A change of pace...

Two pillows made from denim squares
cut from bits that are too small to use

in my jackets.  

Another one!

Another one done!
This one is for a man so has been made
shorter in the body and has less
in the way of 'decoration'.

One thing I've discovered about apartment

living is the 

lack of places to photograph things. 

I'm going to have to do some thinking about that!

Fun mail

Recently I was lucky enough to win an ephemera  giveaway from Yvonne and here's a look at the goodies that have arrived in my mailbox (sorry about the dark picture...it's been a dark day here)....

I was expecting an envie filled with paper bits, but this is so much more!  There are three old maps from National Geographic magazine (I need a new art journal and I think I will be using one of these to cover it);  some music paper; fall leaves; wooden buttons; four beautifully crocheted flowers; there are two tree themed quilt blocks; and a lovely little journal book.  Such fun!  Thank you so much Yvonne!

CQTeers and ATC's

Today was our monthly CQTeers meeting and, as usual, we consumed far too much chocolate and had far too much fun gabbing and showing off our latest creations.  This time the theme for our atc swap was 'silhouettes' and here's a photo....

The two on the upper left were made by Irene (one is in the style of Monika Aebisher).  The two on the bottom left were made by Sue and the ones on the upper and lower right were mine.  We are amassing quite a collection of atc's - little works of art that are so much fun to do.

Shopping....

I hate shopping, unless it happens to be in places like a fabric store or Michaels.  Today I got to visit both.  I went in quest of zippers for my jean jackets, but came home with several other things. 

There's enough of these two yarns to make two pairs of felted slippers.
There's a half metre of the beaded trim and approximately
the same amount of that gold 'stuff'.  I have NO idea what
it is actually meant for, but I couldn't resist.

Magpies LIKE sparkly things!!

And, aren't these the cutest little owl buttons?
They just have so much personality.  

No idea what I will end up doing with them but they had to come home with me anyway.

All that, and I got the zippers too!

Mumbling again

The Creativ Festival ended up being rather a disappointment.  I've missed going for two or three years and was quite surprised to see that the entire size of the show has been cut in half.  Whether that is simply a sign of the times or because the cost of having a booth at the show is too high, I don't know.  Having half the space meant that everything was crammed in; the aisles between the displays were narrow too.  Several of the vendors that I particularly like weren't there at all.  The major sewing machine companies were represented but without the space they formerly had.  The machines looked all scrunched together and it wasn't at all an invitation to test them out. 

I only purchased two things.  This lovely trim caught my eye.  It will most likely be torn apart
 for the pretty flowers. 











This book was on my wish list before I went so I felt lucky to find a copy.  Whitework has fascinated me for a long time so I know this book will be a good read. 

Specs:  'A-Z of Whitework" - Book 1, published by Country Bumpkin Publications,  C2007, ISBN 9-9757094-9-6

Fun....not!

Today I've spent trying to compress 'stuff' into less space so they're more easily moveable. 

No, we're NOT moving again but it's going to feel like it!!

'The Man' is supposed to be coming next week to install the new baseboards (we've only been waiting since summer!).  That's a good thing, right?  Well, when I sit down and contemplate the amount of sheer WORK this is going to entail, I'm not so sure I even want baseboards at all!!  Every single piece of furniture (and their innards) will have to be moved out of the way and put somewhere (hah!!).  Not only that, I expect there will be a ton of dust created out of all this because there's nowhere to cut the boards other than the middle of the living room floor.  Oh, and did I mention that the closets will have to be emptied too? 

Give me strength

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On to another subject that doesn't raise my blood pressure so much.

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Remember me mentioning the thrift store trip we made a couple of weeks ago?  You don't?  Well then, proves how forgettable my mumblings are.  Anyway....I lucked out and found this book.

It's a collection of some of the articles from the first 29 issues of 'Threads' magazine....illustrated with tons of colour pictures.  There are articles on battenberg lace, shisha, samplers, net darning, freestyle embroidery, drawn threadwork, crewel, needle lace and lots more.  Fascinating reading!

Specs on the book:  'Stitchery and Needle Lace" from Threads Magazine;  published by Taunton Press, c1991;  ISBN: 1-56158-010-4

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I won't be posting tomorrow because I'm off to the Creativ Festival in Toronto!

Stitching, and eye candy, and stuff of interest....

* * * * * * * * *

Fin.ally, here's today's efforts at stitching in the Frankenstich way

Outside my zone of comfort, but fun!!

This week I'm concentrating on the Frankenstitch class I'm taking with Arlee and here are the results of my playing today...

Frankenstitch is a form of stitching that Arlee has developed to add texture (and a great deal of interest) to her embroidered pieces.  I'm more of a perfectionist with my stitching so this format is quite different for me. 

I've decided to do each of the techniques as a sort-of sampler which may or may not become a book when I'm done.  Or?????

Final pieces of stitching

These are the final pieces of free-motion stitching that will be going on my wallhanging. Every element I've stitched has some special meaning for me.  I won't be posting any more photos until it's all done so you'll have to wait & see what it will turn out like.

p.s. - in case you're wondering....the bottom 'bit' will have flowers hand stitched on top of the wonky stems and leaves I did with the machine.

more stitchings -

And I haven't sewn my fingers - yet!!

More houses

Today I actually did some sewing and made these houses....

Each one represents a house I have lived in during my life.

Free motion stitching is entirely foreign to my nature, but my husband recognized the houses I was trying to depict so I guess I'm not that terrible at it.  Either that or they were lucky guesses on his part!!


I'M HAVING FUN!!!!









These are being done for the online class 'Road to My House' given by Carole Brungar.  I will show you some of the elements I am including, but you won't be able to see the finished product until the end.

stitches

I thought you might get a kick out of seeing my first attempt at free-motion stitching for the 'Road To My House' class I'm doing online with Carole Brungar.  Methinks I need a bit lot more practice!!

Potatoes, hot pots, and chocolate shoes

I'll bet that post title raised a whole bunch of interesting
possibilities in your mind!

First up, I've had a request for the recipe for
the Hash Brown Casserole
we made for Thanksgiving.

so, here it is....

HASH BROWN CASSEROLE

Combine:
2 lb. bag of hash browns, defrosted

2 cups sour cream
1/2 tsp. salt
2 cups grated cheddar cheese
3/4 cup fine chopped onion
1 tin of cream of chicken soup
---
2 cups cornflakes, crushed a bit
1/2 cup melted butter or margarine

Place combined ingredients in a large casserole dish.  Sprinkle with crushed cornflakes (or any unsweetened  cereal you prefer).  Drizzle with the melted butter.  Cover and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes, uncover and bake for 30 minutes more.  Enjoy!

Next up, is about hot pot...
Our #2 son Shawn  and his wife Winnie were home for Thanksgiving
and treated us by cooking us 'hot pot',
which we ate with chopsticks.  Yummy!!

Finally, a chocolate shoe!
Winnie brought this for me
and I don't want to eat it!!

Doesn't it look amazing??

Cabinets and denim

Because today was spent doing mundane things like grocery shopping and laundry, obviously nothing creative got done.  In the interest of having at least SOMETHING to mumble about I took these two photos.


The first one shows the new cabinet I picked up on my thrifting expedition.   It's hard to tell from this but it fits exactly under my cutting table (without a bit of space to spare!).  My Cloth,Paper, Scissors magazines and my Quilting Arts magazines are in the bottom, and my Sew Somersets are on the shelf above.  When I find where I've put my other ones (!!) I'll be able to fit them in too.  It's perfect for the space and exactly what I was looking for.  Yay!

Above is the pile of denim pockets and design elements I came home with.  Of course they just HAPPEN to be attached to full pairs of jeans which I will now have to find a space to store until I can get them used up.

This weekend is our Canadian Thanksgiving and I rather doubt I will get a chance to post over the next few days.  If it's your Thanksgiving, have a good (and safe) one!

Great finds!

A friend and I spent yesterday poking through four (yes, 4!!) different thrift shops in search of treasures.  I, of course, picked up more denim to tear apart.

and before you get your knickers in a twist, 

I'm fully aware that I'm trying to
downsize my stash and not add to it

In my defense, how could I NOT bring home delicious-looking pockets and design elements for my jackets.  The fact that all that goodness happened to come attached to whole pairs of jeans is just one of those things, right?

I digress...

My big find was a perfect sized cupboard to hold my magazine collection for all of $20 AND this....

Well, actually my 'find' was the hand, the embroidery floss is what I'll be using for my on-line Frankenstitch class with Arlee. 

I really *heart* my hand!!

Tripping....

We had a wonderful time during our four days away in Quebec last week.  The fall colours were spectacular, despite the dull and rainy weather we experienced.  The above pictures show a view of the mountain (Tremblant) and the road leading down to the condo where we were staying.

Below are a couple of pictures I took right off our balcony and perhaps show the colours the best. 

Because of the dreary weather we weren't really able to do much in the way of exploring outdoors.  There are tons of walking/biking trails in the area and also places to rent canoes and kayaks.  There's a gondola that goes to the top of the mountain but the day we had thought of doing that the mountain was pretty much socked in with clouds.  I think both Jack and I were relieved because neither one of us is very brave when it comes to heights!

We had a great time but are glad to be home and getting back into the routine of things. 

testing some more....

yakedy, yackedy, yak.....

Is this better??

testing - ignore this, please

yada yada yada