finally finished

Last night , I finally finished stitching down the binding on this quilt. I got to sleep with it last night, but tomorrow it goes to our North Star quilt guild's bi-annual quilt show. I'll have it back on Saturday night.

 While away on the weekend I also bought 2 books, one for quilting, one for knitting. I've read Photo Inspired Art Quilts already. Over all, I found the pictures and step-by-step directions great. I 'll use it, but I think I could have used a few more detailed directions in the section on building more complex art quilts. I haven't yet watched the video that came with it though; perhaps it will add what I need.
This was the view through my bedroom window at sunset last night.

Now, I must go to do an errand. I have one more little art quilt that needs the binding stitched down which I must finish later this afternoon.

Easter weekend

We're safely back home again after a lovely 2 days with family.We had a feast at my sister's on Saturday night; she always makes a dozen different things and enough for 4 times the amount of people. Most years, we usually don't get over until the summer time, so it was nice to see my Mom with her husband, Charlie and my brother and his wife too.
This is a picture of the bridge built a number of years ago connecting PEI to New Brunswick. When my children were young we had to take a ferry which could have taken 6 to 8 hours from here. Now, with the bridge, it takes about 4 1/2 hours.

Before dinner on Saturday, I did this little watercolor on my lap looking through my sister's living room window. I loved the little house with the bright orange paint. Clearly, I have not been doing enough sketching and I can see that I'll have to stick to a 'sketchy' style as my hands shake too much for detail work. And, yes that is the color of the soil.

I also made it to the one little quilt shop, the Quilting Bee where I purchased 3 batiks that I thought would work nicely in future art quilts.

We visited the local Charlottetown market on Saturday morning where I discovered a fiber artist named  Kelly Burgess. This is a card that I purchased form her. I love her work and would like to take a workshop from her sometime.

Have a great weekend!

It seems that one of the reasons that I haven't been sewing might have been due to one of my medications. I've been in a real stupor for the last couple of weeks and it just hit me yesterday that it coincided with a new medication. Extreme sleepiness was one adverse reaction. I didn't take it today and I've been sewing. I  added on a few more pieces to my mill piece that I started a while ago. I realized though that when I go to add a gray column in between I'm missing one little piece, so I stopped there. It's getting interesting.

I laid out 3 of my quilt tops on my queen sized  bed and took pictures. It gives you an idea of the size of each one. The one with the rectangles is the largest. I'm taking them to PEI to show my family in case anyone might be interested and  if so, I will quilt them and bring them back in the summer.

I won't be posting again for a few days since I'll be away. I wish everyone a lovely Easter weekend, whether you are celebrating or not.

no sewing machine

I haven't touched my sewing machine in a week or so. I'm concentrating on my little projects as they will be gifts. I've had an appointment with the assistant at our local MP's office who will help me with my disability appeal; that is a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. I went yesterday and we sent the letter stating my wish to appeal and requesting  a copy of my file. Now I must wait again until I receive it. Then we will go over what additional information I need to gather.
I finished up a pair of the yoga socks for my husband just in time for his class to-night. They look a little odd because I used up scraps from knitted socks to make them.

We are traveling to Charlottetown , PEI this Good Friday to visit my family for Easter. My children are not coming here this year so I we're going visit my mother, sister and brothers. I put together this little garland for my sister to perhaps use as part of a table decoration for our dinner.

The last item I finished up is also coming with me, as it will be a gift for my mom for Mother's Day. My mother-in-law and I have used these felted wool sewing kits for years and love them. I've finally gotten around to making one for my own mother. I used the same little crocheted flowers from the Easter garland as a decoration on the front flap. The directions came form the blog  Attic 24. They are so fun do!

Tiny things

I've not been the most frequent poster lately. It has been due to my illness and my on going application for disability. I do not want to bore anyone with the details other than to say that I have a constant daily struggle to get up, get moving and to stay in a decent frame of mind. The combination of things that I am struggling with are Addison's, diabetes, hypothyroidism and gastro paresis. There are days when the biggest battle for me is to just keep going and keep busy and not resort to the sofa curled up under a blanket which I really have to do sometimes. The gastro paresis is causing me a lot of pain in case anyone else out there is suffering with the same thing I'd love to hear form you.
Also, I look outwardly well when in fact I do not feel well most of the time. I probably complain more that I should. My life has changed drastically from what it was. Just a year and a half ago I was working full time and keeping busy with my husband at such sports as downhill skiing, although the physical signs were there.
I have had to leave my job of a dozen years which I really enjoyed. I feel lonely at times and useless at others, especially when I have a hard time to even put a meal on the table.
For my regular readers this is why sometimes you'll see that I accomplish quite a bit and other times I am silent and may only have some little things to show.
I am very lucky to have my art to keep me going and inspire me even some days when it may be just the tiniest things that I do.
I am for example making  a little project for Easter. You may have seen the little chicks that I did last week. I found these tiny crocheted flowers on one of my favorite blogs here and I thought they'd be just the thing to make into a garland along with the chicks. I've got 2 more chicks cut if I can get to them.

Another little project I am working on  is this felted sewing kit. My green one was made by my  friend Nicole. It contains needles, pins, thread, a thimble, scissors and many other useful sewing items. When I have any kind of project on the go, I need only grab it and I have everything I need. I am making the turquoise one as a gift from a kit that I also got from her. It occurred to me while I was taking pictures of the 2 projects laid out together, that the little crocheted flowers would be cute on the front of the sewing kit.

a little of this and that

I was exhausted yesterday after the tattoo on Friday. I spent most of the day stretched out in the sofa reading a book.
I did take a few minutes in the afternoon to make these 3 little chicks. I got the idea from another blog which I cannot find or remember, so if anyone happens upon them let me know. I'd like to give credit where it is due and give the the link. I'm not even sure exactly how close I am to them because I saw them and then thought about them later. I didn't copy or take pictures but I'm sure I remembered pretty closely. They are double sided and I'm not sure what I'll do with them yet. I may just make hangers or make a few more and chain crochet them together. Perhaps they'll be added to an Easter centerpiece.

 One day this week when I used onions for something that I was cooking, I threw the skins into a pot with a couple of eggs. I've been experimenting without much success with pens to doodle on them. I tried a gel pen but it was so pale, I had to go over it with black. My only permanent black is too fine, so it didn't turn out very good. I think I'll pick up a thicker Sharpie to go over the lines. Perhaps I'll try some other colors too, like purple from  beets.

I awoke this morning to sunshine and a little more energy. Gord and I went for a  trail walk where we took  some time to feed a few chickadees. I have missed the feeling of peace that comes over me when I'm in the forest. Can you believe how much snow we still have?

Our local shop-- Chal Baie.

It's been another one of those weeks. I've not only not had time to sew much, but also, neither have I  had time to write. I've been squeezing in lots of hand sewing, adding tags and all the finishing touches to my things so that I could take them to the shop downtown that opened this week for the summer. Here they displayed temporarily..

I saw my doctor again yesterday and was prescribed metformin for my blood sugar swings, so now I'm on diabetic, thyroid and adrenal medication. I do seem to feel better today though.
I made an interesting soup that I thought I would share. Spring is the time of year when one starts to think about using up some of the freezer stash to make way for the fresh produce that will soon be coming to our markets.  This is why I made fiddle head soup. I started by sauteeing chopped onion, garlic, celery, and parsnip.

Then, I added water, the fiddle heads, and some organic vegetable broth. I found one recipe that had rice added instead of white potatoes (they are high in sugar). I used brown rice. I never measure.

Once everything has simmered for about 20 minutes, I let it cool and then put it in the blender. I will freeze it in jars. When I heat it up, I use rice or soy milk to thin it some.

 This is a picture of something that is on my bucket list. Some will think I'm crazy. It will have color added eventually and will not be quite as dark. It is a unique piece of art work done by an artist inspired by my own sketches. It is about 7 inches high and is located on my right leg just above my ankle. You will be able to see it much better once the color is added in a few weeks.

lots of little accomplishments

I am finally feeling better, a little more like my old self. It does help that we've finally had some spring-like temperatures in  the last few days. We've still got several feet of snow in the yard, but I have a little spot of patio by my back door where I've been able to sit in the sun and listen to the snow melt. I read out there for almost an hour the other day.
This also cheered me up today-- the arrival of this package of fabric from the on line shop Quilternity .

I have not done any more on my mill piece because I am on a mission (due to the re-opening of our art/craft shop for the tourist season) to finish up all my little pieces of art. I just finished putting the binding on this piece, which as you can see needs to be hand stitched down.

The other thing that I've been meaning to do for some time was to make a little chart of all  the colors in my new Koi watercolor kit. It's hard to tell what the color is as it sits in the pan.

On the week end I also put the binding on this quilt that is meant for my own bed.

It's been quite a satisfying few days.