Happy Birthday, Joan!

Today is my sister's birthday!!

Here are some projects suitable for gift giving.

• How to Make a Book   
• Homemade Gift Ideas on Pinterest. More HERE
• DIY Handmade Gifts on Pinterest
• Sketch Book   
• 28 Last Minute Handmade Gifts

If you were home, Joan, I would have made you this fruitcake.

New Yarn

Here's the yarn I purchased yesterday. I can't wait to try the striped ones for some needle felted ornaments. The neon one sure will look spiffy! The Fleece Artist yarn is loopy and works well in seascapes and landscapes. Some of it may just become part of a Fibre Lace Scarve.

However, any work on ornaments, scarves etc, will have to wait until the new year. I just want to play with fibre and threads for awhile.

Shimmers on the Tree

I took a couple of photos of shimmers on the tree. They do shimmer.
By the way, have a look at a very unusual Christmas Tree, on Feeling Stitchy.

Mini-Guild Evening

Tonight the 'Mini-Guild Gals (6 of us) met at Verna's place. Her house is all decorated for Christmas and her Temari Balls are hanging in prominent places . Her newest is an egg shaped (special Christmas request) Temari in Easter colours. Beautiful work!

As we were leaving, I noticed a Christmas Temari that I didn't remember seeing before. Apparently, it was an early one that Verna designed herself. It has the star on top, three trees around the ball and a tree skirt on the bottom. Quite a lovely piece!

Temari Balls hang everywhere! 

Thanks, Verna, for allowing me to photo and post about your lovely pieces.

Pot Buddies

After retiring from teaching in 1997, I needed something constructive to do. The first thing I did was to create art cards with fabric cutouts. They worked fairly well as no one was doing that here. Wanting to experiment with other craft, I created some Pot Buddies. Each one was a different personality. I was fairly successful with these but it wasn't exactly what I wanted to do either.

Judy P., do you remember these? We chuckle about these occasionally and about how far I've gone in my art since then!

My Pot Buddies!! I made a number of these and sold them at a local flower shop. Santa was kept and he makes an appearance every Christmas. 

Enjoy!!

Tis the Season

My friend stitched this beautiful ornament for my July birthday. Now it's time to share it with you.

Now for a few more ornaments:

• Christmas Ornaments on Pinterest. 
• Crochet Ornaments on Pinterest
• Felt Ornaments.
• Free Quilted Ornaments . More HERE
• More Felted Ornaments
• Ornaments from Tip Junkie

Enjoy!!

Winter Dog Berries

Here's my latest 5" x 7" framed textile piece. All the dog berries are French knots using Valdani threads. The sky is hand dyed and the tree is made from burlap. The inspiration for stitching Dog Berries came from the view of all the Dog Berry trees I can see from my kitchen and studio windows.

New Booth

Day one, of the Anna Templeton Christmas Tea & Sale, is over! It was a great one.

Yesterday's set-up was fairly simple with my new 6 foot table top display that my husband designed and created. Have a look! The display frame and stand folds up and goes into its own custom made fabric case. The three blue and aluminum panels are packaged separately. It's all very compact. The lights have their own posts that fit into custom slots at the back.

The acrylic Shimmers stand on turntable (beside me in bottom photo), was also designed and constructed by my husband a few years ago.

All folded and ready to go (almost)!

Packaged and ready. We did a custom bag for the parts

A very well lit booth! Lots of compliments on the display today!!

More Ornaments

Here are the rest of the ornaments from the Christmas Ornament Exchange at the embroidery guild Tuesday evening:

Ornament Exchange

Last evening was the Christmas Dinner and Ornament Exchange for the St. John's Guild of Embroiderers. Here's a few of the stitched treasures:

Back of ornament

Fantasy Fabric Needle Cases

I have five new needle cases ready for the Anna Templeton Tea & Sale, this weekend. Felt is used inside to hold needles and coloured Velcro keeps them closed. I love making the fantasy fabrics for my smaller projects. They just glisten!

Before

After

Check out more needle cases:

• Lots on Tipnut
• Pinterest 
• Quilted Needle Case on Sew She Sews
• Felted Needle Case at Simplicity Creative
• Needle Case Tutorial, Sew Mccoo
• Fave Crafts Needle Case (free pattern)
• Ludlow Quilt & Sew, pattern
• Embroidery Garden - machine embroidery but can be adapted for hand embroidery 
• Scrappy Needle Keeper Tutorial, Patchwork Posse

Enjoy!!
PS
These make great / quick gifts, too!!

This & That!

I just took a dark fruitcake out of the oven - Yummy! The house smells soooo nice. And the coloured lights are on the tree. Things are good.

Now it's time to check out 123 blogs on Crazy Mom Quilts. Scroll down to the bottom of the post. Grab a cup of something and enjoy!

One of my felted trees (sold)

Tree Skirt in Place - Temporarily!

We set up our tree today. It is a pre-lit one with white LED lites. Tomorrow, coloured lights will go on and then the decorating begins!. However, I couldn't resist putting my new tree skirt under it temporarily, to see how it looks.

In the mean time, have a look at these sites:

• Christmas House Tutorial (I like these)
• Christmas Crafts Tutorials on Pinterest
• The Ribbon Retreat Blog Tutorials
• Holiday Craft Tutorials
• 101 Holiday Craft Tutorials

Enjoy!!!

Some Warm Welcome Project for Syrian Refugees

I had 'Some Good Day' at Some Good Market.

If you aren't from Newfoundland, you probably get a chuckle out of hearing someone saying that something is 'some good'. For example, 'That supper was some good' instead of saying 'That was a good supper.' Enough on that!

Laurie LeGrow started Some Good Market a couple of years ago as a place for crafters / artists to sell their product to the local market year round. This has since grown to the point that it has become a place to visit on market day. However, this isn't quite the focus of my post. Laurie decided to become involved with knitting warm hats, mitts, scarves etc. for the Syrian Refugees coming to Canada this fall and winter.

Some Good Market is inviting knitters and crocheters from all over to make a warm hat (or mittens, vamps, socks or scarves) in any size or shape to welcome Syrian refugees when they arrive in Canada.

If you are wish to find out more about this project, please visit Laurie's blog HERE and the write up on CBC

The following welcoming messages, written in English, French and Arabic, are to be attached to each piece of knitwear. (Some Good Market/Facebook)

 

$ Shop Finds

I often visit the $ Shops to see what 'treasures' can be found. It is the best (cheapest) place for gift bags, tissue paper, Christmas tags and cards. I've often found great plastic containers for use in my studio. The covered ice cube tray was a great find for my sewing machine bobbins.

My latest $ Shop Finds include a ball of yarn and alphabet beads. The yarn will be used in the making of some 'fantasy fabric'.

My sister had number beads on her Advent Calendar Wall Hanging. I didn't see any of those but I did find these alphabet beads. Who knows, they might come in handy for some future project.

Photo!!

Here I am at the City of St. John's Art Procurement Reception 2014 - 2015, City Hall. It was nice to see my work on the wall among so many distinguished works.

Reception at City Hall

On Thursday evening, I will be attending a reception at City Hall to celebrate the City of St. John's Civic Art Collection Acquisitions for 2014 - 2015. My piece, Fisherman's Museum, English Harbour West, was acquired by the city last year. It should be an interesting couple of hours.

 

Red Fish (below) was acquired by the city years ago. 

Let The Countdown Begin . . .

My sister just sent me photos of her finished Advent Calendar Quilt. The numbers on this one are tiny beads that she found and the stars in the sky are buttons. Nice job, Joan! Check Sunday's post HERE for more Advent 'stuff'. If you wish to purchase this pattern, the information is HERE or go directly HERE to Satin Moon Quilted Garden in British Columbia, Canada.

Enjoy!