Coping with confinement

I am in good health, but confined to my apartment under the COVID-19 restrictions. I am extremely grateful that I have my many interests to keep me occupied. If I had to narrow it down to the top three, I’d say making things (quilting, embroidery, sewing), reading and nature study are at the top of my list. No-one knows how long we’re going to have to hunker down in the hopes that the global pandemic will not get completely out of control. But I can tell you that I will not run out of fabric!

“Expectation”

I made two quilts last fall that were given as Christmas gifts to my two sons. “Expectation” is a small quilted portrait of my younger son’s apricot-coloured standard poodle, Paisley. If you look closely, you can see that I used a paisley fabric for her ear, as well as the “ground” fabric. I learned this fabric collage technique from Susan Carlson.

For my older son, I made a couch quilt using Anna Maria Horner’s “Feather Bed” pattern. I decided early on, as I constructed the feathers, that staying strictly within the red, orange, brown and yellow palette was too predictable, so I injected a bright blue, which is reminiscent of the blue patch on a mallard duck’s wing. I think that was a wise decision.

 

 

 

 

The health centre I wrote about previously finally opened, so I had the opportunity to go and see my “Reaching out for Strength Within“ quilt hanging there. I hope it inspires and uplifts those who see it.

Stay healthy and stay inside as much as you can, everyone!

 

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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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Catching up

There are so many quilts that haven’t made it into this blog! I’ll post a few photos now to try and make up for some lost time.

I blogged about this one here. It was a wedding gift for one of my nephews, and title I gave it in the end is “heart and soul mates”. The way I arranged the HSTs (half-square triangles) symbolizes two people coming together and creating something new.

This one is called “Line and Texture”. The pattern can be found in a book titled “In Love with Squares and Rectangles” by Amy Walsh and Janine Burke. My colour palette was inspired by the Jinny Beyer fabric that I used for the binding. My mother had bought a tremendous amount of this discarded 2″ trim when she visited Suttles & Seawinds in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia years ago. It’s going to take me a long time to use it all up!

Here’s another wedding quilt (couch quilt size) that I made for a niece who is a jazz musician. I had only bought a fat quarter of the feature fabric – with her in mind – but I was able to create a modern quilt, using coordinating fabrics from my stash and focusing on lots of negative space. I got the idea for this quilt by googling modern quilt ideas. Here’s the page I found, and I just made up my own measurements based on the optimum block size for the “jazz cats” imagery (actually called “Cool Cats” by Amy Boyajian/Lilla Rogers Studio for P & B Textiles).

My Marvellous Mythical Moth was started in a workshop with the talented Susan Carlson. I love her fabric collage technique! It is a small piece (20.5″ w x 16″ h) that was a lot of fun to put together.

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Natural inspiration

The natural world has it all: colours, patterns, designs, shapes, repeats. I am convinced that even if something doesn’t enter your consciousness the moment you encounter it, your psyche still has a chance to tuck it away for later reference. I often use my camera (rather than my mind’s eye) to capture a pattern or colour combination that attracts my attention.

water currents – light and shadow patterns

subtle colour and pattern of tree bark

an intricate design on the underside of the butterfly’s wing

a spiral pattern in the centre of a sunflower

 

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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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Community Catalyst

About six years ago, I was fortunate to discover a small group of women in my community whose interest and obsession with making textile art equals my own. Each year since then we’ve managed to find a place in the neighbourhood to mount a display of our creations.

A few times it was a room in a church, several times a funny little vacant space on the side of a building (called “Side Space Gallery”), once in a café, and this year, in a yoga studio. The expansive white wall that spans the length of the studio was just begging to be lit up with our colourful creations.

Grounded

We negotiated with the studio owner to have specific hours (around her classes) where people could come and see the exhibit, each weekend throughout the month of November.

A Patch of Stillness

This Saturday, we’ll be holding the opening reception for our show at the Studio for Movement.

A week ago, we met to “hang” the show. None of us knew what each other had created, so it was a bit like Christmas morning when we spread everything out on the floor to get an idea of what the collection looked like. Amazingly, it all came together beautifully. It’s astonishing how some of us, working independently, used similar colour palettes and themes in our work. This made it fairly easy to create groupings that complemented each other.

I worked pretty hard to get two new pieces finished (each participating artist is invited to submit two pieces) and was still stitching on the labels the day we hung the show!

A third piece I had brought along (Open Arms, aka Driven to Abstraction) turned out to be just the right size for one of the walls, so that means I have three pieces in the show!

Getting together with my artist friends to plan and execute these exhibits, on a shoestring, has proven to be a great catalyst for all of us to learn, laugh, experiment and share our art with the community.

If you’re in the Toronto area, I invite you to come by and be inspired!

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Wordless Wednesday

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Wordless Wednesday

quilt colour combination inspires jewelry

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Wordless Wednesday

laneway surprise

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Women inspiring women

I have a couple (OK, maybe four) projects on the go, so I thought I would share one of my latest obsessions. Wanda Hanson inspires me on many levels, and I identify with her bold colour sense. Ever since I came across her blog,  which has only been a matter of a month or two, I have been following her daily updates. She’s one talented artist, and prolific, to say the least. I don’t know whether she has any “down” time at all.

my “cobblestones” in progress on the design wall

Here’s my take on Wanda’s “cobblestones” design, batik style, up on the design wall. I’m not quite finished with the arrangement, but it’s getting there. The process is simple, downright addictive, and for the most part, I am using scraps.

Last weekend, I took my folks for a drive north of the city to a small art gallery in Unionville – the Varley Art Gallery – to see an exhibit titled “Canada on Canvas”.

We discovered a modest exhibit in a rather tiny gallery, but there were a few pieces by relatively famous artists that I hadn’t seen before. In particular, pieces by two Canadian women – Emily Carr and Doris McCarthy – made an impression.

Home, by Doris McCarthy

Ms McCarthy lived to 100 (1910 – 2010) and she lived and worked for many or most of those years atop the Scarborough bluffs, where I lived for a few years.

I can visualize her “Home” painting interpreted in fabric … inspiration for another day!

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