It’s already August, and summer goes by so quickly! The spring and early summer flowers are giving way to del­phin­iums, roses, asters, and sun­flowers. This spring I planted seeds for sun­flowers and nasturtiums in my garden, and I think they will be in full bloom this month.

Thankfully, my life is going along quite smoothly now, and I am in the midst of a busy family life. My husband and I have had our fourth grand­child, born to our older daughter and her husband last month, another baby boy. Since we have two daughters, having boys in the family is interest­ing and a lot of fun. I am on a learning curve with being a grand­mother all the time.

As I imagine is the case with most Beacon readers, I often check the Inter­net for in­­for­ma­­tion about topics that interest me. Last month, I came across a new online group for people who enjoy doing counted stitch canvas embroidery, a hobby of mine that I learned through classes here in Calgary. I have done several canvas work projects in classes over the years.

In the new online group, stitchers post pictures of their work, either com­pleted or in progress. I thought it couldn’t hurt to post some pictures of my own, so I put up six in total. I was rather astounded by the positive feedback and nice comments I received, which really encouraged me to take out some of the old projects from my stash and work on them some more.

Some projects I've worked on have imaginative names, such as ‘Autumn Splendor,’ ‘Nature Cele­brates,’ ’Stained Glass Window,’ ‘First Snow,’ and ‘Candy Bowl.’ (Some I have finished, but I still have more projects to work on). I pulled out one project called ‘Sunflowers, a Tribute to Vincent Van Gogh.’ I started it at a needlework seminar in Kelowna, British Columbia, in 2008. The project involves detached needle weaving, tapestry, stem stitch, cast on bullion, pattern darning, and more; the variety of stitches keeps keeps the project interesting.

When I think back a decade to 2008, the year before my Stage 3 multiple myeloma diag­nosis and the accompanying broken bones and high tumor load, I can only marvel that I am back to this project. The topic of Van Gogh’s sunflowers seems almost a premonition of what was to come in 2009. That paint­ing is one of the world’s most treasured images, and has been reproduced in thousands of ways, stitching being only one of them. The flowers are all wilting in a vase, which Van Gogh saw as a worthy subject to paint, and he did a whole series of sunflower-themed paintings.

I had wanted to finish this project for a long time, but ‘life got in the way.’ Going through induction ther­apy in the autumn of 2009 took me away from my hand stitching. However, I purchased a new sewing machine and made some wall hangings with batik fabric and children’s quilts. I sewed up quite a lot of them at the time; I think that being on dexa­meth­a­sone helped me to work quickly. Then, after the stem cell trans­plant in 2010, I was at home for a few weeks, and worked on a canvas work project called a frame weight. I never would have had the patience to finish this normally, since it had thousands of tiny stitches in it.

By May of 2010, I went to another stitching seminar in Regina, Saskatchewan, and started more projects. I enjoyed it a lot, not so because I com­pleted projects (I did not), but because I was in a nice friendly group with a common hobby. One of my roommates in the college dorm had also lost her hair during breast cancer treat­ments. She encouraged me to take off the wig I was wearing, but I wasn’t quite ready for that yet.

As the years rolled on, I went to other seminars throughout Canada. I have lovely projects and fond memories of each of the events. I have met some of the nicest, caring people in these groups.

I was not trained in art, so needlework has been an adult education project for me. My mentors in stitching have been my artistic mother, who always let me use her sewing machine when I was growing up, and encourages me in anything I try to do, and my late stepmother, a former high school art teacher, who was my partner in crime in going to a lot of these stitching workshops.

I have had some problems with stitching related to my health. When I was on a strong dose of 25 mg of Revlimid, I could get hand cramps that stopped me from getting any stitching done. I found then that using the sewing machine, and doing quilting or other projects, was a way around that. I have mostly sewed quilting projects, especially baby quilts and my unfinished ‘quilt block of the month’ quilts.

I am so grateful to have the flexibility to work these interests into my life, although I prioritize as to what to do when. I have a ‘lifetime supply’ of projects to work on, and that keeps me happy. I think back on the nice workshops I took with excellent teachers, and that brings back good memories. When I get a projected com­pleted, if it is to be framed, we do that and hang it on the wall. I give away smaller projects, like a needle case, bookmark, or pincushion, as gifts.

I should add that the project ‘Nature Celebrates,’ by designer Linda LaChance, was an inspiration for the title of my column, "Northern Lights." It features the silhouette of a wolf howling at the northern lights, stitched in several colors of metallic thread. I had finished that piece around the time I started writing for The Beacon.

Needlework of all sorts has been a relaxing hobby for me for decades, and I hope to finish some more of my canvas work projects.

Do you have any hobbies or activities that keep your mind off of medical problems, either as a patient or as a caregiver, as you go through your myeloma journey?

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The quotation for this month is from Helen Keller (1880 - 1968), an American author, political activist, and lecturer, who said: "Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see the shadow. It's what sunflowers do."