My Support For Ukraine

Posted on April 23, 2022 by Deborah

These past couple months have been unreal with a Russian madman gone berserk. I cringe everytime an update is broadcast on the news. I feel so helpless, almost the whole world does, but what can we do collectively to help this nation get through an unjustified horrific onslaught?

I should back up a bit first, to explain why I feel this situation is so important to me. My father was born in what is now Ukraine (back in the 1930’s, it was very convoluted as to what the country was defined as), he, his 2 sisters and their mother, escaped … Read more...

Time well spent

Posted on March 6, 2022 by Deborah

Here I was a couple weeks ago wondering if I had time to write, well I certainly do now with being in the hospital awaiting an angiogram! Everything will be OK, just a little scare that will get looked after next week.

I came very well prepared too with 2 knitting projects, my weaving project book and a dye book about using natural plant materials for dyeing yarns (a new book obtained a few months ago but have not had time to devote to perusing it) to pass the time in a less than comfortable hospital bed hooked up to … Read more...

Playing with Colour…

Posted on February 15, 2022 by Deborah

One of the benefits of having to spend hours on my rear….I get to write more! Along with some really, really, REALLY light-on-the-cardio-system activities.

Like planting flower and pepper seeds and dyeing yarns! Both of these activities are considered playing with colour, one starts out as a teeny seed and bursts into colour, while the other starts out as a bare skein of yarn and it too…bursts into colour!

The main reason to play with colour this time of year is to break up the visual assault of the stark white landscape outside the window. Yes, I moved to a … Read more...

Still here, and trying to find time to write

Posted on February 13, 2022 by Deborah

It is February already, boy time just screams on by the older I become. I think my problem is too many irons in the fire, too many things I want to do and not enough time in general to fit everything in.

Weaving is a devout passion, dyeing yarns pretty colours is a fun and distracting activity on cold, snowy winter days, oh and gardening…it may be mid February, but the grow table was just set up and today will be pepper seed starting day.

There are other pursuits, knitting and spinning that are present in either mind or action, … Read more...

Cheddar Jalapeno Sourdough Bagels

Posted on May 5, 2021 by Deborah

I am turning into a bagel junkie, actually, I think I always have been a bagel junkie since I “discovered” bagels in Grade 7 music class. I bet you are wondering why our teacher brought in bagels and cream cheese into her music class that day, well, it was because we were studying the soundtrack for the 1970 rock opera “Jesus Christ Superstar” by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice. So what does bagels and cream cheese have to do with a rock opera? I have no idea as bagels originated in Jewish communities in 17th century Poland… but I … Read more...

Spring Crocus Flower Tea Towels

Posted on April 30, 2021 by Deborah

Sometimes when I create new designs for weaving, I am not 100% sure of how it will actually translate to the woven cloth. Even though I use weaving software to design using approximate colours, at times there are variables that you might not be able to account for.

Not so with this design as between the use of colour and the weaving draft (pattern), these towels turned out EXACTLY how I envisioned they would!

This is a limited edition of 6 towels for this Spring, not be repeated until Spring 2022 and as of today’s date, 5 of the 6 … Read more...

Weaving Inspiration

Posted on April 12, 2021 by Deborah

Go look out the window, yup, right out the back door you will find my little herb garden patch, and in it, Spring bulbs poking their sunny, bright faces out of the soil after a long winters sleep.

Spring is my favourite time of year as all the new growth “springs forth” and finally dissolves the bland whites, greys and browns from winter. I grabbed my camera and took loads of photos of the little clumps of green, purple and yellow flowers, and afterwards, while looking at them on my laptop screen, an idea formed on how to best utilize … Read more...

Taco~Refried Bean Casserole

Posted on March 15, 2021 by Deborah

Leftovers. Some people love them, others not so much! I always like to try to reinvent leftovers into something else. Like when I repurpose old sheets into weaving strips for rag rug weaving. I have always been a big proponent of not wasting anything, especially food. I don’t like letting them sit in the fridge until whatever becomes a green, fuzzy science experiment.

In the freezer I had some leftover taco beef in one container, and refried beans in another. Instead of reaching for the hard taco shells to make tacos, I thought, what if I transformed these humble, but … Read more...

Introducing My Stormy Point Fiber~Arts Shop!

Posted on February 10, 2021 by Deborah

I have spent the last year gearing up for this moment. The moment I turn my “hobby” into a cottage industry…get it…cottage? Since I live in the Great White North in a cottage? hee hee, I love a good pun.

Most of you followers already know how crafty I am, sewing, knitting and in the last 8 years, weaving and spinning has crept into the lineup of things I love to create with my hands. I come by it honestly, my fraternal grandmother (Baba) was a talented woman who could make a silk purse from a sows ear as the … Read more...

It’s A Green January

Posted on January 7, 2021 by Deborah

In a corner of the livingroom here at the Homestead sits a folding blue patio table adorned with 3 pots and a small overhead LED light strip.

What are the lights focused on?

Cilantro!

2 pots that are overflowing with bright green leaves and stems that are standing up amazingly well from my daily assault with the scissors since they sprouted over a month ago. I simply cannot go the entire winter without fresh cilantro. Yes, I could buy a sad looking bunch in the grocery store, but they would last a week at most before becoming limp and mushy … Read more...