Autumn

On Monday the sky above my town was filled with geese.

Lots and ...

... lots ...

... and lots of them.

Goodbye, geese! Have a save journey!

Softies for Mirabel: Miss Rosie Red

Corduroy Wes has got a new friend:



It's little Miss Rosie Red (made from a Hop Skip Jump pattern)!

She likes music.


Veeeery much so. And if you give her a few books to sit on, she can even play the piano!

Here she shows you the itty bitty (red!) flowers that adorn her stylish trousers:

A ribbon of tulips! Aren't they cute?

But for now, little Miss Rosie hasn't got much time to think about tulips or other flowers. Instead she dreams ....


.... of foreign shores. For in just a few days, Rosie will go on a long journey to Australia - more specifically to "Meet Me at Mike's" in Melbourne for the fourth annual Softies for Mirabel project: people from all around the world send them handmade softies, which will be displayed in the store window during the first week of December. Afterwards, the dollies and stuffed animals will all be wrapped up and donated to the Mirabel Foundation.

Miss Rosie can't wait to hop on that plane to Australia!

Mr Punch has arrived!!!

Today the lovely UPS man brought me five packages filled to the brim with books, and thus I spent the afternoon dusting and squeezing 70 kg of Mr Punch into my bookshelves. For such a short man, he sure is heavy!

(The image is "Mr Punch portrayed by different hands" from Spielmann's History of Punch)

Some numbers and a rant

Carolyn has a post up today (or yesterday, depending on where in the world you are) with a link to an article from the Wall Street Journal that made both our heads blow off. In essence, authors of literary fiction whine that nowadays they get a "pittance" in advances compared to the $50-100,000 (for debut authors!!!) they used to get in the good old days. $100,000 for a book with a print run of 10,000 copies. $100,000 for a book with a print run of 10,000 copies!!!!!

$100,000 <=> 10,000 copies.

$100,000 for a book that will never sell out is print run and will never EVER make a profit for the publisher.

So who's making a profit for the publishers and enables them to publish literary fiction? The stupid authors of commercial fiction. Whose works are frowned upon by the literary establishment. Because it's not, you know, proper literature.

Anne Mather, The Reluctant Governess

Several years ago I bought this in the British Bookshop in Mainz. Thanks to the decade-long presence of the US army nearby, the shop had accumulated a nice collection of older Harlequin titles (most of them in desperate need of a dusting - or, in more severe cases, of a wiping down with a damp cloth), so consequently I've accumulated a nice collection of older Harlequin novels as well. Most of which I haven't yet read, I have to admit.

But this morning, I was in the mood for an older romance and picked Anne Mather's The Reluctant Governess, first published in 1971. As you can probably tell from the cover it is set in what today would be deemed an "exotic" location for a category title: in Austria. In winter (hence the lovely snow-covered views of steep rocks and the castle). In a remote castle. And I have to say, the castle on the cover even looks like an Austrian castle!

Our dashing hero is Horst von Reichenstein, an embittered and impoverished baron with a ten-year-old daughter, Sophie, the bane of all governesses. Victoria Monroe, the heroine, comes to the castle as -- guess what! -- Sophie's governess and is somewhat appalled by the lack of central heating and electricity in the majority of rooms (most certainly in her room). There are also big, huge wolfhounds around (one of which is called Fritz). And a pair of elderly servants, Maria and Gustav, who seem to inhabit the kitchen. So far, Victoria hasn't had much success in making Sophie behave and instead is currently going for a walk around the castle, with Fritz on her heels.

More to follow!

Crafting International

Two centuries ago, women sent their friends on the hunt for worsted wool and new crochet patterns when they visited the big city (lovingly described by Elizabeth Gaskell in Cranford) and American scrap-quilt enthusiasts placed ads in the newspapers to find other women with whom they could exchange fabrics. Needlework wasn't just something that women did. It allowed women to be creative; it formed the basis for friendships; it resulted in acts of charity; and, indeed, it could even become an expression of patriotism (the picture shows the cover of a knitting book published in New Zealand during WWI - you can find the whole story here)


Two hundred years later, the "gentle arts" still fulfill similar purposes (with the exception that needlework is no longer considered a necessary female accomplishment - today most of us sew, knit, crochet, etc. because we want to and not because we must). What is different today is the scale: thanks to the internet, the world is quite literally open to us. We swap patterns on blogs with people from all corners of the world. We can buy books and magazines and fabrics from Japan, France, Australia, the Netherlands, the USA, etc. Styles and techniques easily cross borders, are adapted and re-interpreted, cross borders again, and so on and so forth. Private charity drives reach enormous dimensions online as people from different countries rally together to knit blankets, sew softies, make quilts, and so on. (You only have to read Craft Hope or Quilting for Peace to know what I'm talking about!)

If you stop to think about it, it's astonishing and amazing and vastly thrilling and gives you a warm, fuzzy feeling inside. :)

Acres and acres and it's all MINE!

One of the bad things about going to conferences is that you might run into people who are working on similar things as you do and who are very, very enthusiastic about what they do. If bad comes to worse, they might actually pass this enthusiams on to you. Or, if you are already enthusiastic yourself, might rouse your enthusiasm to fever-pitch. If you hate it when something like this happens, you should better steer clear of the conferences of the Research Society for Victorian Periodicals. For these people are bad: they not only fill your head with ideas (oh dear!), but they also inspire you to do research (oh dear, oh dear!).

In case you wonder where this all leads, well ... I just want you to be in possession of all facts in order to show you that I'm blameless. Completely blameless. Because, as you all know, I have generally an abhorrence of books and never buy the things (after all, they fill up your shelves in this rather disorderly fashion and then they start to mulitply like rabbits and that creates an entirely new set of problems! ghastly things, books!!!). That leaves only one possible solution: during my last stay in the US I've been bewitched by these Victorian periodicals people. In other words: IT'S NOT MY FAULT!

For today I've finally succumbed and bought these: 26 volumes of Punch. *happy sigh* (It's a good thing my shelves are so empty - because I never buy books, you know - because where would I store those beauties if it were otherwise?)

Decisions, decisions, decisions

One of my friends is expecting her second child (a baby boy) and this time around I plan to finish the quilt for the baby in time for his birth (and not months afterwards!). So I immediately started looking for suitable baby fabrics. Because of the uber-cuteness of available fabrics, I've decided to go for another panel + border quilt - it's quick to finish (so there is indeed a chance that I'll manage to finish the quilt before December!) and it's kind of difficult to mess up (except if you start sewing needles into the quilt back, of course!). I fell in love with the Farm Corner line from Andover a while ago and so I decided on a Farm Corner quilt to welcome the little one into this world.

Imo, the fabrics are ideal for a baby: they are made in bright, cheerful colours and there are lots of things to discover:



But (of course there's a but!) I also fell in love with the Kate & Nate line from Northcott Fabrics. There is not only this adorable alphabet panel:

... but also this sweet stripe yardage:

I simply couldn't resist those little boys with their puppies. :)


However, I don't think they're quite as nice for a baby quilt, so I'll keep them for a 1st birthday quilt. It pays off to plan ahead! ;)

PS: I ordered the Farm Corner fabrics from etsy and -- as you can easily see -- the Kate & Nate fabrics from the fabulous Fat Quarter Shop.

Currently digging: Jacqueline Gilbert

... and it's all Laura's fault! :)




Between 1976 and 1994 Jacqueline Gilbert wrote twelve novels for Mills and Boon. I started with Poppy Girl (isn't that a sweet title? note that there's no mention of Spanish billionaires, French millionaires, or Greek tycoons!), fell in love with Gilbert's writing (how can I not love somebody who's a fan of Dorothy Dunnett?) and thus ran to the computer to order more or her novels. So far, I've read The Chequered Silence and Capricorn Man (still no tycoon! nor any secret wives or babies!!) and really enjoyed these, too.

More to come!

I iz back!

This summer I crossed the Big Pond once too many times, for when I came home from New Haven last Tuesday, I was hit by a wave of jet lag of epic porportions. A big, old, giant, beastly dragon of jet lag. It swallowed me whole and didn't spit me out for several days. Hence I barely managed to crawl out of bed in the mornings (mornings? ha!) and was on the verge of falling asleep for the rest of the day. I properly woke up only after 6 p.m. or thereabouts. Gah!

This time, my visit to the USA was a bit of an adventure: not only did I take the train from Newark International Airport to New Haven (& caught a glimpse of Manhattan during the journey!!!), but I also trod the hallowed halls of Yale University. To be honest, I felt somewhat daunted by the prospect of giving a paper at Yale. I mean, Yale!! And I was considerably more nervous than I usually am. Especially as I had to shorten my paper, like, five minutes before the presentation (uh-oh!) (for whatever reason, the whole "8 pages of double-spaced text = 20 minutes of talking" so didn't work for me this time around -- duh!). In addition, it was considerably warmer than I had reckoned with (aka I sweated like a pig). And if that wouldn't have been bad enough, this was also a conference where I didn't know anybody AND I was to give the first paper. (Oh the pressure!) (And I'm not just talking about the pressure on my poor little academic soul, but also the one on my bladder!) But I needn't have worried: Richard Doyle's illustrations always make people smile and chuckle (even if the presenter has some problems with the stupid Power Point presentation!) Yay for Dicky Doyle!!!

Naturally, I was impressed by Yale. Who wouldn't be? It's a beautiful campus; the university owns several museums; and the libraries are so gorgeous they make you cry. But on the other hand, Yale is full of strangeness, too. Take the buildings: somebody took great pains to copy Oxford and Cambridge as well as to make everything look really, really, really old. Think treating the individual stones with acid and/or putting them in the river to artifically age them. Think false cracks in the windows. Think medieval turrets. You get the picture. It made me chuckle.

A lot. :)

And then, there are the secret societies and their buildings, which aren't shown on campus maps on account of them being, well, secret. Very secret. So secret that each (huge!) building only has one entrance and no windows. Obviously, secret societies meet in the dark (on account of them being so secret, of course!) and don't like other people peeking in on their secret business (makes you think of Terry Pratchett's Elucidated Brethren of the Ebon Night, doesn't it?). Now, don't get me wrong, I'm perfectly fine with secret societies in fiction (and the Elucidated Brethren are rather sweet in their own twisted way), but in real life? What do secret societies do? Apart from hanging out in places to which nobody else has access??? It's all a bit cloak and dagger, and very odd indeed!

What shocked me was the rather noticeable contrast between Yale and New Haven: on the one hand, you have this very rich university; on the other, there is a rather poor town with an appallingly high number of what looked like homeless people. Very disturbing!

The conference itself, though, was fantastic. The RSVPers are a bunch of knowledgable and thoroughly nice people with great enthusiam for the Victorian Age in general and Victorian periodicals in particular. Not only did I learn an awful lot, but I also met people who had actually heard of Richard Doyle. There even was a paper on Doyle's father, John Doyle, the political caricaturist "H.B."! Not to mention the paper on needlework patterns!!! Attending this conference was a heady and thrilling experience and exactly as academia ought to be, but as it, alas, so often is not.

Lavender Sachet

Who says practical things can't be pretty and smell good? ;) French lavender = bliss!

While I'm away, meet Sue Bonnet

At the moment I'm in New Haven, CT to attend a conference on Victorian periodicals. My paper deals with Richard Doyle's illustrations for Punch. Like this one. Or this.

So while I'm away, I'm going to entertain you with some pictures of my recent redwork projects. Here's little Sue Bonnet and her duckie (this reminded me of the duckie in our backyard):

She was placed on top of a jar of homemade lemon curd:

Corduroy Wes

This is Wes ...

Corduroy Wes.

Wes lives on one of the bookshelves in my mini-library. He likes to climb on boxes:

Here he is galumphing around the table:


Wes is one of the softies from Hilary Lang's brandnew book Wee Wonderfuls:

I've been reading Hilary's blog of the same title for several months now, and I couldn't WAIT for her book to be released. I'm happy to report that so far it did not disappoint. :)

I chose Wes as my first project from the book because A) he looked cute ...


... and B) because he consists of only six main pattern pieces (not including the ears) and it looked all very straightforward and easy.

Ha! Famous last words and all that! (If you've been following my blog for a while, you might remember the pin I sewed into my first quilt. Or what happened when I decided not to make my quilt back bigger than the front.)

This is my first softie consisting of more than two pattern pieces, which might explain why I had some trouble at first to figure out how Wes ought to be put together. There are pictures in the book, of course, but sometimes I'm a bit dense and therefore it took me some time to realise what the underbelly pieces were for. (Duh.) When the penny had finally dropped, it was indeed all very straightfoward.

HOWEVER ...

My cutting technique left something to be desired, and as a consequence I had some problems fitting the gusset(s) to the side pieces. To make matters worse, I ended up with two different-sized head pieces = not good. (Note to self: Tracing, cutting, you needz to improve itz!) Luckily, it's relatively easy to improvise when you sew softies. So I improvised, and I have to say I'm quite happy with the results. :)

Friendz Forevah!

And Even More Pics

On Canada Day, I intended to visit one of the Harbor Front Festivals, but as it turned out, nearly all of Toronto had had the same idea, and me + crowds + heat = not goodz. So I decided to take the ferry to the islands -- not that this did me any good: What I had not realised was that the islands are basically a small-scale (and charmingly quaint) amusement park. Instead of nature, I encountered even more crowds. But after I had bought some candy and had done some brisk walking, I eventually found some spots where the crowds had thinned (yay!). As you can see from the pictures, it was a beautiful day with a lot of sunshine and a deep blue sky, and I immensely enjoyed walking along the lakeshore.

There were seagulls ...

And swan boats ...


And dreamy canals ...


And some kind of farm / mini-zoo thingie with loads and loads of peacocks ...


And lovely views ...


And even more lovely views ...


Indeed, there's even a small colony of people living on the islands in wonderfully old-fashioned houses (see the flag? It's Canada Day!) ...


But in the end, the crowds and the sunshine did get to me and I developed a monstrous headache. Stopping at one of the restaurants, drinking a bit pot of Earl Grey and eating a slice of cheesecake helped (pouring half of the tea into my lap didn't, though). Tea and sugar always helps! (Well, quite often anyway.)

The Name Is Bunny, Mr Bunny

Take a cute pattern and a cuddly fabric, add some thread, pins (please notice my lovely tomato pin cushion which I got from my Mum!) and a sewing machine ...


... and you might end up with this:



Mr Bunny is one of the crafting projects I finished last week. He is a variation of Miss Chibi-Kitty and of this little bunny (I found the pattern here) -- only this time I used the sewing machine. I wasn't quite sure whether I would be able to do all the tight curves on the machine, but me and the Carina managed just fine.

For the bunny's body I used some of the leftovers from the fabric with which I filled my first quilt (LINK). It's very soft and so was perfect to make a present for a baby girl. I embroidered Mr Bunny's smiley face ...



... and also added the initial of the baby girl's first name in order to personalise the gift. I sure hope she and her parents will like Mr Bunny!


PS: Sorry if the colours in the photos come out weird on your computer. The 'puter that I normally use to work on photos has died (which is also partly the reason for my lengthy absence), so I have to use another and for some reason or other, I've got difficulties with the picture editing programme. Hmph.

Pictures from Toronto

Here are a few more pictures I took in Toronto.

Before the G20 madness started and Downtown was closed off, I went to the Black Creek Pioneer Village, a lovely open air museum. I'm not really used to the amount of concrete that I encountered in Toronto, so visiting the museum became a rather enchanting mini-holiday.