Tumbling blocks is an extremely old patchwork pattern. It can be machine-made, but this one's assembled using the English paper piecing method. It's a slow & steady way to create, but has the advantage of being very portable. You can take your sewing with you on sunny days in the park or when you travel. The 3D effect works well as long as you have a darker diamond, a mid coloured one and a lighter shade. I'm using two mainly red fabrics plus a variety of lighter ones, but the pattern would work with a complete mix of scraps, as long as the dark/medium/light balance is kept.
On the reading front, I've started 'Grace' which I stumbled across by chance in the library. (As always, thank heavens for libraries. They're a blessing, aren't they?) If you've not heard of her, Grace Coddington is a creative director at American Vogue. I only really knew about her, like many people, through the film 'The September Issue'. She was the inadvertent star of it, much more engaging than the chilly Anna Wintour, and clearly passionate about clothes. I'm not a fan of Wintour (she wears and through the magazine American Vogue promotes the wearing of real fur. Vile.) and don't buy fashion magazines. Too advert-heavy, too interested in fashion brands rather than beautiful clothing. However, it's fascinating to read about this entirely different world, and how a girl from a remote island off North Wales became immersed in it. I used to buy fashion mags as a teenager in a dull as ditchwater English market town. During boring factory jobs, dreaming of escaping, I read Vogue and Elle, seeing glimpses of another life, one of glamorous locations and fabulous photoshoots. It's a shame that fashion mags nowadays are just vehicles to push brands. Clothes, perfume, make up. It's all about who made it and what it cost. Clothing has been reduced to brands, when it should be about flair, creativity, individuality, telling stories of who we are, who we want to be, the tales of our lives, not just which shop we went into or how much cash we have.
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