Autumn Travellers

We welcomed our Australian cousins Pip and Fox

and had a great time showing them around our little piece of the world.

Then I became the traveller

Joining the Connections Fibre Artists group for a stitching retreat.

Reconnecting with old friends and making new ones.

Gail

Mita

Jackie

 

Bev

Gordana

Bethany

Wendy

Ralph

Chris

Sharron

Diane

Anne

Gunnel

Helen

Elizabeth

 Four days spent with fellow stitchers is so renewing

 for those of us who quietly work alone in our studios.

Four days spent with friends old and new

means one heck of a lot of talking!

and boy did we laugh!

Thank you to Elizabeth and her sister Patti for their generous hospitality

and

Many thanks to Bethany who drove me to meet up with my son Mark. 

Mark and I drove North amid fields of wind turbines

Beautiful in their strangeness

and for the first time ever they were all twirling!

 Travelling through rural Ontario....

....one is bound to find many....

....a barn and at this time of year....

 ....much colour.

 Then Collingwood comes into view.

Thank you to my boys and their families for

a lovely Thanksgiving.

Now I am home again and back in the studio

getting used to the quiet

and hopefully starting many new stitchings.

Been Away - At Maggie's

Photograph by Maggie Vanderweit

Maggie generously invited Judy and I to stay with her and Fred after retreating.

That evening some dear friends came to dinner.

Elizabeth Duggan Litch

Sharron Deacon Begg

Ann Sanders

Ralph Beney

That night I started reading Maggie's book

"Stone Threads"

A beautiful book where Maggie 

shares her work and her love of life, family and travel.

Maggie and Fred are collectors of Mark's art.

My particular favourite.

 And I was really drawn to her brother's beautiful carvings.

 A special treat was spending time with Maggie in her studio

and getting a personal showing of her work.

Thank you Maggie

Been Away - SAQA Central Canada Retreat

My trip started with Brett meeting me at Toronto airport

and driving me all the way to Crieff.

Precious time in the car with my boy.

Thank you, Brett for spoiling me!

Photograph by Maggie Vanderweit

What a joy it was to be included in the retreat.

I was an interloper, being from the Maritimes chapter of SAQA,

but a last minute cancellation

allowed me to go and spend some precious time with Judy

and other Ontario stitchers.

My goodness me, Judy and I have been friends

for years and years and years.

We are sisters in many ways.

Judy and I were able to catch up and talk about our upcoming show

"cloth of Time"

at the Mary E Black gallery in Halifax.

(Thank you to Rose for photographing our hands over Judy's stitching)

Thank you to the energetic and talented Maggie Vanderweit

who organized everything brilliantly.

I love that her mantra is "growing community".

Maggie and I have been friends for many a year too.

Ever since she too joined Connections.

Another great talent and dear friend, Bethany Garner, 

was there (in the background).

Bethany is a member of Kingston Fibrearts and 

a fellow member of Connections.

I met Lisa Courtnage (foreground) who impressed me with her dedication
 and focus on colour mixing for the whole retreat!

What a friendly and talented group it was.

Couldn't include them all but

asked the hand stitchers if I could include them here.

Rose Klein was hand stitching a large beautiful piece.

I loved her red and black....

 and choice of stitches....

and designs.

From left to right

June Robertson, Harriet Rynberk and Hildegarde Sausik.

Hildie on the right was hand stitching....

....her lovely natural dyed and printed cloths.

Loved them.

Well I never....

....As I worked on this post

the mail lady delivered this card from another retreater,

Linda A. Campbell who had promised to send this maritimer

a whale.

Thank you Linda!

Photograph by Maggie Vanderweit

I did manage to get one "Stone Pathway" out

but didn't really get much stitching done.

Connecting with as many fellow retreaters and 

like-minded spirits was my priority.

This was their first retreat

and I wish them many more!

Staying Connected Across The Miles

Living many miles away from my grand babies is hard for me.

I seek different ways of staying in touch

and one of them is

to draw little scenes that I think will tickle a

three year old's fancy

and drop them in the mail.

This week I tried to draw one of her many

book characters

the Gruffalo!

 and two of his woodland friends.

 She likes pictures of things she does.

Then, when she gets them, she colours them in.

This one obviously arrived just in time

for a Maple Leafs game.

Big fans in that family!

A collaboration between generations!

A Sense of Place....Work by the Artist's Way Cooperative

Last Thursday we drove down to Yarmouth

and hung our second show at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia Western Branch.

We called the show

A Sense of Place.

Each of us worked in our own way to that theme.

Grace Butland worked with fabrics dyed from foodstuffs in her kitchen.

For Nadine Belliveau it was scenes from her village that inspired.

Sherry Caldwell had been in France just before she

started working toward this show.

Diane Clapp found inspiration from her photos of sand cranes

and reflections in the lakes around here as well as lichens.

She also dyed three of her pieces naturally.

And this is a very yellow photo of my work

based on the rocks that form the foundation of the land around here.

We call ourselves the Artist's Way Cooperative.