{quilt} while you're ahead

42//2012 {{Modern Quilts Traditional Inspiration}}

by Denyse Schmidt.

Let me start by saying that I think that Denyse Schmidt is a genius.  Her first book "Quilts" has been my favourite since it came out years ago and the one book I can always pick up when I need to find my creative mojo.

This latest one? oh my.  Even better.

(a stamped wholecloth quilt - genius - my favourite)

Denyse takes traditional quilting blocks and by playing with sizes and colours turns them into most modern of designs

(Shoeman's puzzle - my favourite)

I don't normally follow patterns for my quilts, I like to make my own and risk the not always brilliant results

(a simple Irish Chain - my favourite)

but leafing through this book I can assure you that I could make most of them 

(sawtooth stripes - genius again - my favourite)

In fact I have a strong urge of sitting at my table and make millions of half square triangles in shades of yellow - except I don't have many yellow fabric in my stash and what I have instead is three children in three different geographical location that at some point will have to be brought together again.  And fed. Sigh.

(ocean waves - my favourite)

I keep looking and looking through the book trying to pick a favourite, but there is one in every page.  It's like asking to keep a favourite amongs my children.

(streak of lightning and orange peel - my favourites)

I just can't.

I'll have to make them all.

31//2012

Rambling randomly on... on a Friday

- It's sunny.

- It's been unseasonally warm for the past two days.

- I'm not complaining.

- I've been doing some 'free' embroidery and I'll show it to you soon.

- I bought a light pink sweater to celebrate the oncoming of spring.

- I've had my hair done and booked an eyebrows appt.  Spring cleaning has started!

- No 1 has been given a big project to do at school.  He's chosen the history of "Ferrari".  When I did mine I choose the American war of Independence.  It's obvious that school isn't what it used to be.

-  'o tempora o mores'.  My dad used to roll his eyes and say that to me on a weekly basis.  Now it's my turn to unleash it on my offspring.  A bad case of history repeating itself!

- I have got about 4 loads of washing waiting patiently for me (name the song AND the artists)

- I've painted my nails blue.  Just because.

- Tonight Mr M and I are going to the cinema to see "The Artist"

- Tomorrow Mr M will disappear all afternoon on a rugby fuelled afternoon/evening. 

- When you step into No 3's bedroom his robot/money bank speaks to you and its eyes lit up.  Very scary.

Money banks should not to that.

- Do you ever read the last page of the book you're reading to see what will happen?  I do.

- Yes, I agree it's stupid.

 

Have a good weekend.

 

 

155/2011

Today I met a friend and had coffee and cake and wondered through antique shops and charity shops (I must show you the treasures I found soon) and lots of time in here

I believe very few things smell more reassuringly than an antique books store

there are so many crazy and wonderful books out there... and so little time to read enough of them

I found a couple of more of these gorgeous things for my collection:

They're Penguin Poetry books from the 60's and they have the most divine covers.

Maybe I should start reading them too?

(who said don't judge a book by it's cover...)

143/2011

I Can Read With My Eyes Shut!
Dr. Seuss

I can read in red. I can read in blue.
I can read in pickle color too.
I can read in bed, and in purple. and in brown.
I can read in a circle and upside down!
I can read with my left eye. I can read with my right.
I can read Mississippi with my eyes shut tight!

There are so many things you can learn about.
But…you'll miss the best things 
If you keep your eyes shut.
The more that you read, the more things you will know
The more that you learn, the more places you'll go. 

If you read with your eyes shut you're likely to find
That the place where you're going is far, far behind
SO…that's why I tell you to keep your eyes wide.
Keep them wide open…at least on one side.

No 3 loves reading (third time lucky...) and he's often found re-reading his beloved Dr Seuss.  I need some 'older' child funny, rhymey poems, can you suggest some titles?

I'll then pass them on to Father Christmas, of course

Thank you.

134/2011

Nov 2, 1943

Dear Frida,

a glittering shower falls at a slant across my window.  Some form of god has come to visit our dark autumn tunnel, like Zeus making himself a beam of light to impregnate Danae.  In this case, it is not really glittering light but beech leaves.  You've never seen anything as dramatic as these American trees, dying their thousands deaths.  The giant beech next door indends to shiver off every hair of its pelt.  the world strips and goes naked, the full year of arboreal effort piling on the sidewalks in flat, damp strata.  The earth smells of smoke and rainstorms, calling everything to come back, lie down, submit to a quiet, moldy return to the cradle of origins.  This is how we celebrate the Day of the Dead in America: by turning up our collars against the scent of earthworms calling us home.

(Barbara Kingsolver - The Lacuna)

123/2011

HURRY, HURRY, MARY DEAR!

Hurry, hurry, Mary dear/fall is over, winter’s here.

Not a moment to be lost,/in a minute we get frost!

In an hour we get snow!/Drifts like houses! Ten below!

Pick the apples, dill the pickles,/chop down trees for wooden nickels.

Dig the turnips, split the peas,/cook molassses, curdle cheese/

Churn the butter, smoke the hams/can tomatoes, put up jams.

Stack the stove wood, string the beans/up the storms and down the screens.

Pull the curtains, close the shutters/ Dreadfully the wild wind mutters/

Oil the snowshoes, stoke the fires./Soon the roads are hopeless mires.

Mend the mittens, knit the sweaters,/bring my glasses, mail my letters.

Toast the muffins, brew the tea,/hot and sweet and good for me.

Bake me donuts, plain and frosted…./What, my dear?  You feel exhausted?

Yes, these winters are severe/Hurry, hurry -

Mary, dear.

- N.M. Bodecker

Do you know this book?

It's one of my favourite children's books of all time.  It's funny and the illustrations are wonderful.

Sadly the boys are getting too old for it.  No 3 gave me 'the' look when I suggested reading it to him.

Sigh.

 
(oh... and spare a thought today)

 

120/2011 ** daisychain ABCs **

First of all let me thanks Kristina (and Tracey... too).  They know why.

I had so much fun embroidering this sampler.  The instructions were clear and the colours just perfect.  

I had no experience of embroidery before.  I dabbed a little by myself and attended a morning class at The Make Lounge in London (hey girls remember that?) and so I was completely taken by surprise by how much I enjoyed it!  Now I need to take watercolour classes and learn to sing and play the piano and I'll the perfect Jane Austen heroin.  Although that would make me the boring one who never gets the handsome husband.  (And I've got one of those anyway, thank you very much).

I love making daisies.  And French knots.

Just perfect.

The pattern/kit originally came from here.  Go and say hi!

I'm not quite sure in which room it'll end up, so in the meantime it graces my studio door!

117/2011

I read about the Transworld Reading Challenge on Ali's blog.  (She's quite the fountain of knowledge that girl, let me tell you)

Of course, I couldn't let an opportunity like this pass me by, so I signed on too and I just finished the first of my chosen books:

Yes it's a love story - as the title suggests - but putting it in that category only would be seriously restricting the breadth of the book.  The characters are firmly in our modern time and could easily be living around the corner from all of us.  It deals with issues of faith and religion, betrayal, loss and most of all love, in all its shapes.   The love between two people, between parents and children, love amongst friends, love towards God.  It touches class issues and modern society, idealism and harsh reality. 

The story moves on nicely (in fact, if I have one little criticism is that sometimes it moves to fast... you want it to last longer and know more!) and the language is beautiful too.

If you want a book for your book club... this is perfect, there is so much you can talk about!

 

112/2011

Let's talk about books.

(by the way, what are you reading at the moment?  Anything good? Bad? Ugly?)

I love books.  I learnt to read early and have been known to read too much as a child and ignore siblings and friends.  I can honestly say that I could (at a push) contemplate a life without knitting and sewing IF I had an endless supply of books to read.  I have so many next to my bed they could last me a year... a year without buying books? That's not going to happen!!

I read all sorts of books too.  Novels and mysteries, crime and sci-fi horror and classics.  Even children books (yes, I still collect old copied of Little Women).  I also love the feeling of books, the smell of the paper and the ink. I like re-arranging my bookshelves.  And don't get me started about bookshops... is there anything better than entering and browsing a beautiful bookstore? The infinite possibilities hidden inside.

For a long time I only read 'new books'.  I didn't like the thought of some else having touched the pages before me.  Now I quite treasure old books, I like buying old edition... finding out of print ones... books keep on giving, no matter how many times they've been read.

In the light of this I didn't welcome the invention of kindles and other readers.  WHAT???? No paper?  No touchy-feely experience?  No bookmarks... no bookshelves... I swore never to own one or read from one.

Then Mr M bought me an ipad and I realise that I didn't have to fill my suitcase with heavy books when going on holiday anymore.  I had thousands of them at a click-away.  So I tried... and you know what?  It's not that bad.  I was totally able to loose myself in the story and forget I had a 'machine' (for wanting of a better word) in my hands.

I come to the realisation that 'words' are what makes a book.  The words can still keep on giving even when coming out of a screen.

Does it feel the same? No.  I still prefer a real book and I hope that book will always get printed. (A world without book shops?  I shudder)  but in certain situations, in certain places downloading a book is ok.  You can still enjoy the 'story'

(if not 'the book').

(I'm re-reading Jane Eyre at the moment.  So good and so weird.  I'd have loved to meet the Bronte sisters)

66/2011

Randomly.

- When I was younger -  so much younger than today (name that tune) - I wanted to be a doctor (I also wanted to be an actress for a while, I used to parade in my grandmother's fur coat around the sitting room imagining I was a famous and glamourous actress)  (I also went through other phases: architect, ambassador, intrepreter... ah the power of dreaming was stronger in those days).  Anyway, I wanted to be a doctor.  A surgeon to be exact.  Somebody gave me Christian Barnard's biography and I was hooked.

Life didn't turned out quite that way - and that's ok by me - but I've always been fascinated by the human body;  I'm not squeamish and that is just as well given I have a child who breaks bones every other month or so (touch wood here). 

I'm not sure where I'm going with this, but bear with me.... ah yes, I'm reading a very interesting book at the moment:  The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot.  If you're looking for something different, and you're interested in medicine/ethics/human stories, this is the book for you.  

On the same subject I was totally bowled over be the Genome Quilts (Val these are for you!). First saw them here.  What an amazing idea.  Makes me want to try it... The artist allocate a particular block to each gene and then followed the genetic sequence to make a quilt.  Genius.  Wouldn't it be amazing to know your own DNA and make YOUR individual quilt?  Seriously cool stuff. 

- My kids last night ate giant cous-cous.  Might be ok/normal/everyday stuff for you, but we're talking a serious event around here.  New food?  Wow.  I might even get them to try aubergine in the next 12 months at this rate!

I love aubergines.  Eggplants.  Melanzane.

- I found this gorgeous Swedish vintage cup (Rorstrand) in a charity shop.  Nobody is allowed to touch it.

- I found this lamp deep deep into the garage.  I'd forgotten all about it.

- I used to store (hide) my ironing pile in a huge basket.  Not a good idea because it could hold so much stuff it was depressing to look at and tackle.  So I bought a smaller one (and prettier too) with the idea that it would get full quicker and I'd do my ironing more often.  

Ha Ha.  The problem is  NOT with the basket size.

- No 2 has worn No 1 down and they agreed to swap rooms.  Do you think running away from home would be cowardly of me?

- What has two legs and bleeds a lot? Half a dog.

(Apologies, it comes from living with three boys....)