more than kinda SCARED!

Well, that's it then, I'm in and I think I may be sick. This is a little nerve racking for me but my stitched items, "textile art" if you want to be fancy pants about it, has been accepted in this show. It's exciting, but a bit scary. I am pretty insecure about my stuff going into a gallery with really talented people, I am just hoping I can stand beside them and not look foolish. Fingers crossed.

The Collective is a gathering of creative artists and artisans for 12 days in December, from December 8 to December 19, 2011 at Triangle Gallery, 38 Abell St., Toronto, Ontario. Gallery hours 11a.m. - 6 p.m. daily. So there are the particulars, I hope some of you might be able to pop by and have a peep at all the creative things this show will have to offer. Maybe even find some Christmas gifts.

more farmer's blocks...and a new obsession.

So, I am again a bit behind on my farmer's blocks quilt thingy that just seems to be the way it is. I am trying not to stress it, but man I am stressed. On a happy note we are closer to CHRISTMAS, and it's true what they say, "it's the most wonderful time of the year!" I am rambling so here are my blocks, for weeks #21 and #22...

week #21 : blocks #10 & #74


So, I am really in love with these blocks, mind I seem to say that after I make every set of blocks. So, I just have sort of jumped into this quilt without a clear sense of colour, theme, or feeling. My only goal was to learn how to do some more complicated piecing and use some of those fabrics in the stash, that just sit and look pretty. It is just great using a whack of different fabrics that so far seem to all be working together. All the blocks stay up on the quilt board thingy and week to week I decide what is lacking in terms of colour and go at it.

week #22 : blocks #31 & #47


The way I am picking out my blocks for the week is just randomly flicking through the book and stopping on a page. Whatever is on those two pages are that weeks blocks. So block #31 was a piece of cake, block #47 not so much. In the pic it doesn't look that bad but in person it's not quite there. The seams just don't match up, and it really bugs me, so I may have to stitch rip this one and try again. If anyone has any tips on getting this one done, it would be much appreciated!

On to the second part of my post, my new obsession. Well, it seems crazy but it's old paint by numbers paintings. James and I found some old paint by numbers pics at a junk shop and well they had to come home with us. It is to late tonight to share pics of them, but when I post again I will try and show you. I have a picture in my head of collecting a whole whack of them in different sizes and doing an entire wall in them, I just think they are so charming. I love the idea that someone put a lot of time into getting them done and that they sort of have become artists. SO....I challenge you to go to your local art store and buy the most kitchy paint by numbers you can find, I swear you will love it!

playing catch up...

So, I have been a bit lax in blog posting so this is going to be another marathon farmers wife post...hope you enjoy, sorry in advance!!

week 16 : blocks #24 & #79



I have trouble using the warm colour palette so I have been trying to use the fall colour change for some inspiration. Funny thing, I didn't realize until after I made the blocks that I used the Heather Ross "matryoshka" fabric in both blocks.

week 17 : blocks #53 and #64



week 18 : blocks #34 and #46



week 19 : blocks #71 and #90



I am in love a little with these two blocks...I have a mental list going of the ones I like the best and these guys are creeping to the top. It's funny how you can love some more than others, I wonder why? hm. So after this one I am all caught up!!! yeah me!

week 20 : blocks #18 and #51



Phew, that's better now I am all caught up! I told you it would be a marathon. For week #20 I was up for a bit of a challenge so block #18 fit the bill. I have never worked with shapes other than squares or triangles so this was cool to see how different shapes came together to create triangles that could then be pieced into block and so on.

Hope everyone enjoys there weekend, James and I are off to Niagara on the Lake for a cocktail party...doesn't that sound grown up!! Oh what to wear? I always feel so uncomfortable in big girl clothes, I really just love my jeans and sweaters and scarves!! sigh, pointy uncomfortable shoes here I come...

Enjoy the blustery day everyone.

oh my gosh

Well what a busy few weeks I have had!! I joined another great group "crochet school". I have to say this has been on my list of crafty things to learn/try. I have tried using a few different books and just really couldn't figure it out, which was pretty frustrating because there were all these cute amigarumi patterns out there that I wanted to make, and don't forget about giant crochet throws made out of scrumptious wools. This school, I cant tell you how impressed I am, our teacher Dana is really fantastic, she just seems to know how to simplify things and I just seem to be able to pick up the different stitches and techniques.



So here is my first EVER crochet, that actually looks like crochet...I am pretty chuffed with myself I must say. So if you are interested in learning this pretty funky crafty thing hop on over to her blog and join the class and flickr group. It really is way easier and more fun than I thought I would be having, even when it is really frustrating. Also, a big thanks to my neighbour Carolyn, because without her help I may have given up after the first lesson.

On another note I have been a bit bad about posting to the farmers wife quilt along group. I have been making blocks but not posting, I am a ping pong ball what can I say, I cant seem to stop bouncing from one thing to another. Sadly I just cant seem to bounce to this here blog on a regular basis. I am going to try and post some of my farmers wife blocks tomorrow.

Hope all is well wherever you are.

so...

Well so as not to make this post a complete downer, I will just say that it's an anniversary that isn't one to celebrate. To go a bit further down this sad path, it was two years ago today that we said goodbye to the matriarch of the Morrison Clan. "Nanny" to me, Mom, sister....Theresa.

There is no one word that could sum up how we all feel about her, there just isn't one in any language that I know of to sum up what a truly remarkable person she was. I hate past tense, because to me she still is, she still is in the large family and her husband of 60+ years. She still "is", in the funny, happy stories that we all tell, in her large collection of recipes, In the tiny cottage that sits in a grassy field on Prince Edward Island, and in the hearts of everyone she met and became friends with.

So on this day, I have tried to push back the sad, melancholy feeling that has been sitting on my heart. Instead I will think on the lovely person she "IS", I will call my Grampa and ask him how the weather is on the island (PEI), try to tell him I love him without saying those words that will make us both cry. I will also make another of her recipes, a boil cake, that I can remember nibbling on at the tiny kitchen table, while drinking my fourth cup of tea and talking about nothing in particular.



This is a picture I took during my final year studying photography, it took some convincing to get her down the stairs and on to the stoop in her night dress, but not much. I would also like to share the recipe of hers I chose to make today, "Boil Cake", a lovely fall smelling dense cake, and it was also lovely that the copy of the recipe we have is in her writing.

Boil Cake

2 cups raisins (old dry ones are good for this)
1/2 cup shortening (I used veggie oil)
2 cups boiling water or tea (I used my fave British tea)
1 cup white sugar (I switched this with 1/3 cup honey)
1/2 tsp salt

Boil above 10 minutes, take off and add,

1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger (fresh good too)
1/2 tsp ground clove
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp soda mixed in 1/4 cup tea (be careful here, the recipe didn't mention that there would be a chemical reaction and it all bubbled up, so make this in a biggish pot)

Let cool, add

2 eggs (I beat them slightly)
1 tsp baking powder
about 3 cups baking powder.

Quick tip: mix 2 cups of the flour with the baking powder so it wont clump up when added to wet mixture.

Bake at 350 for 1 hour (in a bunt pan...the one that one would make angle food cake in, I think it's called bunt)

Well I hope you try this, mine is in the oven so I will try and post a pic of it before we devour it! I posted last year around this time so if you are interested in a couple of other pics of my Nanny have a look here, I especially love the one of her and I in our curlers. Enjoy your day, and don't forget to squeeze the one you love.

is this crazy?

Good morning SUNSHINE! Hope everything is well will all of you out there, up to crafty-ness I hope. I have had a bit of a break from all things crafty this week. After last weekends art show I am pooped, and since everyone around me is getting the flew I figured I should just take it easy and have a little break from anything that required any brain cells. This meant a week of watching a lot of tv, some movies, playing some video games with James, choosing the fabric and cutting out the pieces for a couple more farmers wife blocks.

Also, and I am not proud of this last one...scanning the cat! yep, scanning the cat. I have seen these pics in a few places online and thought they look super cool, I wondered if my tiny beast would sit still long enough for the scanner to do it's thing. Well he did, and I must say that the result is way cool, the poor cat, I have now become obsessed! I even have thoughts of grabbing cats off the street to throw them on the scanner, that is not a sane thought! Our little Ollie is a cat we took in, he had spent a winter living outside my grandparents apartment, and you can actually see where his little paws had frost bite and will never fully heal. I also feel bad looking at his front paws, whoever had him first had him de-clawed, which seems so very cruel to me.


Anyway, not much crafty happening here, my hopes are today that I will be able to take a trip to my favourite fabric store in town, "The Workroom". I want to pick up some new embroiderey floss, the kind with sparkles, and I have my eye on a few fat quarters as well. My goal with the farmer's wife quilt was to only use things from my stash, ha, that really hasn't happened. Mind you a stash is ever growing is it not?!

Enjoy today!

two more sleeps...

Well, oh my, the weekend is fast approaching and my hands have actually cramped up a few times these past few days, but I think I am close to being ready for this weekends show. I am going to have a booth again this year at the "Danforth East Arts Fair", and no matter how prepared I think I am I never am totally relaxed, I am pretty sure my middle name is chicken little!



In between sewing and beading and fretting about everything we also had to save a mouse! Luckily the mouse was not in our house (hehe I rhymed) but he did come very close to getting gobbled up by the neighbours cat "tommy". "Tommy" is ferocious when it comes to catching and eating small furry things and we just couldn't let this poor little guy get eaten. I got James to scoop him into a box and it was then that we noticed that the poor little fella had only one eye! His fur was the most lovely shad of grey/brown and his little paws were so tiny. I admit that I did toy with the idea of keeping him, but figured that was probably not a good idea. So we took him down to the ravine at the end of our street and found a good little home for him. Trust me I know that he probably is not much better down there, but I have concocted this little idea that we reunited him with his family that has been looking for him. Please don't think poorly of me, I really don't have the mentality of a child but I was so obsessed with "Fival Mousekawitz" when I was a kid so, yeah anyway.

So if you are in the Woodbine and Danforth area this weekend pop by, it should be a lovely fall weekend in the city. Hope your enjoying the first tastes of autumn! I love the crisp chill in the air, it really does freshen everything up. oh and I do have more farmers wife blocks done so I will probably get those posted early next week.