Testing the Waters

Didn't go to Jane's class with any fabric because I really don't to floral.

Would have been quite happy playing with pencil and paper for three days.

However Jane didn't object to me playing with water reflections

I popped out and bought some fabric.

It seems that wherever quilters gather there is always someone selling fabric!

After two days of cutting squiggles I was disappointed...

it looked like that op art fabric print from the sixties!

But then two things happened...

I thought of adding that blue scratchy leaf fabric.

By having about 6" inch lengths appear from behind the vertical squiggles

and placing them to form a large curve across the whole piece

the eye will have another line to follow........hopefully!

I still felt it needed another shape

Jane spotted lozenge shapes in my photo

and promptly cut some out of paper.

You can see one at the top of the first photo....

So now I have something I can work with.

Not in my usual style 

but 'twill be fun.

Thank you for a great workshop Jane.

Designing Within Shape

Years ago I found some shapes in that water photo

and forced them into pie shapes and from there into a circle.

Under Jane's guidance we all tried to get to know a flower.

We had to choose a shape and force a leaf into it.

Couldn't resist a nibbled leaf.

Tried a triangle.

Then a circle.

Didn't take much to force a lily into a triangle.

September Growth

Looking more like a sponge than a spreading fungus growth.

A village of mushrooms is growing beneath the trees.

Their rooftops look like a natural dyer has been at work in the garden.

I suppose to an ant it might look like an alien spaceship.

Something out of 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind'.

September Blooms

Twirling wild honeysuckle makes me think "bad hair day!"

One brown petal still clinging on to an elegant poppy topknot.

Queen Anne's Lace

even more interesting as she ages.

One rose still expecting to bloom

Perseverance

Optimism

Forever Young

Prickly wild roses grow everywhere here

but I never noticed until today their rose-hips even have thorns!

Home Again

Back from lovely Pictou Lodge

where sixty of us gathered

thanks to Barb's vision and organizational skills.

We all quilted and partied,

forged friendships

 and ate way too much!

And boy did we laugh.

Thank you Celeste and Joan,

Isabel and Rosemary

for so generously including me.

Pictou is a place where eagles soar

seagulls swirl

cormorants fan their wings

and spider webs catch morning dew.

I took a class with the lovely Jane Sasseman....

Jane is a student of the decorative arts and art nouveau movement.

She is a gentle soul and a generous teacher.

It is always fascinating to learn how others approach their work.

Lovely pieces were being born under Jane's guidance.

A Gathering of Quilters

Today I'm running away to a lovely gathering of quilters

at Pictou Lodge.

Don't expect to have internet access 

so I won't be posting for a week.

But hopefully will be gathering lovely pics and stories

to share when I get back.

As we walked through the woods to our favourite watering hole

red squirrels chattered and screeched warnings that

rusty pups were about.

We were interrupting their busy winter preparations.

The pups and I took a path less travelled.

They swam in the lake

rolled in the sand

and played tag through the trees.

I spied subtle signs of seasonal changes.

Do you remember having to explore all the types of line you could make in art class?

Where water and land meet

So many types of edges or lines.

Smooth firm line of rock against water

Gently rippled lines of waves

A scratchy line of washed up pine needles 

Spikey gatherings of shoreline grasses.

Have a nice day

and go and see what Kaite's creative Mum can do with kelp

down there in Australia!

Warmth on a Cold, Cold Morning

A few warm pictures to help with the shock that we've turned the heating on.

Brrr and it's only September!

In between transplanting perennials to new homes

and thinking of ways of eating and preserving courgettes,

beets and apples....

....a lot of cloth is being covered with stitches.

Tools of the Trade

Made this needle case for my mother many years ago.

When it belonged to her it remained untouched by human hands!

For the last four years it has been my constant companion....

....in use every day.

Bursting with needles and pins....

...and my grandmother's thimble that I can't do without.

Birthday Boy

Happy Birthday Steven

Another Path that's Percolating

Another layer in the recesses of my mind

is wondering how to stitch the ripples and reflections

of a rain filled puddle.

What fascinates me here is the transition from perfect circles

to the broken messy reflection of a vertical tree trunk.

Recreating water would not be my intent

though the character of those flowing lines and shapes could never be lost.

So many levels of line and shape are captured in water....

from underlying currents to rippling surface disturbances, 

  

from the shapes of things in and under the water to...

a million reflections of everything around and above that water.

Perhaps too much 'white noise' but so many possible stitchings.

What interests me in this one is the wake from the beaver

breaking the straight lines of the woodland reflections.

I will be isolating bits and enlarging bits,

exploring ideas

until this Penny drops!

Working in the Background of my Mind

As I stitch on the Rusty Gate

thoughts of how to develop the next rusty piece are percolating.

This one has always been about feathers to me.

Feathers like this.

Or this.

One of my favourite things is to dye a piece of fabric

then sit back and see what story it reveals.

I've been trying to identify the feathers on a photograph.

Some don't work and will be rejected, but things are gelling.

Percolating cannot be rushed.

Good thing too

because there's lots more stitching to be done elsewhere!

A Day of Silence

We awoke shrouded in fog on this solemn day of memory.

Eeny Meeny Miny Mo

Carrying on with the Rusty Gate.

Choices had to be made.

How to continue stitching the new strip?

Surely beneath an old gate there would be tangled weeds.

I tried stitches in a mess of shapes and colours.

Didn't work for me...way too bold and shockingly different

 from the calm rows of stitching above the gate. 

Tried softening the colours

but holding on to the idea of messy weed shapes.

Still not what I want to say.

Too insipid.

Went back to darker colours

and returned to rows of stitches

but messy rows!

Now I'm happy!

More in keeping with the rest of this piece but slightly different.

My own strange way of keeping it simple or perhaps minimalism!

Soft, Sandy Beach Visit

When a sandpiper walks by...

...a rusty pup has to remain tethered, just in case.

Strange leathery stuff isn't it.

Once out of range of birds,

the pups can have fun.

The sand here was so, so soft.

I lagged behind fascinated by the wavy sand markings.

Stitching lines perhaps.