Landscape

Years ago, I took a course from the Anna Templeton Centre in St John's, Newfoundland, from Valerie Hearder. Make just a 5" x 7" landscape quilt. All hand sewn, and hand embellished. I just now realized it's not even sandwiched, or quilted. It is framed though, as I had one handy--it was framed the same day!
Made in 2000.

I didn't get back to landscapes for some time...






Then, a year later, between jobs, and living in my
cabin about an hour outside St. John's, I made a stole for myself. A vertical landscape quilt.

That's Cape Spear on the back, and Newfoundland trees and countryside on the front. I still use this one the most when preaching.

Now, I'm trying to picture landscapes again. This time I'm machine quilting, and trying more things. I wanted to portray winter in the Lower Mainland, and even had a photo for inspiration. Here it is.

How could I make the reflections real? How could I make a tree? It turns out that practice makes a great deal of difference. And so does standing back and looking critically. I had to keep adding bits to make it come alive. And here it is...

Colour Study

I've been studying colour with Judy Villett (http://judyvillett.com) over the past month or so. It's been so fun to take the time to think about and articulate the colour relationships I see around me -- I am usually only intuitive about it.

So this past week, I worked on a small Colour Study. It's 8 1/2" x 11".

I started with the print fabric, adding the solids to go with it. I used both cotton thread and monofilament for quilting, and zigzagged the edges.

Quick and fun. And satisfying colour-wise for me.

Exploring the world

My 6 month old kitten Tigger is starting to explore the outside world. I take it upon myself to accompany him on his almost daily outings. But boy, is it scary, for me more than him, I think.

Some history: an older cat of ours was killed on the street not quite a year ago. Blackie had no fear at all. His littermate Toes is so timid he's still around. Since he was lonely we now have Tigger.

Tigger is having a grand time exploring our yard, and the big trees, and the fence. He's learning that it's easier to climb up than down, and that often the way down is a big jump. Or a fall. I was much relieved when he only went up about 10 feet of the 60 foot pine tree. The cherry tree (in the neighbor's front yard!) seems much safer. That's the one he fell out of. Later he went way up, like 50' up! a cedar tree. See the photo.

Toes wants to show him all kinds of things--the way across the fence to the nasty neighbor's place; the way to the nice neighbor's cat door, the place to jump across the fence. Toes is not so patient though, and sometimes just disappears.

I can see that Tigger is more excited to explore and discover than he is frightened by loud noises and other things new. I just hope I can foster such an attitude in my quilting art....