I phoned the church and was able to put the spices on a table with a sign saying "FREE" for anyone who wants to pick them up.

I walked to a meeting of stitchers today. I was able to work on my hardanger bellpull, and my fifth prayer shawl. A lady there offered to help me figure out how to sew quilt blocks where all the corners meet in the middle (think lots of skinny triangles/diamond shapes). She also spent time evening up the edge of my silk shibori scarf so I can hand hem it.

Just so you know what I'm talking about, here are the pictures...



If you look at the closeup, you can see the actual marks left by the rusty nuts and bolts used to make the pattern in this fabric.



It is hand dyed...started out off white. It is soaked in a mordant, then wrapped around rusty stuff, spotted randomly with natural dyes, and then left to process for awhile in steam. The end result is this fabric.

Here's the prayer shawl...it needs to be 5' long. I've got a ways to go!



Here's the hardanger bellpull. It too, has a ways to go!



On a more frugal note...

I had perogies for lunch...with leftover onions I fried up in butter for overtop...and some fat free sour cream.  Don't know why I bother with fat free sour cream when I cook the onions in butter!  But the onions taste soooo much better in butter.

Breakfast was homemade blueberry muffins, almond butter and raspberry jam.

Snack was some almonds baked in soy sauce.  Nice and salty...and crunchy.

Supper is fish tonight.  Not sure if it will be salmon burgers or scallops I bought on sale last week.

Entertainment has been affordable this week.  Paul and I have been watching library and home DVDs, as per usual.  We've also taken to playing card games in the evening, and sometimes other games as well.  I'm also reading a bunch of books that have been loaned to me or borrowed from the library. 

The library did have a book sale this week.  I was there and picked up four books for $3.50.  Gotta love it when they're that cheap!  They were good basic books too.  One was on the DASH diet for hypertension.  Our family needs to be on that diet, and this is much cheaper than printing it off the Internet.  The basics of the diet are available for free, but the cost of ink and paper has got to be over $1....it's fairly long.

My friends and I continue to share things amongst ourselves.  One lady is slowly cleaning out her freezers in preparation for the upcoming gardening season.  I am the beneficiary of a lot of fruit, vegetables and baked goods.  In turn I give her first crack at things I am getting rid of...like those spices.  I also save ice-cream buckets for her to package fruit in for sale. 

I had loaned some of Mom's Bible videos to a special needs girl who attends our church.  She loved them and returned them, asking for more.

I've spent some time sorting through my fabric stash.  I have one bag ready to leave the house.  I want to spend time doing more sorting.  I figure the more I get rid of, the less I have to store or sew up.  Meaning more space and less money for storage containers.

I had to return "Getting Things Done" to the library.  Other people put holds on it!  But I'm kind of at a point with my filing cabinet project anyway.  It wouldn't hurt to finish a few projects and do some serious filing of information.

I went through some stitchwork I'd like to have framed and have put aside three pieces to do.  Two are for other people...things I've promised.  Then I have several pieces for myself.  I am going to speak with Paul about doing a few at a time.  I want to see how much I can do myself first.  I think some of them can be easily laced and inserted into frames.

I guess that's the extent of my Frugal Friday.  Most everything was reported as it happened this week.  Hope everyone is having a good time!  I'm off to sort through Mom's photos...

Here are the projects I worked on this weekend. Didn't finish anything, but made a good stab at things. 

The first is a Guild project that is five years old now.  It's the first time I picked threads and fabric myself.  Actually, I let the store staff pick them.  It was a mistake in my opinion.  I don't like the colours, which is one reason I never finished it.  I also found the fabric, a 28 count lugana to be too fine for me to see.


This is the EAC (Embroidery Assoication of Canada) intermediate hardanger course.  I've decided to drop out of the course.  This piece has been done wrong and I hear the evaluator they gave me is a real bear.  In fact, the only person who says she's 'fair' is the lady who assigned her to me.  Everyone else is saying elsewise.  So I'm dropping the course and just doing this for myself.  I wanted to make changes to the pattern anyway.  I didn't like it.  I've been told that definitely would not be accepted by the instructor.  So out goes the course. I find it hard enough to motivate myself to stitch other people's designs, let alone one's I don't like.


When I realized I had royally messed up the EAC course project, I decided to start a crewel embroidery piece I picked up at a garage sale many years ago.



Meghan commented the last thing I needed to do was start another piece of stitchwork.  She was right.  But I find crewel work very soothing.  Cross stitch is very stressful for me.  I think I'll just do this for now.  I really am working on finishing projects.  But too long sitting doing one thing and you need a change!

The weekend was great.  Excellent food, company and walking.  You have to walk after the meals, or else you gain five pounds!

I thought I'd take some time to show you what I've been doing recently. Here's the hollyhock rug I've been angsting over. I think I've found the solution...adding texture. So I'm adding a bunch of novelty yarns I picked up at the dollar store before it closed. It seems to be helping those background hills.


Here is a Deanne Fitzpatrick pattern I am hooking. It is not drawn straight on the linen backing, so I am having to adjust things as I go. However, I love the colours I am working with...the deep rich tones. That background is actually a navy and purple plaid with a gold stripe in it!


And the Christmas ornaments are progressing nicely. I just want to do a few more angels and I'll be done. I'm just working on this one piece of cloth this year.


Here is an original design I dreamed up as a result of reading a back issue of "Quilting Arts" (Summer 2005 Issue 18). They had an article on the running stitch. I read it while on the bus going to stitch-in. It's amazing where the mind will take you when you have absolutely nothing else to do. I designed a couple of pieces on the spot. I highly recommend the bus for forcing you to stay focused on creative thinking!LOL This will eventually be a Christmas ornament with beads, etc.


And here's proof I actually finish things!


I must admit, I'm not wild about this framing job, and will not use that framer again. Still, it was a reasonable price because they made a mistake and didn't charge me for the frame. I was going to take my business elsewhere, and should have, in my opinion. Oh well, it could have been worse.

I thought you all might like to see the finished hardanger dresser runner.



And here it is in situ...



Only took a year! Boy, do I take a long time to do things! Guess that's what happens when you try to do so much at once.

Back to my creative journey...

While attending a stitch-in one day, someone mentioned the local Stitchery Guild and the Embroidery Association of Canada. I became a member of both.

This is the first hardanger embroidery I have ever done. It was a Stitchery Guild project one year. Hardanger embroidery comes from the Hardanger Fjord region of Norway. Traditionally done white thread on white cloth, it can now be done with vibrant threads and vibrant cloth.

 

This is a piece from a class I took. The pattern is a modification from “Hardanger Embroidery Favorites” by Susan Meier and Rosalyn Watnemo.

Here are a couple of kits I purchased from Carol Storie at Heartfelt Designs to work on. The first is called “Seasons”, and the second is “Hardanger Hearts”. Both are done on 22 count hardanger cloth with Caron Watercolors thread and DMC Perle Cotton. Both have beadwork on them, though it doesn't show well in the photos.

And here is my interpretation of “Hardanger Hearts” on a higher count Lugana cloth.

 

 

Here are some hardanger Christmas ornaments I stitched for Christmas presents last year.

I love hardanger embroidery and am designing my own original pieces now. I find the restraints inherent in designing stitchwork to be something I can handle.  Decisions are based on technical grounds more than anything for me.  Though I did not attempt designing stitchwork until after I had acupuncture for the first time, and found my creativity returning for brief periods.  I also have a group of women who help me when I design.  They have saved me a lot of grief!  Still, it is slow and laborious work, requiring a lot of practice pieces.  But that is what design in stitchwork is all about. 

I am working on that  hardanger dresser runner highlighted in my July 17th post "Hardanger Dresser Scarf" at the moment.

To be continued...