A Special Delivery Day

Winter arrived yesterday.
But after a cold and blustery walk along the dyke
my heart warmed with excitement...
...there was a parcel waiting for pick up
...and it turned out to be
a marvellous piece of Judy Martin's work
that I am now thrilled to be the custodian of.

 'Heart to Heart'

It is a piece with two sides and two titles.

Each side a poem in it's own right.

 'Mother Canada'
If you know how Judy works
you know that it is heavily stitched...
even the white snowy land around 'Mother Canada'
is covered in stitched leaves of white.

If you know how Judy works...

you know that every stitch is a thoughtful meditation.

If you know Judy's world...

you can feel the caring embrace of her mother figure.

For me Judy is a major voice in Canadian art today.

For me she is a poet who writes her poems in stitch.

I know Judy loves this piece

and that there is a small piece of her within it's stitched textures.

I'm honoured and thrilled to provide it a home.

Thank you Judy.

High Tide on the Windswept Dyke

It's not only the colours that get me at this time of year...

It's also all that tangled mass of texture.

As the pups and I walked below the dyke 

a warm south wind blew hard against our faces

and the sound of rustling grasses surrounded us.

One day I need to do a piece on grasses.

 The rusty pups played 'ambush' up and down the dyke.

We returned along the top of the dyke

and those little monkeys decided it was the

perfect day for a swim.

Do you see one swimming off into the deep blue yonder?!

(Bottom right of the picture)

If You Came Down to the Woods Today...

...you would have been spied on by

black ringed eyes of firewood pixies

...and a few other critters I expect too.

....you would have seen fungus

bursting from the ends of logs

like orange popcorn.

...and red berries dangling from a tangle of grey branches

just waiting for the deer to pass by.

...and rings of tree bark being colonized by moisture loving organisms.

Or perhaps you would have noticed other things.

Threading Needles Again

You might remember that on a summers day quite some time ago

this small piece of fabric came out of the rust pot.

and around the same time this little chap clung to

the side of the house as I sat and stitched.

So to me they have always belonged together.

Yesterday I finally drew him onto that piece of linen

and with threaded needle tried to bring him to life.

Feels good to hold needle and thread again.

I'm reading a book about the first world war

and so today I will be thinking of all those heroes, including my grandfather,

who fought in those awful trenches at the battle of the Somme.

Under Clear Blue Skies

First thing in the morning on my way to meet Diane for a day of unwrapping bundles

I noticed the basin stretching for miles even beyond the horizon.

And just look at that clear blue sky fading to kiss the land and sea.

Fishing boats of every shape attach themselves to buoys 

after lengthy fishing trips.

Usually cormorants crowd onto each buoy

but I don't see any this morning.

Most people might take a photo of that boat

but I was looking at those rusty trees.

Boat is just in the way!

Later on I unwrapped this bundle that could be

a shoreline of rusty trees perhaps.

Surely I'll get to do some stitching today....

It's been so long, I couldn't find my needle case this morning.

Mulling Things Over

While in Toronto I did a talk about Environmental Influences.

In preparing the images I decided I had way too many.

So I collaged j-pegs of the inspiration behind the finished pieces.

Brilliant eh!

Bev misunderstood me and thought the background inspiration

was part of the whole stitched piece.

Since then Bev has caused me many sleepless nights

lying awake ruminating and mulling ideas over.

I'm  exploring hanging pieces over a backdrop

of the original photographic inspiration.

Photo transfer onto fabric is not something I am interested in.

The idea of a contrast between the textured stitching

and a smooth print on paper is a possibility.

The colour saturation on those prints would have to be cut back.

Viewing these images from my talk

I can see that the photo inspiration needs to be knocked back.

The stitched work should be the first thing you see.

Still have not had a moment to settle down to some stitching

but as you can see it is never far from my mind.

Still Playing Catch-up

It seems that returning home from travels

involves a lot of catching up on things other than 

stitching.

I left my studio in a bit of a mess and need to tidy it up and organize my thoughts.

In the meantime here are a few lovely rusty things.

The rusty pups and I found huge rusty things up the quarry road. 

My grandmother's button box sits in a shady spot

so as not to fade the beautiful inlay woodwork.

It still brims with buttons

that I have loved to play with since the age of three.

And then of course there are the rusty pups 

with whom I have to play catch-up too.