Fibre Artistry at The People's Place

Fibre Artistry at The People's Place

By Joan Beswick

The Antigonish Town and County Library houses diverse treasures, those typically associated with modern libraries - print and audio books, videos and DVD’s, magazines and newspapers, computers and classes – and of course, knowledgeable and helpful staff. However, while visiting today, I realized why it is also called ‘the people’s place’ – it is a community centre filled with the works of regional artists and artisans whose creations, both functional and decorative, enliven the space. A walking guide describing these works and their creators is available on-line at www.parl.ns.ca. 

Being a blogger for the Nova Scotia Fibre Arts Festival, I was delighted to find that the library is also a very ‘fibre friendly’ place. 

There is functional fibre artistry –

Fenn Martin’s Sculpted Ceramic Tiles Fireplace Surround

Wooden Study Carrels by Keith Grant

Tables from locally sourced Birds Eye Maple by MacLean Bros. Woodworking.

And there is decorative fibre artistry such as the Heart Quilt exhibited by the Highland Quilt Guild.

A guild member, Dorinda McCully, told me the guild held a celebratory quilt show at the Coady International Institute in July, 2012. The heart is the symbol of their guild and it was their tenth anniversary, hence this very special quilt with creations from members whose names are printed on the chart below showing their individual contributions.

This quilt is a fine piece of decorative fibre art – its beauty is in the thoughtfulness and detail of the individual pieces as well as the enjoyment engendered in those who stop to gaze. 

Saul Bellow once described art as “an arrest of attention in the midst of distraction”. Today, the art at the Antigonish Town and County Library arrested my wandering attention. There were so many worthy creations, only a few of which are mentioned here. On this brief visit, I took particular pleasure in the fibre artistry of Fenn Martin, Keith Grant, and the Highland Quilt Guild. To see the work of those and other regional artists and artisans, stop by the Antigonish Town and County Library or visit on-line at www.parl.ns.ca.

 

A Versatile Fibre Artist

and Her 'Grand Grad Trip'

 

By: Joan Beswick

 

Fibre artists come in many varieties, or as they say in the old Newfoundland song, in ‘all sizes and figures’, and many of them are as versatile in what they produce as they are variable in their personnas. And Carol Oram is one such versatile fibre artist.

 

Knitting is Carol’s passion these days. She offered a beginning knitting course at the 2012 festival, and will offer it again at the 2013 festival.

However, knitting is only one of the fibre arts Carol does so well. Over the years, she has made  wonderful rope wreaths

beautiful baskets,

fabulous felted bags,

unique hooked mats and decorative pieces,  

   

and all manner of one-of-a-kind clothing from recycled materials. She has also designed and created quilts for her family, the most recent being a beach-themed quilt for her four-year old grandchild, Libby.

 

Although Carol’s fibre artistry is amazing, it doesn’t define her – she also involves herself in many community activities, dotes on her three children and four grandchildren, and continues to pursue formal education. In May of this year, Carol will graduate from Mount Allison University with a B.Sc. in Psychology, an accomplishment that will complement her previous degrees in arts and education, and serve as testimony to her commitment to life long learning. And to celebrate, Carol plans to do a ‘grad trip’, except in this case, it will be a ‘grand grad trip’ because she’ll be travelling to Cuba with her two granddaughters – 20 year old Mackenzie who is graduating from the pastry chef course at George Brown College in Toronto, and 17 year old Katarina, who is graduating from Three Oaks High School in Summerside, P.E.I.

What better way to celebrate these milestones than to make memories together, and since it is February , to do so amidst sun, sand, and soft breezes! Our congratulations to Carol and her granddaughters – may you travel well, enjoy fully, return safely – and find new inspiration for continued creativity and life long learning!

 

Arleen Goodwin and 'Some Well-Travelled Quilt Blocks'

Featured Fibre Artist:

Arleen Goodwin and Her Story

of ‘Some Well-travelled Quilt Blocks’

 

By: Joan Beswick 

 

 

Talking with Arleen Goodwin is one of my fondest memories of the 2012 Nova Scotia Fibre Arts Festival.  Arleen did an appliqué demonstration at Dayle’s Department Store, Amherst. An island of serenity - she sat amidst the ribbons, housewares, fabrics, and furniture – quietly and capably appliquéing and explaining the process to visitors on a busy Thursday afternoon in a downtown department store.  

 

Her mother was a quilter and Arleen is also a versatile fibre artist – she does many types of quilting as well as cross stitch, knitting, rug hooking and crocheting – and she has passed her artistry on to her daughter, Shelley Tanner. Some of their family’s creations were featured in the window of Pugsley’s Pharmacy, a collection that included quilts, mats, and a lovely sepia-toned crocheted curtain for a front door window – this collection was a major attraction during the Fibre Arts Walk.  

Another much appreciated contribution was the quilted wall hanging from Arleen’s church in Lorneville, a quilt that Arleen helped bring to life after a multi-generational journey of ‘some well-travelled quilt blocks’.  

 

Here is the story as Arleen told it to me. Many years ago, a young woman from Lorneville went to ‘the Boston states’ to find work. As so often happened in those days, she married, had a family, and lived there the rest of her life. The young woman’s name was Bessie, and she was sorely missed. In 1933-34, some women from the Lorneville area decided to get together and make quilt blocks for Bessie. Each woman embroidered her name on the block she created and they sent Bessie a lovingly crafted collection of quilt blocks. However, life being what it was, Bessie was by then a very busy woman with seven children, and she died without putting the quilt together. The blocks went to her sister in Guysborough, Nova Scotia, and after her death, her daughter (Bessie’s niece) brought the twenty-one blocks to Arleen in Lorneville, to the community where they had been created almost eighty years earlier. Arleen took the blocks to her United Church Women’s (UCW) group where many of the women recognized the signatures of their own forbears – aunts, mothers, and grandmothers - the women who so long ago had missed Bessie and wanted her to remember them. With Arleen and her daughter Shelley’s encouragement, the UCW decided to ‘set the blocks together’. This was a labour of love, carried out amongst recurring waves of nostalgia, many chuckles and much chat. The finished product is now a beautiful wall hanging proudly hung in the Lorneville United Church, and generously loaned to the Nova Scotia Fibre Arts Festival for display during the 2012 festival.       

 

After telling me this story, Arleen mentioned that she’d recently celebrated her 60^th wedding anniversary and on that special occasion, her family had presented her and her husband with a new computer.  So, I’ll be e-mailing Arleen to let her know about this blog post. Although she cherishes traditional fibre arts, Arleen is very much tuned in to the present. She is a busy woman with a large family who continues to create fibre art and who embodies a true appreciation of its history and heritage, as well as its contribution to our lives, both past and present.