Winter Brook - Day 1 continued

Though I'm not 100% sold on the whites and grey, I did fine a nice range of water in some batik FQ

This is really diddly stuff and I regret the waste but I decide to fuse the water.

After I retraced the water onto some "golden" paper, a brand of tracing paper, I transferred that, reversed, to a light fusible bond material.

I spent most of the afternoon cutting it out, then placing it on the batik. I started cutting this out, but though it should save that part for tomorrow.

Winter Brook

In my morning walks I cross over a stream that drains the runoff of our newly developed area. I'm sure it was much more important when there were no houses and streets. Birds and rabbits seem to be the only remaining wildlife here, but it still serves them well.
I remembered to take some photos last week and now I've been thinking about techniques for rendering this into cloth.

There is a lot going on here so I went looking for a simpler version and found this picture I had captured in 2015.

A lot of differences but enough similarities I decided to try it.
I spent the last few days thinking about techniques. It certainly didn't lend itself to crumbs and netting. Some of this would be easily done with fusing, the water in particular, while the trees could be done with larger snippets.
The snow, however is crying out for curved piecing. This would enable some trapunto type contouring in the assembly. In doing that, it is telling me minimal over stitching.

With all these decision half made, I transferred the image to light interfacing. This will be the base of the picture. Any patterned I may need I have to make first, before I begin and the surface and the lines will gradually obscure all my colouring.

Now I have to hunt through my stash...........
ALL THE STORES WILL BE CLOSED TOMORROW.
so I can't shop! oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooO?

Moon On the Water - Final

This was a fun little exercise, to ease me back into harness.
The amount of stitching is really only visible in person ( my camera is not that good ), hence the backside shot. In retrospect, I would do this again BUT I'd have a small amount of fusible material in the area of the cuts. This would ease the surface stitching and make it a little neater. Why didn't I do that? My brain isn't really working, YET.

After binding, I gave it all a quick once over with very dilute Pearl paint, just to up the shine factor.

What's next?

Back To My Art - Finally!

Christmas is over. Most of the mess is cleaned up and NOW I can start thinking about creating once again.
I've pretty well got my new machine figured out, but the manual is handy in a drawer.
I've spent a long time trying to decide whether to try for an out door show in TO this June. Spending an afternoon with my daughter ( the graphic artist and master of sunsets over water) I've committed to her. That means She's going to hound me to do this.
I spent a few days "resting" in front of the computer going through all those photos I had squirrelled away in files and Pinterest and pulled out about 20.
I'll mentally work through the logistics of each piece before I even select any material.
But I needed to warm up today so I selected a small piece with an interesting technique.

A moon reflected in water sounds straightforward enough but this one uses an interesting approach.

This was my moon material. It also end up being the reflection materials as well.

The night background is reverse appliqued onto the lighter material.

Then little slits are cut out of the background and the yellow reflection shows through. Very straightforward.

Now it just all needs stitching.
Enough for today.
I like it. It's cute...not great but a clever and simple approach.
I'll finish the "water" with a few different coloured threads.

Christmas Countdown.

Without grandchildren my Christmas is calm but I look forward to our family, mine and his combined spending some relaxed and fun time. The "kids" work hard and play hard. Coming to our place is soooo tame.!

I spent this morning replenishing the breakfast oatmeal cookies.

And then I tackled the first round of shortbread cookies. The Scottish version is always made in this ceramic form.

Cut, and cooling. Ready to eat!

Now I can sew for the rest of the day!

Fabric - The Perfect Recyclable Gift Wrap!

After I used the morning to bake tarts, I wrapped presents in the afternoon.
Hate PAPER.. what a waste so for the last few years we've been using fabric.
I try to use my painted fabric but I'll go with commercial on the bigger pieces.

Even those salvage pieces are called into use!
To morrow?
More pillow cases. 

Working on Some Christmas Gifts

I had purchased one 10 min. pillow case kit for my grand niece, so I thought a would make a few more as stocking stuffers. Didn't I decide that and I received an email from my son ASKING for pillow cases.
KARMA!
So I made two pairs today. The one on the left will go nicely with my forest green bedding and the other one I decided I'd gift this evening, after the Messiah concert, to a woman who has taken me to a number of stellar events in the city.
 Tomorrow I'll play with some of the embroidery settings on my machine and see what they'll do!

Oh The Weather Outside Is ..........

So I stayed in and made RUM BALLS
A confection of my youth. Well young adulthood really. Young children hate these, between the rum and the bitter sweet taste. So it was considered an ADULT COOKIE. ( I think I seduced my hubby with these.)

Not really a family recipe. They were in the charity cookbook from the Windsor Art Gallery that was published back in the 50's.

Here's the recipe I use............

Approx 14 oz of chocolate cookie crumbs (roughly 2 7oz pkg of chocolate wafers)
1 C walnut crumbs
1 C icing sugar
1 C Cocoa powder ( baking cocoa )
1/2 C rum
1/2 C corn syrup

Mix well.
At some point its easiest to switch to using your hands to really blend the dry with the sticky wet.
Roll into firm balls ( 1 aim for 1 inch)
Roll in icing sugar
That's it!
They keep best in the frig, or cold cellar but they do freeze well also.

Morning After....Lots of Fun

Well who doesn't like to blab on and on about their work!

I had a great time and was so pleased with how my presentation was received. You just never know.
A delightful plus was some members of an on line Quilting Board drove in from Orangeville for the event.  http://www.quiltingboard.com/  It was nice to put faces to names.

At one moment I paused, a little concerned with the silence in the room, but everyone was fixed on the image on the screen......mesmerized! They still don't believe me when I say there is no magic here, just critical "seeing" and analytical deconstruction.

After my presentation, the members gathered to examine the pieces I had laid out. I answered a lot of very good questions. Questions about workshops, I fielded back to the guild executive. We'll see what happens there.

And when I got home, Hubby was still up and we chatted ( well he listened while I rambled on and on) until the unheard of hour of midnight!
(Men put up with so much.....HAHAHAHA)

What to do today!?

Big Night Tonight...!

I've been keeping myself busy these last few weeks leading up to this evening when I am scheduled to speak at our monthly guild meeting. I spent a long time preparing a slide show as well as picking out sample pieces from my work. The photos were particularly difficult as I have SO MANY. ( I could go on for days LOL ) I'll let you know how that went...... tomorrow.

Not being able to sew for 3 weeks was particularly trying so I made up for it these last four days by assembling this "throw". It was a deep discounted bargain I couldn't resist. The plus is I really like it. So it's a win win situation.
My 'new' Husqvarna works very well though there are some interesting things to get used to. I do have the option of turning features on and off but I thought I'd live with the factory setting for a while.

So this is what I was working on. Two of the five rows are fully assembled.

This was the first time I had tried the "flying geese" method of make 4 at the same time, cutting them apart at the end. I was certainly impressed with the accuracy. I wonder if one way over the other uses more material. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm..... something for research.

At Last.......................

I brought my new machine home today.
Husqvarna Sapphire 875, not the newest model and used, but much more than the Janome that I used and abused for 10 yrs.
So I WILL SEW today.
I cut out a lap quilt yesterday so I will get acquainted and amuse myself with assembling that.
(AND just MAYBE, I won't be the BEAR hubby says I've been, and I won't spend hours in front of the refrigerator...........close to 5 lbs worth, I think!)