A Bit Overwhelmed...

Yesterday afternoon I headed up to Edmonton -- well, to Sherwood Park, actually -- for a trunk show with UK-born Australia-living embroiderer, quilter and fabric designer, Lynette Anderson, sponsored by LQS, Lori's Country Cottage.  

I got up there early enough to run a couple of errands, to browse the books at Chapter's in Sherwood Park Mall and have a bite of supper...and then it was off to the presentation at the Broadmoor Public Golf Course clubhouse.  The sun was shining, the air was warm...a perfect evening for quilters to gather!



Lynette is a charming woman, fun to listen to.  She wears funky clothes and jewellry and rolls with the punches (two very key suitcases were stalled in their transit up from Market in Portland, OR, and arrived at the eleventh hour, leaving her short of clothes for over 24 hours.  Solution?  While waiting, travel up to Banff from Calgary and stay at the Banff Springs Hotel...  Breathe....Ahhhhhhh.....)


The evening began with the trunk show.  Lynette recruited her husband, Vince, to show her pieces -- a selection of table mats, wall hangings and small quilts, as well as a few accessories (slippers, bags).  Her signature is primitive-style hand embroidery with hand piecing (lots of English Paper Piecing) in country-style colours with a largely muted palette.   Her hand-stitching skills are exemplary, and her embroidery -- largely stem stitch, back stitch, straight stitch, blanket stitch and French knots -- is exquisite.  Many pieces are worked in miniature, including yo-yo's!

Following a break for browsing the pieces, the wares (fabric packs, kits, patterns, button packets etc.), making purchases and enjoying sweet treats and beverages (coffee, tea and water), Lynette spoke to a Power Point presentation illustrating her sources of inspiration, concluding with a description of how she designs her fabric lines.  She's been to Japan where the fabric is printed, and had photos to illustrate that part of the process too.

What interested me most was her initial process, from sketchbook to print, whether it be of pattern or fabric.  I am not interested in doing either of those things (designing fabric or patterns) but in the process...which is akin to most of us as artists.

Lynette draws inspiration from nature, from childhood memories, from her family and photos.  Her dog, Hugo, and three cats are major players and feature in both her quilts and in the lines of buttons she's designed to go with some of her patterns.

I bought a wee box of flower-and-butterfly wooden buttons (plain, not painted), which I might just colour up to use in "Back to the Garden"...and I bought a set of ten skeins of her favourite Cosmo cotton embroidery floss from Japan, in the colours she favours.  (She also uses floss from Weeks Dye Works, and "whatever I have to hand in my work room", she said with a smile.)

After the presentations and Q&A, there were some door prize draws.  Sixteen chairs in the room had yellow dots under them -- and I found one on mine.  Each of us received a fat quarter (that's a 1/4 metre here in Canada) of one of Lynette's fabrics...and a ticket.  From the tickets, two more prizes were drawn -- one from Lynette (fabric) and one from the hostess, Lori.  I won the latter -- and here's what it included:

From left: a DEL-720 LED desk lamp, a packet of 60 'Rustproof, Nickel Plated Steel Safety Pins' from H.A. Kidd and Company, a safety pin fastener (also from H.A. Kidd), a packet of 3 assorted thimbles (ditto), a packet of 'Bobbin Mates' which keep thread and matching bobbins together (ditto), two packs of Schmetz sewing machine needles (one 'quilting' and one 'microtex'), a box of 35 mm x 0.5 mm glass-head pins (H.A. Kidd) and one of 50 mm x 0.6 mm flat-head pins (ditto)...my first fat quarter (from the yellow sticker on my chair) ...and behind...ten (count 'em!) fat quarters of Lynette's fabric!!!

Oh. My. Goodness!!

I drove to my daughter's...where I was to spend the night...in a bit of a daze.  I got in about 10 p.m., and after preliminaries...she gave me an envelope -- the Mothers' Day gift she and my son bought together: a fistful of gift certificates for River City Yarns in Edmonton!!!

Be still, my heart.

Is it any wonder I'm still in a daze?

Overwhelmed, indeed.  With gratitude and grace.

Just a Hint

With iffy sunshine and threatened showers most of today, I've been working on my SAQA Western Canada piece for our next travelling exhibit, The Burgess Shale Project, in which participants render in textiles,  fossils from the Burgess Shale excavation.

Though I'm not prepared to give you chapter and verse just yet, here are a few sneak peeks at mine...

Happy Victoria Day to my fellow Canadians!  :-)

What's My Name and Where Do I Live?

That's sort of how my week has been...steady and full...and a bit hard on my brain.  The simple reason? Lots to do, lots to learn, lots to work on, lots to finish...

After cleaning out my studio, I cleaned the "Messy Work" counter in my back room.  It's the place where I store my geraniums over the winter, and my seeds, and work on dye baths etc.  With the geraniums back out in their outdoor homes for the summer, it needed a good wipe-down and re-organization.  Pookie had been digging at the plants so the counter needed a good scrub, and my aging philodendron needed dealing with.  In the end, I cut it back, put 3 cuttings in water, and composted the rest.  I repotted another plant, put it in a hanger so the Pook-ster wouldn't dig it, et voila!  Isn't this nicer to look at and work with?

Once the counter top was spic and span, I covered it with a section from a retired plastic shower curtain.  Front and centre right now is my old cutting mat, back-side up, which is useful there if I'm using sharp implements.  On the left is my small collection of gardening books, brought out for the season, plus left-over seeds, and not-yet-planted seeds.  On the right (out of vision) is my container of clothespins, which I use in the summer when I get to dry clothes and fabric outside on my drying rack.  (Still trying to figure out where and how to mount a proper clothesline.)

Monday afternoon on the way back from my Usual Monday in Lacombe, I succumbed to the lure of P.J.'s Plantation (my local nursery) and bought my bedding-outs and a few new perennials for my flower beds:

With no frost in the forecast for the foreseeable future, I planted all but 3 perennials and 3 tomatoes.  These will be planted this weekend -- the "May Long" (aka Victoria Day Holiday Weekend), Canada's first official weekend of "summer".

In the studio I've been going back and forth between my two current projects: "Back to the Garden" for 15 x 15 , and a 24" square piece for SAQA Western Canada's next travelling show, The Burgess Shale Project.  Both are due by month-end or shortly thereafter.  The 'garden' theme has suited both in different ways.  I'm not sharing about the BSP right now...but will do so when it's been turned in for exhibit.  Then 'All Shall Be Revealed'!  :-)

However, "Back to the Garden" is taking shape, with stars and stardust being applied, thus:

I'm still playing around with photo programs on my new laptop, so I apologize for the quality of this one.  Here's a bit of detail from that upper left corner:

There are star sequins beaded on, and very tiny gold beads scattered throughout for the star-dust.  I have in mind to use hand-dyed silk to stitch tiny seed stitch on the lower portion, the "Garden" part.  And maybe some butterflies...we shall see if they pass the audition.  :-)  Not too sure how I'll edge it, but I think it's calling for a facing, don't you?

Wednesday and Thursday have been knitting days.  On the former, I had several hours to occupy while I waited for a friend at her ophthalmologist's office -- and managed to get half-way to the heel of the second sock in a Plain Vanilla pair for my elderly cousin D, whom I'll be visiting in June.  I'm using a 'manly' colour-way in navy, blue, and tan self-striping yarn -- 4 fadig Strato Color by Regia --  which has lived in my stash for some time now.  Yesterday I got the rest of the leg done, plus the first row of the heel...in the long quiet gap between mad flurries of customers in my first day on the job at The Crafty Lady.

I also learned how to enter new inventory (a new shipment of jewel-toned 'ruffle' yarn -- Red Heart's Metallic Sashay.  It's so delicious I might have to make one of these scarves after all.), to run the cash register, and to create price labels (for a shipment of wood and horn buttons and shawl pins, also yummy!).

My skills in making change while conversing with a customer have been refreshed (I worked in a bookshop in Calgary between 2005 and 2008)...as well as how to serve multiple customers on a tag-team basis.

And...I wound 4 of seven skeins of yarn on a ball-winder that needs to be mounted on a higher counter!  Lori, the manager, spelled me off for the other 3 skeins, plus 2 more for another customer later in the afternoon.

By 5:30 p.m. I was definitely ready for home!  It was fun, though, and I came away with a list of projects/techniques to work on:

• An entrelac scarf that has languished since the class I took a couple of years ago; 
• A worsted weight shawl in Berroco "Comfort" (worsted weight) from the 'on sale' yarns at the front of the shop; and 
• An embroidery sampler from "Just Nan", barely begun...Heaven knows when, having been inspired by the fellow (yes fellow) who came in to get supplies for not one but two projects he wants to do from Just Cross-stitch  Magazine (which issue, I'm not sure; I saw only the inside of it, not the cover!)

The blessing of today is that it's rainy (at last) so I can curl up with my beading and knitting...sifting and sorting new experiences, new information, new ideas...again remembering...

We are stardust; 

we are golden -- 

and we've got to get ourselves

back to the Garden.

- Joni MItchell, "Woodstock"

Why don't you 'set a spell' and listen along while you catch up with some other artists?  I'm linking this -- for the first time in a few weeks -- to Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday.  :-)

Bloom Where You're Planted

Years ago, in my parish church in Calgary, there was a hanging that illustrated this phrase.  It stuck with me...and over 20 years from the first time I read it, I am still learning what it's all about.

Today I planted my wee veggie patch.  As I re-edged it to get rid of extraneous grass and weeds (read: dandelions), and turned over the soil, created rows, sowed basil and spinach and lettuce, transplanted wild poppies to other garden corners...

I realized I was both Gardener's Apprentice and Garden.

The kiss of the sun for pardon,

The song of the birds for mirth;

One is nearer God's heart in a garden

Than anywhere else on earth.

Honour your father and your mother,

so that you may live long

in the land 

the LORD your God 

is giving you.

- Exodus 20: 12 (NIV)

Margaret Ruth Davison Rennie Daniel
June 8, 1916 - January 21, 2004

Happy Mother's Day!

Important for Textile Arts and Artists in British Columbia!

There's a meeting TODAY at the North Shore Credit Union Centre for the Performing Arts in North Vancouver, B.C. about funding cuts that could impact textile arts and the education thereof at the post-secondary level.

If you are in the area and are able, you may wish to attend.  I received this by e-mail from MAIWA; you can check out the details HERE.

Other sources for information are listed HERE.

Thank you!

I've Never Had the Privilege

...of working with or studying directly with Quilting Legend, Libby Lehman.  However, every program in which I've seen her -- largely through The Quilt Show -- and all I've read has been positive, up-beat, fun and full of quilty goodness.

She is creative, talented and a great deal of fun -- and now, as many of you may already know, critically ill, having experienced a brain aneurysm and (apparently) a stroke.  Both of these things can be fatal, but she has made it through surgery and is apparently doing well...but recovery will be a long, slow process.   All of us in the quilting community (traditional, artistic and everything in between) need to support her with our prayers.

I have no clue how old Libby is, but at 60...from a family with blood pressure issues...I am feeling particularly close to her situation right now.

The Quilt Show community is keeping up with Libby's condition...but I thought THIS LINK from Bonnie Hunter would also be helpful.

Watch and pray.

Back to Work

...in more ways than one!

Got back into my studio today.  I'd spent a good part of last week cleaning it -- what a delight to see the floor again!

On the left -- what you see right in front of the door -- my cutting and ironing surfaces, a bookshelf (far left) and storage.  On the right -- Pookie in the Cat Basket by the south-facing window, my sewing area, and the edge of my 'rack' which doubles as both fabric and thread storage and -- sans baskets and hooks -- the stand on which I display my wares at the Lacombe Art Show and Sale.

Although I was bursting with ideas, and have two pieces to complete within the next 4 weeks, it was tougher than I thought to get going.

I eased myself in by auditioning some hand-dyed fabric for the background of a 'whole-cloth' piece I'm doing for 15 x 15.  This is a new-to-me group I was invited to join last month, and this is my first piece.  There are 15 artists and each piece is to be 15" square.  There's a different theme each month; for May it's "Garden".

At first I thought I might use the theme to work out what I want to do for the second piece -- a 24" square piece for SAQA Western Canada' next travelling exhibit, based on the Burgess Shale Project -- but in the end, I went with something different.

I grew up in the sixties, and was 16 in the summer of 1969, the summer of Woodstock.  I have always loved Joni Mitchell's song celebrating that festival, and have been thinking of these words:

We are stardust; 

we are golden -- 

and we've got to get ourselves

back to the Garden.

I've titled my piece 'Back to the Garden'.  Having selected a section of the hand-dyed fabric -- a parfait-dyed piece I made several years ago -- I took the plunge and cut an 18" square.   I sandwiched it and spray-basted it -- and hung it on my design wall while I contemplated the quilting of it.

Currently my 'regular' machine -- the Husquvarna Lily 555 -- is at the "sewing spa" (Homespun Seasons in Stettler) for her annual tune-up.  I'm due to pick her up next week.  Meanwhile, I'm using The Work Horse -- a manual Husquvarna 225 -- just to give her a bit of exercise.

I had her tuned up almost a year ago and haven't used her since, so I began with simple piecing and put together the May Block of the Month for my "Cinnamon" quilt (remember...those kits I have that I've vowed to assemble -- one per year (at least) till all three are finished and given away?)

Here's the May block -- my least favourite pattern, a flower basket:

Assured that I still knew how to sew (grin) I moved on to quilting "Back to the Garden".  I tried FMQ...with top and bottom thread the same weight...and had Tension Issues big time.  The only way I could get the top and bottom thread to meet in the middle was to lower the tension almost to zero!!  Not fun.  I frogged it all and decided to go with 'regular' stitching (i.e. feed dogs UP)...and created radiating lines -- reminiscent of the sun's rays -- with golden polyester thread (Sulky 40 wt, colour #942) in the top and blue cotton (same weight) in the bottom (the back is a blue 'tree' print and I wanted it to blend.

Here's what it looks like on my design wall*:

*Please bear with me if the photos aren't my usual style.  I'm just learning the new photo capabilities of this lap-top and haven't found all the bells and whistles yet!

So...you can see from the photo that the sun's rays are coming down from above...the garden is the purple-green-brown area at the bottom.

There will be star-shaped and seed beads spangled across the sky (top half)...and hand embroidery in the bottom.  I'll probably envelope/face it rather than bind it.

It's now been trimmed to 17" square...only a bit more to trim, before I bead and bind/face.

And yes...there is work of a different kind.

Yesterday I popped in to The Crafty Lady (my LYS in Lacombe) to get a new gizmo for managing my DPNs (double-pointed needles)...having lost my original one on a plane somewhere in recent travels.  There I found the star-shaped beads I'm going to use on BTTG (above), and bought 10 to audition. 

Then...Lori, the owner/manager, asked me if I would be willing and able to work for her in the shop one day a week.  Thursdays, to be exact.  Reasonable wage, 8 hours' work, staff discount...and I can knit or hand-stitch when it's quiet.

I came home, prayed, checked the fine print in my pension file, checked my calendar, checked my heart...and said "Yes!"

I start May 16.  If you're in the area, do drop by and say 'hi'.

Another Busy Day

...away from the studio.  The good news is, when I get back into it tomorrow morning, I'll be able to see the floor!!  I even washed the cover of my ironing pad and the wee hot pad on which I sit my iron (made for me by my son in Junior High textiles class).

Because I'm short of time today, I thought you might like to see the work of a recently-found Australian cousin of mine, Marian Rennie (several of my father's family went to Australia decades ago and stayed to raise families).  She quite rightly pointed out to me in her e-mail this morning that the Rennies seem to have a very strong creative streak.  Being of sturdy Scots stock, most of the ones with whom I'm connected here in Canada seem to have used that streak for utilitarian purposes (garments, bed quilts and the like) but there are also painters and photographers and writers...

Marian is a talented painter and you can see her work HERE.

For those of us who took the session with Leni Wiener in Santa Fe...see what a clear voice Marian has?  It travels across all her series!  I have promised myself to go back for a closer look...again...and again...

Thanks for re-connecting, Marian!