Saturday, August 10, 2013

Busy busy busy

Nothing too exciting happening here in Paradise...Mr. O has been out picking blueberries a few times so this was one of our lunch treats

Nothing like a little "picnic" break with fresh blueberry muffins and lemonade. A yummy summer treat. He has picked again, so blueberry pies will be on the dessert menu this weekend.
I have been busy too, trying to get in a walk or bike ride here and there and as much sewing as I can squeeze in. 

Lots of cutting, lots of sewing


Little snippets here and there


Hopefully tomorrow or Sunday I will have some finished projects to show. 
A few day trips to town for appointments and errands and laundry and groceries has also helped fill the hours that seem to be speeding by. So much to do and not so much time to do it in...
I have to say I am getting a fair bit of time in sewing so that makes me happy. 

A few blogs that I faithfully read addressed the fact that today is National Book day or something like that... JoAnne had a very interesting blog post today about what quilt book influenced her most as a quilter. You can read it here 

http://thepatrioticquilter.blogspot.ca/2013/08/national-book-lovers-day.html


I love to read and spent a lot of my younger years with my nose in a book and haunting the local library. As an adult i don't always have the time to read like I used to but I am still a reader...books, magazines, internet... I got thinking about what book might have influenced me most as a quilter and I'm sure you'll be surprised at my choices.
Anne of Green Gables
Five Little Peppers and How They Grew
Little Women
Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House On the Prairie

These are Not quilting books as such, but when I think back, I don't remember one single quilt in our home. Both parents lived through hard times and making do was a necessity and there was never very many new things to be had for them, so as a wife and homemaker Mom wasn't much of a lover of antiques or vintage. She liked new...and quilts just were not seen in our home. 
The many hours spent reading the above books introduced me to the comfort and cozyness of quilts, the social aspect of quilting bees etc. there was just a comfort and charm about these things to me and it always stayed with me, so these are the books that introduced me to quilting and made me want to make and have quilts in my life. Thank you Lucy Maud Montgomery, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Louisa May Alcott and Margaret Sidney for lighting that spark...I am forever indebted to you.


 The silent influence of books, is a mighty power in the world; and there is a joy in reading them known only to those who read them with desire and enthusiasm. Silent, passive, and noiseless though they be, they yet set in action countless multitudes, and change the order of nations.    





5 comments:

  1. I love all those books, too. I'm from South Dakota, so I pretty much grew up on Laura Ingalls Wilder. (I always encourage people who may have only had an experience with the tv show to read the books.) Can you believe that I didn't discover Anne until I was a young married? It was Sullivan's miniseries that first exposed me so I really enjoyed reading/discovering the whole series.

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  2. I think you are bang on about the influence of those books, my early favourites as well. My much younger mind thought that life was simpler. My mature mind likes my mod cons but I can still have the quilts around me as reminders of those times with a good book.

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  3. I love the watermelons your tasty treats are sitting onπŸ‰

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  4. Those blueberries look so good! I didn't have quilts either but did read all those books too.

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  5. I love your picnic and all the wonderful photos today!
    I didn't read LIW until I was an adult... I was a historic person in a living history center, so I read to know the era and what was going on then.

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