Circus quilt

This Circus Quilt is my contribution to the book:
Whip Up Mini Quilts: Patterns and How-to for 26 Contemporary Small Quilts

I'd almost forgotten, as it was made over a year and half ago. It's strange to make something intently, cast it away, and then have it returned a year later in a nice fat padded parcel. Suddenly the intervening year comes into relief as I touch the cloth.

Kathreen Ricketson is the indefatigable motor behind whipup.net. She found my sewings through flickr (I do love flickr, I've made real friends through that site). I was flattered and emboldened to be invited. I admire the confidence of her convictions; she asked people whose work she liked, joining the professional with the amateur (that's me). More about the book and the other contributors here.
I'm really excited to see if someone can actually follow the instructions and make their own version of the Circus Quilt.

Circuses have been a constant theme in my life. I saw more than most in my childhood as my mother wrote the Kid's listings for Timeout magazine in the 70s and 80s, when the status of Circus was relegated to children only. I also remember a surreal church service full of dressed up clowns at Holy Trinity Church in east London. They still hold their annual Joseph Grimaldi Memorial Service in February.
In my 20s I went to live in Portugal, where my first job was teaching English at Chapito, the Lisbon Circus School; watching sultry chubby teenagers attempt the trapeze and practicing juggling in their lunch break.
Two weeks ago my son Ruben and I started Circus Skills classes at Circus Space. I don't have the upper arm strength to hold Ruben over my head (really, he is heavy) in the balancing moves and only just managed a backwards roll. He in turn attempted every flip and threw himself on and off every piece of equipment.
I have vivid childhood memories of the Pickle Family (and Mr Sniff), Circus OZ and Victoria Chaplin's Cirque Imaginaire. The past year highlights have been NoFit State at the Roundhouse and the Seven Fingers show Psy on at the Peacock Theatre (tonight is the last night). It has breathtaking acts and brilliant group choreographed sequences fusing dance and circus and theatre. Go go go if you can.
But my favourite circus ever is in the video below. Alexander Calder. A very great and joyous man.