For the love of books

I thought I'd share a few of the books that are gracing my bedside table at the moment.  

I've been searching for ways to capture light in my art and when I opened this book at my library I had to take it home.  Louis Comfort Tiffany - Masterpieces of Art, by Susie Hodge, describes the life and work of Louis Tiffany and then has pages and pages of images of his beautiful works in mainly stained glass.

I knew about Tiffany glass and lamps of course, but to see a whole collection of them in one book was eye-opening and inspiring.  If I can do just a little of what he does I'll be happy.

Te Hao Nui - The Great Catch.  Edited by Fiona McKergow and Kerry Taylor with photography by Michael Hall.   This is an intriguing book about the museum collection at Te Manawa, Palmerston North.  There are some delightful objects that have a history you'd never guess at.

And this pendant is just so beautiful.

This book was another in my search for light in my own work.  Light and Landscape, the New Zealand photographs of Andris Apse.  It is just glorious, page after page of wonderful photographs - sigh.  

Do you use books like these for inspiration?  

The Working Studio

School holidays are in full swing and yesterday and today were grey and rainy, so I did what I'd been thinking about for ages - rearranged my studio.  It's a good time to get things like that done.  The kids play and watch DVD's and I can take breaks to feed them and mediate or even read stories.  But I still get a lot of time because I don't have to interrupt to go pick them up from school or do mother help or any of those exciting things.  Anyway, here are some before and after pics.

This little nook used to be the kids play area.  I thought it was too small to use for me and it got even smaller when I jammed a couch in there.  You can see the freezer in the picture above that I had at a right angle out into the room .  I used it as a cutting table and had my machine table and trestle table backed up to it.  I decided that it really cut the room in half and wasn't nearly as user friendly as I thought it would be.  Best laid plans and all of that.

So I turned the freezer back against the wall (you can see my big cutting mat on top, I've used 3M command picture hanging strips to attach it to the top of the freezer so I can open the lid without taking the mat off).  I put my trestle table and sew-ezi machine table in an L shape in the nook and now I look out the window when I sew. 

Here's a view right into the nook (bit of a mess, I'm still slowing sorting it out).  I fitted a couple of bookshelves in beside me and these carry all my tools and pins etc that I use frequently while I'm at the machine.  You can see my design wall to the right above my ironing board.

See?  Here's the long view.  I fit nicely into the nook and the room seems so much larger now that the freezer and my trestle table aren't cutting it in half.  And look at all that floor space for laying out quilts!

Here's what it used to look like from the front door (which is next to the nook).  My trestle table with all it's junk underneath it was the central feature.

And here's the same view now.  I've shifted the couch against the wall into the space vacated by one of the bookshelves.  There's still a few baskets of toys that need to be sorted through and downsized (a constant job).  Even better, there's my eight year old boy who used to really struggle with reading.  Over the last school term, his reading age has taken leaps and bounds and is now more than a year ahead of his own age!  So relieved!  Now he's turning into a book worm.  He's read three whole chapter books over the last two days and is pestering me to go to the library to get more of his favourite - the BeastQuest series by Adam Blade.

I cleaned up a little more and took a longer view.  Looks good, huh?

And now the next sorting job on my radar.  Should I attempt it?

Books to bury your nose in.

I've given up reading novels.  Well, I've put it on hold till I have gained the skill of self-control (snort!).  I just can't put a novel down until it's done.  Instead, I'm picking up books that you can delve into for a few minutes here and there and enjoy.

So what am I reading looking at?

The Hobbit by J R R Tolkien.  This one I am actually reading, in sections, to my boy at bedtime.  He in enthralled.  And I'm rapidly running out of pages.  Any suggestions for our next read?

The Diary of a Farmer's Wife 1796-1797.  This is a reading one too.  But as it's a diary and written in ye olde style English, it was put downable.  Interesting to read, not sure if it's genuine or a well done fake.

Twelve by Twelve.  The International Art Quilt Challenge.  Now this is a fantastic find.  Lusciously and generously photographed, this book is a round up of a collaborative challenge.  Twelve art quilters, making twelve 12" x 12" quilts.  Each artist took turns picking a theme and it was fascinating to see the different interpretations.  Each month features one quilt in depth and profiles the art quilter who made it.  This is well worth a read and has entertained and inspired me.

1000 Artisan Textiles. Sandra Salamony and Gina M. Brown.  This one is a great find too.  Page after page of rich colour, fantastic shapes, texture and design.  There are five sections; wearable art and couture, fashion accessories, soft furnishings and vessels, tapestries and display art and art quilts.  The only beef I have with it is that the only information shared under each was the name of the maker.  The title, size and materials were all in a directory at the back, awkward to keep flipping back and forth.

The Crafting of Narnia by Weta Workshop.  This one I picked up for my boy and he has loved looking through it.  The illustrations are enchanting and incredibly detailed.  I was taken with it too and enjoyed flicking through it.  I can't say I read too much of the text, but it is well worth it as a picture book.

The other two in the stack are:

The Quilt.  Beauty in Fabric and Thread by Marie Salazar.  Again, lovely pictures.  But published in 1997, some of the quilts are a bit dated.  Interesting to see style progression though.

And The Nude by Giovanni Civardi.  This is the odd one out!  I borrowed this from the library to help me with a quilt I'm planning. 

So what books are on your nightstand?

I've been absent for a few days. I got lost. I do that occasionally. Lost in a book. I will read and read and read and read and take the book to the laundry with me and try and fill the washing machine one handed.

Now I don't profess to be a book critic. I don't belong to a book club and I don't spend time analysing the themes etc. (Hey, I don't have time to analyse themes - I'm READING!). But this book grabbed me - not immediately - but in the end, so thoroughly, that I stayed up to midnight last night finishing it.

"I know this much is true" by Wally Lamb

I don't like to recommend books to anyone - tastes differ so much. But if you're going on a long holiday (it's about 900 pages odd), maybe pack this one.

I've also been thinking about some remodelling - a blogovation if you like. Back when I started this blog I called it "The Slightly Mad Quilt Lady" for no better reason than it popped into my head (it might have something to do with all the night shifts I was doing). But I've found out I can change the name, and seeing as this blog's content is about 80% Windyhill Farm life and 10% Quilting and 10% Rabbiting On, I thought maybe I should change the name. What do you think?

Plus I'm not really Slightly Mad.

Truly.

Stuff I've been up to.

I haven't posted for ages. Not because I've been doing anything amazing that has taken my every waking moment, nope, I haven't posted because I haven't got around to it. Guess I'm not as obsessed with blogging as I thought.

Actually, I know what I've been doing. There is one thing in this world that if I start, I pretty much don't stop until I'm finished.

Reading.

I don't get out novels anymore from the library. I get out kiddy books and pretty, photo-filled books on craft and quilting and sometimes even gardening, but I suck in my bottom lip and walk past the novels. Why do I deny myself the simple pleasure of reading? Because I do nothing else that isn't essential until I have finished the book (unless it is a REALLY terrible book and there haven't been many of these in my life, maybe just this one!).

My kids look even more raggamuffiny than usual. I stir the dinner with book in hand. I look up with a distracted, "Hmmmm?" when my husband asks me if I'd like joint custody of the children because he's leaving me if I don't get my nose out of that book.

But I fell of the wagon and picked up a novel at my latest trip to the library. "Just one." I told myself. Bryce Courtenay's "Matthew Flinders' Cat". Very good it was too. Totally distracted me from the fact that I was meant to be making curtains.

Before I got to the novel I was engaged in SOME productive activities.

Like baking (and then eating) my daughter's birthday cake (it's a turtle!).

And admiring my cabbage grown in a pot.

Checking out another beautiful view.

And admiring my sweet kids (this moment lasted all of 60 seconds!).

Right, back to the curtains.