Alaska

We had a most awesome visit. The drive around Turnagain Arm is so amazing. The sea lions in Seward's Sea Life Center are really graceful and huge. photo by Oona

I look forward to wonderful memories.

building

I'm not sure what to say about the very intense LIFE that I am participating in this week. Just that both Ned and I are enjoying being grandparents. We feel nurtured.

life shapes

zigzagstripesfriendschocolateHapppy Easter

flying to Alaska

W flew to Alaska yesterday. Ned had the window seat for the first five hours of the six hour flight. He followed our trip across the states. I was able to stitch. On airplanes I use a round thread cutter, not scissors. We got here in time for the nature walk/Easter Egg hunt.

my life

I emptied and sorted my quilt cupboard over the weekend. I came across this enlarged negative of Oona in her high school graduation robes that I had planned to stitch to fabric. And the red thread baby I embroidered onto her muslin dress. The wrappings done the year my mother died. I did two things. The first was to take the quilts made before 1998 out and put them into a downstairs cupboard. The second was to re-organize the Millennium Journal stacks of fabric. Eight panels of 28 days each were stitched together, but that still leaves a lot of days between November 1998 and February 2001. Twenty-two months are just stacked. My life is in this work.

travel photography

I took over 300 photos last week when we were on Grand Cayman Island. Taking photos makes me see better. Just looking through the viewfinder makes me see better. Photography makes me more aware. These coral stones covered the beach near the blowholes on the East End of Grand Cayman. Their marvelous texture of dots, zigzags, and stripes is something I don't want to forget and won't now because of these photos. Ned and I have been doing a lot of traveling these last few years, and I love the digital camera my kids gave me. Getting the photos into a format I can use for studio inspiration is my next challenge. Looking at them on a computer screen doesn't seem enough. Above is a photo of live coral taken through a glass bottomed boat.


British artist Polly Binns takes photos

and puts them into large books.





"I tend to take photographs in series, responding to one element which dominates on that particular occsion. I keep the photographs in large books in the studio, partly as a reminder, but they are also kept for themseles, as a separate activity. They inevitably form a part of my accumulated memory." Polly Binns

Home Time

It's time to leave. I'll miss my little balcony studio. I'll miss this more!

each stitch is a second, each hour is a day

Yesterday we held starfish.
The day before we saw a coral garden.

It takes me an hour to use up a skein of cotton floss.
The colours of thread mark the individual days.

so quick

so slow

so beautiful

today, yesterday, tomorrow

today yesterday tomorrow

we are AWAY

community

Our Mended World, hand pieced circle, machine pieced aura, recycled damask table cloths and silk, a community project, work in progress 96" x 96" (detail shown)
I'm away for some of this month and it is so affirming that the circle project will continue to go forward. Thank you very much to Heather for making sure that the Thursday afternoon meetings remain constant, and to the other regular stitchers who come out each week.

I hope to get this top layered and backed and in the quilt frame by the beginning of May.

New comers always welcome to start any time. You will love it.

school news

Daughter April just found out that she has been accepted as a sculpture major at Concordia U in Montreal. Although she has been an independent student a year or so, acceptance into the program is big news for her. Congratulations April. This ship is an example of her work in clay. What I admire about April is that she has no fear and has done some powerful work with all manner of materials. In her last email she was cutting steel ! Here she is wrapping grass with foil on Manitoulin two years ago. I have a lot of photos of her making stuff over the years. So proud.

On a side note, I have posted 3 months of work over to the UK for my own assessment and am recovering here with blogland and red wine. Guess I should go clean the house.

inner world

I think that there are three entryways to the inner self. The first is the senses, such as the sense of touch which unlocks unconscious memories. The second is a strong emotion such as wonder or anger because the body, mind and soul are totally consumed for a brief moment but the end result is self knowledge. The third path to the inner self is a large emptiness as it encourages contemplation. These garments were purchased at Frenchy's, a thrift store in Nova Scotia because of their beautiful fabrics. Wool, linen, silk, brand name clothing, most made in places like the Domincan Republic.
Stitched shut. Thin women.
We say that we are sorry.

leaf

There's something lively about these tucks. Slowly made yet allegro.