Why the Piping Plover is the ultimate emblem for World Shorebirds Day

Unless you are a self-avowed curmudgen, you can’t help but admire these birds, and because I happen to have a free pass to one of their breeding grounds (Sauble Beach on Lake Huron), it was love at first sight for me.

Source: Why the Piping Plover is the ultimate emblem for World Shorebirds Day

Loving something, and then adapting it into a piece of textile art is another thing! But it’s a challenge that I welcome.

I used my own photographs of the plovers at the beach for guidance, and found fabrics that would convey the elements of the plovers’ habitat (lake, shoreline, beach grasses). The background is pieced, and the bird is machine appliqéd on top. You can see that I used a piece of driftwood as the hanging device.

I donated this piece to the Bruce Peninsula Bird Observatory‘s silent auction fundraiser that year (2007).

If you’d like more information about the Piping Plovers at Sauble Beach, visit this website: http://ploverlovers.com/.

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Earth Day, Earth Month, Earth Year

It is a wholesome and necessary thing for us to turn again to the earth, and in the contemplation of her beauties to know of wonder and humility.

~ Rachel Carson

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Vintage hankies

As quilters, we cannot help but be attracted to colour and pattern in textiles, can we? I gave up using kleenex years ago, using handkerchiefs instead for the runny nose that I get from allergies or just breathing cold air in the winter. I’ll relent and buy a box of kleenex if I get a cold, but for day-to-day needs, I rely on hankies.

Being a genuine tree-hugger and having my consciousness raised by both Greenpeace and Bridget Stutchbury, I cannot rationalize supporting forest destruction just to blow my nose.

vintage hankies given a new lease on life

My first set of hankies were plain organic cotton ones made in BC and sold at Grassroots, which back then was the only store in Toronto selling eco-friendly wares. But in the last couple of years, I’ve been keeping an eye out for vintage hankies at second-hand stores, and have acquired some beauties.

So cute!

I love it when my environmental, practical and artistic proclivities converge, and this is one of those instances.

Click on the image to see it full size.

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