Embroidery Machines and Shimmer Ornaments

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

Enjoy!

Yarn Shop (L.K. Yarns Inc.)

The Yarn Shop is located at The Hydrostone Market at 5545 Young Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia. This area hosts some unique shopping for tourists as well as the people who live here. I've been having a grand time this summer locating and visiting various craft, yarn and fabric shops as well as markets and tourist shops in Nova Scotia. Sure hope you enjoy seeing this one.

I just love the painted window display!
Enjoy!



Bins of yarn!

 



My purchase! I couldn't resist these.

Baaaaa!

These are some of the sheep at Gaspereau Valley Fibres and their wool is sold at the shop. It was interesting to get up close to them. The one back on was protective of the others, either that, or it didn't want to be photographed! The black faced one was interesting.

Enjoy!

• Sheep, sheep and more sheep
• Sheep Quilts on Pinterest. More Here
• Paper Piecing Sheep
• Farm Animals

Baby quilt for Gale that I made 4 years ago.

In LIke A Lamb!!

Welcome March! Here in St. John's, it came in like a lamb. I sure hope it doesn't go out like a lion but then, that's 30 days away. During that time we get SPRING! YAH!!! Though we can't complain about winter this year. It was a mild one here compared to last winter.

Here's some interesting sites to visit:

• Free Spring Quilt patterns at Fave Quilts HERE and HERE
• More free patterns at BOM Quilts
• Spring Quilts on Pintrest HERE and HERE 
• 10 Easy Quilt Tutorials For Spring from Sew Mama Sew \
• Spring Posies Quilt Block and Spring Chick Tutorial from Patchwork Posse 
• Hello Spring Strippy Pillow from Quilting in the Rain
• Tutorial Tuesday - 4 ideas for spring from The Fabric Shopper

Enjoy!!

Sheep at Stonehenge, granddaughter's baby quilt. She will be 4 on March 19!

Out like a Lion!!!

The last day of March! It came in like a lion and is going out the same way. I don't remember a winter as harsh as this one has been. Happy Monday! Let's hope that April will be better. It doesn't look like it is going to come in like a lamb this year in St. John's.

Here's a few lion / lamb quilt related stuff:
Enjoy!

• The lion and lamb quilt by Twi-Quilters.  They combined two patterns to make the quilt.
• Art Quilt from The Art Quilt blog.
• Sheep Quilts on Pinterest
• Sheep of the Month
• One Sheep Two Sheep
• Sheep Quilt Block
• Feeling SHEEP-ish

Sheep at Stonehenge (below) is the quilt I made for my granddaughter three years ago.


Sheep at Stonehenge

Sew Cute!

This is sew cute, that I had to share it. Baa Baa Black Sheep (or white) is the creation of Abby Glassenberg. You can find this tutorial at Sew Mama Sew. I figure we need something to help remind us that SPRING (hopefully) is just around the corner. However, the view from my window sure doesn't hint of anything close to spring. We are still into a deep freeze! Brrrrr!! The only consolation - the sun is shining.

So please hop (that's bunny talk) on over to see this nifty creation. You might just be inspired to make one for that little someone in your life.

Enjoy!

Guild Presentation - Voyage of Discovery

The Cabot Quilt Guild has a committee of talented ladies who look after the guild program for the year. They may introduce a new technique, have a slide show, a book talk, a guest presenter . . . the list goes on. This month, I was the 'program'! The committee felt it was time for me to do my 'stuff'. Since we have had quite a few new members over the last several years, it was decided that I should give a general talk about my art work.

I had no difficulty with a title as my first piece of original art was called "Voyage of Discovery" - very fitting, as it was completed the year I retired from teaching. Since then, I have been on my own voyage of discovery into all things related to textile art and embroidery. I love to experiment / play with new materials. However these days, I find it difficult to get much time to do that and I miss it. Note to self: make time!

I am not a quilter of quilts like most of the guild members. However, here's a couple I have done: Sheep at Stonehenge, and Quiltennium Dreams. Photos of some more of my work can be viewed HERE.

I decided to do a power point presentation of my art as well as have some actual pieces on hand. One thing I did discover while searching through my photographs to prepare for this presentation, was the importance of taking good photos! In the beginning, I was learning (still am really) and the images were not always taken in good light or were a bit fuzzy. I was told over and over to use the RAW mode on my camera as the images can sometimes be 'fixed'. You can't do much fixing if they are jpgs. I am now using the raw mode on my camera - live and learn. There are a few pieces of art that are sold and I wish I had better photos of them! Oh, well . . .

I do have to 'tag' all of my photos as it makes it easier to find certain ones. Some of them are done but not all.

The presentation went well and I was asked to do a workshop on some of the techniques I use. I am teaching Fantastic Fabrics (surface embellishment on fabric) next month. I have taught that one before and it tends to be lots of fun for participants as it is completely stress free! I also have to prepare a project for another workshop in the works, on making fabric clapboard. That was the topic for a presentation I did a few months ago for the Eastern Edge Quilt Guild ! Now, to get back to work!



Cod Fish - the fish are in 3-D. This is in a private collection.

Book Review # 2

Art in Felt & Stitch - Creating Beautiful Works of Art using Fleece, Fibres and Threads by Moy Mackay, is another one of my Christmas gifts. This book is visually stunning! Moy Mackay (Scottish artist) illustrates how to create beautiful pictures using felt and stitches. She takes you on a journey from start to finish, including the materials and tools you need, in making felted pictorial art. You, too, will end up been inspired to make art!  One of my favorite pieces in the book shows how she makes her sheep - they are delightful!

Enjoy!

Not Just Any Old Sheep . . .

I was taking photos of sheep (among other things) in St. Jacques, Fortune Bay, today. Of course, to me they were just a bunch of old sheep! However, I was later educated about the sheep from St. Jacques. These sheep, which belong to the Whalen family, are a Newfoundland heritage variety known as St. Jacques Sheep. They are one of three distinctive breeds found on the island. The others are found in Bourgoynes Cove and the Exploits Islands. A few years ago, Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN), did DNA testing and discovered that this breed of sheep (as well as the other two breeds), has maintained its pure strain for hundreds of years. There are quite a number of black sheep. Makes me think of the nursery rhyme, Baa Baa Black Sheep - the wool is sent away to be processed and sold as yarn.

Here's some photos to enjoy.

Sheep at Stonehenge

 I can finally tell you about the baby quilt I made since Christmas. I just delivered it. It is called Sheep at Stonehenge. You may think it a strange name for a baby quilt but I did see lots of sheep on my England trip in October, especially at Stonehenge. Also the main fabrics used are from the Stonehenge collection. The pattern is by British quilter, Lynn Edwards. I had been looking for something different and as soon as I saw this one, I knew it was the one to do. If I hadn't come across this one, I would have designed one from scratch. The sheep bodies are fleece with flannel for the faces. Everything else is cotton. I used the blanket stitch on my machine to stitch around the sheep. The flowers were hand stitched.  Free motion stippling was used to quilt it.

The sheep dog is on the back. I will embroider the baby's name and date of birth on the dog's chest when she arrives. 

 This is the book where I found the pattern for the above quilt. A few years ago I had the pleasure of meeting Lynn when she did some workshops and had a trunk show for the Cabot Quilt Guild here in St. John's.