‘Tis September, and although people associate this with fall, I say it’s still summer! I don’t want to rush it away. I completed a course in the Origins of Medicine a few weeks ago; because I only had one course and it was spread through the months, I was able to spend time tending to other creative activities, too. Carrying on with the theme of life’s pleasures, I share here some more beauty from my life over the summer.
In August, I visited Prince Edward Island with a friend for a few days. It’s an idyllic place in the summer, with blue skies, white puffy clouds, and red dirt. We hopped around from beach to beach and drove along scenic roads. Below you can see just how red the earth is on this somewhat cliff-like beach. To me, it looks like a scene beamed back to Earth from the Mars land rover. One popular tourist item is t-shirts coloured with the red dirt, which I think is hilarious and clever. My kids used to dig clay out of our backyard, pick out the rocks and debris, and sculpt with it. So why not dye cloth with mud?
On one day of island beach-hopping, I could not take my eyes off the clouds that floated above us. I’ve never been to the island in fall/winter/spring, so I don’t know what the skies are like then. But every time I have gone in the summer, I see clouds like this. It reminds me of my times on Caribbean islands many years ago. Maybe it’s the nature of islands to have clouds like this, with being small land masses in the big oceans? I took many cloud photos and narrowed them down to my two favourites.
Both cloud photos were taken from a beach location. I loved sitting on the sand and simply watching them float and put on a dramatic show.
Earlier in August, my husband and I went to Cape Breton to see our daughter and meet some of her new friends. The beaches there have a reputation for containing sea glass, so I decided to investigate one that was near the place where we stayed. I arrived early one morning before the sun got very high (My skin burns easily) and started my walk, scanning for those small, shiny glints that tell me I see glass and not stone. I found a piece within the first few seconds of looking, which has never happened to me before. I kept looking, and I am not kidding when I say that I found a TON of glass that morning!! With very literally every step I took, I would see more small pieces. Because I love hunting for sea glass (as much as I love hunting in thrift stores), I ALWAYS pick up the tiny pieces. I do toss back the ones that aren’t worn yet, but I don’t usually leave a good piece behind. However, as I collected more and more, I found myself starting to get picky about what pieces I would keep! I began leaving tiny pieces behind! That is how abundant the glass was on this beach and much of it was worn glass, which is desirable! At some points, I would sit down in a pile of pebbles, rake my fingers through, and uncover many more pieces. I took a photo and sent it to a friend, pointing out that at least twelve pieces of glass were visible in the maybe 4 square feet of pebbles. I found many pretty greens, quite a few nice-looking whites (from clear glass), and quite a few tiny blue pieces (blue is rare). Then at one point, my eye scanning yielded this sight, which I didn’t disturb until I got the photo. Yes, that is a decent-sized chunk of beautiful worn blue amongst the stones!!
Fabric-wise, over the summer, I seem to have developed a new obsession. It began with my quest for an outfit to wear to a wedding I was to attend in June in Connecticut. First, I needed a dress, but kept not being able to find one I liked in local thrift stores. By the way, not all thrift stores here are full of just secondhand clothing – we have what is called Guy’s Frenchys stores, which get surplus clothing from outlets in the United States, so many items are brand new. Well, I tried my local Frenchys one day, and halfheartedly walked over to the dress racks. Lo and behold, three dresses jumped right out at me, one in particular. I took them into the dressing room, and tried on the two lesser favourites. They didn’t look right. But that third one was a style I really loved, in a sturdy cotton fabric, and it fit me perfectly. And it was only $8 and brand new! I’d never heard of the brand before, but it was an Eva Rose Fit and Flare Cactus print swing dress. I can’t find a website for them, so maybe the company doesn’t exist anymore. However, when I searched for more of this brand of dress, I positively swooned over the prints they have been made in! Anyway, the fabric obsession is NOT this brand’s prints (though I would definitely snag another if I saw one in a thrift store!); it’s about the shawl I then needed for my dress. I’ve not really looked through scarves at thrift stores before, so that’s what I did on my next outing. I searched for something in green or pink that would go with the dress, and stumbled across this beautiful, huge, soft, drapey, pink ombre shawl that matched perfectly. I looked at the fabric tag, which told me it was 100% pashmina. I looked this up on my phone and discovered it is similar to cashmere, which, because I use it in my mittens, you know I love! That pashmina shawl was so comfortable to wear to the wedding, and it served as a blanket on my plane ride because it warms the way cashmere does. THIS is what began my obsession with searching scarf racks now at thrift stores. And yes, I now have several pashmina scarves in different colours! I also search for silk, and unearthed this gorgeous red one a few weeks ago!
The photo below is from a marker experiment I was doing one summer day. I receive a newsletter from a professional artist who discusses formal art training and learning to use markers as a fine artist painter would. Her newsletters introduced me to the concepts of “underpainting” to create more natural-looking drawings. I like doing my boldly coloured, patterned, graphic looking drawings; but this concept has me intrigued. I think when I finish my current Bachelor of Arts degree, I might have to go to art school and earn a BFA. Tuition will be free when I reach age 65! (EDIT: I’ve been alerted that the local art school does not offer free tuition after 65 – oh well!) Anyway, it was fun to play around with laying down neutral colours and then playing with colour on top of them to see what would happen.
In summer of 2024, I cut out piles of fabric in anticipation of working on small projecs throughout the school year as I had time. Well, I had no time. So I took up these projects over this summer while I had just the one course. Here, you can see that I wrapped those big circles of linen fabric around plastic hoops (found at a thrift store, of course) and embroidered lines around the inner edges. This is actually the method used to make the Dorset singleton buttons. These linen hoops will be like singleton buttons, but bigger. I now have a pile of prepared hoops, all ready for me to embroider and embellish with thread, beads, sequins, sea glass, etc.
Next, I wanted to experiment with making embroidered patches. I found a scrap of white cotton fabric, put some cotton backing (inherited from my mother-in-law) behind it, and placed it in an embroidery hoop. I lightly sketched a pattern on it (flowers, of course), figured out how to do a satin stitch, and set to work filling in the drawn shapes. I had tried satin stitch in the past, but got frustrated. This time, I found a rhythm and fell into enjoying the process. I finished the stitching, but have not yet cut and bound the edges to make this piece into a patch, but I will.
Finally, I also took that pile of layered silk rectangles, finished binding the edges of them with blanket stitch in many colours, and added bead-woven edgings to them. I plan to decorate these, too, with embroidery/beads/sequins/etc.. Then I will back them with scraps of suede leather and string them as pendants for necklaces. I plan to create my own cords for them, too.
How I love hand-sewing! Embroidery, beading, knitting, crocheting. It is so relaxing. So I was able to accomplish getting those cut out piles of fabric formed a little further into what I envisioned for them in 2024. Perhaps I will find a little more time in this coming school year to work on them? And if not, I can always work on sock-knitting. I did finish (just last night!) the first of the yellow socks, and began knitting the second of them. That will be my brainless go-to project, since I don’t have to make creative decisions; I just keep knitting the pattern. But I do hope to work on the other projects. I have more items in progress, too, but no photos yet. Here’s hoping!
What creative and fun things have you been doing over the last few months? Talk with me in the comments!