Autumn Cottage Diarist

Outside/Inside at Autumn Cottage!

Thank you for all the encouragement to make more little videos - here's another brief experiment from the cottage on a cold & windy November day.

 

 

An Autumn Cottage Experiment

This is a first for me - a brief (VERY brief) little video, taken in the garden a couple of days ago. Posted within the confines of my Facebook friends (and on my feeble 'Autumn Cottage Diarist' Facebook page, which seems only to be propagated amongst more than a dozen people if I PAY big ransome bucks!!), I'm now putting it out into the wider blog world.

It's a mere snippet of daily life here. If you like it, let me know - I'll do more!

 

 

On a Grey November Day - a World Coloured with Magic

Granny Weatherwax & Nanny Ogg (from the Map of Lancre) - Paul Kidby, 1998

I'll hold my hands up to say that I have never read a Terry Pratchett book to the end. I've tried - but they are just not my cup of tea. But I've spent the morning in the medieval cathedral city of Salisbury with a devotee of Mr. P's literature (my husband!) and am compelled to say that I could not have had a nicer or more interesting time. We visited the 'Terry Pratchett - His World' exhibition now on in the Salisbury Museum * - an affectionate overview of Sir Terry's life, combined with an exhibition of many of the works of one of his major illustrators, Paul Kidby.

While I'm not an avid reader of TP's books, I am a great advocate of the power of story-telling, and this exhibition emphasises that importance. It also encourages 'adventures in authorship' (or any other creative endeavour), most strikingly by relating the story of the comments that his headmaster made about him when he was but SIX years old…that he 'would never amount to anything'. The world knows now that that was very far from the truth, but it still hurts to read that 'the pain of somehow being inferior was hard to shake off'. Words stick and are so very powerful. He does, however, go on to pay tribute to his mother, the person to whom he ascribes his discovery of the skills of reading and writing - 'she taught me to read with love, care and affection'. THOSE attributes are even more powerful.

'The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents' - Paul Kidby, 2002 - illustration for children's book

The early part of the exhibition shows his rise in productivity and popularity, creating, amongst many others, 41 novels in the 'Discworld' series of books.

The much-loved cast of characters of the 'Discworld Massif' - Paul Kidby, 2014

Sadly, the later displays describe the tragic affliction which befell him - a form of early onset Alzheimer's disease, Posterior Cortical Atrophy - which particularly takes away not only memory but also the ability to read or type. Could anything have been more cruel a blow to this ultra-imaginative author and storyteller? I had tears in my eyes after reading his description of the effect that this had on him - but was also uplifted by how much effort he put into being the voice of all those who cannot shout for themselves at such a time. He was 'high profile' and certainly got us all to sit up and take notice at this previously shady and hidden away illness - and for that, I think, many have come to admire him. It has also been said that - through his characterisation of Death - that he has helped many people to fear The Inevitable just that little bit less; another gift for which many have expressed gratitude.

'At last, Sir Terry - we must walk together...'

'Check Mort' - Paul Kidby, 2011

 'Terry died on 12th March 2015 at home, surrounded by his family and with Pongo, his cat, asleep on his bed beside him' - Rob Wilkins, Literary assistant and executor

A recreation of Sir Terry's office - always inspiring to see a creative person's workspace

'Death on Binky' - Paul Kidby, 2000  ('I am Death, not Taxes - I turn up only once')

Memorial artefacts distributed after Sir TP's death

The 'Wall of Love' - messages left by fan readers at the exhibition...

...including this one, from another Word-Magician

A lifetime of achievement and bringing delight to others

'The Imaginarium of Professor Pratchett' - Paul Kidby, 2017

To make people think more, laugh more, enquire more, discover MUCH more and, perhaps, to be unhappy just a little bit less seems to be the legacy of Sir Terry Pratchett; if it is, then I don't think it's a bad memory of oneself to leave behind... do you?

(I would like to express my gratitude for the permission given by Paul Kidby to allow mobile phone photographs to be taken of his works. Thank you for your generosity, Sir.)

* entry to Salisbury museum, including extensive permanent displays and the Pratchett exhibition - £7.50 (adult)

Threads and Colours and Quilty Things

 
Colour themed knitwear and needlepoint by Kaffe Fassett

I have been a sewer and a textile collector for most of my life. In my teens and early twenties, this love was put to practical use, running up most of the clothes that I wore on my grandmother's Edwardian Singer machine, using all the fiendishly clever and intricate mechanical attachments to make dresses of equally intricate construction and embellishment.

Decades passed and I moved on from collecting and sewing my own and others' garments to an interest in patchwork and quilting, stimulated by a ten week class with textile guru Valerie Campbell Harding - a woman who opened my eyes to a way of looking and seeing that can now never be unseen (rusty rooftops and peeling paint on old doors have a beauty all of their own that I had never noticed before Val made us really LOOK at them). That particular encounter occurred prior to the emergence of the Internet - so when that phenomenon took off, it was to quilting and textile groups that I first gravitated, making new cyber-friends that I have now known for over twenty years and whom I fully expect to be friends for the rest of my life.

Bringing up a family, caring for elderly parents and business ventures saw the stitchery go 'on the back boiler' for a long period, while other academic interests stepped in to engage my mind. Cerebral interests did, I suppose, overshadow the manual 'art making' - not for lack of interest, but simply lack of time. But recently all this has changed and the Siren Song of my life-long love of cloth has echoed in my ear again (or has the Sauron's Eye of a fabric addiction settled on me once more?!). This resurrection has been prompted by a visit to the Welsh Quilt Centre in Lampeter whilst on my recent mini holiday...

1930's wholecloth quilts with intricate hand quilted patterns

...followed, just a couple of days ago, with encountering again the explosion of pattern and colour that has always been Kaffe Fassett, bursting upon my eyeballs at Mottisfont Abbey. The exuberance of the Fassett exhibition pulled out from the depths of my memory the utter joy and delight of personal expression writ large through the medium of thread and scissors. Coupled with enjoying once more the historical and heritage aspects of the craft of Welsh Quilt making, you now find me once again determined - after twenty five years - to make a proper home for my sewing machines, cutting tables and enormous quantities of fabric stash.

Let the scissors flash and the fabrics roll, my friends - Roz is about to get snipping and stitching once more!!!

Welsh Quilt Centre, Lampeter - 'Rural Industries Bureau Quilts of Wales, 1921 - 1939'

A pieced quilt from 1825 (click on any image to enlarge)
A handsome hand quilted dressing gown

Metal quilting templates

Unique 'Jester' quilt edging

The 'Jen Jones Challenge' modern quilt exhibition 2017, also at the WQC

A deserving Visitor's Choice machine quilted Winner (above)

Memorial quilt using spent medication packaging - imaginative, exciting and successful

Kaffe Fassett at Mottisfont Abbey 

Explosion of colour - yes? Using floral themes...

Interesting contrast with the sober quilted dressing gown from 80 years before

Agree 100%!

Back and front of needlepoint upholstered chair

(I'm not the only person to be 'blown away' by KF's work...visit Weavers Journal blog for a description of my friend Cilla's wonderful day with KF himself - Inspiration Central!)