OH DEAR!!!  The previous post had a very wrong typo. I said the books is not available -- it should have said IS NOW AVAILABLE.  Yes, you can get it from Amazon in either paper back or  e-book version.

Let me explain a little more about this novel:  it is definitely not a HOW-TO about quilting. It is a story  of a young woman (Liz) who is writing a Ph.D. dissertation about a quilter who lives in the tiny -- but real -- town of Friendship, Indiana. Her advisor, a folk art specialist, has suggested she might write about quilting as an art.  A long time friend of Liz's great aunt, Geneva Gardiner is not exactly a "quilting Grandma Moses". Liz  calls her an Outsider Artist. So far so good -- but Liz does not sew and also must learn about what's happening among the hundreds of thousands women who quilt, not only in the USA but in many, many other countries. She has a lot to learn.

Liz is a young woman, so, of course, romance is important too. She met a wonderful man when visiting great museums of Europe; they O.D.-ed on old masters and took a break from art by signing up to teach English in Mongolia for two years.  Now she's back at college and her boyfriend has a new interest. Of course another man enters the picture ... and then another ... Plus her family play a role.  

 FRIENDSHIP QUILTS is a  new novel by June Calender which is not available either as soft cover or as an e-book from Amazon.

In the tiny town of Friendship, Indiana, Liz discovers the  subject for her doctoral thesis in art history. Genevea Gardiner, a widowed farm wife is a quirky quilter who uses only fabrics donated to her as she attempts to make 100 quilts to send to a mission in Africa. Her designs remember traditional quilt patterns but are her own interpretation. They are so different Liz labels them "Outsider Art" and suggests Geneva is a quilting "Grandma Moses". 

 Geneva is a lifelong friend of Liz's great-aunt Alma who is now in a nursing home. Liz is invited to stay with Alma's daughter who lives in a small town near Friendship. Liz has not been close to family for some time. In fact, she has just returned after an absence during which she spent a year in Europe seeing the great art museums on a scholarship and then went with a boyfriend to Mongolia to teach English for two years. Liz actually knows almost nothing about quilts and must research both books on the subject and visit two of the largest annual quilt shows in the  United States. She meets two very different men who are interested in quilts ... and in Liz. The story becomes complicated.

June Calender, the author, has been a quilter for about forty years. She has traveled widely, seen the great art museums of Europe and visited Mongolia and Tibet as well as many other countries. She is the author of Phantom Voices in Tibet (2003) and spent several years in New York City where many of her plays were seen off-off-Broadway ... as far off as Alaska and California. She now lives on Cape Cod and teaches "Telling Stories" at the Academy for Lifelong Learning where she also edits the annual anthology of students' writing and photography ... and, of course, belongs to the Cape's Byberry Quilter's Guild.

Challenging Paper Pieced Quilt

A month ago at a quilt guild meeting I found a new, up-opened pattern for a complicated paper-pieced quilt block (to be made 16 times for a wall size quilt. The block pattern was 10 inches square and each square had 24 pieces.  I love paper piecing. It's a challenge when it has far fewer than 10 pieces. Most of the month I worked with it. The first block color choices were all wrong. Then I made another four and decided those color choices were all wrong. So I turned to the seemingly unending collection of polka dots (some sort of hanky-panky goes on in the closet at night as the polka dots seem to multiply).
  Anyway I finally chose three colors of dots with sizes from very small to very large and made eight blocks. I did not have the stamina for more. When I put it together and added three borders (black, white and red -I didn't  have enough blue for a fourth border), I decided it has an early 20th century look -- somewhere near Piccasso-ish, not quite art deco. I am undecided whether I like it or not.  I can see other possibilities for the pattern but it was so complex I probably won't come back to it.

Generations--Stella's 7th birthday

Saturday was Stella's 7th birthday. We four generations met at Beth's coffee/tea shop in the lovely old Cape Cod village of Sandwich. Stella was in full princess array. She got "fluffy"gift as per her preference for girly things (with three brothers to compete with, she's holding down the feminist line).  Very rarely do I see family resemblances in photo but in this one taken by Cory (Stella's mom), I definitely see proportions of face/ eyes-nose -mouth. (click of photo to enlarge). Brunch was only the beginning of a day of parties for Stella. 

Poem lifting my description of this morning's dawn

I have been trying to add a photo and my Blogspot does not want to talk to my photo file this evening, but maybe a bit later ... I haven't had this problem before.  Anyway went my email poet friend, Arlene Corwin send me a note and wonderful poem this morning, I responded and told her that I was looking out my east-facing window at a wonderful fruit salad of colors as the sun rose.  She has since turned my comments into a fine poem and sent it to me just now.  Here it is:

 The Ultimate Advantage 

Lemon,orange, creamy peach reach

Apricot-ty harmony

As morning thrives and sun arrives

To make it’s first appearance,

Moving slowly upward in its dance.

(Of course we know it stands

                                              quite still).

Morning’s dawning lives each day,

Waiting for the sun to send a ray

Or two or three

To you and me,

The scenery

Spectacularly

Striking in its scale.

One wants to cheer and yell

Not knowing which to do,

So staggering the stirring view, 

(Even birds shape songs anew).

Radiant, magnificent

This lemon, orange, creamy peach

Which rising, teaches us each watchful day

To love the life we live.

 

 This photo is not my best or most orange/apricot/etc. but it's the the blog accepted..

I've been having serious disputes with computers lately and  simply give up easily.

At last, time to finish a quilt

This group quilt has been sewn together for several weeks but I had no time to quilt it and add a border (black) until now. I've been engrossed in the anthology I wrote about a couple weeks so.  But the book has reached the completed layout phase and goes to the printer Monday or Tuesday, so I have  had the week-end to finish this. (I spent a couple days doing Christmas shopping and the wrapping is nearly complete). This odd block was a year-long series of swaps on Swap-Bot's Quitls-n-Things group.  It required the two center blocks be: one mostly black the other mostly white. The swappers were instructed on the surrounding color/pattern

When the swap ended I had received 24 squares  from panters. That wasn't enough so I made 18 more to have a quilt with 42 squares arranged in seven rows of six and then sashed with plain back. It was fascinating to sew together because I realized there is a huge range of fabrics. With six pieces in each square (9" each) that's a total of 336 pieces. Of course there are some duplicates but, in fact, as I sewed the squares together I realized that probably no more than 20 percent seem to appear more than once. So there are, roughly, 275 different cotton printed fabrics in this quilt. It's delightful to look over it and see such design/creativity in the various patterns. It's an adult sort of "I Spy" quilt. Happily as of today, it has it's border and is finished.  And as I always do with new quilts, I will initiate it by sleeping under it tonight.

Off and On Winter So Far

Winter arrives in quick spurts and disappears.
We had about two inches of snow last week, an all-morning lightly falling event and then it cleared  and I went out to shove it off the car before it became heavy.  Then a couple days of mixed sun and rain and gray, then a morning of dense fog when I could not see the buildings across the street -- saw two big trees in a gloomy, foggy way.

Again this week another morning of serious snow which is when these photos of Stella on her back ready to make "angels" in the snow and Silas all set to throw snowball, possibly at Stella or maybe his mother with her ever present camera phone. 
She understands how to get decent closeups --too many people
don't get close enough to their subject.

Meanwhile, I've simply dealt with the weather, never knowing
when I ought to make sure to wear boots. It's quickly come, quickly gone. No argument about that. And surely no adult enjoys snow as much as kids do.