I heard this poem today

watercolour of a quilt idea

The hour is striking so close above me,

the 9 year old's mermaid 

So clear and sharp, that all my senses ring with it.

the 6 year old's mermaid

 

I feel it now: there's a power in me

April with forsythia from Toronto

to grasp and give shape to my world.

embroidery from Mexico

I know that nothing has ever been real

green quilt by April

without my beholding it.

forsythia in bloom

All becoming has needed me.

My looking ripens things

and they come toward me, to meet and be met.

Rainer Maria Rilke
 

April on deck

Our daughter April has been home with us for the last 6 weeks.

 She and her cat left Toronto when things closed up because of the pandemic.

 Most of her time has been spent out on our deck with her quilts.

 At first she sorted through her fabrics and read through most of my quilt books.

 She has more ideas than  she can possibly get to.

 She thinks about both sides of a quilt. 

Above is the reverse side of the quilt in the top photo of this post.

 Five of her pieces - there are two or three more that did not make the photo.

 My favourtie part of this mother-daughter pandemic residency is stitching with her.
We've been listening to The Dutch House by Ann Patchett on audio book.

 All hand pieced and hand quilted.

 She's completed a baby quilt from stripe fabric - both sides made into a web design.

What a kid.

all at once

new work

Layers.  Horizontals.
Plant-dyed,light-weight cottons and silks.

Small pieces of cloth, each ironed in half and the fold stitched.
Then joined together into rows.

 All by hand.

Yesterday, I worked in my Little Current studio
(10 foot walls and good light)

I'm basting the pieced strips to a lightweight foundation.

I am trying to express what it feels like to look at the sky

Looking up.

the cosmos ...... the earth......  the atmosphere

At home, I am sorting.

Spring is here.

Her Interior Wilderness

Over the weekend I went out on the deck and stitched this piece,
enjoying the spring sunshine.

I outlined white petal shapes with black wool thread, added french knots here and there.
Stitching on paper is a slow way to make marks that appear to be spontaneous.
I thought these looked pretty free and easy,
until I looked at the reverse side.

Here it did look care-free. Intuitive.  WOW

I prefer this 'wrong' side.
I wonder if this is a metaphor for how we prefer our life to be like?
Sensuous and unplanned, barely contained.
Just going. Doing.  and it is beautiful.

I continued to work from the pretty side.  I like the pretty side.
But I love the messy side.

Her Interior Wilderness

That's the kind of day it was.
Sparkling.
The eyes of the spirits winking off the water.
Richard Wagamese