It seems like a long period of ups and downs, but there were blessedly more 'ups'! At the same time, autumn has truly arrived here. Most of my lawn furniture is away, my flower beds and raised beds put to 'sleep' for the winter, blanketed with leaf mulch.
I planted several miniature Allium bulbs -- to replace tulips that are always decimated by the deer! -- and will be excited to see how they turn out over the next couple of spring seasons. I'm told by the nursery that it takes a while for them to settle in, but then they should be lovely.
We've had such a gradual easing into autumn, that I've really enjoyed being out in the yard and taking walks in all the blue, green and gold around me.
I was inspired by the landscape to explore these colours in my rug hooking, so have not only finished "Turning", which was under the hook in my last post, but have also completed three more 6" square pieces, ready to mount and offer for purchase at the 2024 "Under $100 Art Market" in Lacombe at the end of November. Here's a sneak peek:
Turning - (c) 2024 Hooked yarn, fabric on burlap 6" x 6", mounted on stretched canvas |
Top: Harvest Hills (c) 2024 Bottom: Winter Sunrise (c) 2024 Both 6" square, hooked on burlap Shown just off the frame |
All that Blue, Green and Gold! (c) 2024 6" square, yarn, silk, wool fabric, hooked on burlap -- shown just finished on the frame |
And there's yet another drawn out, waiting for me to make a start:
"Little Shed on the Prairie" (c) 2024 |
I confess I don't hook every day, but when I do, I go at it for at least 1/2 hour -- usually, more like an hour. I've been using some of the new yarns I bought for the purpose, too, which I mentioned in my last post.
To add to my adventures in my new-found artistic home, I've splurged on something called the Inspiration Sessions -- a year of inspiration with Deanne Fitzpatrick, recorded in her studio, watching and learning from her process, and monthly online Zoom meetings with rug-hooking artists and crafters from all over the place. I attended my first Zoom a couple of weeks ago and the newly-recorded tutorial session is now ready for me to watch; I'm really looking forward to it!
Still, as I mentioned, I don't hook every day. I still have my routine of doing a bit of each of my practices most days. I begin with knitting, then move to either hooking or quilting (when yard and garden work isn't calling!) and finish with late-afternoon/early evening cross-stitch.
So, next, the knitting:
I've made great progress on my daughter's "Presto Vesto" for her Xmas/Birthday present this year -- and have finished the right front!
Pattern: "Presto Vesto" Designer: Amy Gunderson Yarn: MidKnit Cravings Comfort Sport in "Shiraz" colour |
The photo above shows the front lying perfectly on top of the back. I used a coaster to show where the split for the pocket is. 😄 I'm rather chuffed that it's finally beginning to look like something, and the pattern is getting just a teensy bit easier to follow!
In Xmas/holiday knits, I've finished another Simple Gift Cowl, using an EMU Superwash DK yarn from my stash. I just need to sew in the ends, wash and block it:
One more to make, and that trio of cowls will be finished so I can get back to the vest but first...a local young fellow and his partner are expecting their first baby a few days before Xmas, so I'm making a couple of pair of baby socks, using my trusty 'Baby Socks' pattern from River City Yarns (not available on Ravelry; sorry). I'll be making 2 pair -- one for a newborn and another in the 3-6 months size.
I cast these on this a.m. using some left-over Knit Picks Sock Landscape yarn (in the Rocky Mountain Dusk colour-way); since I took this photo, I finished the cuff, turned the heel and am working on the gusset decreases for the first sock:
I've done some more work on the 'Back Bay Boomerang' shawl, too, but haven't an updated photo. Sigh...
On the quilting front, I've also done nothing more on the Celtic Knot quilt, but the pink pinwheels baby quilt top is finished -- made from "bonus triangles" from some forgotten project, plus a glorious darker pink-purple batik that was just hanging out in my stash -- shown here in the autumn sunshine on my back stoop:
And the quilt I've chosen for my son's June birthday (2025), from the book Batik Beauties, has gone from a couple of stacks of fabric squares to...11 of 12 blocks completed. Here are just the first three. The backgrounds and the star points are the same in each, but the centre squares differ. I'm using batiks from deep stash that I've long not known what to do with, and I bought a skinny bolt (about 7 metres!) of the background last May at the Central Alberta Quilt Show, from a shop whose owners were retiring. It was just perfect for the colours I had in mind for this project, but will also make a great neutral going forward.
Block #1 |
Block #2 |
Block #3 |
I continue to enjoy the Block of the Month (BOM) from Sherri at "A Quilting Life", and this week finished the October blocks, still using my stash of Thimbleberries fabrics from a good 20 years ago:
As you may remember, Gentle Readers, I'm making the smaller block (finishes at 8" in a quilt) and create two of them each month, for a total of 24 for the year. Not sure how the quilt will finish up, but I believe Sherri usually has options for that too, so stay tuned!
If those projects weren't enough, my friend Anne (former co-worker when The Crafty Lady was an LYS) came to me with a huge bag of fabric someone she knew had given her, from the estate of a quilting relative. The deal was that I could pick what I wanted, and the rest would be donated to Grandmothers to Grandmothers -- Red Deer Chapter -- for their annual fabric/yarn/crafts sale.
Well! I made a small dent in the bag -- and then topped it up with some of pieces I'd been given by a neighbour that I know I won't use. The biggest find was a print of chocolate brown swirls on an aqua background; the selvedge text referred to it as the "Deja Brew" line designed by Audrey Jeanne Roberts for StudioE Fabrics (www.studioefabrics.com). It's long out of production, of course, but included in the bag was a piece of solid in a similar shade of aqua. When I was telling my friend Annette J. about it, she suggested a Disappearing Four Patch might work well for it. I dug about in my studio and found several large pieces of a tone-on-tone chocolate brown cotton that was left over from some wide backing I'd used on an earlier project.
Ta-da! I 'googled' for instructions (I've made a Disappearing 9-patch years ago but have no idea where my notes were from that!) and made a couple of blocks. I figured I have enough fabric for about 3 dozen, each finishing at 8" in the quilt (using 5" squares), plus sashing, so it'll make a decent throw-sized quilt:
The green of my cutting mat doesn't do justice to the acqua of that fabric -- but you get the idea! LOL! 😆
And yes, the "Easy Breezy" blocks -- a tiny 4 1/2" unfinished -- are piling up; I have about 75 of them now -- and another 70 or so to go. I've not run out of bits and bobs for the corner squares and rectangles, so I just keep plugging along.
As I mentioned, the late afternoon and evening are for stitching -- mainly cross-stitch. Sampler September is over now, but I took advantage of Canadian Thanksgiving weekend to work a few days on a small sampler from Red Barn Samplers, which has a verse I like and which has, at the bottom, the word "Gratitude".
I bought the pattern 'way back in the winter of 2023. Here's a photo from my post of February 1 that year:
I began to work on it and got as far as the "O" you can see in the photo below -- second line of alphabet letters from the top, close to the left-hand side.
The photo below shows my progress from October 12 this year through Thanksgiving Monday (Oct. 14) -- I moved right along, enjoying it immensely. I confess, though, that by the time I finished that first line of the verse, done using 1 thread of floss over 1 fabric stitch...well! I was grateful to put it down and move into Christmas gift stitching! 😉
"Betty Sumner 1822" Reproduced by Red Barn Samplers |
I've managed to finish one small piece for a knitty friend, but need to fully finish it (I'm thinking 'flat fold'). I decided because my friend and I are both Canadian, I'd adjust the bottom word to spell it the way we do here: 'Neighbour' -- with a "U". It was quite the challenge, but I'm satisfied with it:
"Fred's Ewe-nifying Question" Designer: Silver Creek Samplers Modified by me! Stitched on the called-for fabric with the called-for cotton flosses. |
I'm now working on another gift for a friend -- a pretty little piece that I started a couple of days ago: "Precious Friend" from Bent Creek designs. I'm stitching it on a piece of unlabelled 28-count evenweave, in an 'antique white' sort of colour, using a combination of called-for over-dyed floss and DMC from my stash. I've not yet taken a photo of it...so, next time, eh?
I think that's it for now, Gentle Readers. I've gone on long enough (through two cups of tea and over 2 hours of Tom Allen's "About Time" on CBC Radio)...so I will leave you first, with thanks for being such faithful readers, and second with the hope that you are well and safe wherever you are, creating beauty with the work of your hands.
Linking up with Nina-Marie's "Off the Wall Friday", as usual -- but this time, be still my heart! WOW! She's dipping a toe into a new-to-her technique. Yep! She's learning to hook a rug! I can't wait to compare notes!
So -- until then -- a bientot!
4 comments:
Those mini hooked squares transport me to your area of the globe. They are bound to be a big hit at the market. I constantly amazed by the variety of crafts you engage in and are so talented in each.
I’m amazed at how much you accomplish. My days are more like, an activity, then rest and repeat. It’s great that you’re getting into the rug hooking. A new passion and Deanne’s are so colourful.
It’s wonderful to find abandoned blocks that will make a baby quilt.
You seem to be moving along on your projects. It is always amazing how much one can finish by doing a bit every day. I hope your hooking projects doo well at the sale
I am excited to see you exploring you visions in the rug hooking. It’s a good medium to portray / convey / communicate one’s impressions and colours of the world around, and autumn is such a pretty time. As usual you are an inspiration to me to follow my nose and create what calls me in the way I choose. Go girl!
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