Quilting, quilting, quilting...

The quilting has begun, and if the embroidery on the back of the quilt is to remain truthful and honest, then I need to get this done by the end of the year... Ha ha! Not going to be happening I fear!!! Certainly not on my PGCE year. At the moment I'm in week 2, and it is intense! A lot of information is being fed our way in rapid quick fire style, but it's great to be a student again, and to be learning so much. Very exciting times!

For the quilting, I'm mainly just doodling with thread in vaguely circular or leafy patterns. It's taking a long time, but looking really good. Unfortunately you can barely see it in my photograph, but I'm sure at some point I'll need to provide another update, which will involve a better photograph.

One GIANT sandwich

This is a quick picture that I took with my mobile as I lay the whole quilt top out on the floor and sandwiched the top to the wadding and quilt back. A big job that involved a lot of furniture re-arranging and all of my living room being covered in fabric for a little while. The backing is a plain sheet, that has one row of squares sewn together with a little bit of embroidery on one of them with my name and the dates that this quilt was sewn in. This gives me a deadline of finishing in 2011. ... The hand quilting has begun, and it could be a while before this is finished.

The New York Trilogy

This novel confused me. Paul Auster originally wrote 3 stories, and they have been put together in this novel. All 3 stories are a variation on the typical detective or crime novel, and I was expecting there to be obvious links between each one (there are some links but they are tenuous). Each novella involves a person having to observe another, looking out for a potential crime which may or may not occur. By observing the other person in a voyeuristic way, the main character immerses themselves in the lives of the observed, sometimes forgetting who they are themselves. The three stories are set in different times in New York, which is why some of the links that are in the book (similar names) etc are purely coincidence. A detective called Quinn in the 1960s is unlikely to be the same person in the 1980s... The 'crime' itself never particularly occurs in all 3 of the novels, which is why this book has become a modern classic, as the reader becomes completely immersed in the story and expectation that something is going to happen, only to end the story with no particular conclusion to the criminal aspect of the story.

I enjoyed reading this novel, but I do think that I enjoyed reading 3 individual stories rather than a full novel. The fact that it was put into one full novel is what I found confusing. Normally there would be one particular tie from one story to the next or a clear connector through each story, perhaps similar to the novels of David Mitchell, but that didn't really happen in this one. I think that the novel as a whole may need a second reading in order to get the most out of it; I'm pretty sure that I've missed something! However, life is getting hectic, so that isn't going to happen... PGCE starts in 2 weeks time... so reading for pleasure will be a bit of a luxury.