An Opera-Themed “Sampler” Quilt For Hariclea

This was the most wonderful surprise!! Totally unexpected but so lovely ❤

I’ve had half a day away from home and still find it hard to find the words to describe how wonderful the quilt is that jholland has gifted me with! I’ve admired her crafting skills even since i first read her describe her work, but never in a million years did i dream about owning such an amazing creation!

I’ve always read her with great pleasure, not just on our joint ‘pReoccupAtion’ but about the lovely animals she cares about and her fun family 🙂 and all manner of other common themes. But, we’re yet to have the pleasure to meet in person so i never expected to be the undeserving receiver of her hard work! Or her mum’s for that matter 😃

This arrived for me today via a trip to customs! A few days ago i received a letter from customs about a parcel from the US and i was not sure what it was. I went online, did the required formalities and curiously awaited the parcel 🙂 Happy to say whatever customs did has not disturbed the content at all, as you will be able to see below, it seemed untouched and i glad it was so respectfully treated and valued 🙂

I gently unwrapped it while having to stop every minute to wipe my eyes. Beyond just recovering from the sheet surprise of it the detail is just incredible and jholland has hit so many spots 🙂 I loved discovering every square of detail, the lovely bling of black cloth with tiny golden squares surrounding the pattern, the gilded border and the scores of my favourite pieces and places all around. It has prints of opera houses which are dear to me like the Royal Opera House in London, the Garnier in Paris, the Wien Staatsoper and the Metropolitan in NY which i am yet to visit 🙂 There are images of extracts of scores of Tosca, Don Giovanni, Boheme and even Lucia, one of my very favourites!

And then there are the instruments, the masks, the opera glasses! It’s more glamourous really than my entire opera going life 😜

It’s such a labour of love! Please do read jhollands lovely post below which describes in detail how it was made and all the details! And i can only imagine the long hours of work. I am incredibly grateful to jholland and her lovely mum 💛💙💜💚❤💗💓💕💞

It has so much in it of my love of opera, which has always been driven by the music itself and the singing rather than individual voices and the added details of instruments and opera glasses also remind me of all the nights at the opera i spent with my parents and especially my grandmother , who is the one who gifted me my first pair of opera glasses, which i still own. And it is filled with the love of the gentle hands of those who made it 🙂

I never would have guessed an unassuming trip to a Miller play in London would one day land this treasure in my lap 🙂 But it has and it has brought me wonderful friends with incredibly big hearts who i hope one day i will be able to meet in person and hug for real (preferably while we attend another piece of theater with RA together 😉😍)

Thank you sososososo much! And here it is in all it’s wonderful glory, with all the spot on details on the front, the beautiful patterns, the border, the bling, the  music of the design and almost even more on the back where you can hopefully see from the photos the swirling handmade patterns of spirals, flowers, waves 🙂

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If you right click on the images and click open in new window you’ll see each of them in  bigger size.

Can’t wait to sit with it watching a recording of an opera.. or of a play 😉 and i can’t stop running my hand over the it…

Big hugs and kisses to you jholland and your mum! i feel truly lucky and spoiled rotten!

preoccupiedwitharmitage

Opera Is Magic, 2016. (I named the quilt, of course, after Hariclea’s wonderful blog!)

Funny that I should receive the heartwarming response that she received my gift from Hari on Mother’s Day- made my warm-fuzzy-filled day all the better! And somewhat fitting, as well, because my own Mom had quite a part in this quilt. We’ve been in a bit of an Armitage Drought, lately, and in case anyone ever wonders what I tend to do when I’m not full-on preoccupiedwitharmitage, well, I’m generally spending time with Mom quite preoccupiedwithquilting. =)

Lately, though, my hobbies have converged to some degree, as I’ve found myself obsessing thinking about doing some sort of an Armitage-themed quilt. And while I ponder that, I’ve been inspired by some really warm fandom friendships. When I think about these people, I’m afraid my quilting addiction kicks in. You see, when I’m fond of someone and feel like I…

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