Quilted Symphony started, ice in Gulf of St. Lawrence

Hello again! 
I am so excited!   I finally started the "Quilted Symphony" project I mentioned in my post of January 9th.  

This is the book I am working from.

I am not a big fan of buying metres (yards) of quilting fabric if I don't have a particular project in mind.  But, I do love fat quarters!  And I have a large cupboard full of fat quarters to prove it!  When I decided to make the first exercise in the book above, I did not want to go out and buy more fabrics.  I had a pretty good stash of batiks and hoped I could get enough for the project.   I wasn't sure where to go with the colours with the fabrics I had though.  I had a very limited selection of colours and variations of those colours so did I have enough to do the exercise?

Well, unfortunately, or fortunately, when stumped, the best thing for me to do is take a break rather than make a quick decision I will later regret. Today, I looked at what fabric I had and did alot of sorting and it came down to two choices:     this one:

or this one:

I looked at them, and moved the fabric around and looked at them and moved fabric around and finally took photographs.  It was no contest...  I chose the set with the blues.  

Well, I started the first piece to the exercise and just LOVE how it is turning out!

You can see that this forms one of the main pieces if you scroll up to look at the book cover above.  

I have alot to do tomorrow so not sure when I can get back at this but I sure am excited to continue!

Our stitch guild has asked me to do a bit of a workshop on the "Pebble".  I took Sharon Boggons "Sumptuous Surface Embroidery" class and after completing the class project, felt comfortable to do the "Pebble" on my own after admiring it for quite a few months.  This is my completed project from Sharon's class.

 


So, I have been working on gathering the materials needed for the Pebble workshop and still have alot to do.  Our guild has a meeting the first monday of the month and I will present a bit of a lesson on making the Pebble at each meeting.  Most of the work will be in showing the various stitches that can be used in making the Pebble. 

Tuesday morning I go for my second set of cortisone injections in both knees. I have arthritis in both knees and got the first set of injections almost exactly 4 months ago, in September.  I went from pretty much almost needing a cane before the injections, to climbing Wentworth Mountain in Nova Scotia in a 5 mile hike one way, a week after the injections.  WOW!  I have been quite sore the last couple of weeks when the temperatures were in the -30C range or colder so am looking forward to Tuesday and hope I get the same relief. 

If you've been contemplating it, talk to your orthopedic surgeon.  Mine is great!  My right knee is 90% gone and the left if about 65% gone so I will continue with the cortisone treatments until they just aren't working anymore and then it will be time for knee replacements.  One thing the ortho surgeon said to me was that no matter how bad my knees were, to get out and walk.  He said the benefits of walking far out weigh the cons.  And of course, everyone's situation is different, but this is what applies to me.  So, even though I walk with great difficulty right now, I try to get in 1 to 2 km every two days.  Everyones situation is different and everyone reacts differently to the injections.  I am told they also don't work for everyone.  In my case, immediately after the injections, there is a bit of swelling and pain and a fair amount of stiffness in the knees for a day, maybe two, but two bags of frozen peas will help with that!  Anyways, I am super excited for tuesday. 

Well, as you can see below, there is a fair amount of ice in the Gulf of St. Lawrence but it isn't very thick.  I don't think the ice extends all the way to Quebec though.  I think when the wind blows from the north, the ice lands on our shores and when it is from the south, the ice is pushed towards Quebec.

We were out for a walk in the Cavendish Park Campground the other day and I noticed a real change in the beach there.  This is what it normally looks like.

And this is what it looks like with all the ice pushed ashore.  No beach at all.

May you find joy in all that you do.....