Yesterday I drove to Parrsboro (2 hours from home) to hang 7 quilts and 15 wall art pieces in the Art Lab Studios & Gallery.

This is the sixth summer I’ve been privileged to show my creations in the gallery. It’s a small gallery in a small town but it’s becoming known for it’s displays of high quality art. The five resident artists are themselves fine artists who paint, make pottery, fashion textile pieces, along with a roster of other well known local artists who both show and do workshops at the Studios during the summer.

The space is perfect for hanging my lap quilts and other smaller pieces.

When we’re finished hanging the show I look around and think about the amount of work I’ve done in a year – the range of style, the intensity of colour, and the technical improvement the show reveals.

A number of pieces were created as projects for classes I was intending to teach (except they were cancelled due to COVID-19).

Kaleidoscope Table Runners

Other pieces were inspired by fabric in my stash – they called out for me to do something with them.

Then there were the two quilts I started work on at the sewing retreat last fall that turned into quite striking throws.

Grey called out to me this year – last year it was turquoise.

I think I want to return before the show is taken down to photograph everything once more – it’s very difficult for me to hang the quilts, in particular, and photograph them at home – when they’re on the wall, like this, I am able to capture each piece without distortion.

The quilts and wall art will be on display until August 20, 2020.

If you get a chance, the Art Lab Studios & Gallery is a wonderful destination for a day trip from Halifax – leave around 10am, stop at the Masstown Market in Masstown (they make great sugar donuts if you get there early enough). In Parrsboro you can have lunch at either the BlackRock Cafe or what locals call “The Pier” (now called, I think, Harbourview Restaurant), then visit the gallery, schmooze Main Street, and have a leisurely drive back home either through Joggins/Amherst or back through Truro. If you stop for dinner in Truro you can expect to be back home around 8pm. Even fun on a cloudy day.