Westshore Quilters' Guild

Yesterday I had the pleasure of spending the day with the Westshore Quilters' Guild. I was teaching my Blocks and Borders class, and look forward to seeing the samplers these quilters were working on. The scope for using different borders on quilts is limitless, and design sources can be found in the art coming from many different cultures. The Guild provided a super lunch, and snacks too, all of which helped everyone keep working with enthusiasm well into the afternoon. Thanks to all of you for a great day!

Batiks, Batiks and More Batiks

This afternoon we had a delightful visit from Vivian and Bob Christopher of Calgary. Since their retirement, they spend much of their time travelling abroad (they're just back from several months in Cambodia and Laos), or in Canada and the U.S. in their motor home. Vivian has not one but two sewing machines that travel with her in the latter, with storage under the big bed for all sorts of fabric. Vivian and Bob are interested in different countires and cultures, so when they discovered my website, they decided to pay us a visit to see some of the treasures we'd had found in Uganda. They had a quick look around, and then descended on the batiks we'd purchased from several different batik artists we'd connected with in Kampala. Each batik is an original, unlike any unlike anything we've sourced out before. With generous encouragement from Bob, Vivian purchased several of these along with several fabrics with which to border them. Before they left, they kindly agreed to pose for a photo with a few of their purchases. We'll be taking more of these batiks with us when we travel to Vernon next week, to spend time with the Vernon Silver Star Quilters and the Gathering of the Guilds on Saturday April 25th.

The Elements

Before I left for Uganda, I had begun to work on this piece for a FAN-sponsored show entitled "The Elements". I had completed the bottom portion of the design, with red-orange-yellow colours against the neutral beige of a piece of raw silk. Today I worked on the companion piece for it - yellows-greens and blues, once again set against the neutral beige of raw silk. This piece was inspired by the rock walls I saw during visits to New Brunswick and Newfoundland last year. They were built to last, these walls. They are solid, strong, and are testament to the vision our forefathers had for the new land they were settling. They speak of courage and of hope, of a tenacity of spirit in spite of the elements that conspired against them. They were built to withstand storms, and wars, and to outlast the people who built them. There is something ethereal in their worn shapes and rounded edges, something that reminds me of our elders, and their resilience and our resilence too. They will still be there long after I am gone, part of our cumulative history, part of my history.