My Great Big Maritime Adventure

A few days ago I returned from my marathon 15 day trip to the Maritimes. After 15 days, driving more than 3,600 km across five provinces, sleeping in 11 different beds over 15 days, teaching for four groups, and eating countless lobster sandwiches, I am happy to be home. Winter is coming and hibernation has its lure.

On my first day I stopped off in one of my favorite cities in Canada, Quebec City. I had never visited on a late October day. I didn't have much time, but managed a walk around the old town, Chateau Frontenac and the Petit Champlain district (one of the oldest neighbourhoods in North America). It was all decked out for autumn and Halloween.

Painted mural across from my hotel.

I cashed in my Best Western, Aeroplan, and AirMiles points so that I could make the drive a bit more leisurely. The idea was to never have to drive more than six hours in a day. Well it took more like 8 hours to get to my next destination, Fredericton, New Brunswick, thanks to an early snow storm that dropped 10-15 cm of snow. The roads were very treacherous. I was also careful on this trip to get some down time between each booking.

My third night was spent in Antigonish, Nova Scotia so that I would only be an hour away from my first teaching destination at the Northumberland Quilters Retreat, held at Liscombe Lodge, Liscombe, Nova Scotia. Oh my goodness, just look at the view outside my bedroom!

My two-day Collage Tree workshop started after lunch on Friday, and finished after lunch on Sunday. After our Friday lunch, I found this view from my classroom. The sun had emerged!

We worked and ate, and ate and worked. At the end of the retreat, many of my students had finished their tree trunks. They now only need to thread paint them, prepare their background, machine quilt, and add the tree to the background. What a warm and welcoming group!

A couple of days later Claudia Fortune sent me this image of her finished piece. You know what? I like it better than my own piece! Didn't she do a fantastic job?

About a week later, Virginia Caul-Gallant sent a photo of her finished work. I think I like this one better than mine too!

I dyed a number of kits for students to choose from, but many also used their own fabric. For many years I've taught this class with students bringing their own fabric. The first time I offered kits was at my class in Spain this past March. I am finding more and more demand for kits.

When the retreat finished, I headed toward Halifax. The next day I visited Peggy's Cove. I've visited this beautiful site a few times, but I have never visited on a more beautiful day! It was warm, and I didn't even need a coat. It was sunny, and perhaps most amazing of all was that there were relatively few tourists. Such a beautiful and peaceful site!

I had a few days off before I needed to teach my next class in Prince Edward Island. My friend, Canadian Quilt Artist, Laurie Swim, invited me to stay at her house for a couple of nights. Here I am in front of my favorite quilt of Laurie's, "At The End of The Day". We had lots of chat time, I had lots of rest time. It was great to visit someone who understands that after teaching for two days that one might just sometimes want to be alone for quiet time. We also had a lunch one day with Valerie Hearder and Rose Lesage.

Before I left I had a private viewing of Laurie's Gallery in Lunenburg. At this time of year it is not open every day.

Laurie's public art project, "Hope and Survival", commemorating the Halifax Explosion, was home and on display during my visit.

Here is some of the close-up imagery in the quilt

and names of those who died in the explosion. You can read more about this quilt at this link.

This is Laurie's latest work, "Down to the Seas".

Next I headed to Summerside, Prince Edward Island, where I taught an In Full Bloom class to a group comprised of members of both the Northern Lights and Green Shores Quilters' Guilds. I was hosted by Libby Colwille, third from the left in the back room. Thank you for your hospitality Libby!

It rained a lot while I was on Prince Edward Island, and it was interesting to see it after all the tourists have gone home.

Next I headed to Port Elgin, New Brunswick, where I taught another Collage Tree class for the Spruce it Up Quilt Shop, owned by Lorette Bellefleur-Cole. This is Lorette in her lovely store in a country house.

Our workshop took place in the upstairs room of Bistro Le Chat Bleu restaurant in Baie Verte (fantastic food!). Just look at the view from our classroom. Yes it rained all day.

But the rain slowed down long enough to head out on the back deck for a class photo. A big thank you to everyone who helped me take my bins up and down the stairs. Those carts on wheels are great, until you get to a place with stairs. You have no idea how much your help is appreciated.

From there I headed across the province to Perth-Andover, New Brunswick, where I taugh another In Full Bloom class. I got so engrossed, or maybe I was tired, and I completely forgot to take photos at the class. A big thank you to the amazing Pat O'Brien who hosted me, and appears to have slaved over an oven all day before my arrival to put on a fantastic evening meal. Thanks to the Gorge Quilt Guild for your warm hospitality. I managed to snap a photo of the bridge across the Saint John River, that runs through this charming village.

I did the drive home across two days, stopping at Riviere-du-Loup the last night before heading home.

I made it!! Just a couple of lectures and one workshop to go in 2018 before I begin my hibernation to work on my commission and prepare for Quilt Canada 2019.

Haliburton School of Art + Design 2018

It's a long summer weekend here in many provinces of Canada. We call it Civic Holiday in Ontario. My sister has been visiting for the past week and just returned home today, so I am getting to the blog post about my time in Haliburton (to take a class and to teach a class at Haliburton School of Art + Design). The last three weeks have not afforded much time for blogging. While I was away I stayed in the woods near a lake, and the wifi connection was spotty. It was often difficult to upload photos.

I took this photo four years ago, when I stayed at the little blue cabin that I stayed at again in the first week of my time in Haliburton. It's the view of the lake out the cabin windows.

The cabin is close to the home of the owners who live down a one km gravel lane way through the woods. It's a beautiful place far off the beaten track. For exercise, when it wasn't too hot, I walked out the lane and back. The big problem was mosquitoes and other buzzy beings. There would often be a halo of them around my head while I walked.

The view was always best first thing in the morning IMHO. Now you have to understand that I am seldom up at this hour of the morning. If you look closely, you can see the mist burning off the lake.

My first week was spent taking a class called "Travelling with a Sketchbook" with Nancy Newman. What a warm and fantastic instructor she is! I did not create any masterpieces at all in this class. I am often not a good student. The whole idea of a travel sketchbook is to do very quick studies and sketches on location that you can build on or develop when you get home. Taking a photo helps with that. You may remember that I have done some pen and ink drawing in the past. Nancy's class was more about quick drawings on location and using watercolour. I have not formally studied watercolour before, so I learned a lot.

Contour drawing, the idea to never lift your pen.

An exercise in two point perspective so our structures will look more convincing.

And then we actually did a small painting using two point perspective.

We learned an interesting method for doing rocks, that involved a white crayon resist at the top. Mine look a little like frosty cupcakes ;-)  These things take practice like most skills one learns in life.

We enjoyed the good weather on several field trips for sketching and painting.

On the first farm we sketched and painted at, we had the pleasure of this charming garden shed

with a well-dressed scarecrow.

Nancy urged us to push the colour envelope, which apparently I did on this one.

 

Later in the afternoon many of us did a rendition of these birch trees.

This is Nancy Newman doing one of her oh so helpful demos.

On another day we sketched at a different farm. This ruined shed attracted many of us.

My sketch/painting.

I started a second sketch because, of course, this red canoe drew my attention. I did not have time to add the watercolour though, and my canoe looks like an unidentified mysterious object.

This kitty came to check out what I was doing and demanded a few pets.

This mosaic method was a lot of fun.

Week 2 came quickly! At our instructors lunch on Day 1 we all posed for a photograph. It was a booming week at Haliburton School of Art + Design! Registrations were up, and I don't think I've ever seen a larger group of instructors in any previous year (this was my ninth).

I enjoyed more views of mist burning off the lake at the start of the week, but the weather grew rather inclement later in the week. It was very hot and humid with frequent rain storms, and once a power outage of 4-5 hours.

Teaching my Flowers & Foliage class (with the addition of Trees this year) caused me to pull out this work that I started two years ago. I thought I might demo with it, and I had high expectations that I might even finish it in the evenings while there.

I didn't want another red and yellow flower because it is too close to the colour of my poppies, so I adjusted it to push the red closer to purple. I had thought I might publish this as a pattern.

Two years later I was not happy with the numbering and lettering of my pattern so I redid it and also added a couple of colour and value changes to it that I had not picked up on before. It was a challenge choosing the fabrics, but I was determined to use some of the beautiful purple/red multi-coloured fabrics I dyed a few weeks ago. And then I used some multi-coloured yellow/orange/pink fabric. I stopped there. I realize that when I publish this pattern people are going to want kits, and I have made it far too difficult to produce kits by including complex multi-coloured fabrics. When I use these fabrics in my work, I cherry-pick the areas I want. To sell a kit I have to very closely be able to reproduce fabrics again and again or I will drive myself crazy. So if, and when, I finish this tulip, I will have to make it again in fabrics that can be reproduced easily. And it may just not be as interesting then.

Here is my class with their work on the last day. They were really keen and worked very hard all week. Thank you Kathy, Carole, Anne, Carole, Ila, Judy, Anne and Cheryl for joining me and inspiring me with your work. Now I realize I did not get a photo of Anne's hosta leaves, probably because the photo she planned to work from had some challenges, so she decided to work with one of my patterns. But she is there in the back row, third from left.

Here are some photos of the works a bit closer up. Not all of them are finished in these photos and most of them still need to be placed on a background.

Kathy

Carole

Cheryl

Carole

Anne

Judy

Ila
If this piece looks a bit familiar, it is because Ila used one of my photographs as her inspiration (one that I have used for inspiration in the past). However, Ila made her own pattern and interpreted it in her own way.

So after the last three weeks (the most recent a visit from my sister, wherein I had the opportunity to be a tourist in my own region) I now need to get back to work. In my next blog post I will share some exciting things coming up.

Enjoy your long weekend, and keep cool! We are in a heat wave again, so I am staying in air-conditioned comfort.