Merry Christmas!

„Die Welt ist so leer, wenn man nur Berge, Flüsse und Städte darin denkt, aber hie und da jemand zu wissen, der mit uns übereinstimmt, mit dem wir auch stillschweigend fortleben: das macht uns dieses Erdenrund erst zu einem bewohnten Garten.“

―Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 

- https://gutezitate.com/zitat/256301

"The world is so empty if one thinks only of mountains, rivers and cities; but to know someone who thinks and feels with us, and who, though distant, is close to us in spirit, this makes the earth for us an inhabited garden."

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

https://www.azquotes.com/quote/391004

Mein Wunsch für uns alle zu Weihnachten:

Dass wir uns verbunden fühlen und in einem bewohnten Garten zuhause sind.

Frohe Weihnachten!

My wish for us all at Christmas:

Let us feel emotional bonds and live in an inhabited garden.

Merry Christmas!

Gratitude

Here is a very lovely video showing an installation at the Cornell Botanic Gardens in 2021, 

the "Gratitude Project", 

with "a focus on fostering reflection on how plants and nature enrich our lives" -

the idea came up in 2020 to find 

"a means to promote mindfulness and wellbeing during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic",

we do need something like this,

enjoy!

https://cornellbotanicgardens.org/fluttering-phrases-speak-of-gratitude/

 

December Star

“In the winter she curls up around a good book and dreams away the cold.” 

– Ben Aaronovitch

https://everydaypower.com/december-quotes/

The book shown here is:

Christmas Bells, by Jennifer Chiaverini, Dutton 2015

Bookmarks with Stairs

I like those steps as a motif for a bookmark,

 and that quote as well:

It is not enough to stare up the steps, we must step up the stairs.

Vaclav Havel

https://www.azquotes.com/quotes/topics/stairs.html

The book here is:

"Christmas Bells", by Jennifer Chiaverini, Dutton, 2015

November Stars

 

“November--with uncanny witchery in its changed trees. With murky red sunsets flaming in smoky crimson behind the westering hills. With dear days when the austere woods were beautiful and gracious in a dignified serenity of folded hands and closed eyes--days full of a fine, pale sunshine that sifted through the late, leafless gold of the juniper-trees and glimmered among the grey beeches, lighting up evergreen banks of moss and washing the colonnades of the pines. Days with a high-sprung sky of flawless turquoise. Days when an exquisite melancholy seemed to hang over the landscape and dream about the lake. But days, too, of the wild blackness of great autumn storms, followed by dank, wet, streaming nights when there was witch-laughter in the pines and fitful moans among the mainland trees. What cared they? Old Tom had built his roof well, and his chimney drew.” 

― L.M. Montgomery

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/november?page=2

New Bookmarks

This bookmark goes with:

Hilary Mantel, The Mirror & the Light

HarperCollinsPublishers 2020

 

... and this bookmark goes with:

Kristin Hannah, The Four Winds

St. Martin's Press, 2021

October Star

“After the keen still days of September, the October sun filled the world with mellow warmth...The maple tree in front of the doorstep burned like a gigantic red torch. The oaks along the roadway glowed yellow and bronze. The fields stretched like a carpet of jewels, emerald and topaz and garnet. Everywhere she walked the color shouted and sang around her...In October any wonderful unexpected thing might be possible.” 

― Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/october?page=3

"Balance" Bookmarks

 

The book shown here is:

The Miniaturist, by Jesse Burton, Peebo & Pilgrim Limited 2014 

The book shown here is:

Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell, 2004, Random House Trade Paperbacks

The book shown here is:

Kumpel und Komplizen, Warum die Natur auf Partnerschaft setzt,

by Volker Arzt, C. Bertelsmann 2019

*

I call these bookmarks "Balance Bookmarks". 

The structure of the design is always the same, 

but the exact forms and sewing lines are new and improvised in each bookmark.

*

September Star

 

“The first flash of color always excites me as much as the first frail, courageous bloom of spring. This is, in a sense, my season--sometimes warm and, when the wind blows an alert, sometimes cold. But there is a clarity about September. On clear days, the sun seems brighter, the sky more blue, the white clouds take on marvelous shapes; the moon is a wonderful apparition, rising gold, cooling to silver; and the stars are so big. The September storms--the hurricane warnings far away, the sudden gales, the downpour of rain that we have so badly needed here for so long--are exhilarating, and there's a promise that what September starts, October will carry on, catching the torch flung into her hand.” 

― Faith Baldwin, Evening Star 

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/september?page=2

Juggling Balls with Bag

Recently I made some new juggling balls:

I filled them with a mixture of organically grown, dried Provençal lavender and nontoxic synthetic fibers (half & half).

It turned out that this mixture works very well:

the balls fly high and well, have a bit of weight, but are still light enough, and they don't roll that far away on the ground when I missed them - which of course happens very swiftly and often.

And I really like that fragrance of lavender!

Plus I experimented a bit with the right measurements for the balls. 

I want them to be not too big so that I can easily hold two in one hand.

So below can be seen the template I used for my balls with an edge length of 2,8 cm / 1,1", 12 of these five-sided figures are needed for one ball.

My bag easily holds my three balls, the piece of fabric is 62 x 25 cm/ 24,4" x 9,8", my drawstring is crocheted with a cotton and wool ribbon thread, about 72 cm/28,7" long, also: 

I appliquéd a small, quilted patchwork-motif.

 

 

August Star

“August was nearly over - the month of apples and falling stars, the last care-free month for the school children. The days were not hot, but sunny and limpidly clear - the first sign of advancing autumn.” 

― Victor Nekrasov

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/august?page=2

 

Elise

she just came in and announced that she would like 

to stay a while

July Star

“Saturday morning was come, and all the summer world was bright and fresh, and brimming with life. There was a song in every heart; and if the heart was young, the music issued at the lips. There was cheer in every face and a spring in every step. The locust-trees were in bloom, and the fragrance of the blossoms filled the air. Cardiff Hill, beyond the village and above, it was green with vegetation, and it lay just far enough away to seem a Delectable Land, dreamy, reposeful, and inviting.” 

― Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/41326609-the-adventures-of-tom-sawyer

 

Greeting Cards

The patchwork piece (top and back) is slipped over the upper side of the card,

when opened, the card looks like this:

... and depending on the arrangement of possible quilting-stitches, which are going through the paper to the back,

it's often also possible to put an extra note inside:

Here are some more, the method allows for a variety of ways to create patchwork or appliqué motifs and patterns:

This is done with my naturally dyed fabrics:

... some teddy bears for young and older kids:

... all waiting to be given or sent away:

Here is a good wish:

“i hope that 

whoever you are

wherever you are

and no matter how

you are feeling

you will always 

have something

to smile about.” 

― Sanober Khan

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/wishes?page=2

June Star

“I wonder what it would be like to live in a world where it was always June.” 

― L. M. Montgomery, Anne of the Island

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/june?page=3

 

May Star

“The month of May is the pleasant time; its face is beautiful; the blackbird sings his full song, the living wood is his holding, the cuckoos are singing and ever singing; there is a welcome before the brightness of the summer."

― Lady Gregory, “Finn, Son of Cumhal”

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/may?page=2

 

Yoga Mat

Just finished, a yoga mat, I practice Yoga each morning and I love such a mat here, it provides a sturdiness that is very welcome, and also some warmth because the filling is a cotton (80%)/polyester-blanket, the fabrics are cotton. 

I find that mixture more pleasant than any other material that is usually used for a Yoga mat. It is thick enough so that one can dive into Yoga comfortably, and thin enough so that this mat can be rolled up and stored away afterwards.

Also, I find it nice if such a yoga mat mirrors what yoga does: it turns my attention to the center of things, 

so I try to find a good pattern for the middle of this arrangement of the patchwork top.

The center pattern here is a traditional one, it is called "Pinwheel".

Such a mat should be a bit longer than the height of the person who will use it, and it is wider than a normal mat, so that both arms can rest comfortably. 

This mat here is 170 cm x 80 cm (67" x 31,5"). It is hand- and machine-sewn, hand quilted, and can be washed easily (everything is pre-washed).

*

“Exercises are like prose, whereas yoga is the poetry of movements. Once you understand the grammar of yoga; you can write your poetry of movements.” 

― Amit Ray, Yoga and Vipassana: An Integrated Life Style

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/yoga

April Star

“They came on one of April's most brilliant days--a day as sparkling as a newly-washed lemon...a day when even the shadows were a melange of blue and orange and jade, like the shadows that poured from the tipsy brush of Monet.” 

― Beverley Nichols, A Thatched Roof

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/april

 

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

A friend pointed out to me that an egg can be viewed as a symbol of hope, I've never had the thought before, but yes, I realize now how lovely this idea really is.

"May your choices reflect your hopes,

not your fears."

Nelson Mandela

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/hope?page=7

... some Easter bunnies, they hopped on greeting cards here ...

 

March Star

“It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade.” 

― Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/march

 

 

... a wallhanging, and I tried to compose a Haiku to go with it:

sunlight and shadow

improvisation and plan

they go hand in hand