Phantasmagorical

The absolute best, coolest, Goreyest tomb at the Pere Lachaise Cemetery is that of Etienne-Gaspard Robertson.

Skulls with wings, angels, and I think those are burning candles. It looks like a bathtub up at the top but I expect that's meant to be a coffin.

A close-up of the image on this side of the monument. Grim Reapers and their pet on the left, a winged skeleton blowing a trumpet at the top and horrified Victorians on the right side.

An even closer close-up of the Grims:

This is the other side of the monument.

This panel features a balloon sailing away.

Etienne-Gaspard Robertson was a physicist, balloonist and a stage magician who used "phantasmagoria," a display of optical effects and illusions, to perform ghost stories. He was definitely a showman.

My sweetie and I tried out our neighborhood Indian restaurant for lunch today. Mmmm excellent garlic naan and tandoori chicken. Later.

Père-Lachaise Cemetery

I took advantage of the sun today and visited the Père-Lachaise Cemetery. I didn't have any strong desire to go there, but that's the first page my guidebook opened up to so what the heck. I have to admit it wasn't what I was expecting at all. Lots of family crypts built on a hill rather than the bumpy lawns with boring tombstones of the U.S. There are so many trees that this cemetary stayed quite dark and gloomy in many spots. I could envision Edward Gorey characters here. Cue the music and credits for MYSTERY!

It wasn't hard to find one of the most famous occupants of the cemetery. Look at the crowd:

surrounding Jim Morrison's grave. Rather disappointing. For all the hubbub I thought it would be cooler than this.

Anyway. I'm saving the pics of my favorite tomb for another day. I need to get something done around here besides play on the computer.

Spikey Spider Flower

I've made a bit of progress on Blooming Horrors, despite spending so much time reading instead of appliqueing. I hate this part of doing a bouquet where I need to start getting the stems layed in. Stems are boring. I'm not putting one in for the hand - I don't mind if it hovers.

None of my flower shapes are precise -- instead they are bumpy here and flat there. For the Devil's Head and the Eyeball, I just drew the shapes freehand with my chalk directly onto the fabric and then added the 1/4" seam allowance as I cut them out.

For this Spikey Spider Flower, I drew a design onto paper, then cut the shapes out and used those as my templates.

I took my inspiration for this flower from the quilt shown in this picture in my idea notebook.

My version came out partly upside down (my spikes go around the top, the ones in the pic go around the bottom). I cut out the pieces almost two years ago and didn't even really think about if there was a right way or a wrong way to put them on.

If you are at all interested in designing your own flower baskets, I highly recommend Gwen Marston's Four Block Applique Quilts book. Unlike most of the books I recommend, this one is still in print. Her quilts are traditional, but she gives you all the tools and techniques you need to play.

The kitties have been really sweet lately. The more I lay around, the more they lay around on me. It's a vicious circle of love.

Gargoyle Blues and Lots of Books

A couple of photos of the Notre Dame Cathedral, from a walk on 4 August. Look at that blue sky and sunshine.

I love these gargoyles. One of these days I'm going to climb up all the stairs so that I can get a lot closer to some of these guys, but it has to be after the tourist hordes have died down.

I'm feeling blurgy with the PMS blues. That's PMT for the Brits out there, not quite sure what it would be called (other than misery) in other parts of the world. I'll really be whining once the cramps hit in a couple of days. Think I need to make some chocolatey treats to prepare.

I'm on a reading tear these days. I'm terrible, once I get into a book I don't want to do anything else but read that book. And then another book and another one. Arg. Not that I get any less discriminating. I started (but didn't finish) Carved in Bone by Jefferson Bass, a forensic pathology mystery co-written by the doctor who founded The Body Farm. Interesting stuff in there, but I'll read the non-fiction book rather than get endless stories being told by one of the characters to other poorly drawn characters while waiting for some convincing action to happen. And that kiss between the geezer and the grad student? icky icky icky. Skip it.

Martin Cruz Smith's Wolves Eat Dogs was excellent, tho depressing. It's an Arkady Renko police procedural, this time taking place mostly near Chernobyl. I hate to think how much in this novel is true. 4 out of 5 stars.

Traitor to the Blood by Barb and J.C. Hendee is the fourth book in their noble dead series. It's a swords and sorceries fantasy with vampires. Gotta say it's getting really old. Yes, things did change in the book, characters deepened, but I still feel like it's going nowhere. I liked the initial concept, but bored now. I won't be buying any more, but when I'm back in the land of libraries I may get it. 2.5 out of 5.

Unshapely Things by Mark Del Franko reminded me of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files. That's a series I kinda like but kinda don't. I find Dresden irritating. I never buy the novels but if I come across them in the library I read them. Unshapely Things is an urban fantasy with a druid--who's lost most of his powers--investigating supernatural crimes that may be leading up to something bigger. Enjoyable and I'm going to get the sequel. 3.75 out of 5. You can read the first chapter at the author's website.

[Angie, the book takes place in Boston so at least the author isn't doing horrible things to Chicago. I think you'd like this one. And the next one, maybe.]

Now the book that I completely and totally loved is Already Dead by Charlie Huston. Reading the reviews, you see lots of references to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Mickey Spillane, Raymond Chandler and Quentin Tarantino. Not far off the mark. Of course it would have to be Phillip Marlow playing both Buffy AND Angel (the hero is a vampire) combined into one and there wouldn't be any Scoobie Gang. You got vampires and zombies and a beaten down investigator just trying to solve the case, save the girl, and survive. Not necessarily in that order. Highly recommended. 5 out of 5.

By the way, this is the first book in a projected series of five. You can read an excerpt of the novel at the author's website.

It helps that Already Dead combines my two favorite genres, but it's also very well written and paced. In my mind anyway. I was reading a blog post the other day in which someone wrote about how much she hated Harry Potter. She found the writing itself terrible and the whole thing very sexist. (Harry Potter, not Hermione Potter). Anyway, the reviewer was reading a work of real literature at the time (Viginia Woolf). Everybody has got different taste, that's for sure. I bet she'd hate all the books that I love and I know I wouldn't read Virginia Woolf unless locked in an empty room with nothing else to do for a month.

French Sphinx in the Marais

Pictures from last week's walk in the Marais. I found a gorgeous courtyard:

With a pair of French sphinx. The only similarity to Egyptian sphinx is in the lion's body. An Egyptian sphinx would never have breasts and all the ones I've seen are looking straight ahead very serenely or majestically.

This one is missing her nose. These faces almost look like they're in pain to me. I suppose I'd be in pain if my nose had fallen off too.

Another detail in the courtyard:

I enjoyed your comments on my last post, which is not to say that I don't always enjoy them - I do. I had not thought about how machine quilters so often work without any marking at all and yet here are hand quilters being told they need to buy templates and stencils. harumph.

Too much of the quilting industry is based on making quilters feel inferior, that they have to buy this book to perfect their quilting stitch, and that book to learn the technique to make those seams match, have to buy the templates because you aren't good enough to do it yourself. You're a bad quilter but you'll be great if you'll just buy more stuff.

Most of the shows are just as terrible, choosing soulless technique and symmetry over wobbley joyful works. I look at the quilts and find nothing appealing in them at all.

To completely change tacks, now I have some links to share with you.

Julie used my freepiecing method to make words for this marvelous quilt. There are lots of detail shot of the quilt as well as pics of some other fun quilts.

Mismatched Quilter Katie is making the most amazing freepieced letters I've ever seen. She's completely blowing me away. She's come up with her own "handwriting" style and it's fabulous. Start with her August 6th entry showing the completed Space quilt and then work backwards to see the quilt in progress. She's also put in detailed pics of how she makes the letters, and she's teaching me a few things.

Quilting Rush Laurie Ann is making a great improvised homage to Elvis as well as keepsake name quilts for visiting Japanese students. All marvelous.

And last, but by no means least, Rantala Rags Dot is making a great appliqued Halloween bouquet. I love how she's used her fabric to make ghost and boo flowers. I'm pleased to have inspired her and in turn am getting great ideas from her. Anyone else want to join in?