Star baby quilt and painting

Due to a recent change in the dose of a medication, I’m still running around in a fog. I’ve been trying to get things done but I keep having to rip out and redo. I’ve been working some on the pockets of the Classmate organizer. I redid the vinyl picket 3 times, lol.

I’ve got it laid out in its orientation here so I have some idea of where I’m going.

In between that I put a first coat of paint on an old dark cedar chest that came from my grandmother.

Then my back gave out. Also, I’ve had appointments too, but this afternoon I decided to stay home and get some creative things done. First, I’m still working on the lessons from Rebecca Sower’s course Draw and See. Of course I misbehaved and used one of my photographs from Nfld for the exercise on looking for darks.

It still needs some paint and color adjustment and then pastel work. It’s in my sketchbook so I won’t carry it too far. Maybe it’ll be a preliminary sketch for a fiber art piece.

On top of all that going on, my niece had her baby ( a girl) on the weekend and I need to get a Quilt finished and in the mail. I got it back from the machine quilter and this afternoon I cut and sewed the binding.

Tomorrow, I have to go about an hour away for 1st appointment at a pain clinic. I think it will be just the assessment. My husband is driving me as I’m not safe to be driving at the moment. I sure hope this clears soon.

Getting back to sewing and artwork

Oh my, it’s been a while since I posted! It may be the longest I’ve ever been away from my blog. We had a very busy August with our trip to PEI and then to Moncton for a wedding. And then we took our big trip to Nfld for 12 days in early September.

I can’t even begin to describe how wonderful it was. The weather was perfect and we hiked some spectacular trails along the edges of steep rocky cliffs with awesome views. Can you believe those colors!

We flew to St. John’s where we picked up our rental car. Our itinerary was done by a company called Vision Atlantic. Crossing the province form east to west, we stayed in B and B’s or Inns, spending 2 nights in each place.

Here at the Ferryland Lighthouse outside St. John’s, we had the most delicious picnic lunch given to us in a basket along with a blanket to sit and eat where we wanted.

The colors were so vibrant and views so full of energy that it was hard to come even close to capturing in my journal. 

This is the view from the hilltop garden in the Fishers Inn in Port Rexton, our second stop on the tour

A beach nearby.

We even were lucky to catch some puffins just before their migration. They are so comical that they hardly seem real.

In Twillingate we stayed in a B and B under the eaves on the 3rd floor in a very spacious room with ensuite bath which gav3 us a lovely view of the water and allowed cool breezes to drift in at night.

Here we hiked on 2 different trails and attended a dinner theatre.

We made our way to Gros Morne and checked into a small Inn on a little cove.

On our First day we had a boat trip up the fjord. The guide told us that one of the tallest rock masses there is taller than the CN tower. The caribou actually climb these rocky  mountains and swim across the river for greener pastures on the tops of other mountains.

There were many waterfall along the way.

Our last stop in Nfld before we flew out of Deer lake was at the end of 5 hour drive north  to St Anthony’s and L’Anse aux Meadows where there was a Viking settlement thought to be the first in North America.

A 3/4 scale Viking replica built in Greenland and sailed to Nfld in 1996.



It’s so hard to sum up the trip in a few photos and words! The people were so friendly, the landscapes and flora and fauna so beautiful. This is the rare bakeapple that I spied near L’Anse aux meadows, slightly tart, tasting a wee bit like an apricot and a bit seedy. I loved them, my husband didn’t like the seeds. Bake apple and partridge berry preserves and desserts were served almost everywhere we stopped. 

Is it any wonder that I’ve collapsed this week? While we were away the carpenter came and put in my second window to finish my studio Reno, so I had lots of drywall dust and such to clean before moving my machines back in. But it is oh so worth it.

Just imagine the sun coming through in winter.

I’m trying as usual to finish a couple things. This little kit has been cut out and ready to sew for a while.

I can really use it for carrying all my assessories to my sewing days. It’s about time I get it done.

While I think about a new piece of fiber art (there are so many pics to chose from ) I’m finally going to add the finishing touches to my surfer which you can just barely see on the ironing board above.

In the meantime I started an on line course called Draw and See by Rebecca Sower.  I love her work and saw the ad for it before my trip. It is a fun course and I’m learning some new skills — I’m trying to loosen up in my sketches and my work and see things in a new way. It is priced very reasonably with ample instruction videos.

This is a sample of what I’ve done so far.

You may think I’ve been pretty busy but I’m really still dragging and find myself flopped on the sofa a good part of the afternoon and evening which is one reason why I could write this post. I sewed some this morning but after lunch gave in to a catnip and then decided to write.