The beautiful photograph of daffodils trying to poke through the snow was taken by Kathleen Hamann Buckoski, the artist I have been having painting and fibre shows with for over thirty years.

We had only a tiny sprinkle of rain on the last day of April but since then have had enough to start the flowers growing. In my garden the first flowers of May were dandelions – I know most people hate them but they are so bright and sun like that I love it when they start appearing as I know that the long monochromatic winter is over. Once they go to seed I am not so fond of them although the design aspect of the ‘clocks’ is wonderful.

I also found these tiny little purple flowers peeking between the blades of grass – no idea what they are. Now with the sudden burst of heat we have cherry and apple blossom all over. It’s wonderful to work in the studio with all the doors and windows open.

The last two flowers on my orchid finally died but surprise, surprise it looks like it is sending out a new shoot just over from the stalk where the flowers were. Everything I read said they might shoot from the bottom but this is right at the top and already is about three inches long with little ‘bumps’ on it – so I am hoping all is well and I will get some new blossoms. I was amazed that an orchid flower lasts so long – I guess I’ve been looking for my winter blossoms on the hibiscus for so long that to find something that could be in bloom for three months is incredible.
Had an exciting parcel in the mail last Friday – the Summer edition of The Canadian Quilter, the magazine of the Canadian Quilters Association/Association canadienne de la courtepointe. It has an article about me written by Lea Frame and has photographs of ten of my quilted hangings. The entire magazine will be posted on line later in the year for those who are not a member of CQA/ACC – at the moment the last one is the Winter 2014.

I am working on several pieces at the moment. Still working on the jigsaw piece – have now started putting it all together. This is going to be the bottom of the hanging with the jigsaw pieces falling down to ‘fit in’. Also working on a piece about water which is in the design stage, and another about the geophysical aspects of our world and the exploitation of it for the sake of oil and gas – that one is actually in the process of being sewn. I actually did some thing different with this piece, I picked all the fabrics that I wanted or thought would work together.

My usual method after that is to cut each piece and pin it on my design wall and then search for the next piece of fabric. This time I put them in a pile and used whichever was next in line – I think it worked out very well - though I have to admit some of my favourite fabrics ended up being a small piece and some that I wasn’t so sure about had a much larger role. I had heard about other quilters doing this but this was certainly a new way of working for me.

The last piece I’m working on is for a Fibre Art Network show “Ekphrastic” which will take place next year in La Conner, Washington. The inspiration for that show is from twelve poems. It was difficult choosing one of them as several formed pictures in my mind. The design for it is still very much in the planning stage with scribble and colour ideas coming together but I hope to get started on the finished drawing soon.