May You Soar with the Eagle

A few more stitches have been added to the eagle piece.

As 2010 comes to a close, I'm thinking of the birth of a new year

May we all aim high and soar like the eagle.

Another Embroidered Bouquet of Flowers

My mother and I embroidered this together in the late 50's or early 60's...

It's still starched and beautiful...

Not many wrinkles in sight, despite the fact that it's not much younger than I am!

Happy to still have a piece I shared with my mother.

Flowers From My Distant Past

No time for stitching right now....

So am sharing a corner of a tablecloth embroidered by a young me in the late 50's.

And so another Christmas Passes By

A green Christmas for the first time in years;

but the snow came eventually and left us without electricity for another whole day.

Brett came home!

 We were kept busy with parties and games, walks and cozy time in front of the fire.

Mark stayed in Toronto with Donna and her family but we had lovely talks over the phone lines.

Today I am alone, 

Brett and his father left for the airport before dawn on treacherous roads with high winds.

All went well, Brett is now in the air heading back to Toronto.

It's quiet in the house.

The wind is howling as the snowstorm continues.

Grateful for special time spent with family.

Happy to have a warm glowing fire keeping me company as I stitch for the first time in days,

waiting for my husband to get back home this afternoon.

And so Winter is Here

 

The colours or winter.

Christmas Cardinal

Christmas is nearly upon us and I hope yours will be filled with joy and the love of family.

I grew up in England where the tiny English Red Robin was a symbol of the Christmas Season.  We don't find those pretty little red breasted birds here in Canada.  What we do find is the very handsome Cardinal which I now regard as my Christmas symbol.  They are here all year round but in the bleak whiteness of winter they are an especially cheerful sight.

A Flock of Birds

Some of my Christmas presents this year were made by Margi, a very good friend, a wonderful doll maker, a creative spirit with a sense of humour.

Sky Glow

Morning has broken
Like the first morning

Clowns of our bird world

Bedraggled.....

"You lookin' at me?"....

"You're still watching"...

 

"Think I'll hide in the bushes!"

Uprooted

Three trees uprooted in one fell swoop during Monday's storm.
Can you see the two trees on the left were just sitting on a couple of boulders?

Our huntress.

Our ball obsessed pup.

"Pleeeeeeease pick up my ball and throw it somewhere, anywhere!"

Re-rooted and Apoligies for the Delay

First of all, the apology.
On Monday VERY strong winds and rain came hurtling through.
We had no power for 24 hours.
On our little acreage, we've lost 6 trees. Pictures tomorrow.
We got away lightly.
Things are bad further up the valley.
Some still don't have power.



This is what my second rooted piece looks like now.
I've been asked how the bottom darker section was done.
I took a piece of fabric probably about twice the width of what it is now.
Drew some wavy lines on the right side of the cotton.  This had to be chalk or something that can be removed.
Taking one line at a time...
I pinched a length of knitting yarn underneath each line...
Holding the yarn in place, I whip stitched along each line with embroidery floss.
So you are trapping the yarn in a fold of fabric.
This creates a pin tuck.
Once all the pin tucks were in place then it was machine stitched to a quilt batting.
Does that help?
If not, I could try and photograph the process.

Perhaps the bottom left close-up shows the pin tucks better.

Rooting Around Again

The local SAQA group wants about 3 pieces from each of us for the Rooted show..........So here we go again.

Checked out some doodles...

Chose my fabrics, they are Egyptian cotton and no good for hand work.

Machined them together with some textures.

At this point it lay around my studio as I stitched on other pieces closer to my heart.

Will show you how it's developed since then, tomorrow.

For the Birds

This morning I beaded cranberry necklaces for the birds....

They're dangling from the trees and I'm wondering if birds like cranberries!

Now I'm going to warm my fingers by the fire...it's freezing out here.

Stitching Lichen

T wrote about trying this stitch out. 
And I believe she found it at Chris Grey's who has a link to  Deepa's Chemanthy tutorial.
Oh, what a tangled path we lead!

It made me think of lichen.

 

And they look even better combined.

Driftwood Tree

Sometimes.....

 

the driftwood caught on the dike.....

 

is just too big for me to bring home.