Getting Out On the Water.

Yesterday, late in the afternoon, Ray and carried the canoe and gear to the Sydenham river.  It's two blocks away down the street.   I love that!  This last photo is the Mill Pond.   The water hasn't been this high in years!   We were able to get to places that we've never seen because we could cross flood plain areas.   There's been quite a bit of work done to the Strathroy Water Trail over the past two years or so and you can tell...from the water.   It was a nice little outing!   So good to get back on the water and glimpse a different angle of creation...God's fingerprints everywhere.   Occasionally one needs to step away from civilization and just soak in it. 

I love my new lens!!!

PS I'm linking up with Fingerprint Friday at The Rusted Chain....

Reaping and Sewing

LOVE this color combo.



...and this one!

 The other day I was able to attend a quilt show featuring quilts from the Netherlands.   The trip was spurred by a bookmark, a card, a photo, friends who are like family, and the joy of living in proximity.   I spotted bookmarks announcing the show at my local library.   I passed it along to a quilting friend and thought no more about it until I received a card in the mail from a close friend of our family, actually closer to us than most of our family :)  The card also held a photo of a quilt and mentioned the show that was coming to a town near me.   Today I reread the card.   I thought  might see this quilt at the show but that was not to be.   Instead, I need to help find this quilt a home.....something I had failed to realize on first reading.   I still ended up at the show, this little connection across the miles.  And I took some photos.





All along I knew I wanted to write something about this trip.   And a picture always tells a tale of its own.   I almost got into trouble taking this fabric photo.   I loved seeing the baskets and tubs of fabric laying around and wanted to capture those piles.  Little visual treats that I enjoy almost as much as the actual finished quilts.    The color and the way patterns are put together into bundles generates and inspires ideas in a way that a finished product can't.  It's part and parcel of being a details person.   I almost got my knuckles rapped by one vendor but apparently they had a bad copyright experience and so I asked for their card so that I could give credit to their business.    But the ladies from one booth thought it was the neatest thing that someone would love the bundles just for their colors that they gave me free reign to take photos.  Thanks ladies!!!   This is also the booth where I spotted my favorite line of scrapbook paper turned into a line of fabric.  It was only a matter of time!

Inspired by Iceland....lots of different sewing techniques

Some of the pieces was pure fabric art.  Extremely creative.   Probably not the way I would approach quilting but definitely a way in which I approach creating.   Card making is really just quilting with paper....no??  I think I might just be really limited by the sewing machine I have, it could never pull this off this type of feat.   But....it makes you think outside your technique box.    :):)
 




Batik.

  



I LOVE...there's that word again...   I love batik.   There's so much subtle detail yet the fabric is so brilliant, and the craftsmanship on this particular quilt was exquisite.   Everything lined up perfectly.  You'd need quite a stash to accomplish this work of art.  I could aspire to have a stash of that magnitude....but I probably don't have room to keep it under this roof.   Still fun to daydream :)


I loved the neutral pieces as well.   And this one made my think of my friend PK who loves all things musical, especially sacred music.   The little sheer tufts are birds on a wire, strategically seated in the pattern of  selection of music from Handel's Messiah.  And so, each artist adds subtle little details about who they are and what is meaningful to them to each item they create.     

  



Great ideas for fans of texture....card idea??

It was such fun going to Ailsa Craig the other day.   I went with a sister friend and her mom.  I love going places with other people's moms! We all agreed that some quilts we loved and some we absolutely did not.  Some had unique styles that we either liked or didn't and some had colors that we would never, in a million years, put together.   Different likes, styles, colors, fabrics, shapes, subtleties....   It just reinforced how we are created differently....uniquely.



And then I went home and gardened.  I put things into the ground and that too was so enjoyable.  For several days I have wandered around garden centers slowly building a little collection of flats of flowers in the garage.  I have been good to my eyes this week!    It was neat to feel creative about gardening after I had laid eyes on creativity all moring.    It was warm and dry and I planted: yellow and green peppers, a few kinds of tomatoes, zucchini, squash and cucumbers, red onions, lettuce and herbs....I can't wait for some fresh basil!    There were several little lurkers who accompanied this outdoor adventure.    I love this little painted turtle, it watched every move I made and beat a hasty retreat once it ventured its arms and legs outside its shell.    Blixie.....wasn't sure if this was something that should be tasted but she did try it....glad it wasn't a snapper like last year!    Good bye little turtle, I know you can't stay in our garden...I'm just not sure how you're going to make it back to the creek throught the gauntlet of dog guarded yards!! 

And a little toadie....having lived with boys for many moons now has softened my horror reflex.  At one time, I would run away screaming at the sight of these warty things, which gave way to slow retreat to fetch a boy who was totally enamored with living things, and today I move toads to the other side of our fences because Blixie likes to mouthe them, and they leave a bitter taste in her mouth and make her froth rabidly....blech....   I love all these little critters.   Time does that to you.



Spring flowers after all those showers...

I never did get around to posting photos of tulips, crocuses and other spring things.   But yesterday, just before sunset it felt like summer.  A warm day ending with a warm night.   Perfect night for a campfire, after a nice day out and about.    I was able to be outside helping at the school golf tournament...a whole day of sitting at the end of a hedge row at the edge of the 16th green, listening to the birds and having the odd golf ball drop nearby.   I guess that's just as nice as a day of sitting at a soccer tournament.  Maybe I just like sitting.

Without further ado....It has been a wet summer so far.  Nice days for ducks...and these two wouldn't even set up in a row!!! 

The lilacs smelled so lovely when we set up the fire pit and the boys eventually ventured outside and joined us.  It was so nice.

























See my bleeding hearts?  They're crazy this year!!!!   Last year they didn't do so well...or was that the year before.

Hen...without chicks :(













And some spurge...it has such lovely lime green flowers when it blooms, it should really have a lovelier name! :)