Incommunicado

I know, Gentle Readers, that I've been out of touch lately.  I'm quilting.  And quilting.  And quilting some more.  Yes, there's been a bit of knitting, and some embroidery, and my work at The Shop, and taking a friend to hospital and visiting her several times and bringing her home, and mowing the lawn, and tending my sister's cottage garden while she works in Calgary, and that sort of thing.

But mostly quilting.

The wedding is 2 weeks tomorrow, and I have a quilt to finish.  As of a few moments ago, all that's left to do is hand-quilt 6 whole-cloth blocks (9" square finished) and put it together, bind and label it.

Right now it looks like this:

It's big.  Very big.  Taking up a good section of one side of my back yard.  The white you see around the edges isn't sashing -- it's batting, which will be trimmed and disappear as each section is joined, one to another.

I'm relying on Ann Petersen and  "Quilting Big Projects on a Small Machine" (a Craftsy class) to get me through.  :-)

So...'scuse me, but I'll see you later...I have some quilting to do.  I recommend you join the others at Nina Marie's for Off the Wall Friday, and I hope you have a great weekend!

Things are Getting Done Around Here

I've managed several "finishes" this week...especially on the knitting front, to wit:

My tunic top...in purple-blue (periwinkle...to be a bit more romantic about it)...which I plan to wear with white flowing pants, for my son's wedding:

Pattern: "Asymmetry" by Jamie Thomas
Yarn: Louet Euroflax 14/2 Linen

Left side detail

Right side detail

When I washed it, it sloughed off an enormous amount of purple lint (!) and may have shrunk a bit (in length) -- though I followed the care directions on the yarn label, the lint took me completely by surprise.   Still, I think it will work well with the selected pants, and some heavy gold jewellry -- a necklace and hoop earrings that I love but don't often wear.  And there's a hat.  Yep; a hat.  A grand purple summer hat.  But that won't be revealed till the wedding.  Sorry!  ;-)

Then there's the "baby dress" I made in a 1-year size for the soon-to-be-one granddaughter of a cousin of mine.  Her name is Beatrice May and she's a dark-haired cutie I've never met.  Come to that, I've never met her parents.  Her father is the son of my third cousin...whom I haven't seen either since...well...I think he was in high school and I was at McGill U. in Montreal...about 45 years ago... but Third Cousin and his younger sister -- also a Third Cousin -- and I are FB friends...and he posted about sweet Bea May after a visit in January.  I was smitten, so knew I had to make her this...with yarn I had in my stash that was just the right colour:

Pattern: "Eli Baby Dress" by Leyla Alieva;
Yarn:  Micro Cable Color (discontinued)

Back neck detail

Front bodice detail

And the hat...a commission for my friend D.  I confess I had my doubts about this one.  Though produced by Rowan Yarns, the ball of Pure Wool Super-wash Worsted I used had several flawed sections and a tendency to split...and the product seemed to me over-sized and floppy.  That said, D really liked it and it fit her perfectly!

Shown: Back
Pattern: "Cloche Divine" by Meghan Jones
Yarn: Rowan Pure Wool Super-wash Worsted
in colour #152 - "Oats"

Front/side 

Bow detail

D likes it so well, in fact, that I've been asked to make another -- in black!  It will be later this summer, though, for first there is a Wedding Quilt (aka the Japanese Taupe Quilt) to finish...

The good news is that Sections 3 and 4 are both sandwiched -- and the machine quilting on Section 3 is about 75% finished (the rest will be done after this blog post).

Section 3 under the needle

Section 4, sandwiched and waiting

At the same time, I've begun knitting a shawl for myself for the wedding...

Pattern: "Sundae Shawl" by Lois Young
Yarn: Paton's Lace Sequin in "Crystal"

Though the self-striping Paton's Lace yarn is called for, I don't like the colours on offer...so I call my piece, "My Vanilla Sundae Shawl".  ;-)

And...I'm working on Sock #2 of a pair for my nephew George, who'll be 24 in early July...

Pattern: "Trekking Socks" - E.J. Slayton
Yarn: Zitron "Trekking XXL"

The above photo belies my progress, as I've finished one sock and am more than half-way down the leg of the second...And then there's the 'Feather and Fan' baby blanket I'm working on for a relatively new baby girl (3-4 months old now) in the family...no photos yet...so I guess I need to up-date my photos!

But a gal can only do so much...keeping up with the garden, mowing her lawn, making sure her cat doesn't interfere with the swallows raising a family in one of her birdhouses...

And letting the dishes pile up in the kitchen...

While I link in to Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday... Why don't you pour another cuppa, pick up your latest WIP and go for it...  And while you're at it, have a great week!

Sew Day

I couldn't face calling today what it is: a snow day...but that's what it is.  I was due to go out to the library in the next village (Alix) to pick up a book I'd requested, and to go on from there into Lacombe for a bridal shower at the church.

Yes...that bride.  Blessedly, I took photos of the finished piece outdoors yesterday:

I also got a shot of my forsythia in full bloom for the first time since I pruned it back a few years ago:

This is what my back garden -- and Outdoor Studio -- look like this morning.  You can see the slumping cotoneaster in the background...and the forsythia is behind that...

It could be worse.  My next-door neighbour's large front yard tree has lost a big branch -- currently hanging by a thread at the trunk of the tree, and spread out over the public sidewalk.

It could be even worse...thinking of those poor people in Nepal in the aftermath of this morning's earthquake...So much pain, loss and challenging days ahead, sorting and sifting, and trying to adjust to life again...

On a cheerier note, I "finished" my two miniatures in the 'colour' theme for this month's EBMC -- at least for the moment.  I'm out of Framer's Tape -- it's now on order from the gallery that cuts my mats and shows some of my work -- so the photos below were taken with the pieces lying flat, and the mats simply placed on top.  It's interesting how the colour of the mat influences each piece:

Sunset by the Slough I (C) 2015

Sunset by the Slough II (C) 2015

As I explained to EB, I'm not entirely satisfied with these.  I played with the fence in the first one -- moving it from left to right and back again, trying 5 posts and settling on three as in the original.   As for the second, it seems as if perhaps there should be some texture added to the foreground by way of seed stitch.  I may go back into both of these before I call them truly finished.  EB's feedback will undoubtedly help!

Given that I'm not going anywhere today, I'll finish stitching down the facing on "Yellow Tree"  -- my piece for the 2015 SAQA Benefit Auction -- and attach the sleeve, and then see how far I can get on the gusset and heel of the second sock for this month's Socks from Stash challenge which -- ideally -- will also be finished before I leave for Portland on Wednesday!

As I stitch, I'll be reading through the link-up at Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday.

But first...time to dig the shovel out of the back shed, and get the heavy snow off my cedar and junipers!

Facing & Finishing

Confession: putting the finishing touches on a project is my least favourite part of the process.   This probably accounts for why I love to knit socks.  There are no seams to sew save the wee bit of grafting at the toe, and there are very few ends to sew in -- most of the time.

However, if one is going to donate pieces to benefit auctions, put pieces on show and/or offer them for sale, one has to finish them, and do so properly and well.

Facing & Finishing - (Back) "Uphill to Mirror" (2014)
(Front) "Yellow Tree" (2015)

Next week I'm sending six of my "15 x 15" pieces to Ontario, where they'll be given to my colleague Chantal.  She will take them back to France and from there, to Maastricht, The Netherlands, for the Open European Quilt Championships competition and exhibition, which runs from October 29 through November 1, 2015.  Yes!  Our group is but one of several which have been accepted as a Guest Collection for the show!  Each of us is sending 6 to 8 pieces, so it will be a great collection of our work over the past three years.  

Then there's "Yellow Tree", my piece for the 2015 SAQA Benefit Auction, which has to be ready to go to Portland with me next week so I can deliver it to the curator of the Auction, Gale O-P.

Today I sewed down the facing and applied the sleeve to "Uphill to Mirror", the 15 x 15 piece, and started to sew down the facing on "Yellow Tree".  The sleeves for all of the 15 x 15 Group's pieces are 2" deep (finished) and mounted 1" from the top and 1" in from each side.  For each I include a tiny pleat (see photo at left) to facilitate hanging.

The sleeve for "Yellow Tree" will be similar, but made of the same fabric as the backing and facing.  I like to have them all match and blend in if possible, so they are rather...um...unobtrusive...and don't take away from the "main event", which is the front!

Speaking of finishing...I am closing in on the end of the Wedding Prayer Shawl too.   Turns out the women in our parish decided to hold a shower for our young bride...on Saturday (April 26)!
This is a good month before I'd planned to finish the shawl, and I'm not prepared to go to the Shower with a different gift...so I'm trying to finish early.  As of this writing, I'm at 23 1/2 of 25 pattern repeats...with 20 rows of garter stitch edging to follow, plus washing and blocking...!

It may or may not be 'on the needles' when presented to the bride-to-be...

At about 21 pattern repeats...

Lace detail
Pattern: "Kimono Shawl"
from
Folk Shawls by Cheryl Oberle

Blessedly I was able to do most of this handwork in the Outdoor Studio, which I opened this afternoon for the 2015 season!

Opening Day 2015 at my Outdoor Studio 

Being here makes facing and finishing so much more enjoyable -- don't you agree?

Linking this up to WIP Wednesday over at The Needle and Thread Network.  What have you been working on lately?

You've Gotta Hand it to Robert Genn

Gosh, I like what Genn does -- and not just his painting!  This is not the first time I've posted about Mr. Genn's newsletter, which I enjoy twice weekly.  You can read some of the others here, here and here.  Today's newsletter talks about...well, a concept, really, or maybe several: what is art?  What 'passes' for art? What's a piece of art worth?  Why make art?

Mostly I like what he wrote at the end of the piece:

I had an overwhelming feeling that I had chosen a great and provident profession. I vowed that no matter how corrupted or commercial I was to become as an artist, I would always put the simple love of painting before all.

Yep.  The simple love of [insert your art form here].  For me, that's "The simple love of stitching", because it encompasses knitting, embroidery, quilting and a bit of needle-felting.

I'm off to a wedding in Calgary this weekend.  Here's my gift for the young couple in question:

"Love Nest" (C) 2013
for Jen and Julian
with love
Cousin Margaret

I made it simply for the love of stitching -- and the love of them.

Linking to Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday -- and off I go!

Have a great weekend!