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Happy Christmas to all



I DO mean all. If you do not celebrate this particular holiday, the message is universal- Peace on Earth and Goodwill Among Men ( and WOMEN, of course!) so, regardless of your faith, I wish you HAPPY, Peaceful, Healthy and Safe, now and in the New Year.



I had my hand surgery yesterday-20 December. I am wrapped up, stiff, swollen, bruised and sore but I SHALL overcome!  I HOPE to be back dyeing and creating in the New Year but in the meantime, I wish you ALL, all the VERY BEST  at this joyous time. I pray that it may BE a joyous time instead of one filled with fear, hatred, and bigotry. It is a very tiny boat and we are ALL in it! We need to learn to live and let live, to help each other and to care for our beautiful little world.

As I have been unable to make my Art Quilts, I have been busy with the camera. Even that is hard today but I am trying!



We will have my Mum on Boxing Day for supper but that is all the festivities we have planned. We have had a very busy, tiring autumn. The great, joyful highlight was the safe arrival of our SECOND Miraculous Grandbaby, a boy, Martin Ramses Barry, 7 lb, 5 oz . He and our dear daughter are both well, happy and thriving. At his one month checkup, this lovely little bundle weighed 9 lb, 15 oz  and he has grown 2 inches in length! He's just beautiful and we are VERY happy, feeling extremely fortunate. For those who do not know the story, our daughter was told she'd never be able to have babies!!! She's ALWAYS been stubborn 😘 And , BTW, big brother, Oliver, LOVES his little bro!


Well, if I can figure out how to get some photos in here for you, I'll do that and again, wish you all the very best for Christmas  2016 and for the New Year.

Remember me????

Hello all, Dear Friends! My sincerest apologies for a long absence. I have NOT done any fibre art work for almost a year- EXCEPT that we are getting a new Grandboy in mid November, and, as I made an I Spy quilt for Oliver, I wanted to do one for the new guy too! Believe me, it has been a true labour of love with this wretched right hand of mine!!!! I see the surgeon on 08 November. Not sure what he'll do for me but I need SOMETHING done - and PDQ!!! Anyway, this is NOT my Magnum Opus, for sure, but it IS a second "bankit Granny made", says Oliver!!I finished the binding this AM!

The new Babe, who is as yet unnamed ( except for his Mummy's irreverent nickname- Cletus, the Fetus!) will be able to play I Spy just like his big Bro now !! BTW, I could NOT get this straight on the photo. The quilt IS actually square!!!!!

So what HAVE I been doing, I hear you ask? I have gardened as much as the hand will stand-
Magnolia Soulangeana turning golden at he front door

Our back garden this morning in the rain- 20 Oct 2016

Smokebush leaves JUST beginning to change colour.
AND, I have done a LOT of photography- thank heaven for that or I should have gone MAD!!! I hope I can still do it after the 8th of Nov!!!

Fallen beautifully coloured ash leaves. They all got chewed last spring and , of course, we are losing the trees to Emerald Ash Borer :-(

A lovely Buttercup Squash I played with before baking it.

One of three blooms on a VERY elderly Autumn Crocus- Speciosus, for the gardeners- that has been in our garden forever.

Down to Valley Inn Road one morning recently and I found this trio

Bought some small VERY orange Gerberas for the table for our Thanksgiving dinner table centre

The gills on the underside of a VERY white mushroom that grew on our lawn

The seed capsule of Morning Glory- quietly pretty!

That same mushroom again. It was quite large!

A little pie pumpkin that sits at the front door. Soon to be a pie, I think!

And the stunning bright blue fruits of the Virginia Creeper vines festooning the trees down at Valley Inn Road

And part of my gardening has been tending this ONE delicately gorgeous Hollyhock !! elle pukalo  and Margaret Blank BOTH, kindly sent me seeds TWO years ago and I had a great germination and then towering spires of promising looking buds this spring- but I had to dig them ALL out as they became infested with rust and Hollyhock Weevils!! How this little beauty missed the onslaught, I have NO idea but it did and I am soo grateful! Did this colour come from Margaret or elle??  Whoever is responsible, thank you sooo much but thank you sooo much to both of you.

That white Hollyhock with a flush of pink

It was a drippy morning and I wanted to catch the droplets

SUCH a pretty flower. It is not a big plant but it seems to be doing well. Hope it survives the winter!















Does either of you recognize it ? I LOVE it!! I loved them all but the weevils could NOT stay and we cannot spray any more :-(

I guess I'll TRY to post this to the needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.com I admit to having not paid attention to ANY blogs for ages! I feel SOOO out of the loop!- TOO late this week. I'll try again next Tuesday!

BTW, nice news- I got a Viewers Choice for my Poppies AglowII at the Fibre Content Show in September this year! Thank you all who voted for it!

Where DOES the time go???

It has been a VERY busy summer here in sunny Burlington! Following our trip to TN for Dr Daughter's graduation in May, we celebrated our fiftieth wedding anniversary (01 July) and DD and family came to celebrate with us and to visit and to show Oliver some of the sights his Mummy enjoyed as a little one..

We enjoyed a fun morning at Bronte Creek Provincial Park nearby where we spent our time visiting the Farm. Bronte Creek Park is on the site of a Victorian Farm and the house and barns have been preserved. There are plenty of old tractors ( guess who REALLY enjoyed those?) and farm animals- even peacocks!!It was VERY hot but still a very enjoyable morning.
One of the Barns.

Billy et al.

Nice Farm View.

O in Seventh Heaven!!

Nine Little Piggies!!

We visited Hutch's on the Beach where our son in law ate Fish and Chips. The rest of us had hamburgers and we all enjoyed ice cream cones for "afters"!!! Then, down to the beach to get wet and sandy. Who do you suppose LOVED THAT??
Serious discussion between Granddad and O

Father and Son in a little Photo Shoot.

Lovely day at the beach.

Water, Sand and a Little boy!! He LOVED it! Said he liked the "Big Water"!!

The "kids" visited some of Katherine's friends from work and school . We visited Great Great Granny and Great Grand Aunty and Uncle. We played A LOTTT! Generally, we had a ball, got VERY tired and had a VERY sad, quiet, lonely couple of weeks after they returned home. We'll see each other again in November some time  though when we go south to witness the birth of our SECOND GRANDSON!!!!!

In the meantime, I have been taking a LOT of photos. DH and I spent a lovely afternoon at a Lavender Farm, Steed & Co down near Lake Erie at Sparta ON. If you have never been , DO go if you get a chance. It is lovely. Best to go a bit earlier than we did when the lavender is in FULL bloom . Hot tip!!! Try the DEELISH Lavender Ice Cream Bars!!!!! They are TO DIE FOR- lavender infused vanilla ice cream sandwiched between two VERY chocolatey cookies. Another hot tip... NOT recommended by Weight Watchers  ;-)!!!( BTW, I have lost 22.5 lb since February!)
Steed & Co Lavender Farm! 

Glorious views. Fabulous fragrance!
Don't know these folks, but they are headed TOWARD the Ice Cream


Don't know these folks either. They are headed AWAY from the Ice Cream !!
Just a few odd shots I have taken . Some are not the best ones because they were too small when I selected them but you get the idea. The petals of a cut sunflower bloom.

Macro shot across the top of the centre of that bloom.

Peaches.

Strawberries.

More sunflower petals in late afternoon sunshine.

And blueberries. I belong to a Flickr Group called Macro Mondays. It is a themed group. Each week they issue a themed challenge and you post ONE shot on Monday. This week's was Fill The Frame With Food. That is why there is so much food here. I am NOT hungry!!


Last, but not least, three of my art quilts were accepted into the SAQA  show, Fibre Content 2016. The show runs at the Art Gallery of Burlington from 08 September to 18 September, 2016. Try to go and see it if you can.
Clockworks

A Green Thought in a Green Shade

Poppies AglowII


In case you are interested in more photos, check my Flickr account. The easiest way is just to google "Carolynn McMillan on Flickr". IF I can find pics of the quilts that were chosen , I'll add them at the end here. Enjoy the remaining hot days of this VERY HOT, VERY DRY summer. Take care !

As you can see, I HAVE found the photos, not fully edited but you get the picture. Many of you have seen them a zillion times in one state or another. Try to see the show. It should be an interesting one!

YIKES!!! MID MAY ALREADY!!!

It has been a crazy few months. I DID finish the Calla!
Still has the pins showing here but it IS actually DONE!!!

Closeups of the quilting! 

I must say it was fun getting back to this, however, I think I am leaning heavily toward photography so may cut back on the quilting.

This was fun! I dyed the mottled yellow green then overpainted it with red dye (into the still wet yellows)

AND, just last night DH and I returned from TN from a visit to our dear daughter, Katherine and her family! She graduated on 12 May from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville with her PhD!!!! I HAVE to say that we are terribly proud of her! She has been at it for ten years and is finished and about to launch into her career now with both feet - AND a second miracle baby on the way!!! Our cup TRULY runneth over! Katherine is an archaeologist specializing in lithic analysis and interpretation and is becoming quite expert at interpreting "use wear". Different stone tools were used for different tasks and Katherine , with the aid of a lot of knowledge and study and a MIGHTY fancy microscope, can tell now by the marks on the edges of those tools what they were used for!! It is a fascinating field and helps us interpret the lives of ancient peoples through the only artifacts that remain to us from those VERY long ago times! Our sweet little Grandboy calls her Dr Mommy now and has even christened his old , tattered grey bunny that I gave him , Dr Greybunny!! EVERYONE is now a Dr to Oliver!

So....for your further delectation, here are a few more pics that have NOTHING to do with Fibre Art!

Katherine, husband,Clay, Baby Oliver and big sis, Chloe- missing Big Bro, Cosmo

Way out of order but O found a dead Froggy! He was fascinated - especially with "Mommy!!! TINY hands!"!

Dr Katherine with her wonderful Co Advisor/CoChair, Dr B Driskell! Katherine had no need to stoop to be hooded by Dr D!!!

And, just as an extra, this is looking north on I75 near Caryville, TN where a HUGE rock and mudslide occurred a couple months ago. It affected BOTH sides of the highway requiring it ti be closed  BOTH ways till the mess was cleared and the hillside stabilized! I cannot believe that nobody was killed or even injured ! Some of the rocks were are large as cars!!!
Well, guess that's all for the moment. I apologize for being so slow and sluggish on my blog but we have had a LOT on the go! Hope you are all enjoying a wonderful end to spring and anticipating a great summer ahead! I shall post this to the needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.com. Have a look! I am going there myself now!!