It is growing

Like a shell or a tree, my quilts grow slowly, starting in the middle. No finishing of a top alltogether; instead, strips are being "wrapped" around the center until the desired size is reached. In the end, there should be a backing, but that's the most difficult part – the reptile quilt is still waiting to be finished. :-(

Spring walk downtown

On a spring Sunday afternoon, everyone is out for a walk in our hometown. People sit in cafés, a blanket wrapped around their hips and legs, because it is not really warm yet! It is warm in the sunshine, but an icy cold wind lingers and kept us from sitting outdoors, we walked to stay warm.
Lovely photo light! I hurried to take the picture with the evening sun on the baroque facade. It changed within seconds.

We took an elevator up to the eighth floor of a design house. There are furniture and kitchen shops on every floor, and in some parts you can see that it is an old store building.
We had a nice view over the city from the roof -- I took the photo behind tinted glass which explains the green sky.

Fiddling with the tiniest scraps

Sometimes when I see pictures on quilters' blogs showing inchies, I wonder how the ladies find the patience to do this. Lately I have come to finding pleasure in the challenge of smallness, also trying to use every snippet of my treasured fabrics, knowing there is no supply, once they are used. On the other hand, it is possible to reproduce some of the patterns by ordering a reprint, but the result is not satisfying, the feel is different. Sometimes I'm ridden by regret to have discarded so many fabrics before I started quilting.
Sometimes I tell myself to be more confident in the richness and reproductive power of life. Generally. To trust the unity of spirit and to feel embedded in the flow of life instead of clinging to what I cherish for being unique...

Somber days

An unusual meeting of crows, being a kind of answer to my mood and thoughts and the news I'm listening to.


Another bird, brighter and more sumptuous, came to me and received a little house.

 

It is meant to be a tiny tablecloth for all kinds of use.

The reverse is a Makower fabric which I think is one of the most beautiful patterns ever.

This is how far I got with my museum quilt; it is a multi-directional quilt, not really meant to be hung on the wall, but rather to be used and turned around. As I prefer quilts to be.

And here are the sketches I promised yesterday

Ancient grotesque

digitally colored

Greetings from Picasso

Scary goddess

Ancient tatzelwurm

As you see, I added notes and comments; the comments are written in old German handwriting, the facts about the artefacts in Latin. 

I spent a few hours in this museum, drawing in a standing position; it was rather strenuous. Have to do more training. I don't see these drawings as anything but documentary where the use of a camera, especially flashlight, is not allowed. --The colored drawing is digitally revised.
Our cousin's wife talked to her mother in Tokyo, she and Dad and sisters are all okay. They were shopping in a big department store in the city, and suddenly the chandeliers started swinging, and all the manikins fell over. They rode home in a cab, because the trains were all stopped; everything was very quiet, no signal-horns, but a spooky atmosphere, she said.

An Exhibition that fits

Yesterday, I spent a part of the day in our Museum for Art and Craft. There was a wonderful exhibition of small sculptures. As I was not allowed to take photographs, I made drawings of these beautiful little artwork pieces.
Will show them soon.
These are similar examples. And this. And this. They remind me a lot of the art of Brancusi and Picasso.
Drawing is a wonderful way to take the image with me when I cannot take photographs.
In Italy in 1971, I needed a permission to make drawings in museums! I purchased one at the consulate before I went back to Italy.

Treasures

 

Inspired by the Cucuteni culture in a book about ancient goddesses, I found my museum being transformed from an ethnological into a historical one. Here is more about the connection of ancient sculptures and the female organism. The scraps on top are just perfect to create the look of aged parchment and to go with hand writing.

Korak piecing allows the use of very small scraps.

Art indoors and outdoors

Children's drawings, chalk,
on the garage drive.

We live in a block of 4-floor apartement houses. A large number of kids live here, and doesn't feng shui say that it is good to be where the children play? Spring is on its way very slowly, at night the temps are a few degrees below freezing point, at day not much higher. --
A true korak, as I said, will not be quilted. But I do. Larger patches need the support of added threads. So I expand quilting on the whole surface, to be consequent.

The playground of critters

Flying Geese?

There isn't much choice of patterns in the technique of korak. Diamonds, Log Cabin, Flying Geese -- that's about it. In this case, it is rather Walking People on the corridors of the ethnographic museum.