I also saw this hydreangea umbrella on the grounds
and this butterfly adorning one of the trees.
And my butterfly beast piece is expanding. I've added some clouded sky (which matches the sky outside right now and the change of season) and another strange creature has arrived - a kind of squid devilfish which will have three eyes - one on the end of it's tail so that it can see in all directions. 
When I dropped off 'Both And' to Coast Collective gallery today, I enjoyed the gorgeous fall colours, the pumpkin lined bridge on the grounds and especially the large spheres made from branches. They were having a huge hand crafted gift sale, complete with live music and I was sorry not to have much time to browse, as there was lots to drool over. My handstitched piece is gradually progressing - the fringe on the right is meant to mirror the continuation of the waves and the green fabric the ocean depths. On a different topic, I've found out that I'm in the Nancy Crow workshop 'Strip-Piecing and Restructuring II', which will be next spring http://www.vgfa.org/retreatWorkshops.html and very challenging for me, I imagine. I know from hearing about her workshops that participants need to bring alot of solid colours of cottons, so I will be putting this on my Christmas wish list! A few days ago when I was checking Pam de Groot's blog, I also checked her store and found a gorgeous rainbow spiral felt bag she's made, up for sale - which is on its way to me, now :) You can view it here - scroll down: http://www.etsy.com/view_transaction.php?transaction_id=20900867
Yesterday I added to this piece but felt unsatisfied with it until I envisioned the circle, which is when it really came together for me, as did the quilting design. It's called 'Both And', and I will enter it in an upcoming juried show at Coast Collective gallery called 'Peace and Conflict' - hopefully it will be among those selected. I will sew the sleeve on today and block it. It's a mandala and speaks to wholeness and how life holds both peace and conflict - external and internal - and somehow we must navigate through it all. I was also thinking about how it's interesting that the crosshairs of a gun have a round view with four quadrants (not that I've ever actually looked through one, but I've seen movies :) That use for this symbol seems counter intuitive, yet destruction is also part of life. I have been to the art show in Sidney recently, where I saw about ten fibre pieces as well as the hundreds of paintings, sculptures and other mediums there. And some other exciting news - I've bought a piece of fibre art - one of Jude Hill's spirit cloths, which I'm excited to see and touch in person, as I really love her work. I notice I have a different feeling for those pieces of mine that I have handstitched and I am going to gather materials to hand sew while on an upcoming brief trip. You can see Jude's work here: http://www.spiritcloth.typepad.com/
Walking on the beach yesterday, I saw this dried seaweed - a piece of natural lace - and also this 'sand gown'. Today while at the Coast Collective Gallery's 'Memory, History and Family' show, there were displays of handwork, including the lace in the photo above, which reminded me of the seaweed photo because of the colour of the backdrop, as well as of the lace texture. I was delighted to see the fibre art pieces of two members of my art quilt group 'FAD' on display, although I had imagined there would be alot more fibre art in the show. There was also a display of crochet and fibre sea forms made by a variety of artists to highlight concern about pollution in our ocean and waterways, which I really enjoyed. You can see some of the sea art here: http://www.coastcollective.ca/pdfs/seas_of_change_poster.pdf I'm continuing to embroider a bouquet into my small quilt and I keep thinking 'this will be the last flower' and then I step back and decide it needs some more. I'm stitching as I go, without any external reference and I enjoy the surprise of watching the flowers bloom into being.
I'd heard about a new gallery opening recently, and today I went to check it out - only it was closed. So I enjoyed taking photos on the beautiful grounds instead, as well as at the nearby lagoon. I've completed quilting my quilt and I will add roving to it next.
