And welcome back to my blog.  :)

  I know that traditional Christmas is past, but we carry on until January 6, so this is still timely for me (not to mention, I didn't have internet access for 15 days!) 


I made this (and three other) wreaths out of the cuttings from our too-big tree, dollar store finds and a hot glue gun, and BSP asked why in the world we buy wreaths every year when I can make them for less than $20.  But my crafting wasn't limited to wreaths - I made quilts and quilted products too... 

First, I needed a tree skirt for the tree that goes in our basement bar.  I had planned to make one based on (I think it was) Crazy Mom's tree skirt - a square that a friend made and I loved her version.  But when it came down to actually making it, I found myself going more traditional and making a round one. 

(Excuse the threads on the floor of my sewing room - the photos were taken pre-vacumn.)  It's made with white linen, a "best quality quilting cotton" (that phrase always makes me laugh for some reason), gold crushed velvet and some taupe dupioni silk scraps from my wedding dress. 

Here it is in "action", so to speak:



Once I'd done that, I decided that our keyboard (which lives across from the tree on the other wall) must have a matching cover


(I was quite pleased with how it turned out). 

So, this break of mine was kind of interesting (if you're me, that is). I was experiencing a slight depression and so didn't want to create anything at all.  I made these five pieces (three wreaths, the tree skirt and the cover) the first weekend in December and then never entered my sewing room again until Boxing Day. 

During my time away, I thought about what it is, exactly I'm trying to do with my quilts.  I know, that may sound odd to some of you, but I've been feeling as if I ought/I am being driven or pulled by something more than just "wanting to make what I see in my head" and I wanted to sit quietly for awhile and figure out what's what. I've figured it out, but more on that in a later post.

After I'd "figured it out" (at least, what my inital direction will be) I suddenly wanted to spend time in the sewing room again, so I finished a queen sized quilt for my oldest son, and am "wrapping up" another queen sized quilt for my youngest son.

I'll post one (or both) of them next time, but in the meantime, this is what the quilting on the tree skirt looked like:


Thanks for your patience while I was away - I'm looking forward to spending time with you again in the new year, when I should be back to my Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule of posts. 

See you soon.  (I promise!)

Kit

I read that somewhere recently, and it's an accurate reflection of how I feel.  See that little piggy on the bottom?  That's me.



I am in a fallow period creatively speaking - and am experiencing a slight depression  - I don't know whether the chicken or the egg came first, but the result is  - no heart for art. 

So, I'm taking a bit of a blogging break.  Be well, be kind. 

Kit

1. Lighthouse, 2. A marker - I was here, 3. Through the back of the wardrobe

Today's Friday Flickr Faves is an unusual one, in that they're all my own photos, rather than someone else's.
I am always pensive this time of year, slightly depressed, considering my successes and failures on this trip around the sun, planning for the next; but this year is different.  I have been considering future tense in the long term, rather than the short, and have come to the realization, that right here, right now, is where I choose.

Oddly enough, these pictures I took this past summer have led me to the answer.


My explanation, such as it is, follows:

1.  The Lighthouse

This light house it is at the end of the spit where I live.  The lighthouse looks old and abandonded, finished in its life's purpose, but look closely, and you'll see the solar panel that gives it life anew.  I have always loved the lighthouse for that reason.

But, too, I love that lighthouse, because when I stand underneath it, gazing at and becoming lost in the seemingly endless water ahead the wind ruffling my hair, and the scents rolling in with the waves beckoning me to a life of adventure; when I begin to move again, I always feel as if  I'm taking the first step in a great journey, even if it isn't by sailing off to the edge of the world.

But again, perhaps I am.

2.  I Was Here
At the foot of the lighthouse, there are piles of broken rock and granite, twists of rusted industrial wire coiled in fantastic shapes, brickwork whose edges are worn smooth by the passage of water and time. Someone had taken part of this detritus and made... what?

I wondered if its maker had meant it as art, or a marker - a message to the world. "Once, I was here."  Or was s/he simply bored while others in his or her party carried on pursuits they were uninterested in, forming this with as much reflection as someone else might skip stones?

I clambered down the preacrious edge of the spit to acknowledge and preserve  whatever it was intended to be in a photograph. And when I saw the way the photograph had turned out, I wondered about many things.  Including art, its makers and the messages - intended and not - and how the very act of observation assigns meaning and importance.

3.  In the Back of the Wardrobe

At the bottom of the spit, underneath the lighthouse, I had bent over to look at an interestingly raddled piece of paper, to see whether I could still read what was written there, and as I was coming up, I looked through this tunnel.

This bento box pattern I made very early in my quilting career looked kind of like a spring salad to me, so I called it "Side Dish". 

It's the next WIP to be quilted, and there are a lot of mistakes in it as you'll see, the first being that I tried to follow someone else's pattern!  (That never seems to work out well for me... consequently, I tried it  three times and never have done since.)

I haven't done any work on it, because I don't have enough batting for a queen sized quilt.  Normally, that wouldn't stop me' I would just whip up a couple of  baby sized quilts or a lap and be happy, but I've made a promise to myself:  "No more new quilts until ALL of my WIPS are done."  Since I only have four completed tops to do, I should be through those soon (I hope - they're all queen sized!) 

And, I'm still working on my magnum opus, "Sparrow in the Rain"; and I now understand why crazy quilts are respected so much in some circles - the amount of work that goes into one of those is well, .... crazy(!), but I hope to have that one finished by the end of the weekend.  

Speaking of the weekend, I am going on a road trip to Lens Mills, to buy batting direct.  Anyone wanna come on a road trip?  :)

See you Friday!

This past summer, when I made Coneflowers in Leslieville my mind was immediately full of ideas conceived using that same technique.  One such quilt finally came to fruition this past weekend; a winter quilt, inspired by that old (and extremely polictically incorrect!) Canadian Christmas hymn, written by Jean de Brebeuf in 1643, called Huron Carol.