Snowshoeing and Scribbling a Bluejay

It was -19 this morning when Gord and I left the house to go to a favourite local restaurant, Papa Joe's for a late breakfast and then groceries. Just after noon we went snow shoeing, dressing warm. It was quite lovely, almost -11 by then. The soft winter light glows so beautifully through the trees.

I took my new Sanyo Galaxy phone with me to try out its camera-- too cold a day to take the big camera.
Once you got going it was comfortable; in the woods there was no wind.

Gord stops every once in a while waiting patiently for me while I snap photos. There are so many little details that catch my eye even in a snowy landscape. I love the delicate lines of dried wildflowers against the shadowy white backdrop.

Once back home I made hot chocolate for us both along with a quick snack of sliced apple, crackers and goat cheese.
I gathered together some of my photos taken in late fall, my sketchbook and some colored pencils. On the right page I glued a black and white print and added a touch of colored pencil. On the left I did a quick 'scribble sketch' of a bluejay.

This is my way of getting acquainted with a subject that I'm interested in, looking for basic shapes, values and colors. I'm thinking as well of how I might translate it onto fabric.

I've been thinking as one does at this time of my goals and intentions for 2014. As always I want to continue to exercise, eat well and look after myself.
I want to continue being creative in some way every day.
I intend to submit more articles for publication. I haven't recently. It's not that I'm pushing to develop a career; I'm retired. I think it helps me to push myself to develop artistically and to create contacts and network with like minded artists. This brings me happiness.
And I'll admit it is a bit exciting to see ones work in print.
As I write this my daughter is in flight somewhere over northern Canada as she makes her way back to Korea. It won't be long when she'll be back home to start her next adventure. It's a bit scary to be approaching 30 , coming home with no job, applying to university to do her Bachelor of Education. It's all unknown right now, and we tend to fear that don't we? I know it will work out in the end but there'll be a bit of stress as we progress. I'll breathe deep and try to exercise it off.
May you all have a wonderful New Year! We are staying home, probably having popcorn and a movie. Simple, homey, just what we like. I'll be knitting a little on some socks while snuggled under an afghan.
Stay warm for those reading in the northern hemisphere. Revel in the present, set your intentions for a good year. Keep commenting. I love to hear from you!

Playing with ideas for future projects

There were six of us this morning who met for coffee. I went with a sore stomach(stress) and left feeling calm. It is so good to sit and laugh with my quilting friends.
After lunch I went into my sewing studio to putter around. I'm still trying to make up my mind over a pattern for my next quilt but my friend Florence gave me an idea. The Garden Fence was demonstrated at the last guild meeting. Here's a tutorial.
This is the quilt pictured on the blog.

I like its modern feel. Here are some of the fabrics I ironed this morning- a mix of regular and batiks in blues, turquoises and greens. The circles look black but are actually navy blue. Also, I'm wondering about the dashing color. White is so high contrast although definitely modern. I like grey but I don't think it would be enough contrast, so I'm thinking about it. I will have to order a solid once I try out a few.

Next, I pulled out my sketchbook intending to sketch a bluejay as inspiration for my next art quilt. When I opened to a fresh page, one of my Gelli prints on deli paper fell out and I ended up glueing it down and playing with it. The medallion design along the left is screen printed and the foreground fern was printed from a pressed fern. I keep a supply of plant material in old phone books.

Christmas week

I can't believe it's been almost a week since I last posted. I've been cocooned within my family and thinking of nothing else. My sewing studio was occupied but I did do one more arrowhead block last week just to see how they might fit together. I'm trying to make up my mind on a pattern for my next quilt that I will take to my UFO days.

It was the first Christmas in a while when all 3 of my children were home.  We had a great week, but oh my, it does fly by doesn't it!
One of the cutest and favorite gifts was this sock monkey hat that I knit for my daughter. She has a monkey costume that she dresses up in over in Korea and her kids call her monkey. They'll get a kick out of the hat.

It seems like it's been snowing forever! Each of my 3 arrived amidst storms which did cause me some stress. The departures have been somewhat better. It's the first Christmas in a while with this much snow down so we've been out snow shoeing a couple of times. Yesterday, we went with my youngest son and my daughter.
It was quite magical with the snow drooping and dripping off the tree boughs. My daughter is such a goof!

 My son is serious like his dad.

 I missed getting pictures when we were out with my oldest son and his wife because we dint think to take a good camera. My youngest took a few panoramics with his I phone. It takes a nice picture.

Today, my youngest son left to drop my daughter in Fredericton where she will, weather permitting, start her journey back to Korea tomorrow night. We were sad but not overly so as she is returning to Canada in early March.
I've been thinking about my next bit of art and what it shall be. I printed out a couple of bluejay photos and have been thinking of trying to do something with them. I'm still in the thinking mode, not quite sure how I will do them - collage, paint, thread painting or perhaps a bit of each. My husband has this week off though, so I'll be spending time with him getting outdoors as much as we can. There may be a trip to Moncton and a fabric shop in store as well.
Happy New Year! We plan to spend it quietly, perhaps a movie on the eve and a snowshoe on New Year's Day. Perfect.

Christmas miracle

Saturday was an anxiety filled day for us. Our daughter, Caley, arrived in Toronto from Seoul. It seemed doubtful due to the rain and pending freezing rain that she would fly out later that day for Fredericton. Also, many flights were cancelled because of fog and bad weather in the destination airports around the maritimes. We had tickets to and attended the Celebration on Ice show which did help to take our mind of it even though we occasionally checked our phones for flight updates.
Well we couldn't believe it when her flight was a go. Of course I followed the flight path all the way in to Fredericton on line!

Yesterday, we made the 3 hour trip in the storm to pick her up. It took 5 hours going and 4 returning. She was excited to see all the snow. In the car she kept us amused by speaking in Korean and commenting on the weird things Canadian's do. Everything is so wide open here and our buildings seem short to her. She has been in Korea for over 2 years.
So now my Christmas can begin. We only await the arrival of our 2 sons and their partners.
Merry Christmas to all.

Little gifts

I always have a few small gifts on the go right before Christmas and often I'm not even sure who they will go to. There's sure to be someone I'll think of at the last minute.
I finished two of the tea towels.

I'm not in a panic at this point, keeping it all relaxed. The only thing I might be caught without are my family's favourite cookies. My daughter asked me to leave them for her as she is supposed to be flying in from Korea via Vancouver, then Toronto, then Fredericton on Saturday night.
Now there is big storm pending and we're not even sure if she'll. make it to Toronto. If flights get cancelled the backlog could take days to clear up. We would still have to make the 6 hour round trip to pick her up. I'm worried she won't make it for Christmas and she only had just over a week as it is. The joys of winter travel! We'll just have to be patient and wait to see how it all goes.
I've just finished sewing the ends in on this infinity scarf. I love wearing mine and continually get compliments on it.

It wraps twice around the neck and is very cozy. One thing I like is that you can unwrap it once but leave it on when your in a store and it's not going to fall off.
I hope you all have time for a comforting mug of your favourite brew and some quiet time.

stamped stitched tea towel

After heat setting the stamped mug image on the tea towel, I added some sketchy free motion stitching to the mugs.

While I use the Setacolor fabric paints regularly, I haven't often used them on something that will get lots of washing like a tea towel would.Once,  I did do a t-shirt for my husband and while the paint faded slightly after the first wash, it has held up on subsequent ones.

I'm tempted to throw it in a wash to see how it holds up as I want to give it as a gift. I'll keep you posted if I do.
I'm linking to The Needle and thread Network.

Snow day

We went and did our in law visiting yesterday, since we knew a snow storm was predicted for today. It started here around late morning-- a perfect day to get my little table top tree up and decorated. I've done a table topper for the last number of years since our house is small. I like that it enable me to decorate it easily in whatever style I want.

I took a squash lentil soup from the freezer for lunch and I mixed up a quick batch of oatmeal cranberry muffins to go with it, definitely comfort food.
 A dove came to visit at lunch time, causing me excitement as we haven't had them yet and I do so love to watch them. It is sitting atop the feeder which is right outside my kitchen window; so close that I often feel as though I'm being watched.

I always enjoy the view through my sewing studio window no matter the weather.
 
I took a bit if time to refine the coffee mug stamp, no pictures because it's been glued and is sitting under a heavy book. Tomorrow, i hope to stamp the tea towel and stitch it.
I hope you're weekend is not too frenetic and that you can take some time to relax and enjoy the little quiet moments.