Kim Hanson

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Riley Park – My Very Favourite Place

July 4, 2020 | 12 Comments

There’s no place in Calgary like Riley Park. It’s where I used to play as a kid. It’s where I grew from a child, to a teenager. Although the park is a little different now than it used to be, it’s still filled with memories at every turn.

Spring and summer bring the park to life; green grass, a playground full of noisy children and 50+ year old trees show us the best part of nature.

My granddaughter and I went to the park last week. We ended up playing a camera game she came up with…take as many photos as you can in a specified time period. She literally had me running from place to place!

Backbend on a picnic bench

She’s an active girl – it’s sometimes a challenge to keep up.

Cartwheels on the cricket pitch

The cricket pitch was a great spot to throw down a few cartwheels. I first saw cricket being played as a kid. We’d stand in the park watching two teams play. The rules then and now are still a big, giant mystery to me. Players running the length of the pitch, hitting a small ball with a large wooden bat. So very strange.

We both sat in the parks’ massive trees. While dangling down our legs, it occurred to me that I had likely sat in that exact spot 54 years ago, when I was ten years old. It’s humbling.

No water is in the wading pool yet…I’m not sure if the pool will be open this summer or not. It’s configuration changed over the years. It’s gone from being a giant, cement rectangle with a rough, uneven bottom to a children’s wading pool with water fountains and a bright teal smooth bottom. Just like the colour teal in my quilt, Carina.

Carina
Riley Park wading pool with water

Although my granddaughter and I did not visit the Rock Garden this time, we’ve been there before.

Charm & Whimsy

When we were ready to head home, a woman arrived at the park, with her kite in hand.

Kite Flying High

Try as she may, and it was a very windy day, she couldn’t get the kite to stay up in the air. Some city workers in orange vests came by and tried to be of assistance. They couldn’t get it to fly either.

My view from the bench in Riley Park brings me full circle. I remember myself cutting through the park with Marilyn Black (Chalmers) on our way to Hillhurst School. I remember also that we were not supposed to cut through the park; we were supposed to go the “long way”, on Fifth Avenue to 12th Street N.W. I remember playing with my brothers in the pool in the summers. I remember my Dad bringing us there to play baseball. Then I see my beautiful, precious granddaughter cartwheeling down the cricket pitch and I can’t help but feel amazing joy and gratitude. Not everyone gets to literally “go back in time”. I see myself as a ten year old in that child, so open and loving and unaffected…just looking for the next adventure around the corner.

It’s like a small piece of “perfect” in a world filled with chaos.

Filed Under: Uncategorized | Tagged With: Calgary, joy, peace, quilt, quilt photography, RileyPark

Bowness Park, a beautiful, picturesque and historic backdrop for quilts, new and old

June 30, 2016 | Leave a Comment

Good Wednesday everyone. The long weekend (July 1st – Canada Day) is coming, the sun is shining and the hail stones have all dried up! So, it’s a great day.

Bowness Park is our playground – especially for those of us who are fortunate enough to live close by. It is an unexpected and glorious demonstration of nature, an oasis on the banks of the Bow River. In the book, Bowness Our Village in the Valley, the Park was widely known as “the best feature” of the historic Village of Bowness. As native Calgarians know, Bowness was amalgamated into the City of Calgary in 1964.

My Dad was reminiscing the other day about the late 50’s and 60’s. As he tells it, our family used to “live at Bowness Park” despite the fact that we actually lived in the neighbourhood of Hillhurst. In those days, the park was filled with delightful amusement rides for children – a carousel with big horses, a caterpillar ride that went round and round and a mid-sized Ferris wheel that felt gigantic to me as a young child. The best ride though, hands down, was the Train….little cars that toured the park on the little train tracks that any kid would love to climb aboard. Great days and so much fun.

BownessParkTrain

The little boat ride was exciting too. I fondly remember fighting off my brothers so that I could steer with my right hand and drag my left hand in the water!

BownessPark1

Swimmers flocked to the Park in the summer time to swim in the massive pool. I personally have no memories of the pool. Dad tells me that two people lost their lives swimming in that pool via electrocution. I’ve always thought that was just an urban legend, but I was wrong.

BownessPark2

I came across a document online entitled Memories of Growing Up in Bowness by Linda Mikkelsen Price. In the memoir, she shares “On hot summer days, the place to be was Bowness Park and the swimming pool. The pool had a huge sandy bottom and a wooden deck, two diving boards, slide, stationery raft, movable raft and a water wheel. My siblings and I were not allowed to go to the pool or park on weekends because Mom did not like all the strangers from Calgary that hung around. (*I would have been one of those strangers!) Maybe that rule saved my life. It was a Sunday when two people were electrocuted in the pool under the slide. I still remember hearing the wail of the ambulance and fire engine sirens”.

The 2013 flood in Calgary permanently changed the landscrape of Bowness Park. The banks of the Bow spilled over devastating much of the Park, and water streamed unabated into all the neighbouring backyards. Standing on the sidewalk watching the water furiously cascade onto the streets was a frightening sight that I hope I never see again.

It’s 2016 and Bowness Park has been renewed, restored and rejuvenated. It’s original beauty and charm may not be evident, but the Park itself feels pristine and new and quite wonderful.

Fromthebridge.

Canoe

Fromthebridge1

Geese and ducks heartily populate the lagoon. One thing I didn’t know was that geese hide in the tall grass when the temperature rises.

Geese

Geese1

Bowness Park is an enticing backdrop for quilt photography, my new found passion. I’m excited to share with you, photos of a few quilts made by my excellent friend and fellow quilter, Marilyn Wickenheiser. Marilyn and I have been friends since her eldest daughter was 12 years old – for 26 years now. When I was the editor of our neighbourhood newsletter in Silver Springs, Marilyn came to me with an idea of advertising for and beginning a girls hockey team. Although I love everything athletic, I was inwardly sceptical and initially scoffed at Marilyn’s idea. But bless her heart, she persevered, the advertisement went into the newsletter and the rest became history. Who knew….girls liked playing hockey too! Marilyn went on to play a huge role in the launching and development of Girls Hockey Calgary.

Handmade4

Handmade12

Marilyn’s quilt is entirely handmade, including the crochet edging. It is extremely heavy and oh so cozy. (What I’ve recently come to understand about autism and weighted blankets, this quilt would be just perfect) It is called a “promise quilt”…there is no pattern for the quilt, nor are there any written instructions. The “promise” part comes from the maker promising not to write out instructions for others, but to pass on the how-to’s to other quilters verbally.

Kate’s Chenille Quilt by Chi Chi Designs in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan is the inspiration behind Marilyn’s exquisite chenille quilt. I’ve never made chenille from scratch, but Marilyn has and the results are beautiful.

Chenille

Chenille3

In Marilyn’s huge stack of finished quilts, this quilt top immediately caught my eye. I love the colourful fabrics – it reminds me of a child’s quilt. The pattern for the top is Triple Dash from ModaBakeshop 2014. Marilyn used only scraps to make this delish and charming quilt top. No new fabrics required!

TripleDish

TripleDish1

Quilts of Marilyn’s along with My Zen Garden, piled in front of the fire pit on the brand spanking new deck in front of the not-yet-opened Cafe adjacent to the lagoon at the Park. My Zen Garden lies beside a commemmorative plaque on one of the decks’ wooden benches.

Threequilts

Zen1

The playground is new, the walking/biking path is new and there are new train tracks that run along the river banks. Yes, the little kids’ train is still running, the massive poplar trees are still shading Park visitors and the beauty is intact.

BPplayground

Have a lovely long weekend. Next Wednesday – My Zen Garden quilt pattern.
Take care
NewSignature
Historical Bowness Park photos from the book entitled Bowness, Our Village in the Valley, published by the Bowness Historical Society.

Filed Under: Beautiful Calgary urban parks, Decorating with Quilts, Photography, Quilt Patterns, Quilt Photography, Quilt Stories and Essays, Quilters, Quilts, Writing | Tagged With: Calgary's urban parks, decorating with quilts, historical photos, quilt patterns, quilt photography, quilt photos, quilts, writing

Free machine embroidery designs, a quilt pattern and a little girl named Hadlie

May 27, 2016 | Leave a Comment

A child’s bucket list, a quilt and a golden opportunity to make a difference.

Good day everyone.  I’m so very happy to introduce you all to my brand new website.  Crafted again by the genius of Shelly Caldwell, the wizard of all things WordPress and the goddess of creativity.   I love my new site and all that it offers; and look forward to being able to share so many more wonderful things with all of you in the near future.

For now, though, it’s all about Hadlie and her family.

Hadlie….a little girl living in central Alberta, Canada who was diagnosed with DIPG in her precious third year of life.  Her parents started a Facebook page for her by posting her bucklet list online and following up with photos and stories of their daily lives and how they checked items off the list.  A three year old child having to compose a bucket list?  Unimaginable.  It’s hard enough for old people to face their mortality, but a child?  Unimaginable.  While I was writing this post, I scrolled back through Hadlie’s Facebook page – back to the beginning in 2014.  It’s impossible for tears not to flow as I journeyed again with the family through all their ups and downs.

Hadlie’s family faced their challenges with amazing grace, love and support for their wonderful little girl.  She captured many hearts, including mine.  I never met Hadlie or any members of her family but I loved her right away.

HadliesFBphotoShe was so spunky; an individual with energy and love inside her. I mean, just look at that face!  The illumination of pure joy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I made Hadlie a quilt and Quilter’s Connection (a Canadian quilt magazine) published it on their cover.

HadliesQuilt

Hadlie passed away one day after her 4th birthday on March 28, 2015.  Her family, one year later, is so sad not to have their baby girl in their lives any longer and want so desperately to help others in the same situation.  They have launched Hadlie’s Bucket List Foundation for research into the monster that is DIPG.

For this post, my inaugural post on my new blog, I wrote the pattern for my Hadlie Quilt and it is listed for sale here for the sum of $5.00 Canadian (which today translates into $3.81 US).  All the proceeds from the pattern sale will go to Hadlie’s Foundation.  Since my pattern incorporates three separate machine applique embroidery designs,  you may download two of the three designs for free!  Thanks so very much to Julie Hesketh of Designs by JuJu and to Cherry of Cherry Stitch Designs (on etsy)  for their amazing kindness and support for Hadlie’s Foundation.

So, you can purchase a pattern for a very reasonable price, download two free embroidery designs and help to support a resilient and brave family all at the same time.  Help me support Hadlie’s Bucket List Foundation.  Help Hadlie’s family eradicate DIPG and do it all in the name of their sweet and special little girl, Hadlie.

Thank you so much everyone.

NewSignature

 

 

Filed Under: Magazine quilts, Photography, Press, Quilt Patterns, Quilt Photography, Quilters, Quilts, Quilts and Machine Embroidery | Tagged With: free embroidery designs, Hadlie, machine embroidery, photo quilt, quilt, quilt pattern, quilt photo, quilt photography

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