Making & Baking

Inspired by the trip to Festival of Quilts (see past post) and, of course, the mass exposure to beautiful fabric I have decided to make my very own quilt! I, perhaps stupidly, decided to make a large one (to fit the new bed) comprised of different patchwork blocks measuring 12cm by 12cm. On reflection I should have made the blocks bigger but oh well I've started now and I must finish it. As I currently don't own a sewing machine, I'm sewing it all by hand and hope to have it ready by the beginning of December (or at least before Christmas).
Progress:

Like a true stitcher, I've also starting stashing and thinking about new projects...one thing at a time is a hard rule to stick to.

To celebrate my sister's un-birthday, she held a tea party (think Alice in Wonderland's Mad Hatter). There was plenty of tea as well as games, bubbles, playing cards bunting, cucumber sandwiches, biscuits and cake, some of which I provided. It was a very enjoyable evening indeed! 'Eat Me' biscuits, strawberry tea (with milk!) and pin the grin on the cheshire cat were my highlights.

Autumnumnumn

Autumnal delights, because summer really is over.

Clockwise from top left: Woven aztec satchel from Urbanoutfitters, £45 - love the stitching.

Green skinny Leigh jeans from Topshop, £38 - it's about time I strayed away from the traditional blue or black and purchase some statement ones. Gotta love green. 

H by Hudson Wexford Chelsea Boots (available at Office), £130.

KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer in cobalt (available from John Lewis), £377.10 - appealing to my lazy side, my love for baking AND my eye for attractive kitchen appliances, I want this. Choose from a range of colours!

Little Swallows fabric from Fabric Rehab, £3.10 per quarter - most recent fabric love, it's 100% cotton, incredibly soft and light.

Back to the Future print by Brandon Schaefer, £35 - the Richard Goodall Gallery had a stand at the London Film and Comic Con back in July and, among others which were also awesome, they were displaying this poster and it's stuck in my mind ever since. Brandon's other artwork is definitely worth a look.

John Lewis sewing machine, £99 - I've never owned a sewing machine and although I massively struggled with them at school, I've got lots of things I want to make so this would be a wise buy methinks. And it's red!

In case you can't see, yes it is a Tyrannosaurus Rex. Dinosaur jumper from Topshop, £26 - sold.

Square Eyes

When I was little my mum used to tell me that if I watched too much TV I'd get square eyes. Now that I'm an adult I think my eyes must just have adapted what with all the cinema outings, TV watching and, let's not forget, the vast amounts of computer gazing I do every day...

Fruits of the cinema outings, careful there are spoilers.

Captain America
From gorgeous 40's fashion, costumes and set to the very 'buff' Chris Evans - what's not to like about this film? It's THE comic book hero fighting a rather terrifying looking Hugo Weaving as Red Skull, there's battles and humour, it's patriotic but not in an overbearing way, solid performances from the varied cast (I was sad to see Stanley Tucci's part cut short though) and, very excitingly, it starts to link to together the pieces in The Avengers puzzle. If you haven't seen it shame on you, I think you've missed it on the big screen.

Super 8
If Captain America was patriotic then Super 8 is most definitely nostalgic - the push bikes, the floral shirts and those haircuts all point towards a by gone era (v.much reminiscent of E.T). It's the summer and  a group a boys are making a film about zombies, and then there's an alien loose in their town, there's adventure and, as always, there's a girl (reminiscent of The Goonies?). I mention E.T and The Goonies because that's what it's been compared to. The difference between them however is that the other two know their message, their purpose and stick to it, Super 8, however, does not. So there's a monster and it's been mistreated and want's to get home. Humans are the bad guys. The alien starts taking people (as well as metal objects). Where? To it's lair. What's he doing with them? Eating them. Alien is the bad guy. But he's not killing all of them. Alien is the good guy...? Towards the end he chases our young protagonist, the girl and his friends into a dead end, and, instead of eating or killing them it has a change of heart (aww) and then just decides to leave, cue townsfolk gathering in the street to see the alien depart in a spaceship made out of the town's metal in some sort of weird E.T-esque departure. Only this time there 'aint no rainbow. Don't get me wrong, I really liked this film - the cinematography, the script were great - except from the last 20 minutes which were utterly disappointing. It felt as though the makers of this film had all become caught up in it and then forgot they had to end it. Error.

Hobo with a Shotgun
The second of the Rodriguez & Tarantino grindhouse trailers to be made into a feature length. It's exactly what you'd imagine it to be: Rutger Hauer as a hobo delivering bloody justice to a bunch of bastards. Brutal and unnecessarily gorey but funny and to the point, I think it only lasts about an hour and a half. I have to admit though, and there's no room comparison other than it was also a grindhouse trailer, I preferred Machete perhaps because of Danny Trejo and it had more of a ridiculous storyline, if that's even possible.

30 Minutes or Less
Ever since watching the trailer for this, which was basically a short scene from the film, I knew I must see the whole thing. I was not disappointed. Jesse Eisenberg plays a pizza delivery guy (hence the title) who is kidnapped by two douche bags who, after strapping a bomb to him, tell him he's got so many hours to find them enough money so that one of the douches can pay a hit man to kill his dad. Sounds crazy? It is and very funny too. In not so funny news, this is apparently based on a true story. The laughs are mostly orchestrated, not by Jesse Eisenberg but by his best friend who comes along for the ride, Aziz Ansari, an American actor/stand-up comedian. I actually laughed out loud watching this one - go see!

Cowboys and Aliens
Two very different genres thrown into the mix. I must confess that when I first heard about it I thought it was going to be a spoof because how could this be done seriously? The answer is: it can, with some humour of course, mostly thanks to Sam Rockwell's one liners and Harrison Ford being a crotchety old man (for, sadly, that is what he is now). The film revolves around Daniel Craig's character who wakes up remembering nothing and also sporting a strange contraption around his wrist. The aliens attack a town, stealing some of the residents. Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford and the remaining men set off to track the aliens down, tagging along with them is Olivia Wilde (she's a little different from the rest of the womenfolk). Once finding the alien's craft, cowboys and indians unite to rescue their kin/kill the murderous aliens. In this film, unlike Super 8, the aliens are most definitely bad (it transpires that they move from planet to planet wiping out the indigenous people). The plot is simple, it's action packed and pretty fun. I particularly like the idea of aliens invading earth in an era that isn't relatively present, that gets done a lot. Exploring different centuries in which the aliens invade can only be a good thing, I'm holding out for some sort of Henry VIII vs UFO production.

The Skin I Live In
I've been quite lucky of late. The previous two films were viewed courtesy of Empire magazine's Big Screen, and more recently I won tickets to see the new Pedro Almodovar film thanks to Little White Lies. The Skin I Live In is brilliant - it's shock and horror, not in the sense of blood and gore, but in a way that makes you think and keep thinking after you leave the cinema (in kind of the same way I felt, although not to the extent, about Dogtooth). It's chilling, gradually building up and up as the plot unfolds, the flash back is perfectly placed. I didn't know the ending when I watched it and I think it's best that you don't either so I won't give much away. Awesome performances from all involved, I most definitely recommend.

My Old Dress & The Festival of Quilts

Things have been rather hectic lately, mostly because I have started a new job. I am no longer a data monkey and instead of toiling away at a database, my day-to-day activities now involve fabric, patterns and quilts (yay :D)! You might sense a bit of a sewing theme...

Partly because of the new job, but mostly because I like to make things, I decided to recycle an old dress that, alas, no longer fitted me. Here is it in one piece (it had a good life - travelled abroad and even visited the natural history museum).

So far I've used it for three small projects. Firstly as a means of sprucing up an otherwise plain pair of flip-flops. Secondly I cut a length of it to wear as a headband (getting into the festival mood before lovebox, see past post). Lastly (and my fav) you'll see that it's one of the four fabrics I used to make bunting.

The Festival of Quilts is Europe's largest event to celebrate all things quilt-ish. Aside from displaying around a thousand quilts (traditional and contemporary, large and small) submitted by individuals and groups, adults and children  from all over the world, there are rows and rows of stalls selling fabrics, threads, books, sewing machines, not to mention the various workshops taking place and the mini exhibitions dotted around focusing on artists' and museum collections alike. The festival is vast hence why it's spread over four days (continuing throughout the weekend). And where would you find this Quilt Mecca? The NEC Birmingham (it's pretty much in the middle of nowhere and, to be honest, a bit grim - it's a good thing the quilts are a beautiful reward for your travels).

A more traditional quilt made by 25 people.

Tetris quilt from the contemporary section

Postcard patchwork from the Miniature collection.

This is a very high tech sewing machine - automatic (you just use the handles to move it around), with programs AND it sews at lightening speed - all for just £9,000!

I also wanted to mention Mary Koval and her Antique Quilts. She had boxes of fat quarters dating back to the 1950s and some rather incredible vintage quilts over a hundred years old. Mary had come all the way from Pennsylvania where her shop sells quilts made as early as the late 1700s. Below is the fabric I chose from Mary's stall, not sure what I'll use it for just yet, watch this space.

Wedding Guest

Reading & Seeing 3

Two brilliant beardy fellows who have provided me with my most recent reading escapades.

First, the older gent to the left - Frank Herbert - hugely respected and influential Science Fiction author, that's right folks I finally read Dune. It is awesome. In all honestly, it took me a little while to get into the story - there are a lot of character names to remember and a good few unusual places and customs to pronounce - but once these were mastered, I was able to engross myself with the desert planet Arrakis - it's people, the spice and of course the sandworms. Although I'd never want to live in such conditions (I probably wouldn't survive) I love the concept of a world without water (or v.little of it) and the inventions born out of such a climate, the imagination behind the technology, particularly the stillsuits, is ingenious. The plot itself is epic, dealing with various story-lines running parallel before culminating in the final stand-off where all the different groups come face to face. I would say that the very ending, the last page in fact, where the Lady Jessica verbally bitch-slaps Paul's (our hero's) wife to be is a little odd but thankfully it doesn't have to end like that. There are sequels and prequels all about the Dune universe. If you like your sci-fi and just haven't got round to it: Read This Book. If you're not a big sci-fi fan but you want to try it out: Read This Book. There's a reason why it's so acclaimed. Word of warning: keep a glass/bottle of water to hand when reading, it's thirsty work reading about a desert planet.

The younger bearded man to the right is Robert Kirkman creator of The Walking Dead comics, upon which the Frank Darabont TV series of the same name is based. For those who've seen the first season, you'll be happy to know that the next televised installment is due in October (for the USA and soon after for the UK), the trailer looks awesome. If you, like me, found the gap too long to wait for some zombie related goodness, you might like to read it. The series has steered away from the plot of the comics so that when I picked up vol. 2 I embarked on a alternative story with the same set of characters. Even though Simon Pegg's afterword says: 'Savour it, think about it, re-evaluate it and like the best zombies, take it slow', it's a page turner and you'll devour it super quickly, I'd advise maybe getting two or three volumes at once.

These two fellas (also supporting excellent facial hair) both appear in the two preoccupations of my TV viewing.

On the left we have Joel Kinnaman star of the US remake of the Danish series sensation, The Killing. Now I know that I might have screwed up here and I should have watched the Danish one (everyone keeps telling me it is immense) but the problem I have is that I've started the US one and I'm completely sucked in. I like the mix of social worlds clashing within the overall plot, the rainy but atmospheric Seattle setting and most of all the character interactions between the two case offices, Linden (Mireille Enos) and Holder (Kinnaman). It is truly compelling viewing. I can't remember the last time I was so impatient to see the next episode of a show. If I could I'd watch all of it in one go. I'd probably be severely depressed and needing a good dosage of sunlight, happiness and cake at the end of it because, let's face it, it's pretty grim, but I've got to know who killed Rosie Larsen.

Baldie/beardy combo on the right is Bryan Cranston returning to the role of Walter White in Breaking Bad. Cranston plays the chemistry teacher diagnosed with cancer who, in order to make some money to support his family (wife, disabled son, new baby) after he dies, enters into a partnership with a former student to cook and sell crystal meth (as you do). It's as mental as it sounds but after scooping a few Emmy Awards last Summer, it's back for the fourth season and things are, as you'd imagine in the drug world, getting completely out of hand.