Happenstance

 

 

 

One of the recent weekends was full of wonderful moments of happenstance.  The weekend started with visiting an exhibition called Monet: The Early Years at one of the museums in San Francisco.   Earlier in the month, I had mentioned it to my husband.  Knowing how much I adore the Impressionist painters, he got us tickets for the event.  A couple of weeks ago we were there on Saturday morning, bright and early, although not quite bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.

 

 

Monet

 

Towing of a Boat at Honfleur by Claude Monet

 

 

 

A Cart on the Snowy Road at Honfleur by Claude Monet

 

 

 

Green Wave by Claude Monet

 

 

 

A Hut at Sainte-Adresse by Claude Monet

 

We explored his early work through approximately sixty paintings.  Exquisite play of colours, light and shadow, brush strokes and dynamics are an integral part of every painting.  Although he lived in abject poverty, Monet was so passionate about this work that he continued on with his personal style of painting.

 

 

 

 

Water Lilies by Claude Monet

 

The museum also has two small paintings by Van Gogh.  As I walked into the Gallery that had the Van Gogh pieces on display,  there was this painting by Monet right across from where I was standing.  As we walked around the room, we found a few more paintings by Monet and Renoir.  A lovely surprise find before leaving the museum.

 

 

 

 

Purchase Fiddle The Violin Pattern

 

My violin bow had been at the luthier to be rehaired.  They are about an hour away from our house, and also an hour away from San Francisco.  The bow was ready so we decided to stop by to pick it up on our way back.  We found a small coffee shop where we recharged before heading home via a beautiful road.  Inspired by the all the artwork of the morning and atmosphere of the violin shop, I have a new musical pattern brewing.

 

 

White Rose | Whims And Fancies

 

 

On the way back, the conversation digressed toward the gardens of Versailles.   We haven’t been to France yet, but we have seen a couple of beautiful stately home gardens in England.  It was therefore not hard to imagine the scale and beauty of the gardens of Versailles.  Our home is not a very large one, but I do like to take inspiration from large enterprises and scale them down to suit my need.  The thought of doing the same with our garden stayed with me.

Next day, when my husband went to the shop, I went along to browse the plants area.  I wasn’t planning on buying anything, but then I spotted this white rose.  All resolve melted away and I came home with 29 plants!

 

 

 

 

Can’t say no to irises.  I got these and my friend Mary sent me some more.  I am a lucky girl.

 

 

 

 

Also, a few foxgloves.

 

 

 

 

The following Friday, after work, I sat down with the garden measurements to create a layout for the plants.   Influenced by the larger gardens of the stately homes, I am designing a garden with a few different focal points.  Our garden may not be huge, but it is certainly big enough for that.  I created a circular focal point with the white rose in the centre.  It is a working plan, so it will continue to grow as I get inspired by the greatness of others.

I am going to take a break for the next couple of weeks.  Hopefully a few more moments of happenstance will find me.

-Soma

 

I am also linking up on Through My Lens, Our World Tuesday, Wednesday Around The World, Seasons, and Friday Photo Journal along with other linky parties on my Events And Links page.

 

 

 

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Supermassive Black Hole

Music Quilt - Guitar, Drums, Microphone Quilt Patterns | Whims And Fancies

 

Music Instruments patterns in my Shop

 

Music has played a major role in my life since I was a teenager.  Quite often it provides the escape, the focus and the peace of mind that can’t be found elsewhere.  I listen to and play both classical and modern music and I love them both.  After I made the classical Piano Trio music quilt, I just had to make a rock music quilt.  I made the instruments a while back but was waiting for the complementing quilting design to come to me.

 

I love Muse.  A week doesn’t go by where I don’t listen to a song by them.  I can’t believe that I didn’t think of this design sooner, even though the song Supermassive Black Hole has been blaring in my ears regularly.  Add that idea to my love of cosmology, and I couldn’t move away from the picture of a supermassive black hole with jets escaping from the middle quilted on my rock music piece.  I was giddy with excitement!

 

 

Using tracing paper for quilting | Whims And Fancies

 

 

This is how I quilt quite often.  Instead of transferring the design onto the quilt, I use sheets of tracing paper and quilt on them directly.  I draw the design on the computer and print it out on tracing paper.  I trim the sheets of tracing paper to 8″ x 11″ so I can feed them into my printer.  Since the design is printed in segments on each sheet,  I use tape to join the sheets to each other.

 

If I decide to draw the design by hand, then I tape the sheets to each other before drawing the design.  Finally, I baste the quilt along with the design paper on top.  I then quilt over the design lines.  Once I finish quilting, I tear the paper off.  I haven’t tried this process on a large quilt yet, but it works really well on mini quilts.

 

 

Piano Trio Music Quilt - Piano Violin Cello Quilt Pattern | Whims and Fancies

 

Music Instruments patterns in my Shop

 

I used a very woody, low-volume setting for the Piano Trio.  I quilted a design based on an evenly-spaced, spiraling music stave.  This gives it a calm and harmonious feel, very much the way I see classical music.

 

 

Music Quilt - Guitar, Drums, Microphone Quilt Patterns | Whims And Fancies

 

Music Instruments patterns in my Shop

 

I used spirals for the rock music quilt too, but they are a lot more chaotic.  I also used bright yellow and red thread to quilt it whereas I used low-tone ecru and brown on the Piano Trio.  This little quilt has very different kind of dynamics.  It’s colourful and moody.

 

I could never choose between classical and rock music.  I love them both and they each touch my soul in different ways.  That’s how I suppose they are reflected in these two music quilts.

 

 

-Soma

 

 

 

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