Escapist literature

While involved with family matters, I haven't been doing much towards the summer homework for the art course (it seems like another world) - but I've been thinking about it a lot!

One strand to the "imagined interiors" theme is the fantasy we weave about the unknown inhabitants of houses that are somehow important to us. This book feeds those fantasies in many ways. It shows not just the outsides, but also the insides - without the inhabitants, and nicely cleaned up for the photographer - we're presented with a sort of blank canvas, an ideal state.

This "guest cabin" is probably my favourite - because of its setting, in woods at the edge of prairie land - the leaves a curtain for the open sky.
I like the grey stone and grey wood - but was deeply disappointed to see so much "orange" wood inside.
Here's another fabulous setting for those weekend getaways -
The book includes plans showing the layout of these houses. I love house plans - my father built several houses for his family, so we had lots of house plans, and house-plan magazines, around the place, and I used as a teenager to design "dream homes". Being here in my dad's final house, and seeing "dream books" like this, knits all this together for me.

An evening's entertainment

My father empties his change onto a shelf of one of the kitchen cabinets. Onto two shelves. It was starting to slide out when the door was opened, so we got together to roll it up.This brought back memories of Oma, Dad's mother (who at age 64 came to Canada with us, and lived to the grand age of 99), counting out her coins - as a widow she had been a shopkeeper and knew about money in oh so many ways.
Sister Sue came over to help, and by the end of the evening we'd put $104 into rolls - and had a heap of loonies and toonies as well [the $1 and $2 coins].

Jericho Beach and Kitsilano

In the distance, downtown Vancouver - the forested area to the left is Stanley Park, scene of Sunday walks and zoo visits (and pony rides) in childhood. We'd also visit a similar beach nearer home, Kitsilano Beach - the park there had a playground and "jungle gym", and sometimes we'd go swimming. While studying at UBC I lived very close to Kits Beach and went there sometimes - in retrospect, not often enough. It's still one of my favourite places in Vancouver.A glimpse of the North Shore mountains, and the typical vegetation - this is yarrow, with its feathery leaves.
Lots of parties in the park. Alcohol-free in BC.
Some of the typical old Kitsilano houses - when my parents first came to Vancouver, we lived on the top floor of something similar. Most of the area was quite run-down then (1950s) and large houses were divided into rental units.
Now they've been rescued, painted heritage colours, and are items of unattainable desire -
But some hark back to earlier days -

Seen in Kitsilano

ok, property prices are high, and this is a desirable residential area .....

Danger signs - Jericho Beach

Heart, mind, art

"The heart is the chief feature of a functioning mind." Frank Lloyd Wright

This made me smile - don't know why... or kind of smile itwas - a smile of recognition, of happiness, of approval - or was it a cynical smile?

Another truism involving the heart is that you need three elements to make art - the head, the hand, and the heart.

And ... home is where the heart is. Or ... where the ice cream is ...

More fun with tinfoil

While Blogger is having a hissy fit and not letting me upload stuff, here are some images saved in a draft - a couple of my favourite "tinfoil" Little Gems. Both have handmade felt trapped under the sheer layer that goes over the cooking foil; the machining is of course added after that.Having "fabric" elements gives you somewhere to use pins to hold the thing together before machining -- otherwise you get pinholes in the foil.
There are now over 900 Little Gems submitted on the website - the tombola is only a week away!

Another sort of collection

Wounded lamp posts.
Fatally injured lamp posts.
Quite a few of these, dotted around London....

Twins-to-be

How they build houses in western Canada.

"Imagined interiors"

Not much is getting done on the summer homework. I keep finding images and having thoughts that relate to my theme, but can't focus on any drawing at the moment.What is there to imagine about the interior here (found in a magazine, source lost, photographer unattributable)? I'm intrigued by how the exterior - or the moment in time - shuts out the contemplation of what might be going on inside.

Are the open doors inviting us in - or telling us to get out? Perhaps there's a fire inside - what's the viewer's job here?

And the pale sky - is it really night? The words "a trick of the light" come to mind - which leads to this painting by Magritte, called Empire of Light (painted in 1953-4) -
The Guggenheim museum website says of this picture: "With no fantastic element other than the single paradoxical combination of day and night, René Magritte upsets a fundamental organizing premise of life. Sunlight, ordinarily the source of clarity, here causes the confusion and unease traditionally associated with darkness. The luminosity of the sky becomes unsettling, making the empty darkness below even more impenetrable than it would seem in a normal context."

You're drawn in to start imagining what's going on - is something about to happen in the empty street, is there something going on in the quiet, shut-up house....

Signs of arrival

Apart from the sheer relief of getting off the plane, the best part of arriving at Vancouver is the "jellyfish window" on the way to the passport control.Watching them for a while is a real de-stressor.
Are those big yellowey ones the same creatures as these transparent ones, photographed in 2007 - or a different species -New at the airport is this living wall, just completed -
On the drive to Pitt Meadows, I love to see the bridges at New Westminster - at the lowest level is the railway bridge, then the old Patullo Bridge for road traffic, and the new bridge carrying the Skytrain -
Two miles from the family home, the cottonwoods growing between the Pitt river and the dike -

1000th post (in 32 months)

Yummy colours

Plant aliens

There's been one on my windowsill for a couple of years now - they get very convoluted. The name is written on the pot, but I can't remember it from one day to the next.

Danger signs - approach to Finsbury Park

Some of my favourite Little Gems

Because I'll be away until Festival of Quilts, all the Little Gems I've made since January are getting packed ready to go. These are some of my favourites. They're on the LG website if you want a closer look.Making all these little quiltlets was a great way to try different things, in different ways, and really improve doing things like bindings. It was such fun ... I'm not sure I'm ready for "big quilts" after this!

Adaptability

Make me into a clutch bag!

That's the name of this Little Gem - but you can do this with others, too. This one comes with a loop, if you want to add a nice button -Fold up the bottom third, and slipstitch the sides.
Fold down the top flap - add that button if you want - hey presto, you have a clutch bag!

The Monday walk

Getting off the "overground" at Hampstead Heath station means passing tempting shops on the way to the heath. I resisted the urge to find a nice book for the plane journey tomorrow - finding a book is something you can do to pass the time at the airport. It wasn't just the lowering sky made me hurry - there's still lots needing to be done at home.
Past the duck pond, the swimming ponds, through the leaf-litter beech woods ... half an hour later, West Meadow, near Kenwood House - one of my favourite places, with its openness and oh-so-English trees -
... and this thistle patch - a pair of white butterflies, and the thistledown drifting in the breeze.
The world stood still.
At Kenwood House cafe, a capuccino amid the many dog-walkers. Then the 210 bus, and on with everything on that long list.

And along the way ....

Passing the duck pond, with all the kids feeding the ducks, I recollected that as a kid you'd walk along looking at the ground hoping to find some money. That was the key to wonderful things, having some spending power. As an adult, if you keep your eyes on the ground, what are you hoping to find? Money wouldn't be such a thrill any more ... what would be?

A few minutes later, travelling uphill, something blue underfoot caught my eye - a bit of pottery - more bits (even some yellow/brown slipware) - a large oyster shell - bits of water-worn glass, and broken stems of clay pipes, all the things you'd find along the Thames foreshore. Of course I made a little collection - bits of pottery the size of a fingernail.

How did they get up the hill here? My theory is that the sand of the path washes downhill, and needed replacing -- with dredging from the Thames, perhaps quite some time ago.

Several people, seeing me intently scanning the ground, asked if I'd lost something. We discussed the delights of the Heath and of London's parks, and where the bits of pottery might have come from. Even with all the blue-and-white plates and cups that must have been broken over the years, it does seem far-fetched that people would scatter bits of them high on a hill...!

Even faster narrow binding

A while back I posted how to do a narrow binding with mitred corners. After using this method on (quite) a few Little Gems, I've found something that makes it faster and easier.

At the corner you stop 1/4" (or the width of your presser foot) short of the edge, and then either reverse along the stitching line, or turn the fabric 90 degrees and sew off the edge.

Well, if you turn the fabric as if you're going to continue down the next side, but instead you reverse off the edge, you can make your mitre and be ready to sew without turning the fabric again!

Reverse off the fabric -Make the mitre, laying the raw edge against the edge of your quilt and laying the folded edge against the top edge (already sewn) -
Then start at the top edge and sew down along the binding strip -
I find that it's secure and makes a crisp mitre, without any stitches coming loose.

And there's no need to trim off that bit of thread - it gets lost in the seam.

Drive-by shootings: Blackfriars Bridge

Mont Tremblant, Quebec, 1953

Ah, the red parka with the little white stars! The long, cold winters, with sunny days too!

It was a short walk from the back door to the ski slopes. I didn't bother joining the line-up for the tow - I'd go up to the front and ask some sturdy fellow, "Mister, will you take me up?"

Those were the days when kids were told "Go out to play", and did.

Rescued from oblivion

This "long piece" was made from scraps of silk, years ago (last century, even). Tony thought it would be a good idea to have it on show somewhere, and we found this little corner. The hen who laid the magic egg, made as an offshoot of a sculpture project, regards it with wonder.Here's a closeup - a the pictures inside some of the little "houses" started as photocopies of drawings, from my V&A sketchbook - this bird was on a tile. I painted the photocopies with transfer paint, then ironed them on to synthetic fabric. The colours transferred, but where there were black lines on the paper, the transferred image was white.

The "treasure houses" grew out of scraps of silk -- I do love to use the smallest scraps ...
Some of the images transferred rather faintly, and I'd planned to go over the faint lines with stitch, one day ... but that day is unlikely to come, it's time to move on.

I've just realised - with some excitement! - that these little glimpses into the treasure-houses fit right in with my "imagined interiors" theme for the summer homework.