Susan Wittig Albert, playing away on the computer via iTunes and my local library's e-book service.  'Round about us the wind howled and the snow fell and drifted...but we are safe, warm and entirely happy.

Just In...

...from shovelling through to the end of my back shed, and forward, 'round the side of the house to the front, down the front walk, up J&E's front walk (they seem to be away), across their deck to their back door, down their back steps and down their back walk.  Half an hour of intense aerobics in the cold (-22C with wind chill).  Am I nuts?  Well...it's a case of reciprocal service.  J, when he's home, has no hesitation in using his snow-blower to blow out my walk.  I don't have a blower, so I did the best I could to at least start the process for him, following this first snowstorm of the Winter of 2010-2011.

Plus...

I have to get down to the Post Office and the Library this afternoon to pick up mail and books that await me -- and to keep myself from a hefty dose of Cabin Fever.  I've been indoors since Monday -- which has been very good for my Christmas knitting, my commissioned knitting, and my quilting...but sometimes even an Introvert (ISTJ) needs to chat a bit with others, face to face, right?  :-)