Only One Time

A simple utility quilt I made. 

It's a charm quilt, which means each fabric is used only one time, 

one, however, is used twice - but no, the cornerstones don't count.

 And I don't think, anyone can find the matching pair on a photo, and I won't tell of course.

(It's not the bright red-orange one, this is not THAT simple!)

;-)

It's a light quilt, the batting and the backing are thin cotton sheets.

It is meant to be used as a tabletop quilt for a dinner table.

Everything about this quilt is quite plain, although of course it all takes some time to work on it from start to finish. 

These are pure cotton pieces, sewn together by hand, 

it's a simple one-patch-pattern with triangles, 

the hand- quilting goes just along the seams, there is a simple label at the back.

 This is a piece which is robust and uncomplicated, it can be washed easily. It's meant to be used often so that it will assume some "patina" hopefully in the future and tell stories about many happy hours spent at this table.

Well, come to think of it: this quilt already tells some stories, because I can tell where the pieces come from, who gave me the fabric and when and where or at which place I found a certain piece…,

and yes, to me each piece is important and cannot be replaced by another one without altering the character of the entire quilt.

This combination here exists only this one time! 

I so much love that.

And here is something nice to read about charm quilts:

http://www.womenfolk.com/quilting_history/charm.htm

"Patchwork Feeling"

"Honor looked at her daughter and had for a moment that patchwork feeling of being locked into place, and fitting."

Tracy Chevalier in her magnificent book "The Last Runaway".

This book tells the story of an English Quaker woman who emigrates to America in 1850 and who needs to find her place in a new country, community and family, while she is trying to help runaway slaves crossing Ohio on their way to Canada. I love the way Tracy Chevalier tells her story and I love how she also describes the role of quilts in everyday life at that time. I had been especially intrigued by her portraits of English quilts, American quilts and African American quilts, she wonderfully outlines what they have in common (not that much!) and what their specific qualities are. A great read!

Kitchen Quilts / Potholder

Maybe I found a possibility to combine

a motif (house) and an abstract pattern ( I so much love the traditional ones!),

and the possibility of decorating a place with a lovely and not so large quilt and the practical purpose of actually using it,

all that in a room at home which like no other reflects the characteristics of a quilt: 

warmth, hospitality, cheerfulness, the nurturing of body and soul: the kitchen.

"A kitchen is the heart of a home."

in: "The Quilter's Kitchen", by Jennifer Chiaverini.

I make these kitchen quilts a bit larger than potholders usually are,

mine are 30,5cm x 30,5cm/ about 14" x 14",

and people tell me they like this size when they use them as a potholder, 

especially when they handle larger objects in the kitchen.

The batting is a polyester fleece which is thick enough to deal with heat but not so thick that you can't hold and fold it comfortably.

I also quilt the lines of a star above the "door" of the "house",
because I wish that the home where such a little quilt is hanging 
is under a lucky star!

So, I will make more of these and see…

"They could only imagine what they would find within the quilter's kitchen the next day when they resumed their work - and the delicious flavors and exquisite quilt blocks their discoveries would inspire."

(Jennifer Chiaverini, "The Quilter's Kitchen", a fine book with lots of recipes and ideas for lovely quilt blocks.)

Cats

"What greater gift than the love of a cat."

Charles Dickens

www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/cats

"Yet, for all its beauty, there is something secretive about a quilt. Within its many layers and hidden stitches, a little mystery resides. And long may the mystery remain."

Country Quilts, Hearst Books, New York 1992

Street Fair

… to anyone who came to my stand at the "Blue Mile"- street fair at Weimar nearly two weeks ago,

it was such a lovely experience for me! I enjoyed the nice conversations and the fun we shared! 

And I will always do it again the way I had: no price tags attached, that makes the whole process of "Giving" and "Receiving" much more colorful, rich and thoughtful. I had an open money box on my table and no, it didn't happen that someone helped himself, just the opposite, in the end - very late at night when at last the music stopped and everyone in my alley had gone to bed - I checked and counted and it so happened that my guests at my stand had been very generous. "Generous" is a term here which must be seen from an individual perspective: I - for example - had been surprised and delighted that so many kids came to my table and liked my things, and of course they came with their pocket money and they were thinking hard what to give me back for a mouse or a teddy or a bookmark… they often went into negotiations with their parents and I loved how considerate they were and how they wanted to do it right and to be fair to me, what of course they were, completely, just by taking the whole thing seriously. I truly loved to see that.

Other persons, adults, wanted to know exactly how I work, what the different steps in the process of completing a quilt are, they even took with them a paper I had prepared with some information… and then they regarded a quilt of mine (I only offered small ones and smaller quilted objects) not only as some finished item, but also as the result of an individual process and they realized the story and tradition behind it. And rewarded my work as such.

The best thing would be if someone got inspired and left my stand with a fresh idea!

I was so busy that I didn't have the time to take many pictures, and those I have are not of good quality,

plus I'm careful here to not put anyone as a person directly on the internet.

But here are some snapshots.

I had been so blessed to have some African drummers a few steps away from me, they really gave us all a lot of energy and drive!

Boxes

Some boxes I made.

These are six little quilts each which are also stabilized by a piece of cardboard, before they are sewn together to form a box.

On top is an appliquéd motif and a self-designed button.

I love that with such an object I have the possibility to use all kinds of patterns, and that it is ultimately a piece of cooperation:

only when the owner puts something nice into it the box fulfills its purpose and is complete.

So each box will become a truly unique item in the owner's hand.

It's all blue what I work on at the moment, because we'll have a street festival next week in Weimar, Germany, where I live now for the most part of a year.

The slogan of the fair will be "Blue Mile":

residents and shop-owners organize lots of fun-activities, but everything is supposed to be blue:

clothes, food, champagne, things offered at stands ...

I will have a table where I offer some of my quilted objects which of course all have to be at least somewhat blue.

The interesting thing will be something most people warn me of:

I don't sell my pieces the usual way with price-tags attached, instead I will ask anyone who might be interested in receiving one of my items to determine by himself/herself what he or she finds appropriate to give me back in return.

That might be some money, perhaps also something else what might be at hand:

a gift-certificate for a café (there is such a lovely café opposite my apartment), or a book which by chance is carried in a bag on this day or whatever.

I'm curious what will happen then. I think I will have some very great stories to tell!

Speaking of stories and books:

I never read such a lovely explanation why reading a book is such a fine and exquisite activity as in "History of the Rain" by Niall Williams, in my copy it's on page 62. 

The part I mean begins with "I love the feel of a book. I love the touch and smell and sound of the pages." I love what is described next! Maybe you might want to read it by yourself, it's in chapter 7, it's a wonderful book (and a very special one) altogether. Lots of extraordinary sentences like:

"But to get to where you're going you have to first go backwards. That's directions in Ireland, it's also T.S. Eliot. "

I wish everyone will have lovely summer days!

Higher still and higher 

From the earth thou springest, 

Like a cloud of fire; 

The blue deep thou wingest, 

And singing still dost soar and soaring ever singest.

Percy Bysshe Shelley
(1792 - 1822)

http://quotes.yourdictionary.com/blue#OFEPWRJu5vDwrzHU.99

Log Cabin Book as a Bookmark

With quilted bookmarks I combine my love for books and my love for quilts.

Books and quilts have so much in common, I think!

Don't they both tell stories, 

aren't they both a product of individual manual and intellectual work,

don't they both benefit from the richness of history and tradition,
- and don't they always go a step further,

don't they both want to make you feel good and to inspire you,

and isn't it one of the highest pleasures to enjoy a book while wrapped in a handmade quilt?

Here I tried to go a step further:

I use the most famous and the quintessential design of a quilt pattern - the "Log Cabin" - to outline a book in an object that can to be used in and with a book: a bookmark.

I think that the Log Cabin motif is a pretty good one to go with the process of reading a book: 

the yellow or red center squares are always meant to represent the light and warmth of the hearth in a cabin, which shines out to the person outside and beckons to him or her to come home or to be a welcomed guest.

A book does just the same to me!

And aren't the best stories told at a fireplace or some other place that feels like a warm and cozy place to relax?

The light and dark shades in a Log Cabin quilt are meant to remind you of the sunny and shady sides of the house, which are both welcomed depending of the time of day and year,

and by the same token there is no good story without light and shadow, and:

the light that comes with the wisdom of a good story is always able to illuminate brightly each and every darkness! 

This here is some kind of a Log Cabin pattern, there are several versions and variations, this is just one possibility to make a block:

For my book in this bookmark I used some characteristics such as bright and dark scraps in a construction with "bricks", and a yellow or red center square, and I tried to use that all in a form that hopefully resembles a book…

I had some trouble with the geometry and the perspective here, but that's what I had been able to do so far.

Here is a very good article on the Log Cabin pattern:

http://www.womenfolk.com/quilt_pattern_history/logcabin.htm

The book shown here is by Jennifer Chiaverini,
"Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker"

"Damascus Gate" by Frank Stella

Frank Stella, Damascus Gate: Variation1, 1969-70, acrylic on canvas

I by chance came across this object, I found a picture of it in a magazine, 

and I find it so very very fascinating: 

the title, the history behind it, the interlaced geometric forms, the colors, I completely fell in love with this piece.

So I made a patchwork - block, trying to capture these lines a bit…

I thought of gates that are open and gates that are closed when I made it.

* a small cushion which shows a nine-patch-pattern with triangles*

Small Cushions

These little ones are just to celebrate some patterns I love:

"Hole in the Barndoor", "Star" (I think it's a variation of a "Welsh Star"),
 "Flying Geese", 

"Maple Leaf", "Amish Diamond"…

Happy Spring!

I absolutely love this pattern,

its name is "Sunburst".

… in the kitchen...

"We owe much to the fruitful meditation of our sages, but a sane view of life is, after all,
elaborated mainly in the kitchen."

Joseph Conrad

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

.

… two hearts in a basket with other items…

Happy Easter!

"Easter is…

Joining in a birdsong,

Eying an early sunrise,

Smelling yellow daffodils,

Unbolting windows and doors,

Skipping through meadows,

Cuddling newborns,

Hoping, believing,

Reviving spent life,

Inhaling fresh air,

Sprinkling seeds along furrows,

Tracking in the mud.

Easter is the soul's first taste of spring."

Richelle E.Goodrich,

Making Wishes: Quotes, Thoughts & a Little Poetry for Every Day of the Year

http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/easter?page=1

Spring has returned!

Spring has returned.

The Earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.

Rainer Maria Rilke

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

"And many surprises I bring"...

I come when the children are sleeping,

And many surprises I bring;

As long as no child is peeking,

I'll leave my tokens of spring,

I'll leave my tokens of spring.

I come when the children are sleeping,

Hiding eggs in each cranny and nook;

And then quick as a wink, I'm leaping

Right back into my storybook,

Right back into my storybook.

(From: Youth's Companion, Music by: Wm. Luton Wood, adapted by: Terry Kluytmans)

www.kididdles.com/lyrics/s135.html 

These are Mini-Quilts, a piece of magnetic foil is attached to the back, so that they can be used as magnets at the fridge or so.

Spring is coming...

... and the birds are singing in the morning!

This one is pinned at the door of my fridge -

(it has a piece of magnetic foil at its back).