MAGPIE'S MUMBLINGS

A blog about my interests, which include fabric landscapes and various and assorted other artsy pursuits and sometimes known to contain mumblings of a random nature.

Monday, February 04, 2008

Thrift Store finding



Yesterday we were invited to #1 son's for supper and on the way we stopped into one of the Value Villages in Toronto where I picked up a nice size bag of threads...both embroidery floss and some tapestry wool too. The bottom picture shows the usual 'snarl' of threads that most people have and the top picture is of the more useable bits. I wind all my threads onto cardboard (or plastic) bobbins which helps to keep them MUCH neater and pretty much avoids the snarly mess which is completely and utterly frustrating.
I also picked up a few books - one on creative coffee-making which intrigued me because I loves me my java! Can't wait to try a few of the recipes and get higher on caffeine than I normally am. Yum....

Saturday, February 02, 2008

Friday, February 01, 2008

ATC and guess



Today I have two pictures for you. The first is of an atc I just finished. The base is iron on interfacing (brand name has long gone from the package). On top of that I added snippets of fibres, ribbons, silks and just whatever was in my little jar of 'bits' I keep for just this type of thing. Then I ironed on another layer of iron-on interface and topped it off with a piece of Glad Wrap plastic wrap, which I also pressed with an iron. It shriveled up quite nicely, but stunk a bit so I think I really should have done that part outside. Didn't set the smoke alarm off though, so it couldn't have been too bad!
The other picture is the beginning of my next project. Any guesses of what it might be? And before you go getting any ideas, I have not partaken of all those wines!

Thursday, January 31, 2008

As promised...


Here are pictures of what we did yesterday. Sue showed us how to make the snowflakes in the first picture using paper punches and mulberry paper. Then we used the 'waste' from the snowflakes to make the flower. The other picture shows the atc's we exchanged (also with a snowflake theme - with the exception of the two on the right).
And further on snowflakes, by all reports we're about to have a ton of them dropped on us starting tonight. There's a major snowstorm scheduled so we'll just hunker down and ride it out. Hopefully the weather man will be wrong!

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Tired of these yet?

Here's another of the squares I'll be using in my quilt. This one still needs quite a bit of work to finish it, but I like it because it's blue (one of my other favourite colours!).

Had a fun day today, despite the weather - which is horrible. Extremely windy and cold with snow 'showers' throughout the day. Brrrr. Even the house is cold tonight. Anyway, I got off-topic there. I had started to tell you that we had our monthly meeting of CQTeers here today and did our usual bring-n-brag session, ate chocolate, and Sue taught us how to make really cute snowflakes and flowers using paper punches and mulberry paper. Hope to have a picture to show you tomorrow.


Monday, January 28, 2008

And another.

This is another of my favourites which will be going into my quilt. Love the crocheted maple leaf and the lady outline on this one.

- And, just for fun, do you happen to know the definition of the word 'Purfler'? If you don't (and everybody should) here it is: 'to ornament with all sorts of fancy needlework; to decorate richly' Now there, doesn't that make your day better?

Saturday, January 26, 2008

more eye candy

Here's another of the round robin pieces I'll be using for my quilt. Some of these pieces will need more work in order to 'finish' them before I put them in the quilt, but that will happen as I need them. This one is one of my favourite colours.

Friday, January 25, 2008

January TIF - Done!

Well, here it is - the first of the Take It Further Challenges is done. I had fun doing this, and tried very hard to stay within the colour palette, but it took a turn towards something else - despite my best efforts to the contrary! I'm happy with it anyway, and hope Sharon will forgive me for straying.

You can click on the picture to bring it up larger. Feel free to leave a comment!

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Another Round Robin block

Today I'm showing another of the round robin blocks I have in my collection which I will be using for my quilt. I did quite a bit on my TIF block today and hope I will finish it tomorrow (if all goes well) and will show it again then. Meanwhile, I'm letting the suspense build.....

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

More on TIF

This block is nearing completion! I've done quite a bit on it today, again using ideas from SharonB's 100 Details Series ... days 47, 52, 67, & 69 to be exact. Right now I'm working on the upper left in the picture doing a cluster of buttons and french knots. I'm still a little stuck on what I will work around the cigarette silk and have to look around for some inspiration. Don't forget you can click on the picture to make it larger!

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Domestic Bliss!


Take a look at these! They say that cats and dogs don't get along. Guess somebody forgot to mention that to Mitzy and Gypsy who are curled up on Jack's lap enjoying a nap while the snow falls outside. Awwwwww.....
That wasn't my feeling two minutes before that, when I caught Cosmo slurping quite happily out of my water glass...yeeewww.
Sorry about the no-post yesterday, but we had what we call a 'sanity day' and got out of town just to get away. We had a fun day...Jack even tolerated a longish trip to Michaels (but then again, he was promised a pair of felted slippers out of the deal). We hit the Sears outlet store and picked up some clothes pretty cheap. We also went to the movies and saw 'The Bucket List'. I cried at the end, which isn't something I do very often. Not sad tears, tho...just that I was so moved by the whole movie and especially the ending. Glad we saw it!

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Back to TIF


Here's some more progress on my TIF project. Today I worked the light purple area towards the bottom in the picture. I used a 'freebie' from Dover Publishing for the pattern for the leaves & seeds (traced it onto tissue paper and then stitched through it). Just above that and also to the right of it are two more seam treatments from SharonB's 100 Details. This block is progressing nicely and so far I'm quite pleased with it.

Friday, January 18, 2008

New toys


Today I have two pictures to show you because the mailman brought me something nice! My oldest son gave me a gift certificate for Mary Maxim and I got a set of circular knitting needles with it. Now I might be able to actually find the size I need and it comes with 4 various lengths of cable, which will be handy. Thanks RJ!
The other picture is another of the round robin squares I have which will be added to my quilt. This one is also on the small side and will need to be added to.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

We interrupt this program...

...to bring you something other than TIF, because it has been put aside for a couple of days in order to work on my first contribution to the Exquisite Corpse challenge and I can't show you what I'm doing for THAT because it's gotta be top secret until the challenge is over. So....

as I mentioned before I am hoping that the TIF challenge this year will leave me with 12 finished 9" squares to be used in a quilt. While doing the math, I realized that I will need 30 (count em...THIRTY!!!) squares. Now that is a daunting prospect. However, in one of my few & far between moments of brilliance, I thought of all the squares I have from the round robins I've been in that are residing in a box and not seeing the light of day. Eureka!! I had to cut a few of them down in size to fit within the 9" I wanted but I have ended up with nine squares already done for my quilt! 30-9=21!! Woohoo. If I complete the challenge I will have 12 more done and will be well on my way to my goal.

I digress...sort of.

The pic today is of the very first piece of CQ I received when I first discovered the art and mustered my courage to do a trade, one-on-one. This is what I got in return for my very amateurish effort! I very nearly quit right then and there. This piece is just beautiful and will be one of the ones which will be in my quilt even tho it is under the size limit. I'll add a border around the outside of this and pretend it was that way all along!

Over the next few posts I will show more of the round robins pieces I have until I can return to this month's TIF. Hope you enjoy them!

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

More TIF progress

Getting tired of seeing this yet?

Today I finished up the section I had marked yesterday with some ribbon embroidered flowers, some buttonhole wheels and a couple of bullion flowers. Then I worked the seam to the left in the picture, which was another of SharonB's 100 Details (day 25). I also began another seam treatment at the top of the light piece of fabric.

Originally I started out vowing to myself that I would stick to the colours in the challenge, but I'm finding that very hard to do within the confines of my stash. I'm coming as close as I can, with a few additions.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

TIF progress

I had a little time today to work on the TIF challenge for this month. As you can see, I've added a bit more to the lace seam and I'm much happier with it now. I used a portion of a seam treatment from SharonB's 100 Details series (day 64) above the black corner, plus added a glass flower & two leaves on the small seam area. You can also see I've sketched out where I want to work next, which is also being inspired by one of the 100 Details (day 82).

I've also been plugging away on the Einstein sweater, but I don't suppose you're too interested in seeing a 'lump' of burgundy coloured plain knitting! I finally counted my rows and only have about 60 left to go on the main part and then it'll be on to the fronts & back. Can't wait. Two of my friends have completed their sweaters and they're great, so am anxious to finish mine. I must remember to be on the hunt for some spectacular funky buttons for it because I really think it needs gorgeous buttons to show it off.

Monday, January 14, 2008

$3000??? I think not!!!

Warning: Mumble (and bitch) ahead. Take appropriate precautions.

We both had dentist appointments today. After sixteen xrays (yeah, 16 - you read it right) AND a lot of poking and mumbling all sorts of numbers (pretty sure it's not a dental office - more like some sort of voodoo cult) I was informed that I need three crowns. Nice, I thought - until I realized they weren't meaning the type that Queen Elizabeth wears. Ummm...and just how much might that be? Pretty close to a thousand dollars per tooth. I rapidly informed them that if it wasn't broke it didn't need to be fixed. Of course they gravely assured me that should a breakage occur that it would be sure to cost more. Life is a crap shoot anyway, so I'll take my chances. Three months ago we had what I thought was a pretty major cleaning so I assumed that would be the end for at least a year. NOT ! We have to go back next month for yet another cleaning. I really can't understand how these people get their jollies out of peering into my mouth and poking all sorts of instruments of torture in there.

Just to add insult to injury, my glasses are falling apart and we both have eye doctor appointments on Friday. Anybody want to hazard a guess as to how much THAT is going to cost? My current glasses were nearly $700 about 3 years ago, so I shudder to think. If the truth were known, I probably hate going to the eye doctor even more than the dentist. I thoroughly dread that stupid little thing they do where they ask 'is it better like this? - or like this?" Darned if I know! It all looks the same to me. After I ask them to repeat it a dozen times, they tend to get a little testy with me. Bah. When I had contacts I was one of the rare people who could not switch back & forth between them and glasses. My eyes simply would not make the adjustment, so I expect it's what happens when they do that flippin (pun intended) test.

Oh boy, this is turning out to be a wonderful week!

Friday, January 11, 2008

Ummmm? Mumbling??

Sorry folks, no pictures today. I managed to do one little bit on my TIF block and there it ended. I don't know about any of you, but I always have a 'funk' after Christmas where I really have to struggle to get motivated to do anything. Today was dull, rainy and just plain yucky outside too, which doesn't help. So, I shall mumble.

#1 Mumble...argh...DH is at the door announcing that he's done trudging on the treadmill and it's my turn. Yeah, I know I have to do it. I know it's good for me. I know I hate walking outside in the winter. I know all those things...but I still HATE IT!!!!

#2 Mumble....all the good books I got for Christmas are staring reproachfully at me while I read my way through a bunch that were loaned to us. I really want to read my brand new books (I got Eat,Pray,Love; two new Nora Roberts novels; the latest Sara Donati; and several others). I have 'When Bad Things Happen to Good People' (also loaned to me); 'The Secret' which I'm half-way through and have promised to loan to several other people; plus I don't know how many others that are residing on the book shelves. Maybe someday I'll take a picture of them just so you have some idea of how far behind I am! And we won't mention how fascinating the library is and all I manage to haul home from there on a regular basis! They now have a service where you can just order them online & they'll call you when they're in. NOT a good thing for me. I just get trigger-happy with the enter button the the keyboard and end up with far too many books from that quarter too.

#3 Mumble...awww darn it....the cursed treadmill isn't going away is it......

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Progress on TIF

I've done a little on the TIF block, but couldn't manage much today because I was out most of the day. I've stitched down the cigarette silk and added a re-claimed piece of lace, which I've highlighted with some beads. I'm not quite sure that I'm finished with the seam yet. In the bottom corner I used a treatment which I found on Pam Kellogg's site ( http://kittyandmedesigns.blogspot.com) ...thanks Pam! I elongated mine in the middle in order fill the space.

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

TIF auditions


Oops...I think I loaded these pictures backwards so they'll come up in the wrong order. Anyhoo....the pile of fabrics on the floor shows one of the two drawers of green-ish fabrics which I was auditioning for the Take It Further challenge. Sometimes I just paw through the drawer and other times I dump it all out and attempt to put it back into some semblance of order (until the next time I paw through it!!).
The other picture shows the bare block I came up with. Unfortunately my camera didn't come up with the exact colours. The flower is a cigarette silk which is partially my inspiration, with the rest coming from the colour challenge SharonB issued for TIF. I decided to concentrate my efforts this year on making a 9" block each month trying very hard to use Sharons colour choices, but within the confines of the cigarette silks I have AND my existing stash. It might be a tall order, but we'll see. I hope to not spend any money on this - not because the challenge isn't worthy, but I really, really need to reduce my collection of 'stuff' and this is a good challenge to do so.
My friend Jan gifted me with a number of the cigarette silks which will be used in this project and I also have re-sized nine round robin pieces so they will be utilized too. It's ideal for the RR pieces because I've been wondering what I could possibly do with them.
As always, thanks Sharon for such an inspiring challenge!! http://sharonb.wordpress.com


Tuesday, January 08, 2008

Studio - Part II











OK folks, here's part II of the studio pictures. The first one shows most of my working area. My table is a recycled door mounted on metal legs from the hardware store. You can see one of my two sewing machines. In front of it is a pile of fabrics I was auditioning for the Take It Further challenge (which have now been turned into a CQ block...pictures will follow another day). Above the table is a shelf which holds a number of treasures/things. If you enlarge the picture you can see the cute knitted gnome that Kym made me for Christmas. To the right of that is the rusty-fabric box I made several months ago. There's an altered picture/frame that was also made by Kym to the right of the rusty 'box'. I even keep a roll of toilet paper up there for little wipe-ups (because I am NOT a neat worker and tend to slop glue and paint a lot).
The next picture shows my storage corner for more stuff. The red multi-drawer thing on the shelf holds things like my sewing machine needles, safety pins, and even a set of little screwdrivers because I can NEVER find one when I need it! Below that is a little corner shelf unit which isn't the least bit organized. However it mainly holds things like my pincushions, a container of scissors of varying sizes and uses, baby wipes, and some assorted plastic containers which I use for messy jobs like mixing paint. You can also see both of my thread holders with a 3" strip of painted-to-match-the-room cork below where I hang things like the calendar and various notes to myself. Oh yes...and the proverbial mug of either coffee or green tea is on the table too.
There is another doorway to the left of the thread holders and before you come to the bookshelf area in the next picture. The doorway leads into the furnace room/extra studio storage room which is more of a dungeon. I might manage to take some pictures in there, but not sure they will be fit to show anyone!! The bookshelf holds all my embroidery,knitting, altered art, crocheting, doll-making, and sewing books. You can also see a corner of the computer area. My desk is an antique oak one, which I just love, however...I really have to be careful when I'm settling in to work because there's a very small area to put your knees and I tend to whack them pretty regularly.
Next picture....you can see another 3 drawer cabinet which holds my papers and such for altered art and one drawer holds fabrics, etc. for doll-making. Above that is another cupboard (only about 4" deep) which holds my glues, some paints, and various potions that are liquid. Some Altoid tins waiting to be altered...fishing line...a mini iron...an old soldering iron...a third hand....just stuff!! To the left in the picture is the dehumidifier with my paper shredder on top.
Final picture...is another shelving unit which basically holds my threads, ribbons, glue guns, rubber stamps, my other sewing machine is on the bottom shelf and there's still a largish bag of fabrics I was using for linings in the totes I made before Christmas on the bottom too. The cats scratching post is there, along with a few rolls of Christmas wrap that haven't made it to the storage closet yet. To the left of the shelving unit is the door where you started the tour. Now, back to the regularly scheduled programming tomorrow....




Monday, January 07, 2008

OK...you asked for it!







Arlee has issued a challenge that we show pictures of our studios, so here is part I of mine (part II will follow tomorrow). I know I've shown it before, but it was awhile ago and I have a number of new readers who might be willing to be grossed out. Besides, a challenge is a challenge!
The first picture (if Blogger behaves) starts to the right of my entrance door. My studio is in the basement and has no windows. I rely on daylight flourescent lighting. One of my dolls sits atop a dresser which holds my fabric 'bits' - in this case two drawers of whites, two of purples and one of greens. There's a Christmas can on top - empty - but was full of homemade cookies.
The next picture shows a dresser stacked on another one, again holding fabric bits (blues, blacks, browns, yellows). To the left in the picture you can see another of my dolls sitting on top of a three-drawer plastic container which holds my wool (2 drawers) and my trims. You can just see a wooden box on the top of the chest near the ceiling, which holds my gr gr grandfathers diaries dating from about 1820. To the extreme left you can just see the side of my storage shelf which holds all my supply of denim, with Cosmo's bed on top. In front of the picture you can see my cutting table and below the table is a large wooden box which holds all my teddy bear making supplies. The drawer in the cutting table holds my smaller cutting mats, rotary cutter, rulers and instruction manuals for my sewing machines.
The last picture for today shows the door which enters into our root cellar (with the cat litter box in front...oops...didn't mean to show that!!).
Next is a further corner of my cutting table and the rest of the cabinet that holds the denim. The cabinet on the left holds my beads, knitting and crochet needles/hooks. Cat food on top, to keep the dog out of it! Above that is an old x-ray light which was a cast-off from the hospital (works great as a light box!). The wire 'thing' on the wall beside the door is supposed to hold my iron when it's not in use. Yep, it is! Below that is another cabinet that holds a whole bunch of stuff...office supplies, a drawer of 'sticky stuff' like tape and such, a drawer of sewing supplies that don't seem to fit anywhere else, and various and assorted other semi-useful-but-mostly-useless things. Above, you can see another of the dolls. You can just see the corner of my worktable to the left in the picture.
Whew. Are you tired of exploring yet? More to come tomorrow.....




Thursday, January 03, 2008

An Embellisher question...

To answer Susan's question from the comments (I'm answering here in case others don't know)....the embellishing machine we were using is one made by Janome although I'm sure there are other types available.

It's works in a similar manner to a sewing machine, but there are no threads or bobbins involved (which I found quite odd). Instead of the normal sewing machine needle, the machine uses (at least in this case) a four-pronged needle that has tiny little barbs on the surface. The example I did has a felt backing and over that bits of yarn, ribbon, silk fabric and of course, the Angelina fibre face I had done previously.

The machine works just like a sewing machine with the barbed needles poking minute bits of the top (ie the silk) fabrics through the felt, which in turn adheres them to the felt. Does that make sense? I admit I'm not good at describing things without being able to talk with my hands!!

Anyway, if you do a Google search on 'needle felting' I'm sure you will turn up lots of information much better than what I've provided here.

Of embellishing and eating


Two pictures today! The first is of the gift basket of goodies we received from Son#1 and his fiance. He is a chef, currently working with a catering firm and this is a complete selection of the nummies they are starting to bottle and sell. We get to have a taste of everything! There's soups, dips, cookies, salad dressings and all sorts of things for us to test out. Not that we need any more food after over-indulging over the holidays, but have to admit I can't wait to try these out. Right now he's upstairs preparing our supper for us and it smells heavenly.
The second picture is my first attempt at using an embellishing machine. My friend Irene has one and we were allowed to play with it yesterday. What a neat tool!! I can see all sorts of uses for it. I especially like what it does with strips of silk and organza ribbons. The face you see here is an experiment we did using Angelina fibres, a rubber stamp, and the iron (several months ago) which I just happened to have with me. I just used the embellisher around the edges of the face and I love the result. In hindsight it would have been fun to pad the face somewhat (almost like trapunto), just to see what the effect would be. All in all, a fun machine to play with, altho one wouldn't want to have fingers anywhere near those sharp barbed needles!!!

Monday, December 31, 2007

TA DAH! TAST Weeks 51 and 52

I know, two posts in one day - what is this world coming to? However - I finished the Take a Stitch Tuesday challenge this afternoon and have to get it posted before the year changes!! Week 51 is the Chained Bar (shown at the top)....love this stitch! I used it here to couch down some ric rac and can see where it would be very useful couching down pretty much everything. Week 52 is the Spanish Feather Stitch - another one that is new to me but I like very much. It took me a few minutes to get onto it, but it's certainly one I will use again.

Extreme thanks go out to SharonB ( http://sharonb.wordpress.com) for all her hard work finding and photographing stitches for us to play with all year long. It must have been an incredible lot of effort for her and I want her to know how very much I appreciate all she does. I have learned so much since discovering her site and know that I will continue to do so. Thanks Sharon!

Happy 2008 to all!

I think I am finally rousing myself from the turkey/chocolate stupor of Christmas and actually feel somewhat like accomplishing something today! I have weeks 51 & 52 of TAST to do, so hope to get on that later today.

The past few days I have just vegged out with my nose either in a book (quite literally) or staring vacantly into space, eating the odd bon bon (because we all know they have expiry dates and have to be eaten up, up, up!). Actually have read three books in two days - two by James Patterson and 'For One More Day' by Mitch Albom. As I expected, 'Day' now resides in my top ten list of favourite books. Last night I started 'Bleachers' by John Grisham and expect to finish it sometime today.

January has always been a month of a combination of reading and cleaning for me. I guess I inherited the cleaning urge from my mother, because she always did what she called a 'T-10' (translated to mean THROW IT OUT) in January. There was never a spring or fall housecleaning when I was growing up, but watch out in January.! If you stood still for too long, you were liable to be out with the trash.

I've signed up for two new experiences in 2008 and am really looking forward to them. Arlee is running a round robin entitled 'Exquisite Corpse' which is sounding really fun. SharonB has another fibre challenge running for the year on her blog and, because I had so much fun with TAST I've signed on to do that too. I have plans to do a lot more crazy quilting in 2008 and a lot more in the creative-artsy line too. I hope to continue using up my stash and trying very hard not to buy everything new thing I see, because most of the time it just gets stored somewhere and never used.

As for New Years resolutions...nada. Don't believe in them, at least for me, because I know full well it won't last. The only wish I have for the new year is that all my friends have a happy, healthy and safe year. Thank you for all the lovely comments you've made on my blog over the past year - I treasure all of them and appreciate your interest.

Happy 2008 to you and yours!

Friday, December 28, 2007

Groan, Burp, Gasp...oh WHY?????

Why oh why does Christmas seem to entail eating far far too much? And why are we left with (horrors) leftovers that need to be eaten too? Why do things like Christmas stockings contain chocolate - crying out to be eaten? Why is there baking, baking, baking? It's all crying my name. Trouble is my size 16 jeans are crying too, despite the fact the label said they were 'stretch' jeans. Hah. They lie.

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Happy Christmas to all!

Christmas is rapidly approaching and I think my computer time will be severely limited, so this will be my last post until next week sometime.

Our festivities will be interesting this year. We start by collecting Son#2 on the night of the 21st. His girlfriend and her parents will be arriving on the 23rd. Her parents are from France and speak about as much English as we do French (none!). That should make things fun! Christmas day we will have my DH's brother and son, along with our friends, who originally come from Austria and England. We'll have a league of nations! Then we take Son#2 back on Dec 26th (Carole & her parents will leave then too) and trade him for Son#1- who has to work on Christmas day. We'll have him home until the 28th. His girlfriend will be spending Christmas with her father, so we'll be having another Christmas celebration with her sometime in January. Whew! Lots of festivities (AND food!!) for us.

I sincerely hope you and yours will have a blessed, happy and healthy Christmas. Stay safe.

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

TAST - Weeks 49 and 50


Wow, it's hard to get my head around the fact that the TAST challenge is nearly over! Sharon posted the last two stitches already to finish off the year. But, but, but...I'm not ready for it to be over!!!!! I've had so much fun learning new stitches and playing with old friends and am quite proud that I actually stuck with it for the whole year.
The two stitches I'm showing here are the Pistol Stitch (week 49) on the top half of the sample, and Berry Stitch (week 50) on the bottom of the sample. These were both fun to work. I hope to complete the final two either tomorrow or between Christmas and Jan. 1.
A huge thank you to Sharon who is so generous to us all. She so willingly shares her stitching knowledge, which is quite extensive, believe me. http://sharonb.wordpress.com and if you're interested in checking out her challenge for 2008 http://sharonb.wordpress.com/take-it-further-challenge/

Monday, December 17, 2007

Christmas tree


Here's a couple of pictures of our Christmas tree. Clicking on it should bring it up larger so you can see more detail of some of the ornaments.
Yesterday we had a huge snow storm and people were certainly spending a lot of time digging out from under today. Jack spent the better part of the day gone with the snowblower trying to clear some driveways so people can get out. I sure hope we don't get another big storm anytime soon, because I really don't know where some people will put any more snow. We saw one car today that had been foolishly left on the street overnight and it's pretty much totally buried by the snowplow. That'll teach whoever it was to leave their car out in a big storm!!

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Presents and Slow Crafting




Today I have three pictures. I know, I'm getting carried away! However, I want to show you the gifts I've received in the past couple of days. One of my friends knitted me the pretty hanger cover. I've seen covers of course, but this is the first knitted one I've come across. Isn't it pretty?
The other two gifts are from another friend. The little pillow is pretty self-explanatory. The christmas tree object is actually a little sleigh which I've filled with antique VERY fragile ornaments which were from my mother-in-law. It is sitting in the centre of my dining room table and looks quite festive.

Slow Crafting - what's that you ask? Well, there's a discussion right now 
 about doing crafts slowly as opposed to the quickest means possible to get the end result. I thought I'd weigh in with my two cents on the subject here rather than taking up room in Sharon's comments. There is a decided difference of opinion concerning which is better/more artistic - the use of machines as opposed to doing everything by hand. I will focus on embroidery, since that is what I'm most familiar with. There are wonderful machines out there now where you basically can just push a button and turn out exquisite pieces with a minimal of fuss. Now before you machine people get upset with me, I do know there's more to it than that and it's just not as simple as pushing a button! I, however, am a lover of hand work as much as possible. That's just me and I can certainly appreciate the other viewpoint too.
I will admit that I use my plain ol' sewing machine for the actual piecing of crazy quilt blocks. I'm not THAT gung-ho with hand work that I would spend my time doing my piecing that way. However, when it comes to the embroidery, that's when I love working with my hands. I love being able to sit down and relax with my work. I like the quiet moments to be able to think, perhaps even meditate. I like the fact that it's portable. Not having to be tied to a machine means I can work pretty much anywhere. I like the slightly uneven look of handwork as opposed to the perfection that a machine provides. I like the history of it - my ancestors worked by hand and it's something that makes me feel a certain kinship with them.
I'm not really interested in being able to produce 'numbers' of projects, because I get much more pleasure from the process. Not that I have anything against finishing something! I love to make gifts for people and, to me, it means much more if the time (which is equal to love) goes into it. On the other hand, there are times when I need to do things assembly line in order to meet a deadline and therefore I must go for speed and the use of machines.
I'm the same way with knitting. I once had a knitting machine and gave up on it very quickly. I very much prefer the slower process of hand knitting (and I am an extremely SLOW knitter!). There are beautiful things being done on the machines and I am one of the first to admit it, but I still like the hand work. Just my opinion!

Friday, December 14, 2007

Knitting bag finished

I just finished this today and have it wrapped already. That's the last handmade gift for this year!! Hooray.

A footnote to yesterday's post - I was totally unaware that white Christmas cactuses (cacti?) were rare. Now I have another reason to appreciate it! Thanks for leaving a comment to let me know.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

That * * * * Plant!!


I don't remember if I told this story last Christmas, and if I did I'm sorry to repeat myself. However, I have enough new readers so I think its ok to present it again.
The top picture shows a white Christmas cactus in full bloom in my dining room and the second picture shows its baby. The 'story' behind this is that my mother hated (with a passion) white flowers - a fact that was well known by everybody. Jack (my DH) had established a tradition of getting her a plant of some nature for Christmas. One year he spied this white (horrors!!) cactus and just HAD to buy it for Mom. Of course she opened it on Christmas Day and through what were obviously gritted teeth, thanked him. She dutifully hung the plant in the living room window, quite hopeful it would expire sooner rather than later. Of course it didn't and bravely bloomed at least twice a year. Each time I would get the same phone call "You know that damn plant? It's blooming - again".
This went on for several years until finally Mom decided she had enough of it and flatly refused to water it. Yep - you guessed it "You know that damn plant? It's blooming - again". When Mom passed away it was the only plant I kept and it blooms faithfully for me too. Now it has babies that are blooming too! It will be known as That Damn Plant for evermore.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Christmas decorations and Pillow



The pictures today are of the pillow I just finished making and of our creche which sits on top of our dining room cabinet. I bought the creche, piece by piece, from Avon when I was a rep and it's one of my most treasured Christmas things. Above you can see a picture of our boys when they were little and to the right you can just catch a glimpse of my antique light which was formerly a coal oil lamp.
Today I finished up the last of the handmade presents and got some more wrapping done. I had to clear off some of the mess from my worktable (!) so that I could get room to run the sewing machine. Don't worry...it'll be back being a huge mess again by this time tomorrow!

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Interesting purchase

When I was in our local fabric store yesterday I happened across this pattern and was intrigued by the 'purse' in the middle. I'm not interested in it as a purse, but wouldn't it be a perfect cradle for an art doll??

I got a few more parcels wrapped today but won't bother showing you a picture of that! I also have the knitted pillow pretty much done and hopefully will be able to show you the end result in the next couple of days.

Monday, December 10, 2007

Drowning!

Tell me, how on earth can a person be expected to accomplish anything in this mess? This is the view in only one area of my workroom too so you can just imagine what I'm living with!

I'm definitely going down for the last time.....

Saturday, December 08, 2007

Ummmm.....

...does spending the day shopping for stocking stuffers, wrapping presents, and painting a picture frame count as a blog entry?

I thought not.

Thursday, December 06, 2007

The Letter 'K' - Yet More Knitting Content

Wow, two days in a row I'm talking about knitting!!

Today I'll visit the letter K, which leads me directly into knitting. It's not something I can say I'm good at (yet) but I'm getting better with practice. At least I've reached the point where if I make a mistake the chances are now 50/50 that I'll not have to rip it all out and start again!



- also, if you Google search a particular brand of yarn, the chances are quite good that they have a site and more than likely have free patterns using their yarns

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Knitting content? This blog has knitting content?

Who knew? Actually I *have* been knitting, but it's things that I can't show here at the moment. This I can show. It's the Bespoke Pillow from the Holiday 2007 issue of Interweave Knits - Holiday Gifts magazine. Unfortunately the colour of the wool isn't coming through properly in the picture, but it's a soft olive-y green which will go with their decor. I'm about half done.

For those of you who don't have the magazine, the top and bottom of the pillow are done in seed stitch, with St st in the middle - which in turn gets duplicate stitched with his initials. This is for a friend who just got his first lazy boy chair which is crying out for a special pillow.

Monday, December 03, 2007

TAST - Weeks 47 and 48 and 'J'

Here are my efforts for weeks 47 and 48 for the Take a Stitch Tuesday challenge. Week 47 was the thorn stitch, which is quite fun to do. I can certainly see the use of this stitch to make trees, but I also love it for couching because it adds a bit more texture to whatever you are couching on. Like this stitch!

Week 48 is the Knotted Cable Chain stitch, also new to me. It took a bit of work for me to get into the rhythm of the stitch but once I did, I liked it. Both of these stitches are ones I will do again, with pleasure.

Today I will also visit the letter 'J'. I thought long and hard about what I could talk about that involved that letter and realized the bestest thing is Jack - my husband of 27 years. What can I say, other than he's the most wonderful present I ever got. We actually met around Christmastime about 29 years ago - his sister introduced us. It didn't take me long to realize he was 'the one', but he resisted mightily. He's fourteen years older than I so he had this problem with believing he was too old for me. It took some doing to convince him otherwise!! He treats me like a queen. He cooks, he cleans - what more could I ask for!

Further on the letter 'J' - how about the jobs I've held over the years?
- I began when I was 14 with volunteering at the little local library, doing typing, filing and such. Had to ride my bike about 5 miles to get to the library, so I must have been dedicated.
- in high school I worked for the head of the commercial department doing typing, which led to a few short-term placements throughout grade 12 at various businesses. I actually spent about as much time out of school as I did in.
- I graduated at 16 and immediately got a job as a secretary at a new high school which was opening that September. I worked half days as the person who did most of the printing/duplicating for the school and the other half days as the secretary in the library. It was quite stressful because they really needed a full-time person doing the printing and I ended up working most of my lunch hours and staying late to keep caught up. The day they told me they were planning to add doing the secretarial work for the guidance office was the day I quit. Funny thing, they had to hire two people to do what I was doing before I left!
- from there I worked as a secretary for an insurance adjuster, which was a job I loved. Unfortunately the work load slackened and it came down to the boss keeping his wife on or me. You can guess which one he had to let go.
- then began my work in the CIBC (which was known as the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce then). First I worked in a tiny little branch in my hometown and then transferred to a much larger branch in the city. That was just about the time that Jack and I were beginning to date and decided to get married. So...I transferred back to the town I live in now and worked there for four and a half years putting all my earnings into our first house. Once the mortgage was paid off, I quit in order to raise our sons.
- once the boys were in school full time I took over an established route with Avon and did that for about eight years building my business up to over a hundred customers. It was exhausting doing all the running and it seemed I spent most of my life in the car. Once the boys left home, I quit and have been enjoying staying home ever since.

There, that probably constitutes too much information about me!!

Friday, November 30, 2007

Random-ness (maybe even some mumbling)

Sorry folks, no picture today. However you might be interested to know that I've started on the last handmade Christmas present today. Pictures will follow.




Thursday, November 29, 2007

All about "I"

Today, because I haven't been home long enough to actually accomplish anything, will be about "I" - and before you think my grammer ain't no good, I'm talking about the letter I.

I will tell you all about the things I like (some of which you might know, some of which you might not).

-Chocolate. Dark, decadent, succulent, top of the food groups, chocolate.
-Books. Craft books, novels, how to's, organizational books, self help books, biographies, even the back of cereal boxes.
- Satsuma bubble bath from The Body Shoppe. Oh to just inhale the scent direct from the bottle. Totally sublime.
- Scalloped potatoes. Actually pretty much any kind of potato is good but I particularly love scalloped. One of the ten best comfort foods (almost as good as chocolate).
- Purple, and blue, and burgundy. Red too. I'm a 'winter' so that probably explains why I really like those colours.
- Dogs and cats, as long as they're kept under control and not running loose
- carnations and orchids. Single old-fashioned roses too.
- The library, because it has such a wonderful selection of books (see above)
- People, because they are so diverse and many of them are so very interesting
- my town and my country. I would not want to live anywhere else in the world.

I'm sure there is a lot more, but that's all I can come up with for now.

On another note, thanks Arlee for the suggestion in the comments yesterday that I consider making bags for the homeless shelter in order to use up my denim. Great idea!