Adventures in Pioneering

It is not easy to be a pioneer - but oh, it is fascinating! I would not trade one moment, even the worst moment, for all the riches in the world.
— Elizabeth Blackwell

Woman must be the pioneer in this turning inward for strength. In a sense, she has always been the pioneer.
— Anne Morrow Lindbergh

There is something about reviewing the lessons of the past to prepare us to face the challenges of the future.
— L. Tom Perry

Yesterday I joined a few of the ladies from my stitchery group at Lang Pioneer Village to participate in their “Tie the Knot” event, which was all about wedding practices in the 1800s. As well as setting up a display of some of the things a young bride might have in her trousseau, we worked at various stitchery projects while in costume.

First stop when we got there was the costuming building – this is where the magic happened.

It looks pretty tame in the picture, but there were hundreds of costumes to choose from, and several volunteers whose job it was to help us. The place was really hopping with activity. The styles may not have been the most flattering, but they were authentic.

Our group set up shop on the porch of the weaver’s building. Between the porch roof and the trees, we didn’t get much direct sunlight so it wasn't bad in the morning, but it did start to get rather warm after lunch.

The weaver’s shop was run by a single volunteer, but she did some amazing work

One of the displays I found fascinating was the yarn dying. I talked to the women there and discovered they used all natural dyes. It was interesting, and surprising, to learn what plants produced what colours. It’s a shame the picture doesn’t show the colours properly, but the yarn hanging to dry was actually a lovely shade of green.

Across the road from us was the blacksmith

And beside him was the general store that also served as the post office and apothecary

There was also a tin smith

And a newspaper office

The highlight of the day was a fashion show of bridal wear from the 1800s, and a mock wedding. Only a couple of us attended these events, but we could certainly hear them. The crowds began to disperse afterwards, and by 4 o’clock we were ready to turn in our bonnets and return to the 20th century.

What a fun way to spend a Sunday.

A Stitch In Time

Work done by you with unconditional love and pure devotion goes straight in the category of divine and immortal craft.
— Seema Brain Openers

In crafting there are no mistakes just unique creations.
— Anonymous

Crafts make us feel rooted, give us a sense of belonging and connect us with our history. Our ancestors used to create these crafts out of necessity, and now we do them for fun, to make money and to express ourselves.
— Phyllis George

Well . . . it’s been a while, hasn’t it?

To be honest, there hasn’t been all that much exciting going on. A lot of reading and a lot of stitchery.

Tuesday my stitchery guild had its first in-person meeting in two years. And seeing as it was a “stitch and show” meeting, where we show off some of our work, I figured I’d better finish up a couple of things so I had something to show. I started off with my challenge piece:

Early in the year one of the ladies from the group came around with a little gift back that had a pattern and some aida cloth in it. We were challenged to use our own coloured thread and embellish it any way we wanted.

I started out using three strands of thread but it worked much better with two. And the little triangles around the border just about killed my eyes at first, but then I got into the rhythm and it wasn’t so bad. I admit I don’t do a lot of cross stitch because I do find it hard on the eyes.

You can’t really see them well, but I sewed a crystal bead in the center of the little pink flowers. The dragonflies came from the dollar store – a great place for craft supplies. When it was done I thought it looked rather plain and I thought framing it in lace was a great idea. Unfortunately, the first lace I used was too stretchy and looked horrible. It took me forever to get it on there, and almost as long to get it off again. The lace in the picture came from Fabricland and it was just a happy coincidence that it worked.

This next piece was something I actually did several years ago:

I did it for our downstairs bathroom and just need to frame it.

Then I pulled out some strips I’d done for fun and always intended to turn into bookmarks:

All they needed was a good press with the iron and a backing put on them.

Not shown is the name tag I came up with. I used black aida cloth and red thread. It’s a simple thing, just my name, but it looked so plain that I dressed it up a bit with red glass beads around the edge.

Getting together with my sewing friends, finishing a couple of projects and digging out my stitchery stuff rekindled my love of needlework. But it also rekindled my love of needlework supplies.

So last Monday I went to Michael’s Craft store. It’s amazing how quickly things add up at the craft store. The biggest purchase was embroidery floss. Once upon a time I had the embroidery floss I’d collected over the course of more than 20 years, all wound neatly on cards and stored in a plastic box. I wrote the colour numbers on the cards, and everything was in numerical and colour-coordinated order.

Somehow I have lost the box. I’ve searched everywhere I can think of – gone through the craft closet several times – but there’s no trace of it. It’s going to take hundreds of dollars, and probably years, to replace all that thread. Some of it can’t be replaced. But I’ve made a good start, and I’ll just add to the new collection project by project.

The one thing Michael’s did not have were embroidery transfers (the pictures on paper that you can just iron onto your material to embroider). I’m doing a baby quilt with pictures I traced out of a colouring book, but it’s not really an ideal way to do things. Neither is using carbon paper or the similar paper used for transferring dressmaking marks.

So when I got home I went online and ordered several embroidery transfer sets from Amazon, as well as a set of pencils that you can trace a picture with and then iron it onto your fabric. In essence, you’re making your own transfer.

You’d think I’d be all set to dive into my stitchery now, but I really need to finish the afghan I started. I’ve only got about a third of it to go, so hopefully I can finish it this week.

Mustelid Monday

mustelid ~ otters, badgers and weasels

I was hoping to have a picture of the grandbaby’s sweater for you today, but as the typing of this post it isn’t quite finished yet. But it’s close, very close. However, it’s a good thing I made it a size larger because it’s a heavy sweater and the long range forecast is for above freezing temperatures. It might be next year before she has a chance to wear it.

Instead the above picture is of the nifty craft case I went all the way to the Peterborough Costco for. The hubby and I saw it last week (?) when we were there and although he urged me to get it, I wasn’t so sure I’d be able to use it. I was thinking stitchery stuff at the time.

But that was before I attended the Stitchery Guild’s appliqué workshop. The pieces we were creating weren’t just appliqué, they were more like fabric art, which included lace and ribbon and assorted doodads. And wouldn’t that craft case come in hand for all that stuff? Of course it would. The only thing that kept me from going earlier in the week for it was the weather. LOL

So Saturday morning I hied me to Costco and bought the case. And since I was in Peterborough anyway, I also stopped at Michaels (you know, the giant craft palace). I honestly didn’t need to stop there because I had more than enough doodads at home to fill the case, but you know how it is. Craft Store.

One of things I scored there was a set of beading needles that had collapsible eyes. I used to do a lot of beadwork – one year for Christmas I beaded dragons on velvet bags for a select group of friends – but it was hard enough to thread those beading needles when I had perfect vision. Now that my vision is much dimmer it’s pretty much impossible, so it’s been a few years since I’ve done any beading. Now, however . . .

Anyway, after a lot of debate I decided to use the case for beadwork and fabric art. I could have used one side for stitchery stuff, but I already have a bag that works for that, and the beading/fabric art stuff seems to just fit together.

The case is nicely compact, but the picture doesn’t do justice to just how much it holds. Each side has two layers, and the dividers are removable so you can make the rows as short or long as you want. My only complaint is that although there are a couple of large compartments, they’re not large enough to hold works in progress.

So . . . in my case you’ll find glass seed beads, sequins, charms, larger glass beads, jewelry hardware, needles, wire, thread, and all my beading odds and ends. Believe it or not, I didn’t fit everything in there – I still have a plastic bin with wooden beads, regular seed beads, cords, beading looms, and bigger, bulkier supplies.

Now the push is on to finish that sweater so I can get at some stitchery. I was off to a slow start with my ideas for the appliqué piece, but now I know exactly how I want to lay it out and how I can enhance it with some beadwork – if those new beading needles work.

And once I’m finished that piece, I have ideas for two larger pieces.

Things are about to get very creative around here.

Miniaceous Monday

miniaceous ~ colour of reddish lead

I’m still waiting for the super cold, super snowy winter the weatherman promised in the fall. We’ve had a couple of really cold days (like Friday when we had extreme cold warnings in effect), but they usually warm right up again the next day. And while Newfoundland has been hit hard with the snow this year apparently they prefer to keep it all to themselves. We haven’t even had enough for a proper snow day.

*sigh*

As I’ve mentioned previously, I’ve been going to Tai Chi twice a week and I’m finally starting to feel if not like I almost know what I’m doing, then at least less klutzy as I go about it. For the most part it’s a friendly group to be part of, and during one of the breaks I was talking to a couple of ladies about stitchery crafts and next thing I know they invited me to check out their group.

I don’t usually do all that great in new, social situations, but I sucked it up and went to their next meeting. I have to say, I’m glad I did. If I thought the Tai Chi group was friendly, they have nothing on the stitchery group. And talented! Boy howdy those ladies have mad stitching skills.

They were also pretty chatty, and through the course of the morning as they talked about the various other groups they were part of made me realize how insular I’ve become. I didn’t even know most of these other groups existed!

That’s not to say I’m going to run out and join them all, but I will be joining this one. They only meet twice a month and it’ll be a fun way to while away the time. For sure it’s revived my interest in my crafts. I’m not sure when or why I got away from them, but it’ll be nice to use up some of those supplies just gathering dust.

This week I’ve also got a poetry reading to prepare for. I spent Sunday morning struggling over a bio to send the MC. I wish her luck. Compared to most of the other poets who’ve done readings, I’m pretty boring – I’ve lived in the same place all my life and haven’t really done a whole lot. No awards or recognition, just piles of unpublished poems.