Maybe it’s because I was in Orkney and the Hebrides in September. Or maybe it’s because I read four Peter May novels this year with his dark, broody plots and settings. Or maybe it’s because today is Charles MacIntosh’s birthday, the brilliant chemist who is best known for his invention to protect us from the rain and cold. Or maybe it’s because the moon is hiding these nights and the days are dark and bone-chilling. Or maybe it’s because we lost so many bright lights in 2016. I’m sure it’s a combination of all of the above which have brought me to listen to this wonderful poem by Liz Lochhead over and over today. You can listen here (which I heartily recommend) and read the full text below.

Merry Christmas to all Birdbrain followers. Here are a couple of Christmas images for you. I’ve already told you how I am going to miss my Page-a-Day New Yorker Cover calendar. This one is from one of my favourite cover artists, Charles E. Martin. Martin died in 1995 and many of his covers were on the magazine in the 60’s and 70’s. I love his buildings and his views of the east coast, and this colorful tree which just might inspire a new Christmas mat! Great texture and composition.

And from closer to home, here is another Christmas stocking, this one for Grandchild #3. I was able to use the last of the Scottish teddy bear sweater which you saw here and here. I wish you all the very best of the season.

Very early this morning, as I drove on a slushy, dark highway, I told myself the days are getting longer. We’ve turned the corner. Although it didn’t feel like it this morning, from here on in I know we will have more daylight each day. This is a reason alone to celebrate, not to mention having the family together again.

Below are a few of our Christmas things. We love to get these apples every year from a nearby orchard. They say local and seasonal in the best way.

I don’t think I’ve shared this adorable Santa hooked by my mother many years ago. Each year when I set him on the hall table, he makes me smile. 

And here are a few of the Christmas cards I sent this year, pictured with my new favourite brush, a #10 Da Vinci sable.

When I completed the whipping on my 5’x7′ rug, Annie, it was only two days before it was to be on display in our local gallery. My husband had made a frame to hang the rug on and that is where ‘she’ has been for the last month–on show. Yesterday I did two things. I bought rubber carpet underlay and then went to collect Annie from the gallery. Now the rug is happily in our front room with the Dillard quotation and the 65 houses that span a big part of a lifetime. I hope to enjoy living with ‘her’ for a good while to come.

Here is another trivet with night sky and colour blocks. I’m working out a plan for a bigger rug and I find it helpful to do these little pieces to see how value, shape and direction of hooking come together. I then sew a square of recycled wool on the back of the piece to make a trivet which is both functional and a splash of colour on the table.

The current gallery show of a few pieces of my rug hooking and an upcoming talk on rug hooking have caused me to go back and review my files. The rug hooking gallery on this site (on the right under Navigation) was in great need of updating. So I’ve been reviewing photos and adding the pieces that were missing. Giving a talk always causes me to reconsider where I’ve come from and, more stressfully, what I plan to do next. Finally finishing Annie after three years is its own kind of stress. What now?

At any rate, I hope you will review the gallery and see the rugs that I have done over the last 10 years. Here is one of my favourites, a chair seat long ago given as a gift.

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The Gallery 121 show began today. It’s a great show full of wonderful pottery and paintings as well as my rugs. I will take more photos at the opening on Saturday, but for now here are my hooked pieces. I was delighted with the professional way they are presented. We are very fortunate in Belleville to have such a gallery where local artists can have guest shows. This show is on all month, so I hope that you will be able to visit.

I took a watercolour class in October on painting the buildings and landscape found in the south of France. We were to use photos we have taken ourselves and try to capture the essence of the buildings and streets in loose sketches. The first sketch is my version of an example the teacher provided; the rest are based on my own photos from a 2011 trip I took to the village of Limoux. Sketching these was a reminder of the beauties of the area and also an antidote to the cold and rain we have been having in Ontario. And, good news: I am lucky to be going back to Limoux again in the spring for two weeks of sketching.

I have lots of fun making these little rectangular pouches from my favourite leather remnants and colourful zippers. They are great for your sunglasses or pens. The bright colours ensure that you will find them in a crowded tote. These will be available at the Gallery 121 show, but if you can’t make it and would like one, just write to me with your colour preferences. They make great affordable gifts!

I’ve been back in the studio working with some beautiful leather. The first is a deep teal blue in a perfect weight. I made the  small 121 bag you see here and a larger one is on the cutting table. This is a perfect colour for all year round, a strong hue which fits into any palette. I may be partial on this. Teal blue has long been my favourite colour–and it is a hard one to find in leather. And I’ve lined it with fuschia dots–perfection! This is a small cross-body bag. 9″x7″x2″, but its roomy exterior and interior pockets are designed to hold all you need for a day in town.

Here are a few pieces made in a great denim-like leather. I had several small remnant pieces and was able to make one 121 bag and pouches in several sizes. They are my new favourites.