Polaris

The second "Quilt The North" subscription box made a FPP design by Karen Neary from Nova Scotia. I have made a couple of Karen's patterns, before, and they look fabulous when they are finished. 

This is my version of her Maritime Beauty Pattern.

i must admit that I am a little out of practice, so this one isn't perfect, but I still like it a lot.

I didn't get it balanced on the hanger, so it looks a bit drunken.

The kit included enough pink fabric for the back, but I saw this piece of fabric waving from my stash, so I used it for the back.

It is some fabric from 2024,  called Purely Canadian, Eh! Woodland animals looking up at the Northern lights.

In the Polaris quilt, the Northern Lights are represented by the flying geese. I deviated from the pattern, in my placement of the geese and in my colours.

Aurora come in all of these lovely colours. I usually see shades of green and purple, here, but my son, in Northern Alberta, has sent me pictures of red. I checked my stash and found a piece of red, from the same fabric line. So I added some red.

I also made my geese more chaotic.  Some years ago, I was flying to the west coast, on an evening flight. I looked out the window at the right moment, and the Northern Lights were all around the plane, dancing, swirling, changing colours. It was totally beautifully chaotic. I tried to add that feeling to my quilt.

Since Ursa Major and Ursa Minor point to the North Star (Polaris). I added them to the quilting.

Karen suggested a scrappy binding, and I happily used up my piecing leftovers to make a random, scrappy binding.

The quilt is 24" x 24" and I'm looking for a place to hang it.

I tried to finish this before the next Quilt the North box came, but I missed by one day. Not bad. I celebrated by enjoying my Peace by Chocolate bar that came with the Polaris box.

If you want to find out more about Auroras, you can look here.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-26381685

Would You Like To See A Picture of My Puppy?

 Yes, I have turned into that kind of person. I just think Daisy is so cute!

It was warm yesterday, so we went for a walk. Daisy's Arctic ancestry is showing in her love of playing in the snow.

She also practices yoga, and tried out for the role of cat, by climbing into the cat tree. The cats are not amused.

My artistic activities have been progressing very slowly.

I quilted the Polaris quilt and added a binding. Karen suggested a scrappy binding, and it looks very good, although it does take time to sew all the pieces together. I am currently hand stitching the back side.

I expect to be able to show you the whole quilt later this week.

I have also been working on a sock.

A knitter on Mastodon was making this sock, and I just had to try it. 

I am currently this far along on the first sock. The pattern starts with the bottom of the heel, as a hexagon, until you seam it at the instep with a three needle bindoff. I'm currently knitting the foot out to the toe. The last step is to knit the leg. 

The pattern is  Hipsulaisen Karuselli and it is a free pattern on Ravelry.

https://ravel.me/hipsulaisen-karuselli

The indoor flowers have been putting on a show that we are missing much of the time. However, I caught this hibiscus flower the other day.

It is -13C today, but there looks like a promise of maple syrup weather soon. This was the view from my front door the other night.

The little Christmas trees are buried under about a metre of snow, it will be awhile before we can get them out, so we might as well enjoy the light they give until the snow melts.

Snow Day

The members of my quilt groups got an email last night, telling us to stay home and sew, since today was suppose to be a snow day. The snow was not bad as advertised, with most of it passing south of here. However, I did follow directions, and had a sew day. By the end of the day, I had this.

My Polaris quilt top is finished. I was pleased with how well it went together. It still needs a backing and some quilting, as well as a binding. That will come. I have to finish it, so I can try the blueberry chocolate bar that came with the the quilt kit.

I finished another hat.

This is the Martine Hat, a free pattern on Ravelry. The yarn is Knit Picks Stroll Tonal which has been languishing in my stash for several years.

I have gone back to working on a scarf I started about 6 months ago. I am down to 3 knitting WIPs. I am working hard to finish those before I accidentally cast on something else.

I had helpers this afternoon, while I was trying to take pictures.

After a very cold weekend, the basement is the warmest place to hang out. It is suppose to warm up and snow some more. I'm tired of boots and mitts, and scarves, already and there is still at least two more months of winter. Sigh...At least I have warm hobbies.

Flying Geese

 The next blocks for the Polaris quilt are curved flying geese units. I started my first one and realized I was doing it entirely wrong, so pulled out Karen Neary's book "Quilting Beauties for a brief review. After an aha experience, I was off a the correct track.

I now have half the geese sewn and the fabric cut for the rest.

I think they are looking pretty good.

I decided that their was something wrong with my purple hat, that I was knotting. I checked the pattern again, and realized I was using the wrong size needles. So the hat was completely frogged and restarted. Looks much better now, though I haven't taken a new picture.

Many of our patio plants spend the winter in the dining room. This morning, I stepped in to see this.

The azalea has decided to brighten my January morning. The bright pop of colour is appreciated, since it is snowing again today. We have had lots of snow lately. This was the bird feeder on Friday, after over 20 cm of snow.

Another snowy week ahead, so more time to sew.

Trust the Process

 The Quilt the North project for the second box is foundation paper piecing. It has been awhile since I did any FPP. So, I started my new year off, trying to remember how I do it. Because the fabric is supplied, I need to be careful not to make a mistake, because I don't have extra. 

Yesterday, I finished the star in the middle. After a bit of a rocky start, I am very pleased with how it turned out.

Karen suggests that you use freezer paper for the foundations, but I don't have any in my stash that fits in my printer, so I used foundation paper, since I did have that.

Our grey, snowy weather has invited knitting by the fire. So my first finish of 2026 is a hat, to match a new coat.

It is my usual Bankhead hat, in my fast dwindling Knit Picks Brava. The colour is Wasabi.

Bear says he just likes modelling baby hats, and I need to find some other way to display my hats.

I started another hat, with purple fingering from my stash.

January seems to be hat month. This is the Martine Hat. I think it will need some blocking.  Winter coats come in such dull colours that a bright hat is an essential accessory to add warmth and a bright splash of contrast to your "Michelin Man" look.

Last April, during the "Great Clear Out", all of the Christmas decoration boxes moved into the living room. They sat there for the rest of the year. When December rolled around, I was able to find a new home for a bunch of the decorations that weren't being used. I am now pleased to report that the rest of the decorations now are back in their refurbished storage area. 

Unboxing Quilt The North

On July 1, preorders began for a new Canadian subscription box. It promised to come every 3 months, and with most everything you need to make a small quilt from a Canadian designer. My first box came last week, so I thought I would do an "unboxing".

The box took a bit of a tour, travelling 800 km to get to me from a starting point about 40 km away. Let me show you.

The box is really nice, in bright red with white moose, maple leaves, maple keys and trillium. 

Custom printed tissue on the inside.

This month's pattern is by Leanne Parsons of Newfoundland and Labrador.

The fabric is from Northcott, a Canadian fabric company. There is enough to make the top, back and binding for a 30" quilt.

And there is more!

There is a bonus pattern for a quilt block, if you want to make a Canadian quilt, as you go along.

The bonus patterns are from Monika Henry of Penny Spool Quilts. Monika is also the curator of the subscription boxes.

We also got a couple of goodies from NL.

There is an artist card from Leanne with a pattern for a maple leaf block on the back, a larger card telling us about Leanne and her work.

I love the little art print of a puffin. The artist is Amber McLure Hutton. Someday I want to go to Newfoundland and see the puffins.

There is also a packet of Pineapple Crush drink mix, apparently popular in Newfoundland.

The quilt looks like lots of fun, and good practice. I need to do the cutting then I think I can start doing some leaders and enders. 

If you would like to try the box, you can check out the website.

https://www.pennyspoolquilts.com/collections/subscription-box

Decisions

 I have been missing because the contractors arrived and the reno began. We are still sorting through "stuff" and deciding what should go where, and if there is a way to give stuff to people who can use it.

We have made 2 trips to drop off Ewaste, 5 bags of books have gone to the annual church book sale, fabric and patterns have gone to be freecycled, along with kitchen items, toys, and other useful things. Sadly, some of the "stuff" just has to be thrown away. No one wants old textbooks, broken plastic items, and other such treasures. Some days I feel like my head might explode from all the decisions.

When the workers get too noisy, I have been hiding, either knitting in the sunroom with the pets, or spending time organizing my sewing stuff. 

These are my very alert guardians.

I have gotten some knitting finished.

These are my April socks.

And a pair of  baby socks.

I finished one fingerless mitt, but then spring arrived. I must finish the second one.

Easter came, and I made a family favourite, Easter cupcakes. 

This year is the 100th anniversary of the forming of the United Church of Canada. The local region decided to make a quilt to commemorate the occasion, with one block for each "pastoral charge".  I don't know who is going to put the blocks together, but I was asked to make the block for our congregation. (What were they thinking?)

This is my block. It is a six inch block, and I was asked for 4 sections about the church. Just try to do four ideas as 3 inch triangles. Everyone seems happy with it, so it is off the join the rest.

While I have been organizing my sewing room, I have been rewarding myself with a few minutes of sewing. Just a small project I can work on in small bursts. Today, I finished this little bag from 2 1/2" squares of Shweshwe fabric. I discovered I had been gifted with a bag of scrap strips from someone else's quilt. I don't remember who gave it to me.

Spring is finally here, so I have some pictures of our gardens.

I saw a cute couple looking for a new home, the other day. They were checking out our backyard.

I think they decided that there were too many dogs in our block, so they have gone elsewhere.

Preparing and Minor Disasters

I got a funny message from a neighbour the other day: Could I knit or mend? So I replied yes and was told that the dog had been "playing" with her daughter's favourite hat. and they were hoping I could mend it.

This is what they brought me. Mudd offered to help.

The whole top of the hat was gone. To make it harder, the hat had a fleece lining. So, I took some double pointed needles and a crochet hook, and started trying to find the stitches.. Since I didn't want to disturb the fleece lining, I asked my young friend if she would settle for a knot on the top of her hat instead of the (now) sad looking pompom.  With Mudd's help we managed to get it fixed.

I didn't have any green yarn so I used grey instead.

We put up the Christmas tree and added lights.

Yesterday morning, we came down to this.

It is dark in the mornings, but if you click on the picture, you can see that Doug looks concerned. I think somebody jumped out of the tree and got tangled in the lights. She must have gone for a run to get free.

Though she is denying any knowledge of the light incident, we believe this is the suspect.

Now that the postal workers are back to work. I have started making cookies. I may have to make more before I can actually mail care parcels to the west.

These are hermit cookies made with the leftover fruit from the fruit cake.

I did some other knitting.

This is the finished Santa Hat using the pattern from the movie Red One. It is a quick and easy knit. The yarn is Brava from Knit Picks.

I also finished a mugmat that I found in my UFO bin. It has gone to a friend with a mug and hot chocolate bombs.

Last night I started knitting a hat with some gradient yarn, I finished the cast on only to find a knot, and the join was not in sequence. I cut the first piece off and started again, only to find a second splice out of sequence. 

Okay, this isn't going to work. I will find another ball and start again, hopefully with better results.