SEEING GOD IN LITTLE THINGS

I've neglected to blog lately as I've been busy sorting through boxes and boxes of ceramic paints, glazes and underglaze and boxes of bisque that were hastily packed in boxes and stored in a room upstairs when my basement flooded in the last big flood and since I couldn't deal with it because of major surgery, everything just stayed there in it's chaos. Nothing was labeled so it would have been a monumental task to find any particular bottle of product.

Now I have made a decision and I'm not going back. Everything, I mean everything must go but first I have to sort and wipe the clay dust  and label everything so I have an idea of what I have. I have enough of Duncan Ceramic products to supply a ceramic studio for years.  There used to be hundred of ceramics shops around the province but they all closed and all that I can see are Ceramic Cafe where you can buy a piece of bisque that you paint and they dip it in the glaze for you and then you pick it up, paying a hefty price. Things are not like they used to be. I'm not sure how I will proceed but I think that I'll call an auctioneer to take care of the whole thing once I'm done sorting through molds and everything.  I want my house back until that too gets too much for me.

Sorry, no pictures of my huge mess. Maybe later.  Here is where I found God this morning.

This is a picture of my Regatta Lobelia seedlings. As you can see the seed are so very tiny and even though I can barely see the tiny seeds, there is parentage in the DNA that goes way back to when God created this tiny flower. It has been manipulated by plant breeders to come up with this variety but man did not created it. It may be very small but God cares for it as much as He cares for the big things. So leave your cares to the Creator when it gets to be too much for you to bear.

Thanks for stopping in for a visit and for leaving your comment. Have a great weekend

OH NO...DARN IT...

As you know, on the 15th I posted my Grandmother's Trunk  Creative Challenge rug and then started to hook on that little primitive kitten rug kit that I won from Rugs and Pugs. I was happily hooking along and as I was swiveling my frame, I notice that there was a bit of resistance and I torqued a bit to turn it and the little piece of wood that holds the swivel ball cracked and fell to the floor. Now what... I was totally in shock. How could that have happened???  So I took my frame off the stand and glued the little piece of wood back together and put it aside to dry for a day or so feeling very disappointed that I couldn't work on the kitty rug.

Here you can see the little crack still visible but totally mended. My husband drew the pattern on a piece of cardboard and will make a replacement piece out of aluminum on his metal lave.   I hope that the piece will hold for a while.

Here you can see the piece from the other side. 

Since I couldn't hook, I decided that now was a good time to make a cover for my frame since I tear my hands so often on those sharp gripper bars. An octagonal  frame has so many sharp corners. I thought that the worsted wool plaid skirt that was unusable for my fine cuts would be just the right thing for my cover. It's soft and since it has some measured squares it would be easy to work and keeping the fabric straight.  I used the frame as pattern and cut the fabric 4 inches from the outer edge, but then I took off about an inch of fabric from each side that was close to the bottom bar for a better fit. 

I cut two identical pieces and I trimmed off some more fabric from the center so the hole would be bigger when sewed together so that I would have a larger work area and at the same time just cover the sharp gripper strips.

I folded and pinned the inner edges together and sewed all the way around as neatly as I could. I'm no seamstress and I'm just feeling my way through this project.

Here is a close up of the inner seam.

Since  worsted wool tends to fray a lot I decided that I better zig zag the edges since I don't have a Serger sewing machine. You can see the two pieces divided. I zig zag both pieces.

A close up shot 

Now I folded and pinned the two sides together and carefully sewed around the outside edge leaving about an inch opening for the elastic band.

I then sewed another seam about 3/4 of an inch wide all the way around this time  to accommodate the 1/2 inch or 10mm elastic band.  I place the cover with the elastic face down under the frame and the smooth side face up.

Now I only have to be careful when I put the cover on my frame that I don't slice my hands on the sharp corner wires. I'm so pleased to have found a good use for this wool. I also used a piece of this wool to extend my little kitty may that didn't fit my frame and it holds better than jute on the frame.

Now today I finished hooking my very first primitive kitty rug and also my very first round rug.  All that is left to do on this is to whip the edge and add the binding tape.
I hope that this will help you make your very own frame cover if you have been hesitating to make one yourself.

Thanks for stopping by and please leave your comment.  JB

FROM BORROWED RIBBON TO A GOLD DIAMOND NECKLACE

Thank you so much everyone who have left comments on my Grandmother's trunk Creative Challenge. I've had a question about the necklace and I want to show you what I used.

 My idea was to use a narrow gold ribbon but alas my search at three different stores left me disappointed. I found a silver one but had my heart set on gold.   My daughter Jackie the fiber artist has all kinds of beads and ribbons that she uses in her many creations and she lend me a ribbon that had a narrow gold strip in it, and also some beads since I wanted to incorporate beads in the necklace.  Since the ribbon was a bit too wide for what I wanted to do I folded it and sewed it by hand with a gold colored thread and hooked it in.  I then decided that it was good enough and I wouldn't use the beads.  So here is the ribbon in question.  Many thanks Jackie. I'll return your  beads and what's left of your ribbon when I go to your place.

And here is the necklace in question.   You can see the nuances of the color changes in the necklace.

Thanks for stopping by my blog on this cold and rainy day and leaving a comment.  I've got to go feed my babies now.  JB

MY GRANDMOTHER'S TRUNK CREATIVE CHALLENGE AT LAST

Finally, I just got done wrapping a side of beef and thank goodness my husband helped me or I would still be wrapping until midnight.   As promised here are some photos of my new rug done in haste and still needs tweaking, I even forgot to put an accent on the word Grandmere.  Grandmere Cherie translates to Darling Grandmother.  You can click on the picture and hopefully you can see it closer. I need to fix a few little  details as usual.

This rug is designed  and hooked by moi, Julia Bourque, on jute burlap, is 24"x18" 100% wool except a tiny bit of very dark green between the yellow flowers.  All hand dyed wool except the hair and the blue sleeves and darkest green. I used a sheer gold ribbon given to me by my daughter as I couldn't find a narrow ribbon at the mall or at the fabric store.

This  challenge was to get us to do something that we remembered from our grandmother and we had to use two different brown and some wording. Although it was called Grandmother's Trunk Creative Challenge we were free to interpret this in our own way.  Everyone's rugs are totally different.

Thanks for your patience...

This is the picture that I used to draw the face and because my grandmother said that it was a windy day that day I changed her hair just because she would approve.  She always like to look her best even though she was poor like a lot of the folks at that time.

 Here is a rough drawing. I had even forgot to add the words on the design.   I used some pastels and wiped the dust off so it looks kind of washed off.

This was taken at night with the light on so it looks darker.  Notice the eyes are not even as per the photo. 

This is a close up of the necklace hooked with a ribbon that I had to sew folded and because of the color nuances in the ribbon it also shows nuances in the necklace. In this close up, the colors are more as they are on the rug.

Here is a close up of the face

I dyed most of the colors except the hair and the blue on the sleeves and the tiny bit of dark green.
I really enjoyed doing this piece but I think that if I would have more time to think and prepare, my rug would probably would have been of a different design.  I thought that since I painted faces on ceramics, I should be able to do the same on my rug.   I choose flowers because my grandma had those flowers growing in front of her house. It's where I got my love of flowers.

Today I also started another first, I started my first primitive rug.  This is the one I won from Rugs and Pugs a while back.  It didn't fit my frame so I sewed a piece of wool to make it fit.

This is what I managed to get done this afternoon. I took this picture in the dark a few minutes ago.

I hope that you will understand a bit how I went about to do my Grandmother's trunk Creative Challenge.   Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment.  JB

SO MANY PEPPER PLANTS

Today I spent most of the afternoon working in the office and because I didn't get enough sleep  ((I went to bed at 12:30 am))  I a bit brain dead. I'm drowning in piles of papers. I haven't been able to train my husband to put papers away once he's finished with them. He piles them everywhere there a square inch throughout the house. Well, I'm exaggerating a bit but not by much.

So I'm taking a break to show you an update on my Bell Pepper  and begonias seedlings. I'm only showing a small portion of my begonias as the rest were under plastic bags to keep them moist.

I will have to transplant the begonias as there are two to each pots.

Tomorrow evening I will be posting my Grandmother's Trunk Challenge rug as the deadline is on the 15th of April. I'm anxiously waiting to see what other members of our group have come up with. This is so exciting. I feel like it's Christmas.

Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment.  JB

HOW CAN IT BE, THE WHOLE BIBLE ON ONE PAGE?

Today has been a super busy day for me  and I didn't had time to take pictures of my pepper plants and my begonias seedling like I had planned, maybe tomorrow, so instead I thought that  I would give you a link that shows the whole  Bible on one single page. This site was sent to me by my sister Delcina.
I hope that you will find it as awesome as I did.


You can click on any chapter and read the verses.
Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment.  JB

http://www.jrsbible.info/bible.htm

WHAT TO DO WITH ALL THOSE SNIPPETS...

Do you remember a while back when my granddaughter M was rummaging through my waste basket saving all my wool snippets. She had a project in mind and needed wool snippets to incorporate into it. Well today she came by for a little visit to work in their vegetable garden out back and she brought me her felt hat to show me.

It's not quite finished and she wants to add a couple of pheasant feathers and also a couple of peacock feathers. I think that she is doing a fantastic job. It has three sides although my photograph doesn't show it,

Here is a close up of her ribbon flowers and fancy stitches to reinforce seams in her felt hat.

More fancy ribbons and stitches.

Here you can get a better view of the shape as M is wearing her colorful felt hat. Notice the thumb'sup in approval in the background. Someone wants to be included in the pictures

N is giving her two thumbs up this time as she sporting the hat.

Even big brother L wants to try on the hat while snacking on a gingersnap cookie. Growing boys are always hungry aren't they.

Here my boy George was enjoying all the goings on and agreed to just smile for the camera.

Today was amazingly warm and sunny. It was a beautiful day to work outdoors and I got on my knees and weeded three of my flower beds.  I'm so grateful that I could pull some chickweeds and creeping Charlies before the tulips grows taller. I just wish that I would have had a whole week to do the rest but it's supposed to rain tomorrow and Tuesday. I was so focused in my job that I didn't take any pictures and then it got too dark.

I did a load of laundry which I was going to hang on the line because it was so nice outside but I stayed outdoors and pull weeds until my neck was paining too much. Now since it's supposed to rain tomorrow I just threw the clothes in the dryer. Oh well, pulling weeds was a first priority.

Thanks for stopping by my blog and leaving a comment.  JB

MY FIRST BATCH

There are so many things I'm interested in doing but somehow they stay on my To Do List as something else gets my attention. Sometimes I just need that little nudge. That's what  happened yesterday when I visited Doris' blog at Moments in Time. She had made a batch of fresh sourdough bread from her sourdough starter and my mouth was watering.

I recently bought a cookbook called Sourdough Cookery. I've been looking at it several times and put it back on the shelf. There are all kinds of recipes  imaginable, even sourdough cakes and cookies. So I JUST DID IT. I made my own sourdough starter and will attempt to make some recipes from my cook book as soon as the starter is ready to use. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hope that it works as it's warm by day and cooler by night. I covered the bowl  with Seran wrap and I stirred it all up as it was bubbling  quite a bit. I can't wait to make some sourdough biscuits. I'll start with something small. I may even takes some pictures if they don't disappear before I have a chance.

Until next time, stay safe over the weekend and be happy.  Thanks for visiting, I enjoy your comments  JB

MORE PHOTOS FROM THE FIBER ART RETREAT

Today has been a busy day at the farm, moving heifers out from the barn to the next building in the back. For me, it means that my work load will be less for a while at the barn. It means less to feed everyday. The hoof trimmer is coming tomorrow and again, it will be a busy day.

I've been on the computer in small snippets  today checking blog and emails whenever I got a chance.  I commented on Farm Girl's blog about God abundant blessings in our trials and when I commented on  Melaine's blog from Woolly Hooker, as I was to post my comment, the word bless showed up on the word verification box. It has been a blessed day.

I thought that I would follow through with pictures of the retreat.

look at those perfect points on these quilt squares

some crochet

hooking

more hooking, even hooking without a frame

more hooking

Jill working on her tree skirt and some beautiful knitting

hooking and felting

gorgeous rug

Knitting, hooking and cross stitch

look at this gorgeous rug

more hooking

On the first day there were some door prizes for the early birds and on Saturday there were over a hundred prizes to be won and it took quite a while for the draw. Carol is one of the many winners. The place was so big that I only got some of the winners who were closer to me.

Wendy, another enthusiastic winner with her camera rolling as she fetch her prize.

Another happy winner

Susn won a gift certificate.

Linda won some colorful roving. I love her button necklace and earrings.

Joyce won a beautiful figurine. Blogger won't let me write below this picture so I'll call it quite for tonight. I just remember a lot and lot of smiling faces. I only got a fraction of what people were working on as I didn't had my camera with me all the time. I was trying to get some hooking done.
Thanks for stopping by.  JB