Seek and Ye Shall Find

Oh, I found it all right.

cotton=candy

I ran over to the hardware store to get a new furnace filter (husband help) but decided to indulge myself by stepping into the quilt shop. Now quilt shops aren’t really my thing because I suck at fractions. Quilts ARE fractions and measuring and cutting.  I find when the moment comes to get  out my fractions and then measure and cut…well, the caring just goes out of me. Not caring shows up majorly in a quilt. or an unfinished one, I might add.

but quilt stores aren’t just a mecca for quilters, they’re a mecca for lovers of COTTON PRINTS. which I am. I picked up two pieces. The first is for an apron I’ve been meaning to embark on for a few years now (ahem). This print I’m not entirely sold on. Is it grandma? is it spring? is it feminine? could it be retro if I wanted it to be?  I wasn’t going for grandmas but the upbeat of it all.

what would you say? too grandma-y or just right?

The second piece I was got…well, it threw me for a loop when I saw it. I would never think to like such a print but holy crap, it pushes my happy buttons. I think it’s got this whole Tasha Tudor sort of thing going on. Yes, it’s that. And…I don’t think this shows up in the photo but it’s discolored in spots. I love that. I seem to discolor everything accidentally and to have it done for me…that’s discoloration without the guilt!

also…jeff and I met on the fourth and well…it’s a fourth of july sort of cloth. I know I can do Something with it.

Mary Shelley

Yesterday, being in a grumpy mood from a sprained knee, I limped over to the library and picked up a copy of Harold Bloom’s Critical Edition of Mary Shelley. I really don’t have much to say on Bloom except whenever I read him, I snooze but this Edition gathers the stuff people said about her and her work, Frankenstein. Frankenstein doesn’t interest me but what they had to say about her did.

Particularly what her husband says. I haven’t read Shelley in a long time but I was struck by his…his usage of words. I’ve been studying scansion off and on and just his sheer way with the stuff made me all dewy-eyed, etc, etc.  I’ll just share the last stanza but the whole thing is worth reading, The Revolt of Islam, The Dedication.

“Truth’s deathless voice pauses among mankind!
If there must be no response to my cry—
If men must rise and stamp with fury blind
On his pure name who loves them,—thou and I,
Sweet friend! can look from our tranquillity
Like lamps into the world’s tempestuous night,—
Two tranquil stars, while clouds are passing by
Which wrap them from the foundering seaman’s sight,
That burn from year to year with unextinguished light.”

As purdy as it is…what strikes me is the shame of it. Imagine writing Frankenstein when You’re nineteen and then…and then…more or less everyone dies around you (two children, your half sister, your husband, his dear friend and yours, Byron) and you’re left pretty much destitute with one small child and a society that shuns you. She commented that at 29, everyone she knew and loved had nearly all passed on. Not surprising  another masterpiece never flowed from her pen. There was no support structure left and masterpieces do not come out of the emotionally (or physically) destitute , no matter what a certain reading crowd would like to think.

This ‘n’ That

Believe it or not, I have watched the Twilight DVD extras and then those extras on top of it. Truly geeking out but I must say…the film company did a terribly foolish thing when they crossed Catherine Hardwicke (the director) and she said, “See ya.” Because really, Hardwicke’s a modern day hippie (hippies can be so pleasantly zealous about things) and was so completely Into the story, she really loved the damn thing and she did massive amounts of creative work to make the film have more depth than the poor book ever did. I mean…okay, okay, film is a different medium, so very visual (duh) so visual details are easy to add. But they’re also very easy to add in a book. Hardwicke gave the character Bella a wonderful bracelet with pictures of the saints going all around. And she wanted Bella to look very natural thereby giving her a connection with the nature surrounding her. Or at least to hint at it. That’s already more significant details than we get of Bella  in the books (she has brown hair, brown eyes and hates the wet??? Already a charming bracelet and having a connection to nature are beyond the capacities of this book)

And now for something completely different… I do need to mention a project I did manage to finish with dear Mollie’s help.

First the violet bracelet. This idea of violets is really taking hold. This is just a cuff put together with felt and lace and it has the violets (and leaf) sewn on.

This second one is a bonus. Mollie kindly gave me four circles, painted with the life cycle of a dandelion. Backed onto sparkly felt! This is probably the only time in my life in which I found a way to use sparkly felt.

Finally, I’m really loving this photo. Can you spot the little singer?