Quilting with the Ladies of Lunenburg

This is a video I made of the quilting group I joined in Lunenburg. We just finished this one, which was also the first quilt I ever quilted on!

I am learning so much and I have these ladies to thank!

My Studio in Lunenburg

a blank canvas

This is the top of what will eventually be my first quilt!

my studio

The Plumnose Adventures: Cape Breton Island

I went to Cape Breton Island last weekend and made this video.

Tarot Cards

I little while ago, a neighbor down our street in Lunenburg dropped into the studios and thought my work had a lot in common with the symbolism in Tarot cards. He reads cards and offered to show me his deck and explain the ideas involved in it. 

We had a wonderful afternoon eating chocolate and going through each card, dissecting its meaning. It was topped off by a reading for each of us in the studio for the upcoming weekend, which was our opening. His reading was spot on. 

Kevin the Magician

Since then, I have started reading Women Who Run with the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype by Clarissa Pinkola Estees.

It's amazing. I am encouraged to continue collecting stories about women here in Lunenburg. She talks about Jungian ideas about the therapeutic aspects of creating art to repair the soul, something I was exploring in my past work. I am learning so much!

QUILTS QUILTS QUILTS

This past weekend my dad came out to visit me in Lunenburg. We, along with Amelie, went to the Mahone Bay Quilters Guild Show in Blockhouse. It was beautiful. I am completely blown over by how many exhausting hours goes into each quilt and how stunning they were. 

The ladies there were excited about quilts and my interest in them. I was received warmly, and all my questions were answered with enthusiasm.

Since the show, I have joined the Guild and a weekly quilting group at a church close by. Anita, one very accomplished quilters at the church there, took me under her wing and showed me the nitty gritty of how it's done.

I loved the process, simple but challenging, of bending over a piece on the quilt and stitching one by one. Women trickled into the room and I was introduced to them. We talked and quilted all morning and some even shared their lunch with me. 

I am falling in love with this community in Lunenburg. The history is fascinating and everyone I meet has something to teach me. 

I got this quilt at an antique market for 20 bucks. Can you believe it?

These days I'm thinking a lot about history, and what it means to keep it a part of our lives. 

I am also thinking about generations of people who live by the sea, rely on it, love it, fear it. The sea, which gives life in nourishment and prosperity, but also has the power to take away and devastate life. Women who wait for their men to come home, who sit and wait for the sea to decide their fate...

... and quilts! Beautiful, warm quilts around which women sit and talk it all over. Telling jokes, recalling the past, sharing recipes and remembering women who sat around them and shared their past.