'Hands Around the World' in Christ Church Cathedral

In the Christ Church Cathedral, Victoria, there is an exhibition of 11 international textile murals. It is the 'Creative Peace Mural Project which aims to link and celebrate communities around the world'.

This mural was made in Morioka Japan in 2010 as a community project with the makers' hand prints making up the border. The inner panel shows what the people of Morioka decided makes up their history, geography and culture.

  

The project started in Victoria as a millennium project. Since then the project, with the accumulating number of textiles, has traveled to 8 different countries. The completion of each textile is celebrated with a community event involving local dancing, music and culture.

Each panel is made up of 10 vertical panels, 5m x 2m. 'This panel design allows the completed mural to be easily packaged for shipping'. 

The paneled design looks familiar to Victorian's because the textile designer was Carole Sabiston.

Behind the alter in the cathedral is a large work by Carole constructed in her signature panel technique. By working in panels she is able to make the large scaled commissioned work she is well known for.

'The Forest Primeval', 5 x 2' x 10' panels.

Victoria's Christ Church Cathedral is well worth a visit by textile enthusiasts. Most of the ornament inside the building is textile based - they are everywhere and some of them change with church calendar. Elaine Ellison is the Sacristan where it is her job to make sure the right textiles (and the other items) are installed for each  event.

 It is bit of a treasure hunt trying to find all of the banners, panels, hangings, flags, cloths, kneelers etc within the church.

New Studio Work Area

This used to be the admin area in my studio until I moved it outside my main studio room.

In the process of moving out.

I didn't decided what to use the space for but just waited to see what happened there.

For the past year I have been in the Gaia College Ecological Landscape Design program at Royal Roads University. The last 2 courses have involved lots of sketching and drafting.

My new work area has turned into my drafting work station. It is so good having a dedicated area for it where I can leave things out.

Here I am working on my big final project.

#2 Christmas Knitting - Check

I had a most enjoyable evening sitting in front of the fire and the TV while weaving in the ends on Sebastian's scarf. We watched 'Earth, Wind and Fire" - a movie about Georgia O'Keeffe, Emily Carr and Freida Khalo - I don't know what the connection is between this movie and the exhibition of work by these 3 artists.

Then we watched lots more TV, until 1:00 a.m.! Then I finished weaving in the ends this morning!

There are a lot of ends. It is such soft merino wool and mohair I put the ends out in the garden for the birds. They will be working on their nests soon. I am looking forward to the day when I find on old nest with some of my wool ends woven into it.

I did find this nest. There is a white horse over our back fence.

Onward with the Christmas knitting projects....

Christmas Knitting

Towards the  end of last year I got the urge to knit.

It may have been prompted by my daughter's request for thigh-highs.

After they were finished and I looked for something else to knit. 

With Christmas approaching I ambitiously decided to make something for each person's Christmas stocking.

Elizabeth got some leg warmers using one of my first efforts at dyeing wool, from many years ago.

I finished these on our 2 day road trip to Edmonton for the family Christmas.

Also on the road trip I knit this scarf for son-in-law, Sebastian.

He pulled it out of his stocking Christmas morning with the needles still attached.

Before I finished it I needed to know how long he wanted it to be.

Here it is on the wall washed and blocked.

Look at all of those ends to darn in. I need a good TV movie to watch while darning.

Sebastian is a scientist so his scarf is striped in a Fibonacci sequence.

New Articulation Work

Then I cut the strips again ...

... joined them then cut them into 6 panels.

I want to show what we all see when we fly over the prairies late summer.

Well this is what I see - you know I`m the one with the blind up while you are trying to go to sleep.

I cut and joined each panel once more, to add the survey lines the roads generally follow.

I`m calling this series `Section, Township, Range` the names of different surveyed blocks of land.

All Articulation members are making the same sized  panels. These panels will be hung close together to make a patchwork of the patterns found on the prairies. Each time the work is hung the panels will be in a different order so the work will look different in each gallery.

It is going to be an interesting series of exhibitions.

Next Articulation Series of work

Two summers ago, while travelling, I knit lots of rectangles in a log cabin quilt technique.

Last summer, while working in a temporary studio in the Tulista Art Gallery, I washed and blocked them all. 

Next step I joined the rectangles, cut them into strips then rejoined the strips.

Then re-cut and rejoined the pieces again.
I am making views of the Canadian prairies from the air - a patchwork of different field crops.

Winter Knitting Projects

Younger daughter requested a pair of thigh-highs.

"Really - I wore those in the 70s."

I produced a book she for made me when she was 5, after watching me knit for the first time.

I used the book to record knitting notes.

Every so often I would find she had added a new knitted design to the book.

I asked her to draw the thigh-highs she wanted me to knit.

She is now 23 and remembers making the book for her mum.

Studio Tidy-up

With my new sewing machine in hospital, I hauled out my old one to continue the cord making.
No sooner had I started to sew when I smelt a burning electrical smell had heard a crackling sound coming out of the motor.
So I packed up the machine and took it off to the hospital too.

What to do without a sewing machine for '7 to 10 days'?
A studio tidy-up would be a good use of time.
For my birthday I was given this compact little 'thing' that is a speaker for music I have playing on my tablet or laptop which is in another room in my admin area. It means I can have my music playing right beside me where I am working. It also does double duty as a charger for various devices.

It also meant I could get rid of this archaic collection that I had been using as a speaker system. Nothing else works on it any longer.
This purging cleared a shelf in  my studio for storing valuable stuff nearby - exactly what is yet to be determined.

While sorting through a box of threads and haberdashery I got at an auction I found this treasure.

Just like the stereo with CD player, cassette player, and amplifier this ruler records a vocabulary most of us are no longer familiar with.
How are a firkin, barrel and hogshead related?
It is like a Trivial Pursuit question.
OK, studio is back in order. I now need my machines back.

Cord Making Project

Day 3 of this quick, in-between-projects, project.

There was lots of satisfying evidence of progress...

...including I don't know how many metres of continuous basic cord.
I can cut out sections to make thicker cords, build up braids and construct ribbons that can be couched, manipulated into 3D embellishments and used in tassels.

Then disaster struck. My new Bernina stopped working. I took it in to the 'hopspital' twice.
It turned out all it needed was a computer update.
Phew, crisis averted but I did feel for a few days there that my right arm had been cut off.
Now it is time to get into the next project.