September in the Air

 

Living in a country with four pretty distinct seasons, I've been sensing September in the air for a couple of weeks now (at least!)  No matter that the forecast for tomorrow and Sunday will take us back into the Heat Zone -- though not quite as hot as July.  The mornings are cooler, the dawn arrives later and the sun sets earlier each day.  The kids started school this week.  September is coming.  The Mountain Ash* berries are turning -- though not yet as red as in this photo from some years ago.  Some of my neighbours -- and I -- are wondering if climate change is affecting the turning. Then again, for the moment, there's no frost on the horizon.  They need to be more red by the first frost...or so 'they' say...   *Rowan in the UK

I've stopped cutting the leaf lettuce in my raised beds, and simply pull it now; otherwise, I risk its bolting.  My dill is forming seeds.  My Savoury is flowering so it's time to cut and dry it.  

I still have some tiger lilies and hardy roses bravely flowering, and my verbena is brilliant!  It's become a staple in my garden.  It likes a pot, it blooms, dies back and blooms again -- and it's deer-resistant!  What's not to like?!

And now I am at last harvesting zucchini that have made me happy.  Salad and stir-fry size -- no footballs!

Perfection!  Not too big, not too small!

Though my Mountain Ash and ornamental fruit trees have long ago stopped flowering and have produced fruit for the birds, my Prairie Clematis has done its best to cover the west window in my living room, and take over that assignment!

Bee on Prairie Clematis - Aug 26-2024

This month, too, we've had much of the rain we should have had in July.  I don't exactly know what this has done for the ranchers -- grain and corn growers -- but it's got to have been challenging to deal with!

On cool and rainy days, I've focused on knitting, stitching and quilting, so let's review, shall we?

First, I finished a "summer" sweater: the Vincas top, a free pattern from Berocco.  I made it out of 100% cotton -- Estelle Young Touch Cotton DK -- long discontinued -- I've owned ot for at least 20 years!  Mine is in the fuschia colour-way; out of 9 fifty-gram balls, I used 7 1/2 -- so it was a good stash-buster.  Moreover, even though I've finished it late in the summer season, it also looks great as a vest over a turtleneck top!  Win-win-win!  😁  I can't take proper "selfies" because I don't own a fancy phone...so here it is, lying on the back of the love seat in my living room.  

The construction is easy -- two rectangles, seamed together -- but the design is interesting due to the texture, which is created by the bands of stitching in different patterns, separated by a narrow drop-stitch band.  I'll be the first to tell you that I avoid anything with deliberately dropped stitches --- BUT --- this pattern actually worked!  I'm delighted!

My portable project continues to be the socks for T. I made her a pair that were destroyed (along with most of what she and her new DH owned) in a house fire last year...so this is a replacement pair, and as you might recall, I'm on the second of the pair.  She has long legs and long feet -- so these keep me well occupied when I'm stopped during Construction Season on Hwy 12 West.  That's supposed to come to an end today (Aug. 31) but given some fog and rain delays, who knows?  And I always have knitting in my bag, in case I have to wait for the train on the west edge of town!

Waiting for the Train (c) 2013

But as I finished the Vincas top, I decided it was time for a new start.  Of course, Christmas is coming, so there are knits in the line-up.  This year there will be simple cowls (aka "neck warmers") for some -- though not my daughter.  (You might recall that she is getting the "Presto Vesto" -- about which NOTHING is "presto"; I will be returning to that in September too). And there will be a simple shawl (or mayb two). Time will tell.

I cast on the "Back Bay Boomerang" -- a boomerang-shaped shawl -- for one dear friend, and love how simple it is to create -- with a wonderful ball of fingering from my stash.  Thanks to Karen of the YouTube "Recreational Knitting" for the mention of this pattern!  (she has a group on Ravelry by the same name).

The yarn is a ball of Queensland Collection "Perth" fingering in the colour-way "Tasmania" -- and I simply love it.  The photo is a couple of days old, so it's grown from there.  All garter stitch; a 2-row pattern -- perfect for a gradiant yarn!

The other gifts (cowls/neck-warmers) will be made from stash DK in a pattern to be revealed once I actually cast on.  Stay tuned!

In Quilting News...

1. I finished the "Rectangle Pinwheel" (free block pattern from Pinker n Punkin Designs) and delivered it to my friend Annette in Red Deer for her quilting group to include in their next delivery to Klare's Corner quilt shop in Airdrie, which is collecting quilts (or parts thereof) for the victims of the wildfire that destroyed at least 1/3 of the town of Jasper, Alberta.  

Quilted and bound - in the Outdoor Studio

Here's a detail of this quilt, which is made from scraps, including a pieced backing and a pieced batting:

Most of the time I've no recollection of the source of the fabric I use in the comfort quilts I make, though I will admit that for this piece, much of the background was from a recycled bedsheet -- courtesy of my daughter!  In addition, there are several blocks made with the same fabric.  Those were from remnants of a wide backing I used long ago. There's a lot  of mileage in wide backing! 😁

2. I'm returning now to the Celtic Knot Quilt that my daughter's commissioned me to make for a special anniversary for friends of hers -- a year from now.   I showed some work on this in my mid-July post.  Now, I'm ready to construct the actuall blocks.

I began with constructing the sashing that will go between the units.

Next, I followed instructions to pin the sashing and block units for the first of five blocks of one colour-way onto my design board:

Note that this isn't yet sewn together.   It will measure 22" finished; I need to make 5 of these for the pattern -- BUT I am enlarging the pattern to fit a king-sized bed.  

This means that instead of 9 very large blocks (3 by 3) plus borders, in the end I will be making 16 such blocks -- 4 by 4 -- plus borders.  (And yes, I got help from Hamel's Fabrics, the owner and staff of which figured out how much extra I'd need.)

So that's where it sits at the moment.

In addition to that, after finishing the Rectangle Pinwheel for Jasper, I got caught up on the "A Quilting Life" BOM 2024, for which (as you may recall) I'm using my Thimbleberries stash:

July BOM - I make 2 @ 8 1/2" unfinished

August BOM - another 2 at 8 1/2" unfinished

I've been using a lot of greens...and so now may have to switch my focus, as I'm running out of those in this sector of my stash.  I might have to switch to blues!  No matter; I continue to enjoy the fussy aspect of these small blocks because it helps me be more precise with piecing -- even if I don't plan to aspire to greatness in that endevour! LOL!  And heck; it's using up stash!  

Next up?  Yarn/wool hooked art -- and a bit of spinning!

My friend Annette was remarking that I seem to have so much on the go -- and I suppose that's true -- but I love variety.  I also love order, and planning, so I've got a rotation.  The nature of the rotation depends on the season, as some of it I enjoy doing outdoors (spinning, hooked art and stitching) and others require that I be inside (quilting).

In my last post, for example, I showed you my outdoor set-up for hooked art.  And those of you who've followed along have seen photos of my "Outdoor Studio", where I love to stitch -- as long as it's neither too hot (as it was most of July this year) or windy.

This week, as the weather is cooling, I've moved my hooking frame indoors, finding that I can still stand to do it (which I like) if I put the frame on my cutting table in the studio.  I'm continuing to work on the "Simple Shading" project from Deanne Fitzpatrick's online course by that name.  Some of you might think that as an art quilter, I should know how to do that by now, but it's quite different working with wool fabric slices and lengths of yarn!  And this project isn't a landscape; it's a still life, which isn't something I've depicted much, even in my quilted work.  So...I'm learning a lot.  Here's my progress as of yesterday:

I'm not happy with the proximity of the leaves above the blue flower -- it looks like one large blob! -- so that' will be rectified in short order.  I've also added 2 things to the pattern: a leaf in the bottom left corner, for balance, and lines on the vase for guidance.  I found that I had a tendency to hook in straight lines on that vase, even though I know I need to indicate curves -- so I dre the lines to help me out!

As for spinning, the Summer Spin-in over on Ravelry -- in the Two Ewes Fiber Adventures group -- ends this weekend (Labour Day).  I managed to get a bobbin-and-a-bit of 2-ply marl spun up:

The pink/purple you see is from one single source -- a shaded hand-painted braid of 100% Falkland wool.  The black is a blend of wool (70%) and alpaca (30%).  I now need to get it off the bobbins, wash and set it, and put it into a skein.  I suppose I could call it "finished" at the bobbin stage, but it won't be "fully finished" until it's a skein!

Last but not least...cross-stitch!

This is my favourite late-afternoon/early evening activity, though I'll confess I do sometimes stitch with my morning coffee, as I know some other stitchers do.

As I mentioned in my last post, in July I focused on Canadian samplers, in August, I turned to pieces that had flowers in them -- but weren't samplers.  And (drum roll, please!) I finished two of the WIPs!

Yes!  I got that border done on the "Vintage Blossoms" piece -- and it matched at the top!  

Look closely -- the border fades 
into the background.  I like it that way!

Then I went on to finish the little "Buttercup Alphabet" piece, designed over a decade ago by Cathy Jean at The Victoria Sampler (you can still buy the pattern from the TVS website):

It's a cute little piece -- quite different from what I'm keen to stitch now.  After all, I bought the pattern and threads back in 2008.  Still, I'm glad it's done, and I'll probably either turn it into a pillow or put a little frame on it.  Time will tell!

My third 'floral' is the Kathy Barrick "Wildflowers" piece I mentioned in my last post.  I'm just coming down to the bottom of the first page of the pattern and if I persevere, I'll finish that later today.  It's a simple pattern but there's a lot of filling it to do.  This makes it comforting and meditative, which has been just right to help combat the stresses and strains of my life this month.  Here's what it looked like as of yesterday:

And yes, there are 3 more pages to do!

My thoughts are turning now to Sampler September, and my plans for the next month.  I've developed a fondness for working on a piece for seven days in a row (each day for an hour or more, as time permits).  There are just over 4 weeks in a given month, and I have these four projects in mind -- well, 3 Works In Progress and 1 new start. 😊

1. A return to Emeline Hotchkiss 1846;
2. A return to Memories of the Past (my birthday sampler from last year);
3. A return to Ann Perrin 1841; and
4. The new start: Frances Lawson 1836 -- from the 1994 publication, Sampler & Antique Needlework: A Year in Stitches.  This book was given me by a friend who was culling her collection, and I've been hankering to do this one.  It's going to be my first foray into stitching on 56-count linen.  Yes, you read that correctly: 56-count, one strand over two fabric threads (except the lettering, which is one-over-one), using DMC on a cream-coloured piece of Kingston linen from Zweigart.  I'm doing this on a bit of a dare, or at least, a challenge, from Brenda of the Brenda and the Serial Starter (Laura) floss tube.  She gave 56-count a try recently, and now she and Laura are gung-ho to do more.  And yes...I'm following them down that particular rabbit hole!  I'll keep you posted!

Alas, the individual pattern for "Frances" is not in print, and I've no idea where you'd find the book, as it's 30 years old, but if you have a nose for library book sales or the online secondary market, you might be able to track it down.  I can't find a link to the particular pattern, but I found this information on Amazon Canada...so you can still buy the book through them, or other second-hand book sellers.  Note that there are two volumes; the book I have is Volume I.

Now that I've caught you up on my Life in the Making for August, it's time to refresh my coffee, pick up my early-morning knitting, and get on with today's "rotation"!  I'll leave you with my best wishes to for a safe, healthy, creative weekend, a Happy Labour/Labor Day for those who so observe, and my usual link to dear Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday.

A bientot!