Week 16 of 2026

This week I sewed a summer dress -

Made using the cotton fabric I snowed dyed a few weeks ago.

Sewing is a learning experience for me, and I did learn a few new things. The pattern didn't have pockets, so I added slash pockets - I learned that slash pockets don't work with gathers, so the pockets stick out (fine for collecting eggs), pockets in the seam would have worked better.

I also learned how to install an invisible zipper - turns out it is the easiest way to install a zipper (I used an invisible zipper foot for sewing it).

The pattern is a Lutterloh pattern - #81 from supplement 321 (Summer 2021). I made the skirt with less width than called for, but I could have made it a lot narrower (it has too many gathers - an A-line skirt would look better, and look more like the pattern image).

Photos from Around -

Luckily planting in the garden is over a month away. Lots of work to come when the snow finishes melting, and it dries out (it flooded in August and never dried out before winter, so we weren't able to clean it up in the fall).

The coop has dried out a bit for the hens.

GingerSnap! has been hunting again.

He didn't get anything this time, but I need to make him a bright ruffle collar so the birds really see him.

All the best!♥︎

Week 15 of 52

This week I finished weaving a set of tea towels -

The pattern is Turned Twill Towels, 

from Jane Stafford Textiles School of Weaving, Season 5, Episode 1.

Woven in Maurice Brassard 2/8 cotton, and cotton bouclé.

I ended up with 8 towels, and 2 small clothes from the end of the warp.

More details are on my Ravelry project page.

Lots of warp ends to tie into a thrum ball to use as weft for more towels - no waste.

I also made a piece of stained glass. I drew the design after looking at lots of Mackintosh Rose pieces online. It is about 5.5"x12", made to fit a side light on the front door (I am trying to use up supplies I have).

Photos from Around -

I tried planting onion seedlings in the snail planting method, I am really hoping this makes planting onions in the garden easier.

Big hunter - I think he saw a leaf blowing in the mulch.

Lots more snow to melt - it is so dirty and mucky outside.

The chickens roamed free for the first time this year - we learned they don't like to walk over snow banks.

All the best!♥︎

Week 14 of 2026

This week I made a mini quilt -

Kathleen Tracy had a few block patterns on her FaceBook group for us to make a mini quilt. I used two of the block patterns and made a little table mat. 

I tried stepping out of my box for colours for this one - I wanted something a bit lighter and spring like, and chose colours based on the outer border fabric (mainly split complimentary). The blocks are 3", the quilt is 18.5"x26".

We had a snow storm at the beginning of the week (hopefully the last one!), so I used some fresh snow to dye some fabric.

I am always amazed how dirty snow is even though it looked clean.

The finished fabric matches the blooms on the Thanksgiving Cactus.

Photos from Around -

Moon above the horizon early one morning- the day after the Artemis II launch (with the first Canadian to go to the moon, we have been watching a lot of YouTube videos)

Curious GingerSnap!.

We are surprised to see Gemma doing so well (she is the grey one in the middle - a Sapphire Gem hen).

For well over a year she has looked pretty bedraggled. Her first winter she had frost bite on a toe, lost most of her comb and wattles because of the cold, and lost most of the feathers on her body. The feathers didn't grow back last summer, she looked like skin and bones going into the winter but somehow she survived and is doing well!

For some reason Miss Maggie has started to sit on my husband's lap anytime he puzzles - she just likes to watch I guess.

The snow is really melting now, so ditches got cleared ,

The top of the little fence makes a good scratching post.

Lots more snow has to melt before I can get in the garden.

Sunrise.

All the best!♥︎

Week 13 of 2026

This week I sewed a jacket-

It is a wearable muslin to check a new pattern for size and fit. I used some inexpensive Ikea fabric that is a similar weight to the fabric I want to use. It fits great.

This is the jacket I hope to make, and the fabric (fabric I bought in Japan the first time I went), there isn't much fabric (I bought the end of a bolt), but there is just enough for that jacket.

The pattern is from this Japanese sewing book - a gift from my son when he went to Taiwan.

Books like this have different variations of a pattern, so for the jacket I made I used the sleeves from another version.

Photos from Around -

Miss Maggie helping with a puzzle.

Sunrise.

The pond has started to melt.

Poor old GingerSnap!! We don't know what happened, but yesterday he came in covered in mud from head to toe and had to have a bath - he handles baths surprisingly well (this wasn't the first one, and with the snow just starting to melt it probably won't be the last). That's the second tub of water.

All the best!♥︎

Week 12 of 2026

This week I decided what to make with some fabric I wove years ago -

I made a wrap. Just two pieces of the fabric seamed up the long edges, folded in half, then seamed on the short sides with small sections left open as arm holes. I have made a few other garments with handwoven fabric and don't really wear them any more, so I thought something that can be thrown on when I am cold (like a wearable blanket) would be more practical.

This photo is a better representation of the colours. It is the last thing I wove on my old floor loom. The warp is all leftover handspun (from fibre I dyed), and the weft is a commercial lace weight yarn (that I also dyed). The fabric has been waiting for almost 5 years, so I am glad I have used it.

Tried taking a photo outside, but there was a blizzard the day I made it, and it was a bit windy!

Photos from Around - 

Warmer weather is nicer for the chickens

Best friends.

Everyone is enjoying the new boxes.

All the best!♥︎

Week 11 of 2026

This week I made a couple of things that had been planned for a while -

This is a liner for a project basket (I recently learned that the latest term is "analogue bag").

I was given the basket recently and it is perfect for my projects, but the knitting needles kept poking out, and yarn was catching (perfect because it fits under a side table next to the couch and the cats aren't able to get in to sleep).

It is made with all kinds of scraps of mainly linen, also some cotton. The pieced band is stitched on a strip of white cotton for stability. I machine sewed the whole bag (except the hem) before embellishing - crazy quilting, slow stitching, surface embroidery (so many names). I added beads, shisha mirrors, an old piece of tatting that hadn't gone to plan, and a collection of flattened pennies my son had from a trip when he was little (just drilled holes in the ends to stitch them on). The embroidery is mainly with perle cotton, some rayon thread, and a bit of silk buttonhole twist.

After all the embroidery was finished I hand stitched the hem to form a casing for a cotton twill tape and a cord lock to keep it tight (I find elastic gives out over time). I did machine stitch a button hole along the edge before, to be able to insert the twill tape.

I finally got around to sewing a pillow with the needlepoint I finished in January. I had wet blocked it and was worried it would bounce back to the angled state it had when it first came off the stitching frame (it didn't!). The green velveteen was something I inherited and it goes perfectly. I added a zipper on the back as the closer for the first time (usually I use buttons but the fabric was too thick).

Photos from Around (really the cats!) -

GingerSnap decided to bury himself in the pillows on my bed.

Such a sound sleeper!

A cat bunkbed.

All the best!♥︎

Week 10 of 2026

I finished a couple of things this week -

This crochet scarf I started in December. I made it with some handspun from years ago (it is BFL that I dyed a gradient, it was previously a cowl that I didn't wear - probably will be a crochet scarf that I don't wear but it was fun to make). The pattern is Hot Chili by Carmen Heffernan - it is a free pattern on her website.

I finished weaving some little utility cloths I started in January.

All hemmed - they are roughly 10" squares. Made from thick cotton - for under hot plates, potholders etc.

More details can be found on my Ravelry project page.

For one I used dark grey cotton to match an old scale we use as a fruit bowl.

This one was a quick project I made yesterday in about an hour (all machine sewn).

A "quilted, divided cup" - a great, well explained, free pattern from Alamosa Quilter (link here).

Perfect for scissors and rotary cutters.

I just pressed the points down on mine.

Photos from Around - 

Best friends - GingerSnap! follows Molly around everywhere, he waits for her to get out of her crate in the morning, or to come in from outside during the day.

My little helper when I was blocking the crochet scarf this week - Miss Maggie didn't even seem to mind the pins.

All the best!♥︎