I stitched a silk swaddling blanket from silk dyed with avocado stones, coleus leaves, onion skins and saffron. Our third grandchild is due next week, the same day we fly to South Africa for most of April. I wanted something … Continue reading →
I’ve always been certain that needlework holds stories while nurturing the soul. This belief was happily affirmed while I was curating Grace McKnight’s crochet exhibition over the past 3 years. Grace took doilies made by her grandmother, found vintage doilies, … Continue reading →
The indigo cotton is soft, like faded blue jeans with the same comfortable worn-in feeling. I’m patching this baby quilt I made for Leitha when I was 28. The quilt is now used by Scarlett and is showing it’s wear. … Continue reading →
It’s been a while since I posted, so I thought I’d catch up by showing you Scarlett’s baby quilt which I finished last fall. I began the quilt about a year ago and stitched on it slowly. My favourite stitching … Continue reading →
This morning as I watched the group of 5 crows who inhabit my garden every day, I thought of Susan Tilsley Manley. Susan was talented quilt artist who made fine art quilts about her country life in Nova Scotia. Susan … Continue reading →
We gaze at the patchwork, the fine cotton, the tiny quilting stitches. Like sentences in a diary, each patch is a record of a childhood dress, a housecoat and scraps from dressmaking projects from an ear when women made all the families clothing.We sense the comforting continuum of the generations of women who stitch. And so it continues with Cooper’s quilt. We’re doing what women have always done…slow stitching.
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To gather with friends is a simple, rich experience and, when women gather to stitch, it is particularly special. Last week began with two days with my dear friends, Judy and Margi at Penny’s house in Granville Ferry, Nova Scotia… always a treasured and affirming time.
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Polly and Val laughingI joined Barb Robson and Laurie Swim to co-curate this show of Polly’s personal collection of bed quilts, quilted wall hangings, woven coverlets. The quilts and woven coverlets are not all pristine; they have been put on beds, washed and used. When faded and worn, quilts still hold the process of making and gain layers of memories and stories.
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Every year the Mahone Bay Quilters prepare an amazing feast of desserts that cover 2 banquet tables. We invite an Extraordinary Quilter to be our speaker and so, it’s the perfect combination of desserts and quilts. This event “Dessert with an Extraordinary Quilter” started 12 years ago and was the brainchild of Barb Robson.
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Friday 20 June: This afternoon a journalist from a t.v. station in St. John’s phoned to say that a young man had called the station to say he’d found my quilts. The journalist interviewed the fellow, and saw my quilts … Continue reading →
