I have just returned from Kalispell, Montana, where I took a week-long workshop with Ruth McDowell. This was my second workshop with her, and even more enjoyable than the first. Perhaps because I had a little more confidence going in to it. Ruth is such a generous and relaxed teacher, spending lots of time circulating around the classroom, and seeming to have unending patience in demonstrating the finer points of line drawings and section definition - the preparation that takes place before the quilts are pieced. We all started with a photo of our subject matter - everything from flowers to old family
photographs to landscapes. We began by making a tracing of the photograph, and then simplified this into lines and sections. Once that was completed - no quick and easy thing to do - we moved on to making fabric selections. While one person had her quilt top together by the end of the five days, most of us were still choosing fabrics, and some decided to do a second line drawing, rather than start sewing in the workshop. One thing I've learned about myself, is that I am a piecer. While I have dabbled in and quite enjoy many other methods of construction, it is piecing that I find most deeply satisfying. My goal in taking the workshop again, was to see if I enjoyed it as much this time as I did the first time (I did!), and then to commit myself to working in this method as much as possible over the next year. At the end of this time, I will evaluate how much I want to use Ruth's method in my ongoing work. I am so admiring of the flowers represented by people like Linda, the whimsical quilts, like Bonnie's Volkswagons, and the family photos interpreted in fabric, like Becky's piece. But the real draw for me is to landscapes,
particularly west coast landscapes. For now, I'll finish up the Yorkshire scene I worked on this time, and see where it leads me.
Every year, the quilters of Hornby Island are asked to make a block for their community quilt. There is an overall theme - this year it was Hornby Island trees - and some of the fabrics are provided, so that it has a cohesive look to it. It hangs outside the co-op under a cedar shelter, and raffle tickets are swift every year. The beneficiaries change each year, but it goes to a Hornby Island recipient. Things like the new medical clinic, and the program to neuter and limit the numbers of feral cats on the island. The blocks are exquisite in their own right, and I felt sure you would enjoy seeing close-ups of some of them. Marg Bennett, Gayle Lobban, and Eleanora Laffin are the creators of three of these gems. The fourth quilter is not known to me. Wouldn't you love to have this hanging on the wall of your home or cabin? Just in case you're wondering why you've been hearing so much about Hornby lately, it's because after five years of owning a small piece of land here, and almost fifteen years of coming here regularly on holidays, we have just built a cabin here, complete with a sewing loft. It is such a gift to come here - so quiet and peaceful and
soul-restoring. And there's a wonderful group of quilters, as well as many other artists on the island, so I feel very much at "home".
