Life in Nova Scotia

I have been living in Nova Scotia one year today. It has been a very interesting, busy year to say the least. The one thing I don't miss, is the weather. CBC did a radio show a few years ago and St. John's was the 3rd windiest city on the planet!  I can believe that. It is so strange, even a year later, to look out at the trees and the leaves hardly move. Last fall, I purchased my first outdoor garment without a hood. In St. John's on most days, you needed a hood! Can you guess - I DON'T LIKE WIND!!!

In any case, we have settled into life on the mainland. Family is 10 minutes away. Life is good.

I joined the Mahone Bay Quilt Guild this month. Of course, Rose, the program coordinator, whom I met at Lynn's Quilting Studio the week before, has already penciled me in to do the March program. She wants me to do a 'show and tell' of my art work. I can do that!

Next week, the guild is having a Quilters' Harvest Quilt Show & Sale. Thursday night is the opening of the show for guild members. I was afraid I was going to miss seeing the quilts, as we are going to Cape Breton that weekend. Hopefully, I'll be permitted to take a few photos to share here on the blog.

Enjoy!

Check out my Instagram page @jctextileart to see some of the things I've been doing. I'm still having issues with transferring photos from phone to computer. Isn't technology grand!

Wind Storm

We had a terrible wind storm today. Most of the island was affected. Power outages all over. Our loss of power lasted about 5 hours. I'm having my first cup of hot tea since breakfast. In fact, I was wondering if I would even get a chance to post today.

I couldn't do much in the studio with the power gone so I cleaned out the big cabinet which holds a lot of my supplies. I'm getting ready to sell it as it's just too big to move with everything else I have.

Now take a look at these posts:

• Needlepoint Now on Pinterest
• Charmed Table Topper from We All Sew 
• Kibble Catcher for the cat lovers out there
• Block of the Month Videos  
• Quilting Videos

Enjoy!

Hot and Sunny

I'm really glad to hear that Newfoundland is experiencing some great summer weather as they had a miserable, cold July! It's been great here in Nova Scotia. I've been taking lots of photos. Now, I hope they will inspire me to get started on some new projects. I must be honest, I haven't done much in the way of hand work. It has been a relaxing couple of months.

I walked about 5 kilometres this morning before it got too hot. Here's a few shots from that walk:

Wishing it was SPRING!!!

As I was looking out the window of my daughter's place here in Chicago, I wished it was spring! It's been really cold since I've been here. Certainly a lot colder than St. John's, NL, where the sea has a warming effect. I just read that St. John's has the mildest winters in Canada! Hmmm! I don't know about this winter though!!

Since my heart is looking toward SPRING (still  months away), here are some leafy designs to check out. Also, I pinned a few art quilts with leaves on my Art Quilts pinterest page.

• Leaf designs from Sketch Book
• Leaf Stitch,
• How to Crochet a Leaf
• Free Knitted Leaf Patterns
• Lace Leaf Stitches
• Little Leaves Scarf (cute)
• 100 Stitches - Leaf Stitch (excellent tutorial & worth looking around the site)
• Rose Leaf Stitch
• Embroidery Library - Leaf Stitch
• Raised Fishbone Stitch (fish pattern)

Farmer's Field

I took a walk along the road beside this field. The sky was blue but off in the distance I could see clouds. Within ten minutes, dark thunder clouds appeared and I felt a few drops of rain. I just made it back to the motor home when the rain came down in buckets! However, it passed over quickly and the sun came out again. I managed to get these photos just in time. Each of these scenes has the potential of a thread painting and/or applique. Think about it. How would you begin? What fabrics would you use? How large or small would it be? . . . the field could be: strip pieced, thread painted, hand embroidered, a single piece of hand dyed fabric. Would you paint the sky, use dyed cotton, transfer paint, water colour pencils/crayons? For my sky, I'd use a piece of hand dyed satin. I just love the shiny sheen from the satin. Don't stick to traditional cottons but explore other fabrics. Some might work out but you'll never know unless you experiment. These are just a few ideas to get you thinking about small landscapes.

The black birds at the bottom were awesome. One minute the field was dotted with black and then they just swarmed up into the sky. My mother, who is 90, calls these the 'dirty weather birds'.
Enjoy!

Summer Anyone!!

Summer is my favorite time of year. Usually the weather is warmer and you can go outside without heavy outdoor clothes - most of the time! It's always nice to spend time on the patio with a snack and a drink. To help keep the bugs off your food, make one of these neat bowl covers from Sew Mama Sew. You can get some decorative metal corner tabs to keep the cover from blowing off from the $ Shop or make your own from glass beads and findings. Add an outdoor padded roll-up cushion to your patio collection. If you like picnics, surprise your family with these napkin flatware rolls and picnic place mat tote or these place mats.

Thinking ahead - why not make these items for Christmas gifts!
I'm travelling for the next two months across the country so my blog posts may not be every day.
Enjoy!

Work in Progress - flowers

This is the last day of March and St. John's woke up to a snow storm! I can't believe it. But then we do live in the middle of the cold North Atlantic, so you can expect all kinds of weather at any time. I spent the day inside working on my art and wishing I was somewhere warm. You can see the flowers added to some of my pieces. Hopefully all will be completed by tomorrow. Then they will be matted and framed. I have black metal frames that are custom cut for these art pieces.

Looking out at the back garden - today!



Happy Victoria Day Canada!

This is the Victoria Day long weekend! It is a public holiday observed across Canada on the Monday before May 25th to celebrate Queen Victoria's birthday on May 24. As Canada is still a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, of which the Queen is head, we have a holiday. In Newfoundland, this weekend starts off the camping / fishing season (if you are brave enough to venture out into the cold weather). Typically, the weather here in the middle of the cold North Atlantic, at this time of year, is not really suitable for camping. But there are lots of brave souls out there (I'm not one of them)!
This photo is one of my decorative book covers.
2010 Victoria Day post.

To celebrate this holiday, here are some quilt related sites to visit:
Ocean quilts to see
Spool of Fish Designs (paper piecing) blog
Red Fish Quilts
Mary Quilts fish pattern  
Fish Bowl
Tessellating Fish
Fish & Quilts
Three Fish
Fantasy Fish Quilts
Fireworks Quilt Pattern   
Fireworks Table Runner 
Marilyn Rose Journal Quilt: Fireworks
Birthday Bling Art Quilt
Tea Cosy with fish
Pisci Fantasticus
The Deep

Canada's Music Awards, The Juno's

It seems that winter is back again! We are having a bit of snow here in St. John's. Not the kind of weather we hoped to have for the Juno,Canada's Music Awards, which are been held here this weekend. For your enjoyment, I have found some interesting quilted pieces with a musical theme.

Feast your eyes on these:
Music For The Soul and Imagine by textile artist, Lura Schwartz Smith.
Making Music by Julie Hirota
Patch Magic Music Quilt (pattern for sale)
Let There Be Music Everywhere  (fabric) scroll down the page
Let's Make Music Together (scroll way down the page) by Leah Statman
Music For My Ears   
Life Is Music  
Music
Music For The Ages by Janet Hammond
Prairie Music