BirdBrain Designs

Archives for August 2018

update: latest hooked piece and two books that arrived this week

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It clearly has not been a summer for posting on the blog. I have been posting the occasional photo on Instagram but that’s it. We have been at the cottage a lot during this very hot summer–a beautiful spot with some connectivity, but not to do more than send a text or make a call. Definitely enough, and I like it that way, but the blog which takes a solid connection for a length of time, has been neglected. 

Is it time to give up the blog? I don’t think I am ready to do that. I like the record it provides for one thing. The first post was over 7 years ago! And I like the space to expand on ideas and show my work. Even if my readership has diminished. Even if I am not regular about it. Even if it’s just a place to record my thoughts. This is the latest village finished. I have put it in a woollen frame and plan to make it into a pillow. 

A closeup showing the frame…

And two books which arrived in the mail this week.  The small one is Canadian quilter Judith Martin’s poem/photos of her stitched piece called Not to Know But To Go On. The second is an artist new to me, Jean Claude Roy, whose dramatic paintings of Newfoundland are deeply moving and inspirational.The title of the book, Fluctuat Nec Mergitur, which means She Is Tossed By the Waves but Doesn’t  Sink, is a gorgeous phrase, one that would also suit Judith Martin’s lovely work. I encourage you to seek out both books.

july 2018

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Since I got home from France on July 2, I have been at our cottage. I still have much more to post about my almost two weeks in France and I will do that. But right now I want to talk about July and the lake. The cottage, a 1950’s former hunting cabin, is on a small island in Canadian shield  country. When the whole family is there it is crowded, chaotic, laughter-filled. But most of the time it’s quiet with room for thinking, rug hooking and painting.

I have had my kayak for 35 years and it was not new when I took it over. It’s faded red and white with a maple leaf insignia. It feels like an extension of me. I aim to take it out every day, on the big part of the lake when I want a challenge, but mostly in the back bays and inlets. A time of contemplation. Some of these trees have worked their way into my hooked pieces.

A glimpse of a perfect summer afternoon with cousins…

And while there I’ve been working on a study loosely based on the village in Provence where I was in June. What I like best about hooking at the cottage is that my materials are scarce. I have only my bag of ends and some additional 2″ pieces. I need to make ‘do’ with what I have and I love the problems that creates and the solutions that emerge. This is almost finished and the larger piece will begin. I’m taking a landscape course at the end of the summer so I need to be ready with the bigger work for that.