Happy Easter!

Awake, you wintry earth -

Flying off the sadness!

Fair vernal flowers, laugh forth

Your ancient gladness!

Thomas Blackburn

An Easter Hymn

http://www.allgreatquotes.com/easter_quotes5.shtml

Political Quilts

There is a great article by Cindy Dampier in the Chicago Tribune about "political quilts":
"Uniting politically divided quilters, stitch by stitch":

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/ct-quilt-politics-ent-0405-20170331-story.html

As for me, I think that every quilt is "political", because it always carries an important message:
A quilter is doing the constructive and creative and patient work of bringing pieces together, which had come a long way from multiple sources and often are telling stories of completely diverse backgrounds. In combining these little pieces a quilter uses certain patterns or motifs and thereby he or she is drawing on rich historical traditions which have roots on every continent on earth. Even when using modern patterns or not using any pattern at all or using a gun as a motif: all this is based on traditions and on the work of someone else who has lived somewhere else in time and space, and all these multicultural efforts find their reflections in the combined pieces of a quilt.
All this is done to create an object that gives warmth, comfort, protection or that is shown as a piece of art to meet the emotions, the intellect and ideas of others. Thereby a quilt (even if one doesn't like its appearance or style or motif) always tells the story of creating an item that mirrors the idea of coming together, of cooperation, of hoping for peace on earth, and that is the most profound political message I can imagine.
Enjoy the article, it is very well written I think.

Labyrinth

This is a sketch I made of a labyrinth, I had found a similar image on the internet.

(bloggermymaze.wordpress.com)

I like that one very much because when you enter this labyrinth you can't go wrong!

It's just a question of walking ahead and of staying in a good mood, even if it feels as though it's a long and even longer way to go and as if one is moving away from the destination more and more, 

whereas yes, in fact one gets closer and closer and the goal can't be missed.

I tried to translate this maze into a work of patchwork and made a wallhanging.

(34 + 34 cm, 13,3" + 13,3")

I applied a slight line, drawn with chalk, to indicate, that yes, 

someone already went this way! 

It can hardly be detected, one has to look very closely.

"That (labyrinth)...became a world whose rules I lived by, and I understood the moral of mazes: sometimes you have to turn your back on your goal to get there, sometimes you're farthest away when you're closest, sometimes the only way is the long one."

- Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust

www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/labyrinth

The First Day of Spring!

"And the Spring arose on the garden fair,

Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere;

And each flower and herb on Earth's dark breast

Rose from the dreams of its wintry rest."

Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Complete Poems

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

The name of this quilt pattern is "Flower Basket".

A Friend of Mine

... made this gorgeous wallhanging! Isn't that a fantastic piece!

She is such a magnificent artist!

Thank you for allowing me to put these pictures on this blog!

If you look closely, you'll discover stars where you don't expect them!

I really think this wonderful piece of art should hang in a cathedral,

or in an old, remodeled factory hall,

but it looks nice in her room, too!

This is how it all began,

it took her two years from start to finish...

International Women's Day

"Extremists have shown what frightens them most:

a girl with a book."

Malala Yousafzai

http://www.boredpanda.com/inspirational-quotes-womens-day/

Letter Cubes

I love these wooden antique alphabet blocks, I find them very charming,

and that inspired me to make some patchwork letter cubes, for kids and adults to play with.

Each cube represents a word with four letters, when turning the cube the letters appear one by one,

the pictures here show the cubes with the words

J - A - Z - Z

B - O - O - K

P - L - A - Y.

On top of each cube I worked in a traditional patchwork pattern,

the bottom consists of a single piece of fabric.

So, other than it's the case with the toy blocks, each cube here represents a word in itself, 

a word which may be of some significance to the owner.

But it's fun of course to combine the cubes to form words of one's own choice!

Isn't is a huge JOY to listen to JAZZ, read a BOOK or to just PLAY around?

JA! (which is YES in German, but I haven't finished the cubes with E and S yet ...)

More to come!

Pattern

In short, no pattern is an isolated entity. Each pattern can exist in the world only to the extent that is supported by other patterns: the larger patterns in which it is embedded, the patterns of the same size that surround it, and the smaller patterns which are embedded in it. 

Christopher Alexander

www.art-quotes.com/getquotes.php?catid=219#WI50VxiX_R0

Flooded with PINK

The pink hat - what an item to wear and to make a statement!

Love that piece, and I loved to see the Women's Marches yesterday,

all the women and men and kids and so many of them wearing such a funny handmade hat:

what a great idea!!

To add an ounce of playful humor to such serious matters!

… and the sea of pink everywhere,

and all the smiles the funny hats provoked : fabulous!

https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/01/21/washington-flooded-with-pink-as-womens-march-descends-on-d-c/



https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/kidspost/hundreds-of-thousands-come-to-washington-for-womens-march/2017/01/21/97daf72a-dff3-11e6-ad42-f3375f271c9c_story.html?utm_term=.5007c66105f2

Kristin Hannah, "The Nightingale"

I don't think that I've ever been so moved by a book as when I began to read "The Nightingale" by Kristin Hannah. I don't find all the appropriate words to praise this book and its authoress, but I can share a quote here with you which shows once again what quilts are made for. But again, this book is extraordinary. It's the story of two sisters in German-occupied France during World War II.

"In her son's bedroom (no, not her son's) she moved like a sleepwalker, picking up his few clothes and gathering his belongings. A threadbare stuffed monkey whose eyes had been loved off, a piece of petrified wood he'd found by the river last summer, and a quilt Vianne had made from scraps of clothes he'd outgrown. On its back, she'd embroidered "To our Daniel, love Maman, Papa, and Sophie."

She remembered when he'd first read it and said,"Is Papa coming back?" and she'd nodded and told him that families had a way of finding their way home."

Evergreen Quilts

To celebrate the beginning of a new year I designed a new patchwork pattern which I call

"Evergreen".

I use this pattern to make small quilts for wall, table or chest,

29 x 29 cm, about 11,4" x 11,4".

Magical

"Books are a uniquely portable magic." 

Stephen King,

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

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

I wish everyone will have a magical, marvelous, amazing, fabulous New Year!

May you always be accompanied by lovely friends, warm quilts and magical books.

Above: a small quilt for table or wall, handcrafted, the little book consists of several tiny quilts, the book cover is filled with heavy paper, a ribbon is also added.

Merry Christmas!

HAPPY XMAS (WAR IS OVER)

So this is Christmas
And what have you done

Another year over
And a new one just begun
And so this is Christmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear ones
The old and the young
A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year

Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
And so this is Christmas (War is over)
For weak and for strong (If you want it)

For rich and the poor ones (War is over)
The road is so long (Now)
And so Happy Christmas (War is over)
For black and for white (If you want it)
For yellow and red ones (War is over)
Let's stop all the fight (Now)
A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year

Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
So this is Christmas (War is over)
And what have we done (If you want it)

Another year over (War is over)
And a new one just begun (Now)
And so Happy Christmas (War is over)
We hope you have fun (If you want it)
The near and the dear one (War is over)
The old and the young (Now)
A very merry Christmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
War is over if you want it
War is over now

John Lennon

http://www.songtexte.com/songtext/john-lennon/happy-xmas-war-is-over-bde09e2.html#

Well, wars are not over, but if we want it, there is hope!

Merry Christmas everyone!

"Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas."

Calvin Coolidge

www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic-peace.html

Petition

If you are interested in signing a petition to encourage the Electors of the Electoral College on Dec 19 to vote for Mrs.Clinton, even if they are Republicans, in order to honor the fact that Mrs. Clinton won the majority of popular votes in the elections for the US presidency, go to here:

https://www.change.org/p/electoral-college-electors-electoral-college-make-hillary-clinton-president-on-december-19

The petition can be signed from all over the world.



(picture above from: http://www.handelsblatt.com/politik/international/klimakonferenz-in-marrakesch-delegierte-beschliessen-fahrplan/14865636.html#

War and Peace

("Multicoloured Peace Doves Bringing Olive Branches", appliqué quilt)

War and Peace

Man invents war. Man discovers peace.

He invents war from without.

He discovers peace from within.

War man throws. Peace man sows.

The smile of war is the flood of human blood.

The smile of peace is the love, below, above.

Peace is the whole truth that wishes to enrapture humanity.

War is the whole falsehood that wants to capture humanity.

Peace begins in the soul and ends in the heart.

War begins in the mind and ends in the body.

War forgets peace. Peace forgives war.

War is the death of the life human. Peace is the birth of the Life Divine.

Our vital passions want war.

Our psychic emotions desire peace.

War is clear futility in dire spear-stupidity.

Peace is flowing infinity in glowing eternity.

Man seeks war when he thinks that the world is not his.

Man invites war when he feels that he can conquer the world.

Man proclaims war when he dreams

That the world has already surrendered to him.

Man seeks peace because his earthly existence desperately needs it.

Man welcomes peace because he feels

that in peace alone is his life of achievement and fulfilment.

Man spreads peace because he wants to transcend death.

The animal in man wars against peace in the outer world,

in the world of conflicting ideas.

The divine in man wars against ignorance in the inner world,

in the world of mounting ideals.

The animal in man wants war for the sake of war,

war to devour the snoring world.

The divine in man wants peace for the sake of peace,

peace to feed the hungry world.

– Sri Chinmoy

www.shortpoems.org/poems-on-peace/

Ode to Autumn

Ode to Autumn

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;

Conspiring with him how to load and bless

With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;

To bend with apples the mossed cottage-trees,

And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;

To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells

With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,

And still more, later flowers for the bees,

Until they think warm days will never cease,

For Summer has o'er-brimmed their clammy cell.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?

Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find

Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,

Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;

Or on a half-reaped furrow sound asleep,

Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook

Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers;

And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep

Steady thy laden head across a brook;

Or by a cider-press, with patient look,

Thou watchest the last oozings, hours by hours.

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?

Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,---

While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,

And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;

Then in a wailful choir, the small gnats mourn

Among the river sallows, borne aloft

Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;

And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;

Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft

The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft,

And gathering swallows twitter in the skies. 

John Keats

www.poemhunter.com/poem/ode-to-autumn