All pictures from the Sewing and Quilting expo in November.
Wordless Wednesday- Mini Modern Quilts
Tag: inspiration
Simple Sunday- Characters
“Because characters are your creations, you are the one who ultimately gets to decide their fate.”-Alexandra Adornetto
“I suppose all fictional characters, especially in adventure or heroic fiction, at the end of the day are our dreams about ourselves. And sometimes they can be really revealing.”-Alan Moore
“One of the things that writing has taught me is that fiction has a life of its own. Fictional places are sometimes more real than the view from our bedroom window. Fictional people can sometimes become as close to us as our loved ones.”-Joanne Harris
“It is perhaps both a blessing and a curse that fictional worlds spring into my mind nearly fully formed and it takes quite a while to sift through everything to find the story.”-Erin Morgenstern
“I’m always depressed when a book ends, because those are my friends for however long the book takes to write. Since I spend so many hours with these fictional people, I sometimes see them more than my real friends. And then they’re gone, and we’ll never be together like that again.”-Seanan McGuire
“It’s easy to feel like you don’t have any control over yourself or your life or your body as a teen – everything is changing so fast, and a lot of it feels so outside of your power. I think that’s why a lot of teens form really strong attachments to fictional characters or celebrities, draw their own characters or write themselves into fan fiction.”-Noelle Stevenson
(Almost) Wordless Wednesday- Maine Coastal Botanical Garden- Dahlia Garden
Hey Mom, remember when Grandma found the “dahlia” plant growing in her driveway? 🙂
Simple Sunday- Games
“Gamers even develop some unusual emotional “superpowers.” Perhaps the most surprising power has to do with dreaming. People who frequently play first-person games (which graphically show you the game world from the point of view of the hero, like Minecraft, Halo, and Portal) develop two rather amazing skills: They can halt nightmares in their tracks, controlling themselves in their dreams the way they control a character in a video game.”― Jane McGonigal, SuperBetter: A Revolutionary Approach to Getting Stronger, Happier, Braver and More Resilient–Powered by the Science of Games
“Sam felt a peacefulness come over him when he was playing Donkey Kong in his grandparents’ pizza parlor. When he could time the little Japanese Italian plumber’s jumps and ascend the staircases at the right pace, it felt as if the universe was capable of being ordered. It felt as if it were possible to achieve a perfect timing. It felt like synchronicity.”― Gabrielle Zevin, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
“Games were not just a diversion, I realized. Games could make you feel. If great literature could would its power through nothing but black squiggles on a page, how much more could be done with movement, sound, and color?”― Sid Meier, Sid Meier’s Memoir!: A Life in Computer Games
“The gun is mightier than the pen, was our true opinion, and the RPG is mightier still.”― Lydia Millet, Mermaids in Paradise
“By shifting your focus to the princess and treating your life’s challenges like video games, you can trick your brain and actually learn more and see more success.”-Mark Rober
Simple Sunday- Flowers
“I read somewhere once that souls were like flowers,’ said Priscilla.
‘Then your soul is a golden narcissus,’ said Anne, ‘and Diana’s is like a red, red rose. Jane’s is an apple blossom, pink and wholesome and sweet.’
‘And your own is a white violet, with purple streaks in its heart,’ finished Priscilla.”
― L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Avonlea
“I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine.”
― William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream
“I’m talking about the language of flowers. It’s from the Victorian era, like your name. If a man gave a young lady a bouquet of flowers, she would race home and try to decode it like a secret message. Red roses mean love; yellow roses infidelity. So a man would have to choose his flowers carefully.”
― Vanessa Diffenbaugh, The Language of Flowers
“When a flower doesn’t bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower.”
― Alexander Den Heijer
“To be a Flower, is profound
Responsibility”
― Emily Dickinson, The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
“I have lost my smile,
but don’t worry.
The dandelion has it.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life
“Who’s to say which is stronger? Flowers break concrete just like hammers do.”
― Bethanee Epifani J. Bryant
Glass Flowers Exhibit
I have a fascinating exhibit to show you today from our out East Trip. You may get sick of seeing things from out there eventually, but I hope not! The trip was a bright spot in a really awful time of change in our lives. (I was in the process of managing a difficult time at work.) I haven’t felt like much myself for a while, but am slowly getting back there, so have a back log to catch you up on.
Today’s post is about the Blaschka’s Glass Flowers that are part of the permanent collection in the Harvard Natural History Museum. The website is here for more info or for a virtual tour. https://hmnh.harvard.edu/glass-flowers
Made from glass as teaching aids, the flowers were made by a Czech father and son team- Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka, over 50 years from 1886-1936. They produced 4,300 glass models representing 780 plant species. They created special processes to capture the textures, looks, and parts of a plant. There were a lot more models than I could take pictures of and some of them did have a glare from the lights, so I was only able to grab a few pictures, but I wanted to share them with you.
The Blascka’s were frustrated with the lack of teaching materials for botanists and others trying to learn about the natural world and so decided they were going to make their own. If you saw some of these just out in the wild, you would honestly think they were real flowers. They were incredibly detailed.
I’m always in awe of what artisans can do and this exhibit was no exception. The craftsmanship and care that was taken with these plant artifacts is stunning. Part of the exhibit also included information about what it takes to be a conservator for exhibits like these, restoration, and other neat behind the scenes things. The exhibit went through a renovation in 2016 and it looks gorgeous. If you get the chance, I would highly recommend the Harvard set of museums. If you buy a ticket to the Natural History Museum, you get admission to four other smaller museums for the day as well. It’s definitely worth the price! I’ll leave you with one last picture to enjoy as inspiration for your trip.
Wordless Wednesday- Art Deco Quilts
These are all from the National Quilt and Sewing Expo. I always take a million pictures, but there’s so many cool quilts! These were all Art Deco style!
Simple Sunday- Humor
“I have never listened to anyone who criticized my taste in space travel, sideshows or gorillas. When this occurs, I pack up my dinosaurs and leave the room.”― Ray Bradbury, Zen in the Art of Writing
“I do not want people to be very agreeable, as it saves me the trouble of liking them a great deal.” —Jane Austen
“No passion in the world is equal to the passion to alter someone else’s draft.”- H. G. Wells
“I’ll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there’s evidence of any thinking going on inside it.”-Terry Pratchett
“Fate is like a strange, unpopular restaurant filled with odd little waiters who bring you things you never asked for and don’t always like.”― Lemony Snicket
“Every now and then I like to do as I’m told, just to confuse people.”― Tamora Pierce, Melting Stones
Simple Sunday- Imagination
“I believe that imagination inspires nations. It’s something that I live by.”-Janelle Monae
“Our imaginations are strong as children. Sometimes they get shoved aside, these imaginations. They get dusty and mildewed with age. The imagination is a muscle that has to be put to use or it shrivels.”-Julianna Baggott
“Fairy tales opened up a door into my imagination – they don’t conform to the reality that’s around you as a child. I started reading when I was three and read everything, but I wanted to be an actress.”-Kate Atkinson
“I believe in the power of imagination. I believe in the unexplained possibilities of the spirit. And I believe that the heart, like any other muscle, grows stiff if it is not exercised regularly. I believe.”
― Eve Zibart, The Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World for Grown-Ups
Simple Sunday- Science!
“Science, my lad, is made up of mistakes, but they are mistakes which it is useful to make, because they lead little by little to the truth.”-Jules Verne
“This job is a great scientific adventure. But it’s also a great human adventure. Mankind has made giant steps forward. However, what we know is really very, very little compared to what we still have to know.” — Higgs Boson physicist Fabiola Gianotti
“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”― Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time
“The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds the most discoveries, is not “Eureka!” (I found it!) but ‘That’s funny…”― Isaac Asimov
“Science makes people reach selflessly for truth and objectivity; it teaches people to accept reality, with wonder and admiration, not to mention the deep awe and joy that the natural order of things brings to the true scientist.” –Lise Meitner