It's sometime since I posted, but I have a good reason. Believe me! After a brief visit in Victoria at the end of January (there's a photo of Nora at the bottom of the post - isn't she great?), I headed over here to Hornby Island for a 6-week "artist's retreat". It's the first time in several years that I haven't gone to Uganda at this time of year, so I decided to use the time to hunker down and "do the work". That is, to play with my fabric. When I last posted, I had just spent a few days on Hornby, and had begun working on a new African collage quilt. I thought you might like to know what became of it. First of all, I added borders to all of the silk-screened prints - 4 different borders in all. Then I began figuring out how to put the whole thing together - decided to work in three columns. I used strips of leftover fabric for fillers and constructed two zebra-stripe and black columns to separate the different sections, and then I just sewed it all together. It still didn't look complete, though, so I constructed a strip of huts for the bottom, which helped to balance the sun on the top left and the stars on the top right. I had a lot of fun doing it,
although I couldn't seem to step away from a symmetrical setting. I've moved on to a couple of new projects, and will show you those once they're a little further along. I'm going to do my best to post once a week - think of it as a weekly report on my retreat. I am without TV and internet service (I can come to this office and use theirs if absolutely necessary). I have a cell phone but no land line. I have music and CBC radio, or just plain quiet if I want it. When I wake up in the morning I can hear the eagles in the nearby nest, and there are lots of beach or forest walks when I need a little exercise. Most of all, I'm away from my usual commitments and obligations, and can sew to my heart's content. Or read or write. Pretty wonderful. I'll let you know if I am as productive in this environment as I hope to be. I anticipate learning a lot about myself as well as progressing in my work. Until next week . . .
Last year, I taught my Journalling Workshop here on Hornby Island. It included a few new techniques, but most importantly, it introduced participants to the practice of working small and working quickly. Well, following the workshop, this incredibly creative group of quilters challenged each other to make one small journal quilt a month. The results are now hung around "Room to Grow" - the building the quilters meet in each Wednesday afternoon. Here are just a few of the results of the challenge, for just three of the topics chosen. The first is Travelling, or Taking a Journey. The second is Sunflowers. The third is Portals. I was invited to take part in the challenge, and have used some of my time here on Hornby to catch up with my entries. With more than a dozen people making quilts, they will make a terrific display at the annual quilt show
held the first Sunday in August. They are yet another example of the amazing creativity of women, who more often than not, greatly underestimate their own gifts.
