Needlework Tuesday

Last evening was the monthly meeting with my local quilt guild, the Elmira Needlesisters. Being on the program committee, it was my turn to arrange the speaker. In our ten years as a guild, we haven't looked to the past of quilting and tried hand piecing. I invited Helen Martin of Cambridge, Ontario to show us how its done.

After showing us several examples of hand pieced quilts we were enthused to give it a try ourselves.

We made cardboard templates, and transferred the outlines to the back of our fabrics. Some members even had time to start sewing. The first pic shows the two blocks that Helen made as samples. The next photo shows my fabrics cut out and ready for sewing.


I donated fabric to the guild for the background and asked those who wished to use that fabric to donate their blocks back and we would use them for a community project next year.


I did find time to work on my cousin's quilt this week. I rolled once. yippee. Always a feel good moment. I am now well beyond the boarders and into the body of the quilt. Much of the 'blue' fabric is filled with motifs adapted from the Mariner's compass, but there were some empty spots that I filled in with stars. In my mind sailboats and stars are permanently linked ever since reading the poem "Sea Fever" by John Masefield.



Sea Fever
I must go down to the seas again,
to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship
and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song
and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face
and a grey dawn breaking.

I must go down to the seas again,
for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call
that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day
with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume,
and the sea-gulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again
to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way
where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn
from a laughing fellow rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream
when the long trick's over.
-- John Masefield

Freedom to Read Week

It was recently brought to my attention that it's Freedom to Read Week at your local Canadian library. Thank goodness! I don't need someone else telling me whether a book is suitable for reading. I am highly educated and am able to make that decision myself.

Quite a while back I did a review on "The Higher Power of Lucky". Loved that book. If some people had their way no one would be able to give that book to a young person to read.

Have you ever bought/read a book just because someone else sought to ban it? I would like to have the title and author and perhaps it will interest me.

List of Challenged Books and Magazines

Does listening to an audio book count as having read it?

This is coming from my 15 year old son, not my words.

Mom, Aunt XXXX said that it didn't really count if you listened to an audio book, that you hadn't really read the book!!

Eeks, what is this, am I not allowed to multi task, or does she wish she had thought to listen to audio books while she does her other projects?

Any comments?

note: that's not my photo I found it online somewhere

March Madness continues

Its time to go back to the HarperCollins website for the second round of voting. Its down to 32 books. A few of my favourite choices have been elminated. That doesn't mean I will be removing them from my wish list.

HarperCollins March Madness

April Raintree by Beatrice Culleton

I was relieved to find that this is a fictional account of the lives of two Metis sisters growing up in Winnipeg, Manitoba. April and her sister Cheryl have been removed from their parents' home and placed with a series of foster families. By chance, April has a lighter complexion and identifies herself with the white population while Cheryl has a darker complexion and identifies herself with the Metis population.

I was captivated by both girls. I would have welcomed either of them into my family.

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I don't fault April for choosing to play on her light colouring, after all, her heritage is part white. I don't walk around with a banner exclaiming all parts of my ethnic make up, so I didn't expect her to do the same. I found it mostly positive the way Cheryl embraced the Metis and how she did her research about them and presented her findings in her various school reports. Without having her parents to provide a sense of identity, she went and found it for herself.

 

Without unveiling a plot development, I was sad with what happened to April when she returned to Winnipeg to help her sister. It seemed too much to play up to stereotypes, but I suppose that it's also a reality. That in the end it had nothing to do with being Indian, but rather with choices that Cheryl made me accept better that it had to happen for the story to progress as it had.

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I cried lots of tears as the story turned back to Cheryl. She had so much hope and she seemed at first to do all the right things. I really wanted her to succeed and do good work at the Friendship Centre and for the Metis people.

I am glad to find that this book has 're-written from the original "In Search of April Raintree" for use in high schools', otherwise I would have kept searching for a copy of the other thinking that it was a sequel or prequel to this one. . It is currently the chosen books for the On the Same Page: Manitoba Reads project. The aim of which is to have 12 000 people read this book prior to April 2009. If you live in Winnipeg and have read the book this year, go to this link and register your read. update: October 24, 2009 - voting is over, though the link takes you to the City of Winnipeg Library website.

Thanks to Beatrice Culleton for creating a book that has provided such a good opportunity for reflection.

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Thanks to my online friend author Kathleen Molloy for sending me this book as a surprise to help me along with my quest to read 13 books by First Nations Authors as part of the 2nd Canadian Book Challenge.

Needlework Tuesday

I was back at my sewing machine this week. yippee. The first picture shows the 2 log cabin blocks I made. They are from the Quilters Cache website. They measure 12" and are made with a 2 1/2 " red centre and 1 1/2 inch logs.

The next picture shows the 11 blocks that were submitted for the BOM (Block of the Month) program for the Maple Leaf Quilt Guild online.


The diagonal pattern shows up so well with this block. I will hold a random drawing and one of the members who submitted a block will win them all.

As I was browsing online this morning, I checked over at Zoey's site and was thrilled to see that she is working with log cabin blocks as well. Instead of a small red centre, she has put a 6 inch bunny block in the middle. Log Cabin bunny block.

If you have done a log cabin quilt, send me the link and I'll add it here.

Miri's Red White and Black Log Cabin

I didn't get as much work done on my cousin's quilt as I wanted to. I did go to a friend's and work on a quilt that she had just put in the frame. A lovely crazy type block. Sorry I didn't get a pic.



The motif shown here was inspired by the Mariner's compass in the middle of the quilt. This will be repeated 4 times across the middle of the quilt.

I haven't heard back from Morehouse Farm about the scarf I started knitting last week. I'll send them another email in case the first got misplaced. Will give you another update next week.

The Christmas Quilt & The New Year's Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini

This is a two book in a one that came out in November 2008. A friend lent it to me as she knows I always have a couple of books on the go and am a quilter as well.

I have read a few earlier books by Jennifer and enjoyed them. Both of these books have new story lines, though they do recap and expand upon some events in previous books. That's OK for a reader who is new to the series. However, by the time I can up to a plot point for the third time, I was tired of it and felt that I already knew enough details. Give me something new to sink my teeth into.

Still, I did enjoy both books. As the titles tell you, one if set just before Christmas and the other is set a few years later just before New Years. You can read these books without having read the previous ones. My favourite in the series so far has been the very first one, "The Quilter's Apprentice". I have a few more of them sitting in 'Mount To Be Read', so you'll hear more about them if you keep coming back here to visit.

There is a lovely pic of the "Christmas Quilt" on Jennifer's website. It was even nicer than I imagined. I couldn't find a pic of the "New Year's Quilt".