Happy New Year and All the Things...

 Happy New Year, Gentle Readers!  (I'm trusting that at only slightly less than 1/3 of the way through January, it's okay to greet you that way -- still.  😊)  

It's been a busy almost-month since my last post.  I began that post with the weather report -- a favourite topic of conversation everywhere up here in Canada...as it is (most likely) wherever you all live too.

Today?  January 10, 2025?  In central Alberta?  RAIN!  Say what?!  Not enough to melt much of the snow, but definitely enough to cause traffic problems when the temps drop over the course of the evening and through the night.  Sanders are out in force to keep even good drivers from killing themselves on the highways!  

Me?  Today, I stayed home and stuck to making, which is what I do best. 😊

I won't bore you with a Holiday recap, but I had a lovely Xmas Eve and Xmas Day with my family.  Got a gift card to Indigo/Chapters (Canada's version of Barnes & Noble), and put in a pre-order for the paper-back version of Deanne Fitzpatrick's memoir, Making a Life, which is due out in May.  (You can do that HERE if you want to; no, I'm not paid to say that!)

Deanne's outlook on life is similar to mine -- but, I confess, I'm not as able as she is at incorporating some of her behaviours with which I agree, even if I do so whole-heartedly!

My kids can take hints, though, and this year they took one of mine and bought the 3 of us tickets to an Edmonton Symphony production on April 1st -- "The Music of Simon & Garfunkel".  They did something similar several years ago for my birthday, and it was wonderful. This one features different guest artists than we saw before, but no matter.  It will be the perfect combination of music, my children, memories of their father and me, and all that we hold dear.  What's not to like?

But you didn't stop here to read about all that, did you?  You're probably more interested in the MAKING of...whatever.

There was, indeed, making for Christmas -- most of which I showed you earlier.  My daughter's vest was finished on time.  It fits her like a dream and she is very happy!

I know; I need to get a photo of her wearing it!  But I've seen her in it, and it's lovely!  (And NO, I won't make another.  You can't make me! 😉)

My son and his family appreciated their neckwarmers and -- BONUS! -- discovered they could also wear them as wide headbands -- over their ears.  Who knew?!  Perfect!

Xmas knitting over, of course, this means I've moved back into Other Knitting for 2025.

First: more charity knits.  I've finished another pair of "The World's Simplest Mittens" (Tin Can Knits -- free on Ravelry):

Unlabelled yarn - probably wool (match test)
Pattern: Tin Can Knits - child size - 36 sts

Next: another charity hat cast-on -- another "Mash It Up" using fingering-weight scraps. Sorry, no photo yet, but it will resemble this one I made a while back, as I've begun it with similar colours:

"Mash It Up 1" (finished 2024)
Designer: Babs Ausherman

And...I'm getting back to socks.  I'm on the second sock of an "Advent" mystery project -- no longer a mystery as it's no longer Advent -- from Becky Greene: the Christmas Smorgasbord Socks.  I chose to make mine textural in a self-striping/tonal yarn: Patons Kroy FX in the "Clay" colour-way.  I finished the first sock in a timely manner and then let the 2nd one languish, but I'm on it again and am approaching the separation for the heel flap.

Sock #1 on my right foot!

I've now joined another Ravelry sock group: "Sox-along-2025" -- with two Canadian YouTube podcasters: "SoxyNana Alice" and "MyPinkBathtub" (Diane), in hopes of finishing this pair and 2 other languishing sock WIPs...and maybe recovering my Sock Knitting Mojo this year.

As for larger knitting projects, I've resumed work on my January Blanket (started a year ago) and try to knit at least 4 rows a day on it.  It's all-of-a-piece, which is great, because I have an aversion to sewing large squares together to make a blanket. That's it for the moment!

What about quilting? (I can hear you quilters asking!)...Well, now...

Why have one project on the go when you can have...four or five?! 😉

My neighbours were delighted with the quilt I gave them for Xmas, made with the 2024 Block of the Month (BOM) from A Quilting Life and using stash Thimbleberries fabric:

I enjoyed the process so much that I've joined up for the 2025 BOM.  It's quite different from last year's project.  This year, it features a 6" (finished) centre block that can be turned into a log cabin setting for an 18" (yes: 18 inch) block for a quilt top OR can be used in a smaller setting for a table runner.

I've no need of a table runner, so today I finished the first 18" (finished) block for the year - once again digging into all of those Thimbleberries fabrics that I've had for 20 years.  (Yes. I checked.  The selvedge of one of them reads "Thimbleberries Club 2005".)

And here's a close-up of the centre of the block:

Please note: the log cabin and other fabrics are far more golden than seen in the photos -- and the walls of the house are *green* with gold stars, not blue.  My camera and my laptop aren't communitcating well as to colour!!

No matter what the camera reads, I enjoyed the process -- even though that's one large block!  I'm not sure I've enough of my Thimbleberries fabrics to get through all 12 blocks, but time will tell.

Meanwhile, work continues on Bonnie Hunter's "Old Town" Mystery 2024/2025.  I've finishe Parts One through Three...and am pondering fabrics for Part Four, as I may be running out of my chosen neutral!  Ack!  Stay tuned!  (Sorry; no photos to share at the moment! 😩)

I am also continuing on the "Easy Breezy" blocks (tiny things, leaders and enders).  As of December 31st, I had 125 blocks done -- at 4 1/2" each -- but I'ver more than that now, and 4 prepped for assembly.

In addition (because, why not?!), I've dug out a long-ago project.

Yes, friends, decades ago I began a quilt using Japanese-influenced fabrics and black fabric.  I lost the magazine with the pattern -- it was in the days of Dying Hubby and All is Chaos, so you can probably understand why.

But I never got rid of all those swaths of fabric -- prints cut up and sewn together with narrow black sashing.  What to do with them now?

I decided to make four-patches...and once I get them all made, they'll become a quilt top...and maybe a quilt to be given away for someone who needs one for comfort and warmth.

First two types of blocks

Second two types of blocks

More to come on that front later.

Now then...Stitching?

I have sorted my stitching and am currently working on a "Blessing Sampler", which is supposed to be started and finished in the first month of the year.  I doubt that will happen with this one, as it appears I've bitten off a bit more than I can chew.  So...what else is new?! 😉

But first...I decided I wanted to do a "Christmas Day Start" and took supplies up to Edmonton, where I was staying with my daughter for the holiday.  I started it on time, and...finished it here at home on New Year's Eve:

"Gather Memories"
Designer: Hands On Design

I stitched it on 32-count Platinum Belfast linen from Zweigart, using 2 threads of floss (DMC) over 2 fabric threads.

I have the companion piece, -- "Gather Blessings" -- to do on the same piece of fabric before I decide how to fully finish them.

For my "Blessing Sampler" I chose the Swan Sampler from The Wishing Thorn.  I bought the pattern last year, and kitted it up on my own.  I love its sentiments: Faith, Hope and Love -- with Joy added -- as essential for Life.

Little did I realize how ornate the outer border is -- and how stitch-intensive!  A piece not need be 'full coverage' for the stitching to be dense and detailed -- so be forewarned!  😉  Still, I am quite smitten with it and whether or not I finish it by month-end, as a "proper" Blessing Sampler, it will have blessed my by its presence this month!  I'm just coming up to the upper right-hand corner, as you can see in the photo below:

"The Swan Sampler"
Progress Jan, 10-2025
Called-for threads; 2 over 2
30-count pale green unlabelled linen

And here's a close up of the upper left corner:

In my last post, I also shared my last two (of three) finished-but-not-fully-finished stitchy Xmas gifts.  I was able to finish them and put them in the mail earlier this week.  I'll show them here...hoping that the recipients will have already received them, or will have, by the time they read this!

Designer: Lizzie Kate
Mostly called-for threads (DMC)
?35-count Royal Icing from
Access Commodities?
(sorry...how soon we forget!)

Designer: The Sweetheart Tree
A "Knob Knocker Collection" kit
Included 28-count "Ray of Light" Cashel Linen,
Thread pack (WDW and DMC), and embellishments

Here's a close-up of the embellishments:

I finished both of these by quilting, and attached a hanging sleeve.  I find this is an easier way to ship little things like this rather than using framing etc.  I hope they are enjoyed by the recipients!

And what about art?  As in 'original work'?

Well...I'm now working on the hooked piece I was pondering in my last post.The working title is "Peaceful Sky" and thus far it looks like this:

It will measure about 17" wide by 10" long (deep).  I had darker grey around the central words and took that out; now to ponder how to fill that in as I do the rest of the sky.

I've started no other original work BUT I've answered a call for entry for a fund-raising art auction in aid of the Lacombe Centre for the Performing Arts and today the Call for Artists for the 2025 Encore! Lacombe Art Show & Sale has come out, so there are plans...

Again, my friends, stay tuned!

As I close, once again I wish you all a happy, healthy, safe, creative year now that we are in 2025.  I am posting a "daily word" on my personal Facebook page; thus far, it is keeping me on a calmer, more even keel -- and I hope it's doing so for my FB connections too.

In this blustery January weather, when time outdoors is at a premium, our making, our creative hands-on work, is able to fill our souls, ease our minds, and keep us sane and sensible.  Create beauty every day, my friends -- no matter how you do so.  Use your hands to clear your head.  Celebrate whatever creative gifts you have been given -- and look at the creative gifts left to you and all of us by those who have gone before.  Listen to their music; read their words...

And be blessed.  

A bientot!

**Linking as ususal to dear Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday.  This week she's sharing American art.  Enjoy!

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!

Hibernation

 The first Snowfall Warning of the 2024-2025 winter season arrived yesterday evening out here on the rolling prairies, so "hibernation" is the watchword for today -- and perhaps tomorrow too.

All weekend plans are up in the air...or stuck in a snowbank, if you prefer!  I'll probably try to go out and shovel some of the white stuff later today, but that will depend on how Mother Nature plays it over the next few hours.

Thus...I thought I'd share some of what I've been doing to add light to my days as we edge closer to the Solstice, still a month or so away.  

I've been knitting a *lot* -- but not on "all the things" I started in my last 'making' post from 3 weeks ago. With Xmas coming, I wanted to make some real progress on the [Not So] Presto Vesto for my daughter.  

I took it from this 

Left Front Progress (Nov. 2-2024)

to this

Left Front Finished -- and armhole trim -
November 22, 2024

Yes -- the major sections of the vest have been knit, the shoulder seams sewn, and the armhole ribbing completed!  Next up: the collar!

I also started a pair of "Downton Abbey Gloves" for a friend of mine who is positively obsessed with that television series.  I've lost track of how many times she's watched it -- every single episode.  It's not my cuppa, but the gloves are pretty.  Here's what the start looked like:

Pattern: "Downton Gloves"
Designer: Ceecees Stringer
Yarn: Manos del Uruguay Silk Blend
Colour 3049: Rose

My friend's not a big wearer of wool, but I figure she'll be fine with merino blended with silk, in one of her favourite colours...right?  

You might notice I'm using a long dpn (Double Pointed Needle for you non-knitters out there 😉).  Even though these are knit flat and seamed, my 'regular' straight and circular needles are far too long for the 38 stitches called for; hence the switch to a pair of long double-points!

By the time I went to bed last night, I'd finished the first one, complete with picot edge, and just have to sew it up.  The second one will be finished later today.  😊

I've also started a 'give-away' box.  I want to fill it with small, warm wearables -- made from stash yarn -- that need a good home with people who don't have the where-with-all to buy them.  Last week I finished a little pair of mittens (child-sized):

Pattern: The World's Simplest Mittens
Designer: Tin Can Knits
Yarn: Schoeller & Stahl, Limbo Mexiko Color

And earlier this week I finished and adult-sized hat out of left-over sock yarn, two strands held together.  The first time I made this hat (some years ago), I used 2 strands of blue -- one darker than the other -- and it was okay, if but a bit 'ho-hum'.  This time I decided to play with self-striping and/or variegated yarn left-overs. The result? Much more fun to knit and -- I hope -- to wear!

Pattern: The LOSY Hat
Designer: Barb Engelking

 

On the stitching front, I must admit I'm rather proud of myself: I Fully Finished the little "Precious Friend" stitch -- another Xmas gift:

"Precious Friend"
Designer: Bent Creek

Look at that!  It's in a 7" hoop!  And I covered the back with craft felt, so it's all neat and tidy!  I'm so thankful for a couple of YouTube tutorials -- particularly one from Helen D (Eastcoast Crafter)  -- though I chose not to use glue, and stitched around the back instead.

In the end it wasn't as finicky as I thought it would be, so I'm rather pleased with m'self!

I've continued to make progress on "Remember Me" -- my Black Sampler November stitch from Jacob at Modern Folk Embroidery:

Even though it's a complex pattern, I actually find it a rather restful break from other stitching, as I never have to change colours!

Speaking of 'complex', having finished the 'Precious Friend' I dug returned to the tiny stitch from Jeannette Douglas -- designed to wrap around a spool that's going to be a scissor holder:

Since this photo was taken, I've added the year and watched Jean Farish do the "Nun Stitch" so I can fully finish it...soon!

And...I've started yet another Christmas Gift Stitch:

"Don't Bug Me When I'm Stitching"
Designer: Sweetheart Tree

I got the kit for this some time back (who knows when?!) and decided it would work as a studio door "notice" for a stitching friend.  It's tiny, and involves 1/4 stitches (!) plus a fair amount of back stitch, and will be embellished with beads and even a teeny-weeny lady bug charm...eventually!   I'm doing those wee bumble bees 1 over 1; they don't look like much until the back-stitching kicks in. 😄

Pretty much every afternoon has found me doing some quilting.  I love to turn on Tom Allen's "About Time" on the CBC music station -- it's a classical music show for 3 hours -- and just go into my happy place in the studio.  As a result, I've been piling up the Disappearing 4-Patch blocks and Easy Breezy (Bonnie Hunter) blocks (sorry, no photos), as well as strip-piecing 2" x 7" rectangles to cross-cut for more postage stamp blocks.

Sherri of A Quilting Life is nearing the end of her 2024 Block of the Month, which I've enjoyed immensely.  A couple of weeks ago -- after my last 'making' post -- I did up the November blocks:

I'm continuing to use up left-over Thimbleberries fabrics, and I've been making two of the 8" (finished) blocks per month.  I'm really looking forward to what the December blocks entail, as I think Sherri will include ideas for setting them.  I'm thinking sashing and cornerstones, myself.  I'll have 24 of these, which sounds plenty, but they're small...

And just yesterday I finished the top for the throw quilt I want to make up for my son's 40th (in June!):

Here's a vertical view

and here's a horizontal view:

It's from the book "Batik Beauties" by Laurie J. Shifrin (Martingale & Co., 2001) that I got second-hand somewhere however long ago; so far, this is the first and only pattern I've made from it!  

In my last post, I showed you all those pieced bits for the sashing -- I'm thinking all that work was worth it, eh?  The only non-batik in the mix is the very narrow inner border, which is a dark purple cotton print.  AND I decided not to go with the colourful, 4 1/2" finished outer border.  Too much of a muchness (plus I'd have had to piece it as I didn't have the sort of fabric called for)!  So...I went with a narrower -- 3" finished -- outer border made from the batik background fabric.  The top at present is about 56" W x 65" L and will be just right as a throw for comfort, for TV watching, and book reading...or at least that's what I hope!

And yes...there's been art-making.  Lacombe's Annual Under $100 Art Market is next weekend, and I hope to get all seven pieces delivered there for set-up on Thursday morning -- if Mother Nature behaves herself after this weekend!

In my last 'making' post I showed you five pieces that needed to be mounted.  Here are the four on canvas, all stacked up and backed with brown paper.  (They now have wires for hanging, too.)

A fifth one looks like this, mounted on the "wrong" side of a wooden board/panel, which I painted black:

All That Blue, Green & Gold! (c) 2024
Hooked art mat, 6" square (panel = 8" square)

And...this week I finished two more that will also go "inside" black-painted panels.  Here they are, fresh off the frame:

Top: Autumn in Aspen Land 
Bottom: Slough View
6" square - (c) 2024

They're now blocked and ready to finish -- I have to sew down the edges on the back, and then mount them in their 'panels'.

As for other hooked art, some time ago I finished "Little Yellow Flowers", one of Deanne Fitzpatrick's designs, which I bought as a kit on burlap.  Earlier this fall I had it framed, with the idea of giving it away -- but in the end, I've decided to keep it and hung it up over my couch in the living room.  It measures 17" W x 6" long before framing:

What you also see in that photo is the ceiling fan in my kitchen.  Yes; there's a cut out in the wall between the kitchen and the living room -- and in the cut out I've hung a vintage glass window, rescued from a house down the block when it was being renovated several years ago. 😊

Now, my friend C. saw the 'Little Yellow Flowers' piece and asked if I'd make a coaster for her out of a 'slice' of it -- the bottom right corner, full of flowers -- so I did, and gave it to her when we had lunch together last week:

Snippet of "Little Yellow Flowers"
Approx. 4" square

It was a bit tricky to hook, as I was trying to use up a scrap of burlap, but I jerry-rigged a 4" embroidery hoop, clipped it to my stitching station, and managed it that way!

I've got some ideas for a new hooked piece -- one that is larger and more abstracted (maybe) but for the time being I'm taking a bit of a break and will ponder just how to do it, while keep on knitting, quilting and stitching.

Maybe I'll take some inspiration from the work of Nancy Crow, whose pieces are on exhibit at the Kent State University Museum, on now through December 15 -- or so reports Nina-Marie over on her Off the Wall Friday blog post for this week. She went to see it -- and I'm glad she did, and shared photos.  Some of those linear pieces from Ms. Crow might need further study for my next hooked work...

So, having caught you up, Gentle Readers, and hopefully shared some colour and light with you, I'll leave you with a link to that blog post and bid you adieu.  For my American friends and readers, I wish you less chaos, safe travels, and times of fun, food, and comfort with family for your Thanksgiving Holiday next week.  I am thankful for you -- and for all of my Gentle Readers, wherever you may be.

A bientot!