Spring

... has finally arrived, with three days of warm weather. But there have been signs along the way -- amid the rain, the green-leafing of trees, with drifts of cow parsley beneath -and chestnuts in blossomah yes lots of blossomdrifted into guttersAnd the odd thundery hailstorm!

Bluebell woods

THE most gorgeous thing about spring, and England, is the bluebell woods. Lately I have walked in them -been photographed in them (dressed for mud underfoot and the possibility of rainstorms)and come upon them unexpectedly while driving -
Though their blueness doesn't come through properly in photographs, perhaps they look their best when rain darkens the trunks of the beech trees --
There are even bluebells in central London -

London Quilters exhibition

London Quilters currently has 64 members (many of whom are named Margaret) -- many if not most members had a piece in the exhibition. These shots from opening night will give you an idea of the range of work on show.I didn't get the chance, at the opening, to match all the quilts with their makers, but recognize Margaret Garvey's bold curves --Size ranges from double-bed size, through "wall quilt",to miniature -On the right, a double-sided quilt - and bottom left, a first-ever quilt, conveying the joy and excitement of discovering P&Q -Bottom left, some journal quilts from the five LQs who took part in Contemporary Quilt's challenge last year. Top right, Margaret Scholey-Hill's three-panel hanging incorporates samples of Afrian fabrics from the 1950s -
The men at the opening all commented how much they liked this quilt, made by Margaret Mavay for her husband --
My "Ginkgo Gold" looks happy in the corner with its new friends. The show continues till 19 June at Swiss Cottage Library, 88 Avenue Road, London NW3 3HA
Open Mon & Thurs 10-7; Tues, Weds, Fri 10-6; Sat 10-5; Sunday 1 June 11-4. Closed Bank Holiday Monday 26 May.

A breakthrough, of sorts

After waiting for repairs for about eight months, this dark purple skirt bought in last summer's sales now has been shortened and has its zip replaced. That was somewhat traumatic, as I hadn't sewn in an invisible zipper for, oh, about 20 years. And you forget how! But thanks to a variety of instructions on the internet, and a timely discussion on the UK Sewing group, I bit the bullet and did the whole thing in less than an hour. After all that time getting round to it...

Its first outing was to the opening of London Quilters exhibition, of which more later.

Kitchen thoughts

This month the theme of the Abstract Challenge is kitchen. I am in my element here! But first a little story...

Once upon a time an energetic young woman, knowing no different because of being brought up in a home that emphasised good food and hospitality, spent a lot of time in the kitchen cooking for her husband and his guests. She had other interests too, which were less valued by her husband (and probably the guests, if they even knew about them). There came a time when she longed for a room in which to pursue those interests - to be able to leave the sewing maching out and the ironing board up, for instance. After all, the husband had had his "ivory tower", the big book-lined study, all along; surely one of the bedrooms could become hers? "Goodness no," said the husband; "your room is the kitchen."
Now in my own flat the kitchen is one wall of the big living room, designed to fit into that space, and built by a very considerate carpenter called John who once studied at Hornsey School of Art. I try to keep the counters clear and the sink shiny -- but don't cook much these days. When my son comes over and I'm not at work (he sometimes brings his books and computer and studies here, to get away from the temptations of his own home) we cook lunch together, usually using a recipe from one of the BBC Good Food "101 recipes" books.

Things I love in the kitchen are the blue countertops ("blueberry"); the way the cupboards go right to the ceiling, even though I can't reach the top layer without a chair; the draining rack over the sink, which stores the plates; the 25 white knobs on the cupboards and drawers; the tall cupboard beside the sink, which stores my ladder - and the symbolically empty cupboard above it; the yellow cups hanging from a shelf and the red tumblers on the shelf above them; the mugs hanging cheerfully, each with its history; the shiny coffeepots; the yellow teapot; the embroidered cuckoo clock behind the door, made by my mother --- better stop, this list is getting too long ... You can see there's plenty to use in the abstract challenge.
And thoughts of kitchens lead on to thoughts of recipes. Maybe 10 years ago, as part of an illustration course, I made a little book with the recipe for Blackberry Vinegar*. And then made a textile piece - the recipe became a series of potholders. The idea and drawings were done in about 5 minutes - they came in a big rush, out of "nowhere" - don't you love it when that happens?

*Blackberry Vinegar
Pick lots of blackberries.
Put them in a bowl. Cover with [white] vinegar. Let them sit 9 days.
Strain the juice. (Old tights are useful for this.)
Measure juice into pan. Add an equal amount of sugar.Boil 5 mins.
Bottle. Keep in a cool place.
To serve: dilute to taste with hot, cold, or fizzy water.

Journal quilts again

Here are a couple I made earlier - above, trying to convey the pleasurable feeling of warm soapy washing-up water; and below, a rainstorm -
The rainstorm started with a monoprint on the splodgy dyed fabric (a black dye that separated out into component colours), and the grasses are two different threads on the top layer, rather than the colour being changed by the dark overlay. And you're right, I should have been more careful with getting the gold piece straight....

Splodge

Wanting to use the lovely shiny old rayon threads found on the March Regional Day bring&buy table, I tried discharging some black fabric - also from the bring&buy - but the bleach splodged out of control. Never mind, artists do something and then respond to that, don't they - so I stitched round the shapes so as to see where to stitch - the rayon threads were being used in the bobbin, and the stitching on the wadding did help with placing the colours. It was very therapeutic to run the machine back and forth, back and forth, and to keep adding more colours till the entire thing was covered - but I'm not at all keen on the result, hence the small picture -
Even so, I've had several thoughts about how to do it "better" next time.... Still have quite a bit of the thread left. The outsides were rather dusty but underneath the thread is astonishingly vivid. I'm enjoying rescuing it.

World gone mad?

Marketing magazine reports that this luxury burger will be available in selected upmarket central London locations. It will contain wagyu beef and foie gras (I hope they do something about the bun). Burger King wants to show that it's more upmarket than McDonald's.

In a slightly less imperfect world, BK would donate the profits from those burgers to Food Aid.

However we can all donate rice - and improve our vocabularies - at www.freerice.com

Happy list

This weekend the Times published a Rich List, and the Independent published a Happy List - which is a lot more relevant to most of us. It consists of 100 people who make Britain a better and a happier place to live - and makes cheerful reading. It includes Britain's oldest man and the inventor of the wind-up radio, as well as founders of charities -- and artists, who fall into the "pleasure" category.
In its "Happy facts", the Independent says: "Giving to charity not only assists others, it also helps you to feel better about yourself, research has found. A Canadian study of how people spent their company bonuses, published in 'Science' magazine, reported that those who gave some or all of it to charity or to others had greater feelings of well-being than those who spent it on themselves."

Britain is known for its volunteer culture. "Some 27% of Britons regularly volunteer with a formal organisation, charity or local group. According to data published by the Institute for Volunteering Research, the causes that benefit most are: education – schools, colleges, universities (31%); religion (24%); and sports, exercise or "health and disability" (both 22%). The institute adds: "The largest proportions of activities were: 'raising, handling money' (65%) and 'organising, helping run an event' (50%)." The most active regular volunteers are 16- to 24-year-olds (43%), followed by 55- to 64-year-olds (42%), and the over-65s (41%). Women are more likely to volunteer than men."

And if you're wondering about the picture, the tulip is called "Happy Hour".

Two bags

Yesterday morning I was able to devise a pattern for and make this yellow bag (love that junglacious fabric!). The pocket in the lining is a separate panel, folded back on itself to make a "seamless" pocket. The handles are formed around 3 layers of wadding, and the bag has a layer of wadding, lightly stitched. It's reassuringly solid, and the whole thing took a couple of hours. There was time to find fabric and cut out pieces for the April BQL bag:Sewing it took a surprising three hours - the handles, gusset, and body are quilted onto the wadding. And the lining has three pockets. The half-circles at the base of the handles are sewn on by hand. The fabric came from the Gambia, some time ago, and was a gift from Ingrid. This bag is big enough to be seriously heavy when it's full.

Quoting Thurber

"Let us not look back in anger or forward in fear, but around in awareness." - James Thurber I'm surprised to see that Thurber said this. His subtle cartoons and blobby people are intriguing insights into the human condition, and his memories of working on The New Yorker magazine make good reading. Not to mention all his other writing, which I now have the urge to re-read.

You can read "The Night the Bed Fell" here.

In my search for some Thurber images, this art lexicon sight nearly distracted me: http://www.artlex.com/ -- here's a thurberesque illustration of contour lines:

The caption is: All right, have it your own way -- you heard a seal barking."

The past comes back to haunt you

(Or, the subconscious influence of unexpected good fortune ...)

Looking for a different bit of information, I was surprised to come across the Spring 2004 newsletter on the London Quilters website, and see that I'd written this - which might explain my fascination with buying "interesting" men's shirts in charity shops:

"Lucky Raffle Ticket by Margaret Cooter

"A few meetings ago I won a prize in the raffle, and want to take this opportunity to thank the unknown London Quilter who donated that prize. It was a book, "Traditional Quilts from Around the World" by Miranda Innes, and it's a delightful book. Published in 1992, it’s still in print, and if you are a traditional quilter or interested in historical quilts, this book should be in your library. It would be a good present for someone who's just discovered quilts and wants to get going on a medium-sized project.

"The book centres on "18 easy patchwork, quilting and appliqué projects to make by machine" - but don't let the thought of yet more projects put you off (after all, who needs more UFOs??) - that said, the instructions look to be clear and complete, and the projects eminently manageable, even for the time challenged among us. It's as a reference book that this book comes into its own. The sections introducing each of the projects contain a two-page spread with a succinct exposé of the art form and several sumptuous photos of examples. These circle the globe: Hawaiian appliqué, Ghanaian Ewe cloth, an Australian tailor's quilt, simple Amish shapes, British strippies, French boutis, Japanese sashiko, Pakistani tasseled quilt, Seminole patchwork, Swedish woolen quilt.

"As a transplanted Canadian, I was enlightened to see a tradition I'd not been aware of: Canadian shirting quilts. Aha, a catalyst for finally reusing those recycled stripes and plaids (a.k.a. old shirts); obviously, fate has taken a hand by putting this book my way ... it must be time to start a new project ...."

And above are some fabrics reclaimed from men's shirts, still waiting to become that "new project". (The pale lime green near the top will provide the "spark" in the essentially dull selection.) The book in my 2004 review seems to have disappeared from my shelves, but researching shirting quilts on the net has turned up some inspiring pictures and interesting snippets of history.

Lauren Phillips is working on a shirting quilt based on a Kaffe Fassett design - it needs 1,116 triangles!
Round about 1900, shirting fabrics were popular for offsetting dark colours, as in this quilt - see a detail on this site

And there's more yet to be discovered...

A favourite gone

For many years I've mixed oil&vinegar salad dressing in this little jug - but recently I mixed too hard and - oops!

Apart from being a good shape and size for the purpose, and having lovely colours in its simple decoration, the jug brings back memories of stumbling on an art studio in Crouch End with Lisa and Daphne, back in the days before everything there became either a trendy shop or a trendy restaurant. Well not quite everything - it does have a library and washing machine repairer.

Of cabbages and ... trees

While "choux a l'anglaise" was steaming in its buttery sauce, I quickly printed these. Here they're little pine trees, but they could also be big (brown) pine cones.

London miscellany

Gordon Square, WC1 - I often walk through it on the way to browse at Waterstone's or window-shop along Tottenham Court Road -- John Lewis department store on Oxford Street goes back to 1864. Here it is from the back, the Cavendish Square side. The square was planned in 1717 as the focus of the estate of the Earl of Oxford and Mortimer and gradually gracious Georgian houses were built around it, while sheep grazed on the turf --
Men at work - this building has suddenly appeared near Euston Station, or maybe I just came out of that trance-like state that accompanies "going to work" and noticed it --
The shroud covers what was once the 250-year-old Middlesex Hospital, and will become yet more luxury apartments --
And not strictly London - an embellished train (note the safety feature) --

Can housework make you breathless?

Under the fatuous headline: Cleaning 'improves mental health', the BBC reports that "Just 20 minutes of sustained exercise a week - from cleaning to jogging - can impact upon depression" - but the exercise must induce breathlessness.

I'm all for beating depression and for getting exercise anywhere other than the gym, but am left wondering what kind of housework would fit the bill. Marathon hoovering? Dusting the ceiling? Record-breaking floor scrubbing? or perhaps --

Old treasures, new sox, and darning

One of the traders at Region 1's Spring Regional Day - Jackie Maxwell of Grandmother's Workbox - had all sorts of "preloved" sewing-related treasures, gleaned from here, there and everywhere. Nostalgic and irresistible.

I was excited to find a darning mushroom - but it's too big to fit into the toes of my dainty Falke kneesox. What's needed for those is a sock darning egg like this one:

Searching for a link to my fave sox, I discover that the 65% cotton knee highs come in other colours than black - and that you can easily get all-cotton sox online, rather than having to constantly revisit John Lewis because they have your size, or your colour - but not both.

This online discovery entirely makes up for the disappointment of the darning mushroom. Indeed, it makes it superfluous -- what, these days, is worth the time-investment of darning? Yet there was a time when textiles were precious and darning was an important skill - which was learned through "darning samplers":

Pattern darning is part of several ethnic embroidery traditions (Japan, the Ukraine, and the Punjab, for instance), and can be difficult to distinguish from weaving - indeed one variant is called huck weaving. This kimono design is called kagari, the Japanese word for darning:

"Vision is not enough. It must be combined with venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps, we must step up the stairs." - Vaclav Havel

If this quote is a translation, it's a clever translation - or else Czech is remarkably like English!

Havel's 1984 speech "Politics and Conscience" includes this interesting comparison:

What is it, actually, that the world of the medieval peasant and that of a small boy have in common? Something.substantive, I think. Both the boy and the peasant are far more intensely rooted in what some philosophers call "the natural world," or Lebenswelt, than most modern adults. They have not yet grown alienated from the world of their actual personal experience, the world which has its morning and its evening, its down (the earth) and its up (the heavens), where the sun rises daily in the east, traverses the sky and sets in the west, and where concepts like "at home" and "in foreign parts," good and evil, beauty and ugliness, near and far, duty and rights, still mean something living and definite. They are still rooted in a world which knows the dividing line between all that is intimately familiar and appropriately a subject of our concern, and that which lies beyond its horizon, that before which we should bow down humbly because of the mystery about it.

The image above might be in Vancouver?? Another interesting stairs image, based on the famous ones by Escher, is on Harold Davis's photoblog.

Under the needle

The Ginkgo piece is getting its leaves stitched on by machine, and then it will get some hand quilting or big-stitch embellishment --And the elongated "heartbeat" piece is systematically getting its grid, with a lustrous reddish rayon thread in the bobbin --
The rest of "life" feels a bit frantic at the moment - it's good to switch off by doing some sewing!

At such times I find I need something that doesn't require much thinking - carefully following straight lines is perfect (and knitting is good too). I drew the lines onto iron-on stabilizer, along the direction it would tear off easily. The vertical lines have been stitched, the stabilizer torn off, and another layer of stabilizer added for the horizontal lines. The next stage, adding the ECG tracings, will be tricky -- but thanks to Cathy C-M and Debbi, I know now to get the T wave looking perky. A little knowledge of why ECgs look the way they do would be helpful -- it's like using a foreign language, you don't want inadvertently to say something inappropriate.

Thanks also to Sue and magsramsay for ideas on how to "drown" the gold in the Gingko piece - that got me thinking.

Pretending

"Be careful what you pretend to be, because you are what you pretend to be."
Kurt Vonnegut

(Finding a picture to go with the quotations is an interesting little game - I put just one word into Google Images and hope to find an image in the first 24 pages. After that, another word can be added. This time I used "pretending" and then "painting".)