Earlier this year, I went on another trip. This one, purely for fun, and, of course, there were bits of fiber involved.

First and foremost, I’d planned this trip to visit my daughter, Hazel, who had recently moved from Los Angeles to Bellevue, Washington. This was to be my first visit and since the move had been soooo good for her spirits, I was super excited to experience her surroundings. That’s my favorite moss photo above from the gardens- and my daughter on one of our walks.

Then… and my trips always seem to end up growing like this!… I - duh- realized how super easy it would be to hop on over to Vancouver Island and meet up with some friends I’d made through the Waterline project: Terry Gerard and Christine Rivers.

I had a fabulous 10 days between the two. 

My daughter and I are nearly always in total synch. We enjoy the same foods, like the same activities, and share the love of fiber and a slow pace. Above photos include a wonderful breakfast she made us, Hazel working on a broken necklace clasp for me on one of our chill days, and the vegan feast she put together when I returned from Vancouver Island.

We had daily morning walks through the botanical gardens just steps away from her apartment- and even shared the walk with another tapestry weaver one morning: Emilia Gan. Emilia surprised us (pleasantly) with bringing along (all!) her tapestries for us to see up close and personal. I did get some photos from that morning, but they didn’t turn out so well so not including here. If you’re curious and don’t know Emilia, take a look at her IG account. Follow her. She is a very prolific tapestry artist! And having only begun weaving not long over a year ago- I say a “natural”, too!

Then visiting Terry and Christine was magical, of course. It was especially fun to visit the views that inspired both their Waterline tapestries. In other words, I got to meet their rivers!  Quite a trip. Not only visiting rivers; they both had tapestry groups that were meeting while I was there- a rare and special treat in itself. 

So where do I start?

Well, I did collect lots of images so how about I just share that way!

The above photos are from my visit to Terry’s and her tapestry group- which turned out to be practically meeting in her neighborhood. And they meet weekly! How cool is that?

Very talented and dedicated tapestry artists in this group. It was such a treat to visit with them and see what they were up to. From top left, clockwise: a section of Linda Porte’s beautiful studio with Weaving Water (Elizabeth Buckley’s class) homework on one of her looms, Terry’s spirals, Waterfall tapestry by Judy Harcus (more on this in an upcoming post), needlework by Dale Richards, a finished Weaving Water tapestry by Linda, and Alison Irwin’s 3-d Sunflower sample (which was great fun to witness being created, by the way). I was told that Alison has written articles for Handwoven, so who knows, maybe this will be in a future contribution?

Next, we visited Christine’s home and yet another tapestry group! This one was more of a business meeting, but some did bring along show and tell.

Clockwise, from top left, a detail of Carol Hunter’s intricate color gamp, another beautiful tapestry by Judy Harcus, Sharon Cameron’s recent basket, and a detail of Christine’s Murmuration.

Wow. Fun to relive it all here!

I’ll save my visit with Terry, Christine, and their work and rivers for next time. And be watching, too, for an extended post on the work of Judy Harcus! Terry and I were very fortunate to get a special viewing through her own personal “tapestry journey” that I’ll share with you soon.