more Montreal musings

best meal in Montreal

spinach salad [with chipotle peanuts, smoked blue cheese, grape tomatoes, goddess dressing and cajun seasoning]

prepared by The Precious

in the helltell icebucket

served in gelato containers saved from SOMA

[in Toronto, go there]

and eaten using nifty stainless steel chopstix

[that double as felting tools]

acquired on Stockton in San Francisco

that's my laptop cover serving as table cloth

wool fragment dyed with

windfalls gathered on the Mo[u]nt

silver and sugar maples

and some oak leaves [not shown]

wrapped around that nice dogspike found in New Orleans

on the tracks down by the Mississippi

here's what we're going to do next

and

pas ce soir, Josephine

it's been a long time since i was last in Montreal

about 27 years if we're counting

i had fond memories

and looked forward to revisiting a few of them

while researching a few other possibilities

and gathering some windfalls

in places i had walked as a child

i had also planned to donate a work

to a Museum here

glowingly billed [on their website]

it took a while to find it

a while being a 5 hour trek aux pieds

made memorable by rude bicyclists

indicating they would cheerfully have hurled us off the Jacques Cartier Bridge

despite that we were being well-behaved and walking on the side reserved for pedestrians

[where les bicyclettes were completely interdit]

clearly things do get flung from the bridge

from time to time

we saw a perambulator in fragments far below

the sort of pieces and splatter pattern that are produced when something

gets on the wrong side of gravity

in conjunction with a very hard surface

we hope the occupant had wings

or a parachute

or had simply outgrown and discarded the chariot

but i digress

here is the museum

charming, n'est ce pas?

[those are little bird houselets hanging on the posts at front]

but perhaps not the place to deposit a frock.

shall give it to the Precious instead

so she can make something of it

and wear it

rather than having it stored in that attic

waiting for visitors who never come

because they are lost on an island in the St Lawrence

or being hurled from a bridge by a passing cyclist

and slipping off topic for a moment

how do we think the inhabitants of

numero 155 Riverside drive [above] felt

when the powers-that-be

ran a freeway interchange

as well as a couple of overhead railway tracks

[couldn't get them all into the picture]

within spitting distance of their once charming cottage

a highlight of the walk was the Habitat building

designed by Moshe Safdie

and being serenaded by some wee black birdies

that had scarlet tufts on their shoulders

contents of the bundle to be revealed later

the textile blog

John Hopper of The Textile Blog has kindly mentioned my work on his pages - it's an honour to be among such illustrious company

do swing by for a visit [make sure you have a few spare hours and a cup of tea]

there are lots of interesting links to follow...

and here's an orphan

found towards the end of the workshop

unclaimed

dyed [so far as i can tell]

using a combination of

purple-leaved Agonis flexuosa

[from the florist's garbage]

a scrap of iron, a maple leaf

and some onion skins

magic

trundling on in Toronto

the delicate hues of the northern flora

strengthen in tone as the bundles are unfolded

and exposed to the air

meanwhile less and less of the communal table top

is visible

as busy hands

cloth/paper/scissors

and many many leaves

begin to drift across the surface

toto in toronto

the workshop in Toronto takes place in the Contemporary Textile Studio

a beautifully set up workroom

looking into trees through two lovely big windows

we're far from the woods

[although there's magic to be found at High Park]

luckily

the local florist is kind

and has delivered much treasure

we have fun with paper, cloth and stitch

and i drool happily over the pages of this book...

goldenMoment in Nashville

honey coloured gentleman holding the door

[to me]

"excuse me Ma'am, but which tribe are you from? reason I'm askin is that myself I'm half Cherokee"

being also honey coloured, it made my day.

feltquilts at shakerag

the quiltfelt landskin class very quickly settled into a splendid

sewing circle

many stories and much laughter

we entrusted ourselves entirely to Mother Nature during both this

and the walk in the woods class held the week before

and

[with the exception of kudzu and nepal grass, both noxious weeds]

relied on windfalls from the woods

and a few from the kitchens

to colour our cloth

[although some eucalyptus leaves snukkled in from Florida]

no synthetic mordants were used

only leaves and water

some found metal objects [iron and copper]

and a little milk to assist with dyeing linen and cotton

bio-regional colour...

Shakerag took a gamble

inviting a gypsy from across the Big Puddle

to venture into the Tennessee woods

and teach

and the gypsy is very grateful

shakerag

it's been a pretty intense fortnight here at

Shakerag

in the Tennessee woods

two big classes

some fascinating talks by other faculty members

and interesting lectures by invited speakers

Pam Dorr [Hero Housing in Alabama]

and

Natalie Chanin [Alabama Chanin]

links worth investigating...

and much delight

as we play with

Kudzu

the Scourge of the South

and print brilliant greens...

slip on over to Christine's blog

for more details

in between

yesterday i had a day off

so I went to Memphis

as you do

and here are some things i did for the first time

drove a Chrysler [likely also to be the last]

walked down Beale Street [and back up]

ate catfish

drank a Hurricane

helped count 127 churches along route 64

the visit was short but sweet

but i'll be back sometime...