A slow return

Life still hasn't returned to normal as yet.  The island is over run with workers trying to repair the damage.  They have cut most of the damaged trees that are a danger but there is still a lot to go, some of mine included.  Huge piles of green waste are pushed up everywhere.

I keep thinking about all the birds that have lost their nests but they are making a racket up there in the trees and I am still getting visitors to my bird baths, but less of the little birds.

So today I will go to my patchwork group, then the gallery on another and then restock the pantry.  (My insurance covered my spoilage of food). I ordered more threads which have arrived for the canvas work and now that I have sewn new curtains to replace the ones that were damaged I am doing a little each day on the scrap quilt. I put that little cross stitch I was working on into this.  Can you spot it?

Doing just a bit each day, no major goals, seems to be the way to go.

Monthly day at the gallery

Yesterday was shopping day.  We have a community truck that brings our shopping to our door, saving having to get it back here ourselves.  Also it was the day for the monthly lecture at the Art Gallery where I meet my friend Janie and we go to the lecture and then have coffee together.  This months lecture looked at work from people who had been displaced in Asia and who then created works that was drawn from memories of place by their grandparents.  I limited myself to just viewing one level and came away with so much appreciation of the work presented.

Then I headed to 'All Treads' to buy some materials for my next Sonnet piece which will be in canvas work.  Then as luck would have it I found a piece of work I stitched back in my 20's!  (1970's). All the other work I did got lost, given or thrown away.  I remember doing some big pieces.

This next piece will be a lot more traditional in the stitching.  I have to re-learn all those skills again! 

(Stitching was just a hobby back then.  Music was my main focus.)

A dilemma

This months sonnet sees me facing a dilemma.  Do I design a new piece or use something I have already designed that I like?

I have a quilt design that was inspired by the work of an indigenous artist.  Problem is that quilts take some time to make.

Do I compose another piece?

Well, I am working on this, but again I may not get it finished within the month.

Or do I use an old design?

Like 'Choppy and the Universe.'?

I think I will post Choppy and if I finish one of the others I will use that as well.

Sonnet 14:  Not from the stars do I my judgement pluck

Not from the stars do I my judgement pluck;
And yet methinks I have Astronomy,
But not to tell of good or evil luck,
Of plagues, of dearths, or seasons’ quality;
Nor can I fortune to brief minutes tell,
Pointing to each his thunder, rain and wind,
Or say with princes if it shall go well
By oft predict that I in heaven find:
But from thine eyes my knowledge I derive,
And, constant stars, in them I read such art
As truth and beauty shall together thrive,
If from thyself, to store thou wouldst convert;
Or else of thee this I prognosticate:
Thy end is truth’s and beauty’s doom and date.

 

 

(here is the pattern.)

Another portrait

I have now finished the portrait I was stitching for the on-line workshop with Suzie Vikery and have found that her method is quicker than how I was stitching portraits before.  There is room for lots of different methods and I am adding this one to my box of tricks.

As I am still struggling with my health issues I decided to sign up for a year of classes with this group.  It will take me out of my comfort zone and take my mind off all the other things.   So here comes 12 new projects!!

BUT, I just opened the first class and it is one that I did over 20 years ago with Dijanne Cevall.  In fact I had a lino print that I used in a book cover, that is still to be finished.  But I know I used one of her lino blocks to print this, I didn't make my own.

I now have trouble with arthritis so I'm not looking forward to doing lino cuts but I have kept some of my blocks from back then.

Her work has moved on since then so I better make another block, or at least try.

Shakespeare Sonnet for January 2025

I selected sonnet No 3 as the inspiration for this months piece of work.

This is how I 'feel' when I look at the photos of myself and my son Guy when he survived his reaction to penicillin as a babe.

 

Look in your glass

Look in thy glass, and tell the face thou viewest
Now is the time that face should form another;
Whose fresh repair if now thou not renewest,
Thou dost beguile the world, unbless some mother.
For where is she so fair whose unear’d womb
Disdains the tillage of thy husbandry?
Or who is he so fond will be the tomb
Of his self-love, to stop posterity?

Thou art thy mother’s glass, and she in thee
Calls back the lovely April of her prime:

So thou through windows of thine age shall see
Despite of wrinkles this thy golden time.
But if thou live, remember’d not to be,
Die single, and thine image dies with thee.

 

I repurposed an old piece of embroidery I found in an Op shop.  Some of the leaves on the branch were started but I choose my own colours and finish them and added the wreath and the quotation.  Looking at it now I see I was also influenced by the Marjory Allingham books written in the 1930's that I was reading at the same time as stitching this piece.  The colours and style are certainly 1930's.

I still have no idea what I will stitch for February!

 

 

 

Portrait Class

I am enjoying this portrait class with Suzie Vikery.  The idea is not to over think the process, just look for the essence not the detail.

This is my progress to day 3.

The diary cover is finished

I do a cover for my diary every year and have quite a collection.  This year I decided to just use scraps.  All those old 'tryouts' from my Kogin stitching are hanging around.  I was going to use these for covers for the diaries I bought for my friends but just wrapped up the diaries instead.

But I did make one for myself.

I left the year off this one in case I am unable to stitch much in 2025. ( I didn't get away from that cancer treatment scott free I'm afraid.  It has really effected my right wrist.). But, I did have fun going through those scraps.  I found lots of treasure there.

 

WIPW

So we are 4 days into advent and although I thought  I was organised I am deep in stitching my Xmas presents and challenge pieces for the three stitching groups to which I belong.

Each group has a system where instead of making presents for everyone, which I still sometimes do, you go into a draw and just make one present.  That is still 3 items to be completed and there are those other presents to do as well.

For my cottage quilting group the challenge was to use spots, stripes and I think checks.  The person who's name we pulled out of the hat was to tell us what they wanted.  My person said "just make anything you would like".  (Very helpful!!). As I bought a bundle of diaries for 2025 I decided on a book cover.   (There are 6 or 7 under construction.)

I did have a false start because I forgot to look at list of favourite fabrics each person liked.  I started with brights when in fact she likes pastels.  (The bright one will be for someone else.)

I was going to embroider her name on the cover but decided to stitch a small portrait instead. 

I like this book cover and if she doesn't like it the printed cover of the dairy is very pretty anyway.

Back to work.

New Bag

I am almost finished my new knitting bag.  I started it some time ago but sat down and got it done.  There have been some major set backs.  My 720 machine is still in for service, (they say I am progressing up the list but it will still be a few weeks before it is finished), so I am sewing on the old 1260.  This doesn't allow the same level of control, and the arthritis in my right wrist means I make mistakes more often.

But I am keeping at it.  I am questioning just what to do about this mistake.  I don't have any cotton of the same colour left so I thought I might just put a charm over it to cover it up. But which one?

I think the Easter bunny will win.

The cat button I bought in France a number of years ago and I think this will cover the closing cord nicely.

After getting carried away with the embroidery stitching the square into a bag my wrist gave out all together for a while.

I started with the deep green to join the edges, which looked bland so I added up and down feather stitch to make flowers, which then needed buds, then shading and finally beads.  I stopped here as my wrist said "that's it, no more!"

I really don't care if it hurts, I love stitching.  I just shouldn't sit for extended amounts of time,  short bursts would be better.  So just the closing cord to go.. 

 

 

WIPW

The next embroidery is all ready to go.  This is a traditional style of stitching from Norway.  It is very like Japanese Kogin but stitched with wool on linen.  I have stitched a sample bookmark using the Japanese technique, i.e. starting in the middle of the fabric and thread.  This time I am going to trial the Norwegian method, starting at the top left hand corner and the end of the thread.  It is on 40 count linen so I think I will need to use a a magnifier.

I am also using up 'orphan blocks' for CQ 4.  I have another row of 5" blocks to go around the edge and perhaps another red border or perhaps just red binding.

I have 'fudged' some of the measurements to fit the blocks together but I think once it is quilted this will not be too noticeable.