Aurifil's Il Salotto Advent Calendar

 

It's not too early to be thinking ahead to Christmas!  Aurifil has just announced their 2026 Advent calendar and the deadline to pre-order is not far away! 

Designed as a celebration of creativity, comfort, and the art of making by hand, Il Salotto, Aurifil’s 2026 advent calendar, invites you to slow down and savor the season— one thoughtful stitch at a time. Il Salotto, which means“the living room” in Italian, is the heart of every home this time of year. The place where stitches happen by lamplight, stories get told, and the holiday season slowly unfolds. 24 little doors, 24 surprises, and a palette designed to feel exactly like that warm corner makers keep returning to.

Behind each door awaits a beautifully curated spool of Aurifil’s premium 100% cotton thread, offering a quiet moment of inspiration each day. With 12 small spools of their versatile Cotton 50wt and 12 small spools of their richly textured Cotton 12wt, this collection was created to support piecing, quilting, and embellishing alike, honoring every facet of the maker’s craft.

You will also have access to a secure online portal exclusive to calendar holders, featuring digital content and seasonal extras designed to enrich the experience. As a special bonus, five  calendars worldwide will contain a rare golden spool redeemable for an exclusive Aurifil prize package valued at over $300.

These calendars are a limited production run, and Aurifil has anticipated high demand. They must be pre-ordered to receive one, and no additional units will be produced. The deadline to get your orders to me is June 18^th so that I can let Aurifil know our numbers in time. The calendars are not just fun, they are beautifully presented and make a great gift to yourself or someone special; just email if you would like details. (karen at karenneary dot ca) We are happy to mail to any address in Canada. (Local folks are welcome to pick theirs up, of course!)

June 18^th is not very far away so please act quickly if you are interested.  The calendars will arrive to me in mid-November so you should have yours in time to start opening on December 1.

 

Point Me Home

Driving around the countryside, I am always intrigued by the many barn quilts in our area and wish that I had one to hang...especially since we have a barn.  Sadly, painting just isn't my thing so it is not in my wheelhouse as a quilter to make one...or is it? 

The idea stuck in my head for the better part of a year trying to figure out how a cotton quilt could hang outside and not be destroyed by sun and rain.  I experimented with several different methods before hitting on the very easiest and obvious which should have occurred to me in the first place. ;)  This spray waterproofing is used on canvas tents and things like patio cushions, is inexpensive, and widely available in Canadian hardware stores.  I found it at Home Hardware, Kent, and Canadian Tire.  There is enough in the can to do several projects.

I chose the fabrics and then tested scraps with the spray.  The results were positive and water beaded up on the top.

I chose to make my Mariner's Compass from only three, high contrast colours so that the design would stand out from a distance.  It went together easily as the pieces are quite large.  You can find a tutorial on how to inset the centre circle here.  Instead of batting I chose a fairly rigid foam so that the piece would have good body and not droop when hung.  The quilting was kept very simple, mostly stitch in the ditch.

Once complete it was time to add the spray waterproofing.  I took it outside and taped plastic to protect our picnic table and proceeded to spray the top.

Following the instructions on the can I left it to dry the required time, then flipped it over and did the back.

For the recommended second application I sped things up by hanging it from a tree so I could do both sides.  This worked really well and was all that was required to make this weatherproof.

The compass is a square but I decided to hang it on point on the front door.  

To do this, I added a short hanging sleeve on the back about 4" down from the top point and inserted a short dowel  Then I used zip ties to secure it to the screen door.  The picture below was taken almost 2 months of it being outside through snow, rain, and lots of sun.  I really like that it says "a quilter lives here" and I have gotten lots of comments from folks driving by who have spotted it.   Brainstorming for an appropriate name, my son suggested Point Me Home.

You can order a printed pattern from my website, or email me to use etransfer.  Digital downloads are available at this link.  The pattern is also available at quilt shops (including locally at Sunrise Trail Quiltery) so please ask there first...and if they don't have it, ask them to order it for you, 

Red and White Side By Side

 Each year I design a piece for Valentine's Day, usually the standard red and white with hearts. Sometimes I throw in a cupid, just for good measure.  A couple of weeks ago I started casting my mind around for what I would stitch this year.  On January 10, I saw this post from Charlie Angus on Face Book; it looked very much like a Valentine to me. In case that link doesn't work, here is the entire URL:

 https://www.facebook.com/charlieangus.the.resistance/posts/pfbid02UQpULVag6kLBeHNDhupWy3Ja2aBnRjkoJ7GbRtaXjr1y29pr6Lw6KgQAgoavrvnfl

I wanted the only obvious colours in my Valentine to be red and white so decided the background should be monochromatic.  I knew immediately I had a scrap in my stash that would be perfect for the background...but didn't realize how perfect until I hauled it out;  the selvedge revealed it was made by Stof of Denmark.  

The print was news clips from around the world and the text is in French.

I needed to tie together the elements of red and white and hearts so I made them into heart-shaped balloons:

The balloons are tiny and stitching took care.  The hardest was all those points on the maple leaf, as it measures less than 1-3/4" tall.

The flags are raw edge applique, and they were trapuntoed with an extra layer of batting so they would pop out on the background. 

For the main batting, I used a thin layer of Hobbs Thermore, which is lovely for a wall hanging.  The quilting is nothing fancy, as I didn't want it to show.  

Once the piece was quilted, a white cord was couched using white Aurifil 50 weight thread for the strings.

  I had just enough left of the black/grey used in the silhouette to make the binding.  The backing is a red and white stripe.

I photographed it this morning on a fresh bed of snow, a perfect backdrop for our countries.  I particularly like this photo as even though the white balance is off, it gives a blue cast to the snow in parts, making it look like a cloudy sky.

And that's my Valentine for 2026.