kerrykatiecakes

Well, these sad looking little sausages are possibly the worst looking Christmas crackers in history!  I am taking part in the Christmas Cracker Exchange on the Crazy Quilting International yahoo group again this year and these three are my contributions.  All I can say in my defence is that they are better inside than outside!  lol  This is such a fun exchange and one of my little yearly rituals that get me started on the holiday spirit.

It is so good to be home at last!  I had four months away working at the campground, followed by a weekend conference in Saskatoon, then three weeks of house/babysitting, a weekend conference in Ottawa and a week visiting the in-laws in Quebec, then finally two weeks worth of  house/babysitting again.  I am home now at last as of Sunday night and catching up!  lol  One of the first things I did was visit my favourite local thrift store where I discovered this hardanger bellpull hidden away and unappreciated. Isn't it lovely?  If you have ever attempted hardanger you will know that this was not an afternoon's work for someone.  It was a labour of love and deserves to be appreciated, not hung on the back of a pillar in the thrift store where I found it and purchased it for fifty cents!  The bell pull hardware itself is work about $20.00! As for the hardanger itself, as much as I love it in its present form, I have enough of my own work hanging on the walls here without add

This is the little six inch quilt block I embellished for Janet in the Fools Gold Round Robin at CQI.  If you follow along with my misadventures here, you may remember I had lost all my inspiration and, in fact, thought perhaps my muse had perished.  Well, thanks to all the great advice I received in everyone's comments, it appears she is alive and well and has come out of hiding at last - thanks! I have to give everyone in this round robin a huge shout out for their incredible patience with me while I have been sitting here twiddling my thumbs, unable to pick up a needle.  Now I am on a roll again, I have two more blocks to finish up and send on and then I am retiring from round robins so I don't get myself in a pickle like this again. Here is a closeup of what was one of my favourite things to stitch on this block.  I created the evergreen twigs by looking at a photo of actual twigs and simply trying to recreate what I saw with needle and thread.  This is my favourite t

According to Wikipedia: Yarn bombing ,  yarnbombing ,  yarnstorming ,  guerrilla knitting ,  urban knitting  or  graffiti knitting  is a type of  graffiti  or  street art  that employs colorful displays of  knitted  or  crocheted  yarn or fibre rather than paint or chalk. This idea has piqued my interest...  Dare I say I am inspired?!  I am not much of a knitter and have never made it much beyond the scarf and potholder phase but I think that much skill would suffice for this type of adventure . Some of these projects are a bit beyond my capabilities although |I suppose a person could do the bike and then just wheel it to the site and chain it there? Some very adventurous ladies in Whitehorse yarnbombed a vintage aircraft! Basically, any public installation seems to be fair game.  I can't help thinking ahead to next September when the Embroiderers' Association of Canada has it's Stitch in Public Day.  What could be more fun??

Slowly but surely my muse is returning and I am getting some stitching done - baby steps!  I am pleased with how this seam turned out so thought I would share it with you. I started with a row of cretan stitch in Kreinik gold braid and then added a french knot at the point of each stitch using two strands of red DMC cotton floss.  Above each french knot I added three straight stitches in Kreinik gold braid.  I used Japan gold to weave through, passing it up and down through each set of straight stitches.  Pretty, yes?  It makes a nice wide seam which is what you want sometimes and it had lots of "shiny" to entice my muse out of hiding, lol.  Hope you like it!

It is with great sadness I note the end of an era with the publication of the last issue of CQMagOnline .  If you haven't checked it out yet, please do so.  This online publication has been an unceasing source of inspiration for crazy quilters for years now and I am so sad to see it go.  Kudos to Rissa and the staff of the magazine for this generous gift of their knowledge and inspiration all this time  You will be missed!