My Dream Collection

One of the most fun activities associated with the Annual SAQA Benefit Auction is being able to pick a "Dream Collection".  I become a curator of my own six-pack of art pieces that have some meaning for me, and might just inspire others to participate in the auction for real -- to the benefit of both SAQA and the artists.

This year, I'm calling my collection "Pet Project", and here's what I've written about that theme:

I'm a Certified Cat Person -- and recently lost a scrawny stray despite my attempts to save him.  I don't understand animal abuse any more than abuse of humans or the environment.  I'm honouring "Mr. Man-cat" and my very lively Miss Pookie-cat -- as well as all other pets -- with my collection this year.

Here are the pieces I chose:

Have some fun!  Pour a cuppa, visit the Benefit Auction Preview Page and pick the ones you'd put on your walls!

P.S.  Many thanks to Iina Alho, who chose my piece as part of her Dream Collection, "Rhapsody in Blue".  😊  Click the link and scroll down to enjoy!

Fresh from the Sewdio

How lovely it is when I managed to spend the better part of the day in the sewdio!  :-)

I began by working on my EB piece for November, the window extracted from a rather poor shot of York, UK...  I now have the two "stained glass" panels stitched, preparatory to attaching them one to another:

Front & back...
or back & front...

It's one thing to know what one wants to do; it's another to have the courage to do it!  I'll let these sit a wee bit while I ruminate...and work on the minis for Gracie D's Antiques, Collectibles and Giftware here in Mirror.

Both are winter scenes.  One is a reprise of the birdhouse in the snow-trimmed tree.  The other is a new piece...after a fashion.  I liked "Harvest Moon" so much that I've created this one, just finished:

Snowy Evening (c) 2015

The title was inspired by Robert Frost's well-known poem, "Stopping by Woods", long a favourite of mine.

In the midst of its construction, my daughter arrived for a brief visit.  We had a happy time in the studio, talking about all sorts of things -- my work, hers, and what-not -- and she stayed for an early dinner before driving on up the highway to her home in Edmonton.  While here, she watched Pookie watching the birds at the feeder outside the sewdio window, and snapped this with her camera phone:

I just love it!

Enough for today...My cold still lingers -- just enough to drain my energy early.   So...a bit of stitching, a bit of reading and I'll be off to bed.

Some of that reading will be posts from my colleagues over at Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday.  Won't you join me?

Binding the Ocean

At least, that's what it feels like these days...

The medallion quilt is piled up on my love seat.  I take a bit of it at a time and stitch down the binding.

As this is a special quilt, though, my usual single-fold, straight-cornered binding just wouldn't do.  This quilt has a double-fold binding (not bias), and mitred corners!

Following the instructions in my 'quilting bible' (The Quilter's Ultimate Visual Guide editted by Ellen Pahl), I calculated the length of binding I'd need for this king-sized quilt, cut the strips, attached them together using the method in the photo below...and stored the binding around my 15" square ruler till I could get time to sew it on the quilt.  :-)

This takes more fabric than a straight-across seam
but I like the look and there was plenty of fabric available!

Temporary binding storage!

Look, Ma! A mitred corner!

By Friday I had the binding sewn on, and was trimming out the excess batting, pinning as I went.  What to do at the corners?  How to get the mitres to look good on both sides and stay put?  My pins just didn't cut it.

Blessedly, I had lunch with my friend C, who is a quilter...and who had invested in some of these:

A Clover 'Wonder Clip' in action!

What a neat gizmo!  Darned expensive (about 69 cents apiece U.S. if you buy a packet of 10)...but worth the price of admission if you're going to be binding quilts.  I think we carry these in The Shop...so will check that out tomorrow and likely buy my own pack.  I have a few bed-quilts to bind in the next year or two...and they might just come in handy with art quilt facings....

Once all the pins and clips were applied, I ready to stitch.  I've finished one side and am well down the second.  Oh -- and the label has been made and applied in one corner.  All this, of course, under the watchful eye paw of my Studio Assistant, Pookie (aka Miss Pooks, among other things...)

"What?! You want to stitch on this?"

Once I get stitching, I like to put on a favourite computer video, such as Design Matters TV (DMTV) or The Quilt Show...

In fact, a recent episode of DMTV was the inspiration for the mini I made today.

One of the hosts is my former C&G tutor, Linda Kemshall.  What a grand person: artist, mother, teacher, writer -- she presents everything she does with enthusiasm, style and a touch of humour.

Anyway, a few months ago she began a project -- a daily art journal in a sketchbook.  Though several of her viewers have joined her on this adventure, I'm not one of them.  That said, I was interested to see the DMTV episode on her September entries.  The one that really caught my eye was her working out images of the 'Blood Moon' and the eclipse that occurred recently.  I'm an early-to-bed sort, so I missed it -- but saw images posted all over the Internet.

And then, on Thursday evening coming home late after work and music practice at the church (I'm in a trio), I saw it: a full, round, gorgeous Harvest moon!  I couldn't stop the car to photograph it -- and my little camera wouldn't have done it justice anyway -- so I just kept watching as it rose above the hills and trees, searing the image into my brain.

Yesterday I went back to that DMTV episode, and worked it out on fabric -- three small samples:

Cotton fabrics, freezer paper stencils,
a disposable 'tub' (recycled), a sponge
and a bottle of "deColorant" discharge paste

I'd bought a bottle of this paste a couple of years ago at a quilt show, and had played with it with less-than-satisfactory results.  Now it was time to try it again.  I used a sponge to apply it to the circles of fabric, which was easy and fast.  I let it dry all day, then removed the stencil paper and ironed the fabric squares:

Tada!

As recommended, I used extra steam and ironed the pieces from both sides, to great effect. 

I then wanted to add a bit of colour to my selected 'moon' to give it that Harvest moon golden glow.  Not having any "deColorant PLUS" (which has colour added), I decided to over-paint it.  First I used my yellow and my red InkTense (R) pencils, well blended, and then...a hint of dilute Lumiere fabric paint, the copper metallic option.

Once dry, I ironed the fabric again, and set it into a small scene.  I used a stencil to trace tree forms in a repeating pattern on fusible web (Wonder Under) and applied this to black fabric.

Oops!

In my excitement, I ironed the fusible to the "topside" (aka the 'right' side) of the fabric...not the "underside" (aka the 'wrong' side)...

But, in the end, I think it turned out rather well, as the "wrong" side of that particular black fabric has some texture to it -- just right for trees...

Harvest Moon (C) 2015

Just a bit of time now to stitch some more binding.  Tomorrow will be a work-and-knitting day in The Shop...

So I bid all 'farewell' till next time...

Addendum:  Linking this to WIP Wednesday because I don't know if I'll be able to link later...

Slow Stitching...

both Saturday and Sunday -- or at least, most of the time.  Yesterday I did manage to assemble the remaining 3 rows of my Easy Street top.  Here they are spread on my cutting table...waiting to be sewn to the other 4:

Yes...that's just the lower left (Southeast) corner and the two rows moving from that into the centre.  The top is constructed on point.  The block that's front and centre in the photo is part of the row that will join the remaining section -- what I call the Northwest corner!

But that's the only machine work I've done this weekend.  I began beading the 'leaves' on "Tree Line", accompanied by more wonderful pod-casts from On Being, as well as short clips from "82nd and Fifth", a new video series from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, about which I was notified by e-mail recently (I'm on their e-mail list).  No textiles in the ones I viewed yesterday afternoon, but inspirational nevertheless.

Though I'm still working on the beading, here's what it looked like when I ran out of steam yesterday:

Pookie came in for a closer look while it was still on the table where I was working:

Even at nine months, she's very discriminating!

Yes, I can hear some of you muttering about cat hair on my work -- never fear!  She wasn't there very long, and all work is thoroughly cleaned of hair and threads before making any sort of public appearance!

Once I set the beading aside, I turned to some hand embroidery, putting in another row on the Atlantic Seaboard Sampler I'm making for my friends' 40th wedding anniversary in May:

Looking through my magnifier, you can see I was working on Row 19 of 33; I finished it during the evening.  The next row will be more formidable; it's the Nova Scotia tartan...worked in single strands of cotton floss in tent stitch...over one thread at a time.  Please pray that when I've finished the row, I won't have gone blind!!

And today...the beading continued as I watched Bonnie's Quilt Cam, but the sunshine is calling so I'm off shortly for a walk while the weather holds.  Tonight...more pod-cast treats and more beading.  Happy Sunday!

P.S. Remember, any comments left on any of my posts this week will result in an entry into the first of my three 10th Blogging Anniversary give-away draws, Friday, February 15.  :-)

Mother's Little Helper

Mama's Little Angel

Today I'll be working on Christmas WIPs, so there won't be any photos.  (Nonetheless I'm linking to WIP Wednesday on The Needle and Thread Network.)

Here's Mama's Little Angel, 6 months old and sleeping on my lap while I'm at the computer.  She loves the little space between my abdomen and the keyboard!

This is a rare moment, though.  Pookie's taken a real shine to thread of any kind which means that if she's on my lap while I knit, she's trying to chew the yarn.  A few times I've come across projects where she's bitten it clean in two!

And then there's the discovery I made yesterday in my sewing room...

Gives a whole new meaning to 'Thread Play', doesn't it?!

Love to eat them threadies.

Threadies what I love to eat...

- with apologies to B. Kliban

Easing Gently...

back into my routine. Yesterday I returned to jogging, after several days of snow and bitter cold, in which my only workouts were shovelling and walking -- briskly!

Today I returned to my sewing room...and began to reconnect by making a couple of blocks for Erin H's "Blocks for Sandy" project, which I learned about only yesterday from long-armer, Cathy Tomm.  'Way back on November 1 Erin, who lives in Virginia but was spared as Sandy passed by, began to make and collect quilt blocks to assemble into quilts for those who've lost everything in the hurricane.

 I thought I might be too late, but I contacted her yesterday and got a "welcome aboard" e-mail this morning, so I went to my sewing machine this afternoon and made 2 for the cause.  Such fun and funky fabric, unearthed when I went "shopped my stash" yesterday to see if I had enough on hand to start Bonnie Hunter's "Easy Street" mystery quilt in a couple of weeks.  This is another ginormous top (84" square before borders!) -- as my beds are smaller, I likely will scale back the size this year (as opposed to "Orca Bay" from last year, which I made full-sized!)  Then again, I have quite a bit of stash to clear (trust me -- it's not useful for my artwork!) so perhaps I'll go the distance...

"What?! Are you nuts?!"  I can hear you asking yourself.  No.  Well...maybe a little.  I figure that alternating working on ES while working on my C&G final assessment piece might just keep me sane.  If I don't cram my days this time of year, I fall deeply down the Procrastination Rabbit Hole and end up doing not much of anything.  So...I'm gonna offset the high-energy creative design process with simpler, less mind-boggling piecing, and hope it all works out in the end.

But I digress.  Back to Hurricane Blocks for a minute.  Apparently Erin is now receiving them by the dozens, but she's still keen, and had a wonderful Saturday with her guild, the members of which have stepped in to help with assembly, sandwiching and quilting.  So...if you have time, some spare stash (who doesn't?!) and would like to help, leave a comment on her blog -- NOT anonymously, but with your e-mail in your ID link/info, and she'll be in touch about where to send your block(s).

Meanwhile, knitting continues.  I finished the applied seed-stitch edging on the first long side of  my narrow Barn Swallows scarf, and thanks (again!) to Kelly Petkun and her Knit Picks tutorials on how to turn a corner with applied i-cord, I've turned a corner, applied edging to the first short side of the scarf, and am about to turn corner #2 and head up the second long side.  Although I know it's "however long it takes", there is a distinct possibility the piece will be finished for my friend P by Sunday, which is when she told me she thought she might be back to church.

The outline of the Advent Quiet Day is finished and has been approved by Lee, my priest, so consider this an early invitation:

Advent Quiet Day

Saturday, December 8, 2012

The Anglican Parish of St. Cyprian, Lacombe, Alberta

10 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.

The Work of Our Hands: Reflections on the Spirituality of Handwork

Bring a bag lunch and your favourite repetitive hand work

This could include knitting, crochet, embroidery, needlepoint, spinning, weaving, mending, hemming, binding quilts, darning, ironing, polishing silver, making cards, gift wrapping, sorting photos into albums, addressing greeting cards, wood-working, painting, journalling, beading...

anything that can be done by 'rote' and without heavy equipment...

Tea, coffee, juice, water, muffins, other snacks provided.

Opportunities for confession and reconciliation.

Eucharist (Communion) service to close the day.

R.S.V.P. to St. Cyprian's Anglican Church 

P.S. Some of you have been inquiring after Pookie -- so here's a (somewhat blurry) photo of her at 6 months (or there-abouts), resting (briefly) on one of her current favourite places -- a tote full of sock knitting:

Can't you tell she's plotting her next move?!