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!

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!

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.