Here is Mother Earth-In the Beginning. You'll notice that I changed it from a horizontal presentation to vertical. It just works so much better that way. I've finished it as a show piece, by putting on a show sleeve. There is a show in the spring that I hope to get it into. The show theme is based, somewhat, on the elements. Interesting that when I view it on here, I start to see abstract female figures in the swirls of disharged fabric. I guess that goes along with the title.

Here is a close-up of Mother Earth-In the Beginning. You can actually see the parallel quilting lines in the black. All of the black areas of the quilt are quilted this way. The gold areas are free motion quilted along the lines of value change.

Afternoon outing

I'm not sure what to say. It was a pleasant afternoon stitching at MAWA. I sat at a table with the only other woman in the room who was anywhere near my age, but we talked with the younger women around us. I belong to many volunteer organizations, and this is the only one with any percentage of young people. They are friendly and energetic, but I wonder what role I would be cast in, if I were to become more active. Would I be seen as a mentoring elder, or as the crazy aunt, who must be humored? I will put future sessions in my calendar, but I don't think they'll be a priority.

Fabric Shopping

I did get to the fabric store to buy zippers on sale, and discovered that thread was on sale too! But--I had spent all of my money on blue yarn last week! Oh darn! I got six spools of thread and six zippers. I very much want to try the little purse pattern in the most recent Quilting Arts magazine, and that takes the same length zipper as I use in my little purses, so now I can play with both patterns. But--I found a bolt of Heirloom Quilting cotton--great for dyeing--on sale for 60% off. Now in my richer days,I would have bought the whole bolt, but I controlled myself and only bought 5 metres. So now I have lots to keep me busy for the rest of the month, because I sure can't afford to leave the house! I still plan to go the the Stitch'n'Bitch session at MAWA later today. DH is out shovelling snow so we can get the car out. It is the coldest day we've had yet -22C with windchill at -32c. I had to promise to make him a cooked breakfast, but it sounds like a good deal for me.

We're finding it difficult to keep the house cooler this winter--63F. Gradually we've been adding a degree when it gets uncomfortable and are now up to 66F. I'm reading on the internet about people in the USA who are trying to live with their houses at 55F. Last evening, when we were both just sitting, I broke down and put it up to 69F, after I had showered and washed my hair. I don't know how long we can keep this up, and when I read my Hydro bill, it's the electricity that's costing the big bucks. Still a bit of a stretch every month.

donkey work

Spent yesterday just puttering around the studio. Did a lot of clean-up, and then did the basic construction for a bunch of small purses. These are the ideal thing to take with me to do hand work at meetings etc. Tomorrow I plan to go to a Stitch'n'Bitch session at MAWA. This is the first one, and I have no idea what to expect. But I want to have quite a few of these purses ready for the sales next spring and summer. They sell really well, although not a great profit margin. I used to make them out of left overs, but they're so popular, that now I have to actually cut into good fabric. It's the same with my "coffee cuffs". The "coffee cuffs" use quite a bit of thread. Now, I have lots of thread, and some of it is quite old ( wooden spools anyone?), but thread will deteriorate over time, so some of this needs to be used. It's a P--s Off because I've been warned that thread will be going up in price in the new year, and I notice that no-one is having sales on thread anymore. But--there is a sale on zippers today and tomorrow, and I need a variety of colours, so I plan to stop in and see if I can get some pastel ones.

City Across the River-Nightfall.

Here is the small landscape I finished yesterday. It is about 11 1/2' by 11 1/2" . I was surprized at how much the base fabric pulled in with the needle felting process. I started with fabric 13 1/2" square. I felted in yarns over the entire surface and then added free motion embroidery for the city itself. This was done for the Fast Friday Internet challenge, and was supposed to be either a very close or very far view with demonstrated use of value. When I sat down to plan this, I checked out my three ( count'em, three!) large baskets of fancy yarns, that I use for embellishment, and discoverd that I had no blues. So, of course, I had to go out an buy blue yarn Now I have lots of blue yarn, but I'm much poorer. (lol) It had been suggested that I check out a shop called Wolseley Wardrobe for yarn. It turned out to be a scond hand clothing store, but with a small section in the back of the most interesting imported yarns. Some that I used was made in China, and another skein made in Turkey. I had originally planned to bind the edges of the piece, but when I got to that step, it resisted. So they are simply sewn , and left raw. The other needle felted piece I'm doing is not quite finished yet. I had planned to attach it to an open wooden square ( called a frame in embroidery jargon, but not a real picture frame as is generally known). It is attached using what is called a "gallery wrap". But when I tried it, it wasn't right. The piece calls for professional framing, and I just can't afford that right now. I'll post a picture when I finish the stitching.

New Work

Got to spend time in the studio yesterday. I'm working on a piece that uses my needle felter. I've hand-appliqued some gold "lumps". I used the technique that I learned in studying goldwork embroidery, where I padded the shapes with felt and then stitched the final fabric over the padded areas. In goldwork the final layer is often kid leather, but I used a man-made fibre. It is gold and, because it's been folded up in a bin for years, appears somewhat 'distressed". Then I needle felted some fancy yarns in a top to bottom pattern working around the "lumps". None of the yarns I had originally wanted to use were"right", and I ended up with some light green ones. On top of that I needlefelted some olive green silk rovings. Then I scattered the beads I had planned for "Mother Earth--In the Beginning", but half of them were wrong. So I've ended up with only dark brown, patterned beads for the top. I'll try to get them sewn on today. Now I have to think of a project for the beads that have been rejected yet again. My group, Ravenesque, will be here tonight, although a couple of the members can't make it. So I will be able to spend the evening sitting with friends in the studio, and hand-stitching beads.

Spoke with my DD last night about Christmas Day. I think she agrees that, after our dinner, which is usually at a local restaurant, we will go back to her house so the children can open their gifts from DH and I. She agrees that this will be much easier on the children than hauling them over to our house for gifts, and then dragging them back home. My DS will have his children for only a few hours later Christmas day, and prefers to have a quiet celebration with them at home.

So, very little in the way of active Christmas celebrations at our house. Regardless, I plan to have a tree. DH helped me get out the Christmas dishes yesterday, and my DGD noticed them right away, which made the whole thing worthwhile. Besides, how can we have Christmas without DH and I having our annual "discussion" about where the tree will go. I want to put it in front of the livingroom window, where I placed a table I bought with just that in mind, but DH refuses to move his Christmas Cactus, which is in full bloom. The "discussion" is just for show. Having the tree beside the kitchen door is much more convenient, especially for plugging in the lights, and it can still be seen from the street.