Bookmarks

This is another bookmark I have designed, a candle, to match the hours of reading in the colder season which is coming up now. And this book above, "Our Souls at Night", the last book Kent Haruf has written, is really heartwarming, I really enjoyed reading it.

yes!  

These words I found here: 

https://www.pinterest.de/whitescandles82/candle-party-quote/

And here is an overview of the bookmarks I have designed so far, it's really fun to make those!

some with typical American quilting motives:

some bookmarks for small and big kids:

houses:

some crazies:

different motives:

Hawaiian:

some flowers:

some done in the style of Civil War Era quilting:

a set of similar bookmarks:

... and that's what it's all about:

I wish you'll have a good time reading your favorite books!

The book shown here is: 
"A Cup of Tea",
by Amy Ephron,
lovely!

“Are you upset little friend? Have you been lying awake worrying? Well, don't worry...I'm here. The flood waters will recede, the famine will end, the sun will shine tomorrow, and I will always be here to take care of you.” 

Charles M. Schulz

https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/209672.Charles_M_Schulz

"Give me juicy autumnal fruit,

ripe and red from the orchard.

(Give me the splendid silent sun)"

Walt Whitman, The Complete Poems

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

Kazuo Ishiguro: Nobel Prize in Literature

Kazuo Ishiguro receives the Nobel Prize in Literature this year!

I am so glad, I love this author, and "The Remains of the Day" is one of the books in my life 

I hold most dear!

Here are two pictures of a "Literary Quilt" I once made , it's a wallhanging, to mirror some of the thoughts of this incredible story. I also love dearly the movie with Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson.

 - picture above has been taken by Arndt Laude, photographer in Hamburg, Germany, 

www.alaude.de - 

pattern in an old quilt

Baloo Bookmarks

"And that is how Mowgli was entered into the Seeone Wolf-Pack for the price of a bull and on Baloo's good word."

Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Book

How much I love "The Jungle Book"!
(... and I had been very surprised to learn that the book is telling quite serious tales, like fables, and in that differs a lot from the 
Disney animated movie.)

Here are some bookmarks I made for kids of all ages, in remembrance of Baloo the good Bear from the "Jungle Book".

"The man's cub - the man's cub?" he said. "I speak for the man's cub. There is no harm in a man's cub.  I have no gift of words, but I speak the truth. Let him run with the Pack, and be entered with the others. I myself will teach him."

Blue Flower Wallhanging

(wallhanging, hand sewn and hand quilted, three layers of thin cotton, 

63 x 63 cm, 24,8" x 24,8")

I got the idea for this design when I was leafing through my sketch-book,

I stopped at the picture of this beautiful intricate quilt, I don't know anymore where I found this, at some point I had cut out and glued in this beautiful depiction, but I don't remember any details.

My piece is not nearly as complex, but it is what I wanted it to be, so I'm very ok with the result.

 

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!