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

It's Been 10 Years

The February sun is shining through these small 

window-quilts,

with these I celebrate a bit the fact 

that it's been 10 years this month 

since I started this blog,

this quilt-diary here.

I enjoyed doing this immensely,

still do,

and I hope it's the same with you 

when you come to visit me here.

:-)

February Star

Since most of us are forced (or willing, or able, or happy ...) to improvise things these days, I thought it would be a good idea to choose an improvised star for this month in 2021.

This one here is completely improvised.

I like the definitions given by the Cambridge Dictionary:

'a performance that is not practiced and that is invented by the performers'

'Improvisation is also the activity of making or doing something that you have not planned, using whatever you find.'

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/improvisation

But for me another aspect of improvisation is an important one: I am listening to whatever is going on around me and I find MY answer to that, and I let this flow into my impromptu activity. If there is a real 'flow' it can be a very rewarding process, 

and a lot of fun.

Happy February!

lots of snow around here this winter ...

Lavender

... filled with Provençal organically grown lavender,

just to bring a whiff of summer, a remembrance of warmth into the house, home, mind and heart.

In these lines below the German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 

finds the loveliest words for this:

Auch das ist Kunst, 

ist Gottes Gabe, 

aus ein paar sonnenhellen Tagen 

sich so viel Licht ins Herz zu tragen, 

dass, wenn der Sommer längst verweht, 

das Leuchten immer noch besteht. 

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

(1749 - 1832)

  

Leaves

These Leaves here found their places as a coaster,

 or as bookmarks,

one landed on a greeting card.

The books shown here are very lovely ones:

The Dutch House, by Ann Patchett, Bloomsbury, 2019

Blumen, 40 Meisterwerke von Dürer bis Dalí, von Celia Fisher, Reimer, 2012

January Star

 

"Bare branches of each tree

on this chilly January morn

look so cold so forlorn.

Gray skies dip ever so low

left from yesterday's dusting of snow.

Yet in the heart of each tree

waiting for each who wait to see

new life as warm sun and breeze will blow,

like magic, unlock springs sap to flow,

buds, new leaves, then blooms will grow."

-  Nelda Hartmann, January Morn 

 

"To read a poem in January is as lovely as to go for a walk in June."

-  Jean-Paul Sartre

I found these two lovely quotes here:

http://www.gardendigest.com/monjan.htm#Quotes

I wish you will have a sparkling, very joyful New Year!

Merry Christmas!

 

If you like: Curl up with a warm quilt and listen to Rami Malek, who reads the story "The Empty Pot" by Demi for you, and he does it in an adorable way:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZrmAd2rZbI

                                        Merry Christmas!

Teddy Bear of the Month: December

and something nice to read to go with him:

“The rapid nightfall of mid-December had quite beset the little village as they approached it on soft feet over a first thin fall of powdery snow. Little was visible but squares of a dusky orange-red on either side of the street, where the firelight or lamplight of each cottage overflowed through the casements into the dark world without. Most of the low latticed windows were innocent of blinds, and to the lookers-in from outside, the inmates, gathered round the tea-table, absorbed in handiwork, or talking with laughter and gesture, had each that happy grace which is the last thing the skilled actor shall capture--the natural grace which goes with perfect unconsciousness of observation. Moving at will from one theatre to another, the two spectators, so far from home themselves, had something of wistfulness

in their eyes as they watched a cat being stroked, a sleepy child picked up and huddled off to bed, or a tired man stretch and knock out his pipe on the end of a smouldering log.” 

― Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

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

Quilts by Bisa Butler

 

A friend told me about these, and I'm thrilled: 

Extraordinary, really fantastic quilts by Black artist Bisa Butler,

featured here, on this site by the Art Institute of Chicago, and there is some music, too, very wonderful:

https://www.artic.edu/highlights/31/bisa-butler-the-playlist

"Bisa Butler creates portraits that are singular and striking. Her works, intricately layered and vibrantly colored quilts, resurface and reimagine historical narratives of Black life." 

https://www.artic.edu/articles/858/the-people-of-bisa-butlers-portraits

 

... and here she talks about her work in a wonderful way:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_4gD1K3mZA&feature=youtu.be

 

 

Teddy Bear of the Month: November

“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