Nov 11/19

The progress on this baby blanket is slow, at best. Somehow, having both the energy and the inspiration to stitch is a rare combination these days. There is no regularity to my work schedule as I travel around the Ottawa region to cover shifts. Getting up at 5:30am to be in Brockville for an 8am start or working until midnight and then driving an hour back to Ottawa can take its toll. Today was a good stitchy day after we came home from the Remembrance Day ceremonies in Manotick. Snow was threatening all day and finally started late afternoon so it was a lovely day to curl up on the couch with the dogs, sip coffee and stitch.

There is a fair bit of back stitching and satin stitching on this quilt. My satin stitching is super rusty so there will be no close ups of that work. I love how the lettering pops with the back stitching here as I worked with a few shades of orange, my favourite colour. I will get more practise with my satin stitching when my next Amazon order arrives. Recently, I learned of a pattern style known as zenbroidery, a sort of colouring for stitchers. The patterns are stamped and the stitcher can play with colour and embroidery techniques. Before I fell down the rabbit hole of cross stitch, embroidery was a passion of mine and there are a few pieces that I stitched as a kid somewhere in one of my boxes.

The fella' does not know how much yarn I carried back from a recent trip to New Brunswick. My mom is downsizing and moving from a house to an apartment so yours truly brought back part of her yarn collection. He also does not know about the book on making cards and gift tags that I picked up at a used book sale back home or the 2 cross stitch patterns coming in the mail. In fact, he helped me with my luggage and failed to notice that the cloth shopping bag I used as a carry-on bag was stuffed full of yarn. He claims to not understand, but a quick glance at the tools and gadgets in our basement reveals that he so very much does.

Happy stitching!

Nov 5/19

So, apparently my last blog post was in August, a week or so before I started back to work after taking some time to move and to find a job. My new job is challenging and, at times, draining both mentally and physically. I have been struggling to find a balance between work and home, life and things I love to do and settling into a new city. My previous job was 8am to 6pm from Wednesday to Friday so I had these wonderful four day weekends every week which allowed me time to decompress from work and to do all kinds of fun stuff like stitching and hanging with my dogs. I was so spoiled with the time to recharge and to explore things that caught my interest. It was lovely to make enough money to live comfortably and have the time to putter away at all of my projects.

Two months into the new job and I am finally finding time to stitch and craft again. A batch of castille soap is curing in my kitchen, the back stitching is being done on the baby quilt and I have done some knitting during my recent travels to Toronto and New Brunswick. My university aged seatmate from Ottawa to Toronto did a double take when I pulled out my knitting on the train. What a low tech way to pass the time during a 4 hour train ride! To meet more people, a friend and I are considering starting a stitch and bitch club in our neighbourhood. We founded a book club this summer and we recently organized a haunted house for the neighbourhood on Halloween so we are looking for other ways to meet people because we so want to feel connected to our neighbours during the time that we find ourselves living in Uplands, the military housing in Ottawa.

The fella' just never knows what he will find happening in the house when he comes home from work. Last week, he found himself in the backyard testing fog machines for the haunted house. Another time, he tripped over a bag of yarn for a poncho that I hope to start knitting soon. Yet another time, he found my hand mixer in the freezer after I had burnt out the motor blending olive oil and a lye and water mixture for soap. The motor did not revive and I had to stir the mixture by hand to get it to set. I flew home to New Brunswick on Sunday so of course, I was chunking up jack o'lanterns for dog treats and pumpkin soup on Saturday night instead of packing. Do not tell him that I have been recently intrigued by a thing called zenbroidery which is essentially colouring for stitchers or that I have been browsing through online yarn companies. Creating and working on projects is relaxing and nourishing to me, even if it means having a dining room full of strobe lights and fog machines.

I flew home to NB this week to help my mom with some things around her house which she has up for sale so that she can downsize to a seniors apartment complex that is being built at the end of her street. She sent a table top loom back to Ontario with my brother on Thanksgiving weekend, yet another craft. The fella' just shook his head as he carried the loom into the house after we picked it up from my brother. I get my crafting abilities from my mom so the fella' is doomed to being surrounded by yarn and fabric and materials for as long as he is with me!

Happy stitching!