January 2019

Yep, I'm still here ...
     I took a trip way back in May 2018 to the British Isles with my youngest daughter. We travelled through the Cotswolds, Wales, England's Lakefield district and into Scotland, finally taking a train from Edinburgh to London, where my daughter flew back home for work and I headed to York / Yorkshire Dales for a few days,  I took tons of pictures and worked out a memory art quilt design in the shape of the large window of Yorkminster using photos of many of the places I visited in order to create mini-art quilts for all the stained glass windows.
     It would have been beautiful, but I didn't make it. I have a lot of art quilts and bed quilts around my house; I sell a few and some go in shows at art galleries, but mostly they are here at my house.  And I thought of my sister-in-law in Amsterdam who still rents the studio space that my brother had because there is still so much of his artwork left after his death in 1994.  And of my uncle, whose paintings have such detail they look like photographs, with every wall in his house covered in artwork. What happens to all of our work after we die?  Is it fair to expect my two daughters to decide what is worth keeping or not?
     So ... I have been on Quilt Art Hiatus.

Doesn't mean I have stopped working though.
Lots of the leftover samples from classes I taught years ago made it into charity quilts.

     I redid the studio area; painted the walls a shiny ice blue; reorganized everything and got rid of books and fabric and pieces I started and know I will never finish. The sofa and my sewing machine are now facing the window ... where I can see ships passing by into Bedford Basin. Its a bright and cheery space even on a super grey snowy - rainy day like today.

     And I took a class on bookbinding through NSCAD ... gave away several books as Christmas gifts. I'd like to do more of this!!

     This beige book, the most complicated one, was my favourite to make. 
     Years ago, when the girls and I travelled west through the US and returned through Canada, I found an old ink stamp block with music shaped in the metal -- a page that had been used in printing music books.  I got the chance to run off several sheets at the bookbinders to use as book covers.

     In the process of cleaning up and out, there were containers of leftover wool and yarn. Some went to friends and some made it into hats and mitts which I delivered yesterday to a soup kitchen, they like to have extras on hand to give out to people who come in to eat. Winter is long so I think I will be able to knit a few more for them before the warmer weather comes.

   
     Trips have been made back and forth for the SAQA Transitions art quilt show -- to Yarmouth and Inverness, NS and this week I'm off to Saint John, NB for the opening of our final show.  These two are still travelling about.

     Life throws in a few rocky patches along the way: my daughter's surgery during the summer took a lot more out of her than expected, so I spent a fair bit of time helping out there, and my Dad passed away this fall; that has left a big empty space in my life.  I was lucky enough to be able to be with him several days a week for the past few years.