Enjoying Fabulous February Weather

This has been the best winter to get stuck in the north. We've had record-breaking temperatures - into the teens! 

Yesterday Skip and I ventured down Hall's Road to see what we could see. Chickadees were out and I saw a red-bellied woodpecker. The red squirrel was not afraid of us at all. It knows we humans leave food for them.

A little while later we saw one at another feeder. They are so cute!

A bunch of tick bearing white-tailed deer crossed our path. There were about 10 in the group.

Back at home, I finished my worsted weight Excavation blanket. Now I need to twist the fringes. It's about 3 feet wide and 4 feet long - nice and cozy and squishy.

I'm crocheting another blanket. 7" x 7" squares, alternating darks and lights. I'm doing six, 8 block strips and will sew the sides together to create a checkerboard pattern. Crocheting should use up a lot of my remaining acrylic worsted yarn.

This week was the Trillium Embroidery Guild meeting for February. Highlights are outlined here. It was the kickoff to the Round Robin with 11 participants, and Marilyn's introduction to wool felt appliqué. This Saturday is our monthly stitch day from 10 - 3.

Prepping for Another Stitch Day

Some of us are getting together on Sunday to stitch. I've been beavering away on my Live on Little, especially on the filling in of large areas. In preparation for Sunday, I'm doing some of the counted bits so I won't need to count when I'm visiting with my stitcherly friends and just do filling in.

I'm almost done the waves below the house - only a couple more 'til I reach the left border. Then I can fill in all the 'beach' above the waves. 

I was very eager to start the lobster and the fish. I still need to stitch the lobster's antennae.

Then I got most of one of the whales done. I can fill in the rest while gabbing on Sunday. There is a lighter grey on the whale's tummy and one blowhole stitch which I'm going to change to a lighter thread. I've got the second lobster stitched except for its antennae as well. 

There will be all that blue to fill in. 

Last night I did more work on the bricks on the house. I'm still deciding what colour I'll do the mortar.

Once I get the ocean and its creatures done (including the mermaid), I'll start the sailboat. Basically, the bottom half of this piece is full coverage. See how dark the mortar is? 

There's also the issue of what colour to do the red on the Canadian flag. The pattern calls for a dark red (the darkest colour on the border flowers) for the US flag. To keep with the overall tone of the piece, I may use that colour, too. Anything redder could look out of place.

While I stitch, I listen to audiobooks or watch YouTube videos. Sometimes I stitch at night while watching TV with Skip. And, of course, I'm always thinking of what projects I want to do next: punch needle, cross stitch, surface embroidery, sewing, quilting, knitting, crochet. Such a mish-mash in my head.

Oh yeah...

I bought more beads at Michaels last week and made a new scissor fob. 

The previous one with these beads broke due to my using the wrong wire. With this 7 strand wire, it will hold up much better. A benefit to using scissor fobs is, if the scissors fall or are dropped, the fob, which weighs more than the scissors, will hit the ground first rather than the point of the scissors. It could save the scissors from getting damaged.

I really enjoy making useful beaded items like zipper pulls and scissor fobs.

Last Sunday Poppy, Barb, Victoria and I ventured into The Big City to a delightful fabric store, Country Clothesline in East York. They have so many lovely things. In particular, I was very pleased to see quite a selection of Liberty of London fabrics both the regular collections and the very luxurious Tana Lawn collection. This shop sells fabric by the half yard - not half metre. They also carry Tilda and French General fabrics. There were a few mini charm packs so I picked up this one to make yet another quilted checkerboard and a fat quarter for the lining/backing.

The fat quarter is from a different line but is an acceptable neutral that will work with the Etchings fabrics. 

There are 42 squares in the pack, exactly what is needed for the 7 x 6 checkerboard.

I was curious to know what the 'cause' was for this collection. Further research yielded this:

"The signature collage print of vintage ephemera lavishly layered with affirmational text, etched architectural renderings, damasks, and botanical elements which share a message of hope and strength. While we hope this beautiful piece will lift the spirits of all, it was created to help raise awareness for Parkinson’s Disease and contains special imagery relating to this cause such as tulips and uplifting quotes, one from a famous Parkinson’s survivor."

and further from the Moda website:

"Every year, as a company we take part in a local Parkinson's Moving Day event. The funds generated from the 'Collection for a Cause' initiative contribute to ongoing research, patient support programs, and initiatives aimed at raising awareness about Parkinson's disease. Along with your support we have been able to donate over $25,000 to Parkinson.org."

If you go to the website, there is a link to a free pattern for a tulip pillow. 

This is Family Day weekend in Canada - a February statutory holiday that was created after I retired from teaching. I'm glad folks have a long weekend in February to look forward to - time to spend with the family in the middle of our long, Canadian winters. I can't complain, though. Yesterday was our first snowfall in weeks and we only got about 5cm of snow. The snowplow came through mid-afternoon. By the time I went to bed, our snow clearing service had come and gone. I was very pleased they cleared the chunks/windrow at the bottom of the driveway left by the snowplow. 

At this stage in our lives, it's wonderful to find folks to take care of some of the tedious or physically demanding jobs around the house. Now if I could only find someone to do all our cooking... (sigh)

(sorry about the highlighting of the text - when I pasted the stuff from the Moda website, it happened and I don't know how to make it go away)

A Lot Can Be Accomplished on a Stitching Day

This year my guild has implemented a fun stitching day every first Saturday of the month. 19 of us showed up last Saturday! One group spent the entire day on Barbara Kershaw's Schwalm piece. I'm sure they were exhausted after all the intensive work.

I took several projects but really was motivated to get lot done on my Live on Little piece. The light is so good in that room I didn't even need my lamp.

I had done a lot of the green of the border the previous couple of days but finished the flowers for what border had been completed, then did a lot on the grass at the bottom, and the first word in the saying. The rest of the weekend I finished some of the windows and started the doors. 

I had planned to fill in the windows at stitching today but started in on the water below the grass instead. 

I'm really close to being able to start some of the nautical motifs at the bottom.

In the evenings when I'm watching TV with Skip or when my eyes are too tired to stitch, I keep working on my scrap blanket. I found more acrylic worsted yarn in the basement - some of which was from Skip's mother's stash. I'm at the part where I am decreasing on one side and increasing on the other to make a fringe-less section, adding length to the blanket.

It's going to be at least 12" (30cm) longer than it is wider. Once I have this part as long as I want it, I'll start another fringed triangle which, when finished, will get grafted onto this piece. I don't have a long enough circular needle so the stitches are bunched up. This Aero circular needle has a very annoying, stiff, loopy cable. I may switch to an interchangeable circular needle with a longer cable. The only issue with that is if there is any 'catch' when pushing stitches back onto the needle after turning the work over to knit on the return row. 

This will be a somewhat busy week. Skip is having a tooth extracted tomorrow and I have a dental cleaning on Wednesday. Skip is going out for dinner with a couple of friends on Wednesday night and the two of us are meeting friends for breakfast on Friday morning. In between bursts of activity we are being very lazy and doing a lot of napping. 

Sampler House

A couple of weeks ago on a Thursday, I got a text from Lori at Pansy Patch Quilts & Stitchery asking if I could stitch a model for her with a quick turnaround. It wasn't a very big piece, I had a stitching day planned for that weekend, and was free a couple of other days around it so I agreed to do it.

We met at a location equidistant between our homes the next day. I stitched that evening after supper, most of the next day, Sunday at my stitching day, and finished it up on Monday evening. Lori and I met again the following Saturday for the handoff.

She fashioned it into a pillow as are the others in the series. It has just been revealed to the public and will be released the first weekend in March at the 2024 Needlework trade show in Nashville TN. Today she posted the finished item in Instagram.

Sampler House from the series, Houses on Wisteria Lane.

Lori is, first and foremost, a quilter so a distinctive feature of her cross stitch patterns is an iconic quilt block - often on the door. In this case it is the churn dash block.

It was a pretty fun stitch and made up pretty quickly.