Friday, January 29, 2010

Celestial Stars



My aunt had a significant birthday last November and I wanted to make her a quilt.  She lives in England, so the plan was that I would finish it in time for my friend to take over in August.  I tried hard to meet this deadline, but due to my health, it didn't happen.  I had other friends who went over in September, but again, it didn't happen.

My aunt lives in a gorgeous house in Bury St Edmunds, near Cambridge.  Their sitting room is large and overlooks their garden.  They have a white chaise lounge in the room which is where I pictured a quilt draping which Susan could snuggle under while reading a book or watching TV.  Not everyone is into quilts, so I asked her if the idea of owning a quilt appealed and for tips on colours and types of fabric she likes.  Her response was positive and she gave me plenty of ideas for choice of colour and fabric.

Last June, I went to the Craft Fair with my good friend Rhonda to find fabric.  Rhonda has a great eye for colour and puts fabrics together that I would never think about combining - she is clever and creative.  We had fun together browsing the many stalls, and at times overwhelmed by choice, colour, noise, crowds of people and thought we would never find anything.  However, Rhonda spotted some unusual fabrics - Indonesian batiks and we were instantly captivated by their colours and uniqueness.  We chose an enormous range of fat quarters and later found another shop that also sold them, so I selected a few more.  At that time, I had no idea what shape the quilt would take, but I had heaps of fabric.

I took some photos of quilts on display and was inspired by one which featured a star pattern.  Susan's house is very traditional, so I thought I would go with a traditional pattern, using these gorgeous non traditional fabrics.  Susan lived for a number of years in Vietnam teaching English to doctors and nurses, while living with a local family.  I thought she would love these fabrics and remind her of happy years spent in South-East Asia.

Maths has never been one of my strengths, so doing calculations when designing a quilt is the most difficult aspect.  Unfortunately, while doing most of the calculating, I had a coddled head - mostly from migraine, so I ended up designing and making a quilt much larger than intended, especially as I had to get it to England without knowing anyone who could take it in their suitcase for me.





I finally finished the quilt in early January, just before Keith finished his PhD, which is another story entirely.  With much fear and trepidation, I packed it and posted it via air mail and hoped it would arrive safely.  A week later, in fact, on Australia Day, it reached its destination and Susan loves it.  It will live on her white lounge happily and I am much relieved.  I called the quilt Celestial Stars, as the colours seem to sparkle - they have a life of their own.  I have heaps of this fabric left, so I am experimenting with making bags with the leftover pieces.

My spot


I have just returned from holidays and was catching up on some blogs and discovered that Nicole and others  have been brave enough to share "their writing space".  This desk is in our bedroom and I still treasure this space that I don't share with anyone.  We have lived in this house for almost 11 years and until then, I had no space to call my own but lots of black holes.

My family will claim that my desk is usually a huge black hole - it is usually covered in piles of bits and pieces of paper and piles of books, but for some strange reason, it is uncluttered and lovely today.  I love to sit here to read my bible and pray, to send emails, to write and think.  I confess to being a scrabble addict and play many games of scrabble on facebook with dear friends.  My family think I have a serious addiction problem and my son has offered to find me a counsellor.

There is a huge pile of books perching on the top of this bookshelf.  I have to confess, they are all about marriage and I have not read a single one of them.  They sit there beckoning me to open their covers, but a novel sitting on the shelves below usually wins.  Maybe 2010 will be the year when I start wading through this pile.

I am a cat lover, so I seem to collect "cat" parapheralia - I really do not need any more.  However, having spent ten days with my mother and her siamese cat, I am smitten and would love to have a real cat.  Alas, I have a husband who fails to share this passion or interest.  I have had three siamese cats in my life and loved them all and missed each of them when they departed this world.

I have to confess, this is not my only space - I am an avid sewer - and I have a new space in our family room.  Until very recently all my creative projects took place on the kitchen table and the family had to work around my mess.  This has suited me fine, but I realised that the rest of my family were a little fed up living with the clutter that is associated with making a quilt.  I have two offspring who are at uni and they also enjoy sitting at the kitchen table with their friends while they supposedly work.  We can often have up to 7 or 8 students sitting together, with me clutching my end of the table with the sewing machine and other stuff.  I decided to move all my sewing things out of the kitchen and up into the family room.  I have claimed a small desk and much cupboard space and set myself up.  I share this desk with my offspring - it is a beautiful space and looks out into our delightful garden which we share with two other families.

I would love to see where my friend Jenny manages to write.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Remarkable Creatures




Fossilized snail-shell, originally uploaded by Roberto Verzo.

Fossils are remarkable creatures, as are two women in the early 1800's who defy convention and share the passion of fossicking for fossils. I have to confess that I am rather ignorant about fossils.  This is despite the fact that I have a husband who is fascinated by rocks and fossils.  I remember my surprise when we married, that two boxes of rocks and fossils were coming too.  Not only that, but they were to be displayed on a shelf in our lounge room - they are still displayed in a glass cabinet.

Tracy Chevalier's latest book Remarkable Creatures is a treasure.  Having read it over our Christmas break, I now know much more about fossils and the two women Mary Anning and Elizabeth Philpot.  These women actually existed as this book is based on real events.  This makes it even more fascinating, as both women contributed richly to our knowledge of the world.  These women found fossils of creatures that no longer exist, plunging them into a debate with the church about creation.  Surely, God could not have made a creature which then became extinct?  What did this say about God? At the time, it was men who engaged in such debate and it was men who went fossicking for fossils.

Neither woman is particularly likeable, both are eccentric and have few friends.  They share an interest in finding fossils.  For one, Mary, it becomes a livelihood and a way of putting food on the table.  For Elizabeth, it is a way to fill an empty life and empty days, but they form a friendship of sorts. Tracy Chevalier is such a wonderful writer, that I was gripped by this book and became fascinated in the life these women lived in Lyme Regis on the Dorset coast of England.  Elizabeth could well have crossed paths with Jane Austen, who visited this town.

This week at work, I had a client ask me about laws covering the exporting of fossils from Australia.  I couldn't help myself, so I asked her "have you read Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier?"  Indeed she had, and had met the author herself during her book launch last August.  This client is also an author and had returned from a fossil dig in a part of Queensland researching for a new book to discover that this book had been published.  I am often asked quirky questions and I love fossicking for an answer and yes, I was able to answer her question.  I will keep an eye out for her next book, which I am sure will explore the discovery of fossils and their disappearance overseas - she is a crime writer.

Friday, January 8, 2010

Reading and Kindles




My sister is gadget queen.  She takes after my father and any new gadget quickly becomes an indispensable part of her life.  Her latest gadget is a kindle.  As I spent Christmas with her, I was able to have a good look and ponder whether I would consider converting to reading books on a kindle.

In 2008 when Keith and I travelled to England, most of our luggage consisted of books.  They were heavy and took up considerable space, but the idea of not having a book to read was inconceivable.  Keith had a number of books with him, necessary for his work on Richard Baxter.  A kindle would have certainly saved space and weight.

What would Richard Baxter have thought about a kindle?  He was a keen reader and collector of books.  On his death he left one of the largest and most comprehensive libraries in England at that time.  Much can be gleaned about Ricky from this quote:

"I must confess, it is much more pleasing to my self, to be retired from the World, and to have very little to do with Men, and to converse with God and Conscience and good Books."

Ricky might well have purchased a kindle and then downloaded his core library to have at his fingertips. I think he would have embraced this technology with open arms.  This morning, I read an article by Stephanie Raethel "I kid you not, I'm a Kindle convert", in which she confesses that she is enjoying her kindle immensely.  I am not the only person wondering about kindles and reading.  Mark Pesce has also considered the future of books and kindles in an opinion piece "year will be more than just a page turner, it'll be a new era".  However, there is something about the look and feel of a book, that no kindle can replace.  Many of my friends ask me for suggestions of what to read and I freely lend books again and again.  Can I do this with a Kindle?

My ipod has transformed my music collection into a bite sized library that accompanies me everywhere, so I guess, a kindle will eventually become a part of my persona - catching buses, trains, even sitting in doctor's surgerys waiting could be transformed as I have on hand a magazine, a book or two, my bible, a devotional book ready to read - compactly stored in my handbag!

Whether by kindle or retro book, reading is here to stay.  I have a family of bookworms.  We read with a passion.  Our Christmas at the beach was spent with noses in books.  Well, my sister's and her husband's were in their kindles, but they were equally engrossed and content.  The inclement weather kept us indoors, but it was bliss.  Our children snuggled up immersed in books - each in their own world.  It was a delight to behold.

I have just read an article from the Age on the very topic of kindles v books and the author Gabriella Coslovich captures my thoughts perfectly in her article "E-Books lack the magic of the real thing".