Yellow

My tiny studio (yay!!!) is still being partitioned off, and all my fabric is spread all over the house while the great bedroom re-organisation takes place so I don't have a project on the go at the moment. On the other hand, I'm spending a lot of time just thinking and looking and making plans. 

I was out of the city this afternoon for an appointment and it's a beautiful day so I just had to pull over onto the verge and go for a walk.

The rape flowers have a disconcerting scent - it's nice, but it's definitely pollen-y with an undercurrent of wee.

The broom just smells glorious.

Quilts for Nepal?

I received this by email and checked with Tikki that it was okay to post it here - just in case anyone has a spare quilt to send:-)   In my travelling days I went to Nepal - a beautiful and welcoming country, and it's just awful what has happened there.

From Tikki Patchwork in Kew Gardens URGENT APPEAL FOR NEPALThrough my daughter's school we have managed to organise space on board a flight to Nepal next week on Wednesday - this is an amazing opportunity to help, but there is very little time! The following items are needed:Warm adult clothing Blankets and Quilts Tents and sleeping bags If you can donate any of these items, please bring or post them to Tikki by Tuesday 12th May by 2pm and I will make sure they get to the collection point that afternoon in time for the aid flight. Your help will no doubt be much appreciated! Thank you in advance. Tiina at Tikki Best wishes from Tikki Patchwork 293 Sandycombe Road, Kew Gardens, West London (Surrey), TW9 3LU, England, UK

Big News

I have something to tell you!

As you know I was faced with the tempting thought of turning our junk/guest room into a workroom for me or on the other hand giving it up to Sprog 1 so that she could have a bedroom of her own.

Obviously I did the decent thing:-)   But then an opportunity came up that was so perfect that I had to jump on it, although to be truthful I dithered about it so long that it almost passed me by and then jumped just in time!

I live in what was once quite an industrial part of the city, and not too far from me is a factory which has been empty for a while.  The owners have decided to rent it out as an arts hub, with studio spaces, offices and a cafe/gallery/performance space - and I have rented a studio!

I've looked enviously at other people's workrooms for so long - if you are like me and have to make things at one end of the dining table I'm sure you understand my excitement!  The bit I have rented is a small space - and I mean really small - which I will be able to pay for by carrying on with some of my other work, and initially I'm only committed to it for a very short rental period so I can treat it as an experiment while I see if I can actually make anything that anyone would want to buy.

I haven't moved in yet, because the partitions are still going up, but should be in mid May.  There are girders too!

Four in Art 2: Haiku

This year I am so enjoying being part of Four in Art - a group of quilters making small (12x12") quilts inspired by an annual theme.   This year's theme is 'Literature'  and we are revealing our quilts for the second quarter today (you can see my first quarter quilt here).   Each quilter interprets the theme in their own way and in their own style, and it's really interesting to see how they all differ, so please do visit the others:

Betty at her flickr page
Elizabeth at OPQuilt.com
Jennifer at her flickr page
Nancy at  Patchwork Breeze
Rachel at The Life of Riley
Simone at Quiltalicious
Susan at PatchworknPlay

My quilt is called Haiku.  It is inspired by a poem by one of the most famous haiku poets, Basho:

An old pond

A frog jumps in

The sound of water

I wanted to make a very simple quilt which reflects the deceptively simple form of the haiku and the wealth of meaning in it. Some of this meaning is contained in cultural and literary references which are lost to non-Japanese readers, but we can still understand some of the message and find the poem beautiful.

I think that the best literature can be appreciated on many different levels - it should be possible to take something away even if only that it was a good story.

The little square, in lacquer red, refers to the chop or seal used as a signature in Japan.  I wanted it to look roughly woodcut, and used fused appliqué to make it look as if it was stamped on.  It has no readable meaning - but it is an essential part of the composition.

The quilt is made of silk and the overlapping concentric circles are quilted with Japanese sashiko thread.

Haiku
12 x 12 inches
Sashiko thread quilting on silk

[updated to change generic links to ones for the relevant posts]