‘I always thought,’ says LF, ‘that an artist’s was the hardest life of all.’ Its rigour--not always apparent to an outside observer--is that an artist has to navigate forward into the unknown guided only by an internal sense of direction, keep up a set of standards which are imposed entirely from within, meanwhile maintaining faith that the task he or she has set him or herself is worth struggling constantly to achieve. This is all contrary to the notion of bohemian disorder.
February 24, 2004
Man with a Blue Scarf: On Sitting for a
Portrait by Lucian Freud
Martin Gayford
Hello and Happy Friday!
Whew! I feel like I have had a busy week. I did a little Research and Development in mask pattern making, since I need to make masks for two of my men returning to their respective Universities. I made masks for the entire family early on in the pandemic, but I want to make more solid masks for the long term. I think I like the process and pattern I have made; I just need to make sure I get the fit right. Prototypes abound! I did make two pretty masks that fit me, so that is progress!
Two pretty masks! I think the boys will prefer elastic ear pieces instead of the tie.
I also pieced four wall hangings, a Queen sized t-shirt quilt, quilted two King sized quilts, and cut and sewed more squares for the anniversary quilt. I did not get any pictures taken of the half square triangles, and I know you are probably ready to move to the layout phase of this project. Don’t worry, I will be there soon!
Four pieced wall hangings ready for quilting!
How has your week been? What did you sew? Please share pictures and your progress...also feel free to complain in the comments about how slow I am being! Honestly, I set aside the month of July to work on half square triangles, so I’m not really behind in my plan; we will see if I can stay that way on track!
Have a great week. Stay safe.
Sending Quilting Love,
Ginger
Coming Next Week: Finished Half Square triangles!
I am Reading: I finished Elantris by Brandon Sanderson and Man in the Blue Scarf: On Sitting for a Portrait by Lucien Freud by Martin Gayford. Both excellent reads! I am reading Elantris with my oldest son, so I was trying not to get too far ahead. I got really excited and devoured the rest in one sitting, though, and now he will have to catch up! I loved the Lucien Freud book so much that I ordered The Yellow House, the book Martin Gayford wrote about Vincent Van Gogh. I ‘m so excited! I have already read Vincent Van Gogh: The Life by Naifeh and Smith, which was a lovely read. I highly recommend it! I started Alexander Langlands book about Craft: Cræft: An Inquiry Into the Origins and True Meaning of Traditional Crafts, and I am going to really like that book! If you don’t know, I am a medievalist. My concentration in college was Anglo Saxon and Medieval literature, and I love to read both in their original English. Langlands is a Medieval scholar, and as I read the preface and the first few chapters, I realized how much I miss another medieval mind. Plus...I think the topic of crafts is interesting, too! I’ll keep you posted about that one---I think I will get good quotations out of it! ! I am still reading The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (unabridged) I am also reading various poetry---Anne Sexton mostly this week.. What are you reading? I would love to know! My hand is also hovering over my copy of Mozart’s Starling...I might delve into it soon. Do you read more than one book at a time?