The telephone, which interrupts the most serious conversations and cuts short the most weighty observations, has a romance of its own.

Virginia Woolf

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/telephone.htm

cell phone case, Provencal Linen, cotton

Norwegian Peace Quilt

.... made by kids

picture from:

http://scout.org/en/information_events/events/100_years_of_scouting/centenary_info_and_resources/centenary_news/norwegian_gifts_for_peace

Rimbaud

Today I found these words by Arthur Rimbaud and I like them so much:

I have stretched ropes from steeple to steeple; 

garlands from window to window; 

golden chains from star to star, 

and I dance.

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/golden_2.html

"The Age of Innocence"

I so much love this novel by Edith Wharton. It was published 1920 and it won the Pulitzer Prize. Did I say how much I love that book? I do love it. And it is one of these stories that are good and true, because they don't have an ending (because of many other reasons, too.) Edith Wharton stops to tell the story, and you think "That's it." (and I did with regret)... but at the same time the story goes on and on and on, ar least in my thoughts. I love this book, I know I said it already, but this novel is really a true one.

Here is a little praliné for example: Newland Archer and Ellen Olenska try to do some smalltalk on their last evening together, for more than thirty years to come. They are in company and are being watched closely, and so Newland and Ellen have to say SOMETHING, and they talk about the hardships of traveling and that it can be cold, and Ellen said then that "after all, one could always carry an extra rug".... oh, she is one who even when she is talking about "nothing" she talks about SOMETHING. 
I love that book. And the idea of an extra rug.

Stories

This here somehow always makes my heart sing: these patterns here are all patterns rich with history, tradition, so many stories are being told with them, so many women (and men) used these patterns to create lovely quilts;  these patterns were given from one person to another, they bridged continents and countries and centuries, and I am so happy to continue this tradition, to take up all these patterns and pieces and images and "words" to tell now more quilt-stories...

Road to California

"There is science, logic, reason; there is thought verified by experience. 

And then there is California." - 

Edward Abbey

http://www.californiality.com/2010/06/best-quotations-about-california.html

The pattern in the middle here is called: "Road to California".

I used this pattern with variations in the other blocks for this

mini-quilt (77x78 cm) to show something of California being just "different". 

I had been to California more than 20 years ago and am so much looking forward to seeing friends there again this year and to enjoy this "being different"! So I had a good reason to choose this pattern for my mini-quilt!

... and no, I didn't press much this quilt, I like it when quilts don't look so very neat
and orderly... :-)

I took to making mini-quilts lately because I like it that they can be used in so many different ways:

they may decorate the wall, the table, a bed or a sofa or even cover a baby.

This quilt is sewn and quilted completey by hand and consists of cotton (top), light wool (batting) and linen (backing).

Khan Academy: Why Look At Art?

It's such a magnificent tool for self education: 

the Khan Academy! 

It's such a great idea: making knowledge and information available,

 with videos, made without much extra ado, with simple matter-of-fact explanations, for persons of all ages: a project which is constantly under construction. It's such a helpful tool for everyone, kid or adult, who wants to really learn something that is important to her or him, so that he or she can go on thinking and creating by himself or herself.

 It does not answer EVERY question, but many many. And there is always more to come.

Here is a video on the question: 

Why Look At Art?

http://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-history/introduction-to-art-history/v/why-look-at-art