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Please Note

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Not much has been happening in the studio lately! However, I have been busy outside in the garden - we have new landscaping on the front of the property. We put in a new lawn in June with lots of topsoil delivered. Little did we know but the soil had crabgrass seeds which produced lots of the stuff in no time. 75 feet of  weeds instead of a lawn, which, I am pleased to say, have finally been eliminated!  We dug up the last two feet of weeds last night and reseeding has been accomplished! Crabgrass was not an issue in St. John's, NL. In fact, I don't think it even grows there. Nova Scotia has lots of it.

This one is thriving! Lots of mulch to eliminate weeds.

Stay safe and get vaccinated!

Get Vaccinated!!

We received our second vaccine shot of Pfizer-Biontech COVID-19 last week. By July 7, the two week waiting period for immunity will be done! I can't tell you what a relief it was to get this second shot. For the next few months, masks will still be worn when shopping and when around a large group of people.  

My studio has been vacant for the last month or so. That means I haven't been doing any stitching, embroidery or quilting. Things just went down the rabbit hole. And on June 19, mom passed away peacefully, in her sleep. She had been in decline about two weeks before that happened. Due to COVID-19, travel was not possible but my brother and sister-in-law were there for her. Her funeral was live streamed so the family, near and far, could be part of saying good bye to mom, granny, Aunt Deb, Mrs. Eady . . . Mom was five months away from her 100th birthday.

This is a photo of her (Deborah Emberley) that my cousin had. I've never seen this one of her. She was in her early 20's.

 You will be missed, MOM!

Stay safe everyone and please get vaccinated.

 

Finished - Squash Squad

I have finished my Squash Squad Instastitch with Sue Spargo. YAH!!! My vine border sort of got away from me but it was enjoyable to stitch. 

To read more about this piece, please hop over HERE where you can see a couple of close-ups. I've also added some links about the various squash / pumpkins used in this piece.

 Enjoy!

One of Twelve!!

I've been slowly working on Mary Corbet's Twelve Trees for Christmas, a collection of twelve 3" Christmas tree designs for hand embroidery. Seven of the twelve are done. This is the latest one.

Five more to go!!

The weather here in Pine Grove has been varied which has been great for landscaping. We have lots of deer resistant bushes and ground cover planted out front. At least, the deer have stayed away so far. Time will tell if they fill up on them or not! Mulch has been put around all the new plants and yesterday, lawn seed was sprinkled in place. It's slowly getting in shape.

• Embroidered Felt Star Ornament
• Twelve Trees for Christmas
• Christmas Tree Embroidery Pattern
  
• Owl Felt Ornament  
• Embroidery Trees on Pinterest  

Enjoy!

Stay safe and get vaccinated

 

 

Happy Mother's Day

 

A delightful drawing from my granddaughter, Gale.  The humming bird is the focus as I get them visiting the deck garden all summer. The pinkish lilly, shown below the blue flower, is the plant she just gave me for my garden.

• Flower Wall Hanging - pattern
• Poppy Quilts & Wall Hangings on PINTEREST 
• Bird of Paradise Block   
• Quilted Stained Glass Flower  
• Mother's Day Quilted Flower Hanging  
• Quilted Flower Blocks - free

Enjoy & Stay Safe!!

Spring!

Well, it finally moved from early spring to mid spring - I think! The spring weather here in Nova Scotia hasn't been as warm as last year and there have been lots of gray days. However, when the sun did shine, it was warm. On one of those sunny days, we made a trip to a couple of plant nurserys. 

Last fall, all the grass was stripped off the lawn between our two driveways  -  75' by 40' (and that doesn't include about another 40 feet on the other side of the driveways)! All the sod and a foot of clay was taken out and replaced with new topsoil and compost. There was also a layer of rocks put in front of the 'lawn' to keep the soil from running down the slope.

This year, the soil and compost were rotor-tilled together. We now have a two foot wide strip filled with ground cover plants across the front. I'm hoping these plants will spread down over the rocks. Of course, we get visits from deer and bunnies, so that determined the types of plants we used!

The next warm day, black ground cloth covered with mulch, will be installed around these plants. At the moment, we have no plans to replace any of the grass. I believe this endeavour will be a work in progress for the next couple of years. 

Four Gold Star Juniper - 3' x 6'

Five Blue Rug Juniper - Genevrier Wiltonii - 8" x 6'

Four 'Wiltonii' Juniper - 10 cm x 2.5 m

Twelve Periwinkle

Embroider a Garden:

• Kathy Thomas has lots of ideas on her Pinterest page 
• Stitch your own garden  Mary Corbet 
• More Pinterest ideas HERE,  HERE, 
  
• DMC - free embroidery patterns
• How to Hand Embroider Flowers    
• YouTube: 10 Gorgeous Flower Ideas  
• How to Embroider Flowers

Enjoy!!

Stay Safe 

 

Don't forget to check out my new website https://judycooper.ca  I've been adding photos, blog posts, etc. Take a look around!

 

Sunny Saturday and Stuff!!!!

It's a sunny Saturday! What will you do today? Me - that's another question. Yesterday I participated in an hour long zoom 'Tea / Coffee Break" with a group from the Craft Council of Newfoundland and Labrador. It was great to see and speak with this small group. A couple of new faces but the rest were familiar from craft fairs and elsewhere. This type of get together is hoping to continue on a monthly basis.

This weekend will be taken up with getting more things up on my website - especially the Shimmer Decorations. I'm registering to participate in the on-line Wholesale Show in Newfoundland & Labrador so items in that category will be shown on the NEW web site. We have been photographing Shimmers and hoping to get them posted this weekend.The Christmas ones will come later. Here's a sample of what will be posted.

Which Did I Choose?

Starting a new website has been a challenge! Thank goodness for a techie husband who did all the designing and building the site. However, blogging on the new site is still a learning experience. I do one thing and a dozen (well not exactly a dozen) things go on behind the scenes. I'm slowly getting up to speed.   

Well, enough of that. I have been busy (besides getting the business books ready for taxes) working on a quilted wall hanging. Here's the pattern. This was a zoom class sponsored by the Mahone Bay Quilt Guild.

My version is ready for quilting! YAH!! I don't often finish projects designed by someone else this quickly. This is an exception to the rule. One of the things that I had to decide before finishing, was the round circle in the middle of the grouping of houses. I tried several colours and finally decided which to use.

Which did I choose? To find out, hop on over to my new blog post to find out  or click on the My Web Site button at the top of this page. I did show how I made some of the windows.

• Dresden Neighbourhood with Kim Lapacek    
• Pinterest  HERE, HERE and HERE 
  
• Halloween Theme for the Neighbourhood
• Christmas Theme on Pinterest 

Stay safe 

Enjoy!

Embroidery Machines and Shimmer Ornaments

 Pop over to my new Blog for my latest post. Find out where these Shimmer ornaments are going!

Enjoy!

New Website and Blog just Launched!

I just launched my new website. It will be easy to remember the new address as it's my name, judy cooper dot ca  https://judycooper.ca. You will see a whole new look, thanks to my husband, who has spent many hours creating it. Needless to say, it has been a bit of a learning curve for me as I will be managing it. However, I can hear myself mumbling away and singing out for help now and then! 

My web site has a Home page with a photo of my Garden Sewing Box and a tiny bit about me; The Blog; Galleries with lots of photos of my 'Stuff' (photos of Shimmers aren't there yet); and Instagram Gallery. For those of my friends, who stay away from Instagram and Facebook, the Instagram Gallery shows the most recent 33 images posted. You aren't on Instagram, just looking from my website, so it's perfectly safe. 

The website has just been created and lots of other features will be added over the next few weeks.

The photo has nothing to do with this post but it needed a picture!!

The sheep, which I love and has had for ages, was from Dollarama. The little old lady was made by me, years ago, for my mother. Her hair is just like that and she wears glasses. Mom will be 100 in November. She's sitting in my studio (not the real mom HA!).

Enjoy!

 

Two Wins in February!!

My husband keeps telling me to buy a lottery ticket!! Yep, I won twice in February. Both items came in the last two days.

The first win was two fat quarters, compliments of Northcott, from Brandy Maslowski, Quilter on Fire. The Mahone Bay Quilt guild sponsored a zoom workshop, Fibre Art Frenzy, with Brandy in February. It was an enjoyable workshop and everyone had a good time.

Thanks, Brandy

The second win was a hooked rug mounted on a wooden frame from Deanne Fitzpartick Studio, in Amherst, Nova Scotia. This is called Little Cove and is 6" x 6". Deanne sells the kit for this on her web site.

Thanks, Deanne.

Please check out the work of both these artists!

Enjoy and stay safe
 

Squash Squad Border / Studio Clean-up

There's lots going on here in the studio but not a lot to blog about. I did a major clean-up and disposed of 'stuff' that I've carried here from St. John's and still haven't used after years of looking at it. Of course, next week I'll be searching for the very thing I gave away! Typical!!!

See - this section of back wall is clean and tidy! Until the next project clutters it up again.

I have been slowly working on the border for Squash Squad. I was determined that it would be finished this year. I haven't stitched on the ribbon separating the nine blocks yet. That will probably be one of the last things I do before putting on the backing and binding. I have also been considering placing this on a canvas board. 

I'm hoping to start the vines this weekend.

I found some interesting Textile Artists over the last few days. Sit back, relax and have a look at these artists' work.

• Deborah Boschert blog - Art Quilts
  
• Hanging Multi-Part Textile Works - Brenda Gael Smith
• Linda Robertus  Textile Artist - Her BLOG   
• Sarah Ann Smith - BLOG 
• Kay D. Haerland - Fabric Artist & Teacher
• Gillian Travis - Textile Artist 

Enjoy and Stay Safe

Happy Valentine's Day

 A day late as I forgot to publish it! Darn!!!!

My granddaughter loves 'stuffies' as she calls all stuffed animals. She's never been one for dolls but has lots of stuffed creatures. Here's her Valentine stuffie bear. (we had a sleepover so she got this when she woke up)!

Tonight I also uploaded Lesson Two of Four, Garden Sewing Box, to the Virtual Threads group (Embroiderers' Association of Canada). They will have a busy two weeks.

 

• Valentine Gnome from Quilt Doodle (idea for next year) Lots of interesting projects on this site
  
• Mary Corbet's review on Making (Embroidered) Boxes - Books & Resources
• Embroidered Boxes on Pinterest   
• How to Make a Fabric Covered Box from Scratch
• Fabric Box and Basket Patterns (free)

Enjoy and stay safe!

Scrap Bucket

Last night, I took part in a two part zoom class with Canadian Quilter on Fire, Brandy Maslowski. This class was sponsored by the Mahone Bay Quilt Guild. Of course, I selected the fabrics needed for the first part of the class. Wouldn't you know it! Brandy decided to reverse the order and jumped to part two. Was I prepared? NOPE! I was going to rummage through my stash on Thursday to get ready for the class that night.

Since I was in my own space, I had access to all my fabrics. I wasn't interested in making a wine tote that was been demonstrated. Several others also decided to do their own thing. I made a scrap bucket, which is a free pattern from Heather Valentine, The Sewing Loft. 

My base fabric is a dyed piece with raw edge strips stitched onto it. I left some of the base fabric visible. The strips were stitched in place using black Superior invisible thread. Black invisible thread does not shine like the clear thread does. Free-motion stitching is randomly stitched over the strips of batik fabrics. I opted to not add decorative yarns, buttons, ribbons or charms.

Base fabric (actually has greens but photo shows up as greys and black)

 Strips stitched onto the base

 

 

Close-up of stitching

Different views of the bucket

Scrap Bucket from last year

• Free patterns: Fabric Baskets    
• Pinterest: Quilted Organizer Patterns
• Tote Bag Patterns from Quilt Inspiration       
• Car Organizer Sewing Patterns     

Enjoy!

Stay Safe

Squash Squad Wool Embroidery: On the Road to a Finish

In Early December 2020, I finished the embroidery for the Squash Squad nine week challenge with Sue Spargo.  Now, I'm on the road to finishing it. I have all the blocks on a black wool background with a three inch border around them. My first step is to stitch them onto the black background. Then a narrow braid / ribbon might be stitched along the seams to hide the edges. 

Hindsight is a wonderful thing! The blocks were cut at 5 1/2 inches. If I was doing this again, the blocks would have been at least six - six 1/2 inches square, to give enough for trimming them all to the same size. I didn't think about the fact that stitching sometimes distorts the shape just enough to skew some of the blocks. At least that's what happened to mine. In any case, there isn't enough fabric to stitch them together with a seam.

Have a look. I'm using what I have on hand. Which one to use . . .

The first one has silver lines on the ribbon so has a bit of sparkle.

This one has white dots on black.

Maybe I'll even do something else as I haven't considered a final binding yet. (I just thought about the binding).

Decisions!!!!!!

Stay Safe

Enjoy!!

My Portable Embroidery Organizer

Not that I needed another 'organizer' for my stuff! BUT . . .

I saw a free pattern on Sew Can She web site last month and decided to give it a try. The cut-out handles really sold me on this project! A bonus - the pleated pockets are large enough for my phone. AND the interior with its 6 interior pockets, is the perfect size for fat quarters. It's also easy to close with the magnetic snaps.

I choose some Japanese fabrics from my stash. These had been gifted to me many years ago by an elderly lady, whom I visited frequently. In fact, I inherited most of her sewing and quilting stash when she passed away. This sewing organizer will always remind me of Nina.

As I'm not one to follow all the rules (good or bad????)! I did change the type of stabilizer from a medium weight fusible interfacing to some Peltex (fusible one side) that I had on hand. I did not use the flex foam stabilizer (bought some to try but didn't). In any case, the sides were a bit thick. I did manage to sew the binding on by machine on the straight parts but hand sewing, using the wonder clips, finished the organizer.

I decided to do some free-motion embellishment on the fabrics. For the pockets I used Totally Stable and a variegated thread by Superior Threads. I think it added to the project.

I also used these neat wonder quilter's clips to hold the binding in place while it was stitched on.

 

I like the cut-out handles and they are so easy to do.

Magnetic closure

Lots of pockets: 6 inside and 6 outside.

I'm pleased with the result and not sorry that I used the heavier stabilizer.

• Check out Sew Can She for lots of free patterns and tutorials.
• DIY Sewing Organizers  
• Sewing Patterns to Organize Your Life
• 50 + Sewing Organizer Patterns at All Free Sewing

Enjoy!!

Virtual Threads On-line Course

Tomorrow, February 1st, is the start of my Garden Sewing Box Workshop. at Virtual Threads, a subgroup of the Embroiderers' Association of Canada. This is my first time giving an on-line course. At the moment, a video presentation, was not possible. However, I have lots of photos on completing the project. 

Closeup of part of a panel.

• Free Motion Embroidery on Water Soluble Fabric    
• Tutorial: How to Embroider your own Freehand Landscape   
• Landscape Embroidery Ideas       
• Best of 2020: The Most Imaginative Embroidery Art of the Year 
• Embroidery Landscape Ideas    
• Hand Stitched Landscapes in a Hoop (I could not find artist name. If anyone knows it, please let me know, so that I can include it here) thanks
  

 Enjoy!

Garden Sewing Box # 3

My first Garden Sewing Box was designed and created in 2005. 

The 2nd one  was finished late last year. 

I just finished the 3rd. one. Why a third one? Well, since the first one was made years ago, I had to check out my original notes and construct another version of it. After it was completed, my husband asked if I had documented, with photos, all the steps taken along the way. Sheepishly, I shook my head. I had taken a few photos but not to the extent for presenting an online course. You see, he's a curriculum developer and has graciously taken on the job of writing up the instructions with an abundance of photos and sketches.  In other words, this is a pictorial, step by step instruction package, for creating my Garden Sewing Box. 

These art pieces don't have to be sewing boxes but can be a treasure or jewellery box, trinket holder . . .  You see what I mean!

Anyway, feast your eyes! It's very dimensional. Bits of foliage and flowers stick out here and there!

It's too late now, but I should have used a lighter green thread for my name and date on the bottom.

 Enjoy and stay safe!