I chose to read this book because Jane Brocket (The Gentle Arts of Domesticity) recommended Elizabeth Taylor - she recommended At Mrs Lippincote’s - however, The Blushwas the only Elizabeth Taylor book I could lay my hands on (I bought it from Ebay).

Here is the blurb on the back …

In these short stories, first published in 1958, Elizabeth Taylor pursues the nuances of ordinary life with her usual dexterity. There is the upright Mrs Allen who unwittingly provides an alibi for Mrs Lacey, her ’slackly corseted’ home help; Emily who has written fluent and amusing letters to a distinguished novelist for ten years but descends into small talk when they meet; Katie, Natalie and Frances, preparing for their first dance amidst a cloud of talcum powder and bathroom giggles; and the strained conversation between ex-lovers Peter and Catherine at her children’s seaside Barbecue. ‘Here Mrs Taylor displays her gift - her extraordinary gift - for sheer situation - not a tale here fails to expand in the imagination of the reader’ - Elizabeth Bowen.

I did enjoy these stories they have an old world charm - very middle England. The situations are ordinary, but vividly described and the inner life of the characters is described in an unsentimental manner that none the less makes you feel their pain, frustration, etc. These stories are all about character, so if you like a story ‘where nothing really happens’ then these stories are for you.

I’m definitely going to track down some more Elizabeth Taylor novels probably from here.

I’ve quilted all of the construction lines as recommended by Harriet Hargrave and have started the individual blocks. I decided I was going to try free motion quilting - it’s a bit of a mess (as you can see in the above image) because I have just been doodling, but my stitch length is definitely improving and I feel more confident about moving the quilt under the needle. Plus the free motion quilting is much faster than straight line quilting (at least for me).

Here is a closer image of the quilting

I have been blogging for a year now and I thought this would be a good time to take stock.

At the start I hoped this blog would force me to create more to generate content. I don’t think that has been the case. However, it is great to have a record of a year’s crafting. In the past year I have been most pleased with

my patchwork cards

birth sampler

patchwork blocks

And my socks

Once I expanded this blog to include non-crafty items, such as book reviews, I found it much easier to find content.

During the next year, I want to focus on embroidery (in particular larger embroideries that require multiple hoopings) and reducing my fabric stash (not to mention the to be read pile of books). I have plans for an I Spy quilt (the latest Get Creative magazine had a pattern I quite liked) and a Disappearing Nine Patch.

I pinned together the layers for my Turning Twenty quilt. It is one of those jobs that requires a big block of time, so I kept putting it off, but today I decided it needed to be done.

I had almost reached the end when I ran out of safety pins. I tried to make do with little gold pins, but they just kept bending. So I went to the local fabric store and bought more pins and these binding clips (you might need to scroll down to see the binding clips).

Now to start the quilting …

I went here …

To see these …

Check out this link: Sculpture by the Sea 

I’ve been watching Road to Avonlea while knitting my socks. It’s a Canadian children’s television series that was filmed in the late 80s early 90s - there were seven series. It was made by Sullivan Entertainment who also made the Anne of Green Gables shows. It is based (somewhat loosely) on the works of L M Montgomery (namely The Story Girl, The Golden Road, Chronicles of Avonlea and Further Chronicles of Avonlea)

(Picture from http://www.avonleaguide.com/)

I’ve been enjoying it - each episode is about 45 minutes long (just the right length for any of my knitting attempts) and there are 91 episodes - surely I’ll get my sock finished before I’ve finished watching them all. There is a fabulous website devoted to the series here.

I love looking at the clothes and the house furnishings - I imagine there is a lot of ironing involved!

If you like period domestic detail and (dare I say it) wholesome entertainment, then watch this series. However, a word of caution Sullivan Entertainment charge a King’s ransom to post the DVDs to Australia, buy from here instead.

This book was my latest treat and a treat it is - the pictures are stunning. I don’t need another quilt book, but I couldn’t resist this one.

In the first section Fassett writes about the two themes of the quilts (triangles and framing colour or print). The first image below is one of the triangle quilts, the next is framing colour and the third framing print.

Goes Around Comes Around

Earthy Frames

Sunny Frames

And in the second section he discusses the source of his inspiration. For example, one design was derived from a porcelain box.

I’d really like to do something like the Earthy Frames or Sunny Frames (see images above). Possibly using my Japanese Fabric or maybe all of my nursery prints.

The Jane’s Diamonds quilt is lovely (and I am a keen Jane Austen fan - check out my crosswords), but I don’t think I’m up to cutting all of the diamonds.

The Brick Bracket Medallion looks fabulous too - I like the way one border seems to overlap another.

Then there is an essay from Amy Butler - a bit of a biography and then some information about her sources.

And then there are detailed patterns for 20 quilts (with a star rating - for example the Brick Bracket Medallion is one star), a technical patchwork section, a glossary and brief biographies of all of the contributers.

I think this book is great and I definitely recommend it to anyone who is interested in quilting. More for the inspiration than the quilting know-how. The way the colours and shapes are combined is divine.

I thought I should write a blog about my craft progress… 

Cutting the backing fabric for my Turning Twenty Quilt.

I’ve finished one sock for A …

I made the leg part shorter than the last pair and I followed the instructions exactly when it came to decreasing for the toe. Now I just need to make the second one.

I try to read the Man Booker prize winners - I think it makes me appear vaguely cultured (probably just pretentious). I seem to like about half of them - I hated The Sea (John Banville), but loved Possession (A S Byatt) was indifferent to The Life of Pi (Yann Martel), but enjoyed The Blind Assassin (Margaret Atwood) you get the picture.

As I had already read Enright’s Making Babies Stumbling into Motherhood, I thought I would read this one.

The gathering in the title is the getting together of the Hegarty clan to mourn the death (a suicide) of Liam. Veronica is our narrator and she is one of 12 children - Liam was her closest sibling.

Before I go any further let me just say this book is grim very grim. Also, there might be spoilers following … 

The Hegarty family are dysfunctional and not just in the ways that all big families are dysfunctional - something nasty happened in the wood shed (or at least in the good front room) to Liam.  It takes almost the entire novel for this dreadful secret to be revealed. Veronica spends quite a bit of time re-imagining her Grand Parents courtship and marriage - and remembering a time when Liam and she (and another sister) stayed with the Grand Mother (was it after another of her mother’s miscarriages - she had 7 - I told you this story was grim). Veronica’s grief is dreadful, she seems to be losing grip of her life - drinking too much, hating her husband and her comfortable middleclass life style.

On a positive note, Enright’s prose is fabulous each sentence is finely crafted and she puts words together in unexpected combinations. For example, “I lay them out in nice sentences, all my clean, white bones” and “… I find she has run through me like water”.

I found this book confronting and not particularly pleasant, but I’m glad I read it.

Here are some more reviews …

The New York Times - Sunday Book Review

http://theasylum.wordpress.com/2007/08/16/anne-enright-the-gathering/

I made more patchwork cards - this one is based on a flying geese pattern and the two below are half of a garden path pattern (from this book)

It’s an easy process - a bit time consuming, but I do get to use up tiny bits of left over fabric. I’m happy to share the machine embroidery patterns (just leave a comment).