“The snow doesn’t give a soft white damn whom it touches.”
E. E. Cummings
This is the deepest part of winter. For many midwesterners the holiday celebrations are a distant memory and the once charming snow has become an annoying inconvenience. Some folks are just tired of being cold!
Just when everything seems gray, St. Valentine’s Day comes to save the day with a radical splash of RED! It is a brilliantly timed holiday to remind us that Spring will, indeed, come again. So this week we celebrate the symbols of the life force and the wonderful color red.
Red is one of my favorite colors! It is a color that I could not do without. It is the color of energy: the pulse of life. The heart, too, is a symbol of life, love and regeneration, plus a wonderful graphic reminder of our mortality.
I have used the stylized heart in several fabric and quilt designs. Here are two beds made up for Valentines. The one on the left has appliqued flaming hearts made with Jane’s Hothouse Garden fabric. It is an homage to Mexican folk art, which I love.
The other bed has a more flirty feminine feeling. It is made from the Jane’s Paradise Garden line, which may be in your fabric stash. Both quilt patterns are available for free downloading:
And now for your enlightenment, the Smiling Red Buddha. He is a symbol of happiness, prosperity and contentment and his statues are used to attract these positive attributes. Love that smile! I also have the Virgin Mary sitting on my computer… just covering all my bases.
We found these inexpensive red frames at Ikea. Right away, I thought of putting fabric in them. By joining three frames together they become a screen or triptych. The perfect background to keep Buddha happy. The fabric is Hothouse, again.
Please note there are three new free patterns available this week: Glowing Crosses, Meditation and Zen Garden. Links are noted below the quilts in the right hand column.
Afternoon in February
The day is ending,
The night descending;
The marsh is frozen,
The river dead.
Through clouds like ashes
The red sun flashes
On village windows
That glimmer red.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow