tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-42169344357091211482024-03-18T21:42:05.035-07:00Sustainable | Slow | StylishDeborahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15979321317873788140noreply@blogger.comBlogger121125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4216934435709121148.post-63582065002014495312016-07-30T10:37:00.000-07:002016-07-30T12:13:42.169-07:00Vintage Harry M. Fraser Model 500-1 instruction sheetLast year, I bought a huge stash of vintage (mostly pre-1980) rug hooking supplies from a wonderful lady who was downsizing. Both she (Myrna L.) and her mother (Velma B.) had been McGown-Hookrafter-Guild-trained rug hookers, so she had boxes upon boxes of tools, books, patterns, and wool. I'm so very grateful to her, and I'm going to do my best to pay it forward by sharing the supplies with otherDeborahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15979321317873788140noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4216934435709121148.post-87744661036784283522016-07-03T21:34:00.001-07:002016-07-03T21:34:58.682-07:00Adapted design: "Blue Darner and Wild Rose" Our guild had the opportunity to exhibit our work at a local library recently, and our learning and development team decided to make it a challenge: insect rugs, about eight inches square. I decided I wanted to hook a local dragonfly species, hovering over a local flower.
After a lot of sketching, I ended up with a design that's heavily influenced by the American Arts-and-Crafts movement. The Deborahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15979321317873788140noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4216934435709121148.post-34971343224279019782016-06-23T16:58:00.000-07:002016-06-23T16:58:40.840-07:00Dyeing with old Cushing's Perfection Union DyesLast year, I bought a huge stash of vintage (mostly pre-1980) rug hooking supplies from a wonderful lady who was downsizing. Both she (Myrna L.) and her mother (Velma B.) had been McGown-Hookrafter-Guild-trained rug hookers, so she had boxes upon boxes of tools, books, patterns, and wool. I'm so very grateful to her, and I'm going to do my best to pay it forward by sharing the supplies with otherDeborahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15979321317873788140noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4216934435709121148.post-54858957468541914952015-10-13T20:50:00.001-07:002015-10-13T20:53:09.710-07:00TIGHR Back To Nature friendship matAt the last possible minute, I decided to attend this year's Triennial Conference of The International Guild of Hand-hooking Rugmakers (TIGHR) in Victoria, British Columbia (Canada). I last went in 1997 when it was held at Oak Island near Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia, when the guild was much smaller. I was so excited to be in Victoria - the other attendees are all so incredibly gifted and Deborahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15979321317873788140noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4216934435709121148.post-38333499646451409732015-08-07T07:01:00.000-07:002015-08-07T07:15:46.413-07:00Traditional Rug Hooking Resources: the rug hooking FAQ, updatedBlast from the past:
Look what I found!
Yesterday, I stumbled on archived versions of the rug hooking FAQ, which I created, maintained and posted to rec.crafts.textiles.misc in the mid-1990s, when Usenet groups were still a thing and rug hooking information on the internet was hard to come by. It was archived in three places:
version 4.2 part 1 of 2 last modified 12 July 1994 at Deborahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15979321317873788140noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4216934435709121148.post-91585381824791706512015-08-06T21:57:00.000-07:002016-07-03T19:53:26.957-07:00Deanne Fitzpatrick 'Salty Swimmers' workshop, and 'Port Greville Poppies' pillowThe timing of my family's trip to Nova Scotia last summer allowed me to take a one-day workshop at Deanne Fitzpatrick's gorgeous studio, so of course I jumped at the opportunity.
The store itself is like a candy shop for textile junkies, in a beautiful old building in downtown Amherst, NS, filled with both hooking and knitting supplies (this photo just shows one corner of the front room). Deborahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15979321317873788140noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4216934435709121148.post-21356133759469417192015-05-28T23:23:00.000-07:002017-06-30T19:10:30.670-07:00Tactical Suburbanism: the Highest Point Pop-Up Playground project[27 May 2015 update: We are extremely grateful to accept a Project Accelerator Grant from Make Something Edmonton for this project! However, we are switching our attention to a different location, due to permit problems with the original site. Please read on for the details of our revised project on the new site.]
[12 June update: We now have a Facebook event page! Also, we're modifying our plansDeborahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15979321317873788140noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4216934435709121148.post-73664335775842941822015-05-11T11:23:00.002-07:002015-08-06T22:03:13.363-07:00Tactical Suburbanism: the Bridge To Somewhere Pop-Up Playground project[27 May 2015 update: we're grateful to accept a Project Accelerator Grant from Make Something Edmonton for this project! However, it turns out the land at The Bridge To Nowhere is owned by the Province of Alberta, and we cannot get a permit for land use in time for #DIYCity - so we are switching our attention to a different site on City of Edmonton parkland. If there is a DIYCity2016, we will Deborahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15979321317873788140noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4216934435709121148.post-40827800529046179502015-01-02T13:31:00.003-08:002015-01-04T20:55:21.036-08:00My 2015 Goals and 2014 Year-in-Review
(Via.)
My top 20 goals for 2015, in no particular order:
1. more dyeing
2. more hooking
3. more creating
4. more connecting
5. more community-building
6. more self-care
7. more deliciousness
8. more dancing
9. more writing
10. more travel
11. more organizing
12. more making
13. more learning
14. more gardening
15. more togetherness
16. more decorating
17. more sunlight
18Deborahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15979321317873788140noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4216934435709121148.post-6437272272555937172015-01-01T20:08:00.000-08:002015-01-01T20:51:11.429-08:00Family Recipe: White Sugar CookiesI had the pleasure of attending the annual Slow Food Edmonton sugar cookie bake on Candy Cane Lane this holiday season. From our host Cynthia, I learned two tricks for baking sugar cookies: roll them out with extra icing sugar (instead of flour) on the countertop to keep the dough from getting too dry, and use a sil-pat sheet to keep them from sticking to the cookie sheet. Seriously, the sil-pat Deborahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15979321317873788140noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4216934435709121148.post-41717958941589922462014-09-21T12:43:00.000-07:002014-09-21T12:43:02.155-07:00DIY organic, allergen-safe lip balm
My daughter wanted to make lip balm! After reading scads of recipes and lots of ingredient labels, here is the recipe I came up with. It is most heavily influenced by these three because of the ingredients I chose to use; you'll probably want to adjust the ratios based on your preferences and ingredients.
the ingredients we used
My daughter is allergic to peanuts, so I looked for Deborahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15979321317873788140noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4216934435709121148.post-18953878306741685342014-09-16T17:05:00.002-07:002015-09-26T13:38:24.598-07:00Arleen Brown's beautiful hooked rugsWhile I was home visiting family this summer, I had the pleasure of spending an afternoon with my maternal grandmother's sister, Arleen Brown, who is still hooking gorgeous mats in her nineties despite blindness in one eye. Aunt Arleen learned to hook from my great-grandmother while growing up near Lunenburg, and still closely adheres to the traditional South Shore Nova Scotian techniques (also Deborahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15979321317873788140noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4216934435709121148.post-10158592924003766552014-09-08T10:44:00.001-07:002014-09-08T10:50:25.250-07:00Three More Weeks In Nova ScotiaWe managed to squeeze in another long visit in Nova Scotia this summer. As I've written previously, our goal is to help our kids connect with their family and their roots. We spent almost all our time hangout out with our extended family this time, and the visit included a family wedding on one side and an anniversary party on the other. Now that they are older, we also wanted to give them a Deborahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15979321317873788140noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4216934435709121148.post-27958987809188280912014-09-07T21:53:00.001-07:002014-09-16T18:59:26.248-07:00Still hooked on rug hooking: a yarn mat and 'Just Marbelous'I have many hooked rug projects, at various stages of completion, and the #30DaysOfMaking Challenge seemed like the perfect time to pull them out and really rekindle my passion for rug hooking.
(No, not latch hooking, you children of the 80s. I'm talking about the much older technique that uses a crochet-like hook to make a running loop stitch using fabric scraps cut into strips. It began as a Deborahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15979321317873788140noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4216934435709121148.post-35106110427957415572014-06-25T16:51:00.001-07:002018-06-06T14:01:39.283-07:00My zone 3 perennial garden
This month, I planted a perennial garden in front of the house. The curved bed had once had some annuals planted in it, and was covered in pea gravel. It had maybe an inch of topsoil on top of sticky clay, so I'll need to top-dress it with a thin layer of organic compost annually to gradually build up the soil. We added cedar edging that may or may not hold up to our harsh winters - that mightDeborahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15979321317873788140noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4216934435709121148.post-62473082265779470712014-06-20T16:33:00.000-07:002014-06-23T18:50:50.899-07:00My Canadian Food Voice, and Wild Saskatoon GruntThis post is my final entry of the Canadian Food Experience project (2013-2014) (also on Facebook) proposed by my friend Valerie Lugonja, who is a board member of Slow Food Edmonton, with the goal of sharing regional food experiences to clarify our Canadian culinary identity. THANK YOU, VAL! Please check out the blogs of the other participants, and Deborahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15979321317873788140noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4216934435709121148.post-43207988087197307922014-05-21T16:15:00.003-07:002014-06-23T18:51:36.912-07:00Slow Textiles: Experiments in Natural DyeingMy fascination with natural dyes continues unabated! Here are more of my experiments with immersion dyeing, bundle dyeing, and rust dyeing from the past couple of months.
I. Bundle dyeing
Quick-and-dirty bundle dyeing (aka eco-dyeing/printing, originated by the inspirational India Flint) instructions: Wet prewashed & premordanted cloth, lay out the dyeing agent (leaves or flowers), then Deborahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15979321317873788140noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4216934435709121148.post-19209755608545089912014-05-20T23:34:00.000-07:002014-05-20T23:34:12.794-07:00Slow Textiles: Experiments in Dyeing using Black BeansInspired by these blog posts found via Pinterest, I soaked black beans (no-name brand from the grocery store, 1 cup, in 8 cups of tap water) for about 24 hours at room temperature (then cooked the beans, to be added to a chili today, mmmmm). The extracted colour was much more red than blue. I added more water and some alum, to act as a co-mordant, then I dumped in my fabric. In retrospect perhapsDeborahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15979321317873788140noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4216934435709121148.post-89000401143728566002014-05-07T23:09:00.000-07:002015-05-05T17:20:22.444-07:00The Canadian Kitchen Garden: USDA Zone 3This weekend is the Victoria Day long weekend, which Edmontonians usually consider the beginning of the frost-free season and safe to plant seedlings, and things are finally starting to green up - so my thoughts have turned to establishing my kitchen garden.
(September 7th update: skip to the bottom of the post for photos from the end of the season!)
happy bee on an Evans Cherry Deborahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15979321317873788140noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4216934435709121148.post-9094355745571825772014-04-09T17:07:00.000-07:002014-06-04T14:58:20.215-07:00Another Regional Canadian Food: Donald Merriam's fish chowder and Solomon GundyIn my last regional Canadian food post, I noted that my Maritime ex-pat friends missed all manner of seafood. This one is for them: my grandfather's chowder recipe, a classic fish-and-potato chowder that is easily adapted to whatever seafood you can get fresh or frozen locally. In my case, I'm using grocery-store seafood that has been flash-frozen while fresh, because I live on the Prairies. It'sDeborahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15979321317873788140noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4216934435709121148.post-47096920703031700382014-04-07T10:07:00.003-07:002014-05-15T14:14:19.397-07:00Slow Textiles: A Toothbrush-Rug / Naalbinding BowlI'm figuring out how to do naalbinding! Old skool! It started with a lesson in "toothbrush rug" making from my friend Nadine, who taught herself using this great tutorial.
Getting started, March 7th.
So called because the large flat needle used has been typically whittled from the handle of an old toothbrush for the past few decades, this rag-rugmaking method is actually a Deborahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15979321317873788140noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4216934435709121148.post-65732738012760027152014-04-05T14:14:00.000-07:002014-04-24T17:16:53.267-07:00DIY: a coated denim jacket for springMy daughter fell hard last autumn for the coated denim available from the premium brands. It's got great texture and adds a bit of edginess to an outfit. When I took a closer look, I realized that coated denim is actually the traditional waxed cotton canvas used for waterproof outerwear by sailors and hunters - think sou'westers and field jackets - and knew this would be a simple DIY. The Deborahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15979321317873788140noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4216934435709121148.post-6262395590132480712014-04-04T14:52:00.003-07:002014-04-04T15:10:34.837-07:00The #30daysofmaking Challenge: Join me!
I'm making something - or part of something - every day, and I'm posting photos to keep myself accountable. Join me!
The only rule is that you post photos of things you are making by hand, for 30 days, on your choice of social media, with the hashtag #30daysofmaking.
This challenge is about sharing the joy of making, so you get to choose whether your 30 days are Deborahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15979321317873788140noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4216934435709121148.post-58801226393537600652014-02-09T09:00:00.001-08:002014-04-04T15:11:18.796-07:00The #30DaysOfMaking Challenge, and a scarf (updated)I need a push to start finishing some of my many works-in-progress, and to get myself into the habit of spending time in my studio every day, so I've decided I'm going to set a challenge for myself that starts today (my birthday!).
I'm going to make something - or part of something - every day, and I'm going to post photos to keep myself accountable.
A daily blog post feels like it would take Deborahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15979321317873788140noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4216934435709121148.post-40020727480180775092014-02-02T10:01:00.000-08:002014-02-02T10:01:00.121-08:005 tips for using Pinterest for research
So, yesterday was Social Media Breakfast Edmonton's first all-day Camp, and I was invited to give an introductory talk on Pinterest. Fun, right?
Except that the day before, one of my kids and my husband both came home sick with some evil virus, and by the time I'd finished adding the screencaps to the slides at 9pm you could fry an egg on my forehead. No SMBYEG Camp for me! Sigh. Luckily, theDeborahhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15979321317873788140noreply@blogger.com0