Blink and Breathe

Dear Friends,

My entries have been sporadic lately and that’s a good thing, for me. Life is back to what it should be. I am busy with family and friends. I am working in my studio. Summer should be arriving any minute now. The weatherwoman claims it won’t be this week…

The last few months have been hard for me. My Dad’s passing in February has effected me deeply. I have been overwhelmed with sadness. I get angry and impatient. I rail against injustices, making them personal issues. I have troubling thoughts about things that are out of my control, and, frankly, none of my business. I fretted to close friends and blathered on about my troubles but felt disconnected and alone. I was not kind to my husband or attentive to my home. This is all in hindsight and I am grateful to be out of the woods.

Here are a couple of pictures of our daughter’s graduation ceremony. It was held at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts on the University of British Columbia campus. I am one proud Mama!

Lucky me… this came in the mail yesterday morning from my quilt swap partner Tracy. I love the colours and the way she’s combined them. It’s refreshing and cheerful. Love it. Love it. Love it.

I joined a quilt swap on the net. There weren’t many rules. The quilt was to be made for a doll or a child. The deadline is this month end so I’m expecting one in the mail soon. I sent mine off last week. As you can see it is much appreciated… and her smile beamed right into my heart!

RED (finished size 9 1⁄2″ x 11 1⁄2″)

When my friend Audrey died last fall she left behind an unfinished quilt and some fabric. No one in her family quilts and in fact Audrey only started quilting after she retired, less than ten years ago. She took a couple of courses on the basics of quilting and using these traditional techniques, she made quilts of her own design.

Her stash of fabrics was not large. She was practical so she bought fabric only when she needed to for the quilt she was working on. This sounds like the right way to go about it but if you know quilters who love fabric more than quilting, you would know that we buy fabric just because - because its on sale, because if your best friend oohed and aahed about the new arrivals in the stores, well, you had to buy some of it too. Because you couldn’t possible live without that coordinating bundle of fat quarters… so BEAUTIFUL.

In spite of her thrift and practicality, Audrey was an artist, in that she bought the occasional fabric to round out her palette. She loved shades of green. She also bought a few pieces that she could not resist. She loved her fabrics but did not hoard them. She would understand how much I treasure these remnants. I can hear her say, “Now, what are you going to create with them?”

I miss her.

(note: here is a picture of the quilt she was working on for her granddaughter)

I found out about the Cans Festival in London from Wooster Collective’s website. Here’s the info post about the event. If I was in London this weekend, I’D BE THERE.

I grabbed a couple of my favourite images from photos of the event on romanywg’s photostream on Flickr…

Pobel…

and Banksy…

Stop for a minute and think. Was there a moment, an event, or a feeling you had that freed you from your family, that you were now your own conscience, and you can think what you damn please.

If never felt, then how would it feel for you?

At the end of the hall,

down a long corridor,

on the sliding glass door,

slightly ajar, was a taped note

which said, “Please wait in corridor if this door is closed.”

I stand by the window.

On Monday I went with two girlfriends to our island hideaway. We took an early morning ferry and came back on a late one. We brought food to share so we didn’t have to cook. We brought handwork to do while we sat and chatted.

One friend knitted most of the day and did a bit of crewel work. The other friend finished off the last few rows of background on a few small pieces of canvas work. I worked on the binding of a quilt that a group of us are finishing for a dear friend who passed away before she finished it for her granddaughter. I worked on it all day yesterday.

YAY! It’s done!