The Bare Bones

My goodness, but it has been hard to get going on this piece of new work !

My responsibilities with Threadworks 2013 aren't over yet, but the end is near.
My youngest daughter is expecting her 2nd baby and requires bed rest ... and, I don't know about others, but I want to help her everyday with dishes and tidying so that she isn't tempted to over-do anything !
My fibre art group is going through some changes and I feel desperate to help.  I have been instrumental in arranging a new, important show for the group that I now feel is causing a few concerns.  The show is scheduled for Next April ... I hope a few things will have fallen into place by then.

But this 'old', new work has been started and awaits the few moments in a day that I can devote to it. It is approx. 16"x24' in size, at this point, but it will lose up to an inch in each direction by the time I have added many layers of thread. 
I have joined to pieces of 12" Wet N Gone water-soluble and drawn my image with an orange pencil crayon ... then I stitched my image in orange thread ... why ? 
Because of my desire to try to do a piece like a few of the Group of Seven did. I intend to let the orange thread show through in places ... as they did. If you are ever up-close-and-personal with an original Group of Seven painting you will see the red/orange outline, of the underlying drawing, showing through. And I hope to simplify the threadpainting in the way that Lauren Harris did.
Miles and miles of thread to go yet ... I will be busy for a while with this one !
Please stay tuned.

An Old Favourite

I rescued this very old piece, that I had done in the late eighties (when I was so busy trying every craft out there) from being tossed in the bin ! 

It had been in the attic until recently re-discovered and is stained, the colours are faded, but I hung it on the wall outside my studio door and pass it every day. 

It has been calling my name ever since !

The scene was from one of my own photos of the point at Granite Saddle Campground, Killbear Provincial Park, near Parry Sound, Ontario. 

I have done the same scene in as many different needlework disciplines as I could while learning all about embroidery and fibre art.

This particular piece was to be a new craft 'quilt' block .... but ... well quilting just isn't my 'thing'. 

I'm not saying I don't like quilts ! 

I just prefer to make a picture/landscape/scene !

Below is my version of the quilt block ... a 24"x 24" piece of styrofoam that I drew my favourite scene on. Then layers of cloth, just larger than the sections of my drawing, were pushed into the styrofoam along the drawn lines ... with a kitchen knife. So Quick !  A neat thing to make as a gift in a hurry ... and it weighs nothing ! I put a border on it to make it look more quiltery .... the border being wrapped around and punched into the back ... so slick !

Needlepointed - approx 3" x 4"

One of my earlier stabs at free-motion machine embroidery
using my own hand-painted fabrics.
Gold metallic threads glisten in the water.
approx. 8" x 10"

As it whispered my name as I passed it today, I decided to scratch an idea down and think (not absolute yet) that I would like to do it again, this time as free-motion machine lace on water-soluble. As I am still working on my study of the Group Of Seven I am thinking to simplify and paint it in the style of Lauren Harris, who just happens to be my favourite painter 

Not as simplified as I'd like ... needs more work.
5" x7" sketch

The sky looks heavy but that is probably due to the ink lines ... I will try to stick to the colouring of the 'quilt block' above. 

Here I am ... still working with a beloved scene ... it never gets old for me. Forty years of sitting on the beach here for 3 weeks at a time, watching 4 kids grow and flourish here  ... now they bring their kids here ! Life repeats itself.

FAMILY TIES

I know this post has nothing to do with art (which has been rather allusive lately) but is about another of my passions and this week I was very fortunate to get copies of old photos of some ancestors and am proud to show them.

Mr.& Mrs. Linklater (she is Anne Spence)
from the Isle of Hoy, Orkney Islands, Scotland
He (no name as of yet) was a sailor and a Dane.

Their daughter Margaret married John Currie below, (John being one of four brothers who all bought land in Huron County in 1850) after emigrating to Canada.
John Currie died 3 weeks after their marriage of pneumonia. 
Margaret was also one of (reportedly) 6 Linklater siblings who braved the Atlantic Ocean for parts unknown, in Canada. 
Her sister Anne married Robert Currie, John's younger brother, my gr.gr.grandfather. 

 

John Currie died 3 weeks after their marriage of pneumonia. Margaret was also one of (reportedly) 6 Linklater siblings who braved the Atlantic Ocean for parts unknown, in Canada. 
Her sister Anne married Robert Currie, John's younger brother, my gr.gr.grandfather. 

John & Elizabeth's daughter Virginia Currie

                    (doesn't she look like a movie star of the '30's?)

Frances June Currie, 94 yrs ... daughter of John & Elizabeth Robertson Currie

Last Monday I threw a bag in my truck and took a trip north of here to visit my aunt for a few days.  She is only 14 years older than me and we get along like sisters. And I needed the break to clear my head ... I always have a bed there and she is a great cook and we get many of games of Scabble under our belts !

When I'm there we try to visit this lovely cousin ... we all being descendants of 4 Currie brothers who emigrated to Canada, from Scotland, in 1849. They were just young men at the time who came here with their widowed mother, Margaret McCartney Currie and two sisters.

Frances will be 95 this June and she is the feistiest old gal I have ever known. Her favourite topic of conversation is world politics, town politics and the deplorable lack of education in our high schools! ;D ... and we daren't argue much !
A quick visit with Frances lasts several hours and it is non-stop discussions. 
She shared some of her photos with me and the old couple at the top of this page are also my gr.gr.gr.grandparents ... I feel so lucky to have these photos ! I like delving into my ancestry but just haven't the time these days. 
I've been thinking that that smiling face of hers needs to be art !

ICE !!!!!

We were so glad that the ice storm did it's worst through the nigh ! All our jurors and volunteers were able to get home before it hit.

After a morning spent sitting at the computer (between power outages) emailing disappointed entrants I managed to get a few photos of the Ice Storm of April 12, 2013 ... there have been some very nice photo ops this winter ... but for goodness sakes, Mother Nature ... can you stop already ????

 so fresh & green

 my grandson left his 'bubbles' out there

 we hung clothes out there last week !

the ice was really heavy on the north side of the pine

What A Week !

The launch of THEADWORKS 2013 ~ 'WATER' began on April 7 bright and early at 8am, out of town, at The Wellington County Museum & Archives just between Fergus and Elora.
I had already been up since 3'ish am ! The entries came in steadily on Sunday and I had enough help that I was able to get away to my opening with The Harris Artists Collective in Elora... and boy, was I glad that I did ! ... see 'I'll Miss This Piece' below!

Back to the museum on Monday and a volunteer crew of about 12 women processed 170 entries from all over Canada till 4pm. And, sure enough, one late comer still sewing a sleeve on her wall hanging ! It always happens ... good thing we aren't dogged tired or hungry or anxious to get to our beds.

TW Committee (2 of us) back Tues. morning to arrange all the entries on tables for the jurors the next day ... making sure names were hidden/covered, #'s were in place and that each item was displayed in the best possible way for the jurors the next day.

Wednesday ... raining all day/night ... headed to Oakville for a meeting with Connections Fibre Artists ... back for some dinner and back to Elora for a meeting with The Harris Artists Collective at 7pm ... decent, dry weather all the way home that night.

Thursday ... back to the museum at 8am ... but bad weather was coming ... had already had concerns from jurors and volunteers who were travelling ... would it all happen today ?

Ice pellets were falling as I reached Fergus. But the day went off beautifully, everyone made it there and the ice had dissipated to just rain by the time we all went home at 4pm after a long, hard day jurying, feeding people and packing up pieces that didn't make it into the exhibition ... wow ... what a lot of work ! Our packers are such hard, caring workers.

I got home and crawled into bed ... the last few days were catching up to me.

This morning I started the sad task of emailing approx. 120 entrants with the news that their work did not get into the show ... its a tough job but someone has to do it !

An excellent show has been chosen by the jurors ! The show opens to the public;

THEADWORKS 2013 ~ WATER 

April 20 - June 9, 2013, 

Opening Reception and Awards ~ April 28, 2013, 1 - 4 pm

All Invited !

I write this for an accounting and to inform anyone who has entered the show ... so many people have no idea how things progress behind the scenes., not only by us but by the fabulous staff at the Wellington County Museum & Archives who bend over backwards to make sure our every need is met. Thanks WCM&A !

starting to have to use floor/wall space

the tables are loaded

a lot of paperwork

and double checking

entries opened to ensure proper packaging, names, titles, finishing
everything then gets numbered before it gets to the payment desk

inspectors Mary Lunney, Virginia Buchanan-Smith and Barbara Kershaw while
Tracey Lawko brings in a stack of entries from Toronto

there's still a line-up for entry !

everything ready and waiting for the jury tomorrow !

the jurors are choosing the award winners

juror Sylvia Naylor and her assistant Linda J. (a volunteer)

Juror Judy Martin and her assistantant Elizabeth K.

it was a hard job !

just a few of our crew of volunteers

Our Jurors ... Judy Martin, William Hodge and Sylvia Naylor
with assistants Elizabeth King, John Willard and Linda Janzen

Sylvia Naylor, William Hodge and Judy Martin

I'll Miss This Piece !

Field Corn II has sold !  ... at the opening reception on Sunday April 7, along with another, smaller fibre piece 'Birches' and an ink drawing !! 
You know when sometimes pieces become close to your heart ? 
I will miss this one !

My wall as part of a 6 artists show ... only 7 pieces big. 

Birches

I don't have a photo of the ink drawing but it is pointillism of a stoney point jutting out into Lake Wawashkesh, Ontario.  All of my buyers have allowed me to keep them in the show and I will get a proper photo of 'Lake Wawashkesh' at the end of show, before delivery.