Kate Greenaway and a Crazy Quilt

Another crazy quilt!  They certainly were all the rage with the Victorian ladies, and of course, still have many, many fans.  (Pun not intended, but left as written.)

As with all good crazies, this one has some unique and endearing embroidery details, and the scalloped edge is very special.  Having an embroidered date - 1883 - is always a big plus!  This is a family heirloom piece, though the precise history is not known.

My New Quilt-y Teapot

My wonderful friend Nancy unexpectedly gifted me with this wonderful teapot and cup combo.  Wooooo!!!!!

Nancy has an online shop called "Roses and Teacups" that carries all sorts of flowery, lacy, feminine delights.  Great gift shopping here, folks!   Jewelry, English bone china, stationery, and purses.  She also has super accessories for tea parties and weddings.  Silk velvet shawls!  Heirloom baby bonnets!  The list goes on and on.

Eye On Elegance exhibit

"Eye on Elegance: Early Quilts of Maryland and Virginia" is the title of the current exhibit at the DAR Museum in Washington DC.  The museum has long been known for its spectacular quilt collection, and here it is on view.  Simply amazing quilts!  Every one is good enough to be on a book cover!

There is an online tour of the exhibit, a great-looking catalog, and several short videos on quilt styles on YouTube.  This is quilt history at its best.  Great research and superior, beyond superior, quilts to see.

The online tour would serve well as a really good introduction to the wonderful world of exquisite needlework and "mistresspiece" quilts for newcomers to the quilt world.  And it is a joy to watch over and over for those of us who have been looking at antique quilts for years.

The exhibit runs through September 5, 2015.  Sadly, I don't have a trip to DC on the calendar this year, but this exhibit makes me want to change my plans!

Capital T and Cuba

The name of this block is Capital T.  The quilt was purchased in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, about 30 years ago.

The name "Lee" appears on the quilt in several places, and it's dated 1896.  I always love a dated quilt, because it's a window into patterns and colors available in that era.  Well actually, it's a window into that era and the ones before, because quilts were so often made out of scrap baskets, many of them quite deep

Sewing Room Overhaul for the New Year

Well, this wasn't really a New Year's Resolution.  I've been working up to this for about two and a half years now!  (Dated by a post on October 14, 2012, on which I reported step #1.)

The room had become nearly impossible to work in, let alone walk through.  The terrible clutter was "caused" by:
Kids joining our family.  I had been using 2 bedrooms, and then squished everything into this one.
Quilt repair business expanding (yea!), plus also adding in costuming and vintage clothing repair.
Business things squeezed into snips of available time, plus cleaning is not my forté.

Here are before and after photos.  Yes, I am being brave enough to share the ugly before photos!

The Arts: Visual Meets Verbal

A short while ago, I got a most wonderful email.

A woman wrote that she had seen and enjoyed my quilts at an exhibit a couple of months ago, and shortly thereafter, at her poetry group, had heard a newly written poem that matches one of my quilts.  She shared a photo of my quilt with the poet, who then asked me if she could update the first line of her poem to include the title of my quilt.  I said, "Of course!"

I asked for permission to share both the poem and the story here, and permission was kindly granted.

On Beauty - Favorite Quotes #7

I've spent some lovely hours on a sad and comforting task, helping a dear friend plan a memorial for her father by looking for good words to share.  I re-read many poems collected in my young adulthood that have been un-re-read for years and years.  I wandered into Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet, because that has good words for everything in Life.  And I stayed and wandered in those words for a good long time.  Ahhhhhhh..........

On Beauty

      And a poet said, "Speak to us of Beauty."
      Where shall you seek beauty, and how shall you find her unless she herself be your way and your guide?
      And how shall you speak of her except she be the weaver of your speech?
      The aggrieved and the injured say, "Beauty is kind and gentle.
      Like a young mother half-shy of her own glory she walks among us."
      And the passionate say, "Nay, beauty is a thing of might and dread.
      Like the tempest she shakes the earth beneath us and the sky above us."
      The tired and the weary say, "beauty is of soft whisperings. She speaks in our spirit.
      Her voice yields to our silences like a faint light that quivers in fear of the shadow."
      But the restless say, "We have heard her shouting among the mountains,
      And with her cries came the sound of hoofs, and the beating of wings and the roaring of lions."
      At night the watchmen of the city say, "Beauty shall rise with the dawn from the east."
      And at noontide the toilers and the wayfarers say, "we have seen her leaning over the earth from the windows of the sunset."
      In winter say the snow-bound, "She shall come with the spring leaping upon the hills."
      And in the summer heat the reapers say, "We have seen her dancing with the autumn leaves, and we saw a drift of snow in her hair."
      All these things have you said of beauty.
      Yet in truth you spoke not of her but of needs unsatisfied,
      And beauty is not a need but an ecstasy.
      It is not a mouth thirsting nor an empty hand stretched forth,
      But rather a heart enflamed and a soul enchanted.
      It is not the image you would see nor the song you would hear,
      But rather an image you see though you close your eyes and a song you hear though you shut your ears.
      It is not the sap within the furrowed bark, nor a wing attached to a claw,
      But rather a garden for ever in bloom and a flock of angels for ever in flight.
      People of Orphalese, beauty is life when life unveils her holy face.
      But you are life and you are the veil.
      Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror.
      But you are eternity and you are the mirror.