April Snow Showers

Welcome April!!

I'm glad you're here.

We had 5 inches of snow last night so I think you're a little confused

but we'll get there.

This is a rug I hooked way back in 2004.

I got inspiration for the design from an antique pie safe.

From my home town of Strasburg, Virginia.

The doors were tin punched  in a similar way. 

Now this little beauty looks deceptively simple:

Yes, it's a flannel nightgown but here's the thing.

I'm caregiver of a centenarian.

Now she cannot use scissors anymore, nor can she feel to pin things.

And I cannot use a sewing machine.

But between the two of us we made a thing of beauty

which her daughter received most happily.

I'm still hooking away at the Pat Cross pattern:

I keep running out of khakis and darks 

so I've made numerous trips upstairs

 to the wool room to root around for more.

Tonight I have a rug hook meet-up so there will be hours to hook.

At the end of the month the local guild

hosts a big hook-in. 

It's a real highlight of Spring:

vendors, prizes, hookers, yummy food to share...

The blues are slowwwllly ebbing away.

I'm so grateful.

Six months of Winter surely doesn't help.

May you find beauty in the day!

 

 

We're mellllllltttttting!

At last! 

It's been months since we saw our driveway 

but it's still there.

I was beginning to wonder.

New Brunswick's melt brings threat of flood

 but it's too early to tell what will happen.

This morning I lit my Gable House Goodes candle called

"This Old House"- for ambiance.

(I think it smells like smoky cornbread).

 

Then I pulled a few loops.

This pattern (Pat Cross) I am hooking up in a #6.

Boy #6 is much slower than my preferred #8.

I was too lazy to change my cutter blade when I started

but I think I may change it yet.

And speaking of Pat Cross-- she wrote a couple

of pattern books years ago and I haven't heard her name

since then.

Anyone know anything about her?

April is just about here. 

Welcome Sweet Spring Lady...

Combatting blues with greens

I’ve been feeling blue.

A friend brought these by.

I’m told they grow them in hot houses on Prince Edward Island.

It’ll be a while longer before the ground is bare and tulips bloom.

While my parents were here we went to a local nursery and I got dill and thyme to start indoors.

Haven’t been doing a lot of hooking lately.

I've been spending mornings with an elderly woman.

Her family inherited an unfinished braided rug.

I have no experience with braiding but this one just needed the coils

attached to one another.

I used a very strong thread.

 There is definitely a front and back to this rug.

It measures about 2 ft long by 1 ft wide or so.

I like the colours and there are various types of cloth

used in it. A make do rug.

My Lucy is grateful that she can spend some time on the deck again.

the snows are still on the ground but melt is happening and

our sun is very strong.

Lucy spends most of her summer days right there.

Isn't she sweet?!

And in need of a cut and style!

Have a warm wonderful weekend!

 

Happy St. Patty's

The snow is melting with almost alarming speed!

My neighbour says, "Six inches a day with this sun."

Not sure what the actual figures are but it is -2C today yet still melting away.

Here is a charming pattern I hooked up years ago:

It is "Colonial Table Mat" by Cherylyn Brubaker of Hooked Treasures.

Her website sample is done in browns, cream and reds.

I had her for a class in 2008? in which I hooked pomegranates

 and she was very good.

In late Fall last year, Doris Norman taught our rug group

to hook brick doorstops.

I chose to draw up a fraktur style pattern.

It turned out very sweetly:

Side view

 

The trick to covering the brick is a good padding

of cotton batting and a nylon stocking to encompass the

batting and the brick base.

And very very strong thread.

SO, how will you celebrate St. Patty's Day?

On Winter Sundays our neighbourhood pals head down to the local

craft beer/cidery to moan about the weather. 

We will do this today too.

Perhaps our chosen beverages will be green.

Don't know what that has to do with the good Saint Patrick

but around here green is the promise of Summer which is HOPE!

Sugar Shack time!

My parents are visiting from the Myrtle Beach area.

They love the depth of snow and cold here- 

but they get to go home after a week so...

Yesterday my Hubby and I took them to a Sugar Shack and restaurant in 

Dumfries, NB.

The wait for food was looonnng cuz every snowmobiler in the province 

decided to come out for breakfast.

But homemade bread, toasted, with maple cream soothed our impatience.

The open plan with long plank picnic style tables suits the relaxed atmosphere and

the stove in the corner kept the chill out.

Outside a cauldron was set up for the old fashioned way of boiling down the sap.

Up the hill we got a peek at the more commercial side of things.

The sap has barely started to run. Late!

Apparently NY has surpassed NB in maple syrup production.

 Quebec is the world's top producer.

A couple years ago we introduced a freshly immigrated Syrian family to maple syrup.

They were in awe.

As you see, we still have plenty of snow.

The temps are to rise this coming week though!!

Here is my cat and bird rug from Pat Cross’ Simply Primitive book:

I haven't gotten too far from last time.

Did you set your clocks ahead???

Finished!

"Guardians of the Orchard" is done at last!

I finished the edges simply.

I folded it under and stitched it to the back,

 no cording and

no binding tape.

Naughty naughty but that’s the way I wanted it.

 

I see it's a bit shadowy on the left. 

Not how it really looks.

This rug will be beside my bed, 

perfect for warming my tootsies from the cold hardwood floors.

We are due 6 inches of snow tomorrow.

The positive thing is the sun- it has the extra warmth and strength of coming Spring.

I’m trying to frame things more positively these days as I’m perimenopausal.

Tears and anxieties seem constant. 

There must be an awful chemical mess in the old brain.

Anyone else out there dealing or dealt with this?

Wet and Dry Needlefelting

Fibre artist, Elizabeth Bastin, shared her techniques 

with our evening hooking group. 

(Excuse any improper word usage for this art! I am a newbie.)

First we made a ball of white roving, then covered it in a blue roving.

We immersed this "ball" in hot water and massaged it with liquid soap.

Gradually it shrank and then we alternated hot and cold until the balls were small and firm.

My it was fun to play in hot soapy water!

Creative Diane dry felts a vine onto her ball. 

We all decided to use these balls as pincushions.

 

  Soft roving

 

Elizabeth demonstrated how she layers colours to make a flat "mat."

She uses this background to create pictures like the following:

Seascape

Mushrooms

Aren't they gorgeous?

Look how she's incorporated natural things too!

We also dry felted some small ornaments using the felting needles.

Here's a useful tip from Elizabeth:

You can store a couple of those sharpies for travel in a coffee stirrer!

Clever!

A fun evening was had by all, despite howling winds and blowing snows.

Brrrr. Where is Spring?