lunar New Year

The Autumn and Winter flowering shrubs and trees are not as plentiful this year due to the late Autumn drought and colder Winter temperatures we had this year.  But finally some are starting to out on their show.  The yellow Witch Hazel is always a late arrival.

This was an unexpected cloud formation at sunset the other day.  I love how it somewhat mimicked the form of the tree.

The orange Witch Hazel is a much bigger colour show than its yellow cousin.

It seems to have many more petals to them and are much denser on the branches,

Today is the Lunar New Year, I wish you luck, good health, wealth in the year of the rabbit,

 As part of my goal of Renew my word for this year I decided to pick up my Somthing’s Fishy BOM designed by my friend Uschi Geiner of Woolies on the Coast.  I’ve not stitched on it for awhile and it still needs a bottom sandy bottom border to be added.  As always I put some of my own twists and changed placements of her design.  I modified the seahorse from her design.

Last night I decided to stitch this rickrack guy.    I hadn’t yet done the bullion knots around the outside the French knots or the Palestrina stitching on the tail.  I’ve decided to move the mouth placement a bit lower as the fish is angling down to the right.

One of my favourite pieces to develop were the two jelly fish.  Trying different fibres for their tentacles amongst my collection.

I may still add some more stitching to them before they are done.

I love how these tentacles drift along side of the praying mantis,

Enjoy your Sunday and have a lovely Lunar Celebration.

It's February!

I can't believe I haven't done any other posts this year. Yesterday was my birthday and I'd planned on doing one and instead went out and had an enjoyable day doing what I felt like doing.

 I shared this collage of some of our winter blooms that are already popping up.  We've had a dusting of snow and colder temperatures but nothing like the rest of Canada and the USA.

 Hence this popped up on Facebook, I saw Cherry Blossoms bursting forth on December 31st!  Definitely the earliest I can recall.  Today we are around -6 C or 20 F. We are seeing some ice floating along the Fraser River.

 This was about all the snow we've had fall on February 3rd.

 It was very cold and small flakes which got suspended in a spider's web on my deck.

 Interesting effect.

 Fresh snow on the mountains.

 The daffodils survived once again.

 Yellow Witch Hazel.

 I taught some friends how to make wonky stars.  The tiny one was made by me along with the two smaller ones on the bottom row.  I encouraged them to make theirs with 3 1/2" strips for a first go.

 January 21st I took these photos of the Blood Wolf Moon and then made a collage of them.

 Just after midnight I went out and took some more pictures this first one I used a flash.

 This one was hand held.

 I also go more fish to prep for Something's Fishy.

 And block three of Fresh Cut.

 I went for a visit to my friend Rita and her smaller dog Cupcake jumped up and pulled the quilt down when Rita left the chair.  She love cuddling with her brother Buddy.

 Rita had to make them move to sit down but they quickly decided it was nap time.

 I've been bouncing around on blocks one and two of Fresh Cut.  I'm waiting for certain colours of threads to arrive.

 I went overboard on the French Knots and Seed stitch on this block.

Time to get prepping my background for block 3 today.  Enjoy your Sunday.

My birthday snow has arrived, it started a few minutes ago!

Notice the ice on the upper and lower pools.

Still snowing another short video.

My friend Anna just posted this on Facebook, we're similar to Seattle but not quite.  Still lots of water and provisions in the stores.

Happy Christmas Eve Day to all.

Decided to walk down to my favourite breakfast place this morning and was happy to see the clouds starting to break after the wind and rainstorms we've had since last week.

 An hour later things were getting even brighter.

 Love the sky behind the tree and the reflections in the windows of the building adjacent.

 I spotted an eagle over the condos when I glanced in that direction.

 In fact there were two, one is just above the chimney structure.  A friend nicknamed them Hector and Henrietta many years ago.  They often perch on top of the Inn at the Quay.  I havent seen them for awhile.  They have a nest across the river.

 They kept circling around.

 Then one flew over towards the river with a seagull following behind.

 Roses are still trying to bloom this late in the season.

 Rose hips, one of natures Christmas decorations.

 Rhododendrons still blooming or trying to.

 Persistent aren't they?

 Another rose.

 Love these red and green rose hip looking like Christmas balls.

 Making some progress on block one of Fresh Cut.  Still waiting on some threads I need.

 I may have gone a bit overboard on the French knots.

 Love the variegated blue on the different wools and cottons.

 Again some more blue against the leaves and random cross stitches on the black cotton background.

 A start on block two.

 Love the fabrics that my friend Uschi has kitted together. Her website will hopefully be up and running soon at Woolies On The Coast. She is trying to get the right colours of her hand dyed wools to be viewed.

 Drizzle stitches on a folded velvet hexagon.

 The large centre bloom.

 Again a bit overboard on the seed stitches/

 Fly stitch and French Knots.

 I've couched the chenille down with thread and will be doing some bullion knots over the stem.

 One of the gals in the Burnaby Woolies group that meets at The Needle and I Quilt Shop got her Family Tree she designed from the long arm quilter at our last get together.  She designed it for her parents and is truly amazing.

 Check out the back!

 She used a transfer film to add the names to white wool and then stitched them on.

 Here and there she added different stitching motifs.

 Mom and dad.

 and the rest of the family.

 I've also got a start on the Something's Fishy first block.

 Love the shapes of the first two fish Uschi designed.

 Linen and cotton circles.

   I signed up with another Wonky Star Instagram Swap.  This time I asked for black on black backgrounds. Sadly the effects of our recent Canada Post job actions have resulted with only three of the envelops being delivered so far. Love these Canadian turquoise stars.

 A turquoise and yellow star set from another Canadian.

 And a set of yellow and turquoise from Germany.

Have a very Merry Christmas tomorrow wherever you may live.