Spring!

The ground and skies are filling with the subtle colours of spring, the songs of birds and smells of the thawing, warming earth.  There are green shoots poking through the dirt, crocuses and other blooming bulbs, buds on the tree branches and sap colouring the yellow willows. The sun comes up earlier and sets later.

We have photos to share, but first...

Let me (Louisa) introduce the members of the Sewing Seed Collective.  

They are Christina, Anne, Colin and Louisa.

We have news...

SpOtlight Update!!!

Back in February, we all got together over tea at the Red Brick and came up with a project proposal for the Ontario Art Council's SpOtlight program.

This is a weekend event showcasing local artists and arts organizations within a specific locale. This year the spotlight is on Guelph, K-W, Cambridge and area, and will take place over the weekend of June 5-7, 2009.  Please visit www.spotlightfestival.ca.

We will host a Paper Making, Paper Embroidery and Paper Planting workshop during this weekend.  Our collection of native plant seeds will be scattered and sown, making its way from paper packets into a slurry of recycled paper pulp, which will then be strained over a screen and made into a paper 'patch'. Designs will be embroidered into the paper patch once it is dry.  

The patches will then be ready for planting (or decoratively hanging).  

There will be most definitely be an informal discussion about native plants and perhaps a planting demo onsite.  The workshops will be held at Studio 490.

More details to follow...

Excursion

Christina wrote...

In the chilly month of November, I went for an excursion with a german shepherd and one of my favourite people in this town.  We drove up to Edinburgh just south of Woodlawn and spent a few cold hours at the restoration area harvesting wildflower and grass seeds.  On that bleak crisp day, I fell in love with the plethora of browns, greys and silvers, the curled dried leaves and wisps of seed hairs.  Several weeks later, my friend dropped off a paper bag filed with seeds, all sleeping in their labelled packets.  I think of them now as the earth awakens around me and I put away my stitched snowflakes.  Perhaps they will emerge soon to see the light of day, to be embedded into paper and stitched into a blanket of sorts.  I anticipate their unfolding and imagine them rooting in the little nooks and crannies I see as I walk through the city.  

Wake up, wake up- it's the first day of spring.