Saskatchewan Stitches Conference in Two Weeks

It is only a few weeks away and I am really excited about the conference again this year.
I have been so busy with my bookkeeping business that I have had little opportunity to 'play' with the thread and cloth and paint that is in my tiny studio space.

A friend is coming with me this year so the eight hour drive will seem much shorter and we can catch up on gabbing while en route.

I am looking forward to renewing time with friends, teachers and students and looking forward to new students in my classes this year.

I have been knitting teensy items for friends and family who have been madly producing babies this year.  These knitted things are tiny so keep my interest and use up bits of yarn that have been around for a while.

 

I knitted the wee hat and socks for Kaeley, daughter of a young man who has been like another member of our family and grew up next door to us.  Can't believe he is a dad.

The bear was knitted from handspun yarn by a friend of mine from the Edmonton Weavers Guild.

The teensy sweater does fit on a card and is for the above noted wee princess.

I am busy now working on another embroidery project that will likely be another 10 year project.

 

 

 

Schwalm embroidery is a Germanic whitework of pulled and drawn threads.  I found it in Anna magazine years ago the took a class at the Old Retreat that is sponsored each year by the Edmonton Needlecraft guild and Calgary Guild of NeedleArts.  Won't that instructor laugh when she sees this on the go...I think the year I took this class was 1995 or so!

I am giggling about the UFO's that I am working away at now.  It is fun to do new projects but delightful to go back to look at what I was interested in years ago.

 

I have added Marci Baker's blog to my blog list.  Marci is an amazing quilt maker and business owner from Colorado.  Marci's company is Alicia's Attic.  Have a look at her website and blog.  She has written and published a number of quilting books that you will want to have.

 

I am fortunate to see Marci in two weeks at the Saskatchewan Stitches conference.  Have a look at that on the web as well.  You might want to come to it next week.  There are now about 250 participants over ten days.  Tiny Humboldt Saskatchwan and St. Peters Monastery are over run with sewing enthusiasts for that time. 

 

I think they love us.

 



Itty Bitty Knitting - Part 2

Well, it seems that this Itty Bitty Knitting is taking longer than I had planned...or is it just too many 'Itty Bitty' projects on the go. The neighbors have a new baby so with a gift unfinished, the best I could do is this 'Wee Sweater' card. The new parents (especially Mom) loved it so now I can breathe easier knowing that the gift will be made at least in the New Year.

Several other knitting projects have been completed and are ready to wrap to put under the Christmas tree. Can't put them onto the post yet since the recipients may subscribe to my blog postings. I have also had some teaching assignments last month - Fabulous Felted Scarves - for the Edmonton Weavers Guild www.edmontonweavers.org/. Next posting, I will put up photos of my fabulous student's work. I sold my felted scarfs at the annual Edmonton Weavers' Guild sale as well. I have a few available that I will show you here, so if you are still shopping for Christmas gifts, give me a call or email and I can send one or more along to you.

DO YOU KNOW that Interweave Press, the folks who bring you the magazines, Quilting Arts and Cloth Paper Scissors, have many ebooks and How To videos available from their website www.interweavepress.com. You can also subscribe to several enewsletters that they publish (nearly every day to my delight). They including Quilting Daily, Cloth Paper Scissors (almost daily)and Knitting Daily. These newsletters include FREE projects and lots of FREE advice for quilters, knitters and journal junkies like myself. This is such a furious time of year and today I am taking a breath following a family birthday, knitting madly and stitching madly to finish Christmas gifts, and just the general furor surrounding Christmas preparations. Now I will get down to writing the annual Christmas letter. I am planning to post one more blog before Christmas so watch for that. In the meantime have a glorious time preparing for your own Christmas celebrations.

Itty Bitty Knitting

Our summer was more than busy with a move to a new much smaller home. With that and fitting in a bit of summer holidays - look at the Pow Wow photos at Kamloops, BC, I have been remiss in publishing my Cloth N Paper work. I have been remiss in actually making any Cloth N Paper projects. Now that fall is here I am busy and happily at it again. I have just finished knitting the baby sweater above for my niece's baby Liam. There Liam, now you are famous. More knitting is on the way and that will be in my next blog post. Birthday yarn turned into 'something sweet'. DO YOU KNOW is a new feature of my blog. It will be an information section to give you ideas and where to find information for your projects. DO YOU KNOW that Golden Artist Colors website has free videos on all sorts of subjects relating to their products and can be found at http://www.goldenpaints.com/VIDEO/library.php. Have fun looking through all of these videos. If you find something that particularly interests you, let me and my blog followers know.

Saskatchewan Stitches Conference

May 24 to June 3. Put these dates on your calendar for the Saskatchewan Stitches Conference. This is the 10th anniversary for this conference. It includes all sorts of cloth and string classes from a Painted Fabric Corset to Sunprinting Fabric by myself to Bra-making, knitting, rug hooking and many quilting classes. I have been fortunate enough to be invited to teach again this year...my fifth year...of teaching and even taking a class occasionally. I have made many friends from Saskatchewan and elsewhere. I have had the opportunity to learn lots about knitting and now I am addicted. I have even made myself snazzy bras embellished with fabulous laces - custom fit and all. Check out this conference at www.hausofstitches.ca and register soon so that you get into the classes that you want. My classes this year are all to do with painting fabric. The Corset class will get you going using many of those embroidery stitches on your machine that you have never tried. Beverly Johnson designed the corset pattern that will be included in the student kit. The Sunprint class will include painting with light sensitive fabric paint as well as Paintstiks and foil. Students will design their own art quilt for this piece.
Here are photos of these projects. Now I can't wait to get to Humboldt!

Fabulous Felted Fusion

Well finally I am back here again.  It is Valentine's Day so I will wish everyone sweet wishes today.

The scarfs in the photos are pieces that I made for the November 2011 Edmonton Weavers Guild Sale.  The pink one didn't sell and I am happy because it matches my winter jacket.  I feel very dressed up when I wear this one.  This was one of the projects that I worked on during the summer of mad felting with friends.  The warm deck was just the place to do this work - me rolling felt underfoot while reading 'girly' novels.  I must have read quite a bit because I did produce quite a few scarfs like these.

There was quite a bit of interest from guild members about the technique that I used to produce these scarfs.  As a result of that, I have been invited to teach this technique.  I call the class 'Fabulous Felted Fusion'.  The class will take place on March 17th at our guild home.  At the time of writing, the class is full.  There is still interest from several potential students so hopefully the class will be held again later in the year.

As I write this my sweetheart is having his afternoon siesta.  He has had a tough year end with a slip on the ice resulting in broken ribs and punctured lung.  He is taking care of himself now and hopefully recovered from that escapade.  He needs a vacation.

I am madly knitting tiny socks for my new wee 'great' nephew born on January 27th.  Photos of those will be in an upcoming posting.

I have been working on a mapping project in my journal this year.  I have been inspired by Jill Berry in an online workshop as well as her book, Personal Geographies.  Now I am seeing 'everything' looking like maps.  I wonder what kind of a map I can make from the baby socks?  Have a look at Jill's blog and website.  Try some 'mapping' and let me know what you come up with.  I will post some of my maps in upcoming days.  It seems that I have much to show but in the meantime I had better get at my work.  Send me photos of your projects.