In No Particular Order

On the weekend, Marilyn and I attended the Ukrainian bazaar in Oshawa. There were lots of vendors but we were particularly drawn to the crafty ones.

I thought this was a clever way to use those battery operated tea lights:

We also found a display of beautifully hand-stitched and finished Christmas ornaments:

We learned that these were Bev's (the vendor's) original designs. We were impressed with the quality of her work and her use of beads, specialty threads, and specialty stitches. We told her we thought she'd really enjoy being involved with our guild as she mentioned she doesn't have any other stitcherly friends. We assured her she'd definitely find 'her people' among us.

At stitching yesterday morning, we had a little celebration for MaryK's birthday.

I worked on Smitten, only to realize I had used white for the beginnings of the snowman rather than DMC 3033. I'm now deciding if I'll pick out all the white and restitch with 3033 or just stitch the rest of him with the white.

At guild this week, I'm doing a little session on Rhodes stitches. They're variations of straight stitches that are layered, usually in a rotation fashion. Some examples:

I was inspired when I stitched this Drawn Thread piece called 'Stars':

There were three sizes of stars:

Also that rust-coloured item is an 'octagonal Leviathan' stitch. 

I still haven't FFOd this piece but will put it on my list of 'things to do' now that it's seen the light of day again since I finished stitching it in 2019.

I've also been prepping an introductory class on punch needle which I'll be doing at the guild's December stitch day. It'll be a project-based workshop where we stitch a poinsettia pin.

It's a free pattern but I've contacted the designer PlanetJune for permission to teach it in the class. I was very pleased to learn she is a Canadian designer so am very happy to support her design business. She has graciously consented.

I've been assembling all the stuff I'll use for demonstration and will have extras of everything for anyone who doesn't have everything needed for the class. 

I have extra locking hoops and will hand out pins to any who want them for the back of their piece.

I couldn't find the fabric I thought I'd use - a couple of yards from someone's stash. I spent some time trying to figure out where I'd get some for my students. Then I remembered that I had a whole bin of punch needle stuff that I hadn't looked into for quite a while.

Inside was a whole bunch of fabric - weaver's cloth and osnaburg - that I had stashed away for future punch needle projects. Yay! Not only is there more than enough for my students, it'll put a welcome dent in my vast stash of crafting supplies.

I finished stuffing and stitching a couple more Little Buddies. (I just can't help myself, they're so stinkin' cute!). This is how little they are - about 18cm (5") tall.

Rusty, Reginald, and Ernest

Rusty, Ernest, Reginald, and Davis like to stand around looking cool. I have sought suggestions for names for future Little Buddies. They knit up very quickly but finishing (knitting and attaching the ears, stuffing, stitching the legs/arms, and embroidering the faces) takes almost as much time as the actual knitting.

Rusty and Reginald's 'fur' is Rowan British Breeds DK yarn we were given on our UK knitting tour in 2011. 

We spent the day at Rowan in  Holmfirth, Yorkshire and in the afternoon had an intarsia class taught by a couple of the Rowan designers, Emma King and Jemma Weston.

Rusty's sweater is some Cleckheaton DK from my stash and Reginald's is some lovely KnitPicks Andean Treasure 100% Baby Alpaca yarn. 

Last night I got caught up on the Arne and Carlos Christmas Stocking KAL.

The blue bits are the start of snowflakes, I think.

And finally, I got good mail the other day. The results of my mammogram I had last week.

Had there been any concern after the mammogram, I would have received a phone call within a couple of days of the scan. The Ontario screening program also includes cervical checks (PAP smears) and colon cancer screening (at home test and occasional colonoscopies) every two years, in which I participate. 

Although our universal healthcare system is not perfect, I am grateful for the preventative measures such as these tests and regular check ups. I believe they lead to early detection of many treatable illnesses hence contribute to the good health and longevity of our citizens.

Another Ornament Fully Finished

I have a pile of stitched items that are finished but not fully finished. This snowman star ornament has been languishing on that pile for years. I picked out some fabric for the back last week and today I finally got cracking and fully finished it.

It's Teresa Kogut's 'Star Shaped Snowman'. I stitched it 1 over two on 36ct dirty linen.

I started and finished it in a few days over 5 years ago.

The fabric I used for the back was from my stash. I don't remember what project it was originally intended for. For the cording I used 4 plies of 6 strands of DMC folded in half before twisting. 

Did that motivate me to grab another one to finish while I was in that mode? Heck no. I'm going to do some stitching when I'm done this post.

I've been working on a couple more octagons and have 11 completed. 

I'm not quite as obsessed as I was with the first blanket as I have lots of stitching I also want to do. However, I plug away at this while I watch TV at night. The plan is to make 30 octagons again for a 5 x 6 blanket.

I got my high dose shot for influenza last week as well as my 8th COVID shot. Lots of places can administer both including my second favourite Shoppers Drug Mart. Signing up was easy. I just tried different places (online booking portals) until I could get the immunizations right away as some places didn't have spots available until a couple of weeks from now. 

I haven't had any issues - no redness at the injection sites, no tiredness, etc. I continue to be grateful for our universal healthcare - a system that funds preventative medicine such as this.

Yesterday I had lunch with folks I hadn't really chatted with for quite a while. The restaurant was full of ladies who like to 'do lunch'. We all concluded that women friends are the best. It's good to have the support of caring people.

I'm caught up to yesterday with my Arne and Carlos Christmas Stocking KnitAlong. 

The six rounds presented every day don't take long to do. I'm not sure where I will display it along with the other previous two that I've done.

Tomorrow I'm attending a Ukrainian Christmas Bazaar with Marilyn. I hope to either have lunch there or bring some food home with me. Sunday I'm having the girlies over for some stitching. Jen1, Poppy, and I will also do our planning to make Drop Zone bags. 

We have set aside another Sunday before Christmas to actually get together to do the sewing.

Visiting and the Pastime Pieces 2025 Fall Retreat

I hit the road on Wednesday morning - headed for Stitch-It Central in London. I wanted to pick up some threads still missing from kitting up a couple of projects and something Judy R wanted.

Afterwards, I checked into my hotel. The traffic on Wellington Rd when I drove to the city centre was horrible. There are several construction sites where there would be one lane of traffic each way on one side of the road then we'd all veer to the other side of the road. This is a main thoroughfare to get to the 401 from the city centre. I have never seen so much construction on one road at one time.

I picked up Judy L at her hotel and we drove back down Wellington Rd (this time in the dark @#$%&) to dine at Red Lobster. Back at her hotel afterwards, I gave her the Persian Tiles blanket and a little buddy we thought should be named BUSTer - since Judy's receiving treatment for breast cancer. 

After a nice visit, I headed back down Wellington Rd (!@#$%&) to my hotel for the night.

I slept in the next morning as I didn't have to check out 'til 11 and I only had a bit of shopping to do at Len's Mills before leaving the area. Shortly after shopping there I headed to Petrolia to meet Tessa for coffee and a catch-up visit. We have kept in touch on Facebook over the years but I hadn't seen her since before I left the Sarnia area in 1989. We have a lot of acquaintances in common and had lots of life events to get caught up on. 

After that, I drove to my niece's  (Rosa's) place in Oil Springs. Her husband, Darryl, was home - having just taken a deer on their acreage and was cleaning it in the shed. I chose not to take a look. My other niece, Ana, picked up Chinese food on the way over. We enjoyed a nice supper and visited until bedtime.

Friday morning I was up and out before 9 to meet up with retired ladies I taught with when I lived in Sarnia. They get together for breakfast the first Friday of the month. I often try to time my visits to family in the area so I can join 'The Breakfast Club' and have a nice visit.

After breakfast, I headed back to London to the retreat centre to unload the car and stake out a table in the stitching room. Barb's train was arriving before 2pm so I headed downtown to retrieve her from the VIA station and bring her to the retreat. Before leaving for the train station I had to stop in at Dollarama and pick up a pair of reading glasses for stitching. I had cleverly left my stitching bag at home with them, my nametag, and rechargeable lamp. I also dropped into Michaels to pick up a lamp to get me through the retreat.

With Barb safely picked up, we headed back to the retreat centre and started in on stitching. Other folks we knew were Yvonne, Chris, and Blaire. Most of the other participants were folks who had also attended last year. There were 32 stitchers in all including the organizer, Marlene.

Our stitching room had great lighting. The arrow indicates where Barb and I sat. The problem with this room is all the surfaces are hard - nothing with sound absorption like drapes, carpeting, acoustic tiles so it is very LOUD when we're all talking enthusiastically.

Marlene set up a little popup up shop just outside the stitching room door. There were lots of lovely models to admire,

and lots of bins crammed with patterns for us to peruse.

I sent these photos to Jen1. She zoomed in on the models and asked me to pick up the pattern for one she coveted. Other than that, I didn't purchase anything for myself. There were lots of temptations but my existing pattern stash is so vast I really didn't want to add to the pile.

Over the 2 1/2 days I mainly worked on 5 projects:

I finished one of the big leaves on Newcastle Bouquet. I really must haul this out on a regular basis and get it finished up. I've been working on it for over 5 years.

I got most of the Buckeye Scarlet (red) filled in on 'Smitten'. There's a lot of stitching in this so I doubt I'll get it done for this Christmas.

I finished the third and largest house from the Hello from Liz Mathews Jingle Ball pattern, "Snow Globes". I want to do one more motif to go in front of the houses in the snowglobe.

I got a good start on 'Ginger', the Stacy Nash Jingle Ball pattern. This 36ct Aztec Red fabric is easier to stitch on than the blue I'm using for Smitten. 

Following up on my last post, I did receive the chart from Annie Beez and got the project kitted up. It will also be stitched on the Aztec Red fabric. 

Another long-neglected project that got some of my attention was the second of the 'Spring Green Pears' from Annie Beez. I like doing alphabets so figured this would be fun to stitch while gabbing at my table.

The first pear was completed a while back.

One of the things in our swag bag was this small, mesh project bag with a 'Create' chart. We also received a ball of #8 Aurifil variegated perle cotton intended for this project but instead, I used 6 strands of random DMC floss in various rainbow colours. I completed the stitching on Friday night.

Our lodgings were pretty comfortable. I had taken my foam bed topper, duvet, and pillow from home so was very cozy in my room. Toilet and shower facilities were down the hall.

Show and share on Saturday night was very inspiring. I didn't take anything this year but must make a note to take some things to show off next year. 

It started snowing on Saturday night. Sunday morning there was a light blanket of snow on the ground with temps just around 0C and it continued to snow. I made the executive decision to leave for home early so we packed up the car after some last-minute stitching after breakfast and got on the road shortly after 11. Rather than drive all the way down to the 402 or 401, I took the cross country route (pink line) until meeting up with the 401 at Drumbo. The route is slower but was WAY less annoying with no traffic or road spray.

We stopped for lunch at the ON Route past Cambridge then made for the 407. The roads were very sloppy - lots of spray on the windshield but not really slippery. I got Barb to her place in Ajax before 3 and I got home shortly after 3.

I was pretty 'peopled out' so very glad to get home to peace and quiet. To decompress, I got caught up on my Arne and Carlos KAL. 

I had planned to take this project to the retreat but forgot it along with my stitching bag. D'oh!

I'm happy I got to visit with so many people before and during the retreat. I haven't been back to Lambton County for visits for quite a while so it was nice to touch base with everyone.

There's still snow on the ground. I'm hoping we'll get a good west wind and all the leaves on my lawn from the neighbour's birch tree and the big one on my boulevard blow away. My boulevard tree holds onto its leaves usually until December. At which point, on a sunny, dry day I run around with the mulching lawn mower and get them bagged up in yard waste bags. Hopefully the lawn mower will start since the last time I used it a year ago. But that's 'future Geri's' issue.

Starting to Pack for the Retreat

Two of the projects I'm doing at the Jingle Ball require hand-dyed red fabric. Aztec Red is required for one of them and is an acceptable substitute for the other. 

Fortunately, Kimat Designs  had a fat 1/8th in stock (13" x 18") which would work for both projects.

I spent the rest of the morning, kitting up 'Ginger'.

I'm still missing a couple of threads that Kimat didn't have in stock so I hope to pick them up tomorrow at Stitch-It Central when I arrive in London. 

I went through all my stitching project bags and managed to empty a couple of them and reincorporate the threads into my stash. I also decided to update my hand-dyed thread inventory and identify where the threads are if they're currently residing in a project bag with a UFO. 

I have the lists (Weeks Dye Works, Gentle Art, Classic Colorwork) in Notes on my devices so when I'm shopping for floss I can see what I already have and where to locate it. 

I'm taking 10 projects including a couple I haven't started yet. They all fit in my basket.

At weekend retreats, I like to spend some time on each project. usually set my watch for an hour, and cycle through them. My rationale is that I loved them at one time, so I'm going to give them a little love again. 

I'm leaving some at home that I'm not interested in working on for one reason or another.

I'm still waiting to get the pattern information for the Annie Beez 'Christmas Pears' class. I emailed Jingle Ball central yesterday and got no response. 

I emailed them today as well as Annie Beez so hopefully I'll get a response before I leave tomorrow. I'd like to be able to print the .pdf  and if I need to buy a particular thread, pick it up tomorrow at Stitch-It Central. 

I completed yesterday's Christmas Stocking KAL rounds.

I took a peek at today's rounds and the yellow and white area will be completed before starting the heel tomorrow. I will be taking this knitting to the retreat to have something different to do. I can just knit from the chart on my phone.

I'm looking forward to this trip and will be visiting several folks before getting to the retreat. 

This morning while I was putting my Halloween decorations away, I happened upon this plaque from almost 40 years ago.

In a past life, when I used to live and work in Sarnia at the mouth of Lake Huron, I used to crew on sailboats that would race on Sundays through the spring, summer, and fall. Raider's owner and captain was my flute-playing friend, Tessa, who also taught high school music, is now retired, and is the music director of the Lambton Concert Band. We used to play in the pit orchestra for local musicals. 

I sent Tessa the photo of the plaque today and she had no recollection of the events or of giving her crew these plaques. I liked crewing on her boat because it was one of the smallest in the race class where all the boats were rated based on their hull length. The bigger boats always had to give us time (which would be subtracted from our actual time) even though we rarely, if ever, crossed the finish line first. The previous boat I crewed on was bigger and although we often crossed first, being in the same class as the smaller boats, had to give them time (add it to their actual time) and never actually won.

Anyway this evoked some good memories so Tessa and I plan to get together on Thursday afternoon for coffee while I'll be in the area.

So today, I'm getting organized to be away from home for 5 days. I have laundry on the clothesline. Lists of what to take for the retreat, what to unplug at home before I leave, what to bring to drop off with folks in Sarnia, etc. There is a list on my iPhone, one beside the sink in my ensuite bath, one on the kitchen table, etc. 

Some Progress ...

While stitching socially, I work on the Hello from Liz Mathews' 2025 Jingle Ball 'Snow Globe' project. It's on 32-ish count fabric and doesn't have a lot of counting. All that being said, I still erred from the original pattern.

I'm on the 3rd, and largest house.

The left and right walls should only be 1 column thick and I did 2. Now I'm widening the roof to compensate.

I didn't put it in my last post but I did get some filling in of the red on Smitten while I was at the Northumberland Hills retreat last week.

This is also a good project for social stitching - not a lot of counting and just a lot of filling in.

Now I'm having to decide what projects I'll take to the Pastime Pieces retreat this weekend. I'll have to have a look through my UFOs.  I have a couple of other projects I'd like to start, including 'Ginger' from Stacy Nash's upcoming Jingle Ball class.

I'm going to use fabric from my stash - probably 36 or 40ct so I only have to stitch with one strand. I'll definitely use hand-dyed thread for her dress and head/body parts. I need to get cracking and see what I need to kit this up. Change of plans - I found the perfect fabric in stock at Kimat Designs so have put in an order. I can also use it for the Annie Beez' Christmas Pears.

I also have to figure out what table gifts I'll take for the three other people at my table. I thought of something last night that will work; I just need to buckle down and make it.

I received some lovely gifts from a special friend who attended the Nicola Parkman retreat in England a couple of weeks ago.

A pair of scissors from Liberty of London. Very chi chi poo poo!

Three fat quarters from the Victoria and Albert fabric collection.

and three of the coveted Tilda Fabrics from this year's Merry Little Christmas collection. 

They will definitely be used for very special projects!

I finished Day 6 of the Arne and Carlos free Christmas stocking KnitALong.

There is no chart on Sundays. I've had a look at today's and we'll be switching colours again.

There has been a lot of night-time TV watching between the baseball games (so bummed out the Jays didn't take it all) and other shows. I've managed to crank out 10 granny squares and 8 octagons on my second Persian Tiles blanket.

I don't plan to take this project to the retreat for a break from stitching but that could always change.

I finished my latest Little Buddy. I think Ernest is a good name for one of the bears but I don't have any idea what other names I'd use for the other ones. This guy is almost smiling. His sweater is some leftover alpaca yarn.

He's also a supporter of breast cancer research.

Now I really must start crafting my table gifts...