on a beautifully sunny but cold February afternoon in London...
that my dad counted me in...
...and that I said, "I do."
The
Confirmation Edwin
Muir (1887-1959)
Yes,
yours, my love, is the right human face,
I in my mind had waited for this long.
Seeing the false and searching the true,
Then I found you as a traveller finds a place
Of welcome suddenly amid the wrong
Valleys and rocks and twisting roads.
But you, what shall I call you?
A fountain in a waste.
A well of water in a country dry.
Or anything that's honest and good, an eye
That makes the whole world bright.
Your open heart simple with giving, give the primal deed.
The first good world, the blossom, the blowing seed.
The hearth, the steadfast land, the wandering sea,
Not beautiful or rare in every part
But like yourself, as they were meant to be.
A couple of days ago, the Kona solids I ordered for the For the Love of Solids swap arrived. My partner and I have quite similar tastes. She
likes sludgy type greens and so I ordered some peridot, artichoke, sea
foam and olive and threw in a couple of blues (delft and teal) for some
contrast.
My partner isn`t very chatty on flikr and I`m unsure whether she approves of my colour palette. I know from her mosaic that she wants something improv.pieced and so I tried my hand at some curved piecing. I loved this, and thanks to Diane for her great video, which I have put at the bottom of this post.
Here`s a peek at another go at improv.piecing. This was much more difficult for me and I`m not feeling the love with this one. It was difficult to let go. There`s an amazing amount of talent in this swap and I am feeling a little unworthy. I`ll stick it up on flikr and see what the reaction is. I do find some of the comments a little blunt on flikr. I`m not talking necessarily about anything I`ve put up but I wish people would remember that if something isn`t to their taste, they can either not comment or do so tactfully.
Okay, I`m off my soap box now. Yesterday, I spent several hours tidying a spare room full of boxes, which hadn`t been touched since we moved last summer. It took hours of course because I sat amongst the boxes looking at old photos and wading through loads of loose papers and I found the complete set of my high school reports. I thought I would leave you with this one for Dress Design (a C- means below average). I was 12 years old.
Annabella`s progress has been rather slow so far but I hope as she gains experience and confidence in using the sewing machine, her progress will improve.
I hope `Warty Wordell`, as we affectionately referred to her, is proud that I did indeed make some progress in using the sewing machine, although I imagine she may indeed be in the great sewing room in the sky.
I confess to having had to pad out my mosaic this month as I was only in the company of my beloved stash for a couple of weeks.
While I was in England, I finished Baby George`s 1001 Peeps` quilt and he posseted over it immediately. I`ll take that as a good sign.
When reunited with said stash, I finished my blockade bee blocks for the 4x5 Modern Quilt Bee, made a couple of starflower blocks for Karen in the do.Good Stitches bee, whipped up a super simple quilt top form Amy Butler`s Lark in the Glamor colourway, made a practice pouch for the Mouthy Stitches swap from its selvedges and another in Echo.
This month looks super busy already what with more bee blocks, the Mouthy Stitches pouch swap, a make for the For the Love of Solids swap and Jennifer`s Modern Mini Challenge,..oh and add in to the mix Zaki being on his school holidays for the next couple of weeks - EEEK!
Linking up with Lynne`s Fresh Sewing Day - thanks as ever to Lynne for hosting this fun blog hop. Only 3 more link ups until you know what!
....I just remembered to pick a winner for my 1st blogaversary giveaway and it`s No. 4 Pat ...congratulations Pat!
Pat chose the Lark selvedge pouch.
Pat said, "LARK! Happy blogaversary! I love reading your blog! My mom
was an avid quilter for nearly 30 years. And she did get me to make a
few quilts over those years. But it wasn't until I found out about
modern quilts and inherited her sewing machines and stash that I
actually thought about quilting. That was about a year and a half ago. I
think my mom would be thrilled with my progress."
I shall email you now Pat for your details! Thanks to everyone who participated in the giveaway.
I was super excited to be invited by Jennifer of Ellison Lane Quilts to take part in her Modern Mini Challenge - a 5 part series which kicks off on Monday February 6!
The idea behind the MMC is for you to think big, make small - inspired by this bunch of incredibly talented gals who are sure to get your creative juices flowing. As a newbie hopper, I asked Jennifer if she would put me towards the end of the line and she did. She`s sweet like that.
The why: To inspire you to try something new- something challenging- take a big idea and make it in a mini.
Contest Requirements:1. Create a modern mini quilt or mug rug - only one entry per person2. Enter your mini quilt or mug rug in the linky party at Ellison Lane Quilts on Monday, March 5. You do NOT have to have a blog to enter. You may link a picture from your Flickr account.3. Your entry (blog post or Flickr description) should include the size of the item.
You may remember last year that the uber talented Sarah Fielke (co-author of Material Obsession) was looking for people to make blocks for a couple of very special quilts. Amy and Annabelle had lost husband and father Dan far too early. Sarah wanted to make them both quilts from Kaffe Fasset fabrics using blocks that looked like bass lines on a stereo. I wanted to help but only had a few Kaffe Fasset scraps and so Sarah very kindly sent me some of her scraps all the way from Oz.
Here are my blocks.
Amy`s block
Annabelle`s block
Well I was super excited to read this week on Leanne`s blog that she too had helped and that Sarah had pieced Annabel`s quilt. Click here to see it (you`ll have to scroll down a couple of posts). I love it!
So having written my Winter Stitches mid-term check in, I was beginning to feel very guilty about my mum`s birthday quilt. She has waited patiently while various quilts, bee blocks, pouches, mug rugs and runners have been made and meanwhile I have prevaricated about which block to use. She isn`t swooning over swoon - a block which many of you thought would look great in the Kaffe Fasset fabrics she had chosen. So today, energized by a beetroot, celery and ginger juice (zingy and delicious), I started on the first block. All I`ll say is it`s not a quick block (but I think and really hope it`s going to be amazing) and it`s a block from this book. Only sneeky peaks will be shown and here`s your first one.
I know. I`m not giving much away.
Hope you`ve all had a fab weekend. Check in later tomorrow to see if you won the giveaway (there`s still time to enter).
