Versailles and Fabric Fusion!

I stumbled upon the current summer contemporary art installation at Versailles whilst purging my old bookmarks on the computer. How fabulous! These crazy quilted octopus' are invading the palace of Versailles for the summer and brings a whole "high-art" twist to yarn bombing, or quilt bombing as the case may be.

Royal Valkyrie by Joana Vasconcelos, at the Palace of Versailles

In case you don't know, the famous pop artist Takashi Murakami (most recognized by his Louis Vuttion multi-coloured purses) did an art installation at Versailles that raised a lot of controversy. I believe it was the first of such art installations in the palace.

Do you want to know how to say that in art speak - you say "art interventions." Yes, I work in the art world and hear this lingo bullshit all the time.

The controversy was quite extensive, merely because there are traditionalists who want historic buildings to remain historic without any change or influence from present day. From a museum stand-point, this is suicide. How often have you caught yourself saying, "Been there, seen that." This is one way museums are trying to bring people in, with art installations, performance, theatre, festivals etc. And what what's wrong with that? It's fun. You may not like it but it's only temporary. Maybe next time you'll like it.

Royal Valkyrie by Joana Vasconcelos

I have never heard of this artist, Joana Vasconcelos. The sculptures are pretty wacky. I can't say I like them all either. But I really like the bright colours against the rococo pastel paintings. Pretty wicked! If you would like to see all the installations, there is a special website here. Or visit Versailles. The Hall of Mirrors  and Marie Antionette's bedroom are amazing!

Stitch and Bitch Baby Blanket

Even though I am currently complaining about crochet, I did manage to knit a baby blanket for my pen pal in Taiwan. This was my first knitted baby blanket (!) and the pattern was from the first Stitch and Bitch book by Debbie Stoller. You can also get the pattern here on Ravelry.

This was a fantastic easy project. Excellent if you are a beginner (which I am not - but sometimes I act like one.)

Frogging the Birds

Hmph. In a not-so-surprising turn of knitting, I was so close to the end of my sweater front (the pattern from the 50's that I have written about earlier in this blog).

Damn, the sweater was about 8 inches too long.

Gotta frog them birdies.

Next time I may add the beak colour of the birds...maybe...

On a related note, The Guardian has a mini-photo album of Kate Jenkin's work...she is quite famous overseas. Here are some pictures of her work....much more successful than mine!

They have a lot of canned hotdogs in the UK.
Heaven knows why.

The fishies are pretty.

Look at the detail in this one!!! She must have stitched
in the parliament after crocheting the bottle.

Bee Keeper's Quilt.

Some people are very, very involved in their projects. I like to knit. I'm not good at it. I try.

Check out this fun pattern and watch this video (I'm certain you won't get through it all, I didn't).

I'm happy some people are happy with their knitting.

Tiny Owl Knit's Bee Keeper's Quilt

Clicking Needles....

This is what I have been working on in the evenings:

I found this fun design while digging in a basket in an antique shop in Rye, England. Cost me a whopping 30p ($0.75 cents)! While the pattern recommends an angora yarn, I am using a very simple but nice smokey grey acrylic, with the birds in an off-white. The pattern recommends using a red yarn for the birds beaks. Can you imagine that? I figure if I don't like the appearance once I have completed the sweater I can stitch in some colour when I am finished. I'll photograph the front of my own soon...oh and put a bird on it!