The Summer That Got Away - Part One: Serendipity

You might have noticed that I didn't post very much over the last few months. There were a few things going on... .lots of guests, three part-time jobs to juggle, roommates coming and going, two gardens (no, make that three) to tend, dogs to walk. No wonder I didn't get much done.

One notable event was that my mother bought a house here on Gabriola. And as house buying often goes, it was a long drawn out process of small freak-outs, wonderings and worryings. And a whole lot of serendipity.

It started last fall when Mom had finally had enough of a difficult neighbour in her condo. She and her partner, Jim, started looking around at properties for sale in her Fraser Valley town. There were some places one or the other of them liked, and many that were just plain unsuitable, but nothing that they both agreed on. Eventually they decided to put the search on hold, but were still keeping an eye out. They even went on a house tour of Gabriola just for the heck of it.

Mom had been living in the condo for almost 30 years, ever since my father went for a walk around the block and came home with a shiny new purchase agreement for a unit in the new development one street over. Mom didn't get consulted, but she went along with it and ended up with the condo when they divorced a couple of years later. Jim moved in with her a couple more years after that -there had been a fire in his apartment and Mom said he could stay with her. He never left. So it ended up that neither of them were terribly experienced home buyers.

Me and my Mom at the Atlas Affair. We are wearing our buttons. Photo:Bill Pope

Cut to the end of January, 2016. The Gabriola Arts Council is putting on their annual fundraising gala, with the theme of "The Atlas Affair". I had the smart-alecky idea of making buttons with the quote "The map is not the territory." As I had just done a purge on my junk drawer and was fresh out of old political campaign buttons, I went to the local thrift shop to see if I could find any. The clerk shook her head, but a nearby customer overheard me and said "I've got lots of buttons. Here's my address, come by and if I'm not home I will leave them on the freezer out on the porch."

It turned out that this kind person was Susan, a retired librarian and major presence in the community. I went by her house the next day, and, true to her word, she had left a baggie of buttons on her freezer. Ever the snoop, I looked around a bit, noticing the charming trim on the eaves, the well-kept garden, the trellises and fruit trees. I peeked through the front window and noticed lots of art on the wall and shelves full of books. I distinctly thought to myself, "Now, this is the kind of house Mom and Jim are looking for."

A few weeks went by, and I was at my Monday rug hooking group, where we eat cake and chocolate and share what we have been up to. Alison happened to mention that her friend Susan was going to have to sell her house. My head popped up and I said "Susan Y----? That Susan?" And it was! I phoned her as soon as I got home and asked if it was true. And when she said it was, I told her my story about picking up the buttons, and asked if my mom could come visit next time she was on the island.

Susan said she was in no rush to sell, and a visit would be just fine. This past Easter, Mom and Jim came over and had a tour of the house and grounds, and liked it very much indeed. But their condo wasn't even on the market yet, and Susan emphasized that she planned to take her time selling. But they all hit it off, bonding over a shared love of theatre and books, and ended up with a very informal arrangement that Mom and Jim would get first dibs when the property eventually went on the market.

Mom is a very practical person and once she decides to do something she is a dynamo of organization and planning. Jim, on the other hand, is fine with her taking the lead. Even so, once their condo was listed and quickly sold, there were many sleepless nights filled with fretting. And there were several trips over to Gabriola to inspect, see lawyers, take measurements and discuss arrangements with Susan, who in the meantime had decided to buy a condo in the Village. The timing worked out perfectly.

It seems to have been a very friendly, agreeable process negotiating the terms. Susan has even been giving positive advance notice on Mom and Jim to her friends: "I couldn't have imagined a better couple to move into my house" was said to my friend Maia, who duly reported back to me. (It is a small island after all. The "Gumboot Telegraph" is fully operational.)

The moving date will be at the end of October. Mom is currently on her annual gallivant around Ontario: visiting friends, going to the Shaw Festival and staying with my sister in Kingston. The Kingston Writer's Fest is also happening, and Mom is attending as usual (she even got her picture in the program, with her letter of thanks for the many years of pleasure and learning the festival has given her.) And, typically, she emailed Susan, asking her which of the authors she would choose for an autograph.

I'm betting it will be an especially gracious inscription that Eleanor Wachtel will write in Susan's copy of "The Best of Writers & Company." Things just seem to be working out that way.

"Filled with my Love always"

Embroidered pillowcase: Rose, a slave, gave this pillowcase to her 9-year-old daughter when the girl was sold. The girl’s granddaughter, Ruth, later embroidered her family’s story onto it. Photo by Lexey Swall.

This is a detail of a piece in the new National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC. Check out the very interesting virtual tour and article in the New York Times.

Poetic Purse

My friend Heide gave me this lovely present for my birthday. It is a purse embellished with a hand-stitched haiku, made by Naomi Beth Waken. I thought the poem was very appropriate for a day where we celebrate and reflect.

Naomi is a long-time Gabriola resident and Nanaimo's Poet Laureate. She is a prolific writer of all forms but is particularly well known for her haiku. She is also a fibre artist influenced by the years she spent in Japan. She made a whole series of purses for her recent Open House and Studio Sale, held annually in late summer.

To find out more about Naomi Beth Wakan, visit her website.

The Big Reveal

"Here Be Monsters"(2016) 51"(w) 63 1/2"(h). Hand embroidery, cotton on linen.

 Here I am with it, just so you can get an idea of the scale.

The text (tiny letters along one of the rhumblines) reads "What would an ocean be without a monster lurking in the dark? It would be like sleep without dreams." A quote by Werner Herzog, who knows a thing or two about monsters and dreams.

More to come.

Everyone's a Critic

I laid out the hooked rug I am working on, just to see how it looked, and Gracie immediately settled down on it. I don't know if that's a stamp of approval or a statement that I should be paying attention to more important things.

Mischa also got in on the act. At least they didn't poop on it. I had that happen once when I took my previous pup Tasha into a gallery where I had a solo show. And yes, right in the middle of the carpet she did her business. Keeps me in my place, that.

Rouge Allure

 Seduced again by the ever-photogenic Scarlet Runner.

 She blows kisses to the skies,

 and kneels down to the ground.

She purses her lips,

and for the bee awaits.

Stitching Stories

My friend, artist Elizabeth Shefrin, has a book launch and exhibit at Vancouver's Roundhouse on September 15th. Her book is the "Embroidered Cancer Comic", a poignant, intimate and gently humourous true story of what she and her husband (legendary folk singer Bob Bossin) experienced after his diagnosis with prostate cancer. Elizabeth's own words (from the Singing Dragon blog) are better than mine here.

“How did I come to write a comic?” I’m glad you asked. As soon as my husband Bob Bossin was diagnosed in 2011 with prostate cancer, we started making cancer jokes. Every time we could laugh about the situation, one of us would say, “That goes in the comic”.  At this stage the comic was completely imaginary.  But eventually I picked up my needle and stitched and stitched until I had over sixty embroidered squares…
... I like the comic book medium because it gives some lightness to a pretty serious situation.  On the night of Bob’s diagnosis we made a decision to get married and one of our marriage vows was to never lose our sense of humour. I have created this comic as partial fulfillment of my wedding vows.

After embroidering 60 panels of the comics themselves, Elizabeth decided to make them into quilts. I took a few shots of her in her lovely bright studio. ( I have had the privilege of assisting her with assembling the quilt tops. She is doing all the hand-quilting herself.)

You can hear a delightful interview with Elizabeth on CBC's North by Northwest, (starts about 39 minutes in) and keep up with all her news on the Facebook page Embroidered Cancer Comic. And if you are in or near Vancouver, check out the Roundhouse show!

Is it September Already?

Could it be that I don't want this piece to end? I've finished the embroidery, now I have decided that instead of stretching it like a canvas, I will baste a marking line around the edge of the work, interline it with muslin, catch-stitch the muslin to the linen along the basted line, then fold a hem along the the edge, trim the interlining, catch-stitch the inner side of the hem to the outside of the muslin, then fold and slipstitch a hem, being careful not to poke my needle through the outside layer.

Where are those elves when you need 'em?

Did I mention that the piece measures 51"wide and 63 1/4" high? That's about 19 feet around! And not a stitch of finishing will show. But the interlining gives the cloth a beautiful hand, stability and smoothness.

Do a Little Dance, Hook a Little Rug, Get Down Tonight!

"Relax and Put Your Feet Up" (2016) Hand hooked upcycled wool, wood footstool. Photo by James Emler

I will spare you the apologies for my long absence. Everything is fine, Gracie is steadily recovering, and I'm ridiculously busy, as usual. (There is always the possibility that I'm just plain ridiculous, I supppose.)

One of my side projects has been the above duo of carpet slippers and footstool, all the better to "Relax and Put Your Feet Up" with. I made the slippers first out of wool orts or "worms", the little bits left over from other projects. Then, as our rug-hooking group had a show coming up at the Hive, I began to fret over what else I could make in a short time. I found the little footstool at our local thrift store, and hooked upholstery to match the slippers. I find this very amusing. Hope you do too.

Out of the Woods

So dear Gracie is out of the woods. She actually came upstairs to lie on my bed this morning! Now, getting back down those stairs was another issue altogether, but she is making steady progress. The vet still couldn't say for sure what caused the paralysis, but he was leaning towards a spinal embolism. She should recover completely we hope. Thanks for all your kind words and good wishes.

Two more marine critters are finished: the seal and a grey porpoise. Just the sea lion to go, and the rest of the rhumblines, and I can unveil the whole crazy thing.

P.S. I see some Russian android has been using Pinterest to visit this blog hundreds of times in the last couple of weeks. Wonder if anyone else has noticed this. Is it dangerous, do you think?

On Hold

Just as things seemed to settle down a bit - the guests out the door, new housemate moved in - my dear Gracie has had a health crisis. Within one day she went from happy go lucky pup to complete paralysis. She has been at the vet's for two days and there is still no diagnosis but the likely culprits are a neurotoxin (possibly picked up from eating compost), a spinal embolism, or atypical Addison's disease. The good news is she is increasingly alert, eating, and peeing again. We're hopeful that she will recover.