Jane Brocket's Blog, page 33

location

Deciding where to locate a book is a huge question. When it's a quilting book you have to consider the style you want to create, whether you want cosiness and domesticity or abstract and decidedly undomestic, accessorised or bare, highly styled or simply set out, plain or colourful.

On Friday had a second photoshoot for the quilting book I've just finished. It was in a very different sort of location to the ones we usually use, but it turned out to be ideal for my quilts. The ceilings were high, the light was clear, there was space to move, the owner had a great collection of carefully chosen bits and pieces, books and furniture, and I brought a big bucket of bright dahlias to go with one particular quilt. It was a very good day, and it made me think again just how much a location can influence the look, feel, and even the message of a book.

I like quilt books that do something a little bit different with locations. Kathy Doughty uses the Australian landscape to tremendous effect; who ever said quilts could only be photographed indoors, especially when you have all that amazing outdoor space and colour that inspires and informs your quilting style. (I particularly like the use of railway lines in the new book.) With every Rowan quilting book he writes,  Kaffe Fassett finds yet another incredible place (Bulgaria, Malta, Provence, Sweden, Great Dixter, urban London) to locate his quilts and uses all sorts of surprising backdrops and details. (I sometimes think that because these books come out annually, it's easy to almost forget to look at the amazing backgrounds that Kaffe and his team have chosen so carefully. My favourite in the latest book is a quilt next to an enormous pile of corn husks.) I also like the Japanese quilting books that use studios and virtually no extraneous stuff in the shots - it's a brave decision to be so bold and plain, but if the quilts are strong, it's an approach that can work well. And it's cheap.

Looking at location websites is strangely fascinating. I've had to because I help choose where we go, but even if I didn't look for work, I could easily imagine getting a little bit hooked. Fresh Locations and First Option are both full of the promise of escapist fantasy.

i remember it well

It's the first time in nearly twenty years that there are no children at all in the house for a whole week. Tom is happily sharing a flat with friends in his second year at university, Alice is having a great time on her second go at university (what a difference), and Phoebe is on a school Spanish exchange. 

Yesterday when I was looking for some bits and pieces, I came across a box of Hama Beads and lots of finished pieces. They took me back quite a few years to afternoons spent ironing them, sweeping them up, replacing individual beads when someone accidentally knocked a finished piece and had a little meltdown. Then I tried to recall who'd made the flowers and butterflies and animals I was looking at. Phoebe? Or was it Alice? Did Tom ever sit down and exercise his fine motor skills with Hama Beads? The fact is, I couldn't remember clearly, and I realised that their memories will be quite different to mine. So one day we will be having Gigi-style conversations like this. Ah yes, each one of us will say, I remember it well.

backwater

And the other side. A 200 year old barrel-roofed lock-keeper's cottage with a 200 year old cast-iron range right next to a 200 year old lock, all in fine working order. Plus as many books on canals and waterways as you could ever wish to read in a long weekend.

 

One book written in 1911 waxed nostalgic about Lowsonford (the village) which even then was known as 'Lonesome Ford' as it was already a backwater, left behind by the modern world of railways and motor cars. Nothing has changed, and this stretch of the Stratford-upon-Avon Canal is still as peaceful and tranquil as ever.

By the time the canal was finished it was already out of date, and it's really only ever been used by pleasure craft (often beautifully painted narrow boats) while the tow path is visted by a few walkers. It has plenty of locks, unusual 'split bridges', pubs, and even a few aqueducts, so it's a good lesson in waterway heritage.

And this is what happens when the sun sets.

better than tv

A weekend in a Landmark Trust cottage without a TV is always welcome. This one provided wide-screen entertainment of a different sort.

 

jammy sunday

My latest baking discovery is a mini sandwich tin from Lakeland. It's the best thing that's happened cakewise here for, oooh, at least a fortnight.

So often with cakes made up of several layers, I find that there is simply not enough topping or filling per cubic centimetre of sponge. But these tiny cakes (with straight sides, so they really are miniature versions) mean you can get the proportions right. The tin works particularly well with Victoria Sponges in which the ratio of jam and cream to sponge is spot on. It means you can eat a whole cake - and still have room for a slice of another.

I've also used the tin to make tiny chocolate layer cakes, and cakes filled and topped with buttercream. When I'm baking for fun rather than a book, I still use the old-fashioned 4,4,4,2 measures (4oz each butter, sugar and flour, and 2 eggs to make 12 fairy cakes) which is enough for eight cakes in this tin - 6,6,6,3 will make a dozen.

chilli saturday

 

Home-grown chillis from the greenhouse to spice up a Saturday.

lilac friday

Lovely use of lilac.

Still Life with Flowers and a Bottle (1968) Mary Fedden. Also a reminder to plant snakeshead fritillaries very soon.  

Mauve Still Life (1968) Mary Fedden.

Surely not a coincidence that both are painted in the same year? MF must have either been having a lilac period (cf Picasso and blue) or had bought a large quantity of this colour. (It's a long time since I heard anyone use the word 'mauve' which seems such a quaint word now - I recall wearing 'mauve' bell-bottoms a long time ago.)

Amazingly, these are our paintings.

flowery thursday

A quick walk round the garden with a pair of scissors this morning yielded a little bunch of late flowers. It's a bit of a pick 'n' mix posy with two dahlias, two penstemons, self-seeded fennel and hollyhock, plus a 'cup and saucer' flower (cobaea scandens) and some white cosmos grown from seed. The cosmos has been the triumph of the summer, flowering for a good three months and still going well.

autumnal wednesday

No doubt influenced by autumn, I've got all my quilt books out. Much as I like rereading my favourites, the one I can't put down is this season's newest. Making Quilts is by Kathy Doughty who runs Material Obsession in Australia. She's already co-authored two Material Obession books, but this one is in a different league. I know she has access to a huge number of fabrics via her business, but just because you have all that choice doesn't automatically mean you choose well.  Kathy does, though; she has an incredible quilting eye, and tremendous confidence when it comes to colour, pattern, detail, and design. The book is published by Quiltmania in France (the book is in English and French) which is where I found my copy.

photography tuesday

Two of my favourite photographs from the marvellous Cecil Beaton exhibition at the Imperial War Museum. His images are wonderfully varied but all are dramatic, artistic and affecting, and I was struck by how well he chose his backgrounds. There are some introductory 'Bright Young Things' photos as well (by coincidence I am reading Evelyn Waugh's Vile Bodies) which make the contrast with what he did next even more startling.