January is a slow time in the studio but the work has not completely stopped. Whenever the temperature is reasonable I spend the day making a few new pieces and refining some new ideas. I heat my studio with a wood stove which has its challenges when it’s really cold. When it’s minus 25 Celsius the stove can only do so much! It’s been that cold for the past month so keeping  it from freezing everything is what I worry about. However the last few days have been pleasantly mild, snow is melting, birds are singing and the kiln is on!

Roxy and I have been having some nice walks the past few days. The otters are around at the lock, lots of track marks show their presence!  

I think they must fish at the open water when the weather is good.

So today while the kiln is firing I’ve been drafting my first ever sewing pattern, the Boxy Tee. I read a great tutorial by Cal Patch on how to do it which I found on A Verb For Keeping Warm blog. Cal takes you through each step of taking measurements of your body to create the pattern and how to alter the design to make inset side panels and pockets! 

I raided my fabric stash and found some beautiful oatmeal linen and I’m going to incorporate some other linen which I Eco dyed/printed with plants from my garden. 

Feeling the linen and seeing the imprints of flowers and leafs makes me dream of warmer times to come. In the meantime I must go out turn my kiln up and throw another log on the fire.

cheers all, terrie