And a Small Rant

I usually try to keep my posts upbeat and not say anything which may upset someone or come back to bite me but I need to rant a little about the 2010 Creativ Festival. It was very disappointing. The size was a quarter of the previous years' exhibits. I can't say anything about classes or teachers because I go for the Vendors' wares. There were so few and certainly nothing new or interesting. There was no quilt exhibit or if there was, it was very well hidden. I did end up buying some fabric which I needed as a backing for a baby blanket for which I had a Fabricland front panel I bought a few years ago and couldn't find anything to match it. The fabric I did buy was from Sew-Sisters. Granted at a good price but after I factor in the cost of entry to the exhibit, it was expensive fabric... And then to find there was no shuttle back to Union Station was not a pleasant surprise. So, like I like to say, I was the the Creativ Festival twice this year, first time and last time.

October Challenge

Our last FibreArts Toronto meeting was at Christine's. As well as having a lovely time, she offered some of the printed fabrics (deconstructed something or other -- I'm not that into the dye, screen print, discharge, etc. part of the fibre arts) that were made at the previous meeting at her house. Also, I had brought her a bunch of white cotton crochet cords and other white yarns which she dyed in lovely colours. The October challenge was to make something with them. Voila --my October challenge piece. I am not enamoured with the shape (I have a hang-up about symmetry) and the binding was my second choice. I had actually tried facing it but failed miserably. (The binding also failed, but hopefully not miserably).

Baby Naomi

I am trying to make up for the long time from my September post with 3 short posts. (Mainly because I can never get the photos to go where I want them...)
About two weeks ago, Stephen and Diana had a baby girl, Naomi. In honour of Naomi, I made a baby blanket. And then I had some Chisholm tartan left over from their chuppah, so I made a wall hanging for Naomi.

When Autumn Leaves Start to Fall

Just a few weeks ago we went for a drive in the country to see the fall foliage. And it was truly amazing this year. The colours were so vibrant and it lasted for a long time. As much as we were in awe of the colour display, we weren't quite as enamoured yesterday when we did our leaf raking. We've got it down to a science -- rake, shovel leaves into bag, compress leaves in bag, shovel in more, rake some more. More than ten bags later, we had cleared the ground of leaves. We put the bags out to the curb and went into the house. An hour later, the ground was again covered with leaves. Oy. I found muscles I had forgotten I have. Next weekend, we'll do some more, if they haven't been covered by that four letter word -- SNOW. Right now it's flurrying outside the window.
I am posting a photo of my FibreArt Toronto challenge piece from September -- Autumn. It was inspired by the rich rusty-red colours and the shape of the maple leaf. There are two leaves, one from organza and one from tulle. Overall, it came out well, I think.

Pictures

I finished the laptop bag of which I am quite pleased. Now if I could just motivate myself to do something else.

Laptop Bag Finished

Almost. I have finished everything except attaching the shoulder strap because I still have to buy the piece which adjusts the strap's length. Tomorrow. Fabricland. I am pleased with the result and only hope that it fits... The intended laptop resides in Germany, the requester resides in England and the laptop cover is currently in Canada. Although I have the measurements, I don't work well without being able to actually slip a laptop into the bag. I used another laptop which is almost the same size and there's some give so I hope it works. I do have a Plan B, but that would require me retrieving the bag from the requester after she has presented it to the recipient. So it better fit!
Now on to my next project -- small appliance covers for Inbal's mixer, processor, blender.

Laptop bag started

The bag, which is actually just a large rectangle which will be folded in three, is cut out and quilted. I would like to make two inside pockets, one for a notebook and another zippered pocket for pens, pencils, etc. but I haven't figured out yet how to do it. If I can, I will. And then I will bind it and add a shoulder strap. Maybe this weekend (or earlier).
Shana Tova to my loyal readers, ha ha.