This blog showcases my creative endeavours:

The Largest Pair Of Socks

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 08:59:39 -0400

My friend Jerry Harste has become a watercolour artist in retirement. He sent me a link to a site where he had posted some of his recent works. I particularly liked one and wanted to buy it. Because there was an earlier painting on the other side he said he’d give it to me. I returned with “I’ll knit you a pair of socks.” forgetting that Jerry is a large person. He wears a shoe size 14. So this turned out to be the largest pair of socks I’ve ever knit. And it looks like they fit.

Here’s the painting that the socks were payment for:

More Monogrammed Towels

Fri, 4 Dec 2009 15:45:34 -0400

The children on my Christmas list this year are getting monogrammed towels. Technically, a monogram is a collection of initials put together to form a single entity. I’ve embroidered the children’s names. I bought a bunch of white bath towels, created the embroidery designs on my computer, then embroidered them on the towels. They turned out rather well.

Christmas Wreath

Tue, 1 Dec 2009 15:27:42 -0400

A couple of years ago I decided I should have some kind of “winter” decoration on my door and put together a collection of artificial apples, berries and pine cones. This year, I came across a pattern for a fabric Christmas Wreath. Since I had a stash of Christmas fabric pieces left over from last year’s table runners and other Christmas sewing I decided to create one. I included the apples, etc., added a large bow, and hung the wreath on my front door.

Christmas Table Runner

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 15:49:33 -0400

Our November sewing class project was this table “runner” - really a table cover, embroidered with a border of poinsettias. The class was about “precise positioning” - laying out each repetition in an exact position on the cloth. The point was to learn how to mark the fabric with a washable marker in order to position the embroidery hoop on the cloth, then to exactly position the embroidery within the hoop so that each repetition was placed evenly around the border.

Took a couple of days to embroider all 12 repetitions, then to stitch the hem with a decorative stitch.

I gave the cloth to a friend to take to her daughter in Ottawa for Christmas. I don’t use Christmas stuff and I last year created Christmas table coverings for everybody who does use something like this.

Bargello Table Runner

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 16:14:58 -0400

The bargello piecing technique has continued to intrigue me. I decided to dig into my fabric stash and have a go at something simple. I decided on a table runner.

Same process as the jacket. First, cut strips of varying width, sew them together to form panels with an angle at one end. Join the sides to form a tube with the strips forming a spiral; cutting strips from the tube; assembling these strips onto a muslin piece until the muslin is completely covered.

I had the idea that I would have large colour swatches going from corner to corner - it almost worked. Were I to do another one, I’d be more careful to make the overall diagonal to be more direct.

On my dining room table with a bowl in the center you can’t tell that I wasn’t as exact as I might have liked.