A Few More Thread Painted Pictures.

March 27th 2017.

March is coming to an end and we are wondering if it is going to go out like a Lion or a Lamb. The weather has been so up and down cold winds for a few days or quite mild weather I think my spring bulbs will be quite muddled, with the conflicting temps.

As I mentioned I have a new laptop and it has a different Windows system to what I am used to and it has been quite a learning curve for me, not being very teckey!!! Now there is a new word for the dictionary!! So the pictures I have on my I pad I have not been able to download onto here but we will keep trying.

Here are a few pictures that I have that you may not of seen.

This is a thread painting I did of the Bridge to Skye, Scotland. It was a photo I took in 2015 when we went to Scotland and we had a lovely trip in the train from Dingwall it was beautiful day weather wise as we left with a bit of scotch mist in the air but as we traveled westward we ran out of the rain and it turned into a beautiful day. On the way home we ran into the rain and apparently it had rained all day where we had rented the cottage.  Hoping that one day we can return, some lovely memories and it was like going back in time as we had visited with an  aunt and uncle when we were children over looking the beach that we would play on as kids.

Here is a thread painting I did last year of my Black eyed Susans I was very please with how this one turned out. Sometimes some subjects work better than others. I find if I am doing thread painting on my photo's it is better if the photo doesn't have too much subject. Less is better. And that also goes with the thread painting knowing when to draw the line and stop sometimes one can over do it then it spoils the effect you are trying achieve.

 

This is a thread painting of The Three Sisters, mountains in Canmore.AB. It is just beautiful mountains and the scenery is spectacular.Believe it or not but the photo was taken in late June and still snow on the mountain range. We rented a Cruise Canada Winnebago to take us to all the beautiful and wonderful sites. This was the year we went with my brother and wife and the two guys shared in the driving, so this gave them each a chance to see the wonderful scenery.


I hope that you enjoy the pictures and I promise to work on the ones of my sewing studio so hopefully by the time I post next time I will have solved the problem.

I have been working on a few more thread paintings to go with my stock as I have been invited to take part in an open house in May with 5 other artisans, I am really looking forward to seeing the others work. The lady that hosts it is a beautiful potter and I love her work. So maybe at a later date I will have some pictures of the Open House. So I keep busy and I am so fortunate to be able to spend time at what I love doing. For many years while in business with my hair salon I would think one day when I am retired I would like to garden more and do quilting and such. Then I found thread painting and I got really sucked in with it, it is so additive!!

Please feel free to ask any questions it is always good to hear from people and I too love to hear about others adventures.  Maybe one day when I have my photos sorted on this new laptop I will be able to take you on a trip via my photos our adventures in Australia.

I know we all have responsibilities of one thing or another but I thought this quote is right even if it is only 5 mins in one day.

Always find time for the things that make you feel happy to be alive.

That's all for now see you in April.!!

Day in the Sewing Room.

March 17th 2017

Happy St Patricks Day

This week in Canada is March Break, where the children have a weeks break from school.
We had a visit with our two grandsons for three days along with their dog Maggie Mae. But poor Maggie was sick the whole time she was here so it was a lot of cleaning up and a busy time. We took the boys swimming, played chicken foot and Kings in the corner. We had hoped to also go bowling with them, but Maggie was so poorly that we ended going to the vet with her, so bowling didn't happen. Something to do next time. But by the time they went home Maggie was beginning to pick up after she got medicine from the vet.

On Thursday a friend joined me in my sewing room, she asked me to help her get started on a quilt throw.  She came with her lovely fabric from Northcott. This year Canada is celebrating its 150th year anniversary so Northcott have brought out a line of fabric to celebrate.

Here is Janet and myself cutting the fabric. As you can see the motives on this fabric relates to all the provinces across Canada.

Sorry this picture isn't very clear but you can see Janet sewing away in my sewing area. I have just had a new sewing studio made it is 12x18 so much bigger than my other room. So this is the sewing corner, where two of my sewing machines are set up. One for ordinary sewing my 6600 Janome which Janet is using, and my old faithful the machine my Aunt Betty gave me a White a real heavy machine for my thread painting which is always set up so is ready to go all the time. Notice on the wall my new sign I made at the last Kindred Spirit Retreat.
You will see I am still trying to get the room how I would like it, still a work in progress but we are getting there.

I wanted to add more pictures of my sewing room as a few of my friends want to see it. And also I would like to show the progress made on her quilt. Right now I am trying to figure out how to load the rest from my I pad to the lap top.So probably finish the remainder of this blog another day. So keep an eye open for your notice.

The quote for today is:-  To practise any art, no matter how well or badly,
                                        is a way to make, your soul to grow.
                                        So do it.
                                                                   Kurt Vonnegut.

Busy in the Kitchen.

March 11th 2017

Making Lemon Curd and Scones.


What do you on a cold winters day. Hmm!!! Well there is nothing like the smell of fresh baking and the extra warmth of the oven being on to chase those winter blues away, Especially on a dull cold winters day.

Here is the recipe for the Lemon Curd, have a go it is not hard to make. Very enjoyable on scones or toast and if you like tangy lemony tastes you'll enjoy this.


3/4 Cup of fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp. grated lemon zest
3/4 Cup Sugar
3 Eggs
1/2 Cup unsalted butter cubed.


Add all ingredients into a Saucepan, mix together.
Cook over med/low heat stirring until thick enough to hold marks from the whisk and first bubbles appear on surface about 6 mins.  
Then put in sterilized jars and store in Frig until use. Or store in Freezer. 





I will show you want I have been working on today, this is the picture that I work from.   The sky is done but  today I worked on the trees and beach so will show you it once I get some more photos of that stage.
Today I have been working on two 

at  the same time as the first one is going out to Hong Kong for our daughter in laws birthday and the other is for my stock for the show I am in at the end of the year.
The picture is of the beach just down below our Son and daughter in laws summer home in Newfoundland. There are some really beautiful places in Newfoundland to photograph so maybe later in the year will be posting some for you to see as we hope to go in July for a visit.
For those that follow me and don't live in Canada, Newfoundland is quite a big island and is part of Canada, on the East Coast. The locals call it The Rock. 

Please feel feel to ask questions.
One question I got asked is what is my Etsy store called, right now it is not quite completed but as soon as it is I will let you know so you can take a look.

Leaving you with a quote for the day

Those who are the happiest,
Never did have everything.

But rather, They are thankful
For everything they have.

March 9th Postcards Making.

Post card Making.

I am in the process of setting up a shop on Etsy so have been making postcards to add to my stock of small items of thread painting.

Here are a few postcards that I have worked on lately. This one reminds me of the sand dunes at the  Pinery Provincal Park on Lake Huron, which we visited last summer with our trailer. And here is a photo of the beach with the drift wood that was left after the winter, we climbed over the dunes to reach the beach.

 

Here is my thread painting of the beach at the Pinery Provincal Park, I made this as a gift for our Son and daughter in laws nanny and it winged its way to Hong Kong.

Here is another beach scene and it reminds me a little of Florida, with the turquoise blue ocean and the palm trees.

We are still having days of mixed weather, yesterday there was high winds and a big truck was blown over on the Burlington Skyway, which is a huge bridge over Hamilton Bay.

We are all thinking at times Spring is here when our temps goes up to 12- 15C but then it tricks us and we are back to cold temps again. This Saturday the clocks change here though my brother tells me the UK it is a few weeks later.

The other day when it was 15C it was family day holiday, and everyone was enjoying the warmer temps and the sunshine, on the trails near our home, so we took advantage of this and went for quite a hike. We are lucky to have the trails part of the trans Canada trail across Canada, which one can bike, run and walk on.

Today I have been making Lemon Curd and some scones, I thought I had my photo downloaded but it seems it is not so I'll try and pop in here tomorrow or when I have the picture download that I took of my activity along with the recipe for you to try.

I am going to post one last thread painting it is taken from a photo taken from our trip to Scotland of the Bridge to Skye. It was such a beautiful day with sunshine and a lovely train ride stopping at many small hamlets on it route.

Please feel free to comment and I will try to respond, this is new to me blogging on the computer so there is things I don't know and hope to improve on my page as I learn, so bear with me!!

Thought for the day.

Don't mistake God's patience for His absence. His timing is perfect, and His presence is constant. He's always with you.   Deut. 3.16

March 2nd. March didn't come in like a lion.

Did March come in like a lion, where you live?

I live in Southern Ontario, some call it the banana belt of the south!! Sometimes all around us get the snow storms but Brantford sometimes misses the storms that London, Ontario and Kitchener and even Cambridge gets.  I am sure there must be a reason.

Well we all waited with bated breath to see what March was going to come in like a lion or a lamb, so our region it came in like a lamb, but my friend to the north of us in northern Ontario, by the looks of her pictures it must come in like a lion, as she had a big parka on covered in snow. Brrrr!! I think we are all waiting for spring.

As my background is from England, one thing I long for in my adopted land Canada is spring flowers of my motherland.  We have to wait a bit longer than they do.  We had hoped to spend springtime in the UK. but some health issues made that impossible this year.  So my brother from time to time post some of the beautiful photos he takes while on his gardening business.  So I drool over thise photos as they come in.   I treated myself to a beautiful orchid so I hope I can keep it alive.  Someone told me to give it a ice cube once a week and I have faithfully been doing that.  Talking about my brother the gardener he has a site of his own if you want to check it out, it is called Heritage Gardens by David Usher. He was the head gardener of Hestercombe Gardens and was there at the beginning of the restoration and he does talks to garden clubs in the West Country.UK.
I noticed yesterday my bulbs I planted are showing a couple of inches above the ground so it is telling me spring is on the way, and we can also tell that it is not getting so dark so early so it gives us hope of spring days ahead.  To be quite honest for us in our area the winter has not been too bad at all.

With the days of winter come much activity in my new sewing studio, after coming from a very cramped room I feel so elated that I have much more space and once it is all set I will take a few photos, a before and after.  So I have been busy with postcards, I have posted some of my postcards on Instagram site Etched In Thread by Ally. Or on my FB page there are a few postcard and also the start of my next art thread painting, where I am hoping show step by step as I progress with this project. FB.  Etchedinthread By Ally.

Leaving you today with a thought - quote for the week.


Not all of us will do great things.  But we can do small things with great love.
                                                                                                     Mother Teresa.

             

February 23rd Time to restart my blog again after long absent.

Here are a few photos of my thread painting pictures. From a few years back.

I have been thread painting for about 6-7 years now. I start quilting first in 1979 pieceing quilts and hand quilting and still love to quilt but I found another love and it seems to have taken over my pleasure time.  I am still doing a little quilting, in fact I have just finished a baby crib quilt for my Nephews new little baby girl. I must get a picture of it and post on here.

For those of you that wonder what thread painting is the best way to explain is-: it is using your domestic sewing machine with the feed dogs down, a free motion/ darning foot on and you use the needle as you would a pen to draw. In other words the needle is the pen and all the beautiful threads are our paint palete. Now the feed dogs are down you the sewer are able to move the fabric in what ever direction you wish, as you have the controls. The job of the feed dogs is when doing normal sewing that it move the top and bottom of the fabric at the same rate thus moving the fabric as you stitch.

I would like at some point to do a video to demonstrate this technique but at this stage my computer skills need to progress it little more.

I am going to try and do this blog on a weekly status, sharing some of the things I enjoy, photography, travel, recipes and some food for thought and my faith, it maybe a quote a poem or a scripture verse.

Please join me on this journey and share if you find this interesting.