April has been a month of endings and beginnings. Most notably, an end to the colder, darker days and the arrival of spring. It's been a month of blossoms in our neck of the woods - beginning with forsythia and apple blossoms, then cherry and magnolias, followed by dogwood and rhododendrons. And the greens of spring everywhere never fail to delight me. The trumpeter swans that winter in the Comox Valley have now departed for their nesting grounds in Siberia, while songbirds in abundance can be heard in the trees in our yard. And my stitching has seen an end to one thing and a beginning to another too. My Indigo and Bluebirds quilt went off to its new home in Nelson, my Traveller's Blanket is just waiting for its binding, and a series of small African Proverbs pieces was started.
I have spent good chunks of time over at our cabin on Hornby Island, and made new blocks for my "Turning 65" quilt using the scraps I store there in an old pine trunk from Quebec. My friend Joan was able to accompany me on one of these occasions, and began work on a Jacqueline de Jonge quilt she's been wanting to make for some time, while I stitched away at my improvisational blocks.
And in a total departure from my usual colour palette and ways of working, I made a block for the Hornby Island Community Quilt. This year's theme was community radio, and the block harks back to the years when I was quite small, before there was TV, and I used to listen to stories about Wiggly Worm on a BBC radio show called Listen with Mother. The story always began with the words "Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin." Fabrics were provided for the block, with each of us adding our own to the mix.
I've also done a little experimenting with cyanotype this month, with mixed results, but will share those another time. Now back to work on my African Proverbs . . . and perhaps a few other things besides.
