When All is Said and Done...

 'And now these three [things] remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.'

-- Paul, the Apostle - 1st letter to the Corinthians, Ch. 13, v. 13.

Those Gentle Readers who've followed me for some time know that August is what I've come to call "My Anniversary Month".  I was married in this month 47 years ago -- in heat and humidity, in a little old church in southwest Quebec.  Thirty-one years later, on the same day, my DH died in a room just a wee bit away from the ER in a hospital in Calgary.  If you've followed me, you already know the story and I'm not going to repeat it here.

That said, that phrase from 1 Corinthians 13 was the tail end of what was read at our wedding.  It was true when Paul wrote it; it was true when it was read at our wedding, and it remains true today.

After everything has gone up in smoke and ash, what remains is...love.

Last year in August I began to work on a piece with that title; "What Remains is Love".  It's a sampler from Black Bird Designs, created especially for the 20th anniversary of one of my favourite needlework shops, Traditional Stitches, near Calgary.  I got a good start on it, but put it away after August -- until February of this year, which marked 47 years from our engagement to be married.

This month I took it out again and discovered that, lo, and behold!  I'd completed more of it than I'd thought -- so I decided to finish it -- and yesterday, I did.

It still needs a good press, and will be framed -- eventually -- but for now it's pinned up on my studio design wall:

And here's a close up of how I finished the bottom -- which differs from the pattern:

I used the alphabet provided in the pattern for the ornate "HMB" (my DH's initials) and adapted the numerals provided so that they'd match the size of the letters (vertically).

Typical of my challenges with counted cross-stitch, there are glitches -- mainly in the spacing of the motifs -- which (of course) produces a 'domino' effect.  I ended up lengthening the side borders a little bit, and, having some extra space in the lower left corner, added the heart motif -- taken from a different pattern, designed by Erica Michaels.  I look on that as a blessing, despite my fuding elsewhere in the piece!

Since my last post, I've almost completed the Erica Michaels piece, but can't share it here in case the recipient reads my blog post (it's a birthday gift).  And of course, once finished with "What Remains...", I had to start a new piece, right?!  You bet!

So yesterday I set out on the first motif of "Quaker du Japon", which I ordered to make up as a Christmas gift for my son.  It's a very soothing stitch thus far -- an "order out of chaos" sort of practice, which I really need right now.

Blessedly, though we're having a spate of Very Hot (for Canada) weather (again), there's been a bit of a breeze, so I'm able to sit outside to stitch -- and enjoy my garden.  The zucchini and cherry tomatoes are beginning to ripen at a steady pace, the Brown-eyed Susans are starting to blossom -- and then there's this bee balm blossom that looks double!

Bee Balm!

The bee balm's been blooming steadily for over two weeks now -- still going strong on the southeast corner of my house, with potentilla and lilies behind it trying to catch up.

Across the lawn to the east, under the small Mountain Ash (aka 'Rowan'), to my delight -- at last -- this year the poppy seed given me by my neighbour has not only sprouted but grown and blossomed!

Double-ruffled poppies in situ

Glorious poppies close up!

I planted them in a bed with other wild flowers, which are also starting to appear.  There are some forget-me-nots just out of camera range...and then there's the Whatever It Is right next to the poppies.  😆  I won't know for certain what it is until it blooms -- and maybe not even then!  No matter; I'll enjoy it!

Signing off with a link to Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday, and wishing you a lovely weekend, wherever you are. This week she's written about creating happiness -- especially if you're a maker.  It seems to come down to this: have faith in yourself, hope (and confidence) in your gifts, graces and abilities -- and love yourself enough to appreciate the unique being you are!

Thanks for stopping by! 

Slip-sliding Away...

 I've lost count -- but I think we had four long heat waves, interrupted by brief bits of cooler weather (a day or two) and then...BANG! We're in "mid-September".  Except that we're only just finishing the third week of August.   Not even close to Labour Day.  Not.  Even.  Close.

Sigh.

It's been a tough summer -- especially for those in wildfire areas, such as British Columbia, Oregon and California.  To top it off, we're all still in the midst of a global pandemic, making fire, flood, earthquake and tornado rescue even more perilous -- especially for those who insist they won't get vaccinated (even though they're eligible) and "You can't make me!!".  

Sigh.

So...all of this noise has been rather dispiriting.  It's certainly put a dent in my "Get up and go!"   What's a person to do???

I decided on a few options -- all designed to "spark joy" with colour and freshness.  It's the only way to go when the skies are grey -- literally and figuratively -- as they often are these days.

• Yard work.  We're in a drought here, so my rain barrels are low, but I've managed to carefully, judiciously use my watering cans with my hose to manage the flower/veg beds.  (I don't water my lawn; I'm not growing a golf course.)  And so...at least some of the plants have come through and produced veggies!  

You can (almost) always count on zucchini...

And sometimes you can find beans...

And broccoli...

And even raspberries...

and of course, more zukes!

I had leaf lettuce too (now finished -- the photo below was taken 2 months ago...)

So it's been a pretty good year for the garden.  (We won't talk about the cherry tomatoes, started from seed in early March, and only just now producing tiny still-green fruit.)

• Long walks.  If I've not worked out in the yard (mowing -- which has slowed considerably as the grass isn't growing in the drought), I try to walk 45+ minutes on any given day.  During the heat waves, this would be about 6:30 a.m., when it was just daylight enough, and definitely cooler, but nowadays, it's more like mid-to-late afternoon.

On these walks I continue to encounter new-to-me wildflowers.  These are a couple of the ones I came across in the last week or so, and need to identify.  Both resemble clusters of tiny daisies -- and I've seen a yellow version of this too:

Whatever they are, their tiny points of colour in the aging grasses is very cheering!

• Quilting.  Not much of this lately...but I've returned to "Grassy Creek" (the Bonnie Hunter Mystery for 2020)...and am making slow but steady progress in putting the 4 rows together, with all of the complex sashing.  (I'm making it approximately 2/3 the size of the original).  Here are a couple of shots;

Last 2 rows on my ironing board

Close-up of a block/sashing combo

I also finished a small (maybe 30" x 40") quiltlet for charity -- without a home as yet.  It was a UFO from a pattern in an almost-forgotten quilt magazine (I found the magazine after I finished the top) and it turned out rather well, considering its chequered past!  😉

Pattern: "Beautiful Batik Leaves"
Designer: Debby Kratovil
Quick Quilts #52 - 2005

Quilting detail - photo taken after washing,
so all the quilty goodness shows! 😊

• It's been harder to activate my "art mojo", but I did spend some time playing with paint, stretched canvas, 'canvas paper' and a recycled plastic window blind!  I was inspired to do this when Soraya Silvestri, a colleague in the Artists in Canada Art Facebook group posted about "Dip & Squish", a fun technique she was using with acrylic paint and ceramic tiles.  (The link is to her YouTube clip about it.)  I decided to try it out -- with fabric! 

First, I poured a few colours onto a recycled Styrofoam "plate":

White background, red-orange next, then blue,
then a bit of Jacquard Lumiere in metallic copper.

I then took two 4" x 4" stretched canvases -- one at a time -- and "dipped and squished" them into the paint until I got the 'look' I wanted:

This was fun!  So...I cut up a canvas page from a pad of it I bought a while back, and I cut up a piece of textured, recycled plastic window blind and dipped those (all close to 4" square).  This was a bit tricky because they weren't attached to stretcher bars or any sort of backing I could hold, but I managed:

Here they are on my design wall

And some close-ups:

(L) on plastic recycled blind; centre and (R) - on canvas

(L) on canvas; (R) on plastic recycled blind

More on the recycled blind

And on a strip of the blind

Except for the pair on stretched canvas -- which I've signed and propped up as home decor, I really have no idea what I'm going to do with these pieces yet.  I have some card stock I could use to mount them; time will tell.  For now, they remain on my design wall, where every time I look at them, they make me smile.

• In the embroidery department...I've set aside the little Glasgow roses I was cross-stitching, because I fell in love with a sentiment.  It was on a sampler designed by Blackbird Designs especially to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of one of my very favourite stitchery shops: Traditional Stitches, just west of Calgary.  I don't do much of this sort of design nowadays, but I couldn't resist; I was smitten with the text:

 "What remains is love"

Photo from Traditional Stitches

I had a piece of hand-dyed, 28-count linen from some long-forgotten, never started project, so I ordered the pattern and the hand-dyed cotton threads:

I began to stitch 10 days or so ago, and am farther along than this photo shows, but it gives you an idea.  (The fabric is darker in colour than the photo shows.)

Working on this is very rhythmic and soothing, especially with some quiet music in the background.

• And of course, there's always some knitting!  Right now my focus is on the Socks From Stash August Challenge -- "Knit a Free Pattern".  I'm making a pair of "Thermal Weasleys" for my daughter (a Harry Potter fan) for Christmas, in a hand-dyed merino-nylon blend from the "odd lots and one-of-a-kind" folks at Gathering Yarn -- sold by my friend and former employer, The Crafty Lady. I've finished the first sock and am well away now on the leg of the second.

"Velino" hand-dye from Gathering Yarn

#1 sock finished -- longer leg; no ribbing on the sole!

Pattern texture close up; easy to memorize!

I'll be happily working on all of these 'fabric, fibre & floss' items over the next little while -- as at last we've had some welcome rain, and I'm lying low indoors with what I hope is only a cold (sore throat, cough, sniffles).  A test for What Shall Not Be Named is booked for Tuesday afternoon.

So I'm linking this up with Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday, and wishing you all a good week or two as we slip-slide into September.  Hugs!