Happy New Year!

As 2009 prepares to leave, making room for 2010
may there be
Peace on Earth and Happiness for All!

Dream Catchers

We spent a good part of this summer on the road again. Ever some often, our travel bugs bite and we will head out to see the world. This time we head out, just the two of us, with the final destination as the Upper Peninsular of Michigan State, Houton to be exact. Clement attended a Math conference and did some work with Tonchev. I tagged alone and visited some friends on the way. We visited Algonquin Park, Manitoulin Island and the Bruce Peninsular. These are Ojibwa country. On this trip, I really feel the presence of the Great Spirit. There are many small things that touched my senses, but I was most pulled by seeing the hand made dream catchers in one of the few shops I visited.

So back home I had to complete the circle by making my own dream catchers. I took branches from my kiwi vine that has been growing for years in the back yard. I wove with last year's silk threads that I dyed and spun. Each of them features a white swan feather that I picked up by the lagoon of the Victoria Park in Kitchener where we went to see this year's Grand National Post Card collections on the very last morning before we came home. Here is where you can see the rest of the dream catchers.

Home sweet home! Sweet Dreams!

Les nomades

Recently I was given an opportunity to do something special with and for groups of school children from 10 different inner city schools in and around the City of Montreal. It was an experience I looked forward to, somehow knowing that it will come to me and that I should take up the challenge. The challenge came as a request from the McCord Museum to participate in their project "Les adventuriers nomades".

It involved my effort to develop and conduct a series of ten 2-hour workshops; during each of which a group of up to 50 Cycle 2 students undertook a creative adventure to put together a personal quilt block using colourful fabric. The creations express their thoughts on the theme of "nomad".

The sets of quilt blocks were assembled into 19 separate quilts - traveler's blankets. It was a considerable amount of work, but I marvel at the spontaneous creativity of these children and the results are quite wonderful to look at.

To see the quilts, go to

http://picasaweb.google.ca/MoonGlowStudio/LesAdventuriersNomadesAtTheMcCordMuseum#

Throughout this week, the 19 quilts - traveler's blankets - were exhibited at the McCord Museum. The children came to the museum for the final visit of the project. They saw all the quilts displayed together and each school gave a performance based on their story. It was such a wonderful experience.