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

Books & Quilts

 

Books and quilts, they go so well together. So there are some stories hidden in this small quilt here which covers a wicker chest, one topic here is - for example -  about where the fabric pieces come from : several old Levi's jeans (worn by different persons, including myself), pieces from a dress I bought at a wonderful second-hand-shop in Madison/Wisconsin several years ago and fabrics I received as a gift.  Plus, this quilt started as a totally different project before it turned into the object which can be seen in this picture. Plus, I always sew my quilts by hand, but this time I did all the sewing with a machine and only did the quilting by hand, and the reason why is a different story again.

Someone said, the universe is not made of atoms, but of tiny stories, I find that is very true.

Teddy Bear of the Month: October

... and here is a lovely October-quote which I just found:

“After the keen still days of September, the October sun filled the world with mellow warmth...The maple tree in front of the doorstep burned like a gigantic red torch. The oaks along the roadway glowed yellow and bronze. The fields stretched like a carpet of jewels, emerald and topaz and garnet. Everywhere she walked the color shouted and sang around her...In October any wonderful unexpected thing might be possible.” 

― Elizabeth George Speare, The Witch of Blackbird Pond 

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

 

International Children's Day in Germany Today

 

Die beste Entwicklung, die ein Mensch nehmen kann, ist, 

dass er das Kind bleibt, das er ist.

Peter Handke (*1942), österr. Schriftsteller  

- Quelle: Die Zeit, 3.5.2012

https://www.zitate.de/autor/Handke%2C+Peter

Teddy Bear of the Month: September

 

- a. patchwork teddy bear, some of these fabric pieces here had been in my collection for decades and now seem to fit in here ok, when I look at this bear he seems to be an "experienced" bear to me - 

International Cat Day

 

“If you want to concentrate deeply on some problem, and especially some piece of writing or paper-work, you should acquire a cat. Alone with the cat in the room where you work ... the cat will invariably get up on your desk and settle placidly under the desk lamp ... The cat will settle down and be serene, with a serenity that passes all understanding. And the tranquility of the cat will gradually come to affect you, sitting there at your desk, so that all the excitable qualities that impede your concentration compose themselves and give your mind back the self-command it has lost. You need not watch the cat all the time. Its presence alone is enough. The effect of a cat on your concentration is remarkable, very mysterious.” 

― Muriel Spark, A Far Cry from Kensington

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/cats?page=6

It's International Cat Day today, and yes:

Here are some more cats 

(they are here to accompany a person while going through the adventure of reading a book, as a bookmark):

Teddy Bear of the Month: August

“Once a bear has been loved by a human being, 

its expression is forever marked” 

– Jama Kim Rattigan 

 http://www.someonesentyouagreeting.com/?p=2814

“We stitch together quilts of meaning 

to keep us warm and safe, 

with whatever patches of beauty and utility 

we have on hand.” 

Anne Lamott

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/quilt

Cushions with Knitted Squares

Teddy Bears of the Month: July

Bookmarks with Knitted Parts

Bookmarks with knitted parts -

I had been trying to find out whether my hand-knitted pieces can add a touch of welcomed unruliness to the order which is commonly found in a patchwork-pattern,

and I think, yes, they do.

And, I feel that this goes well with writing and reading a book.

These bookmarks lie in a book I'm reading at the moment,

it's the very VERY fascinating book by Deepak Chopra

with the title

"Metahuman", 

Penguin Random House, 2019

Teddy Bears of the Month: June