Scout Lake

Close to our house is a great little lake that is stocked with Kokanee salmon. It is a fairly popular lake because one can drive in with a truck, however the road is very rough.

A couple of days ago DH and I rode the ATV out to the lake because it is a nice trail ride from our place. We left after supper, so these pictures show how light it stays in the evening here in the north. I would say  all of these pictures were taken around around 8pm.

      

  
There was only one man out in a rubber boat and a family on the shore fishing when we arrived. The family had some of the most exuberant dogs I have ever seen. They made me laugh with their antics—jumping from the cliffs to the water and then a mad dash through the woods as they chased squirrels.
Look at how clear the water is! We are truly blessed with some of the clearest and cleanest water in the world, and I never take it for granted…

We didn’t take the fishing rods, but sometime over the weekend we are going to go back and try to get some salmon. My dad and his friend are coming to visit in a few weeks and it would be great to have some smoked salmon for them..

Doggie Quilt

Until last year, my buddy at work in the IT department was unmarried, childless, he loved to play role games and collect Star Wars memorabilia. His grasp of physics is phenomenal and his favorite work activity is statistics. He always reminded me of the 40 year old virgin, except he is so much cooler.. Anyway, last year he and his girlfriend moved in together and I know they are very happy together.

Recently they got their first fur'baby'--a hound dog. She is named Boomer (from Battlestar Galactica) and she is an absolute cutie. Since they will never have children, I decided to make Boomer her own quilt.

It is just strips of fabric done in a QAYG way. I added a few doggie bones and the backing is flannel. A simple grid pattern was the quilting. It is definitely not a pretty quilt, but I figured out how to do QAYG from this.

They say they are getting a house next year and then will get more more fur babies. I am ready!  :-)

Wedding Quilt

I love big quilts. I love to see patterns, curl up under one on a cold night, admire them at my friends house and to see them displayed in quilt stores. But I really, REALLY do not liking a big quilts. I make 2 sizes of quilts--baby quilts and big quilts. These big quilts measure no less than 110" long by 90" wide--and that is the smallest of the 'big' quilts I like to make.  Given that, you can image that I don't make very many quilts, and if I do, they are for special people. 

Two of my most favorite people are Nicole and Dee Dee. Nicole got married 2 summers ago and I made her this quilt which was an original pattern made with hand dyed fabric. 

With Ripley

Dee Dee is getting married next week and I am just finishing her quilt. I used a pattern from Urban Country Quilts called Market Fresh--its the one on the cover. I rarely use patterns because there is always something I don't like about the instructions, but I really liked this one. 

Here is my quilt on the design board as I was checking the layout. 

The quilt was too small at 73x92, so I decided to add 2" sashing to each block. This will make it large enough. Then I thought this quilt would be an opportunity to try the "quilt as you go" (QAYG) technique. I love to read The Quilting Edge blog, and this is where I first learned about  QAYG and I have wanted to try it ever since. I  also read about it on another favorite blog, Fibermania, where Melody shows her way of doing QAYG. Great posts, by the way..

Basically the idea is that you piece each block, then add the batting and backing and the you quilt the block. When you finish all of your blocks, you stitch them together with connector strips. I'll add a quick demo tomorrow. 

I am just about done and even though there were several 'operator errors', I will definitely do all of my quilts in a QAYG way if I can. I LOVE this method!!!  :-)

Holiday Fun Times

When FIL was visiting, we went fishing on Lake Laberge. It is a gorgeous lake about 20 minutes from my front door.

And FIL was the only one to catch a fish! 26" Lake Trout. 

Ray had not been fishing in 30+ years, so we were happy for him. It was a little fish, but it made a tasty supper.

It was soooo nice to see my FIL and hubby spending some great time together. We loved having him here..

My next posts will be about thread painting. I promise.

Where Are You?

I had a quick email today that asked "Where are you? Why are you not posting"? So I thought I would show you what I have been up to.

Father in law visited for a couple of weeks:

Ripley needed her walkies:

We got a new 2 seater ATV (a Polaris Rzr):

And decided to go fishing. Hubby got the only catch, a lake trout, and it was released to grow a little bit.

We went fishing at Alligator Lake--about 2 hours off the highway by ATV. Isn't it pretty?

It is very isolated and quite a big lake.

And I got a "little" bit  muddy. Just a little bit. 

Gratuitous shot of my Mookie.

And this was only Saturday!

Yesterday we did this--we tore down our whole chimney! It was awful and dirty and dusty and heavy, grunt work. I carried every one of those bricks outside--from the top floor, main floor and basement. 

And look at all the soot in the furnace room. Lucky me--I got to clean everything after. You should have seen my carpet!  :-(

  

I'm pooped! So that is what I have been up to...

My Very First Thread Painted Piece

Back in the old days (2010) I literally stumbled across an artist whose work was so outstanding it was instrumental in leading me into thread painted art.  Alison Holt is an English textile artist who does the most beautiful thread paintings I have ever seen. I have all of her books and her DVD.

Alison Holt-Reflections in Water

Alison Holt-Summer Sky

If you are interested, you can watch some video clips of her work. Over the past 2 years I have received several signed copies of Ms Holt's books and I will never, ever lend them out or give them away. Yes, I am a huge, huge dorky fan. 


So after painstakingly watching the video, reading her books and practising for 10 minutes, I created this piece:

The top picture is the photo I used to create the painting in the bottom. I look at my painting and remember how proud I was of the completed work. It took hours and hours to do. I tried so hard and did the best I possibly could. Of course looking back I see the errors--I didn't use the right colours, the stems and leaves are unrecognisable and the flower heads have no comparison in nature. I 'may' recognize these as cow parsley (as it is called in England).

I have kept this piece in its natural state to show to my thread classes. I tell them that they CAN make thread art and be proud of it. Not everything has to be able to win a national competition. And the best part? I got better and better with practice. I will never be as good as Alison Holt and that's OK too. I still love to make thread paintings..

More Stuff Here

I had another blog that I liked, but I haven't posted in it since 2010. That was a long time between posts! And I didn't like the name of my blog, or the font, or the format or the....well you get the gist. So if you look in the past posts, you will see a slew of old (but really, really interesting) stuff...

I hope someone other than me thinks finds those posts interesting!

A Funny Thing

I received an email from Monika at My Sweet Prairie who said she had seen a piece I entered into a local competition and what a coincidence that was. The piece she was talking about was in the Canadian Quilter (and can you believe I do not have a copy??)  from 2007 or 2008. I received 2nd place with this wall hanging and it is about 52 x 42.

Intermission

The theme for the competition was "Canada Games" because the Canada Games were being held in my community of Whitehorse, Yukon that year. As an aside, I wore the second place metal everywhere I went during the Canada Games and proudly said I was a metal winner as well! (even though most Canada Games participants are between 18-24 and I am at least double that age)...  :-)

The piece was created out of a photo taken by an online friend. (Notice a pattern here??) The picture was taken in the States with the skates and stick exactly where there are in this piece. But the skies were dull and the lake was a bottomless pit black and grey. I had recently been on a lake near my house that had no snow on it because the wind had blown it all away and you could see every tree perfectly in the clear lake ice. I decided to add a bright, pink sky because I thought it would be a good foil for the mountains and play off the reflections in the ice.  

The hills are dyed cheesecloth, and if you look at the enlarged photo, you may see the straight line below the mountains is made from a partially unravelled tweed jacket. It made a nice line of trees straight across the piece. I also added strings as the skate laces. Finally, I layered white cheesecloth over the ice in a variety of layers to suggest small snow mounds and imperfections in the ice.

close-up of hills and reflection

I haven't thought about this piece very much since I made it, but Monika's email made me think about it again. I see my inexperience here and there and realize how much I have learned and the techniques I still work to perfect. I want to go back and fix the clouds in the sky and the reflections on the water but I have to remind myself that THIS piece was what pushed my into teaching. And this piece is a snapshot of my skills and abilities at that time. So once again I resist the urge to change it, to better it, to morph it into something it never was. "It is what it is" will be the motto here..

Finally-Some Heat!

We finally, finally got some hot weather yesterday and it was a beautiful 24 degrees C. My father in law  is visiting and we are all very excited about the nice weather forcasted for this weekend.  


No, this is not my FIL, but Ripley, the mistriss of the house.



On the thread scene, I am giving this piece to my own father's friend because she just retired. When she last visited the Yukon, one of her favorite stories was seeing a large area covered in fireweed as far as the eye could see. Although I had initially made this piece for my journal, I am sending it to her as a reminder of that magnificant scene.  

 

Now I need to make another one for my journal.  :-)

Thank you!

I have made a new blog friend with Monika Kinner-Whalen at My Sweet Prairie. We both do thread embroidery and decided to swap some items. I sent her a number of sky hand dyed fabrics and she in return sent me these:

50 spools of fabulous thread. Look at these gorgeous colours that Monika picked for me! You may notice some of them in my thread piece below in my Snag truck.Thanks again Monika. You all need to see her blog. WOW!

Just to complain, today it all the way up to 10 degrees C and rained all day. We turned our space heater on. :-(  The warmest weather we have had yet is 21 degrees and then it was so windy, I still wore a sweater..
Now that summer is over, hopefully we will have a nice fall! The old dog is ready for whatever will come that tries to mess with his walkies.