Year of Wonder, Hags and a mini quilt

 

Having finished my '31 days in May' fabric challenge, I was pondering on what to do next in order to keep my mind ticking over.  Then I recalled this book, Clemency Burton Hill's 'Year of Wonder'.  I bought it ages ago, and every late December I pull it off the bookshelf and decide to include it as part of my New Year resolutions.  Cue failure.  Don't most resolutions peter out way before the end of that long, dark, dreary month?  All grey skies and freezing cold, no cash after Christmas and expanding waistlines from too many festive treats.  New Year resolutions disappear, along with the last of the wrapping paper and boxes of chocolates.  

If you've not come across 'Year of Wonder' it's an introduction to the mysterious world of classical music, and the author picks a short piece to listen to each day of the year, along with a few paragraphs or a page of explanation/introduction/history of the composer.  The music's easily accessible on Spotify or YouTube, so you don't even have to buy LPs or compact discs.  

I decided I'd start at the 1st of June, and listen to a piece of music each day, and who knows?  By 30th I might've got into such a habit I'll keep going into July and beyond.  So far I've listened to and enjoyed: 

Je te veux - I want you by Erik Satie (1866 to 1925) 

Divertimento on Sellinger's Round 2. 'A Lament': Andante espressivo by Michael Tippett (1905 to 1998) 

&

Ave Maria by Charles Gounod (1818 to 1893) after J.S. Bach (1685 to 1750)

I don't have the vocabulary to talk about classical music.  I can listen to some compositions and like them or find them uplifting or thrilling or dull or meh!  I have no in depth knowledge.  Perhaps that'd develop if I listened to it more?  But I was raised on Radio 1 and pop music.  Classical was boring stuff for middle class people, and didn't figure in my world. 

Anyhow, that's my June challenge.  The other book featured in the photo above is 'Hags' by Victoria Smith, about the demonisation of middle aged woman.  Being a Woman of a Certain Age, that's a subject of definite interest to me!  I'm alternating reading it with Alice Hoffman's 'The Probable Future' whose central character is a thirteen year old girl.  Two very different ages of womanhood in two very different books.  

Okay, let's have some more pictures to look at, shall we? 

Lovely white foxgloves from the allotment.  

The Love-in-a-Mist is making itself known too.  Such delicate flowers, so pretty.  

Vividly coloured Sweet Williams.  

There are only a few of these deep red poppies.  They're fleeting, and will be gone before you know it, but they'll leave their wonderfully sculptural seed-heads behind.

On the crafty front, I'd made some strips of black, white and grey fabric without any real idea of what to do with them.  I added a tangerine orange, and then - inspiration failed to strike, so the assembled strips were left to one side for a few weeks.  On Thursday, I think it was, I decided to make them into a mini quilt.  A small textile piece I could hang on the wall, a way of experimenting with colours and shapes.  I worked fairly speedily, arranging sections, sewing them together, adding a backing material and quilting lines.  

The strips were laid on a base of calico, approx 33cm x 30cm.

I tried adding extra colours - a yellow or lime green - but in the end they weren't needed.

I was reasonably pleased with the result.  

All that remains to is hang it on the wall.  I've already got my next project in mind.  More of that to come.