Saturday, April 10, 2010

The students from the high school I work at put on a production that was performance art - it was called "Sanctuary: Hope for Darfur!" It was a very compelling piece that was written by a couple of or four(not 100% sure here) teachers from the school itself. It was one of those performances that make you hold your breath at times. The students were wonderful in the auditorium as they watched it - you could have heard a pin drop. The music was so incredible and the actresses and actors really put their heart into it. It was performance art that was astounding for its high standards, especially coming from school students.

I played a very small part in it and created a wallhanging that could be called wall art from just inspiration and a lot of hard work! The students in the Theatre Production class created large 3X5 paintings and ones double the size that were to be re-painted during the theatre production. The paintings the students did were so inspiring and wonderful that I went home and created a 3x6 quilted wallhanging and donated it to help them raise funds for Darfur. They auctioned it off and actually got $100(!!) Saturday night for it after the final performance. The woman who purchased it donated it back to the school to hang there. I was very pleased that it turned out as well as it did. It was supposed to have been an anonymous donation but the cat got out of the bag (probably because I am the only quilter on staff - lol) and everyone has given me far too generous compliments on it. I had a blast doing it and would do it again in a heartbeat.

I will post a picture of it as soon as I get one. :) I rarely take pictures of what I do so it is a challenge for me to remember to do that when I want to use it for my blog - I'm such a plank sometimes!

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Happy Spring!

Another wonderful day is upon us and with it hopefully comes the unofficial start of spring. If today's weather is any indication of the onset -bring it on! It was lovely here when the wind died down somewhat and the clouds scuttled out of the way; even squirrely-magirly was busy running along the fence and swinging from tree to tree taunting Kiwi. She, of course, is absolutely delighted with this aspect of spring. She is less enthusiastic with her muddy feet we have to wipe off before she comes into the house and with her new haircut that makes her shiver with the slightest breeze.

My tomatoes are starting to poke their leaves above the soil - they look so small! I know that some of them will give me monsters (Omar Lebanese) and some will be prolific (Martino Roma) and others will be just plain good eating (silver fir leaf) but in the end they will be wonderful, red and delicious. My cucumber plants are also peeking their leaves up - I have never grown them before because of space issues but have decided to try to trellis them up my fence.

I got an unexpected Easter treat today when I won some seeds from CBC morning show! I was quite pleased with my little bounty which includes basil seeds and purple runner beans, both of which I have grown a lot in the past and haven't picked up my seed for yet.

Hope your Easter was pleasant.