Sunday 28 January 2018

Rearranging Stones


Back in the good old summertime
this is what a stone pathway looked like
Lovely but to me not looking like a pathway.
So
For three days last week I unpicked all that work!


The tools of an unpicker include
a beautiful thread cutter
(A gift from the Mahone Bay Quilt Group)
and
duct tape
the inventors of which would never have imagined
their tape would be part of a stitchers tool box.
With all that unpicking threads were sticking to everything.


Then I remembered a tip from years back.


Snip the stitches on the wrong side
Lay some tape over the stitches on the right side.


Pull back the tape
and voila
the threads can't escape that sticky surface!
That unpicking took me three days.


 I did take breaks
like the day we walked the Rusty Pups


up the mountain
in deep virgin snow.


Since then I have spent days trimming and
stitching stones into
what I think looks more like
pathways.
I am content.
As you can see I now have a mountain of trimmings
for which I will find another project.

May your days be filled with stitching things together
and
not so much taking them apart!

Wednesday 17 January 2018

Wintering with Stones


A January thaw
brought water sweeping through the pond....


and filled the stream to bursting....


 and forced water to find a new path around rocks that edge the stream
starting erosion in a new place.
Let's hope it doesn't form another pond!


But as you can see the snow is back.
Stones are snug and warm in the studio
just laying around on table tops.


 The first stage of bringing stones together
is simply pinning them together in pairs.


Then they get pinned and sewn together in rows.


I am elbow deep in 365 stitched stones!


The real stones hang around together at one end of the studio.


The leftover fabric scraps are at my feet.
I am thinking these might edge the final piece/pieces.

I hope all of you in the northern hemisphere are warm
and those of you in the southern hemisphere are keeping cool!

Monday 8 January 2018

Living and Stitching in a Snow Globe


 The first week of 2018 has been and gone already.
Some of you might remember my car
died the first week of 2014.
This year it was our fridge that gave up the ghost!
It been fun trying to save all the food.
It is so cold that some of it is in picnic boxes
frozen solid outside in the garden
but
shhhhhh...don't laugh too loud
or tomorrow's chicken dinner
could be dragged up the North mountain
by a member of the local wildlife.


 It has snowed since the year began


The temperature has plummeted
The coldest we have experienced in Nova Scotia


It is beautiful
but hard on the birds and critters


I have been snuggled inside preparing for a February show
of my fifty-two 2016 crosses.
I am about half way through mounting them on foam board


I position them on the board
clamp them into place


I prefer to stitch them to the board.
First I poke a hole through to the back
in each corner.
This helps me hit the right spot when actually stitching.
Then I just take a stitch through each corner.


The backs will look like the one at the top of this photo.


I will sign each one
and number it according to which week of 2016 it was made for.
If I have time I will place a label on the back
recording what happened during that particular week.
Now I have to work out which hanging mechanism
works best with foam board.

It is very strange not stitching a stone every day!
But I am working on putting them together.

Brrr! it's cold here.