Slow Stitching - No. 050 - StitchingText

K3N Cloth Tales Slow Stitching Challenge 2024

Week 50 - Stitching Text.

I chose fabric with lines I could follow.

As it is snowing heavily today that is the word I chose.

I used stem stitch. Added highlight to the lines then used a white pencil to draft my letters. Then added a snowflake in the square and offset the empty corner with smaller snowflakes.

Really happy with this one.

Sylvia's Simple Shots

We had a snow storm this week.  

It was blowing and snowing pretty hard.

I can barely see the building one street over  through the snow.

I did purchase a fabric marker from Walmart because I wanted one to create designs for embroidery which will wash out after the stitching is done.

Then just after I bought at retail I found this set of markers at Restore.  

I have plenty for my needs now for my slow stitching.

I found this Clover Kanzashi Flower Maker Pointed Petal small at Goodwill this week.

I was wanting to make flowers to decorate my bags and thought this would work well.

It does work well but the flowers are quite small.

Once I understood the concept I could make a large one with out the gadget.

At the same time my sister was looking for something similar.

You can check out the method and flower she made in this post.

I have made flowers both ways and it works quite well.  The pentagon flower requires quite light fabric as it needs to bunch a lot to make the petals.

Sylvia's Simple Shots

The progress on the slow stitching scroll continues.

I found this button in a .50 cent bag of buttons when I visited the thrift store in Wetaskiwin while on a visit with my sister.

It matches really well the colors in the backing fabric of the scroll.

It is a shell button and measures about 1.25 inches across.

You can see a hint of the tie I created as well.

We had a good dump of snow overnight.

I was glad I did not have any place I had to be and could just hunker down till the roads were cleared.

I have simplified my method of keeping the bobbin with the matching spool of thread.

It is a simple elastic band about 3-4 inches long. I push one end through the bobbin then pull both ends over the top end of the spool.

The expensive gadgets I bought were a total waste of money.  Several broke the first time I put a bobbin on them.

This bands are cheap as dirt and can be replaced instantly should one decide to fail.

Happy with this new system.  Easy to add to the system as well as I have box of 100s at my disposal.

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan.  I have read several of her books and enjoyed them a lot.

The story of 4 Chinese mother and daughters in their early years and their later years.  It was a lot of characters to keep track of.

This one was a disappointment.  The conflict between mothers and daughters was not fun to read about.  I did enjoy the beginning and the end had some wonderful bits in it.

I found a tin at the ReUse Center for my ORTs.

Orts are the leftover snips of thread that remain when you are done stitching. They may be be tiny bits clipped when you run out of thread, or longer lengths you no longer need.

I love the green shamrocks on the lid and it looks like it originally held a wonderful confectionery.

As you can see the box is full of fluffy threads.

Perfect!

Sylvia's Simple Shots

It's the first Sunday of Advent.  I placed my advent wreath on the pine secretary this year as furniture shifted when the sofa was removed from the living room.

I added pine cones in the cylinders this year with a small bird perching on a branch in the front.

The first candle is lit which is the candle of HOPE. 

The first candle harkens us back to Isaiah’s foretelling of the birth of Christ and all of the promises God gave us in the Old Testament that would be fulfilled by the birth of Jesus.

I had police cars all over the block this evening.  I was not able to discover till Monday what had happened.  There were many crusiers and officers on the main road which had been closed to traffic. 

Turns out that police were called when a man armed with a knife was approaching people on the street. A confrontation occurred and a police officer discharged his weapon, killing the man. An ASIRT investigation continued into the early morning hours. A TV crew from one of the local news station was on the scene for a while. 

That is totally scary!

We had a bit of snow fall overnight.  There has been very little snow fall this fall.

With the temperature hovering near freezing it disappeared by weeks end.

The Paris Bookseller by Kerry Maher is the book I finished this week.  It is a novel based on a real woman named Sylvia Beach from the USA. When a young woman opens her shop - Shakespeare and Company in 1919 on a quiet Paris street in 1919, she has no idea that she and her book store will change the course of literature itself. 

Her bookstore becomes the hub for English book readers and writers.  Famous writers spend time in her little shop and she becomes friends with many.  James Joyce, the Irish writer is one of these.  When his book Ulysses is banned she takes a great risk and publishes it under the the auspices of Shakespeare and Company.  

She was very loyal to Joyce and went over and beyond to get his book published but the writer was not appreciative. He could not pay his rent, had marital strife, and health issues which consumed him.  Eventually, he did repay the debts owed and the money due her from books sales with a short thank you note. It was a very interesting book.

It was the time of year again to deal with a low pressure tire warning on the car.

It was much less stressful this year knowing what I had learned last year.  I headed off to the service station, put my money in the machine and topped all the tires to 35 psi.

At least it was not -20C like last year.

All is well!

I discovered these cookies this week. I do love ginger and they deliver a great taste.  I am not a fan of a gingersnap and after talking to my sister it was suggested that there may not be any molasses in these.  I believe that is the difference.

It makes a nice end to a meal and they can be in the house and I will not eat the whole box in a sitting.  That is what I need,

Loving them.

They were on sale as well so that is a bonus.

We had our opening of the Christmas Store on Saturday.

We had good attendance.  I met and spoke to quite a few folks from our group. 

I believe several folks left with bags in hand so that is a good thing.

I enjoyed a cup of hot chocolate which was very good along with some beautiful short bread cookies.  There was a nice variety of flavors of hot chocolate and tea and some other holiday goodies.

It was a very good time.

Photo Shoot - Christmas - Cool Snowman

I worked on Christmas photography for cards this year.

This was a fun one.  This was created with free and found objects.

It started with the blown glass snowman I found at the ReUse Center.  I needed an environment for him and it took a few days for me to remember the little house and find it. 

It is a small gingerbread house that lights up.  I think IKEA but it is not marked.  

The white wood tree pick - I cut the pick to short and put it into a styrofoam block so it would stand.

The tiny bottle brush tree came out of an ornament which I managed to extract with a piece of wire.

The snow is fiberfill batting for quilts.  It is stretched, moved around, fluffed up and patted down as needed.  Added a bit to the chimney. The house and snowman are raised so they don't get lost in the snow. Need enough snow to cover the transition from the the table to the background.

The background is a piece of scrapbook designer paper in navy star night sky.  Perfect.

It is 12x12 designer paper by Creative Imaginations created by Helen Dardik.

I now have a photo that can serve different purposes.  Trimmed to the right size of 4 x 6 it will become a Christmas background for one of the count down calendars. More about that later.  It will need a few words and a star where the numbers can be written At this size it can also be used on a 5x7 A7 photo card when I add a digital greeting.  The shot can also be trimmed to 3.5 x 5 inches to be used on a 4.25x5.5 inch A2 greeting card.  This turned out so well.  

Sylvia's Simple Shots

My aunt and I took a walk along the river with our cameras recently.

It was very nice temperature wise and the sun was shining.  A great time.

As you can see, though the river is frozen but we still have no snow.

Love the fall grasses in the foreground with the reflection of the sun on the river.

Gorgeous blue skies which are typical for Alberta.

We heard geese which I was surprised were still here despite the frozen water.  Who knows what they are thinking!

I joined another aunt for a visit to the Art Gallery.  The weather was still nice and I was tasked with driving us downtown and finding parking.  That went well.  It was really weird to be out and about.

First time, I used my vaccination record to visit a non essential place of business in 20 months.

There were 2 exhibitions I was interested which both featured colorful art.  Mostly abstract as well.

The blue and pink piece was about the how color can be dispatched to for social control.  The pink color which is used in institutional settings was studied in 1978 and was found to make inmates violent.  The barn is a piece about our abandoned farm buildings.  Love the abstracts.

Our first snow arrived on Sunday Nov 14th.  

It continued to come down for a few days in varying degrees.

I had to go out on Wednesday and the roads were like slushy soup as they had not been ploughed yet.  Yuck!

I had several places to stop and it was a bit harried but I managed to keep the car and myself intact.

I made roasted vegetables yesterday.  I used the large roaster so I could keep them to one layer.

Yams, red onions, brussel sprouts, rutabaga, turnip, garlic and carrots.  A bit of olive oil and seasonings.

I added fresh oregano in the last bit of its time in the oven.

They were yummy.

That means its time to head for groceries as I am completely out of veggies in the fridge.

An Irish Cottage by Patrick Taylor is the book I finished this week.

Love this author and his stories of a medical practice in rural Ireland in the 1960's.  

In this book the Donnelly's looks their cottage to fire and the community rallies to find the family a temporary place to live.   Then further efforts are made to rebuild the burned out cottage.

The civil unrest with north and south regions plays a part which I don't really understand well.  

Another theme is women's reproductive rights in the 60's where one women is not wanting another child and another woman desperately wants one and is having difficulty conceiving.

The doctors and their house keeper and neighbours provide wonderful stories!

The Perfect Christmas - Debbie Macomber revolves around a young woman who wants to be in a relationship.

She finally decides to hire a matchmaker for $30,000 to find the perfect match for her by Christmas.

The matchmaker gives her several tasks to prepare for her first date with John, her perfect match.  She stands outside a mall ringing bells to raise funds for a charity, dressing up as an elf with Santa at the mall, and prepare Christmas dinner for her neighbors in the apartment building.

Each of these provide opportunities to learn things about herself and ensures visits from the matchmaker to monitor her progress.

In the end, she finds the man of her dreams but it was not exactly as the matchmaker had planned.

It was okay for a light read.

Cards - Gallery - B&W photo cards

I brought some new cards to the Art Gallery Gift Shop today.

I created a set of black and white images.  The photos are printed at a local photo developer and mounted to the front of a heavy 110lb card stock base.

The cards are A2 4.25 x 5.5 inches with a white envelope included.

The inside is left blank for a personal message.

In this image are the seashell with a black background and a grass seed head against a black background.

This card features a flower called Astrantia major "Alba".  It features a beautiful bokeh background.

It was photographed at the botanic park.

I brought 2 of each of these 5 designs. 

I also took the opportunity to bring home cards which have been sitting there for a while.

The card on this left in this photograph is dried grass in a snow bank but it could as easily be sand.

The one of the right is a cloud shelf where the clouds are heavier and darker.

It's been so long since I had been through the process of updating stock at the gallery.

Now that I am retired things are a little different in my record keeping.

Everything changes.

Sylvia's Simple Shots

We had an April snow storm on Saturday.

 It started about mid afternoon and  went into the late evening.

Heavy wet snow and you can see the wind was blowing pretty hard as well.

The sun on Sunday melted a lot of it but there was still some around this morning.

It will provide nice slow drink for the earth so that is a good thing.

Check out these beauties!  I found these at the thrift store a couple of weeks ago.   These were sold in Teavana stores.  A teapot and 4 cups and saucers. 

Teavana Yellow Bone China Tea Cups & Saucers - Noble Poppy with Gold Trim.  The set sold for over $100 which explains why I never purchased it.

I was thrilled to find these in perfect condition for under $10.  I have paired them with my French Cobalt Blue glass plates and gold tea spoons.  Perfect!

I have finally culled my frame collection down to what I need.  

I found this beauty during the process.  This was painted by my aunt many years ago.  

Beautiful watercolor and I have missed enjoying it because it was in a box and I did not even remember having it.

It has been framed and put up to be enjoyed.

 

 

Here's my latest choice for snacks.

Yummy yogurt with no sugar added and in just the right size!

Blueberry and Banana.

Perfect when I want a bit of sweetness after my meal.

 

I still make greeting cards and during a conversation with my sister we talked about these new embossing folders by Stampin Up. 

The one she wanted was on clearance so we should order right away or she may miss it.

I chose to purchase a couple of them for myself. 

Loving the 3D Painted Texture one.  I have already used it.

Will try out the scripty one tomorrow. I have too much cardmaking tools as it is but I broke down and bought a couple more.

The challenge at Flickr Macro Mondays this week was pairs.  Here I have photographed a pair of yellow earrings. They look maybe '50s or '60s style.  You can check out what I submitted on my Photostream (SMDPics)

I am sharing with Angie who hosts Mosaic Monday #126 and with 

Mersad who hosts Through my Lens #284.
 

Have a great week!

Sylvia's Simple Shots

I was out early Saturday morning on a photo shoot.  The weather was warm and the sun was shining so I took the opportunity to be out. 

I found a new park to investigate.  The walking was tough because it was quite icy in places. I fell Thursday after we had a dusting of snow so I was careful.   The park is long along the Fulton Ravine but is used as a off leash dog park.  I was early so it was not too bad for social distancing.

I captured the morning sun on this snow bank.  I just love the sparkle of the snow.

It was a very good 90 minute outdoor adventure.  I made several stops along the way to shoot architecture.

Very successful morning.

I have a plan for a new Christmas Tree for next year.  This one hangs on the wall.  It is made of birch tree branches hung in a triangular shape.  I had drawn up the design on paper but decided to make a mock up and hang it where I planned to see how it fit.

The triangle is 40" wide at the bottom and 48" tall. The trunk is extra.  On my last trip to the outside world I bought a 50 foot string of fairy lights which will light it.  That is enough to cover it twice which will be just right.

I plan of having crystal beads on the ends of each row which will prevent the branch from moving and capture the light.   The branches are about 5" apart which is tall enough for most of my ornaments. I most have clear glass or stained glass ornaments. I have work out the hangers for it yet.  

I hope to keep a few twigs on the branches sticking out to allow for a few special dimensional ornaments.

 I finished this book this week. A World Elsewhere by Wayne Johnston.  A Canadian author who grew up in Newfoundland.

Landis Druken is the son of a Captain on a sealing ship who had hoped to have him take over the Gilbert when the time came.  Landis attended Princeton for his higher education.  He met Padgett Vanderluyden and they became friends, were part of social scene and shared a house at one point. Padgett is very wealthy and plans to build an estate in Carolina and wanted Landis to join him. These two parted ways under bad terms.  Landis returns from Princeton and declares he does not want to head a sealing ship. For this, his father disowned him and he was left poor and living in an attic on Dark Marsh Road. 

He receives a letter from the wife of a man, Francis Carson, who sailed on his father's ship who has died at sea.  It's possible his father is responsible for this death. There is now a small son, Deacon and the mother can no longer care for him so he has been put in an orphanage. 

Landis rescues the 3 year old from the orphanage and brings Deacon to live with him. In some ways Landis is not prepared to be a father. He drinks too much, does not earn enough money to keep them both well fed, and the attic is very cold in the winter. The boy is small and frail and often travels on Landis' shoulders.

After several years, Landis being desperate writes to Padgett in Carolina and asks to come to Vanderland, the estate which was built in Carolina. Landis and Deacon move to Vanderland.  Things get complicated there with Mr. Vanderluyden, his wife and daughter. They are warm, well fed and Deacon is getting an education. Landis is teaching English to the 2 children and there are other tutors who all live in the Bachelor wing. 

Landis is very good at story telling, creating new words for things, creating poetry for songs, but he writes every day and burns the pages.  Things get harry in the final chapter but it has a good end.

I have put up 2 more framed photos on the shelf in the bedroom.  This shelf does not have the channel which the other shelf has but we'll see how it goes. 

After a bit of a exchange with an artist on my Instagram I have decided that I should have as much art on display as feasible.  I will enjoy it till the frames are filled with new photos and I will be reminded of the frames I have.  Why hide them away in boxes!

 

I recycled an old artist board (18"x 24 inches) I had into a photography backdrop.  I primed both sides with 2 coats of primer. 

I decided to have one side in cool tones and the other with warm tones.

This is the blue cool tones side.  I used Blue Velvet and White acrylic paint.  I watched a few videos on line about doing this process. 

I mixed my medium base coat by adding white to the blue. This was thinned with water and painted on.  I had prepared a darker version and a light version as well.  When the base coat was semi dry I applied the lights and darks with a round sponge.  I am happy with the results.

The challenge this week at Flickr Macro Monday is "Ribbon".  I had fun using a large assortment from my stash.  You can find the one I submitted on my Flickr Photostream (SMDPics).  The red one uses my new photo backdrop.  Really happy!

I am sharing with Angie who hosts Mosaic Monday #114 and with

Mersad who hosts Through My Lens #275

Sylvia's Simple Shots

I was out to a new to me wetland area this week.  There are several water ponds and some walk ways over the water which is frozen these days.

Ice had been cleared for a hockey rink and a skating oval.  With the pandemic raging here the locals have found a way to social distance and still get their exercise and fresh air.

I will certainly be checking this area in the spring when the water is back.  Looking forward to it.

This is a seed pod of an unknown species of plant.  There a hint of snow on it.  I have not been so aware of how seeds get spread in the fall for growing in the spring.

I delivered 13 quilts to my charity contact this week.

These are some of mine as well as some of my sister's.

The box meant to store them was over flowing and I am grateful that they will be distributed to people in need.

The bag was dropped off on her door step at a designated time to ensure no contact.

I did not finish this book which was recently on my night stand. 

The novel is a story about a real life Erwin Schrodinger - was a Nobel Prize-winning Austrian-Irish physicist who developed a number of fundamental results in quantum theory: the Schrödinger equation provides a way to calculate the wave function of a system and how it changes dynamically in time.

This book was about his personal life - his marriage, his mistress and their child, his other infidelities and how he interacted with his colleagues.  A lot about how he was feeling and the internal dialogue going on in his head.

It takes place in Austria and Ireland during the Second World War.  It was quite depressing and I don't need that right now so I quit half way through.

 

The dryer vent has been reconnected!  We had the dryer vents cleaned a while back and the service person was not able to get around this elbow with his vacuum.

They cut a hole in the drywall, taped the joint on the bottom of the elbow back together, checked the bottom connection, and fixed the hole in the wall. 

I had to dismantle some of the shelving in the laundry area to provide him the access he needed.  I was finally able to get everything back in the space.   That was a week of no laundry but I had planned ahead so it was no problem. Great to get another thing off the todo list.

I was able to get outside and so a bit of photography as well.  The sun if having a hard time showing up these days still.  On Sunday it was predicted so I kept an eye out and when it appeared at 10:00 am I headed out with the camera.

The top leaf was with good sun and you can see the shadow and the sparkling snow.

The wild grass at the wetlands against a late afternoon sun with interesting clouds in the sky.

The bottom one is a very frost encrusted leaf in the snow.

Flicker Macro Monday challenge this week is "Bathroom".  Here's one of the shots I took.  You can check out my photostream SMDPics to see the photo I submitted.

I am sharing with Angie who hosts Mosaic Monday #107 and Mersad who hosts Through my Lens #268.

Have a great and safe week.

Sylvia's Simple Shots

I found this bit of snow which had collected on an aspen leaf that had settled in the evergreen tree at the park.

Its been a few days since it snowed and the temperature has warmed up so I see a bit of ice forming on the bottom edge.

I found it a nice image on my walk yesterday.

Jeopardy is one of my favorite shows and I watch it every day.

Of course, Alex Trebeck has been hosting for long time and it was very sad to hear of his passing.

I will miss this Canadian smile, kindness and class as he hosted some many people on this game show. 

No gimmicks just great show.

My first Granny Square since the 1980's.  I had to do a lot of research to find a pattern that worked for me.  Before the internet where would I have seen a pattern for crochet?

There used to be monthly magazines which you bought monthly. They had all kinds of crafty and food ideas.  This is the Christmas Helps from 1980.  I found a traditional Granny Square pattern in it.  And it is all contained in a single entry.  I was finding on the internet the information was spread over a few pages and no print file was available.

I made home made Ginger Chews recently.  I had discovered some packaged ones which tasted pretty good.  One of my favorite flavors in food is ginger so I went on the web to see if I could find a recipe.

I found Fiery Ginger Chews recipe which is very yummy.  It reminds me a lot of pulled taffy we used to make when I was a kid.

They are very sticky and I decided not to coat them in icing sugar as suggested.  I just wrapped them in wax paper.  

Very yummy and good for coughs and nausea as well.

The Macro Monday Challenge on Flickr this week was Spiky.  A lot of options for this challenge.

I found bottle brush trees, push pins and pods from the potpourri.

You can check my photo stream SMDPics to see the image I submitted. 

I am sharing with Angie who hosts Mosaic Monday #106 and 

Mersad who hosts Through my Lens #266.