I LOVE mail!!

A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to win the Birthday drawing on Marie Alton's Blog. (You can visit Marie here.) The package arrived today - look at my goodies - eight skeins of Vicki Clayton's hand-dyed #12 silks from Marie's personal stash. Thanks so much Marie!! I can't wait to use them. You can see more of Vikki's wonderful hand dyed threads here.

I'm off to Moncton today, to teach a class tomorrow at The Covered Bridge Quiltery, one of my favourite shops to visit. I'll be back soon...

Piece,
Linda

"For all the advances in medicine, there is still no cure for the common birthday". ~ John Glenn

Another new love - Koigu!

Today, as promised, I will share with you the beautiful hand-dyed yarns I found in the yarn shop "Shall We Knit?" in New Hamburg. These are 100% Merino wool, hand-painted in Chatsworth Ontario - near Durham Ont. The company name is Koigu and you can check out their website here. These yarns are known as KPPPM - that's Koigu Painter's Palette Premium Merino and are described as "handpainted watercolours". Each
1 kg. dyelot is painted individually, then heat is applied to fix the dyes. They are rinsed and hung to dry, then reeled into 50 gm. skeins, a three day process. Artist Maie Landra has mixed the colours for Koigo and the colour combinations are her creation. Aren't they beautiful? I just fell in love with them. If there is leftover wool (not enough for a 50gm. skein) they do up smaller skeins, which is what these are. They are priced by the gram. I can't wait to try them for Crazy Quilting. The distance between colour changes is quite short and thats what I like... You can bet I'm going to be checking out yarn shops in the Maritimes to see if anyone here carries these yummy yarns... If not, I just might have to make a return trip to New Hamburg and "Shall We Knit?"

Piece,
Linda

"We are all artists gently guided by our Master's hand, painting a vision called life. The blending of colours like joy, sorrow, wisdom and love inspire us to create a magnificent masterpiece of self." ~ Linda LaTourelle

Who thinks up those names?

I think I have decided what I want to be in my next life.. a person who thinks up color names.... you know- those yummy sounding names that are given to the various shades on a paint colors strip - or the colors of hand-dyed threads.. I wonder what such a person is called? A color-ologist? Today I received my long-awaited order from Treenway Silks on Saltspring Island in B.C. I ordered their color sample cards, for their 100 hand-dyed solid colors. They are gorgeous! I admired each individual card which held 20 colors, stroked them, loved them... Then I started reading the color names.... Sun Dance, Salmonberry, Persimmon. Paprika. Pondicherry, Shelly Belly, Ballet Slippers.... thats just on the first card - the yellows, golds, oranges, rusts, etc. Listen to the Blue's names... Silk Pyjamas. Periwinkle, Love-in-a-mist, Persian Night, Winter Solstice, Mystery Harbour, Blueberry Haze, Ice Poppy, Dragonfly, Mermaid Tears....don't they all just sound yummy enough to eat?? Wouldn't that be a great job - thinking up these names? Wonder where I would apply?

Stitching with silk threads is often like sliding a hot knife through butter. My most favorite silk thread is Silk Buttonhole Twist - it is a fine, fairly tightly twisted thread and such a pleasure to stitch with. I love YLI silk buttonhole twist and am always on the look-out for it - it isn't easy to find around here. An alternative is the SBT from Treenway Silks - they dye their own 1oo solid colors and also a gorgeous range of hand-painted variegated threads - 74 in all, designed by Judith Baker Montano. What I like best about these threads is that the spacing between the color changes is short- when you are Crazy Quilting, and your seam is only 5" long, a thread that has 12" of one color before it changes, isn't going to give you much variation... Of course, all these colors are available in silk ribbon as well.

I have tried a few other silk threads - Silk Perle, Silk floss, Serica, and 8/2 Reeled Silk; of these the Buttonhole Twist wins hands down, for me... I guess I like the finer highly twisted thread. I find some of the heavier threads "wear" as you pull them through your fabrics over and over...

Anyway, what a pleasure to receive this package of vibrant color today! Just like a child getting that new box of 64 Crayolas - remember how exciting that used to be? For me, that was always the best present ever!

I also ordered 4 of their Web Specials- combos of Silk Ribbon for $3.00 each! The Web specials are always worth checking out! Find them at http://www.treenwaysilks.com/ under "What's New". These combos are made up of 3-5 colors., and you get 5-7 yds. in total. These ones are called, clockwise from top left, Squaring the Circle, Arcadia, Cataline and Lady Inger. The colors are luscious, as you can see, and the ribbon is of high quality.

There is a great deal of information on the Treenway website about silk in general, as well as info on their products. Check it out!!

I have always had a fascination with anything from the Orient -silk, kimonos, Geishas...this probably stems from the fact I had a Japanese penpal when I was young. She wrote such interesting letters and the envelopes were always covered with the most beautiful stamps. I still have every one of them! I've often wondered if I could ever track her down again- I still remember her name- Shizue Kakinuma. We wrote back and forth for about 4 years, and then sadly it petered out.. Is it any wonder that I love the movie Memoirs of a Geisha, and books such as Gail Tsukiyama's "Women of the Silk" and "The Language of Threads". These two novels tell the story of Pei, a young Chinese girl whose impoversihed family sells her to work in the silk mills of rural China. The author paints a moving, unforgettable portrait of strong women fighting to survive and make a life for themselves in difficult times. Both worthwhile reads..

Well, enough rambling for tonight...

Piece,

Linda

"Whatever you are, be a good one." Abraham Lincoln

These are a few of my favourite things.. I mean threads

The more you stitch, the more you find that you like some threads more than others. I have definitely developed a few favorites, the Stef Francis cotton threads I last posted about, being one. I love the rich colors, and the ease with which you can stitch with this thread. Another of my favorite cotton threads is Perle Cotton. This is usually easy to find if you have any sort of needlework shop or craft shop near you. DMC produces a wide range of thread colors in embroidery floss and if a shop carries the floss, they often carry the Perle Cotton as well. Size 5 is the most common, with a decent selection of colors in skeins. Sizes 8 and 12 (thinner threads) are usually available in a much more limited color selection, in balls.

An alternative to the DMC is Presencia Finca Perle, available in solids and variegateds, carried "locally" by River Gallery in Glenwood. We are so fortunate to have Sande nearby giving us this wonderful alternative. She stocks the size 5, but can order any of the colors in sizes 8 or 12. Although it is slightly more expensive than a ball of DMC Perle Cotton, there is more yardage in the ball, so it works out, on a "cost per unit" basis to be cheaper. The Finca is also a tighter twist, and I like it better; I find the color range is wider as well. Look at these beautiful blues, purples and greens - who could resist these? Speaking of "favorite things", this bowl is by my favorite N.B. potter, Rachel Morouney of Hidden House Pottery in Otter Creek, near Elgin N.B.

My other favorite cotton thread is Wildflowers by Caron. These are variegated threads, with a very good variety of color choices, from pastels to brights. This thread, weight-wise, is between an 8 and a 12 perle, and is a little fuzzier than a perle. The closest source for those of us here in "Freddy Beach", is Because You Count, a needlework shop in Moncton, located at 164 Collishaw St. As always, you can click on each photo for a closer look...

When doing Crazy Quilting, you should always be striving for variety - not just in your thread colors, textures and solids/variegateds, but also variety in thread weights- your stitching will be more interesting if you have thick threads and thinner threads to contrast.
This third photo shows a combination of Finca and DMC Perles, also variegated Valdani cottons (these are made in Romania), Stef Francis and Sassa Lynne cottons. Because I will have to make up kits for my classes at Quilt Canada 2010, I am already working at building up a varied "Stock".....what a great "excuse"... haha! I think I have enough blues! But... can you EVER have enough of your favorite color?

To finish on a "spring-y" note.... thought I would share these lovely daffodils with you. Laura and I spent several hours last night helping count, bunch and wrap daffodils for the upcoming daffodil campaign of the Canadian Cancer Society. You will be seeing them for sale at local malls and places of business later this week - please treat yourself to a springy bouquet and support this worthwhile cause!

Piece,

Linda

"No matter how long, how cold, how bitter the winter, the daffodils always come up in the spring". - Connie Kern

It's a Good Day!

The sun shone for part of the day and the temp was around 10C...warm enough to sit out on the deck for a while with my face turned up to that glorious sunshine. It felt sooo good! Most of the week is supposed to be rainy, but at least that will help get rid of the snow...
I have two pieces of good news to share..First, darling daughter Laura has been accepted to the course of her choice- Journalism at the University of her choice- U. of Kings College in Halifax. So she is a very happy girl.... and we are very pleased for her too...
The other bit of good news is for you Crazy Quilters who live in my area- you can now find Stef Francis threads at the River Gallery in Glenwood NB. Yippeeee! This is the shop owned and run by Sande Gunning, located downriver toward Saint John, on Route 102. Glenwood is just a mile or two this side of Brown's Flat. You can go down the old "River Road" (rte. 102), through Gagetown and keep on going, past Oak Point. She is at 7310 Rte. 102. Or you can travel the main highway(#7) to Saint John and take the second exit(#80) for Grand Bay -Westfield. At the flashing red light, proceed straight through, towards Gagetown. River Gallery is roughly 17 km. ahead. Of course Sande carries lots of other goodies too- she has the best stock of Batiks you will find anywhere in the province, also lots of supplies for Sashiko and Rug-Hooking. I am so pleased she is carrying the full line of these threads- they are such wonderful colors. She carries all three weights- the heaviest is similar to a Perle 5, the other two are finer. I LOVE these threads for CQing....
I had a great time in Saint John, teaching a two day CQ class for the Marco Polo Guild. Thanks gals!! Hope you had as much fun as I did!

Piece,
Linda

"April is the cruelest month, breeding lilacs out of the dead land, mixing memory and desire, stirring dull roots with spring rain." T.S. Eliot (The Waste Land)