finished quilting the birds

This afternoon, after having done errands, then an appointment at the bank, and  lunch with friends,  I finished the little bit of free motion quilting on the birds just before dinner time. While watching the news I did a little more embroidery on it. I'll take another picture once I finish.
Today I made a vegetarian spaghetti sauce using TVP or textured vegetarian protein. Although I've made various versions of a vegetarian spaghetti, I've never tried it with the TVP. I started by sauteing onions, garlic and celery, and then added green and red peppers, zucchini and mushrooms. After about 10 minutes I added my spices and the sauce. The TVP requires about 5 minutes of soaking in hot water and then I added that to the sauce. It's served over regular whole wheat noodles, and we found found it to be really delicious. I froze the left over sauce. It may go into my version of vegetarian chili.
Just before supper, I started pulling out some fabrics to go with these gel prints that I did last summer. Since I'm planning to display at the waterfront craft shop this summer, I'm trying to get a few things ready. I think I'm going to sew these up into pillows and I  will do only a small amount of machine quilting on them.

I actually got the first borders on with the pink but now that I see it on the computer, I find the pink a little bright. I'll wait until tomorrow for a second look but I may take them off and go for the purple fabric. I do plan to addd a little more pink to part of the flowers though, so it might help. If you look carefully, you can see a smidgen of the blue batik that I will put on the outside and also the widest border. It has a bit of the purple color in it as well.

home chemist

 On my way out the door this morning I found  a parcel in my mailbox. It is my first one from my daughter who is teaching in Korea. There were all kinds of little goodies in it, including the beautiful pashmina you can see around the box. She included lots of things with Korean writing on them, so I can use them in my art work. There were some beaded bracelets, necklaces, tea, coffee, sticky notes, chocolate, and a couple of book marks from Vietnam where she spent Christmas. Fun! I might even have to scan and print the sides of the box which are quite interesting too.

While reading an article in the most recent Canadian Living magazine about a family going green and making their own cleaning supplies and shampoos, I was inspired. It wasn't just the fact that  I could make my own. I had also listened earlier in the week to a radio interview with Gillian Deacon, author of Green For Life, about the toxins that are in beauty supplies. I checked out the David Suzuki website and this video how to for directions on how to make the shampoo. After a quick trip to the health food store for supplies, I made it in about 10 minutes. I spent about $45.00, although  I  already had a couple of the essential oils which are the most expensive items. I made a couple of small bottles but barely used any of the ingredients. It should last a long time. I tried it out last night and I really liked it. I will be able to experiment with the different essential oils for scent.

This morning  I did groceries and then went for a lunch at my friend Nicole's. We are fellow artists, so it's always inspiring to get together for a chat and some quick brainstorming about our projects. By the time I got home it was going on 3 PM, so I had time only to do a little free motion quilting on this.

Spring is only just over a week away but it sure doesn't look it here. This is a view of my back door snow bank from the outside instead of from my doorway as I have been showing.

not sure I like it

Has this ever happened to anyone else? You have a vision for a project, but as you go along it doesn't seem to be going as you perhaps envisioned it, or if it is going that way you're not sure you like it? I do really like some things that I do, dislike others, and for some, I'm lukewarm. I think that's where I am with this piece. While I was away, I picked up the outside border fabric. It seemed to match the colors perfectly, although I'm not sure about it now. I do still have more details to add with the hand embroidery, but I wanted to see how it would look. Also, once I finish the branch that I'm hand embroidering, I think I will machine quilt it before I finish the rest of the hand stitching. I haven't done the eyes or the feet yet either  and maybe that's part of it.

Probably, you're getting tired of the snow pictures, I know I am. This is what we got yesterday. I just heard on the radio that it was about 45cm. You can see if you care to look that the snow behind the deck is almost up to the roof of the shed.

fixed my pear pin cushion

We had a very nice weekend--did some shopping for the important things on my list--and then some. My husband, son and my husband's brother went to the sports dome to  hit golf balls. I went to Chapter's with the sister in law for tea and then we did some shopping. At the fabric shop I bought mostly batiks that I can use in my art quilts.
I picked up these curtains for half price at the Wicker Emporium. I meant them to go in my dining room but stuck them up in my living room window for now.

We had a really nice supper with my son and his fiance on Saturday night at a place called the Zen Garden . I had a hot and sour soup with a stuffed dumpling. The others had the soup and then a bento box meal with assorted things like veggies, kimbap, and noodles. Usually we see them about twice a year because they live 6 hours away. It was a  lovely idea to meet sort of halfway. We made plans for a camping vacation in the summer.
Now, I 'm stuck home today in the midst of another huge snowstorm. I decided  this might be a good time to try doing a fast. We have been getting into the yoga and I've been reading about it. On advice from one website I tried vegetable juice for the first time rather than water. It didn't go so well. I checked my sugars twice and by noon even after lots of water and juice it was too low, so I had steal cut oats with fruit around 1pm. I also was very dizzy and now I'm developing a terrible headaches,. I don't think fasting is the best thing for me with my adrenal and blood sugar problems.

I did manage to keep busy by vacuuming early this morning and then I  took the pear pin cushion apart and fixed that, but now I'm going to have to go stretch out with a book for a while.

heading out for the weekend

As i mentioned in the last post, we're heading out of town for the weekend. I'll be back Sunday.
I did my  errands today, as planned and came home to go snow shoeing with Gord who had taken the day off to do some things around the house. What a spectacular day it was. Temperatures  warmed up to around 0C, which is a very comfortable winter climate for outdoor activities. I have to show another chickadee feeding picture. They were all over today and I got lots. Usually they alight quickly like little dive bombers and take off equally fast but sometimes like today a few will sit and seem to be studying you. It s a very humbling and spiritual experience every time I feed them.

In my mail today was this Koi watercolor kit that I ordered on sale. I  had to quickly try it out. I can see that I must do a color chart to get better acquainted with all the colors and put it in the case for referrral. It's not a very good sketch as I was in too much of a hurry just before supper.

Here's something funny I did yesterday. I put this pear together (pattern from retro mama) without rereading the directions. Does this sound familiar? When I stuffed it today , it seemed a little fat. Upon reading the directions, I discovered that I had sewn in 8 wedges instead of 6. My ADD strikes again. I was inclined to leave it at first, but I think I will redo it as i find it a little too plump. It bulges out too much at the bottom. I hope everyone has a great weekend!

friday errands and lunch with friends

I'm heading out in  while for a doctor's appointment, a couple of errands and lunch at the usual cafe with some friends. My husband also took the day off and this afternoon we may do some snowshoeing if it's warm enough. Tomorrow, we are driving the 2 hours to Moncton to meet my son and his girlfriend and will be back on Sunday. I'm hoping to get to a fabric store, Michaels and Chapters at least.
Yesterday, my friend Nicole came for  lunch and a little visit. Isn't it wonderful to get together with your creative friends? We are just so happy and the air just sparkles with ideas. About 10 minutes after she left, I noticed this little wool bird hanging from my shelf. She had sneaked it there when I wasn't looking.

After she left, I free motion stitched on the appliqued birds, added a little paint for the rose color on the breast, and then I curled up with a Quilting Arts DVD and started the hand embellishing. The only thing I didn't finish machine stitching was the brown, as I have to wait until I go to Moncton tomorrow to get some brown thread.

Finally, a fellow fiber artist expressed a wish to see my seahorse in a little more detail, so I tried to take another picture and crop it a little more. I think I mentioned before that it started with a gelatin print, then I stamped the seahorse with a foam stamp that I made. Also, some of the sea weed is printed form real dried seaweed. At that stage I back it with stabilizer, do some thread painting, then add the batting, quilt it and embellish in the final step.

quick post

I had 3 appointments today all spaced out over the course of the day, but luckily, none took too long, and I had some time to play some in my studio. I got home from my first appointment at the hospital before 8AM, so I even had a much needed little chat with my daughter in Korea. She is suffering from a rather nasty case of tonsillitis right now, which she's never had before. Luckily, she had yesterday off but must go in to teach a new bunch of classes tomorrow.
I got my little bit of token cleaning done too. I spritzed and mopped some of the hardwood in the living room and then I was free to spend a little time in my studio. After cutting and organizing some more Kaffe Fassett fabrics, I got down to cutting out the pieces for my little bird hanging. Here you see them laid out approximately; they are not yet ironed down. I still may make the odd adjustment. Once sewn down, I will then add some hand embroidery and a little paint as well. It is satisfying to get something out of my head and my sketchbook into fabric. I've been planning it out in my head and finally had the time to do it.