A Fine Day at the Games

So a wonderful couple of days for Canadians at the Olympics. Great gold game of women's hockey, an emotional skate of Joannie for the bronze, a silver for women's curling and just saw the men's 500 m short track - a gold and a bronnze and one heck of a wild finish! My gosh all these athletes put their heart and soul in all these events.. what a wonderful accomplishment for all participating athletes to even have made the Olympics..

I am so non-athletic though in my heydey I did ski - now I'm too afraid to meet those kamakasi kids on the slopes and end up with broken bones. Instead I spend my evenings doing my crafts. Well after my baby steps into trying this new method of mixed media tags I have come up with some successes. I'll post those later - have to embellish them a bit.

I did finish a punch needle - a spring design called "Hare & Tulips". The original will be for sale on March 1st at The Primitive Gathering and the pattern is available too. Loved making this one and used my hand dyed wool threads. Just seems to give the piece more of a hooked rug appearance and a softer finish to it.

Well the 5000m relay is about to start and Canada is in for the race so I am off to watch that and keep my fingers crossed - talk about a melee of skaters on the ice - unbelievably fast and wild. The craziest sport I saw this year was a new one called cross ski and cross snowbarding - 4 skiers racing down a  hill at the same time - unreal!

Ok I am off.. g'nite.. Joni

PS.. We (Canada) won the gold in the men's 5000 relay - unbelievable skate!

Here is a great link to check out all the standings and doings of the OLYMPICS.

Yay Canada..

                                                               photo source destination 360

I have the Olympics on in the background. I am so not a sports fan but come every two years I am glued to the TV - especially the winter ones - my faves. Yay Canada! I think Vancouver is doing a fine job as a host city, seems like a lot going on and finally they have snow in them thare hills :) It is all very exciting. Clara Hughes just won a bronze for Canada, her last Olympics, beautiful!

I am trying something new. I love discovering new creative things to do. I have my paints, vintage photos and tags in front of me on the dining room table. It is a perfect day for it. My day off and big fat snowflakes gently falling. I could easily hibernate for the winter. Mind you it has been a really wonderful winter. Hardly any snow and mild temps - so nothing to complain about.

This is a technique of blending chalk inks on a base (my tag) applying some stamping and then doing a transparency overlay with contact paper (bunny pic). Much scratching and shaking of the head - gritting the teeth and one tag is produced. "Patience my dear" should be tatooed on my forehead.

After my first dozen transparencies, some few choice words- I have one fairly successful tag.
Now on to practice getting a few more under my belt and watching more Olympics....women's bobsled coming up and two Canadian teams in 1st and 4th.

G'nite Joni

Wool to Inspire You!

A wonderful sight greeted me the other day - not one but two packages of wool! No sooner had I walked in the door - dropped the coat - gave Roby his kisses and his din-din, did I pounce on the two lovely packages waiting for me.

It is always a treat to receive a package of Rebecca Erb wool. So rich, soft and so primitive - nice muted colours just up my alley. Now to put them to good use. I have not been rug hooking for a few months. The holidays got in the way and I usually devote the fall to making my hand made gifts for family. So now I have my inspiration and it calls for some deep thought on what to hook!

To start me off I bought a hooked pillow kit from Karen Kahle of Primitive Spirits who you can find on Etsy. I just love her style and have dyed many a yard of fabric using her dye recipes. I am going to try her marbelizing technique. I used to marbelize cotton fabric years ago, so doing it on wool is new for me and we'll see how it rates compared to cotton. I am sure I will not be disappointed!

My projects are there to start, along with finishing up some new punch needle hearts (to be a pattern also). I'll post those here later this week. Just want to stuff and finish one of them so I can show start to finish.

Off to do more punch needle..

g'nite...Joni

PS - I had to delete the original post and re-enter it again as someone posted an advertising comment. So in future all comments will have to be approved before they show up - sorry!

Hearts are Forever

This month at The Primitive Gathering I have listed some Valentine pieces. I don't usually get into doing Valentine pieces but I figured hearts are an all year kind of symbol. Who does not like hearts surrounding them. They always brings a smile to your face, well mine at least. 

These are some stuffed hearts that I placed on wooden spindles purchased from an old textile mill in the US. They have been distressed and aged.

My heart stocking is based on a pattern that I made as Noel stockings. Bt this time I did a soft colour wash of pink and added some hearts cut from my hand dyed wool. The hearts are stitched on using a button hole stitch. You can find more photos on my artist site at The Primitive Gathering.

In a few days, on the 10th I will have a new punch needle pattern launching and it is all about hearts. You will get 3 new designs that I have made into little hanginging hearts. Now remember Mother's Day is coming up and Hearts are Forever. The original pieces will be for sale at Pfatt Marketplace. Here is a peek at one of the designs!