"The Aloha Quilt" by Jennifer Chiaverini

I've never been to Hawaii, but I read a wonderful book:

"The Aloha Quilt" by Jennifer Chiaverini. 

There she tells us everything about Hawaiian history, culture, the Aloha-spirit and Hawaiian Quilts and how they are made, all wrapped in  a lovely story about a woman searching for the right path to go ...and finding it.

This is what "Aloha" means:

"It has been said to you in greeting and in farewell, and I'm sure you've all heard that it also means love." 

(quote from the book)

Encouraged by the precise instructions given in the book I added my own touch and designed some little quilts - they are also shown in the dia-show about my small appliqué-quilts on the right hand side here . 

I'd never claim these quilts to be "Hawaiian Quilts", they are made with this technique and this attitude in mind and with profound admiration for what Hawaiian masters are able to create, but these here are typical only of me and my way to do things and cannot and should not copy this noble native art -  far from that.

However, with these small items I tried to capture a tiny part of this magical "Aloha"-spirit which is a main feature of a quilt done "Hawaiian Style" . 

Other, more tangible, characteristics are: 

A two-color appliqué design spreads out to the sides from the center. The pattern is created with a special technique of folding and cutting one piece of fabric which is then unfolded and appliquéd onto a piece of background fabric in a contrasting color.

The symmetrical patterns show flowers, leaves, animals or fruit and reflect the loving respect for nature felt by the maker.  A pattern is created originally and individually and is sometimes given as a precious gift to a friend - no patchwork, no blocks, no multicolored designs, no fixed traditional patterns.

The tiny quilting stitches  are done with yarn that matches exactly the color of the fabric and they follow the outline of the appliqué design (echo-quilting).

"No two quilts you create should be exactly alike....

This is the Hawaiian way. Everything is special and unique."

(quote from the book)

Salve!

“We lay aside letters never to read them again, and at last destroy them out of discretion, and so disappears the most beautiful, the most immediate breath of life, irrecoverably for ourselves and for others.” 

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Elective Affinities

http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/letters?page=2

Oh, please don't! What a pity to throw away a personal, hand-written letter!

Maybe it helps if such a letter comes with a small hand-crafted quilt?

Such a quilt being an item symbolizing the power of friendship and love?

Even if it is a VERY small one?

I took to making some of those, they are completely hand-crafted and consist of three layers of fabric, just like "real" quilts do. I am fond of  traditional patterns -  however, for this purpose I choose some which I can use without any templates. Thus the result is a slightly uneven, not so perfectly geometrically arranged little quilt - which is something I like! I think it gives the whole piece an extra touch of a  friendly and playful expression.

When finished I fix such a mini-quilt on a folded piece of fine natural-colored watercolor paper, the size of the card is then 12  x 17 cm or 4, 7" x  6,6".

Here are some more:

Ich finde diese Mini-Quilts eignen sich gut für Grußkarten und Briefe?

Diese Minis sind handgemacht  und bestehen genauso wie "richtige" Quilts aus drei Lagen Stoff. Ich orientiere mich hier oft an meinen geliebten traditionellen Mustern, allerdings benutze ich nur solche, die ich ohne Schnittmuster verwenden kann. Dies führt zu etwas ungeraden, nicht exakt geometrisch ausgerichteten Ergebnissen  - was ich ganz schön finde, es vermittelt einen etwas eher verspielten Eindruck.

Die fertigen Minis befestige ich dann auf einem gefalteten Bogen Aquarellpapier, 

die Größe der Karte ist dann 12 x 17 cm.

(in Goethe's home in Weimar)

2014-Quilt: January

This is my first block of a "2014"-Quilt. My plan is to design a block each month with red and natural-colored cotton and linen. It's all for myself because I have no idea where this will lead me to and if this will look good at all in the end. I just want to try out to design blocks without copying anything, although I know very well that all patterns have deep roots in the evolution of cultures all over the world and nothing comes without links to something that is already long since there.
The other thing is that working with two solid colors only is not familiar to me. There are contrasts to handle and I don't want to have too much sharpness in my designs. So I think the next block might have some smooth lines in it, don't know yet.
The size of each block is 24 x 24 cm,  so all 12 blocks plus the sashing could make a light quilt which possibly can be hung as a wallhanging or be used as a plaid. I am very curious how this will turn out! :-)
  

Happy New Year!

"Das Vergangene können wir nicht zurückrufen, 

über die Zukunft sind wir eher Meister, 

wenn wir klug und gut sind."

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I find it difficult to translate these beautiful, simple words into English, but I think what is meant is this:

While we can't bring back the past, we may master the future by being skillful and benevolent.

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

Patterns in the Snow by Simon Beck

Here is a special treat: 

These patterns are created by the British snow artist Simon Beck. He does it all with his snow boots... he makes all the exact calculations and then walks and walks for 10 hours and more and thus draws fantastic patterns on the the surface of a frozen lake for example, 

it's wonderful.

Here is more about him and his wonderful art:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0soQJxq6dKY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLbYCaGSN2o (with a comment in German)

This is his very interesting facebook site, where these snow pictures are from:

https://de-de.facebook.com/snowart8848

He uses quilt patterns, too! :-) The pattern above is a tumbling-block-pattern, and I love it!

Weimar Castle

I always love to find traditional quilt patterns in some other context, and here I found this lovely inlaid work in Weimar on the creaking wooden floor of the historic Castle: 

six pointed stars!

And this is the view of the lovely city, photographed  from a window in the Castle. My camera isn't always doing things the way I want them to be, so this image here didn't come out as a real clear picture, but to my delight it looks a bit like a historic postcard,  just right for this season?

Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childhood days, recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth, and transport the traveler back to his own fireside and quiet home!

Charles Dickens 

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_christmas.html

Christmas Tree for Animals

Isn't that a lovely idea? To choose a tree outside, on the street, in the garden or in a park or in the woods, and to turn it into a Christmas tree by decorating it with fruits and nuts, to give animals outside in the cold a special treat??

                                          " 'Sylvia,' he said suddenly, beckoning to her. 'Come take a look at this.'

She went to him and looked out the window. Just beyond the elms on the other side of the creek, she saw Agnes's Christmas tree, simply but beautifully adorned. As she watched, she detected movement, and suddenly a doe and fawn emerged from the woods and carefully picked their way through the crust that had formed on top of the snow. They approached the Christmas tree, and the doe stretched out her head to nibble a popcorn garland. Her fawn cautiously bit into an apple.

Sylvia's smile broadened as a flurry of motion heralded the arrival of a flock of chickadees. Soon other birds joined in the feast, and squirrels as well, busily harvesting the popcorn, fruits and nuts from the Christmas tree."

These lines are from the WONDERFUL book by Jennifer Chiaverini, "The Christmas Quilt", Simon & Schuster 2005

Happy Christmas Time!

Wearable Small Quilts

These are "real quilts": they consist of three layers of fabric, it's all cotton, handpieced and -quilted.

The "twig" has two little selfmade buttons and is 13 x 4 cm, 5,1" x 1,5",

the "flower" is 8 x 8 cm,  3,1" x 3,1"

They are fixed from inside with a special pin.

Windmill Quilt

I just finished this quilt. It is 1,38 x 2.04 m (1,5 x 2,2 yards), handmade, the batting is a warm 70%cotton-30%polyester-fleece and the back is a soft lavender cotton piece.

I think in a room it is really a point of energy, it's just what a windmill does, it is continually taking up the winds and is creating power and warmth with them, and the winds blow from all directions here... :-)

Maya Angelou

http://mayaangelou.com

Maya Angelou receives the American National Book Award today. 

What a wonderful lady she is!!

She delivered this fabulous poem in June 1995, at the 50th anniversary commemoration of the United Nations.

A Brave and Startling Truth

We, this people, on a small and lonely planet
Traveling through casual space
Past aloof stars, across the way of indifferent suns
To a destination where all signs tell us
It is possible and imperative that we learn
A brave and startling truth
And when we come to it
To the day of peacemaking
When we release our fingers
From fists of hostility
And allow the pure air to cool our palms

When we come to it
When the curtain falls on the minstrel show of hate
And faces sooted with scorn are scrubbed clean
When battlefields and coliseum
No longer rake our unique and particular sons and daughters
Up with the bruised and bloody grass
To lie in identical plots in foreign soil

When the rapacious storming of the churches
The screaming racket in the temples have ceased
When the pennants are waving gaily
When the banners of the world tremble
Stoutly in the good, clean breeze

When we come to it
When we let the rifles fall from our shoulders
And children dress their dolls in flags of truce
When land mines of death have been removed
And the aged can walk into evenings of peace
When religious ritual is not perfumed
By the incense of burning flesh
And childhood dreams are not kicked awake
By nightmares of abuse

When we come to it
Then we will confess that not the Pyramids
With their stones set in mysterious perfection
Nor the Gardens of Babylon
Hanging as eternal beauty
In our collective memory
Not the Grand Canyon
Kindled into delicious color
By Western sunsets

Nor the Danube, flowing its blue soul into Europe
Not the sacred peak of Mount Fuji
Stretching to the Rising Sun
Neither Father Amazon nor Mother Mississippi who, without favor,
Nurture all creatures in the depths and on the shores
These are not the only wonders of the world

When we come to it
We, this people, on this minuscule and kithless globe
Who reach daily for the bomb, the blade and the dagger
Yet who petition in the dark for tokens of peace
We, this people on this mote of matter
In whose mouths abide cankerous words
Which challenge our very existence
Yet out of those same mouths
Come songs of such exquisite sweetness
That the heart falters in its labor
And the body is quieted into awe

We, this people, on this small and drifting planet
Whose hands can strike with such abandon
That in a twinkling, life is sapped from the living
Yet those same hands can touch with such healing, irresistible tenderness
That the haughty neck is happy to bow
And the proud back is glad to bend
Out of such chaos, of such contradiction
We learn that we are neither devils nor divines

When we come to it
We, this people, on this wayward, floating body
Created on this earth, of this earth
Have the power to fashion for this earth
A climate where every man and every woman
Can live freely without sanctimonious piety
Without crippling fear

When we come to it
We must confess that we are the possible
We are the miraculous, the true wonder of this world
That is when, and only when
We come to it. 

Maya Angelou

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-brave-and-startling-truth

Night and Day

A day without sunshine is like, you know, night.

Steve Martin

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

Simplicity

Recently I had been talking to a lovely person who at one point said to me: " I like your quilted things very much, but it seems to be so difficult,  even if I could muster the time and patience - I could never make anything like that!!"  But NO!!! EVERYONE who is able to use his or her hands freely and who feels attracted to quilting and patchwork and is willing to invest some time and patience is able to produce a quilt or a smaller patchwork object!! 
So this is for her (and everyone else who is interested): 
All you need is simple everyday- material: fabrics, yarn, pins, an iron, a needle and (triangle) ruler and scissors, and for tracing templates: a pen (a dark one, and a white pencil for dark fabrics, also: the pen should not leave nasty stains on the top of the fabrics, especially when it comes to washing) , and off we go!! Everything else is optional!! Things can be so simple and therefore they often possess a very special charm!!

Here is the picture of a template for a simple square. The loveliest things can be produced with a pattern of assembled squares!! For the template you can use a simple piece of cardboard. However, when I know I will use the template often I use laminated paper, it's more durable.

The template is traced on the wrong sides of the pieces of fabric I wish to use (some seam allowance is necessary),  I secure the ends of every line I need to sew with pins, and now I just go along the marked lines, using a simple needle, strong enough yarn and a straight-forward stitch, or the machine, then I iron the seams  ...

... and a lovely piece of patchwork is produced!!

For example now: make a lovely down-to earth-cushion! There is not even any quilting required! Just assemble as many patches as you need, fold the piece, sew together along the edges - right side turned inwards -, leave a gap, then turn it, iron it, fill the form with anything you have at hand, I often use scraps or a woolen blanket which is no longer needed, close the gap: and here is a sweet little pillow! Or even a larger one!!

If you used the machine and narrow stitches you can cut freely through the assembled patches and probably you wish to form a cat-pillow like this one below. Tip: cut into the seam allowance along the curved parts of the seam several times (not too close to the seam itself), so that the fabric lies more smoothly when the form is turned to the right side.

I also love such simple placemats or wallhangings. For them you can go like this: you back the patchwork-piece with another piece of fabric, you sew them together along the sidelines - again: wrong side up -, leave a gap, turn the form, iron it, fill it with a made-to-measure thin piece of fabric, close the gap, and apply some simple quilting stitches to put the three layers of fabric firmly together.

This is important, too, I think: Do not worry overmuch about accuracy!  It's lovely when all the corners meet, but you will see that although you worked carefully, they sometimes just don't, and they don't always HAVE to! Again: I think a lot of charm lies in the individually crafted things, sometimes even more so when they are not perfectly manufactured.

"Simplicity in character, in manners, in style; in all things the supreme excellence is simplicity."

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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

For this wallhanging I modified the "Modified Spool"-pattern even further by cutting the spools in halves. It's all hand sewing and -quilting, dimensions are about 100 x 100 cm, 39" x 39".

I said it so often here and I can only repeat it again: I really love this fine and rare, traditional pattern, its combination of straight and curved lines, of right angles and twisted mirror images, of structure and spontaneity! 

"You must plan to be spontaneous."

David Hockney

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