1 - End of the Year Countdown

Here it is - last day of the year.  The last of the cards from friends and family have rolled in from the mail.  Our 'other' family business held its 2nd Annual Holiday Bowling Staff Party.  (My husband Michael is the new owner of HobbyWorld in Saskatoon.)

dig the shoes, but I should have worn the plaid pants!

For some reason, bowling sounds so dorky, but WOW we had lots of fun!  And to top it off, do you recall the post about my long lost high school friend Irene?  I picked up some recycled buttons and rickrack from her via Saskatoon Freecycle, and we had a little reunion right there on her front street.  Well she now does books for my husband's hobby store, so I got to hang out and bowl with her at the staff party!  We swapped gifts.  Irene wanted chocolate, so she got $15 dollars worth of chocolate from me, plus a movie pass.  Look what she got me!

wrapped in cloth, secured with pins, tied with a bow

See the curved tip?  They are embroidery scissors.  Awesome.  I have new embroidery books too now.  Maybe someday in the near future I'll make a lovely embroidered something-er-other, and Karen from the blog Contemporary Embroidery will come over to my blog and say, "WOW did you make that!?".  (hehehe, yeah right Monika!) 

Yesterday, I woke to this. 

happiness is a lovely sunrise

So pretty.  Sigh.  The color changes are so subtle.  Come to think of it, that sky sure resembles Mandy's piece!  That put me in a terrific mood, and so tonight I'm having some friends and neighbors over to celebrate New Year's Eve at our house for the first time ever.  I'm quite excited about this!  The food is all ready, and I'm out to chop wood for the fire.  : )   Now that I have my photos in order, expect my posts to be much more eye candy in 2011!

peeking through into my sewing room

To everyone who inspires me,

to each and every one of you who support me in my craft, 

for the cards and the comments and the advice and the appreciation,

I wish you a very happy evening, 

and a new year full of peace and joy and delightful discoveries!

Thank you for being here for me.  

...ONE!

xo

~Monika / My Sweet Prairie

2 - End of the Year Countdown

I had a lot of thrilling firsts this past year.  I'm really curious if 2011 will pale in compare.  Next year already seems planned & scheduled, and 2010 was absolutely not.  I flew by the seat of my pants through that one!  Thinking back to the past year, getting a pattern published in a magazine for the first time was DEFINITELY a thrill!

So here is a link to the post that made me laugh the most.  Scroll down and read the entries.  Some are HILARIOUS.  (ps - contest is closed)  Enjoy!

Quirky Canadians

 so close now...

TWO!

3- End of the Year Countdown

I'm having a lot of fun working with all these solids! 

I'm combining them with the loads and loads of white I acquired from the donation of several dozen large choir gowns.  Remember these?

I've also been doing some triple-stitching of sketches I made, so they look similar to hand embroidery or redwork.  I haven't heard back from the magazine editor yet if I can show you my progress on that quilt or not, so for now I"ll go back to the post so you can see the technique.  I'm not sure there's a name for it.  I just came up with it because I was procrastinating doing hand embroidery.  It isn't exactly machine embroidery.  Nothing is pre-programed and I don't own an embroidery machine.  I just outline the sketch lines I drew with a triple stitch, VERY SLOWLY, pivoting after ever stitch.  Hand stitching would be quicker, though I do like and trust the look of this.  By the way, I'm much better at it now than I was when I made this post.  Enjoy!

"Redwork" by Machine?

 nearly there...

THREE!

4 - End of the Year Countdown

Here's something new to look forward to!  In the new year, I'm starting "Tips on Tuesdays" for all the sewing enthusiasts that drop by.  If you chose to blog your own Tips on Tuesdays, you can use this linky from the sidebar if you like.

You can also just leave tips in the comment section at the bottom of each Tuesday post whether you blog or not.  Feel free to leave a link back to your blog if you have one. 

I want to do this for a few reasons.  #1 - we all have lots to learn from each other and since so many of us are work-at-home women, I thought this would be a great way to share, learn from, and teach each other like the real sewing circles do.   And #2 - Tuesdays can be a time to share and compile ideas with the notion that we can perfect our craft, or at least make things a little easier when we are stuck.

Each Tips on Tuesdays post of mine will be labeled as such so down the road, you can look them up and see all the Tuesday posts at once, as you can with my Sunday Snapshots. I really look forward to sharing ideas with you!  I'll pick topics for each week to start and we'll see how it goes.  In the mean time, here's a link back to a time when I experimented with printing onto fabric.

Don't Try This at Home Folks

 almost there...

FOUR!

5 - End of the Year Countdown

Wow- five more days.  I can hardly believe it.  I'm really in awe of how 2010 flew dramatically through my life.  When I look back to list my accomplishments as an artist and sewist, I'm stunned.  How did it all happen?  My life was on no particular path 12 month ago.  Each night I lie in bed, I make a new resolution for 2011.  There's a few.  I've never really had resolutions before.

Spring on the Prairie, 2010 (sold)

I hope you all enjoyed your extra long weekend.  Here's a monumental moment for me (and also a mental one at that!) this last blogyear.  I am not having you read this so I can show off.  I'm not like that.  I'm posting this so you can have a good laugh.  Oh gosh it was stressful!  Click here:

My First Solo Exhibit

here we go...

FIVE!!

5 - End of the Year Countdown

Wow- five more days.  I can hardly believe it.  I'm really in awe of house 2010 flew dramatically through my life.  When I look back to list my accomplishments as an artist and sewist, I'm stunned.  How did it all happen?  My life was on no particular path 12 month ago.  Each night I lie in bed, I make a new resolution for 2012.  There's a few.  I've never really had resolutions before.

Spring on the Prairie, 2010 (sold)

I hope you all enjoyed your extra long weekend.  Here's a monumental moment for me (and also a mental one at that!) this last blogyear.  I am not having you read this so I can show off.  I'm really not like that.  I'm posting this so you can have a good laugh.  Oh gosh it was stressful!  Click here:

My First Solo Exhibit

here we go...

FIVE!!

6 - End of the Year Countdown

Ooh I'm so excited!  I'm putting together a quilt design for A Needle Pulling Thread magazine, working on Mandy's Magical Tree, and testing out some hand embroidery stitches.  Fun!  I love learning new things.  The EQ5 book are SUPER easy to figure out by the way.  I'm enjoying putting ideas together and swapping out colors with the click of a button.

 

Butterfly Forest, 2009 (sold)

I'm really NOT computer savvy, so the books are very helpful.  Speaking of which, I have a confession.  I'm doing the blog countdown like this because blogger isn't allowing me to add more pictures!!  I've maxed it out.  What do I do!?  Some blog photos I've clicked on at other sites link to flickr.  I cannot figure that out.  Any bloggers out there hit the wall and rectified this situation?  In the mean time, enjoy this post...

I Try to Photograph the Wind

  here we go... 

SIX!

7 - End of the Year Countdown

I'm sure no one will be reading this post today.  Our big shin-dig was Solstice, so things are pretty quiet and laid back by the time Christmas rolls around.  Santa flew last night and left his traditional one present for the kids to share. That's how he does it.  (Don't feel badly for them - they got plenty of gifts from family on the longest night of the year).  My mom's side of the family did all their gift openings last night on the 24th.  I grew up opening gifts at night, and I'm pretty nostalgic about it.

Arwen (1 1/2) and her Red Is Best quilt, Winter Solstice 2007

As a child, we would be so excited while eating supper on the 24th.  We knew the gifts were next.  Mom said that because we live so close to the north pole, Santa always came to our house early.  Sure enough - THUMP - right during our meal.  After supper we would run to the living room squealing and the tree would be surrounded with gifts!  To this day, she still will not tell me how she did it!

So that's the tradition I grew up with: gifts at night.  In fact, it wasn't until I was in my twenty's when I finally figured out why all the families in TV commercials during December were wearing their pajamas!  Eureka!  I could never figure that one out.  We never wore pajamas just to open presents.  I did not know that other people opened gifts when they woke up the morning after Christmas Eve.  Isn't that funny!?  Blew my mind...

So today, I'm linking you to one of my favorite favorite posts.  For me, it's my first set of BIG beautiful prairie photos.  Enjoy, in joy.  Click on this:

HIGHWAY SEVEN 

   counting down...  
SEVEN!

8 - End of the Year Countdown

Eight days until 2011!  I'm excited.  A lot of things will stay the same, but some things will change.  I have two exhibits and two magazine features lined up which I am very excited about!  I will have to produce a lot of art.  And our guild's big BIG show is in the fall!!  I chickened out the last 2 biennial shows.  I shouldn't chicken out anymore should I?  And (ooooh!) the next school year will see all three of my kids in school across the road.  O M G - can you imagine?  No driving!  And I get quiet creative time each morning that doesn't involve staying up way past midnight just to hear myself think.  I can't wait to find out what I really do think!  haha.  In the mean time, I found a post for you - my best quilt.  Enjoy!  click here:

Slowly But Shirley Daisy

 counting down...  

EIGHT!

~Monika

9 - End of the Year Countdown

The sunshine has been incredible this solstice!  It is so refreshing since the last eight or twelve weeks have been entirely covered in grey.  This 'rebirth of the sun' really feels legitimate.  I took my three kids out to Wanuskewin, a first nations heritage site overlooking the South Saskatchewan River valley.  It's a three minute drive out of the city.  We got there just in time to watch the sun return / rise.  This photo was taken around 9:30 am.  It was after the longest night of the year.

No, we don't live in igloos.  ; )  Or Tipis.  But instead of going back and showing you an older blog, I'm sending you to the rest of the photos I took from this morning.  So go to the left side bar, and click on "Prairie Photos" under the heading "Monika's Links".   A dozen or so were all taken at Wanuskewin.  Or click here:

PHOTOS OF MY SWEET PRAIRIE

...NINE!

10 - End of the Year Count Down

I'm going to use the next ten days to link back to some of my favorite personal posts.  It sure has been a great year!  Here's a post from July that caught my eye.  My husband jokes that my art looks real and my photos look fake.  Ha ha, that's funny.  Check it out.  Just click here:

JULY 2010 - NEW STITCHES

So here we go!  Counting down to the new year!  

TEN

~Monika

The Moon Went Down and The Sun Came Up

The Lunar eclipse was so fun to watch from my windows last night!  I was online with friends of mine here in the city and we all chatted as we watched.  How cool is that?  ; )  My camera batteries died, but this morning there was still lovely spectacles to behold! So I put in the freshly charged batteries, and mistakingly left the camera on a crappy night setting (oops) and ventured out with the kids this morning so see what we could see.  Enjoy!

full moon setting in the northwest sky at dawn

To see all the rest of my photos, please click here:
The Moon Went Down and the Sun Came Up
 To go through the photos, click "next".

: )

~Monika

Winter Solstice

Here it is... tonight is the longest night of the year.  From here on in, the daylight hours will increase.  We will actually open some gifts tonight to celebrate after a big dinner.  We've done this for fifteen years now.

The winter sun is so low, that at high noon, it's not far above the tops of the houses.  In the middle of the day, it actually shines right though the back windows of the house and out the front windows.  During the summer, the sun is so high in the sky that it doesn't even come in the windows at noon!

I hope it's clear tomorrow so we can watch the sun rise!  Christmas here will be very quiet - no travels and no company.  I plan to do a lot of sewing... : )  Until then, I'm waiting for more sunshine!

ooooh flower buds in December!  I love it.

Take care!
~Monika & the whole gang.  : )

My Friends / Monday

I mailed the duplicate EQ5 books out, and now mine are sitting under the tree covered in wrapping paper.  Should I?  Shouldn't I?  It's driving me nuts.  I want to start playing around with colors and shapes.  I like that  it's paperless.  I also like the fact that I would plan things before chopping up fabric and changing my mind.  So while I clean the house and care for sick kids, I want to show you my HOT NEW FINDS in blogland.  These women really inspire me.

The "Stunningly Beautiful, Did I Die & Go To Heaven?" Award goes to...  Karen!  She's from the UK and has a first class Honours Degree in Textile/Surface Design, specialising in hand embroidery.  Really.  Just do me a favor and don't read all the silly comments I leave her.  Some of her photos made me cry.  Here's her link:

Contemporary Embroidery

The "Heck, She Can Do Anything. She's My Hero" Award goes to Brittany from the states.  Heck, she's been in Handyman Magazine!  Come on, this is cool.  I remember watching a Canadian female fix-it show in the 80's every day after school.  Gotta love a woman who knows her power tools.  Here's her blog:

Pretty Handy Girl

And last but NOT least, the "This Blog Just Feels Good.  I Must Come Here Everyday" Award goes to Christie.  Her blog is full of happy - even in the side bars!  You can find her in my follower's list.  She's the happiest face with the biggest smile.  That's her.  She is a quilter and I like her attitude and her openness.  She can be found here:

Describe Happy

Enjoy! And don't forget the Lunar Eclipse tonight!!  Red moons are great for creativity.

i made this

~Monika

The Magical Tree in Progress

I have two boys at home busy gaming with their dad, and one little girl sleeping with a fever.  So today was pretty quiet and laid back for me.  I got to work on Mandy's wall hanging a bit more.  I'm only going to show you snippits though.  : )  First, I made the stars from the booties.  Remember these booties?

 
I put fusible interfacing on the back of the fabrics and drew out the star shape as a guide on the back.

I've seen her boys once, and they were good sized husky guys... so no wimpy stars for them!  ; )  I could tell the woven fabric would unravel, so I stitched inside the shape with a teeny stitch just to hold the edges from fraying.  The "good" thread is in the bobbin sine I'm sewing upside down..

 I'm glad I did that.  There's not much there to work with and I wouldn't want it falling apart.  So I flipped it over and snipped it out, and TA-DA!

Sweet.  I made the second one, which turned out a tad smaller.  That's fine.  The boys are different sizes too.  Mandy really wants me to use more of the stretchy beige Kangaroo wrap, so I sat back and had to think fast.  What do I do?  I took a break from it and a great solution came into my head.  I'm cutting out a circle and adding some sheer sparkle to be the sun.  Mom is the silk floral mei-tei moon.  This sun will represent Dad.  Can you see the sparkle?

The beige tree is done with trapunto and the bark lines are all quilted on.  I'm going to outline the tree with these metallic ribbon/threads I got from Molly.  It looks so sharp against that hot pink & orange sunset.  But check out the mangled mess!

Did you know that you can press ribbons and sheers with a low iron?  So I spent some time ironing meters of teeny ribbons, not too hot or it will melt!

Much better!  And the last thing I want to show you are the dozens of leaves I made for this commission.  I had the dark green and the bright batik, and thought this would be a great spot to add the pale green from that stretchy wrap.  So I fused a couple strips of each fabric to buckrum.  (Buckrum is that stiff canvas used in hat making.)  Then I drew the leaf shape onto the back with a pencil and cut them all out.  After that, I need a new pair of scissors!  Gosh that stuff is so tough that my fabric scissors are shot.  Note to self: use paper scissors next time.  It was worth it because I think these are going to look so pretty stitched on!  I might even fold them and bead on them a bit.  Eek!  I can't wait!

 

And here's the pile of blankies - new and old - that are jumbled in a heap where my daughter slept.  There's just something about loved quilts and sleepy sick kids...  awe...  I hope she feels better soon.

 ~Monika
two hats, three aprons.

Sunday Snapshots #18

Pretties for you...

window ice painting by Jack Frost

COLOR!  solids waiting to be stitched

LOVE : my new open toe accufeed foot...  I CAN SEE!

Did you know they make accufeed compatible (even feed) presser feet for open toe, stitch in the ditch, and 1/4 inch seam guide foot for Janome?!  I just got myself this open toe foot, and I have the 1/4 inch accufeed foot on order.  I can't wait to put on binding with that!  Lovely...

And pretties for me!  Look what arrived in my mailbox!  Gorgeousness...

"Red Embellished" postcard sent from Jaynie H. via PostCardCottage!!

personal swap with Heather from Heather Lair Designs!

Aren't they pretty!?  Winter wouldn't be winter without those pink skies.

Blue Train on Steel and Warm Champaigne Skies

Thank you so much for the post cards, and thank you Gailanne in Pennsylvania USA for the beautiful, uplifting card all brimming with joy and love.  You all made my day!

See you tomorrow,
~Monika

Bugs, Books, and Magic Trees.

That will teach me.  I signed an online petition to save the CBC and my laptop was completely overrun by viruses.  I sat there in horror for 2 days thinking about all the family photos from the last year, my patterns and quilt log, and articles and programs and  .  Good thing I married a "computer guy".  Too bad he married the most geekless woman ever.

thank you Michael!  xo

I ran a lot of errands yesterday.  I mailed MORE cards out, gifts to nieces and nephews across Canada, and sent the two EQ5 books to a woman in Texas.  So they are gone FYI.  I also stopped at Molly's house to pick up an embroidery book.  You know, "Molly my supplier".  ; )  She's so sweet.  Have you met her?  She is always pleasant, always smiles, and always calls me 'dear'.  As soon as I walked in to her house I heard, "Hello there dear".  Maybe I can arrange to have her adopt me or something.  hehehe  She knits, so I need to come up with some fabulous gift for her.  In the mean time, I made her a little thank you card.  THANK YOU MOLLY!

And now for Mandy's Magical Tree.  YES (Mandy if you are reading), I have been slowly creating that piece.  Bear with me, because the work-in-progress photos are extremely bland.  But as I work along on it, the next step pops into my head and I'm sooo excited with how this is coming along.  So check it out:

baby slings, carrier straps, booties too!  (brown not hers)

auditioning the threads I'll use for quilting the sky

mei tei moon

rainbow booties that will become 2 stars in the sky (2 boys)

my fabric for the leaves - she asked for light greens & yellows

I have this awesome idea that I've already started on for the leaves!!  They are all cut out - several dozen by hand.  Also, the tree is now quilted with brown threads and I did Trapunto as well.  (Trapunto is when you add batting to certain areas to make them pop.)  Those photos will have to wait.  Sneak peaks only.  I can't spoil the surprise for Mandy.

How can you NOT love those booties!!?

Now back to creating!  : )
~Monika

An Earlier Exhibit - Gardenscape in March

This is terrific!  I received an email invite to purchase exhibitor's space at the annual big spring GARDENSCAPE, 2011.  They are showcasing artists in a limited number of spaces who have landscapes or floral art.  It's at the end of March, and the little 4x8 foot spaces wouldn't only hold a lot of pieces, so (choke) why not another project!?  It's a great opportunity I think!

People come in from all over the province for this one.  Last year they has over 26 thousand visitors!  It's a BIG spring event, like I said.   It's three days and it's not like a craft fair where I need to commit to camping out there.  That's awesome!  There's a fee but they take no commission. Sounds great to me.  I'm doing it!

All right... back to work Monika.  : )
Mandy's Magical Tree is calling.  Applique about to begin...

The Motherload & a Bartering Proposition

Oh did the mail ever arrive!  I got a huge box of goodies that I ordered online during a flash sale.  It might have been the super crazy markdowns from black friday in the states.  Here it is!  I love the tape.  It makes me feel special.  (It's not from Artist's club though.?)

Tada!  It's landscape heaven.  I think I got them for $1/FQ!  This is serious sale pricing.

And I got enough charms and strips to make a dozen kits.  Again - ridiculous prices, like $1 per charm pack and $3/jelly roll.  These are for two different summer quilts I'm designing.  This one feels like early summer, fruity.  It is already designed.  I chose solids so I could show of the stitching I'm going to do.

And here's the late summer one.  The colors are so hot.  This is for a project I'm doing for a summer issue of "A Needle Pulling Thread Magazine".  I'm really liking that magazine.  I will blog more on that in January!!

 ...like I needed more fabric.  I'll have to do some major giveaways and load up the van next time our quilter's guild has a flea market! 

Also, my EQ5 books arrived!  And then my EQ5 books arrived.  Yeah - I wrote that twice because it happened twice.  So... ooops.  Anyone interested in these?  I started looking through them and they are awesome!  It's like "EQ for dummies".  

I'm so happy I bought these but I don't need them in duplicate.  Anyone have an old EQ that you never did learn to use?  I'm open to a swap!  I would particularly LOVE a comprehensive embroidery book in any condition.  I'm not picky.  Make me an offer!  Just email me!  

mysweetprairie@gmail.com

~Monika