Enough is as Good as a Feast...and a Commission

I've been home from Quebec almost a week now, and am still trying to get back into my usual routines! 

The trip was five days of jam-packed visiting sandwiched between two full days of travel, so it was very full indeed.  I stayed with my friend since university days, Peg, and coerced convinced her to travel with me from the city to my hometown, to do cemetery visits, family visiting and to sit through a long graduation ceremony at my former high school.  She bore all of this with good grace, even going so far as to say that she didn't mind doing the driving as she needed the practice!  This was true, at least in part, as she doesn't need to use her car to get around the area in which she lives -- Westmount and central Montreal.  She's located so centrally, in fact, that she shops for groceries in the European fashion -- almost daily -- and has at her finger tips shops that purvey wide varieties of fruit, veggies, meats, fish, seafood, coffees, spices, cheeses, wines...Quite indulgent for a gal who now dwells in a tiny rural hamlet with a limited-selection central store, a beer-focused liquor store and 43 km. to the closest urban population!

Our drive out of the city was surprisingly easy, considering it's the height of Construction Season in Canada -- and Montreal is no exception!

We landed in my hometown of Huntingdon just in time for lunch.  We found a new venue in a building that had housed a general store as I was growing up.  It's now a restaurant run as a Co-operative that (as I understand it) provides work and skills for folks (mainly young) who've been down and out and are now coming into new life with purpose.  The chicken burger was recommended, so both Peg and I indulged!

Bon appetit, bien sur!

After lunch Peg and I lost  found our way out to the country.  Misdirected slightly by one of the good folk at the restaurant, we ended up at our last-planned destination first: Hillside Cemetery and the Rennie Church (yes, named after my ancestors, who gave the land for both):

Note their dates.  He was 14 years older than his wife;
she died the same year as their infant son -- perhaps
in child birth.  Tough times.

Rennie United Church, Hinchinbrooke, QC

Most of my family is buried at Hillside, including my father, his siblings, my grandparents, great-grandparents, my great-great grandparents -- and my husband.

Somebody's recently had the GGG's marker cleaned because it -- a tall, white obelisk -- was pristine:

G-g-gran Margaret Gillies, wife of
Alexander Rennie...
"A native of Kilsyth, Scotland"

I can't say as much for my father and Howard (DH)...who've both collected  patches of lichen since my last visit (2013).  This is due in large part to a) the fact that both are next to each other in the shade of a beautiful red maple, and b) their inscriptions face the prevailing elements: wind, rain, snow...as do most of the markers in that cemetery!

Lichen growing on the top and base,
and around some of the lettering!

I'll have to attend to that soon!

From there we went to Les Jardins de Glenelm, the enterprise in organic market gardening founded by my young cousin Sarah and her DH, Ian.  Sarah was off at a meeting -- with their little ones in tow! -- but Ian showed us around and we spent a happy couple of hours in the poly-tunnels and environs, inspecting their radishes, kohlrabi, carrots, lettuces and tomatoes.  They've opted to specialize in particular varieties of these for salad fixings, but also have strawberries, zucchini and have plans for Saskatoons (Ian grew up in Saskatoon).

I found art inspirations in the grasses, leaves and flowering plants all around the place:

Peg was particularly interested because she is a "foodie", collecting cook books the way I collect books on fabric, fibre and floss.  She's also an avid gardener, and knows much more about plants (including their various names) than do I.  Here's what she's created in the gravelly patches of land around the apartment building's back alley where she lives in the city -- with the blessing of her landlord, by the way:

She's not daunted by the squirrel that's gone after her attempts at Brussels sprouts, and nipped off cone flowers and other plants down to the nub.  She persists -- and has created a colourful green space out of the most unwelcoming soil!

***   ***   ***   ***   ***

The main purpose of my visit was to present bursaries (in memory of my father and his sister, both teachers) to two students at the 2019 Graduation Ceremonies at my former high school.  I go back every few years to do this in person, and have done so since the bursaries were endowed in 2003.  This year was special because it was 50 years ago that I graduated, valedictorian of my class.  I really enjoyed meeting the two recipients of the bursaries and talking with them about their post-secondary education plans and dreams -- and briefly chatting with the 2019 valedictorian about the same.  All are exceptional young people, and I only hope and pray their lives will be filled with blessings, contentment, and good health as they go forward.

Me, flanked by Graeme and Julia, this year's
recipients of Rennie Memorial Bursaries

***   ***   ***   ***

The Commission came the day after I arrived, when Peg and I went to lunch with an old friend of mine, now living in an assisted-living apartment very close to Peg.  My friend Jane had written me in May, saying she wanted me to make her a 'bed cover' of one of my art pieces.  "This is business", she wrote, and she was prepared to pay me.

Sigh.

I wrote back to explain that I'd be happy to make her a bed quilt, but that I don't design those -- I use either traditional patterns or patterns created more recently by someone else.  I sent her some photos of examples of my work in various formats (soft or on canvas and framed), sizes and at a variety of prices.

Jane was adamant.  She replied that she liked two of the examples in particular, and she wanted a bed cover, not a quilt.

I phoned her.  I explained that the only "bed cover" I could make would be a quilt because it had to have both a front and a back -- even if I left out any batting.  I agreed to have lunch when I got to Montreal, and promised to bring one of the examples she liked -- one I thought would best translate to the bed -- so we could talk more about it.

And that's what transpired.  In the end, Jane agreed to a bed quilt -- batting and all -- and to my price, which would include the cost of my long-arm quilter as I don't quilt pieces that are that large (72" x 86" desired size).  I showed her this piece, and explained how I thought it could be redesigned to suit a bed, assuring her that the bed quilt wouldn't be any thicker than the art piece:

Trio (C) 2012
17" W x 25" L
Hand-dyed fabric, commercial fabric,
recycled fabric, distressed painted paper;
hand-stitching, machine quilting.

Yep.  I've been challenged to convert this piece into a bed quilt.  How the heck -- ??!

I have a plan.  😊  I shared it with Jane, and she has approved -- because while the construction should be sturdy enough to serve on the bed, the composition needs to be artful.  (Did I mention that Jane studied Art at Hunter College in NYC and became an art teacher?  And that she still practices her water colour -- portraiture and still life?)

Hmmm...yes!  I have the very thing.  My daughter gave me this book for Christmas 2018:

Katie PM's approach is just the ticket -- though I'm pretty sure she never planned the technique to be used for a large utilitarian piece!

One of the examples shown in the book was created from a photo of a landscape.  My "Trio" piece was similarly inspired, but I'm going to use the piece itself as the basis for this project.

I've begun by re-reading Katie's book, watching her segment on the technique on The Quilt Show, and selecting the 'random grid' option to use to create the blocks.  I've made a grid on an 8" x 10" print out of the photo of the piece, as well as on a clear plastic sheet (made from laminate off-cuts recycled from my daughter's office laminating machine) the size of the art piece.

Next up: enlarge each section of the grid, one block at a time -- because there's no way a copy shop is going to up-size the grid from 8" x 10" (or even 17" x 25") to 72" x 86"!  That's what's on tap for today...plus sorting through my existing landscape fabric for blues, greys, browns and greens.

I feel compelled to mention that this commission has scuttled any plans I had for dabbling with painting cheese cloth or mucking about with burning sheers this summer.

I'm definitely under a deadline!

• First, I want Jane to be able to enjoy the quilt when the days turn cold in the fall;
• Second, her birthday is in late October.  Even though she's paying me to do this, it would be nice for her to have it on time for her birthday.
• Third, she told me at our visit that this next birthday would be a Big Birthday.  I mentioned she was an "old" friend.  Yes; she is elderly.  I knew she was in her nineties, and figured she meant "95".  No.  99!  Big indeed!!

So...enough for the moment!  I've got to get back to the sewdio!

I'll leave you with a link to Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday.  This week she's celebrated a Big Birthday on her Blog. Do drop by to check out her celebration!

Do You Take Time Off?

C'mon.  I'm pretty sure you do!  Alright: I know you do!  Even if you're thinking about your art work 24/7, sometimes it's time to step away and attend to Other Things.  This can be particularly true if you're the only one in your household, so you have to pause from time to time to Take Care of Business.

And that's pretty much what I've been doing since my last post. My "break" began, really, at the end of April, right after the Lacombe Art Show & Sale.  It's not uncommon for folks to "crash" (or at least, slump a little) after a big event, and I did.  My hands, especially, didn't want to have anything to do with using my sewing machine or cutting fabric.  My hands wanted to knit and embroider and garden and hold good books.  Believe it or not, they even wanted to peel recalcitrant wall paper and wield a paint brush and roller.

And so they did.

The need to paint a wall in my bedroom began a good three years ago (or longer), when Miss Pookie Cat (seen here supervising the tulips' growth) found a loose edge of wall paper -- an edge that had been pried loose a few more years before that, by my grand-cat, Princess, on a visit to my home.  Said edge had been hidden safely from prying paws for years, because that side of my bed was along the wall and my own cat at the time -- Diesel -- was too large to get between the wall and the bed to play with it.

Enter Pookie, the kitten, in 2012.  Some time in her first year or so with me, she discovered what fun it was to dive down beside the bed.  What treasures lay in the drawers that she could access from behind?  And wait!  What's this?!  Loose wall paper!  What fun!!

And so...bit by bit, she attacked it -- when I wasn't around or paying attention -- until there was nothing for me to do but peel it off in a swath, rendering the wall decidedly ugly.

That's when I decided to move my bed so that it was at 90 degrees to the wall -- hoping that this would motivate me to finish the job and paint the wall.

It took me a good three years (or more; I lost track) for that ploy to work -- but work it did, last month.  Here's a shot of the Peel in Progress.

For a brief moment, I entertained the thought of not peeling the last two sheets of wall paper -- hitherto unscathed -- and just painting 2/3 of the wall...but I knew that would likely look too weird.  Sigh.

So I proceeded to finish the job.

In the process, though, I had to prepare the rest of the room, and that included Getting Rid of Stuff.  Said "stuff" referred mainly to books I'd either read and wouldn't likely read again, or books I no longer even cared about reading, and to yarn I'd been given or rescued that in reality, I'd never want to knit with.  Knitting friends, the local lending library and the church's annual Yard Sale were the beneficiaries.

And I ended up with a room that -- with the bed back along the wall -- feels much more spacious and open.  Lighter, even.  With room for some new artwork (even my own pieces!) on the wall...

Over the head of the bed (L): an embroidery of
a patchwork quilt, stitched by my mother.
Hanging on the rod: Ivy for Faithfulness, a very early attempt
(by me) at turning a traditional pattern into something "arty" (2010).
On the bed: my "Not so Grand Illusion" -- from a Bonnie Hunter
Mystery.  On the wall at the right:(top) a knit sculpture by Julie Mears:
Underwater Mini #1 (2008); bottom: my own work -- Rock Face III, 2014

In the midst of sifting and sorting, I tackled my guest room (aka where I store my art work) and opened my blanket box for the first time in years.  Therein I unearthed quilts I'd made -- one for my daughter and one for my late godmother -- and some I'd been given on my aunt's death, which I'd forgotten I had.  One of those I showed you, now adorning a bench in my Outdoor Studio in good weather.  Several others have now come out to hang on quilt racks -- one in the guest room, and one in my own room:

On the wall (L): two floral cross-stitch pieces
done by my mother; and (R) one "Just Nan" sampler
embroidered by me in 2005.  On the desk: a runner
I made for Canada 150 in 2017 from a free "mystery"
pattern, and a tiny sampler -- Take Time to Cruise --
designed by Jeannette Douglas for her first stitching
cruise, which I took in 2009.

Here's a close up of that cozy corner.  The chair is antique; I believe it belonged first to my maternal grandmother, but it could be even older than that.  I know I've never seen another like it.  My mother refurbished it with the needlepoint decades ago.  To protect the seat, I've pinned (with short  T pins) thereon a small hanging I made in a class in another lifetime -- that I'd forgotten I had.  It seems to have worked (thus far!) to keep Miss Pookie from clawing at the chair's upholstery.

On the quilt rack: at the back, a 9-patch variation created by
my Aunt Alice Rennie sometime in the eighties, containing
fabric I gave her from garments I was sewing at the time. The
red-and-white print was from a dress I made my daughter; and
a Dresden Plate that was made even earlier by my Aunt -- perhaps
with her mother.  Both are hand quilted.

Just this past week, I made it back into the sewdio.  I'm travelling home to Quebec later this month and wanted to make a 'thank you' for my cousins, with whom I'll be staying part of the time.  Their eldest daughter, Sarah is -- like my daughter -- a talented photographer.  She and her husband Ian own an organic market veggie farm -- Les Jardins de Glenelm -- and she took this photo in March, when it had snowed -- yet again!

I fell in love with it and asked permission to recreate it in textiles, which was granted.  So...this week, I did:

It's  a tiny piece -- just 6" square -- which I've wrapped around a stretched canvas and on Friday, took to my framer's for a floater.  I'll pick it up by week's end.  Alas, the lighting doesn't show it, but the background is a piece of recycled, thin, poly-cotton sheeting that I hand-dyed a pale blue.  Once I applied the fabric for the barn, I drew in the trees as guidelines, but there's much more stitching that's been done to finish it off.  I promise a photo of the finished piece before I take it to it's new home!

And so I leave you for the moment...and will link this up with Nina Marie's Off the Wall Friday before I go.  This week she shares "9 Tips to Unleash Your Creativity".  I seem to have been living Tip #4 -- after a fashion -- this past month...and very soon, I'll be following Tip #9.  Let's see where that leads, shall we?

Thanks for stopping by...I hope to 'see' you again soon!