A Little Bag

"Take, if you must, this little bag of dreams,

Unloose the cord, and they will wrap you round."

William Butler Yeats

https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/bag.html

(small hand sewn and hand quilted bags, 18 cm/ 7", with a zipper and a quilted zipper pull)

"The fine art of making ...

... quilts -

masterpieces you can wrap up in" -

This is the title of a fine article by Rick Kogan in the Chicago Tribune.

I enjoyed reading it! The videos are nice as well.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/ct-ae-hip-quilter-0813-story.html

Maltese Cross Quilt

(Maltese Cross, 63 x 63 cm, 24,8" x 24,8", 

three-layer-quilt, sewn and quilted by hand, 

cotton fabrics)

What I like about such a pattern:

it depends how you look at it and you may detect several different patterns.

The dominant pattern for most people presumably is this cross, which resembles a windmill: 

But then, someone else probably finds equally prominent this four pointed star in an eight- sided "circle",

or this star with four inner and four outer points:

Which way ever you might look at it, you're right and the other person, who looks at things differently, is right also! It's all there! Nice idea.

Backgammon Quilt

I made a few quilts recently which not only may decorate a table 

but which also are meant to invite persons to sit down and 

play a game together. 

This quilt is for playing Backgammon.

I only recently learned the basic rules and 

I think Backgammon is a very classy game,

apparently one with a rich historic tradition.

Here is a Backgammon set that was used at the Belvedere Castle (Weimar, Germany) in the early 18th century. I liked the design, so that's what made be being interested in this game.

And since it's International Friendship Day today,

what better way is there to celebrate friendships 

than to sit down together at a nice table and play a game?

On the picture above is shown the starting position. 

The rules for Backgammon can be found here:

http://www.bkgm.com/rules.html

The dimensions of this quilt are 54 cm x 45 cm, or roughly 21" x 18".

It is a hand sewn and hand quilted thin piece, consisting of three layers of cotton fabrics.

Interested to learn more about the International Friendship Day?

Then go to: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendship_Day

I think we should celebrate that idea daily!

Enjoy this day today!

Patterns

I had been to the "Gardens of the World" in Berlin.

It's a large area with gardens which are created in different styles: 

Chinese, Japanese, English, Balinese ....

I especially loved the Moroccan Garden, which also shows lots of gorgeous mosaics.

And in these mosaics I recognized some of these ancient forms which also occur in quilt patterns, 

and here it was again, what I so much love, the bridge between different cultures and centuries,

shown in patterns which occur all over the globe at different times.

Here are some pictures of the mosaics and pictures of quilt patterns.

"From Color to Color": Another Table Topper to Play With

A quilt to put on your table just for decoration, but you can use ist also as a board game.

This thin quilt consists of three layers, is 46 x 46 cm, or 18,11" x 18,11",

had been sewn and quilted by hand.

These are the rules:

"From Color to Color"

A game for 2 or 4 players. Each player has 9 or 8 playing pieces in one color, depending on whether you play from corner to corner (9) or from side to side (8).

Goal: Bring all your pieces from the colorfield where you start to the opposite colorfield. The winner is the person who is first to place all his/her tokens in the opposite colorfield. (Nine-patch-colorfields with nine tokens are Red, Blue, Green and Yellow. Eight-patch-colorfields with eight tokens are Brown, Gray, Lilac, Pink. Red goes to Blue, Green to Yellow and vice versa, Brown to Gray, Lilac to Pink and vice versa.)

Start: Each player chooses a colorfield to start from. If the agreement is to play from corner to corner you put all your 9 tokens on the nine-patch-square in one corner (Blue, Red, Green or Yellow). If you choose to play from side to side, you put your 8 playing pieces on the rectangular eight-patch-colorfield at your chosen side (Gray, Brown, Lilac or Pink).

How to move: Hop over another playing piece or move to a free adjacent colorspot. Move in any direction (right, left, up, down, diagonally).

Allowed: You may hop over several pieces in a row if possible. You may hop over any token (including your own) and move to any colorspot, except:

Forbidden: You may not touch or hop over a colorspot of your opposite color. For example: while you move your pieces from Red to Blue, it is forbidden to land on or to hop over any blue spot. (Only on arrival at the opposite nine-patch-colorfield you may move your pieces over these patches.)

It is also forbidden for all players to touch the four multicolored patches of the square in the center.

Warning: Take care to move away all your nine/ eight tokens from your colorfield where your start just in time. The player coming from the opposite corner /side is allowed to remove any remaining pieces when arriving on such a spot, which means you have lost the game already.

Note: When players go from one side to the opposite side they have fewer pieces to move and a shorter distance to overcome.

They may not touch or hop over the colorspots of the right neighbor of the colorfield where they start.

(Like all players they also may not touch the multicolored patches in the middle-square.)

For example: you move from Gray to Brown with your 8 pieces? Then you may not land on or hop over any yellow patch.

Suggestion: If you wish to play with three players, use the corners only, it does not matter much if noone is coming from the opposite direction for one player, there are enough tokens on the field to play with. If anyone will move from side to side while others are going from corner to corner, the playing conditions are a bit different.

Also: It’s not recommended to play with more than 4 players, it’s getting too crowded then.

PS: If someone makes any interesting/ nice/ not so nice experiences with making such a quilt and with these rules I’d be delighted to hear about that! (MARIASmail@t-online.de)

A "Round Morris"-Quilt

A table-topper with which you can play the game

"Round Morris" or "Three Men's Morris".

It's a handmade patchwork-quilt with three thin cotton layers,

hand-quilted, the eight circles on the curved line are appliquéd, 

dimensions are 48 cm x 48 cm, 19"x19".

Rules for Three Men’s Morris or Round Morris

This is a strategy game with a rich history:

"The earliest known board for the game includes diagonal lines and was "cut into the roofing slabs of the temple at Kurna in Egypt" c. 1400 BCE." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Men%27s_Morris

This is a game for two people. Each player has three pieces in one color. The aim is to get your three pieces in a straight line while you must have the central position, since a curved line round the edge does not count. During the game the pieces may not move to any vacant point, but only to any adjacent empty position. Plus: you HAVE to move your piece when it’s your turn, you cannot miss a turn.

First, take it in turns to place your pieces anywhere on the spots (central spot included). When all pieces have been put into the field, the play begins. Since one can only win if the middle of the field is occupied, the player who is first to place his piece can put it in the center and has good chances to win. You can make him remove his piece from the middle, while you are enclosing his pieces with your own ones. Now everybody has again the chance to win.

There is an alternative version in which a piece may move to any vacant point on the field, not just an adjacent one.

Enjoy!

A Quilted Table Top Game

This is a table topper which serves also as a board game.

It is a flat handmade and handquilted 3-layers-quilt (46 x 46 cm / 18,11" x 18,11").

I made this because I so fell in love with antique board games, 
whose patterns resemble quilt patterns so very much!

On this pinterest site you find a collection of the loveliest antique board games you can think of, and more:
https://www.pinterest.de/pin/493073859173691024/

Here are two examples:





I then also invented a set of rules to play a game with my table topper.

If anyone is interested, it's just for fun:

**With a Little Help From My Friends**

A quilted board-game for 2 to 4 players. You need different tokens, one for each player, 10 dice, pens and some notepads. 

Note: It’s very nice to use one dice with a special symbol painted on it instead of a number, so you can use that symbol as a joker and when it comes up you can choose freely a fitting number between 1 and 6.

Before the game starts: Each player writes three quizzical questions and the right answers on one side of three separate pieces of paper and folds them closed, then adds a small sketch on top ( flower, a smiley…) so that it becomes clear who came up with which question. All questions are mixed and put aside then. 

Note: All players should recognize the talents and abilities of the co-players, so that everyone has a good chance to answer a question.

A player shouldn’t be asked his or her own questions (therefore the marks on top of the folded notepads).

Quizzical questions which are used during the game need to be discarded. 

Use new questions each time you play that game.

General Rules:

If not indicated otherwise: He or she follows with his or her token his/her colors spot by spot. Each player moves to the next spot if a certain task is fulfilled by him or her or co-players, or has to stay put or to go back and to wait for the next turn if that could not be achieved. To change from one square to the next you have to fulfill the task that applies to this next square.

Each player selects a circle on the board-quilt to start with.  

To follow the rectangles of a certain color in the first square:

Throw dice - up to seven, it’s your choice -  and move to the next rectangle in your color in the next row if you received any number of the four times table by adding all the numbers which are shown ( a sum that is a 4 or 8 or…)

Move up the rows like that.

However: if you received a number of a four times table which belongs also to the six times table ( a 12 or 24 for example) a decision must be made. Will you proceed or your co-player ( more than two players: on your right hand side)? To decide that, take one of the quizzical questions and ask it, if you receive the right answer, your co-player proceeds, if the answer is wrong, you move on. 

Note: these rules apply only for moving within the first square. If the co-player on your right hand side has already left the first square, you are allowed to proceed freely.

To reach the triangles in the center:

Take 5 dice and try to add up a figure of the five times table. If you can, hop to the first and then to the second triangle counterclockwise.

However, if you happen to throw a number which still fits the four times table of the last square and not the five times table, you are obliged to give your figure to the person who is furthest behind: he or she receives your number and may proceed for one step within the first square.

If two or more co-players are sitting in the first square at the same stage of the game, take up a quiz-question, the one who answers correctly first moves on.

If you have only one co-player within the first square you have to pass on the number automatically to her or him, so that he or she can proceed one step up.

What do you do when you throw a 20 for example, which belongs to the five times and the four times table? You pick up a quizzical question, any co-player still sitting within the first square who knows the right answer first proceeds, if this answer is wrong you do.

To reach the two triangular and diagonal spots in the square at the corner:

Throw a prime number, an indivisible number. Choose up to ten dice for each throw and add the numbers, if it’s a prime number move on to the next spot.

Here are prime-numbers: 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, 39, 41, 43, 47, 53, 59

To reach the square within the square:

Ask your co-player / the player to your left to tell you his or her birthday. Write it down like that: 13.04.1976 for example. 

You can reach the square if you throw a number which shows the sum of three figures from that date, here for example: 1+9+4=14 or 7+3+6=16 or… Use up to 10 dice. 

To reach the last square at the outer border of this board-quilt you don’t have to do anything at first. Your partner(s) have to do this, when it’s your turn to reach your destination: 

Your/Each co-player /simultaneously/ throws one dice for you, if at least one *six* comes up, you have to fulfill your last task, which is:

Pick a quizzical question, ask a co-player to ask you that question and maybe you know the right answer!  Then you may proceed to your final square!

Congratulations!

Note: in this final stage a joker is not allowed.

If no *six* came up or your answer was wrong, the same procedure starts again when it’s your turn next time (*six* and question).

If that doesn’t work out the second time you have to go back to the second triangle in the middle and move on from there when it’s your turn again (the way as described before).

The game ends when the first person has reached his or her final square, with a little help from friends.

Note: with three or more players it’s fun to proceed, the winner is still involved in the process (asking questions, providing the date of birth, throwing a ‚six‘ possibly…)

***********************

Note: This is already a revised version of rules, but still:

There may be irregularities in the set of rules or in my description, maybe I overlooked something or there may happen surprises I didn’t foresee. For example: more quizzical questions might be needed. Please make your own rules! It’s fun!

“But the most wonderful thing of all, our highest achievement and the one thing for which I pray we will always be remembered, is stuffing wads of polyester into an anatomically incorrect, cartoonish ideal of one of nature's most fearsome predators for no other reason than to soothe a child.”

Rick Yancey, The Last Star 

www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/teddy-bear

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