We have paths cut through our bush and it has been so good to walk through them this month as the weather has been glorious. Today with grey clouds and rain and many of the leaves having fallen it seems as if winter is well on its way. To paraphrase James Thurber “the hounds of winter on autumn’s traces.”

The geese have been going overhead in enormous noisy flocks and some of the birds that winter here, like blue and grey jays, have shown up at the bird feeders and given the chickadees and nuthatches a run for their money.
One of the storms, severe winds on Thanksgiving Sunday, resulted in the lost of three very tall spruce. The wind cracked a 65 foot specimen that was close to the house and unfortunately the tree surgeon had to cut two others it had tangled with and to give him access in able to take it down. It has made quite a difference to the look of the garden and I wonder if it will make much difference to the amount of snow drift we get as they were on the north side and made quite a good windbreak.

Sad to say my orchid is now down to two blossoms the first two blossoms died at the beginning of the month and the next five just a couple of days ago. But the surviving pair are still looking beautiful. It totally amazes me that they have been in bloom since July. For years I have had hibiscus in the house and they are beautiful but the flowers last only a day or two and are gone. I had no experience with orchids and am now wondering if in a couple of months this plant will bloom again.

I have been quite busy this month. Had several meetings with my quilting and fibre artists friends. And at long last have gone back to my jigsaw hanging which I started at the beginning of the year. I have now finished all the hand quilting and have started machine quilting on the background and sky.

I have also started some research and rough drawings for my next projects once the two I have on the go are finished. I always have various ideas floating around in my head and while I am hand sewing find I can think through much of the design process.

As well as that I have finished sewing the design of my Ekphrastic hanging – now I have to embellish with embroidery, beads, crystals and foil. To say nothing of the quilting of the piece. The foil has given me some problems – I have been using gold and copper leaf and trying to find an adhesive that will work on fabric to hold the leaf has been trying to say the least. So far I have used four different glues. First try works well, second try to make sure I have the right method has been disastrous. Having searched the internet and also the knowledge of a good artist friend I am now waiting the delivery of some metallic transfer sheets. My friend assures me that foiling should be the last thing to do so I am going to go ahead and finish the whole hanging and hope that the transfer sheets work better than my attempts at using gold leaf. Here’s a teaser - more to follow.