A Day on the Water

On Saturday my husband and I rented kayaks and set off for a "three hour tour". The weather was fabulous, warm but not hot, sunny and just a hint of a breeze!

We paddled around to the end of Razor Point on Pender Island and saw a most intriguing rock at the point and while sitting in the kayaks we could hear a bagpiper playing, rather an odd venue, perhaps his neighbours prefer that he plays far, far away! I kept looking for him but he was in amongst the trees.


We had fun looking at the star fish and saw both purple and orange ones.


We discovered "kelp crabs" which actually live on the heads of the bull kelp right at the surface of the water. they have additional seaweed on their back as a disguise from predators. I imagine seals find these crabs a tasty treat!



We also came across red jellyfish, also known as Lions Mane which are becoming more common in local waters. I saw one last fall that was about 20" across, though this one is much smaller.


It was a perfect day, brought to a close with a cool beer at the local pub......

Murals

I love to see houses and buildings that are decorated in interesting ways. It makes the neighbourhood more vibrant and shows that the community cares about the surroundings.
These are some murals that we found during our visit to Edmonton. do you have any where you live, I'd love to post some more!

On the Road

Last week we returned home from a quick camping trip to Edmonton to visit our son. the easiest and quickest drive is through Jasper National Park in the Roackie Mountains. We camped along the way in probably the smallest tent trailer ever created. Its Canadian made and designed for motorcycles, easy to put up and take down.


Mount Robson is the tallest mountain in all the Rockies and is alwasy a surprise as we took a bend in the nighway and were presented with this view....stunning!
We camped in the National Park and took a walk along the Athabaska River which eventually drains into the Mackenzie River and the Arctic Ocean. We say lots of river rafters. We also saw a grey wolf, black bear and lots of elk but too slow to take a picture.


We went for another walk and found the entrance to an old silver mine.

Once in Edmonton we visited the bakery where our son works....they have awesone baguettes, we took several home and they disappeared quickly.


We met this fellow playing cards but he didn't have much to say.


>

One Word Wednesday

Happy!

Ricky Tims Super Seminar

I took a few days off work and went to Lynnwood, WA for the Super Seminar. I didn't take many pictures, I was busy concentrating on all the wonderful information and eye candy that Ricky, Libby Lehman and Alex Anderson presented.
If you ever have a chance to attend one of the Seminars, its not to be missed. Its spread out over 2 1/2 days with short 30-45 minute presentations of a variety of topics, including quilting design, curved piecing, Rhaspody quilts, bindings, and much more. The attendees are given a very comprehensive book on all the tips and steps for the demonstrations, so I didn't even take many notes, it was all in the book.
Ricky gave a musical presentation of Friday evening and talked abouyt his inspiration, his background and more. Very entertaining and very well presented.

If you don't know about it, Ricky and Alex have the Quilt Show over the internet, visit it at: http://thequiltshow.com and see what a wonderful informative site it is. I'm on Episode #309, check it out!

Nature's Alphabet

Today I found another letter while out for a walk. Why not have a look around and see what nature can offer you?

One Word Wednesday

Complementary.....

Batik Class

Last week I had a batik class in my backyard. The weather was perfect, high cloud and a slight breeze. We appreciated the cloud so we didn't get sun burnt and the breeze helped the fabrics to dry so we could get lots of waxings and colouring done. I had the dyes in the wet room so they didn't blow away. We used soy wax, which is so much better for the environment, it doesn't smell or smoke, melts at a lower temperature, and comes out in the washing machine with hot water. So easy and so much fun!





Why not give it a try?

One Word Wednesday

Softly!

Amie of Arabia

I met Amie a couple years ago when I was teaching on a quilt cruise to Alaska, we hit it off and kept in touch by email and hope to meet up again when she visits Victoria in October. She and her husband plan to live here once their time in Arabia is done. Hurrah! I asked Amie to write a profile about her life in Arabia (it sounds quite exotic and exciting to me!) and send some pictures. So here she is:

I am a textile artist who is living and working in Saudi Arabia. In Saudi as you would expect, the sand is everywhere! The palms trees look dull because the palm leaves are covered in sand. Sand storms create an orange hue, the sand is so heavy in the air you can't see down the street. The most beautiful part of the Saudi landscape has to be the setting sun. It is an orange ball in the sky and seems to fall rather quickly as opposed to setting like sunsets in Canada.

The camel, of course!


A hunting falcon


To market, to market!


Amie in a gold souk or market:


More gold:


Digging for a Sand Rose:


A Desert Sand Rose:

I Googled the Desert Rose and found this information:
Desert Rose is a beautiful variety of gypsum that forms in the spaces between sand particles. It traps the loose sand in a unique flower-like crystal structure.
Desert rose usually forms spherical and disc-shaped crystals with a range of graceful curving lines. Very large desert roses are rare but have been discovered as large as a metre in diameter. This is only possible in the coarsest sand found below the water table.

I began quilting many years ago and worked in a quilt shop before coming to Saudi. My work was mainly tradtional quilting. My favorite part of a traditional quilt is the actual quilting. I love playing with threads and free motion stitching. I have spent the last few years just playing with different fabrics and techniques. I am a texture girl. I love texture. I love to run my hands across any textured surface. I am actually inspired by texture and try to recreate texture in my work.
Amie's latest work is titled Purple Breeze:

Stamping Monday

Have you thought about your stamping as a design element? Rather than just placing the stamping randomly across the fabric or paper, do you have a plan or a design that you would like to achieve? To make your stamps work in the very best way for you, try thinking like a quilter! (interesting concept, eh?) Think about blocks, rotation, borders and sashing, then try a variety of stamps with a common theme.



You will have stronger impact and more interesting results. Try different colours on the printing plate or stamp, vary the colours for interest but always consider the colour of the fabric or paper as that can really impact the final result, especially if you are using transparent paints.

One Word Wednesday

Open-Shut!

The Winner Is....

Thanks to everyone that took part in the little quiz last week, it was fun to see all the comments and your wonderful ideas on the identity of the image.
I took the picture on a step at the beach near my home. It was a shoe imprint into the sand and it appeared a little like a "spaceship" and nothing like the traditional shoe imprints!
I'm pleased to say that Debbie in Israel won my hand dyed fat quarter and I'll be sending it to her shortly.
I hope to have another mystery photo up sometime soon. Keep checking back!

Stamping Monday

Sometimes you will find that the stamping material you buy will deteriorate over time and start to break down and crumble. This was happening to one of my favourite stamps and I wanted to make another copy before the original one fell apart completely.
I thought it would be fun to make a second, mirror image of the stamp and have an opportunity to create more interesting designs.



I stamping the image on some new material that will last longer. The one I prefer is Mastercarve by Staedler, its a little thicker and seems more dense. I think I'll be using it more in the future.



So with my two images, it was easy to carve the opposites by carving into the blank,background areas in one and into the black, stamped areas in the other.



I stamped images onto some dyed fabric and then used discharge paste and stamped onto black linen and steamed it for some interesting designs. The black linen design will be used as the border on a jacket cuff.