Makers Meeting Up -- and More!

 

In my last post -- about 3 weeks ago now -- I wrote of Mother Nature's indecision, of how she was uncertain whether or not to evict Old Man Winter and allow Ms. Spring to move in.  She's taken all this time to muster her courage -- and OMW is still hanging out on the fringes, surrounded by brown grass and semi-frozen piles of dwindling old snow.

The good news is, the Canada geese have been spotted flying their V-formations overhead, and the robins are here!  The robins are here!

To celebrate, I've been stitching on the piece of that same name: "The Robins are Here" from Brenda Gervais:

It's a tiny piece and will become a little pillow for my spring bowl collection, right there with Jeannette Douglas' "Chubby Bird" and "Chubby Ewe" and other such delights.  I'll post a photo when that's ready.

I am also stitching along with two Stitch-Alongs this month -- both from Jacob of Modern Folk Embroidery.  First, the year-long "Little Acorns" SAL, with very slow progress since my last post:

Fabric: 40 count "Platinum"
Floss: "Pippy"
Both from Roxy Floss/Evertote

And the new one -- just for April -- that he created to celebrate 15 years of designing as Modern Folk Embroidery: the "Quick Quaker SAL".   I'm really enjoying this little piece -- not as complex as "Little Acorns", and very soothing, especially when I stitch along to the short videos Jacob has been posting daily on his YouTube channel to accompany the project:

Fabric: 36-count "Bramble" from
Picture This Plus
Floss: DMC #824 -- both from stash

I still have my Sunday Stitch ("Cattle on a Thousand Hills" from Plum Street) and have made a new start -- "There is Always Room" from Maximum Cross Stitch -- but there's nothing much to show you at present.  Stay tuned!

I am still knitting away, a little bit every day, usually with morning coffee.  Through Lent, I participated in a Mystery KAL from Joy Jannotti.  It's now finished, washed and blocked, and set aside for my Warm Things Box:

Yarn: Condon's Yarn 2-ply fine (the
brown) and 2-ply medium (the orange)

The yarn is a bit rustic, but not unpleasant in this little shawlette.  It's 100% wool, from a long-closed Canadian company that operated in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, from 1931 to 1989.  I received it as part of a Christmas gift from my daughter in 2022 -- and she rescued it from a colleague whose elderly relative had passed on.

My other favourite knits these days are the bodies of two top-down pullovers and one new start -- a cardigan.  I mentioned the Sea Haven pullover in my last post.  While I've no photo to share at the moment, I've finished the beautiful yoke, split for the sleeves, and am about 1/2" along on the body.  

The other pullover is the Bustleton Tee, which I started about a year ago -- and I've not taken a photo of it since! LOL! I'm really only using the pattern as a guideline for the process -- size and construction.  It's one with definitive stripes, but I've ignored that and am making it out of assorted shades of pinky red/purple left-over fingering-weight yarn.  It's a plain, simple raglan, very soothing to knit but slow going with the fine yarn.  At the moment, I'm about 1 inch from the point where I have to switch to the ribbing for the bottom hem.  After that, all I have to do is finish the sleeves, which won't be 'tee-shirt short' but full length if I have enough yarn left!

As for the cardigan -- that's a new start, inspired solely by the fact I've had both yarn and pattern for well over a decade, and it's now time to make it up!  It's the "Shades of Spring Cardigan" -- a pattern from 2011 that I saved from an issue of "Love of Knitting" magazine and I'm making it with a bright variegated yarn, "Tajmahal" from Le Fibre Nobili -- long discontinued -- which I bought well over 20 years ago:

The yarn is referred to as sport-weight, but it's almost a fingering, and very soft because it's a blend of merino wool, silk and cashmere!!  I didn't buy it specifically for this project, but decided that it's just the pop of cheerful colour I need this year!

On the quilting front, I'm a bit between projects.  I still have to make up the April Block of the Month from A Quilting Life, and I've planned out and started a pinwheel baby quilt to give to friends of mine for the new granddaughter they've been told will arrive in mid-June.

But I did finish the "Lupines and Laughter" quilt top -- the 2025/2026 Bonnie Hunter Mystery:

I think it's one of the prettiest yet!  I made it 75% of the size, and it's turned out to be just shy of 70" square.  I now need to get it quilted -- I'm debating doing it myself, though it's rather pushing the limits of my abilities on my domestic machine.

All those projects aside, my focus for the last few weeks has been on designing and hooking a series of eight miniature landscapes -- 6" square -- for the Lacombe Encore! Art Show at which I'll have a booth again this year.  It runs April 17 and 18 -- a week from now!!!  

Yesterday I finished the last of them, and took the lot off the Cheticamp frame:

Each of these originated as "matted minis" in my art quilting days; I've now reprised them as hooked art.  Here are some close-ups:

"By the Slough" (c) 2026
Yarn, fabric strips hooked into burlap

(L) "Canola Fields"; (R) "Autumn at
the Slough" (c) 2026
Yarn, fabric strips in burlap

"The Old Barn: Elgin, Quebec" (c) 2026
Yarn, roving, fabric strips hooked into burlap

'St. Monica's, Mirror, AB' (c) 2026
Yarn, fabric strips hooked into burlap

"Vespers - Reprise" (c) 2026
Yarn, fabric strips, hooked into
burlap; embroidered accent

"Wide Alberta Sky" (c) 2026
Yarn, fabric strips hooked into burlap

And last but not least...

"Wintry Moon" (c) 2026
Yarn, fabric strips hooked into burlap

All now need to be cut out of the burlap, blocked, bound and mounted.  I'm experimenting a bit there -- planning to back them with wool fabric, and either leave them as such, or see if I can mount them on black foamcore as 'stand-ups'.  Time will tell...

Now then, about Makers Meeting Up -- the title of this post.  In March, as I mentioned, I was part of the "March is for Makers" group created by Deanne Fitzpatrick Studios of Amherst, Nova Scotia.

It was so popular that many of us didn't want it to end.  So...listening to her customers, her rug-hooking-lovin' audience -- Deanne and her team decided to make it a monthly subscription -- Monday through Friday (and maybe the last Saturday) -- and to see how it goes.  There are almost 3 dozen of us subscribed so far, and it has been a complete delight.  It's certainly brought me joy every day to be part of this online community, and it motivated me to get all those minis hooked.  It will continue to motivate me through the next several days as I put the finishing touches on them and get everything ready for my booth at the show.

Participants are international -- mainly Canada and US -- and we are learning a great deal about each other, our families, our joy in crafts -- hooking rugs, knitting, quilting, cross-stitch and spinning have been topics of discussion among us.  We've been learning each other's geography, and history, and travel experiences, and art-making experiences, and what it takes to run an art gallery, and how to blend yarns and fabric strips to create colour and depth and texture in our work.  It's just plain FUN!

The best part of it is the flexibility to 'unsubscribe' for a while -- this might happen with several of us over the summer -- and return when we are able.  Each session starts with a bit of fun as the whole group, with Deanne and/or her staff popping by, and then we break into small groups for an hour or so of hooking and talking, sharing and learning from each other.  Every month we participate, we'll have access to a free online pdf pattern, and able to view some of the videos from Deanne's inspiring teaching archive.

And it only costs $31 CAD per month -- a dollar a day.  Some folks spend more than that on a coffee at Timmy's or Starbucks...

So if you love to hook rugs -- as wall art or floor art or cushion art or just plain sources of colour and calm -- you might want to check it out.  For more information...HERE.  (And NO, I'm not being paid to entice you!)

I'll leave you now with my usual link to Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday.  This week she gives us a list of what she learned from the dear "Calvin and Hobbes" comic strip.  Some of those lessons can be practiced when you meet up with other makers, to whit:

• Take risks;
• Keep exploring!
• Enjoy the present;
• Spend time with friends;
• Life is about the little joys; and this...
• Sometimes you have to take a plunge to see the magic happen.

Whether you hook, stitch, knit, crochet, quilt, weave, spin, paint, dance, sing, write, make music...all of it is better shared with others, especially in times like these.

So until next time, Gentle Readers, soothe your souls and Make On!

A bientot!

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