chanting

The similitudes of the past and those of the future,

the glories strung like beads on my smallest sights and hearings,

the certainty of others,

the life, love, sight, hearing of others.

Others will see the islands large and small.

Fifty years hence, others will see them,

A hundred years hence, others will see them.

what is it then between us?

what is the count of the scores or hundreds of years between us?

I too felt the curious abrupt questionings stir within me

It is not upon you alone the dark patches fall,

The dark threw its patches down upon me also,

I laid in my stores in advance,

I considered long and seriously of you before you were born.

We understand then do we not?

Live, old life!

Play the old role!

Receive the summer sky, you water, and faithfully hold it

Till all downcast eyes have time to take it from you.

You have waited, you always wait.

We receive you at last.

We plant you permanently within us.

We fathom you not.  We love you.

These are Walt Whitman's words 

baby quilt

What is the correct size for a baby quilt? The one I made for Everett three years ago is 32 inches by 49 inches, perhaps a little narrow, perhaps a little long. I checked the internet and learned that there is no expected size - it depends on how you plan to use it. Everett dances on his quilt







and later Mr Moose slowly walked by the backyard.

be contemporary

BE CONTEMPORARY.

Be unafraid to express the times in which we live.

Information that we gather with our senses (touch, smell, taste) is MORE REAL than that which we find with abstract thought.

Energy given and received

Everyone seemed pleased by the Power and Beauty workshop. Even me.

peacefulness

We are in Anchorage again, visiting our daughter and her new family. Here is the beautiful grand-boy asleep under my quilt. Age 7 months. He is so ADORABLE!

baby on quilts

Time for another brag photo of my only grandson. Here he is at 6 months on two quilts made especially for him by his two grannies. Mine is at the front of the photo. Jane's is further back.
(photo by Oona)

the water is my grandmother

I have finally finished a quilt for my new grandson and will be sending it up to Alaska right after Christmas. The quilt is entirely hand pieced from reccyled clothing and scraps in a traditional flying geese pattern. (to represent his parents who each flew North to Alaska) The full view of the quilt is number forty in one hundred quilts.

Photo by Oona Martin

Each stitch is a second

Hand stitches hold time and make it visible. The sheer amount of them stand in for the period of time (months) that I have been with this quilt. The repeated touching by my hand is like a caress. Its visible time and visible love.

grandmother

"The earth is my mother
The sun is my father
The water is my grandmother"


Cree






(He's four months old , photo by Oona)

repetition

An effect of certainty and security happens with repetition. In my quilts I am calmed by the process of putting one stitch after another into a repeated pattern of similar shapes.
Shown is a detail of the baby quilt I'm working on now.

Montreal

I love the small hoop purchased in Alaska last month as it allows me to continue to quilt on the go. We were just in Montreal with our grown children and had this gorgeous view from the hotel at dawn. Similar shapes and colours appear in the quilt, don't you think?

lived metaphor

It's interesting that the quilt I am hand piecing while in Anchorage is like a colourful representation of the mountains that ring the city.