Feather and Fan Pattern for Centerpiece

From the beautiful coffeetable book Knitter's Stash (2001) by Barbara Albright, I found her intriguing patterns for elaborate lace washcloths.  She has eight different lace patterns, and suggests using linen as knitting yarn for these small projects.

Knitting a smaller piece is a good way to see which lace pattern repeat you prefer from the eight discussed. 

Using a bright wool/polyester fiber with slubs, here is the completed project called "Feather and Fan":

And here is one use for this little jewel:

It is a canvas for a terrarium placed beneath a painting on an entryway table.  Those bright colors just make me happy. 

And now I am ready to complete a shawl with the same "feather and fan" lace repeat on its edges.  This smaller snippet of lace was helpful in familiarizing myself with that particular pattern repeat.

LED Lighting for Decoration

Coming up with a new lighting decoration for Thanksgiving dinner being served after the sun goes down, here is an idea: use LED cool white bulbs.  What are the advantages of LED bulbs?

Here is a good summarization of LED cool white lights:

LEDs present many advantages over incandescent light sources including lower energy consumption, longer lifetime, improved robustness, smaller size, faster switching, durable and reliable. However, they are relatively expensive and require more precise current and heat management than traditional light sources. Current LED products for general lighting have higher costs than fluorescent lamp sources of comparable output.

Also, the lights are stated to have a 25,000 hour average light bulb life.  The purchased light string consisting of 30 bulbs was less than $5.

Michael's had last-of-season silk flowers on sale for 90% off, so I bought a bunch of sunflowers and cut out the centers of the stamins so that a LED bulb could be pulled through.  Silk foliage was added, and the resulting lighted garland now decorates the window sill of one of the dining area windows. This was an inexpensive Thanksgiving decoration project for less than $10.

 Although the cool lights do not emit a "warm" glow, hopefully the candles on the table centerpiece will add to the soft lighting ambience. 

Please visit  tomorrow for a famous cranberry relish recipe supplied via an NPR podcast.

Fall Decorations - Quilted Centerpieces

Underneath the pumpkins and candles in the centerpiece below is a quilted fall fabric piece given to us several years ago by our Famous Family Quilter Pat McCarroll. Pat has won many awards for her quilting art at the Texas State Fair, and at local quilt guild shows in and around Dallas, Texas.

Pat has also shown one of her quilts at the annual International Quilt Festival  always held in Houston.

Thanks again for that pretty, seasonal and hand made item, Pat. And congratulations on your latest recognitions for quilting arts in Sulphur Springs, TX this month.

And another table topper:

Final cosmos showing their colors in the evening dusk:

Madonna and Child for Display

Some religious souvenirs I collect are small icons of Madonna and Child. When traveling, my eye is always out for different renditions of this subject. I have close to twenty of these icons and group them together for a Christmas display, along with miniature lights, crystal and silver ornaments, and sometimes candles.

Here is a thought on this type arrangement from Holiday-guide regarding tradition and whimsy:

A little green, a little red, something sparkly, a few lights --is that your holiday decor plan? Time to go hunting for heirlooms in your china cabinet, add some ... handicrafts and make your home personal and memorable for the holidays.... focus on three elements -- personality, iconic theme and interesting colour combinations -- when ... conjuring up holiday decor ideas. "I recommend starting with your traditional favourites and adding an unconventional twist."

This is a grouping of my display of The Madonna and Child icons, displayed under a large mirror in our entryway. These icons were collected from Mexico, Israel, Rome, Italy, Spain and Norway:


The traditional part of the display would be the icons, and the whimsical part includes paper doilies covering miniature lights which I previously researched in this blog about doilies and lights. So inadvertently, the suggestions from Holiday-guide regarding whimsy and tradition were followed.

This beautiful icon of the Madonna & Child was created by Richard G. Cannuli O.S.A., picture courtesy of The Augustinian Press:

From WorldandI:

The theme of the Madonna and Child is among the most ancient and widespread in Christian iconography and has the greatest number of variations because--beyond its symbolic religious functions--it allows one to analyze the relationship between mother and child in its many aspects.

Reviewing the history of Madonna and Child art was an interesting morning in blog land. Other sources you might like to look at are:

Stencils and Pages for Reproduction and history-madonna-and-child and History of the Black Madonna and Child

Go to Kelli's House for lovely show-and-tell Christmas displays. Your eyes will have a virtual feast!

Autumn Photo

Our sweet sister Pam sent me three lovely metallic acorns yesterday in honor of fall. What a thoughtful thing for her to do. Thanks, Pam! I will use them in several ways over the next years and always think of you when I see them.

In the lower right hand side of the picture is yet another lace scarf that is almost off the needles. It will go on the Flickr and Ravelry websites today as a UFO (unfinished object), with another pair of socks begun for the December Pair a Month challenge, also on Ravelry, the international and internet knitting and crocheting community.

Easter Decorations

Palm Sunday is past and the palm used in church is displayed along with bunnies and spring ornaments placed below a vase of alstroemeria.

Enjoy your beginning of the spring season today.