EBMC #1: Value

Just before I slipped away to the sunshine, I posted my first 'sketches' for my first assignment for my first month in Elizabeth Barton's Master Class.  Thank you, Gentle Readers, for re-assuring me about my drawing abilities.  :-)

EB, too, was very encouraging, as in her first critique of my work she pointed out the 'linear quality' of my initial outline drawing, which she particularly liked.  She thought, though, that the piece might be more interesting if the front opening in the fence were a bit more off-centre (and I agree).

She also liked the varied lines and shadings in the "value contrast" drawing, and then she read my mind!  ;-)  I'd been looking at the drawing with the thought of cropping it somehow, when she suggested doing so...

With those suggestions in mind, I've played around with the drawings -- cropping, enlarging, reversing the image...

And I came up with this version, from which I'm working to block out the piece in fabric:

Yes...the gate in the fence still looks too 'centred' (sigh)...but I'll work on that!  First, I blocked out the background.  I decided, as it's a prairie scene, to go with various shades of brown, and auditioned them thus:

Auditioning fabric on the design wall

Next, I plunged into cutting the fabric shapes.  I created some bias strips for the dark shadows on the tops of the hills, and then decided to use the "wrong" side of the strips for more subtlety...and some unexpected texture due to the nature of the print:

Today's mission?  Work on that fence!

Gettin' ready to fence 'er in!

Stay tuned...

Meanwhile, it may be Monday, but I'm going to link up to Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday...because I still can!

P.S. Feedback always appreciated...

The Business of Blocking

When it comes to knitting, I'm a process person.  Assembling the finished project has always been a bit of a necessary evil to me -- much like swatching.  However, working for a yarn shop means I need to finish my store samples neatly, and that includes blocking.

Here's the latest sample, in pieces, drying in the sunshine yesterday afternoon:

This evening or tomorrow, it'll become a little girl's cropped cardigan, complete with sweet white buttons.  :-)

Next weekend it will be used to show off the shop's selection of Schachenmayr SMC "Micro Grande" on sale at the Creative Stitches show in Edmonton.  It's a pleasant yarn to work with and the stitch definition is lovely, so I hope there will be some takers.  :-)

Sometimes we get a sample in from a manufacturer that needs a bit of blocking.  This was the case with the pretty "Bleddyn" shawlette recently received with our shipment of Berroco Boboli Lace yarn.  Packaging and shipping had rumpled the sample somewhat, so I brought it home to re-wash and block:

It doesn't look like much lying on an old towel, pinned down, with blocking wires running down the sides to the bottom (centre)...but it's a very pretty knit, and the leaf motif looks much better now that it's blocked flat.  (Before? I could describe it, but not in polite company... ;-) )

Little else is happening in the 'sewdio' just now...just a bit of piecing, while my mind wraps itself around the construction of new pieces.  Perhaps by WIP Wednesday...

Have a great rest of the weekend!

Of Blocking...and Blocks

F is a Christmas friend.  By that I mean, she and her husband, P, are people that my husband and I worked with in the mid-seventies, and with whom we've been in touch ever since -- generally once a year, at Christmas. Of the two of us, F was the less conservative, the more feminist, and the more inclined to make her own cards, while I steered away from tree-hugging and bought my cards by the box from UNICEF or got them sent to me by some other charitable organization(s).  F usually included some sort of newsletter; I wrote short notes by hand.

When our kids were small, we visited them and their (still small but a bit older) kids in their home on Vancouver Island,  but they never got around to visiting us in Calgary...and now all said kids are grown, and some are married, and some have children of their own.  Still, F and I (it's usually the women in families who do these things, right? Act as Social Secretaries and Perpetual Correspondents...) continue to correspond at Christmas.  So.

This year, I sent my usual card and hand-written note to F and P -- and very shortly before Christmas got an e-mail from F with the usual newsletter attached.  But...the word cancer leapt off the page screen at me, and I printed it out, just to be sure.  Then I phoned.

After I hung up, I found a pattern and began to knit.

"Zilver" - designed by Lisa Mutch

The yarn is from Schaeffer Yarn Company and is called "Anne" -- though the colour-way is not, apparently, consistent. I bought mine at Make 1 Yarn in Calgary a few years back, with something completely different  in mind -- a shawl, I'm sure, but the intended pattern escapes me.  The hank I had was predominately blue with green, purple and a red-brown.  The pattern is "Zilver", designed by Lisa Mutch -- a free Ravelry download -- which I discovered quite by chance in a post from Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (The Yarn Harlot) -- at least, I think that's where I found it, but I can't find the link in her blog archives now.  Sigh...

I finished it Saturday (Jan. 5), had it blessed by our priest on Sunday, and it's in the mail now.

While I was blocking 'Zilver', I dug out a shawl I'd knit from a set of mystery clues on Ravelry a while back. I was never happy with it, so I decided to wash and re-block it.  Yes, folks, this can be done!  And whoa!  Ir's larger and lovelier -- much more as I'm sure it was intended to be!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

What a difference a little learning makes!  I'm much happier with the 'after', which is larger and actually wearable!

As for blocks, I'm making my way gradually along Easy Street, having completed nine of sixteen Blocks "A".

I hafta tell ya, I'm simply lovin' these colours!!  

And I'm keeping a promise I made to myself when I was digging through my stash for ES fabrics.  At that time I found three (count 'em) bags of Blocks-of-the-Month I'd purchased as far back as 2003 from a quilt shop in Calgary that (alas) has since closed its doors (owner retired).  I hadn't (really) forgotten 'em; I'd just not got around to working on 'em.  So... I promised myself that starting January 2013 I'd begin to put them together...figuring on at least one block per month for three years, resulting in 3 small tops to quilt up and give away.

The first quilt top I chose is called "Cinnamon" and dates from 2006.  Here's the January block, which is 10.5 inches; 10 inches finished (in the quilt).  Likely there'll be sashing so that the 12 blocks can make up a throw- sized quilt at the very least.

The shop owner, Janet, was fond of stars it seems, because most of the Saturday Block and other BOM programs she ran consisted of stars in various configurations!  I don't mind, because it keeps me practicing my piecing and my points!

I may do one BOM this year, or I may do two.  Whatever happens, at least one top will be ready to quilt by year's end, and it'll be small enough I can manage it here at home.

That said, tomorrow it's back to work in earnest in the art quilting 'sewdio', so I'll be working on blocks betwixt and between.  I have some stories to tell about trees...so stay tuned.

P.S. Linking this late to Bonnie's Monday Mystery Link-up.  :-)