the home of contentment
You know the old debate - are certain people violent because they watch violent television, or do certain people watch violent television because they are violent. Well, I’m in a similar quandary. (”Oh dear!” you say,”I don’t think I want to know this about Lily!”)
Am I utterly discontented with living in 21st century Brisbane because I have been compulsively reading UK and US country living magazines for over 20 years, filling my home with quilts and cross stitches that would look more at home in Kent or Kansas then Kangaroo Point? Or do I read UK and US country living magazines because I am utterly discontented with 21st century Brisbane? Hmmm …
I’m certainly wallowing in a moment of discontentment as I write! The glorious flowers, gorgeous picnics and darling cottages and farmhouses of July’s edition of the English Country Living are taunting me from the bedside, the Christmas patterns of the Prairie School Sampler are reducing me to long, pensive sighs of delight and longing, and now, these sweet little houses are whispering sweet nothings to me from the sewing machine.
I didn’t know Warren Kimble made patchwork fabric - cute! I must confess to having several of his jigsaws and placemats - you see, I just long to move into one of his villages and live in an old school house. I want a fireplace, an Aga, piles of bronzed leaves, wellingtons in the mud room and snow at Christmas. And in Veruca Salt style, I want it NOW!
So when I saw this fabric today - at a patchwork shop I haven’t visited for over 12 years! - I just had to buy some. And of course, when I had some time after dinner, I just had to indulge in a few hours of chopping and sewing - and tonight, some chucking.
First I started with this …
I wanted to add frames of different widths to the 4 inch village squares. I used some of the metres and metres of red polka dot I have in my stash, and some of the historical coverlet collection that arrived from Z and S last week. But this just wasn’t doing it for me - bit chunky.
So then I had the really good idea to unpick the corners of the inner red polka frame and add some dark navy spot corners - this was tedious, time consuming and incredibly unsatisfying …
… not to mention, as yucky as last week’s dinner! Ugh! And it took an hour. So revolting, I chucked it!
Back to the first round - I trimmed them down, and then added a Warren Kimble blue, too wide, trimmed it down, the added the red coverlet - nice and skinny! - and then another wider red polka dot …
… ooooh yes, that’s better! Now, I wonder how many I have enough fabric for? And goodness knows how I’ll join them together.
Meanwhile, I’m packing my bags and moving in. That one in the front right hand corner will do just fine!
25 August, 2008 at 1:46 pm
Oh yes-the last one is definitely the best! It looks so great…good thing you kept at it because you did a wonderful job!
25 August, 2008 at 3:00 pm
So lovely fabric! I think you would enjoy living in Finland and those four seasons and especially houses with good heating and triple windows!!!! Welcome to Finland!
25 August, 2008 at 3:50 pm
Eeeeeee! I love those little houses! And the last square is so pretty, well worth the pain of picking and tossing earlier tries :-)
To be content is a decision you make, I think. To make the best of what you have, and to focus on the positives!
I am sure you do that in your everyday-life! Most of us dream of living somewhere else, don’t we?!
25 August, 2008 at 4:24 pm
Oh Lily, I hear you! I’ve always wanted to live in an old fieldstone house somewhere in New England. Have I ever been to New England? NOPE! It’s a fantasy perpetuated by magazines like “Country Living” and “Traditional Home,” with staging and lighting and quilts borrowed from Stella Rubin Antiques. The people who live in those homes don’t even live like that.
The trick to contentment is to surround yourself with the people and things you love, which you already have an uncanny knsck for. Just like your wonderful new house blocks, adjustments will have to be made. But after some tweaking and trimming, I’m sure you’ll feel quite at home.
As for the new blocks, the colors and proportions are just right.
I’ll envision you today, stitching Prairie Schooler Santas on a Brisbane beach. Just think, that might be someone else’s fantasy!
25 August, 2008 at 5:35 pm
Can I move into the one on the next hill? Then we can be neigbours and meet up and quilt till we wilt ;-)
I love that house fabric and the last block is definitely the one that works best. How about making alternate blocks where you swap the two last fabrics, so the last round is dark red - or will that look too dark and oppressing?
25 August, 2008 at 7:14 pm
We can’t always get what we want, can we??? BUT
I’m lovin’ your final result! Very very nice! go with it!
25 August, 2008 at 9:30 pm
Hi Lily,
I was going to send the following in an email to you. But for some reason, it was undeliverable:
“It’s wonderful to hear from you!!! I still think you are very talented even though your knitting is limited to face clothes! The clothes you have used certainly make the face clothes look very sophisticated! :) You just have an amazing sense of color.
I just finished a round of magazine deadlines. It looks like I will be swamped again in a week or so. But I am not complaining. I am also designing some patterns for some local quilt shops. So, that confines me to sit in front of the computer a lot! I normally do my designing work on the computer. Designing on the computer is very fun, but it is also very time-consuming. Again, I am not complaining. :) Just a fact of life of a quilter. :)
I can’t wait to see more of your beautiful work on your blog!
That’s all for now. Take care!!! I am sure we will chat again!”
Love your Warren Kimble creations!!! What a beauty!
25 August, 2008 at 9:59 pm
Ever so charming! Those houses are nestled in those logs so prettily!! It ooooozes coziness! Those logs will be the path that one must walk round and round to get to the house. It will deter those who don’t know the contentment that awaits inside. We don’t want those people around anyway! You have such wonderful vision!
25 August, 2008 at 10:21 pm
What a cute post. You are so fun Lily. I love the houses too. I’m addicted to pictures with houses.
26 August, 2008 at 12:03 am
Adorable blocks. I love those houses. I think I could live in that neighborbhood, too. And I, too, dream of living in England.
26 August, 2008 at 10:23 am
Oooh, I didn’t know about the Warren Kimble fabric either. Cool fabric and cool blocks!
I know what you mean about longing to live somewhere else! “Let’s move!” comes out of my mouth more often than I care to admit and more often than my husband cares to hear it. It is work trying to be content with where one has been placed.
26 August, 2008 at 11:08 pm
Dearest Lily,
How you dream because you know in reality you would be but the scullery maid avoiding the advances of “Old Master” while secretly pinning for “Young Master”, who is engaged to the lovely and fair Lady Georgina (in the muslin and chintz), while you are in your attic garrett in your thrice turned scratchy wool and have an understanding with 35 yr old “Bob the Stable Boy” who at least has all his teeth :)
27 August, 2008 at 9:33 am
Dear Lily,
While I am still chuckling over the scullery maid above, I can see how you feel.
The American and British magazines seem to have so much to offer and I often find myself pining for some semblance of the calm organization I see in the magazines. I am just so frantic with working out where to start that I never quite get there.
However, at the same time there are some amazing inspirations and makings happening closer to our shores. There are the Australian interpretations of the US styles such as in your blog or over at Material Obsession. Also, there are the styles that developed here independant of the the great UK and US. I remember the first time I saw a tivaevae, thinking “that’s not a real quilt”. I have since been quite captured by this style and then there are the waggas - which I think were just utility blankets in NZ. Katherine Morrison is doing some amazing things with this style.
All said and done, I would still move into one of those little houses in a flash
31 August, 2008 at 4:34 am
I love your little blocks and just now learned that Warren Kimble has fabric ! He lives in a town about 15 miles away from me !!!
Mary Ann
13 September, 2008 at 9:30 am
[...] As I stitch this scene, I am dreaming of the winter scenes as described by Laura Ingalls Wilder in These Happy Golden Years, when Laura was teaching out on the prairie and staying with the horrible Brewster family. This is how I imagine it would have looked as Almanzo drove her home each Sunday afternoon in the bitter cold and snow. I think I will use a mid grey for the background (the bone white says Fargo carpark instead of Ingall’s prairie!) - that way the snow around the houses will stand out, as will the stars in the sky. I want to create a chilly look - one that makes you think of settling down for that long winter nap, sugar plums and smoky wreaths - one that will sit prettily against the village quilt. [...]