wild geese

wild geese

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes, 
over the prairies and the deep trees, 
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, 
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, 
the world offers itself to your imagination, 
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting-
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things. 

--Mary Oliver

This quilt was born from a passionate, all-consuming, full-bodied love of colour. In pairing each fabric up with a partner to form the basic half-square triangle blocks, I let the "soft animal of my body" (thanks, M.O.) decide. Instinct. Gut-reaction. A swelling of joy deep inside my rib-cage when the fabrics were just right.

All of the fabrics I cut were lovely, and yet, in pairing them up, some colours dulled each other, while others made their partner sing. I tried not to think about it, and just kept trying colours together until my heart said, "Yes! These two HAVE to be together."

No maybes.



The quilt was inspired, originally, by an Amish layout, which called to me from the pages of a book like (you guessed it), "wild geese, harsh and exciting". I had planned to follow suit, using only solids in the Amish tradition, but when a half yard of Anna Maria Horner's "Ghost Wing" arrived in the post, it was just too perfect of a colour not to use -- that blend of minty green and turquoise that is so elusive. The pops of orange from the snippets of large-scale butterflies in the print give the quilt another dimension. I also added in a few rows of PB&J's "Picnic Raspberry Jam", which again, put a bit of a geometric spin on the Amish design.

I'm almost tempted to call this "Wild Geese I" right off the bat, as there is no doubt in my mind that I'll repeat this basic pattern with other flocks of other colours!

The Cheater's Guide to Quilting

So, in the spirit of getting started early on all things Christmas, I thought I'd show you what I'm making as a present for Tilly. As she's born in the year of the tiger, this Alexander Henry Zoo print seemed just perfect to mark her first year of Christmas with us.

And what better way to get all snuggly in winter than with a big cosy "quilt". Why the quotation marks? Well, serious quilters would probably take offense to me calling this a quilt... really it's just two yards of fabric and two yards of fleece joined together. No batting. No patchwork. No fuss.

Of course, even the simplest of quilts needs some sort of edging. And since the quilt-top took me all of two minutes to make (i.e. trimming the fabric to be the same size as the fleece!), I thought I'd spend a little extra time on the binding. Rather than buying pre-made, I made my own double-fold binding, and am on evening number three of hand-stitching it on the backside.

So, if you're after ideas for handmaking Christmas presents that'll be useful and well-loved, a little handmade quilt doesn't have to be a daunting task. Really, two yards of a favourite fabric, two yards of good quality fleece, and a couple of packages of binding (or a yard or so of fabric, if you want to make your own... tutorial here) are all you need!

And if you do start making your own, please post a link, as we'd love to see!

P.S. If you haven't entered the bits-and-bobs Christmas giveaway over at The Fable of the Table yet, you've got another day or two! Go on...

All We Are Wondering

Another weekend has almost passed

and all we are wondering

is whether Father's Day will be the day

that Justin becomes a father.

-----

P.S.

In Texas, there are trees

eight or nine feet tall

that look like enormous flowers.

Everywhere.

It's beautiful.

Treading Softly

Perhaps it's all of the gorgeous Polaroids I've been seeing lately, but something in me is leaning towards softness and light in my photos this week, rather than contrast and shadows.

It's sinking in, I suppose, that not everything needs to be bold and bright to be noticed or beautiful. That's something I've always struggled with a bit, being rather quiet and soft-spoken by nature, and it feels really lovely to capture some quiet moments on camera.