Off to a Slow Start (sort of)

Ah...January.  The first month of a New Year (of sorts; September is too).  The Month of Resolutions...or promises...or goal-setting.

And if you read my last post, 'wa-a-a-ay earlier this month, you'll know I had my share of New Year's Optimism goin' on.  While I'd vowed to "Keep It Simple", I didn't realize how well the "Universe" listened to that vow, and took steps to help me by Slowing Me Down.

I've been pretty good at setting aside Wednesdays as 'charity' days, working mainly on charity knitting projects.  All the ones I showed in my post have been taken to the church and a narrow scarf that languished at 20 inches is now 34 and growing (the pattern calls for another 17 inches), while a pair of simple mittens is half-finished.

I've made all 9 of the blocks for the "Barn Quilt" Block of the Month:

Set #1

Set #2

Set #3

Can you find the "OOOPs!" in the third set?  😉

(All of these will become a quilt top for charity.)

I've been working on art pieces...with second thoughts about having a full booth at Lacombe this year.  There's an option called "The Gallery", which will take a few (3, I think) pieces...and I don't have to be there all the time.  That's becoming more appealing as I work through "Keep It Simple".

But for now...I showed 2 pieces at the Deep Freeze Festival in Edmonton -- a juried exhibit.  I made no sales, but am working with a client to fulfill a commission she would like.  It looks like she might go for a mixed media piece on stretched canvas -- a small one, featuring trees.  Photos will be on the way to her this week -- snail mail, as she's an older lady and (her words) "I'm illiterate" when it comes to the computer (she doesn't own one).

As for finished work...awaiting 'floater' frames... there's one small one in the "Wintry Skies" series:

December Dusk (C) 2018
5" x 7" before framing
water colour, Pitt (R) pen, quilted fabric
on stretched canvas

And there's a larger one -- my first attempt at this technique in a larger size! -- in the "Inspired by Scotland" series:

Storm Brewing Over the Lowlands (C) 2018
12" x 12" before framing
water colour, quilted fabric
on stretched canvas

I confess I am particularly thrilled with this last one...and the thrill of it is almost intimidating when it comes to trying another.

Do any of you have this happen?

You know what I mean?  You make something wonderful and have no idea how you'll top it, or duplicate it, or create a similar success with another piece/subject/size/technique. 

Does this happen to you?  I'd love to know I'm not alone!

And so...I've spent a lot of time "recovering" (or "refreshing" or whatever one might call it)...by...working on pieced quilts.

As a result, my "On Ringo Lake" mystery from Bonnie Hunter is coming along.  I've finished the first four clues and am working on Clue #5.  As a "leader-and-ender" project I've been clearing out my "crumb bucket" and creating blocks made of bits and bobs of fabric, which will be placed with sashing into some sort of crib-sized or throw-sized quilt, thus:

On the left...6 "crumb blocks" -- each a four-patch of 3 1/2" blocks made of 'crumbs' of fabric.

On the right, some of you will recognize "Wall" from last year.  Below it is "Scars", with its binding that needs to be hand-stitched down on the back.

I quilted and hand-stitched "Scars" when I was laid up in bed with a head cold last weekend.  (It's composed of a fabric from tree rubbing -- Mountain Ash from my back yard, known in the U.K. as 'Rowan' -- cut up and reassembled, then cut into and backed with black fabric, then quilted and hand stitched before binding.)

Yes, another way of slowing me down so that I would Keep It Simple.

I still don't know exactly what I'm going to do with those two.  They're each 12" x 12" so could go into the SAQA Benefit Auctions for this year and next (you can only enter one piece at a time)...but they're hardly Home Decor here in Bed Quilt Central!

So...There you have it.  The month is fading fast, and I'm still muddling along, trying to figure out what I should be doing.  I have a bed quilt commission that will be started this week (a (4) Rail Fence for my daughter's Air B'n'B) and along with that...more of the same, I think, until the Spirit of Simple says otherwise.

Meanwhile, I'll link up to Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday while I still can, and leave you with Canada's Own Rick Mercer Reports and Rick's take on the Deep Freeze Festival 2018.  Enjoy!

Weekly

I'm having a tough time these days keeping up with life in Blog Land -- whether it be reading the blogs I follow or writing about what's up in the Sewdio.

This week, I blame it mainly on the heat -- and the insects!

Last Monday it was wasps, which I found when I tried to open an old shed with unpredictable sliding doors and was greeted with a couple of stings for my efforts.

By Wednesday a.m. I knew the nest was thoroughly dealt with -- and my neighbour had pointed out a second (old, also dead) nest in the same shed -- on the ceiling!  I've shut the doors on that building, and will return in the fall (after the first frost) to remove all traces!

Friday it was ants!  This is my own fault, I guess.  Sigh.  I love my peonies, but will have to resist bringing any into the house in future.  I've always shaken off the blossoms to rid them of ants before bringing them in, but this year I included buds...and I guess there were critters in there...

Anyway, they are now dealt with too, thanks to ant powder and floor scrubbing and the judicious placement of ant traps for any malingerers!

In between, I did manage to pick a crop of Saskatoons from a nearby farmer's berry patch (over a dozen cups -- some now in muffins and some shared with my next-door neighbour) and some of my own raspberries (4 1/2 cups now in the freezer) and to discover (with that neighbour's help) that yes, indeed, I needed new bathroom taps, as the current ones -- leaking badly -- cannot be repaired.  A new set has been purchased...but remains to be installed.

Sew what happened in the Sewdio?!

Not much... but I managed to get very close to finishing a x-stitch Christmas Stocking (only the details left now, and then construction), to finish a simple shawl (a commission)...

And to quilt and bind "Wall":

Wall (C) 2017
Hand-stamped and marked cotton and linen;
commercial cotton; cotton floss.
Machine quilted and hand-stitched.
12" square

Wall - Detail

I decided to quilt it 'in the ditch' with "invisible" thread (I used a clear mono-polyester from Superior Thread on the top and Superior's "Bottom Line" in black on the back)...and then added a few lines of running stitch (which go through to the back) using 3 strands of cotton floss, picking up the red in the 'wall'.  I finished it with a very narrow red binding.

Next week when I go into Red Deer, I'll take the piece with me and see how it might look mounted on a 12" square canvas.  If I like the effect and if I can find it, I'll also audition it then dropped into a black shadow box frame.

Thinking about "Wall" and my recent tree rubbings, I've come up with an idea for a second piece...so stay tuned!

To finish off the week, I went to Sylvan Lake yesterday after church, and finalized the new selection of my work Denise wanted for her Bonavista Fine Art Gallery.  (The above link will take you to "my" gallery on the website.)

I love the way she takes such care to show off the work of each of her artists!  This is how mine looked when I saw it yesterday afternoon:

You might recognize some of those pieces as I've posted about them over the years.  The ones with large 'statements' posted next to them toured overseas when I was part of the 15 x 15 International Group.  Both of us agreed that it was great for viewers to see those stories along with the pieces.

And now, because I still can, I'm linking up with Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday, and going back into the Sewdio to work on that new idea.  Have a great week, everyone!