Word of the Year

Last year my word was Inspire.  Both as a seeker of it and hopefully being an inspiration for others to find in things I have done or do through the year.  A past word has been Create.  This year I think I'm making the phrase Inspire Creativity to be my touchstone.

I came across this Instagram Post that someone I follow had shared and decided to play along.  What are the first four words you see?   I'll tell you later in the post what mine were.

January 1st I decided to start this cross stitch called Begin by Bent Creek.  Well it didn't quite go as planned.  I had to change the colour of the linen I chose as I didn't realize how long the piece was plus the recommended borders for finishing the piece.  I was lucky to find something else that a friend had found in a thrift shop that she gave me along with several other pieces of linen. Irene has my gratitude for gifting me with these pieces of linen and also a wonderful fish depression glass bowl her eagle eyes found for me last year.

I love things with words on them.  When I saw this key chain I knew it would make a great thread ring.  It also speaks to my love of travel and the connections you make along the road with friend, family and sometimes even strangers who become friends.

Here was my piece by day 2.  Of the 9 threads listed only 4 had symbols.  I have two friends in Oregon who are also going to do this piece so I reached out to them. Sadly Robin's copy was like mine lacking and Anna was moving and hadn't yet found her box with charts and linens when she first was looking.

I've also started a Wintersal with Stitchonomy. I chose to get the kit with Aida cloth and the threads which are very well organized.  I'm not sure exactly how many different colours we were sent.

After a series of Pacific Storms we had an unexpected change of some blue skies with wind blowing us around.

I love watching the cycle of the Witch Hazel during the Winter.  The orange variety blooms a week or more ahead of the yellow one.

They remind me of spider crabs a bit don't you think?

The Winter flowering Viburnum is also opening its lovely scented blossoms. Both of these plants have such strength in their beautiful colourful displays.  We have a lot of rain and occasional snow and they weather thru it all.

I took some pictures earlier in the week during the rain but they look so delicate against the blue skies.

This was my journal I used last year.  I started it in February so I still have one more month to use it.

Each of the dividing pages has some special thoughts for the month.

This is the 18 month one I got for this year.  It is a larger book and has some goal setting prompts in it.

The new one has a pocket in front to keep certain special papers.

It also has goal setting pages with various prompts on it.

A good goal for us all.

Part 4 stitched and part 5 arrived a short while ago.

I decided from the picture that the next tree was a solid colour and stitched it.  Later in the day I got an email from Anna her copy is a different edition its printed on brown not white paper and her version had the proper key to it.  I'm so grateful for this as Bent Creek has yet to respond to my query about the key.

If you have been reading this closely you will have found what the words I first found were.  

Gratitude, Connections, Change and Strength.  

My gratitude to good friends and family and the staff caring for my mom and other residents of the care home where she live. 

 Connections that have been made thru my blog with Anna and then meeting her friends in Sisters and Portland. Also thru workshops and quilting groups which have been a lifeline during this pandemic time. I cant wait to be able to travel and see them all again along with family in other provinces.

The ability to Change when you can't just drop everything and go to the store when you want to.  Having the Strength to hold onto the hope that things will improve if everyone takes the time to respect the science of what the Doctors and care givers are presenting to us.

Doing this  so we can continue to make new Connections and Changes in our lives and have the Strength to show and share Gratitude to all in this time.

 

Journaling, Fibre Arts Network and Valentines Top

Back in 2001 I decided I would try and journal about my quilting experiences.  

 I wrote down in January what goals I hoped to keep in this book and until June 2013 I managed to do this monthly making notes of what classes I took, new techniques.  Travels I took that involved quilting, new quilting friends etc.

 On January 31 I found the journal again and decided to start it again.  My friend Anna from Woolie Mammoth shared her keeping goals on a white board and recently decided to also keep a journal.  But she is thinking of doing it more on a daily basis, I'm doing it monthly but with occasional new entries.

 I shared that while at Lorna's I saw some friends and later that evening one called to say they had gone to the Fibre Art Network show at Van Dusen Garden.  Rita and I had forgotten about it and had headed down to Granville Island instead.  So Sunday I decided it would be a nice outing to take my mom to see.  Ironically we ran into Lorna and her mom; they had just finished seeing it.  Here are some overview pictures of the show.

 The FAN is a group of west coast Canadian and American quilt artist and youcan visit their website here for more information about their journey and many shows.

 Last year the garden had a show in March featuring some of our Fraser Valley Quilters' Guild members here.

 Several of those artist and some more I recognized from the lower mainland participated this time.

 All the pieces were the same size in either the portrait or landscape orientation.

 This is a free exhibit found in a gallery adjacent to where you enter to view the gardens.

 We were still in the midst of our heavy snow and viewing the garden was not a great choice on that day.

 There were some spectacular pieces hung for viewing.

 Some photographic in their style and others more representative.

 Some were dimensional and other visually textural.

 This piece was done by Robin Fischer a member of my guild.

 Terry Aske.

 Janet Archibald.

 Former member Patt Wilson

Leslie Forbes from Lion's Gate Quilters.

 Mardel Rempell another former member and part of the 100 Braid St. New Westminster Cultural Crawl show I attended.

 Unfortunately I don't recall many of the names and I had hoped that the signage would be more legible.

 Marianne Parsons.

 Judy Leslie.

 Emilie Belak.

 Susan Jensen.

 Vivien Kaputo.

 Valentine's Day I felt like I was getting a cold and flue so I didn't go to my guild meeting.  Later in the day I started feeling better and decided to add some borders to my Hoochy Heart swap quilt.  It now measures 43" x 52" and is ready to be sandwiched and quilted.

Enjoy...my word for 2012!

I've always enjoyed writing journals when I travel and find that I find them hard to resist when I see interesting ones when I go shopping.  Here are a few of the ones I've recently found to be very enjoyable.

 Some of these will be used for workshops to take notes, or draw sketches in.

 Some of them just make me smile when I look at them.

 Others are pretty and have lovely words.

 Some inspire you to learn something new like painting.

 Pink is a favourite colour and the embossed designs are so whimsical and enjoyable.

Finally these lovely designs to inspire and tease you to try something different.  Enjoy!  What inspires you to choose a word for 2012?