And So It Goes...

I promised in my Thanksgiving Post that I'd share news from the Sewdio soon.  So...this post has some of this, that and the other!

The Bookshelf Quilt got finished and is now happily (I think) ensconced in its new home.

Since then, I've made a top that will be a gift for a friend (no photos; she might read this post) and finished (except the binding and sleeve) a commissioned hanging for another friend (again, no photos as this is a gift for someone who might read this).

J's Xmas Socks 2018

I'm working on Xmas socks now for my neighbour E, wife of J.  His socks are finished.  These two are so very good to me all year -- with advice, sharing garden seeds and veg, house-watching etc., that they are regulars on my Christmas gift list, and this year it's socks!

If you're curious, they're made with 6-ply sock yarn from Online, and the pattern is my adaptation of the Yarn Harlot's Sock Recipe, found in her long-published book, Knitting Rules.  (Lest you're wondering, E's socks are in reds. Same yarn source; same pattern source.)

And...I've actually managed to create an original piece!  My contribution to the 2018 "100@100" fundraiser for the Alberta Society of Artists was mounted on its artist's panel today and is ready to ship as soon as I can find a box that will accommodate it -- without being too big!

I call it "Blue Pot", and it's taken from a photo of the geraniums I have over-wintering indoors in my sunny back room...in a ...well, that should be obvious!

Inspirational photo

Blue Pot (C) 2018 - 10" x 10"
Machine piecing and fused applique,
machine quilting, faced and affixed to an artist's board

Blue Pot - Detail

I got to play with the free-motion quilting on my new machine for this one, which set me up to do FMQ on the commissioned hanging (mentioned above).  I still have to practice to get really good at it, but I certainly appreciate the features on my new Pfaff Performance 5.2 and the 'hovering' darning foot.  I may explore a more traditional spring-loaded foot as time goes on...we shall see.  For now, this does the trick!

Mosaic Wrap - first panel

Outside the Sewdio, I've been working on a mosaic stitch 'wrap' for myself from stash yarn, using a pattern found in the Vogue Knitting magazine -- Holiday 2016 issue.  It's a simple construction of two panels, sewn together and bordered in a 'tweed' pattern.  I'm now on the closing border of the first panel, and manage to do a few rows a day.  No rush!

I'm able to do this because, outside the above-mentioned socks, I'm making fewer knitted gifts this year.  I've made one (a small scarf in exquisite yarn) and am building a long, cable-trimmed hooded coat for my daughter -- which she knows about because fittings have been involved -- but that's it.  There will be the Annual Xmas Boxer Shorts, of course...but they're not quite on the radar yet.

This has freed me to work on some embroidery kits I purchased long ago -- in another life, it seems -- which I've offered to donate to the gift table at our annual church Bazaar and Bake Sale.  The kits even include frames, and they're turning out quite well, so I hope they will find new homes!  Each one is a tiny gem -- no more than 4" to 6" square -- in simple cross- and half-cross stitch, so a bit of time stitching each morning with my coffee and reflections...and two of the three of them are now finished.

Meanwhile, my Sewdio Assistant keeps me company...

And my leaky 13-year-old hot water tank is on Permanent Vacation (awaiting replacement on Wednesday!)

So...ca vien bien!  (It goes well!)...

How have you been, Gentle Readers?

Linking very late to Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday...and hoping she's well too!

And because this post is that sort of late re: last week, it's early enough to be shared with the Canadian-based Needle and Thread Network for this week -- so I'm linking to that too!

Have a good week -- what's left of it!

More About 'Them Books'

I love books.  I began to read around age 5 -- as did each of my children.  My father's sister -- a K-2 teacher -- used to say "Readers are Leaders".  I dunno about that, but I know that I agree with Emily Dickinson...

There is no Frigate like a Book
To take us Lands away,
Nor any Coursers like a Page
Of prancing Poetry – 
This Traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress of Toll – 
How frugal is the Chariot
That bears a Human soul.

All the homes I've owned over the years have been filled with books.  I have a bookshelf in the kitchen (mainly cookbooks), my bedroom (five, if you count the self built into my headboard and the two built into each side of my desk), one tall one in the guest room, two in the studio -- not counting the boxes of magazines and pattern booklets -- and then there are those in the shelves in the base of the coffee table in the living room, and still others in a basket beside the love seat, art books stacked on an antique round table in the front window, and the art/craft magazines in the wooden rack next to an over-stuffed chair.

And did I mention the stack(s) on the pass-through shelf from the living room to the kitchen?  Or the ones on the top of the coffee table at any given moment?  What about the ones on the 1910 pine pedestal table next to the computer desk?

No?  Oh well...   😉

I had a birthday about 10 days ago -- and now await eagerly the two books I bought from my Chapters/Indigo 'wish list' with a gift card from my son and his wife:

Brand new...just out!
Textile Landscape - Cas Holmes

 and

Ten years old but speaks to me now...
the art of felt - Loumange Francoise Tellier

Both should be in my hands by early October.  Yummy!

Meanwhile, I've spent the last four days finishing the Bookshelf Quilt.  

Five of six rows joined together

What the back sashing looked like
before it was hand-sewn down

Quilting Detail - bottom

Quilting Detail - side

Quilting Detail - top

Ready for binding

Label Detail
You Can't Tell a Book by Its Cover

I confess it's taken me much longer than I expected -- due in part to the customized quilting and then again, in part due to my learning curve involving adding borders to the centre six shelves (a 'medallion' of sorts).  I am so thankful for my new Pfaff (Performance 5.2) that has enabled me to finish it up with even stitch tension etc.  😊

I'm on the home stretch...and soon my friend will have her throw.

As for me, though the application for a solo exhibit at the Leighton Centre didn't pan out for 2019, I've got a 10" square panel to do up for the 2018 Alberta Society of Artists 100 @ 100 Fundraiser; I have a piece coming up on the block in Section 2 of the 2018 SAQA Benefit Auction -- next week; I have more features of my new Pfaff sewing machine to explore; and I have more ideas and experiments to play with in the coming months so...

All shall be well and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.

-- Dame Julian of Norwich

Here's to books -- and here's to a great rest of the week!

"All About Them Books"

My colleague, Mary, and I delivered our pieces to the Camrose Art Walk on July 16 -- the second half, in which we're showing, opened Tuesday (July 24) -- so since then I've been doing a variety of things, not the least of which is a throw-sized "Bookshelf Quilt".

"How did you come to do that?!" you may well ask.

It's like this...

A childhood friend of mine -- we reconnected via Facebook a few years back now -- saw one (probably this one) online and asked (she, doing nothing of this sort of stuff, though I swear we took Home Ec. together!) if I would make one for her.  Not too big -- just throw-sized.  That's about 51" x 64" -- give or take an inch or two.

Well...she's a kinda special gal, so I agreed to make it but cautioned I'd track my time and would charge her for that and for the materials.  I knew I could use my scraps for the books, but there would be new fabric needed for background, sashing (the "shelves) and backing. as well as batting for the quilt sandwich (I don't worry about thread in terms of costs).  And I used the pattern from the link above, designed by a gal named Victoria, who is part of the "Fabric at Work" trio, and who offered it free online.  Thanks Victoria!  😊

Turns out that the blocks I've developed (this is a fairly loosey-goosey pattern) are 9" wide (unfinished) but with sashing, five blocks across, 4 sashes and 2 sides-of-the-shelf should make it.  Ditto for six blocks (9.25" tall, unfinished) down, with a top and bottom (3.5" and 4.5" unfinished, respectively).  

I'm planning to keep my friend's costs down by quilting it myself -- 'as you go'.  That is, I'll quilt one row at a time, and join it to the others with the sashing method that works so beautifully.  I did this with the Wedding Quilt: 'Dreaming of Japan' that I made my son and his wife two years ago...

This is how the back would look with sashing
to join one section at at time.  :-)

I've now (as of this writing) finished 25 of 30 blocks.  All of the "novelty" blocks -- ones with knickknacks or stacked or leaning books -- have been finished, so what's left are "plain books".

Last evening I realized that I've only enough 'book' fabric cut for another 2 or 3 blocks, so will have to cut more for the last few.  Blessedly, I have enough scrap fabric (go figure! 😉) with which to do that! LOL!

So...that's today's project in the forecast heat (28 C +/- with the humidity -- yes, even on the prairies): make the last few blocks and start to cut the "shelves" (top, bottom and sashing).

Here are some progress photos so far:

I began by cutting the book fabrics -- 1.5" to 2.5" wide and 8" to 10" long -- and attaching them to a large swath of black background fabric.  (The background has tiny text on it in grey that I think is really cool!)

Book "slices" stitched to black background fabric.

Then I sliced off each piece and divided them as to size:

Next I began by creating the blocks and putting them on my design wall:

First 4 blocks...
beneath a photograph by Gordon Hiebert, 
bought at the Lacombe Art Show in 2017.

Design wall full!!

Once I filled the design wall with blocks, it was time to move them to the "design bed" in the guest room!

On the 'design bed'

I am trying to lay it out so that there's not a concentration of either the 'novelty' blocks or the 'regular' blocks in one place.  Rather, I want to have the former distributed relatively evenly throughout the quilt.

Here's a close-up of a couple of them -- a 3-D photo frame in which my friend will be able to put any photo she wants, and switch it out any time, or remove it for washing; and a vase of Brown-eyed Susans, which she said are a favourite flower:

Blocks with photo frame,
vase of flowers

I'm hoping to have the arrangement of the blocks finalized and the sashing at least underway before I go back to work on Thursday. So...off to the studio!  But not before I link this up to Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday.   

This week she's been at her Annual Quilting by the Lake art retreat, which I find so a propos, because on Friday coming up, I'll be leaving to spend the "August Long" weekend out of town at the home of friends.  It's our Almost Annual Art Play Weekend, and I'll be taking dye stuffs made at Olds Fibre Week, and organic cottons bought at MAIWA, and...a sketchbook and paints and perhaps some small canvases that need skies...and...and...

And so till next time, Gentle Readers, I hope you all will have similar lovely opportunities to take time to play with your art!

While I "hit the books", here's a little musical inspiration...