My Life According To David Bowie {Blogtoberfest 3/31}

I should probably be marking (groan) but .... this is such a fun meme to do ...it was around ages ago and I made a note to join in ... but then a gazillion years went by and it has languished as a title without a post in my draft folder  ...

So, with all this Blogtoberfesting going on, I thought I'd finally get down to it.

Using only song titles from ONE ARTIST, cleverly answer these questions.  

Try not to repeat a song title. It's a lot harder than you think!

I've picked David Bowie because his voice absolutely fits his music. I have no trouble remembering Bowie lyrics from 30 years ago ... they are indelibly fixed in the sound..

This is something that is really heightened by my synaesthesia . Some music is just a perfect woven mix of texture and colour for me. Beethoven, cellos and funk also do it for me ...

When I say woven texture I mean it quite literally.  My listening experience is like a big loom, where as the music progresses I see the warp and weft combine to form a fabric which is the whole piece.

There are plenty of songs that I could hear a trillion times without ever knowing, or even hearing the words.  If there isn't a balance for me the weave of the music will overpower the lyrics completely ... 


Anyway, here we go ...

Pick your Artist:

David Bowie

Are you a male or female:

Lady Grinning Soul

Describe yourself:
It Ain't Easy

How do you feel:
Let's Dance

Describe where you currently live:
Suffragette City

If you could go anywhere, where would you go:

Life on Mars?

Your favorite form of transportation:

I Took a Trip on a Gemini Spacecraft

Your best friend is:
The Man Who Sold the World

You and your best friends are:
Kooks.

What's the weather like:
Wild is the Wind

Favorite time of day:
Sister Midnight

If your life was a TV show, what would it be called:
Moonage Daydream

What is life to you:
Sound and Vision

Your relationship:
Bring Me the Disco King

Your fear:
The Laughing Gnome

What is the best advice you have to give:

Rebel Rebel

Thought for the Day:
Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

How I would like to die:
Quicksand

My soul's present condition:

Soul Love

My motto:

Hang On To Yourself

Ah ... That's better ...

... and if you ever wondered why orange and aqua go so well ... take a peep at this ...

oh that suit ...


Do you find it easy to remember lyrics or are you utterly useless?
Feel free to pick up the meme, btw  ...

Living in Syn {Blogtoberfest 2/31}

While I was debating whether or not to sign up to Blogtoberfest this year, I decided that if I was going to try and blog each day, I really needed some kind of theme.  I’ve been wanting to do a few posts about my relationship with colour.

I have a neurological condition called synaesthesia (or synesthesia if you’re from the US –  always extra vowels to be concerned about!)  For those of you who don’t know what synaesthesia is, I nicked this from the UK Synaesthesia Association website!

Synaesthesia is a truly fascinating condition. In its simplest form it is best described as a “union of the senses” whereby two or more of the five senses that are normally experienced separately are involuntarily and automatically joined together. Some synaesthetes experience colour when they hear sounds or read words. Others experience tastes, smells, shapes or touches in almost any combination. These sensations are automatic and cannot be turned on or off.
 
Everybody’s syn is different – in mine I have a simultaneous experience of colour with words (especially days of the week) letters, numbers, and music, as well as some other weird texture taste stuff.

We all have strong associations with colour but in the syn’s [handy abbreviation] case this is not associative, so we can’t choose what we experience. Through my life I have learned to block it when it becomes too invasive.

When I started my DPhil (abandoned after 2 years, but still flirtatiously beckoning to me) it was about synaesthesia, metaphor and language. I went by my middle name - Athene - for academic research in those days. 

So, you may indeed have already ‘met’ me, if you ever sent in a questionnaire to the UK Synaesthesia Association.   I was president of the assoc and editor of the newsletter for four years … as Jo@ BearPaw and I discovered about a year after we’d been quilty bloggy chatty mates!  So I didn’t really nick the web content above, because I wrote it!



When I first painted for money (it supported a year as a Research Assistant at UCL) I discovered that I had amazing syn [abbreviation, most useful!] reactions to the architecture I painted.




Now that I sew I’ve realised that it adds the most fantastic dimension to what I do … and totally controls how I choose my colour palettes or fabric textures.  Don’t even get me started on Oakshott … *swoon.



In the next month I’d like to share my syn with you.  I’d love to hear from you if you have coloured days of the week or weird colour associations you’ve never been able to explain, or if you know you’re a syn.  I know that this mad quilty blogosphere is home to quite a few of us!

End of today’s lecture (sorry!) Tomorrow it’ll be all about the colour.
If you fancy reading more … here’s the first ever UKSA newsletter …

Blogtoberfest 2012 {1/31}

Dear Blog,

Goodness me.  I missed our 2nd Blogiversary – 25th July!  I’m so sorry, Blog.  I do love you.  I just don’t seem to have had the time you need for me to be writerly or creative recently.

Hopefully, that might just change … because ….

It’s Blogtoberfest time again!! Yay!! 

This year it’s being hosted by Kat at I Saw You Dancing.  Originating in Australia, Blogtoberfest is an annual blogging festival - when I did this two years ago I made so many new friends and I had such a blast.

The idea is that you blog every day for the month of October ... I can’t guarantee in any way that I will manage it for the whole month, but I’m going to have a go … 200 fabulously creative people have already signed up!

this from the blurb …

Blogtoberfest is a wonderful opportunity to:

* challenge yourself to blog every day for 31 days
* discover kindred blogging spirits
* carve out a tiny slice of time each day to write and to read
* share any creative projects you have on the go
* host a giveaway, if you feel inclined to spread the love

You can sign up here.  If you would like to host a giveaway during the month too, then sign up for that separately here (hosted by the fabulously talented CurlyPops).

 I’m posting this to coincide with Lynne@ Lily'sQuilts October Small Blog Meet … This is the perfect way for new bloggers to put themselves about a bit.  The discipline of blogging every day is daunting at first, but just take it a day at a time, and no one is going to come and arrest you if you can’t keep up!



I’ve got a fantastically generous giveaway for you too … to celebrate Blogtoberfest, my Blogiversary, and Ch******s, sponsored by – one of my Local Quilt Stores – Brighton Sewing Centre … Yay! 




Remember … You can sign up for Blogtoberfest here and sign up for giving away here.

You’re going to love it … more later this week … keep ‘em peeled …

When Worlds Collide

How can the only two things I have booked for the whole of next year be on the same flippin day?

BLOGGY LIFE:



FAMILY LIFE:


For the first five minutes there was weeping. wailing and tearing out of hair at the injustice of it all -   but to be completely honest, I am sooo looking forward to this wedding I can hardly contain my wee!

There are bunting rumours ...

The Foxtrot Quilt

This year’s summer’s quilt project was, as per uje, English Paper Piecing.  

 
I love EPP. It is the salve to my soul. I love the non-frantic repetitive nerdy geometric vibe.  I also love that my seam ripper can take a holiday too … I don't love that up until now I have never got to the finishing line with any summer EPP project!

I’ll get a better picture of the quilt top when it isn’t so bloomin daydark or pouring with rain, but you get the idea!

Deciding on something larger than a cushion, yet realistically finishable before the next millenium, this year I went with applique blocks. It made the whole process so much more satisfying and undaunting for me. 

This project has been through many incarnations … it started as a random gingham project, mutated into Katy@ ImAGingerMonkey’s Spring Carnival, swerved sharp left at Lynne@ Lily'sQuilts Georgetown Carnival ...

...  But then, after a freak eureka snack moment involving a piece of watermelon and a Poole pottery plate, it finally found its own rhythm … 


SLOW …

SLOW …


 QUICK ...





QUICK ... 

so far this has been an utterly delicious process ...… and now all that remains is basting, cosy evening hand-quilting and binding …


SLOW...



The Watermelon Foxtrot will be backed with the same plain grey linen to let the (possilby nerdy) hand quilting do the talking. 

Isn’t that just the perfect binding fabric? It’s Calypso - Leaf - by Maude Asbury from my LQS - Brighton Sewing Centre


Lap Quilt: roughly 55" square
Blocks: 14" unfinished
Sashing: 4" unfinished  
EPP: centre hexies, triangles & squares 1.5" -  small hexies: 1" - (side length)
Binding:Calypso Leaf in Grey - Maude Asbury
Kona & Klona solids, Heavy charcoal grey Irish linen, Cotton & Polycotton gingham, FussyCut scraps.


Yay!

Japanese Charm Swap - Round Two

I haven’t been doing any swaps or makes this summer, as I really didn’t want to disappoint by being unintentionally flaky, but I have signed up to the 2nd UK & Ireland Japanese charm swap, which this time round is being brilliantly organised by Sarah@ NarcolepticInACupboard. 

After all, how difficult is it to cut up a yard of fabric into charm squares!? (use this fabtastic tute from Elizabeth Hartman@ Oh,Fransson!)  Actually, I say that, but as it is my ruler slipped and about four few squares are about 1/8th" off.  My Bad.

I received such fantastic fabrics first time round when Cindy@ FluffySheepQuilting started this … Yay, both of you!

As soon as I knew I was in, I scooted over to Superbuzzy – home of so many wonderful Japanese fabric delights - and bought this wonderful text fabric …



It arrived last week, and I was sorely tempted to keep it and order something else, but limited purse and strict stitchy moral code prevented me … just …

Isn’t it lovely?  Look how yummy these charm squares look …

There’s a really fantastic set of charms coming to us this round, you can have a little sneaky peek at the flickr group here …

I can’t wait!

LMQG + Raystitch = Kitchy Kitchen Giveaway!

The London Modern Quilt Guild has a fantastic giveaway sponsored by Ray Stitch …

… You could win this lovely bundle of Kitchy Kitchen by Maude Asbury, if you go here before 8pm (BST) 22nd September …

I think it would make fantastic tea towel/placemat C*******s presents ....

Good luck!

Happy Mail Catchup + Thankyous = long post

Hello lovely peeps … I know I haven’t been blogging regularly for some time, but if you follow you’ll know it’s because I’ve had a bit of a rough summer year with my health.

However, that’s no excuse for bad manners, and I have some serious thanking to do for some lovely happy mail, before I crawl back to my corner to get on with planning the new term …

First off, thanks and delight to Hadley@FlyingBlindOnARocketCycle – I won and received the prize from her giveaway way back in 1952 August …  and lookee see what wonders I received … Thank you again Hadders, it’s all just perfect!  Zips too!  (to make me face the fear, no excuses now – stay tuned! LOL)

Look at the little Melody Miller brooch and the birdy magnet!

  

How amazingly wonderful is this purse?? Forget all that “fits a chapstick and a halfpenny” crap.
This could accommodate a ferret, should the need arise … 

… or indeed 16 my-kind-of-cute* Aneela Hooey foxcubs … grubby fingerprints all mine!



* I have a distinctly bipolar relationship with ‘cute’.  My deeply supressed stiff upper Brit genes take over, I think.  That and my synaesthesia kicks in big time - it's just one of those words that tastes bad -  even typing it or saying it in my head makes me a little sick in my mouth. 

This in turn makes me wildly reinterpret 'cute' in my head to something more like this:

Anyhoo, I digress ... This was also in the haul!



Now, I know I’m a bit late to the party here, but just in case you’ve been holding back on buying this, let me tell you, Fat Quarterly Shape Workshop for Quilters is a fantastic collection of all things inspirational … I read it cover to cover when I was a-bed this summer.

 There’s a few serious must-makes in here for me, not least this wonderful Fast Forward/Rewind flying geese quilt from
<-- Tacha Bruecher


.... or this Orange Soda Pop from Katy@ ImAGingerMonkey -->

 I love the whole concept of the book and the way it builds on the amazing versatility of the geometry of quilting shapes. The instructions and whole tone of the writing are great too.

I would have loved to see some of the blocks multiplied to get a better idea of their ‘quilt appeal, but it was easy enough to close your eyes and picture it, just bein lazy ... but the blocks themselves, practical advice and the complete projects far outweigh the limitations of my noggin by a gazillion …

I don’t buy a lot of quilting books, the writing is just as important to me as the visuals and, historically, I have often been disappointed with one or t’other.  I think Shape Workshop and Hexa Go Go (another thoroughbred from the Fat Quarterly stables, so to speak) are absolute must-haves for anyone’s library.  I would definitely have bought it if I hadn’t won it. which I did. Squee! A feast for the mind as well as the eyes.  Also, as I hadn’t made it to London for the Fat Quarterly Retreat this summer, it made me feel all 'included'! Icing on the cake, Hadders!  By hook or by crook, man, I'll be there next year ...

Then, the day I got home from my hospital stay, I had such a treat waiting for me, from the most lovely Mary@ MollyFlanders – a little surprise package just to say hello!  Just look at the wrapping paper on this!  Love.  Couldn’t have timed it better, Mary!  Thank you sooo much …

wouldn’t that make great embroidery?

that pincushion’s such a beauty!

This is a rubbery silicone ‘spool’ for keeping yer headphone cord untangled!  Absolute. Genius.
It now lives in my bag - fools me every time when I have my hand sewing in there, too!


I also just got my winnings from Leona’sQuiltingAdventure’s giveaway - 2 charm packs of Dear Mr. Claus from Cosmo Cricket for Moda - nice retro colours, not too heavily saturated … Yippee! Thank you Leona!

So, thank you very very much, ladies of the Blogolopolis.  You brightened a pretty sodden summer no end!


I do have some progress to report, and some really fun stuff coming up.
Bear with me and stay tuned!  It could be to your advantage … Just sayin.

Slow Blogging + Fresh Sewing Day = not much to report!

Well, it’s taken me forever, but I’m beginning to have some more energy.  This post is combining the wonderful Slow Blogger's linky over at Knotted Cotton with the equally wonderful Lily's Quilts Fresh Sewing day:

It hasn't been a fab month really - what with hospital and pneumonia and concomitant steroid crazies -  but this month I’ve managed my Designer Challenge for Christmas Fat Quarterly – I think I can give you a sneaky peek:





Other than that it’s just been EPP really … I’ve been slooooowly working on my gingham project and I’ve finally started to applique them to wonderfully soft medium weight dark grey linen …

Some of the blocks are Lynne@Lily'sQuilts wonderful Georgetown Carnival 








… while others are just grandmother’s hexy flowers …





There are some square blocks and giant hexies too, but you’ll have to wait for them …



I also made myself a kindle sleeve in about 5 mins flat using some Echino and some gorgeous wool felt – exposed inside seams and everything, but it does the trick and looks great!




So much so that I started a few more for gifts … (but without the exposed seams this time!)





All in all not a tremendously productive month, considering this is usually my solid month for sewing, but I blame the steroids and antibiotics! They've pretty much rendered me useless other than very very slow hand sewing.


… go see what other more on it peeps have been freshly sewing here … or revel in some guilt free slow blogging here !

Brighton Wheezy …

I'm sorry it's all been a bit quiet on the Pings front and thanks for the emails/msgs, but I’ve been a little cut off from t'interweb. 

After a pretty icky 'routine’ trip up to Harrow for more ongoing tests last week, I then got flattened by a totally unrelated random asthma attack and pneumonia infection, after a long INSET day training teachers … which meant a few days unplanned stay in hospital here in Brighton. 

Entirely ironic that the ONE DAY I didn’t have my little portable EPP set (or my phone charger for that matter) in my bag is the time I end up in A&E and admitted to hospital! …

Time went very slowly on a ward where no sewing could be done and no external signals could penetrate … No phone, no radio, no hospital radio or TV, no contact! LOL … Just as well I wasn’t feeling very well!

I’m home now …


… and am most happy not to be eating any more of this … 

Why is it so impossible to eat healthy food in hospital? 

Salad or fresh fruit?  Nope. Not. A. Chance.

… most happy to be disconnected from these …

… and utterly delighted not to have to look at stuff like this …

 














But am afraid I’m not quite up to sitting at the machine yet as squeezing a teabag feels a lot like a full aerobic workout. 

So for the moment a little EPP is about all I’m up for. 



The one thing I miss about my little hospital stay?



Jelly! 

So cool on the throat …
… so totally nursery comfort pinktastic …

Must. Make. Jelly.




Peace. Out.






I have had some superfabtastic happy mail, but forgive me if I wait a little to post about the loveliness … I want to do it justice :)