Framed Moments

I have noticed that in quilting there are few special moments that tell you if the project is going to the right direction. Nowadays I know to seek for these moments and I work until I reach that step before I continue crafting. First step for me is choosing the right colors. After I have drawn the first sketch of a pattern I begin to go through my fabric stack. I make color families, some with harmony, some with contrasts and some with unexpected pairs. One method I use too is to take one print fabric and then choose colors to support it's palette. Usually when I am drawing a new pattern I have an idea what colors I will use, is it going to be more about red, blue, or green hues. I could also choose to have all the colors of the circle in bright graffiti shades. When the color combination begins to form I might need to buy one or two new fabrics that I don't have in my fabric cabinet. It is more of a tradition that I need to visit a fabric store. Because quilting is a craft that is time consuming I allow myself to purchase new equipment and materials quite often, there is no point using colors that don't feel exactly right and then spend weeks planning, sewing and stitching a pillow or months when a bigger project is in question. 

When colors have been chosen I begin to draw detailed color sketches. I draw 4-10 sketches where different parts are colored with different fabrics. After this process one or two begins to feel right and I choose one for further development. I plan and count the cutting as precisely as possible. Then I cut a sample of fabrics according to my cutting plan and begin to sew sample blocks. It might be that the pattern doesn't actually work in that size or with that fabric and I have to make corrections. Then I sew some blocks more. I begin with the blocks that have most seams and cuttings and then continue to count other blocks according to measurements of the most difficult ones. Like for example in my latest project I first made all triangle blocks and then measured and cut the rectangles that go between. I had a quite detailed color palette but one fabric I had planned to use between triangle blocks was too dominant and I left it out and went with no pattern fabrics that give space for the design. I cut few rectangle samples and played with the blocks. Then one setting looked interesting  and it had some challenge. I don't like too much harmony and every work needs to have spark. In every project I also make a test. I have a bad eyesight and when I take my glasses off all I can see is color blur. So I use my special power and take off my glasses to see if the colors are working. If there is for example too much yellow in one corner and then a bunch of red in another I make corrections so that the work looks even and colors go smoothly. 

Then it is time to cut the last blocks, sew and iron before one of my favorite parts comes. Stitching the batting. To be honest I used to hate this part. I have a small apartment and stitching a larger project is difficult or even impossible. When I understood that I can make smaller projects it was a heureka moment. With pillows or table runners it is easy to get an even batting. Embroidery hoop stays tight, you can sit and embroider in a comfortable position and there is no horrible back ache that comes from working with heavier projects like blankets. Now I love to plan the stitching and even if I stitch every block decoratively it doesn't take ages to finish. The ultimate framed moment is when the first part of the work is attached to the embroidery hoop and I have made the first stitches. It is the moment that tells if the project has succeeded. Because a successful project is a piece of modern art framed with embroidery hoop. It works as itself and could be hanged on the wall. Its colors please and challenge the eye. Lines cross in harmony creating an interesting pattern. It is the moment I am hooked in quilting and it encourages to start a project after project.

What are your framed moments? Do you love quilting or do you have another form of self expression?

Inspiring and creative week to you all!

Sannu

7/52: Anna Karenina

7/52 Leo Tolstoy: Anna Karenina (1875-1877). This classic has deserved it's position as one of the most loved novels in the world. It is a long read, there is 999 pages in the Finnish translation, but Tolstoy has used his paper well. The novel opens the whole world between human's birth and death.  I love novels that work in various levels giving a great story and something deeper to work in your mind years after. In Anna Karenina there is both day's politics of the 1875-1877 and greater than life love story. Discussions that social circles have in their parties open the mental climate of the era without a historical dust cover. Time has changed but it is interesting to notice how for example equality issues were brought up in a party conversation. They discuss how women and men have different possibilities and rules in what is accepted. The life story of Anna and Vronsky also examines the same issue. Anna has more drastic consequences from their rule breaking decision to live together. 

In infinite time, in infinite matter in infinite space, is formed a bubble organism, and that bubble lasts a while and bursts, and that bubble is Me.

-Leo Tolstoy: Anna Karenina

The characters have their own  backgrounds that have formed them as they are. Everyone has their own noble moments and charm but not a single character is without flaws or ugliness. After all, what we can know from each other is very limited. We know people around us by shared experiences and what they decide to tell us of their inner life. People have expectation towards each other and they build their own dreams including others to their plans. Karenin has his career goals and he is satisfied with his mundane family life. Anna Karenina seems pleased with her life with Karenin but reads and dreams of great adventures and something more. Dolly, Anna's friend and her brother's wife, feels betrayed when she hears about her husbands lovers and that the truth she has learned is something very different than what she has based her whole life. There comes a question in what way you are allowed to chase your goals and dreams? In the novel characters hurt each other badly when they try to orientate towards their own ambitions and passions.  

When Anna meets Vronsky she finds a chance to make her own adventure and turn her life into something interesting. Little by little what she has learned to accept during the years become unbearable and her husband's manners start to irritate her. In her need of change she feels even a full catastrophe is better than live the boring life she has had so far.  When she tells her husband about her relationship with Vronsky Karenin's sanction to keep things as they are is so horrible that she gets depressed. The safe, boring and fully planned lifestyle offered to women doesn't seem to please any of the characters. In one get-together women ask from each other how they spend their time when everything is so boring. In the atmosphere there is a need to shake the norms. Women's rights for education, self development and public career is discussed a few times. One of the biggest themes in the novel is a woman's right to seek passion and fulfill her dreams in every sector of life. 

It is tragic that after all the years Anna and Vronsky spend together Anna is haunted by the decision she has made. Social circles have abandoned her and she feels lonely. She misses her son she had to leave to Karenin. In the loneliness there is space for jealousy after Vronsky. She is constantly afraid of loosing him and the passionate relationship turns into game of suspicion and mistrust where they both begin to show their worst sides. When Vronsky finally gets to be with Anna he doesn't feel happy but empty and after years together begins to seek his freedom. He, as a man, has a right to chase freedom. Anna has made a decision to choose freedom but is restricted by social circles and norms.

With Levin there comes a philosophical aspect to the novel. He swells deep in questioning the meaning of life and the inevitable truth that we all die. He is used as a way to bring the large scale of life's and nature's circle in where all life's fortunes and tragedies take a place. He is both attached to the world and soil by his farm and love with Kitty but also at times comes to understand how temporary it all is. The thought of temporariness makes him anxious and he is challenged to stay focused on life. When he goes too deep thinking of death he doesn't see a point to do everyday chores, dream or develop himself. Because of these thoughts, old as life on Earth, he loves to take part in farm work that keeps him in reality. 

The constant thinking of death would make it impossible to live but death is also a motivator in life. Anna decides to go after Vronsky when still in this life, with the risk of hurting Karenin. Decisions in life are always decisions of life and death, how you choose to live this moment or waste it. Do I follow love or leave the important decisions undone and stay satisfied with the boring and mundane. Spending time on Earth is how we slowly kill ourselves. On the contrary our decisions can waste time from other people and make their decisions and how they have spent their time pointless. Like Stiva who has made Dolly to question their life together or Anna who questions Karenin's achievements. 

Levin also brings up the theme of ideals and how much people can change. He and Kitty go into same fights again and again. And in the end when Levin finds religious path he is surprised how little it affects on his everyday manners. After having a life changing moment when he realizes some of the meaning of life he still yells to his worker and does other things he has just wanted to change in himself. The tasks and patterns that keep us in life keep us separated from the greater truth of life. Truth being something we can then stop and think every now and then, forget and continue doing what we do as long as we have time. And life in all it's horrible, terrifying, wonderful and beautiful ways is between birth and death and small moments of understanding the bigger picture.

I have tried to read Anna Karenina before but never finished. This time the story began to speak right from the beginning. Maybe there is time for every book. A book that was just a book starts to bring up the same issues you have pondered in your mind lately and every clause has a meaning. Maybe some discussions get a new meaning because we study the story behind the 2018 lenses. Still the fascination of a great classic is to notice how similar issues we carry through the time. Of course the ideologies of the era bring an own touch to the writing but when human being is described in their barest what we can find is something that doesn't change. 

Reading Notes 6/52: February

Those who follow me on Instagram might be thinking 'Oh, wasn't she supposed to read Anna Karenina as sixth book?' Yes, that is true. I took a challenge to read Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina in one week and I am determined to finish it as I promised, on this week's Thursday. That means you might get two blog posts about books this week. But it is not a bad thing to have more talk about great books, is it? So this week's surprise book is Françoise Sagan's Bonjour tristesse that I read in Finnish. I heard about this book from my Instagram friend @making.house.a.home.blog and got so interested that I went to get this from a library the same week. 

I love to read about books and get new authors to read. Especially I have got a project to read books that are not originally written in English. Books in English are easy to find and I can read those in original language. But what comes to books written in some other language than Finnish or English there comes a little challenge as I can't read those books in original language and some classics are difficult to find in Finnish. Those have been translated years ago and copies have been sold out. Luckily this one was in the local library so didn't have to wait long to get to read it. Few steps to the nearest library and I was at home reading. I started this book right after Truman Capote's In Cold Blood but then got an idea to read Anna Karenina. Yet I had curiosity to finish this before Anna Karenina as this is relatively short read, only 131 pages. 

6/52 Françoise Sagan. Bonjour Tristesse (1954). I read this in Finnish Tervetuloa, ikävä. Cécile is having a lazy summer holiday with her father and her father's mistress Elsa. Suddenly her mother's old friend Anne comes to the villa and she finds out her father and Anne are having a relationship. Anne is intelligent, ambitious and demanding what both fascinates and terrifies Cécile. She becomes afraid that her and her father's loose lifestyle will come to an end. To get rid off Anne she creates a plot that includes her boyfriend Cyril and Elsa. 

Cécile is evaluating her goals in life as any young person. She wants to continue a lazy and loose lifestyle she and her father have created. Lifestyle where there is no demands, ambitions or rules. It kind of seems a dream lifestyle for a person who has no hurry in life but all her years ahead to waste. Still she admires Anne in every way and finds her sophisticated lifestyle and intelligence as something to want in her future. She respects Anne's opinions and guidance what comes to education and other big life decisions. Yet she is afraid that her life will become boring and scheduled adult life too soon if Anne and her father will marry each other. Maybe the lifestyle Anne represents is something Cécile will have later in life after she has had her adventures and mistakes.

Anne is also an opponent Cécile has been missing. Someone who has enough wit to oppose her and question her choices. That is something what every rebel needs, a person who puts boundaries to break. When Cécile's father acts like her friend instead of a parent he actually gives too much freedom and responsibility. In some cases he is even acting like a teenager and Cécile has to be the one to set boundaries. That is why Cécile needs to test Anne who is the only one with enough capacity to win her. 

When her evil plot to misguide her father and drive away Anne succeeds she is astonished. She has been playing a game and is surprised by her power to influence people. In her egoism she has neglected Anne's feelings. It is eye opening moment for Cécile when she understands that Anne is a living human being with dreams and feelings that can be hurt like any other person's even though she seems to have unbreakable self esteem. Her father in the other hand shows his immaturity when he becomes obsessed to show how he can get Elsa back from Cyril. 

This novel pictures honestly young person's naive cruelty. She is not evil but still a bit egoistic and naive. She doesn't yet understand how big influence her actions can have as she is partly a child testing her limits even though playing in adult world. The play becomes a catastrophe because of the role of her father. That is why it is so tragic in the end when she and her father continue their life as they did before Anne. Cécile has lost maybe more than she can imagine.

Have you read this book? What kind of thoughts it provoked in you?

Valentine's Day Decorations

Valentine's Day, what a wonderful reason to craft and decorate! There is never too many festive days in a year. I like to have excuses to make small decorations and arrangements. In a small apartment festive seasons are a handy way to change decor and have a reason to start over again. 

I know festive days can cause stress because there is a pressure to have lots of fun and masses of people around you. Spending Valentine's Day alone doesn't sound that appealing when you look at the pictures in social media or magazines. Also there might be a pressure to buy expensive gifts you actually can't afford. I have taken an approach to enjoy all festive seasons in advance. I gather inspiration, plan, craft and decorate. I have learned that preparations are the thing that I enjoy the most. Festive days feel often a bit flat. Sometimes the actual celebration has no extra because all events and gatherings are before or after the day. Like it is thought that people have too many plans already for that day. 

One way to celebrate Valentine's Day is to make DIY decorations, send Valentine's cards, maybe bake festive treats and take part to some Valentine's event. I really hope that every town and village has at least one event where everybody is invited. It might not be labelled with Valentine's Day in it. Maybe it is a dance class or reading circle that actually has gatherings every week, but is open for new members. One of my plans for Valentine's Day is to attend to an open lecture that has nothing to do with Valentine's. It just happens to take place that day. For me the most important thing is to be among people and do something that I am actually interested in. Who is to show the right way to celebrate Valentine's Day or any other festive season.

For those like minded people who enjoy crafting and decorating I have got two Valentine's decoration DIY ideas. I felt I needed to craft something small and super cute this year. Pink, hearts, pearls and tassels are the details that make my Valentine's decoration this February. And sure, pink flowers like roses or carnations are traditional but never old fashioned. So here you have: Heart Decoration 1 and 2 tutorials. Please share on social media if you like <3 

Heart Decoration 1.

You will need:

27 small pearls

Thin wire

Embroidery Yarn

Golden sewing yarn

Glue

Needle

Scissors

Pliers

Piece of cardboard

Step 1. Cut 2,5 cm high piece from cardboard. Cut long piece of wire and put on the cardboard. Twist embroidery yarn around the cardboard and wire 11 times.

Step 2. Knot the wire tight around the bundle and remove the cardboard.

Step 3. Knot piece of embroidery yarn 0,5 cm from wire knot. Trim the tassel.

Step 4. Thread 13 small pears to both wire ends.

Step 5. Put wire ends together and twist tight with pliers. Put a pearl to cover the knot and little bit of glue to keep the pearl in its place. Put a loop from sewing yarn to hang the decor.

Heart Decoration 2

You will need:

Felt heart or big heart shaped pearl

3 small pearls

Embroidery yarn

Golden sewing yarn

Scissors

Needle

Cardboard

Step 1. Cut 2,5 cm high piece from cardboard. Cut long piece of golden yarn and put on the cardboard. Twist embroidery yarn around the cardboard and golden yarn 11 times. 

Step 2. Knot the golden yarn tight around the bundle and remove the cardboard.

Step 3. Knot piece of embroidery yarn 0,5 cm from golden yarn knot. Trim the tassel.

Step 4. Take a needle and thread two pearls, felt heart and one pearl to the golden yarn. Make a knot to the end of the yarn so you can hang the decor.

Happy first of February To You All <3

Sannu