Snow, Snow, Go Away!

Welp. That didn’t go as planned. Now that I have that pesky first post of the year under my belt, I’d fully intended to keep posting once a week, if not more. And maybe start posting on my writing blog as well. However . . .

I would first like to rescind my birthday wish for snow. Don’t get me wrong, if it’s winter there should be snow. It makes the cold bearable and everything seems brighter. But that’s only if I don’t have to shovel the darned stuff! We’ve already had more snow in January that we’ve had the last five winters combined!

Last Thursday, when I had to drive the hubby to Belleville (at 5 in the freaking a.m.), 45 minutes to the east of us, there was a tiny bit of snow. However, as I was waiting at the hospital, the daughter started texting me about how bad the snow was at home, and how highway 401 (the major, 4-lane highway) was closed at Cobourg. I looked out the window and didn’t worry – the snow was no worse than what we’d driven up in. Clearly the daughter was making a mountain out of a molehill.

Fast forward several hours to 12:30 when I was finally allowed to see the hubby. He was in good spirits and told me I should hit the road because he heard it was storming. I have to admit, it was snowing a little heavier when I went out, but I made a pit stop at the mall anyway because I wasn’t going to get another chance to shop until after the granddaughter’s birthday and I wanted to get her something nice, if not unique.

It was snowing a little heavier when I got to the mall, so I didn’t linger. I hadn’t had lunch yet, but I didn’t want to take the time to go to the food court, so I grabbed a bag of cheese popcorn from the Kernels kiosk to eat in the car.

In the city the snow wasn’t too bad. But once I got on the highway it was really, really bad. And the first thing I saw was one of those electronic signs that warned: Highway 401 closed in 58 kilometers. Be prepared to stop. Guess the daughter wasn't crazy after all.

Visibility was crap, the wind was strong, and the highway was snow covered, but I made it home – 2 ½ hours for what is normally a 45 minute drive. And what did I get to do once I got home? I got to shovel the darn stuff. And not just the driveway and sidewalk, but I had to shovel all the way to the back gate, through the gate and up the steps of the deck because I was bringing the hubby home the next day and he’d be using a walker.

Just an FYI, if you’re the slightest bit mobility challenged and you come to my house, you have to go through the back gate and come in through the deck. This has been a sore point for many years, but it’s a rant for another day. 😊

The next morning, at 5 a.m., I heard the sound every snow shoveller dreads – the sound of the snow plough. Those sadistic bastards that love to bury freshly shoveled driveways. However, I have the nicest neighbor in existence, and he cleared the end for me before I had to leave to pick up the hubby. Honestly? I’d planned to just back out over it. LOL

The snow we got Monday night was very pretty snow – big, fluffy flakes that drifted gently down. But it did accumulate, to the point where I had to shovel. I actually enjoyed it though. It was after dark and super cold, but the world was quiet and I more or less just had to push the snow with the shovel. It was almost relaxing.

The snow we got yesterday, however, was definitely not relaxing to shovel. We got over a foot of snow and I got to shovel it all at once (instead of clearing it a couple of times while the snowfall was in progress) because I spent my afternoon at the daughter’s sitting with the granddaughter, who not only had a snow day but an upset stomach as well.

And you know why we’re getting this excess of snow (which is actually what it used to be normally)? It’s because I’m the one who has to shovel, not the hubby. I guarantee you that next year, when he’s mobile again, we won’t get any snow at all.

Be Careful What You Wish For

There’s been a lot of storm activity going on around us, but thus far we’ve been safe from the major winter storms that have been burying towns and causing states of emergency. So for my birthday, which was yesterday, I flippantly said it would be nice to have snow. Well . . . I got my wish.

It was beautiful. Until I realized that I’m the one who was going to have to shovel it, and in a timely fashion because the hubby coaches youth bowling on Saturday mornings. He can’t shovel snow because a) he has really bad arthritis and b) he has a really bad hip. These days he can barely walk (with the aid of a cane) let alone shovel.

So despite the fact the plough hadn’t been around yet, I was out there in the dark shoveling. At least it was light snow, not the heart attack kind. I just tell myself it’s good cardio. LOL The hubby left for bowling and I was halfway through my first cup of coffee when a road grader came by to plough the road and bury driveways.

But I don’t think he was one of the town plough boys because he didn’t do the whole crescent, just straight down to the circle, then around the circle (we live at the top of the circle). So I finished my coffee and pulled my outdoor gear on again, and went to unbury the driveway. He was up at the top of the street by then, and when he saw me he drove back and asked if I’d like some help. I said sure, and stood back while he swiped the end of the driveway clear. And the other reason I don’t think he was from the town is because he had a little boy on his lap inside the cab. Unless maybe he was called in at the last minute and couldn’t find a babysitter. But I still think the town would have frowned on it.

Anyway, it was like a birthday bonus to not have to do all that extra shoveling. And later I heard the sound of a snowblower and watched some guy come down the crescent with a his snowblower to clear the driveway of the little old lady just up the circle. He did the end of the driveway of the guy just across the street from her too, probably because that family helps out the old lady a lot (his driveway was already done). Kindness is a great way to start the day, don’t you think?

The picture below is only half the driveway, and the bare spot is where my car is usually parked. The hubby took it instead of his because mine’s an SUV while his is a little sporty car and I did not clean his off or unbury it, although I did shovel all the way to the back gate. 😊

The hubby been waiting for a hip replacement (his second one) since the fall and his mobility has been steadily declining. When he talked to his surgeon’s office in November he was told that the hospital his surgeon works out of wasn’t taking any more surgical bookings until the new year, and when they started booking again they’d be starting with the patients the surgeon saw in May. The hubby saw him in September. So we figured late spring, early summer for his date.

However, Tuesday the surgeon’s office called and said they had a cancellation and asked if he’d be interested. The date? January 16 – Thursday. It says something about the pain he’s in for the hubby to answer with a resounding yes to such short notice.

So he started a list of all the things we needed to get and all the arrangements we need to make before Thursday. We need boosters with handle bars for both toilets, thank goodness we got the renovation on the bathroom done so we have a walk in shower now, he needed an extra cushion for his chair, he still had the device that helps him with his socks, but he gave his grabbers away so he needed a couple of them, too (one for upstairs and one for downstairs).

Still to be arranged are the walkers he’ll need to get around with for the first couple of weeks. Again, one for upstairs and one for downstairs so he doesn’t have to struggle with them on the stairs.

And here’s the part that ticks me off. When he had his first hip done, they kept him in the hospital for a couple of days to make sure he could handle the stairs. Then, when he was sent home, he had a nurse come to change his dressing, and a physiotherapist come to our house for his therapy. This time? He gets to stay in the hospital overnight, and not only is no one coming to change his dressing for him, we have to buy our own medical supplies to do it. And despite not being supposed to even ride in a car for two weeks after the first hip was done, this time he has to go to the physiotherapist, the physiotherapist doesn’t come to him. I don’t know what’s happening to our medical care system, but it’s not good.

My posts on this blog are probably going to be random for a while, but I am going to try and post at least once a week. I don’t know whether I’ll do a recap of everything I did on my year off from blogging – I don’t know if anyone will be interested – I might just keep on keeping on.

See ya next time.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

It’s been a while, hasn’t it?

I didn’t intend to take this long of a break from blogging, it just kind of happened. I’ve kept both blogs live, though, and I think it’s high time I get back at it. Not right away, mind you, but in another week or so. There’ll be changes, of course, but we’ll deal with that as they come.

Meanwhile, it’s Christmas Eve, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t post my annual Christmas videos.

Enjoy, and I’ll see you in the New Year.

Christmas and Birthday and Gifts, Oh My!

Feeling a little nostalgic today. We finally got some significant snow, but as this seems to be the pattern our weather has been following lately, it immediately warmed up and started to rain. While I appreciate I don’t have to clean off my car or shovel the sidewalk, it would have been nice to keep the white stuff around for a day or two.

I miss the Christmases I used to have when I was a kid. Mostly, I miss the snow. The snow would start coming down in November, and by Christmas we’d be up to our eyeballs in it. Thanks to global warming, it’s rare we have a white Christmas anymore. In fact, the weather was so mild I was still wearing my fall coat until the end of December. And really, I only put it away because I refused to wear it for New Year’s, even if I could have got away with it.

My birthday comes about 2 ½ weeks after Christmas, and I was hoping for snow for it but all I got was rain. And as anyone who has a birthday near Christmas will tell you, it really sucks. People think that just because Christmas is barely over, your birthday is no big deal. But let me tell you, nothing could be further from the truth.

Birthdays have always been a big deal to me. Not just my own birthday, but anyone’s birthday. Sometimes my big deals don’t always work out the way I envisioned, but at least I try. Take the daughter’s 16th birthday. I worked like a dog planning a surprise party for her. I’m not sure the party was a total surprise, but I know the fact that her boyfriend showed up without a present was. Seriously boyfriend? And here I thought I’d planned for everything. LOL

This year I had a milestone birthday, and while the one or two people who still thought of birthdays as no big deal made me sad, the number of Facebook happy birthday wishes helped make up for it. And my stitchery guild sisters sang happy birthday to me at our meeting, two of them contacted me privately for more birthday wishes, and I talked to one of my sisters for an hour and a half – and while I was talking to her, my other sister tried to call and had to settle for leaving me a voice mail. The hubby got me a generous slice of the healthiest cake he could find – carrot cake – that was still pretty decadent but hey, it was my birthday. 😊

On to the presents . . . the hubby and I usually get each other one big present for Christmas and a couple of little ones. This year we made the decision to get our own big present. So the hubby got himself a new colour printer, and I got myself this:

It’s a Singer Quantum Stylist computerized sewing machine. It took me a while to settle on which machine I wanted. For a while the leader was a Brother machine that did embroidery, but I figured if I was going to embroider something other than an edging, I’d probably do it by hand. Still, the Quantum did come with its fair share of decorative stitches:

Have you seen pictures of those stitching calendars? The idea being to do a stitch a day for an entire year? I always love looking at them and I always intended to start one of my own, but by the time I remember I was going to do it, we’re usually well into the new year. But this year, my daughter gave me this:

Not only does it tell you how to get started, it has iron-on templates for the base to work on, and pages and pages of ideas and inspiration. We went away for the new year, but I took my stitching bag, and the book, with me so I could make my start. I don’t know which is harder, coming up with a new little image for each day, or actually stitching the little image. It’s going to be a challenge to keep it up, but so far I’m having a lot of fun.

And apparently, great minds think alike. I don’t remember every mentioning the stitch-a-day calendar to my sister in New Brunswick, but she must know me better than I realized because she sent me this for my birthday:

This is a whole stitch-a-day kit, that includes thread, material, and a tutorial. Looks like I’ll be set for next year too. LOL

I can see this is going to be the Year of Sewing. I’ve yet to figure out my sewing machine, but I’m keeping up with my calendar and I still want to finish my zentangle. In the next guild meeting I’ll be learning sashiko (Japanese embroidery) and I’ve just started a 12-week stitch-along course in Blackwork.

But that’ll be a post for another day. 😊

Happy New Year

Well, it’s been a while, hasn’t it? 😊

While I’d love to report I got scads done during my blogging break, I’d be lying if I did. After getting off to a slow start, I lost a week to illness. It might have been a bad case of food poisoning, it might have been a prolonged IBS attack, it might have been a reaction to a medication I was taking – we may never know because I was unable to get a hold of my doctor.

But in due course I recovered, and then it was full speed ahead for Christmas. You may recall that during the summer I went on a jam making frenzy, the idea being to make jam sampler baskets instead of cookie baskets this year.

I left it a little late to get the baskets, and the only ones left were rather on the large size. Now I’d already planned on including scones or biscuits (gotta have something to put the jam on, right?), but even with the scones the baskets were a little sparse. So I made four different kinds of fudge. LOL

The home made ornament for this year was the fabric stars I learned to make with the stitching group. It took me about four days to turn this:

Into this:

Half a day was spent cutting, a day and a half was spent folding and ironing strips, and two days were spent actually folding the strips into stars. I averaged about 3 stars per hours. But it gave me an excuse to sit in my chair and watch TV.

I had fully intended to make tiny God’s eyes using metallic thread and tooth picks as well, but they never got past the experimental stage. They turned out to be more fiddly than I expected, and while I’m tempted to give them a shot now that the holiday madness has died down, we’ll have to see if I’m in the mood for them or not.

One thing I did do while on my break, was a lot of thinking about what I want to accomplish in the new year. I came to the conclusion I could get a lot more accomplished if I eased back on the blogging.

When I first started blogging, many, many years ago I was writing short, pithy posts on random subjects. The last couple of years I’ve been bogged down in this strict blogging schedule that takes more out of me than might be apparent.

Coming up with a subject, researching, writing the post – these things can be pretty time consuming. So with that in mind, I’m scrapping the poetry posts – it’s getting harder to find new forms anyway. And I’m finding the only poetry I wrote last year were examples for the new forms, or homework for my poetry group. I wasn’t writing poetry for fun any more.

I’ve also decided that the posts on this blog are going to appear a little more randomly – I’m no longer locking myself into posting every Monday. If I have something to say, fine. If I don’t I’m not going to worry about it. This means I might post once a week, or two or three times a week, or skip a week completely.

AND I’m going to focus more on the crafting side of my life here – what I’m working on, the progress I’m making . . . I have a lot of things I’d like to accomplish craft-wise in the year ahead and a lot of things I’m going to learn. I’m taking a class in blackwork embroidery, and another in sashiko. And that’s just for starters.

I confess I went a little crazy, the last few weeks, shopping online for craft supplies. That alone should be worth a couple of blog posts. 😊

Happy Yule

As promised, here are a few of my favourite Christmas videos to help make the season bright.


I'm Climbing Up the Christmas Tree


Imperial March/Carol of the Bells


Chipmunks Roasting on an Open Fire


Little Drummer boy – David Bowie and Bing Crosby


Faith Hill – Where Are you Christmas


TSO – Christmas Eve in Sarajevo


TSO – Christmas Cannon

I Break For Christmas

December always seems to sneak up on me – so much to do, so little time to do it in. So this year I’ve decided to make things a little easier on myself and take a break from blogging for the month.

I’ll probably be back to post a few of my favorite Christmas videos, but that won’t be until later in the month.

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, and I’ll see you in the New Year.

Espinela Verse Form

This Spanish form was named for Vencinente Espinela, and is often referred to as “the little sonnet.” Being a musician, he designed his form to be pleasing to the ear when recited. Here’s where it can get a little confusing.

It is also sometimes incorrectly referred to as a Décima, which is a Spanish term for any ten-line stanza. However, there is also a popular song form from 15th century Spain called the Décima which consists of forty-four lines (an introductory stanza followed by four ten-line stanzas).

The Espinela has only two stanzas, with four lines in the first and six in the second for a total of ten lines. Each line has eight syllables, and it follows a strict rhyme scheme of abba/accddc.

Schematic:

xxxxxxxa
xxxxxxxb
xxxxxxxb
xxxxxxxa

xxxxxxxa
xxxxxxxc
xxxxxxxc
xxxxxxxd
xxxxxxxd
xxxxxxxc

I think the nickname of “little sonnet” is an apt one, it is very much like writing a sonnet. And like a sonnet, the Espinela can be written on any subject.


Evening Song

Skin still warm from the summer sun
Glimmering in the fading light
Waiting until the moment’s right
Waiting until the day is done

Waiting for that special someone
The touch, the taste, the feel of him
The bending to another’s whim
Anticipation building slow
Reach the peak and then overflow
The moment caught, too soon to dim.

Time For Christmas Crafts

Some Christmas tree ornaments do more than glitter and glow, they represent a gift of love given a long time ago.
— Tom Baker

The best things in life are handmade.
— Unknown

Christmas magic is silent. You don't hear it — you feel it. You know it. You believe it.
— Kevin Alan Milne

Crafting is like meditation, it allows you to focus your mind and release your stress.
— Unknown

Yup. It’s that time of year again. Time to dive into the Christmas crafts. Every year, since the daughter was first able to hold a bottle of glue, we’ve had the tradition of making a new ornament for our Christmas tree. The tradition became a little sporadic once she grew up and got a life of her own, but I carried on, and now sometimes I get the granddaughter to join me.

This year, I finally stiffened the snowflakes I crocheted several years ago. Actually, I’ve crocheted hundreds of the snowflakes, and mostly gave them all away. These are all I had remaining:

I used a solution of half mod podge glue, and half water to dip them in, and then I pinned them to cardboard with waxed paper under them to keep them from sticking:

It worked pretty good, although I had to peel the snowflakes off of the waxed paper when I was done.

If you’re local, and you want to see them in person, a few of them will be included in the display my stitchery guild is putting up at the local library for Christmas. I still have lots of the crochet cotton left, so maybe I’ll be making some more.

And seeing as I gave all of my Christmas prints away to a good cause (I’d had the fabric for yeas and never did anything with it) I found myself going up to Fabricland on the weekend to get some more.

The prints I chose have the Khaos seal of approval. LOL I’m going to make some more of the folded stars for the Christmas tree this year.

The granddaughter likes to do origami, so I’m hoping to talk her into giving it a try herself. She was over on the weekend to work on a super secret Christmas present, and was doing great . . . until my sewing machine conked out on us. Grrr!

I had her do a sewing test – sewing along lines drawn on a piece of paper with the machine unthreaded – and she passed with flying colours. A couple of the lines were darn near perfect! And even the ones that weren’t perfect weren’t off by much.

She also used a rotary cutter for the first time, and I was really impressed with how safety cautious she was. Those things are really sharp, but without being told she figured out how to engage the safety shield when she wasn’t using it.

Looks like she’s a chip off the old sewing block. 😊

Cameo Verse Form

For such a short little poem, there sure are a lot of rules to the Cameo. This rather interesting form was invented by Alice Maud Spokes. It is written as a single sentence of thirty-five syllables spread out over seven lines. The syllable count is 2-5-8-3-8-7-2.

There is no rhyme to the cameo, but each line should end on a strong word. Line breaks should be naturally occurring, where you would pause in speaking. The poem should be a single thought, so avoid using semicolons.

Schematic:

xx
xxxxx
xxxxxxxx
xxx
xxxxxxxx
xxxxxxx
xx

This actually isn’t as bad as it first looked. In fact, it’s kind of a fun form.


spider,
busy spinning webs,
you think I don’t see you up there
but I do
and I’m about to get my broom
to ruin all your hard work
again.


lazy,
you sleep in the sun
when there are mousies to be found
and hunted,
which is the job of the housecat
and you know it, lazy thing,
not me.

Folded Fabric Star

I’m a glutton for punishment, I tell you what. I was barely home from my adventures in Nottawasaga when I joined a workshop with my home stitchery guild to make a folded fabric Christmas star.

The presenter of this workshop, Susan C., was kind enough to do half the work for us ahead of time – she cut and ironed the fabric strips (four inches by fourteen inches) we’d need. As far as I’m concerned, this is the hardest part of the star, folding the fabric strips in four with the raw edges on the inside and then ironing them (reducing the width to one inch).

The bundle was passed around the table and we each picked two pairs of strips to make our stars. The first step was to fold the strips in half and lay them out in a square, then tuck the raw ends in the fold of the next strip in the square.

Then we were supposed to gently work the folded ends towards the middle to make a square in the center. Of course I was so busy taking pictures I messed up. So my square looked like this:

When it should have looked like this:

So then you take the long strip at the top, and fold it to the right.

Then you flip it over, and fold it down again so that there’s a point.

Next you fold the strip lengthwise, so the point is folded in half. At this point you might want to use a daub of glue, just to hold it in place. And it helps if you have a clip of some kind to keep it from slipping while the glue sets.

Then comes the tricky part. You want to trim the remainder of the strip, and then tuck it under the contrasting strip just below your point. You might want to stick a little daub of glue in there, too.

So far so good, right? Now you need to do the same thing to the other strip at the top.

Pretty simple, isn’t it? Now do the rest of the strips.

And before you know it, you’ll have your very own fabric star

I know my instructions are a little sparse, but if you’re interested in making your own fabric stars, here’s a video to show you how.

Trichain Verse Form

The Trichain is an invented form, credited to Lisa La Grange of Allpoetry.com. Like many invented forms, information about this one was hard to come by. And a search for the author didn’t help. So here’s what I know.

This form is stanzaic, consisting of three or more quatrains (four line verses). Each quatrain consists of three 8-syllable lines, and one 6-syllable line. It also has a somewhat unique rhyme scheme. The first three lines of each stanza rhyme with each other, but the fourth line has the same rhyme throughout the poem.

Maybe a schematic would help:

xxxxxxxa
xxxxxxxa
xxxxxxxa
xxxxxb

xxxxxxxc
xxxxxxxc
xxxxxxxc
xxxxxb

xxxxxxxd
xxxxxxxd
xxxxxxxd
xxxxxb

Is it just me, or does this make it a little tricky? Presumably you can make it as long as long as you wish. The minimum length is three stanzas. There were no suggestions of what to write your Trichain about, so it looks like you can use any subject matter you wish.

While I thought the rhyme scheme was interesting, I find having only six syllables in the last line of each verse a little jarring. Of course that could be because in my first attempt I forgot, using eight syllables instead of six, and I had to totally redo it.


Turning Seasons

One day the trees are brightly green,
the next they’re something in between
and finally they’re gone, unseen
the seasons turning here

The sky is dark, the moon is bright
the air is clear this starry night
with just a hint of winter’s bite
a start of the new year.

In bitter cold, snow turns to ice
thaws and freezes, not once but twice
the snow compacts down so concise
and soon begins to clear.

The snow is gone the rains begin
there’s mud where once the ice has been
a hint of green, still looking thin
branching out, more appear.

The sun is warm, and soon it’s hot
time to relax, devoid of thought
with all the pleasure this turn’s brought
never lasting I fear.

The sun begins to cool again
once more it’s time to reap the grain
the leaves will turn, a glowing chain
as seasons reappear.

What Happens In Notty . . .

. . . stays in Notty.

Whew! What a weekend! I don’t know where to start except at the beginning, so here goes.

First of all, I’d been fighting a wicked sinus cold all week, and it was a losing battle, I tell you what. But I wasn’t about to miss my stitching retreat, so . . . We left Cobourg at 9 a.m., and yes, I did warn my passenger about my cold and offer to wear a mask, but she was fine with it. And actually, the worst of my cold was Friday – I was just a little sniffly the rest of the weekend.

The fact that we didn’t reach the Nottawasaga Resort until 1 p.m. was due more to us making a pitstop at a humungous outlet mall than traffic. So here’s what the resort looks like (I took this picture off their website):

See how the building fans out in those nice long arms? Yeah. My room was at the end of one of those long arms, and they only had elevators in the center portion. My room was just to the right of that light at the end of the tunnel, so I tried not to have to go back there very often. 😊

The room we were give to stitch in was on the bottom floor, and we had to go through a bit of a maze to get there, but it was a great room, brightly lit with natural light and a great view that wasn’t too distracting:

The four of us were guests of the Toronto Guild – well, two of us were guests, one of us was a member of their guild as well, and one of us was a soon to be member. Here’s a shot of us all hard at work.

Conversation rose and fell, and laughter was abundant. These ladies were every bit as warm, welcoming and friendly as our own group, and we felt right at home as soon as we got there. I swear, it has to be a stitching thing.

We weren’t alone down there either. The conference room beside us had a scrapbooking group who had an impressive amount of paper and cutters and stickers and everything you could think of to do with scrapbooking spread around the perimeter of their room.

.

And there was a double wide room for a quilt group called the Serial Rippers. Is that not the coolest name ever? Their room was a little frightening. It was filled with cutting boards and steamers and irons and some of the fanciest sewing machines I’ve ever seen. I had a serious case of sewing machine envy.

That picture is just the small half of the room, the other side is twice as big and filled to the brim with quilters. Unfortunately, my camera phone doesn’t always work that well so a lot of my pictures didn’t turn out.

Everyone there was super friendly. It must be something to do with the creative spirit. But I gotta tell you, I don’t get that sense of camaraderie at my writing retreats.

Also unlike my writing retreats, meals were included. And man, what meals they were! Breakfast was a buffet, and for lunch and dinner we were given three different choices. This is the restaurant where we took our meals. On the other side of the double fireplace were more tables, with a terrific view of the golf course.

On Saturday and Sunday there was an annual Sugar Plum Fair, a craft show with over a hundred vendors. This was held in the Trade Center attached to the resort, and we could walk over via a tunnel that connected the hotel to the sports complex. Yes, I spent way too much there, but a lot of it was on Christmas presents.

I did surprisingly well with my social anxiety over the weekend. Breakfast was between 7:30 and 8:30, after which we retired to the stitching room. We’d break for lunch, and then back to stitching until dinner a 5 or 6. That’s a lot of time together.

But like I said, it was a different energy than I get at a writing retreat. Being around these ladies was energizing. And we weren’t glued to our needlework by any means. We could take a walk, or wander around to see what the other groups were doing, or go up to our room for a nap. The fact that few of us did just tells you what a friendly bunch we were.

The work that was done in this room was mind-boggling. There was needlepoint, cross-stitch, crochet, embroidery, blackwork, cut work, new projects, old projects, practical projects, decorative projects, and if you finished something, you got to ring a bell to announce it.

Here’s a sampling of some of the work the four of us from Cobourg did. The first is by the insanely talented Heather, who must have eyes like a hawk because she’s always working on something intricate with single strands of silk thread. This one is part of a small-size replica of 17th century gentleman's night cap (an etui when finished), from Thistle Threads designs.

Next we have a tablecloth the indomitable Immy is working on. It’s going to be gorgeous when it’s done, don’t you think?

Then we have this cute piece by Emily, who’s deserting us to join the Toronto Guild. And they’d better take good care of her or we’re stealing her back! Incidentally, she was the only one who got to ring the bell.

And this is the zentangle sampler I’ve been working away at. I can only work on it a bit at the time because the material I picked is NOT good for stitching, but it was nice to make some progress.

Honestly, this is the tip of the iceberg as far as the talent in that room went. And like I said, the camera in my phone sometimes didn’t work properly, so many of my pictures didn’t turn out all that good. Plus, I didn't get names to go with the pictures of the other work I captured, so I can't give proper credit to them.

I’m about 3,000 words behind in my NaNo challenge, but I can’t bring myself to care. LOL I’ve been further behind than that before and caught up, so I’m not too worried. Besides, it was totally worth it. I had an amazing weekend and I’m sorry it had to end.

I’d like to thank the Toronto Guild of Stitchery for inviting us to join them, and I promise if you let me come back next year I’ll bring my good camera, and a notebook to take down names so I can give credit where credit is due. 😊

Tigerjade Verse Form

It’s always a bit disappointing when I find a new form but find very little information about it except for the basics. A search for the creator, Jacqueline Sturge, mostly just brought up links to examples of her poem, although one link was for a poetry book she’s included in: Poetry Styles, Book 8, by Alliance Poets.

So I don’t know why this form is called a Tigerjade, but I thought it was kind of a cool name. It’s written in as many octaves (eight-line stanzas) as you wish, and has a strict syllable count (3-3-12-12-12-12-3-3) and it rhymes in couplets.

Schematic:

xxa
xxa
xxxxxxxxxxxb
xxxxxxxxxxxb
xxxxxxxxxxxc
xxxxxxxxxxxc
xxd
xxd

xxe
xxe
xxxxxxxxxxxf
xxxxxxxxxxxf
xxxxxxxxxxxg
xxxxxxxxxxxg
xxh
xxh

. . . and so on for however many verses you wish to make.

And that’s all the information I could find about it. A search of the name itself came up with the Tiger Jade Capital investment company, and the crassula picturata, a rather cool looking succulent better known as tiger jade.

I would imagine you can write your Tigerjade on any subject you wish, and if you want to have a little fun with it, you could center it on the page. To be honest, I didn’t like the three syllable lines any more than I did the twelve syllable ones. Three was too few, twelve was too many. But I did like that it was written in couplets.


I see stars
maybe Mars
when I look up into the brilliant night sky
we seem to be alone here and I wonder why
the universe is so large and we are so small
is there no one out there who will answer our call?
So alone
on our own

We send probes
to other globes
in hopes of finding otherworldly life somewhere
some other species with new ideas to share
and if they are willing to travel all this way
we hope they will listen to what we have to say
peace for all
man’s sangraal.

Woven Fabric Basket Project

Slow stitching means setting aside time to find myself somewhere in the thread and spread myself out on a piece of fabric.
— Kelly Martinez

There should be an extra day of the week called sew day.
— Makerist

No matter how it looks from the outside, everything that is made by hand requires a lifetime of effort.
— Kit Dunsmore

From time to time my stitchery guild offers classes or seminars or whatever, and recently they offered a class in creating a woven fabric basket. Sounds like fun, right?

Well, I gotta tell you. I did not get off to a good start with this project. We were sent the instructions and I guess I didn’t read them correctly, because I kind of messed up, right off the mark.

To start with, we had to cut a number of fabric strips. I figured it would be easier to buy material than to dig through my fabric stash, so I took myself to Walmart and bought some fat quarters.

Unfortunately, a fat quarter was too short to use for my strips - my own fault, I hadn't really paid attention to what size the strips needed to be.

Then apparently I really didn’t read my instructions, because we were supposed to come to the first part of the class with our strips cut and ironed. Then we were going to spend the class inserting the batting in them and sewing them along the edges.

Well. After realizing the fat quarters weren’t going to work, I ended up having to go through my stash after all, and found some plain, pastel material as well as a print for contrast. So I brought it all with me . . . and spent the next two hours cutting and ironing (with lots of help).

The colour doesn’t show well in the picture, but when I was finished (at home) I had five long patterned strips, and fourteen solid coloured strips (seven pale pink, seven pale mauve).

But for the next class I was fully prepared. We were to have the bottom of our basket woven and sewn, ready to weave the horizontal strips in.

None of us had brought enough pins with us, and the clips really didn’t help as well as they should have, so those of us doing the project (not everyone was participating) spent a rather frustrating couple of hours weaving and re-weaving our baskets. In my case, I was moving my pins up as I wove, and ended up with a gap in the side where the ends of the horizonal strips were supposed to meet.

Back at home, where I had adequate pins, I did much better. However, I couldn’t help but notice that one of my horizontal strips was shorter than the others by about an inch, maybe a little more. So I decided to start with that one because I figured the bottom would be the narrowest.

Well, I was about a quarter of an inch short even meeting with the other end of the strip, let alone overlapping it like I was supposed to do. So I unpinned the whole thing, and then loosely sewed the two ends together making a loop. I found the middle opposite where I joined it, and pinned it in place on one side of the basket, pinning the part I’d joined on the other.

It was a bit of a tight squeeze, but I finally got that first row pinned in place. After that it went fairly easily. With three rows done, you can see the basket shape starting to take place.

And here’s the finished basket, all that’s left is to do some top stitching (by hand) around the top to tack the strips in place.

And after all that work, I think I’ll go get one of those glass domes to put it under, to preserve it for all time.