HAPPY CANADIAN THANKSGIVING…

What a glorious weekend! Blue skies, warm breezes, beautiful fall colours… The perfect Thanksgiving weekend! For those who are close by and not tooooo busy cooking that turkey and baking those pumpkin pies why not take a little drive to the Westport area and visit our Fall Colours Studio Tour(www.westportstudiotour.com) and the Red Door Studio Collective (www.reddoorcollective.ca). I won’t be involved in either this year but there are some amazing artists who will be showing and selling at both. And what better way to spend a day than driving through the countryside enjoying the splendour of mother nature!!!

I have been inspired – have been dyeing all those wonderful pumpkin colours and olive greens and brick reds but then!!!! I dyed purple!!!!  Yup – purple! not a colour I ever!!!! use! unless it is dirty and old and grungy purple. But I did a spot dye that I absolutely love and now have to think of a way to use it (background to some wonderful golden yellow irises? night sky?). I don’t do spot dyes often but earlier this year I did this version for Ruby and it turned out so well I thought I would try to replicate it. The fact that I had not written down what I did made it a bit difficult but eventually I think! I came up with something similar…(kind of washed out in the photo – in real life it is much deeper and richer and darker!)

And now, armed with a big mug of tea, a home made (wow by me!) maple, pecan date scone and a good book, I am heading down to the dock to enjoy one of the last days before the dock is removed. Our red squirrels are busy busy cutting branches full of acorns and dropping them to the ground to be collected and stashed for the winter. Usually one or two get dropped onto the heads of unwary passersby.

Chris sent  a picture of her finished her rug depicting the church in Upper Canada Village (a wedding rug). She decided to whip the edge with her leftover wool strips – sound difficult? not really. As long as you have a needle with a biggggg opening in the head you can whip with your strips. It’s nice if they are long but still doable if they are short…

Gari’s version of a pattern by Cathy Ivory of Baa Baa Bundles…

and Patricia (a new hooker) is well on her way into Winter Town (one of the Karla Gerard patterns I carry)…

While we were in Ottawa recently we visited good friends Brian and Carmen. Brian was almost finished this wild-eyed seagull (now done). I LOVE the expression on this birds face…