Macarons

Macarons! Hmmm! A French sweet confection:

two almond meringue discs with a lovely filling (jam, buttercream, spices…),

and they come in all kinds of nice colors…

well, and there are Macaron purses!

They have just this circular form, are small, 

and have nice innards, too…

They can be used as key tags, they can hold coins, 

they also keep sweet little somethings like rings or a bracelet or whatever small item one wishes to hold dear: the zipper keeps it safe.

There is a very helpful tutorial on how to make a Macaron purse here:

http://gkkreativ.blogspot.de/2014/07/macaron-taeschchen.html

Mine are made a bit differently:

My tops on both sides are little round quilts, with three layers, the batting being a fluffy piece of fleece, with quilting stitches for decoration and stabilizing.

The inner pieces are made with plain pieces of fabric, 

and are also filled with the same fleece.

I love to use these lovely traditional quilt patterns for the tops, thus there are endless possibilities to create different, individual purses which carry all the charm quilts naturally have.

Also, the two sides of one purse show the same pattern, but I arrange the pieces in a slightly different way.

My Macaron purses are 6 cm  (2 3/8") in diameter, 

and handmade.

With the attached hanging loop, 

a Macaron purse can be hung up also.

Summer Days

We are in for a couple of really hot days here - perfect time for washing a few quilts! I love to dry them outside then, in the shade, since protection from sunlight is a good idea in order to keep the colors from fading. 
Since mine are all handmade I wash them very carefully, and they take it very well. I love how they smell when I collect them in the evening!
I talk about how I wash my quilts in detail in a column at the right hand side here: "How To Take Care Of A Quilt (storing / airing / washing)"

Happy Summer!

"In summer, the song sings itself."

William Carlos Williams

http://www.quotegarden.com/summer.html

Miss Patchwork, Miss Scraps Patches, Scraps

That's what "The Patchwork Girl of Oz" is called by her companions and friends. FINALLY I received a copy of this lovely book, written by L.Frank Baum in 1913. L. Frank Baum is also the author of "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", which is a lot more famous and a gorgeous story. But I LOVE "The Patchwork Girl of Oz" even better, not only because it has to do with a patchwork quilt, which became alive because the Crooked Magician sprinkled some Powder of Life over a doll, which was made of this quilt, and the Munchkin boy Ojo the Unlucky gave her lots of brain grains, so she is very clever and amiable and courageous and has a love for poetry and she is a great friend for Ojo, who sets out on a journey to find some very rare ingredients to make a concoction, so that his Uncle and the Magician's wife (who wanted to make a slave and servant out of Scraps) can be released as they had been turned into marble statues by accident… ah, what a colorful story! I don't think it's a story just for kids alone, as there are so wonderful conversations in this book which reveal so much wisdom that also adults not only have lots of fun on their journey through this land of Oz, but will receive many a nice lesson on the way. For example I love these sentences: 

The Shaggy Man says to Scraps:

"You're a regular comforter and as sweet as patchwork can be. All you lack is dignity."

"I hate dignity," cried Scraps, kicking a pebble high in the air and then trying to catch it as it fell. "Half of the fools and all the wise folks are dignified, and I'm neither the one nor the other."

"She's just crazy," explained the Glass Cat.

The Shaggy Man laughed.

"She's delightful, in her way," he said.

…

"I hope your friends are not dignified," observed Scraps.

"Some are, and some are not," he answered; "but I never criticise my friends. If they are really true friends, they may be anything they like, for all of me."

"There's some sense in that," said Scraps, nodding her queer head in approval.

So I thought it was time to make someone, who is just a bit like Scraps in this story, not dignified but delightful, a true friend, cheerful, someone who secretly wants to be put into shape by Ojo, when she meets the very attractive Scarecrow…  

… Scraps turned to Ojo and whispered: "Roll me out, please; I've sagged down dreadfully from walking so much and men like to see a stately figure."

She then fell upon the ground and the boy rolled her back and forth like a rolling-pin, until the cotton had filled all the spaces in her patchwork covering and the body had lengthened to its fullest extent.

… and who says:

"…But I'm glad - I'm awfully glad!- that I'm just what I am, and nothing else."

She is entirely made by hand, stuffed with cotton fabrics and woolen patches, from head to toe she stands 58 cm/ 23" high, and with her outstretched arms she is 43 cm/17" wide. Her dress is knitted by hand, her hair is made with woolen yarn, and some leather bands indicate that there are some scrappy shoes.

Ah, and what then?

What if you slept? And what if, in your sleep, you dreamed? And what if, in your dream, you went to heaven and plucked a strange and beautiful flower? And what if, when you awoke, 

you had the flower in your hand? 

Ah, and what then?

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

http://www.quotes.net/serp.php?st=flower+pot&p=5

(the picture shows a wallhanging, all cotton, three thin layers, 

appliquéd / pieced / quilted by hand, 

28 x 36 cm, 11" x 14", 

the text is written on a piece of cotton and fixed at the back)

"Oma's Quilt"

… this is just everything that can be said about a quilt which is made by dear persons:
it brightens up your room and helps you to feel "at home", no matter where you are. 
"Oma's Quilt" is a very lovely story, showing the very essence of quilting and quilts, enjoy!

http://www.nfb.ca/film/omas_quilt/#temp-share-panel

It's been proven by quite a few studies that plants are good for psychological development. If you green an area, the rate of crime goes down. Torture victims begin to recover when they spend time outside in a garden with flowers. So we need them, in some deep psychological sense, which I don't suppose anybody really understands yet.

Jane Goodall  

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

Building..

… "Building Bridges" was the lovely motto of the European Song Contest yesterday. It was quite something, I especially liked the opening video "Building Bridges", made by people like you and me from all over the world, VERY nice:

http://songcontest.orf.at/videos/stories/2712576/

… and if anyone is interested: the song from Italy was my absolute favourite, that is really as much ITALY as anyone can imagine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TOMqZV2jA8

And I - by chance - started to sew something yesterday which shows something like …bridges!? :-) (…it's a Double Wedding Ring pattern, with a slight variation)

Log Cabin and Virginia Reel Bookmarks Added

Since I'm really fond of traditional quilt patterns (and books, and reading), I added two more types of bookmarks to my set of various quilted hand sewn bookmarks which I had made and given away over the last eleven years now.

One new type is made with the Log Cabin pattern, which - some say - is around 200 years old. It's a pattern for a square originally, and I tried to make a variation so that it could be used for a slender rectangle bookmark form. I especially like the idea to use a bright red or yellow piece for the center to suggest that there is a light on in the log cabin, which - even from far away-  always shows you the way home…Lovely idea.

Here is a very interesting read:

http://www.womenfolk.com/quilt_pattern_history/logcabin.htm

The other one is an adaptation of a pattern called "Virginia Reel", which is named after an old Scottish Folk Dance from the 17th century (which then became an English and Irish and American Folk Dance, too). This quilt pattern is not that old, however, most sources say it's from about 1935 or so, and it's also called "Snail's Trail" or "Monkey Wrench". I like "Virginia Reel" best though, you can really imagine a dance going on here with two partners, and then others are joining in, going round and round… 

I like that.

Here is a short explanation of how to use this pattern:

http://www.quilt-around-the-world.com/en/content/virginia-reel

The book shown here is: The Quilter's Apprentice, by Jennifer Chiaverini, 1999, a very lovely book.

… and this is my collection of bookmark types right now:

Quilt Book, Vol.2: Appliqué

So this is my second quilt book, it's a sampler again, this time showing some examples of appliqué techniques with different cultural and historical backgrounds. 

My first quilt book was a small collection of some patchwork examples from different areas and eras.

The general idea behind these books is basically to "talk about" and thereby to celebrate and to bring together different traditions, coming from very different sources, and to create a feeling of belonging to them all, as we somehow are a part of them, regardless of the time or the place where we find ourselves right now.

Like all quilts do, these books ultimately talk about

 The first page shows a flower appliqué, done with hidden stitches, which is reminiscent of the lovely motifs of the "Baltimore Album" quilts, popular in North-America during the 1840s/1850s. 

The second page shows a Folk Art motif. 

"Folk Art Quilts - 

As Americans moved westward, women used the medium of the quilt to make pictures of the world around them or the world they left behind." 

(The Quilt Encyclopedia Illustrated, by Carter Houck, Museum of American Folk Art, 1991)

Here I used hidden stitches as well as the blanket stitch and added some embroidery. 

I found the pattern here: 

Better Homes and Gardens: 501 Quilt Blocks

This fish on the third page is done with the multiple reverse appliqué technique used by the Indians of Panama; such a piece of work is called "Mola" and shows some additional embroidery also.

On the fourth page I tried to capture the lovely geometrical symmetries the Vietnamese Hmong people use in their typical way to make reverse appliqués in bright colors, and, as you can see, I hadn't been able to be perfectly exact here.  (I made peace with the fact that I never am able to work perfectly exact, and very often I don't even try it. I think there is some charm in the unevenness of things, but here… some more symmetry would have been just fine.) 

Ahh, I so much love how the Hawaiians do their quilts, this is just a modest attempt to go in that direction. A top layer is cut into one symmetrical form and then sewn onto the background fabric by way of needle turn appliqué. Then the quilting stitches go in waves around the appliquéd form.

And the back cover of my book is a combination of patchwork and appliqué:

the flower is pieced together first, after a traditional clamshell pattern, and it's complete in itself, batting, backing and quilting stitches included. Then this flower-form is appliquéd with hidden stitches and some quilting is added. 

In both books the pages are batted with quite a thick cotton fleece, so that the books can stand upright on a shelf: 

If you are interested, here is more information

- on my first book about patchwork techniques, showing also five examples:

http://lupinequilts.blogspot.de/2015/01/quilt-book.html

It is also mentioned in the magazine "Patchwork Professional" (German), 02/2015, on pages 52 and 53.

- on Baltimore Album quilts:

http://www.womenfolk.com/quilting_history/baltimore_album.htm

 - on Folk Art Quilts: 

http://www.craftsy.com/blog/2013/08/folk-art-quilts-storytelling-through-applique/

- something I've written earlier here about Molas: 

http://lupinequilts.blogspot.de/2015/02/mola-bookmark.html

- on Hmong applique: 

http://blog.cinnamonstudio.com/2013/03/hmong-pa-ndau-embroidery.html

- something I've written earlier about Hawaiian appliqué:

http://lupinequilts.blogspot.de/2014/01/the-aloha-quilt-by-jennifer-chiaverini.html

Happy World Book Day!

"Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers."

Charles William Eliot

http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/reading

These pictures were taken at the Book Village Bredevoort, Netherlands, 

what a lovely place that is! I had been there on a cool day, so I am all bundled up at the very nice "English Bookshop", where I bought a great antiquarian book: "The Ultimate Cross Stitch Companion"! :-)

And this is one of the bookends I made.

Happy Reading!

2014-Quilt Completed

I just finished the quilting and binding of my quilt "2014",

which shows one self-designed block for each month of the last year.

So it now got a "face".

The dimensions are 96 x 124 cm (about 38" x 49"),

it's all sewn and quilted by hand, and I used cotton yarn and fabrics.

The batting is a smooth and somewhat thick cotton sheet.

I debated the point with myself whether to hang it with a second rod in a long sleeve at the bottom end of the quilt, 

so that it could hang more evenly and smoothly,

but then again it wasn't such a plain and smooth year,

so no, 

and yes, I added a second rod at the bottom, but it hangs in small loops;

 that way I can add some straightening with a second rod below for better hanging, 

but I can also allow of some slight "wave" and movement 

for the form on the whole.

Happy Easter!

Sunburst

This is the first block of a new big quilt I plan to make.

The name of the pattern in the center of this block is "Sunburst" 

and I love everything about it:

the name, the way the pieces are arranged, the harmony in it,

the combination of different fabrics, which make each other glow.

It's an old, traditional pattern and appears in various variations in quilts from the last century and earlier, 

I have seen it in quilts even from the time around 1850…

I think it's just the right pattern for celebrating the arrival of spring!

"Behold, my friends, the spring is come; the earth has gladly received the embraces of the sun, and we shall soon see the results of their love!"

Sitting Bull

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

Everything will be OWL right.

Bookmark for Kids

ah well, since I worked on some bookmark designs over the last weeks, I really wished to make something for kids also, and here they are: some cows to accompany a child while experiencing the adventure of reading a book…

"I touched one for the first time. I'd seen the older children in class look into books for invisible traces, as if they were driven by the same force and, sinking deeper into silence, they were able to draw from dead paper something that seemed alive.

Unbeknownst to all, I learned to read."

… from the wonderful book "The Elegance of the Hedgehog" 

by Muriel Barbery

The book shown here is the German version of "Winnie-the-Pooh", "Pu der Bär", by A.A.Milne, Illustrations by E.H. Shepard, first published in 1926