Some new color combinations

For any of you who are interested in some new color combinations, you might like to check out this article,

Gifts and Tablewares - Pantone Home & Interiors 2011 Palettes Revealed at IHA Show

You can also visit the Pantone Website and view a color report for 2010,
Pantone fashion color report
Have a nice, colorful day!

Tulips

Yesterday afternoon was an outing to Indigo, where I scooped up a couple of new paperbacks by 2 of my favorite authors  Hooray! (Jonathon Kellerman and Michael Connelly) and an older paperback by Laurie R.King that I hadn't read (hooray!)  Then we wandered over to the Conservatory at the Mendel, where they had some spring bulbs in bloom, so we sat around there for quite a while, nice taste of spring.

And this is a flower of mittens.  It's a photo to put into my new book-journal for my knitting adventures.

Have a great monday!

A Slow-paced Saturday

 Today has been a lazy day for me, but I did put the binding on my table runner, as seen above!  It fits the table quite nicely, and Richard Brought home the flowers!  The little border is pieced, 3/4" squares, and the embroidered pieces are "up-cycled" thrift store finds.  I wish I had more thrift store finds featuring hand embroidery -- it was quite fun mixing them into a quilt.

 I mentioned to the quilt guild that in fact I do plan to write a book, called "Where Did All this Stuff Come From".  The idea is to document some of my favorite stuff, where and how it came to be mine.  So, I spent a few minutes wandering around the house taking photos of stuff.  Below, you see a little bird inspecting a felt ball that I did some embroidery on, both in front of a tile I made when I was a potter.  It is sort of silky, matt feeling since it is done in terra sigillata.  I made a tile by carving the design into leather-hard clay, then casting a plaster mold so that I could make multiples of the tile.

And, because it was so lovely today, this is a photo of one of the window sills in the dining room, can you see that patch of bare ground outside, and the puddle??? In mid-March in Saskatchewan?? Wow.

Progress and a business opportunity

 Noticed these little guys in a corner of my sewing room today, they look tired, not sure what they're doing.

My wedding ring quilt has seen a bit of progress today, but it is becoming obvious that I'll have to do some hand piecing on it....
It was a good day for machine quilting... no big hits on pins or anything like that.  I quilted this tablerunner, quite closely, since I want it to lie flat on a table.  Maybe I'll get the binding on in a day or two.  I am liking the way it's turning out. 

It occurred to me again today, while winding bobbins, that some 8 or 9 year old could make some spending money by winding bobbins for people.. The customer could drop off 50 or so bobbins and the thread, and then the young entrepreneur could wind them and charge by the bobbin, like 10 or 12 cents each, which could work out pretty good for both parties.  I would be a customer.  Just saying. 

Just so You Know

Just so you know, I am working on Part II of how to make a braided rug, so don't worry!  Hope you are collecting wool --- and another thing you can collect is nylons.  Yes.  Pantyhose, it is used to lace the braids together.
Also, just so you know, I had a great day today, which wasn't hard because the weather was so spring-like.  It is hard to believe that it is only mid-March. 

I spent several hours at my friend Linda's house today, where we (the 7 of us) had a "big day" of being together and making stuff.  Some of us did some collaged covers on blank books.  The base for my book is a watercolor paper "field" book, so the pages are fairly thick.  I just glued on various papers to the covers, inside and out, and some edging decorations on most of the pages.  I intend to use the book to keep track of the knitting and crocheting items that I make.  The others are using theirs as calendars, which I would have done too, except I already have one.

Some of us also popped over to the Saskatchewan Craft Council Gallery to see the show, "The Art of the Book" or something like that.  It was pretty good, but yesterday I also went to a show that I liked A Lot! It was at the Darrell Bell Gallery downtown on 3rd Ave, and featured the stitched landscapes by Margot Livesay.  They were amazing and I loved them.  Way to go, Margot!!