Dysfunctional family
I haven’t posted for a while, life always seems to catch up and change my plans.
Over the past weeks I have been hanging out around Facebook and most of my feed seems to be about Prince. I love that there is such a large community of fans from all around the world. Now I shouldn’t have used the word ‘fan’ as Prince never liked it. We were always his friends. But since April 21 it seems that we have become a family – one that has suffered a severe loss.
Like many families when they lose someone important the family becomes dysfunctional and starts to pick at each other. It is unfortunate but true this often happens, it happened in my family when my grandmother died – one side of the family doesn’t speak to the other.
I belong to a few Prince groups on Facebook and the majority of the people in these groups are so supportive and caring for each other despite the grief that they themselves are feeling. I love these people and the generosity of spirit that they are showing. As Prince said – Compassion is an action word. To all those people who have been there for me and for others when they are feeling down, thank you, you are beautiful people.
On the other side there are those who for some reason think that not all ‘fans’ are created equal. Apparently this is determined by how long you have been a fan, this then decides if you have the right to grieve over the loss of Prince or not. To those people, all I can say is that I pity you. If the only way you can deal with your grief is to be cruel and mean-spirited to others then you are to be pitied.
The joy of a family is that they are there for you in rain or shine, they laugh with you when you are happy and hold you when you are sad. Family support one another, they build you up not cut you down and stomp all over you.
Just because someone has not been a fan for their entire life does not stop them from feeling sorrow at the loss of someone as wonderful as Prince. I was not a big Ali fan, but the day of his death I was in tears. Why? because the world has lost a wonderful human being and there is now one less wonderful and talented person in the world. I may not have been a fan but I still feel sadness for him, his family and the world in general and that is my right and no-one can tell me not to.
So for all you ‘not real fans’ if your heart is purple, if your soul is purple, then welcome to my purple world. Remember, when the elevator tries to bring you down – go crazy and punch a higher floor! Purple love to all.
Goodbye Prince
This wasn’t what I had planned to write about. I had planned to post some photo’s of a quilt I am making for my friend’s first grandchild, but as I said before, sometimes life gets in the way.
Friday morning, Sydney time, I woke up to the news. PRINCE. IS . DEAD. Every part of me screamed no but the only thing that came from my mouth was Oh F…! Friday was like wading through mud.
I am not one that shares their private emotions readily. Friends at work on Friday knew I would be upset with the loss of Prince but I don’t think they really understood how much or why. I don’t want to offend any person but the best way I can express what I want to say is by way of a letter to Prince.
Dear Prince,
I thought of addressing this to Mr Nelson, but for the past 30 years you were always Prince to me even when you used that unpronounceable symbol. You always were and always will be Prince.
I’ve loved your music since I first heard Little Red Corvette – I didn’t really get it at first. Like everyone, there are some of your songs that I like better than others and some that I just adore. The real reason I am writing to you is to say thanks. Why?
Let me explain that I was the only child in a single parent family. 23 years ago my mother, at the age of 53 died. While it was not a total shock, she was diabetic with heart disease as well, it was hard as the only child. My husband and his family did what they could to help me through this time. My husband was grieving for a mother-in-law that he loved very much. Your music was there when I needed it.
We had planned an overseas trip and all our friends and family insisted that we continue with our plans. I don’t remember a lot of it, but I do vividly remember the days we spent in Minneapolis. Yes I did what so many of your fans did or wished to do, I made my pilgrimage to Minneapolis. I went to the Glam Slam, I saw lake Minnetonka – no I did not cleanse myself in the lake. It was cold and my husband would have disowned me. I stopped at the store you had opened and shopped my heart out and I found Paisley Park.
I don’t know if you were there at the time, but my husband pulled the rental car up in front of the studio, we took photos and though you couldn’t hear me, I thanked you for sharing your strength with me when I needed it. The last thing my mother ever gave me was the boxed set The Hits & the B sides. She told me it was an early xmas gift. Later I realised that she knew she would not be with us that xmas.
I sent you a tweet one day, and OMG you replied. I was overwhelmed, I was excited I rang my husband with the news that I had received a tweet from Prince. I took a screen shot of the tweet. Thank you for tweeting me back.
I have been reading the press releases about your death. For some reason it is easier to type that word than say it. I wonder, did you know that you did not have much time left with us? Your tweets were always so cryptic, but you did love to keep us on our toes didn’t you?
Prince, I’m not sure if you realise what an impact you had on people, not just other musicians but your fans. You will be missed Mr Nelson. You will be missed Prince.
Danna
Back again
I started this blog a couple of years ago, but life intervened and so I am back again.
Recently I went to see Prince perform at the Sydney Opera House in his Piano & Microphone tour. I am not going to critique the show – there have been plenty of these done over the past weeks and probably done better than I could do.
I thought I would tell you more about the atmosphere and people who I met there. Being a fan of Prince is like belonging to a very large and sometimes dysfunctional family. There is a lot of love between all of the fans but we don’t always agree – just like any other family.
At the Sydney Opera House for the first show, I was sitting there waiting to be allowed up to the merchandise area when a young woman sat down to wait as well. It was obvious to her that I was waiting to see Prince. Not only was the armband a give away but the 
earrings I was wearing made it pretty obvious. She had flown down from far north Queensland. She had been a Prince fan since she was about 5 (was probably only in her late 20’s at this time) and had come down for both days shows.
On the way to pick up my ticket I meet a family that had come to the show because their 13 year old son was a crazy for Prince music.
Later, while I was waiting outside the Concert Hall doors, we could hear Prince doing his sound check. Everyone was trying to get their ear against the door, but the amazing thing was that instead of pushing others aside, everyone just moved closer together so that more people could fit up at that door.
Another lady told me how a friend had painted a picture of Prince for her. When she married she told her husband that where she went Prince went. Apparently the picture is still hanging on the wall of the house – I’m not sure where her ex is now.
Sitting next to me in the show, a young man had clearly come with his wife and she was the Prince fan. He didn’t really know the songs but the atmosphere and the sheer brilliance of Prince soon got him on his feet and singing along. When I say singing, I do so with hesitation. His version of Little Red Corvette was “…… Corvette …… Corvette….” or Cream “Cream …. dada ….. Cream ….”. But he was having a really good time.
The atmosphere was incredible. That one man can control a crowd of thousands is incredible. There was not a moment that he was not in control and he had us eating out of his hands and begging for more.
I have been to a lot of concerts over the years, including the late David Bowie, but if you can only ever attend one show – see Prince.
Prince fans, the Purple Army, Purple Peeps, whatever you want to call us truly are one big Purple family.
My Successful blocks so far.
Well if you read my last post (and you came back for more??) you will know that I discovered the joys of nesting. Since then I have made 3 new blocks and let me just say now I LOVE NESTING!!
The quilt I am making is a memory quilt to give my mother-in-law for Mothers Day next year. She is bed bound in a nursing home so it is hard to know what to get her for Christmas, birthday & Mothers Day. There are only so many nighties, sweets etc that any one person can get and with everyone in the family having the same ideas present opening must be pretty boring. So what else could she use in a nursing home. I thought a bright sampler quilt made out of different scraps so that each block is different in both design and fabric (helps to use up those small bits of fabric left over from other projects). One side of the quilt will be the memory quilt and I am using photos of the family as the focus for each block.
This is one of my first blocks using a photo as the centre block. It is called Squares in Squares 2, a pattern I got from Quilt Blocks Galore http://www.quilterscache.com/QuiltBlocksGalore.html.
It is a simple but effective block and I think it looks great as a frame for my in-laws wedding photo. This didn’t really use the nesting idea but I made this one by hand while watching “Covert Affairs” the other night.
This next photo is a little more complex and I used the wonderful nesting technique. Please note the points meet and I only had to unpick one corner just once. This pattern also came from Quilt Blocks Galore and is called Album Variation
My third block is called Autograph Star, and guess where I got the pattern from… yes, that’s right, from Quilt Blocks Galore!
Now in this one I did make a mistake, not with the sewing, but with the printing of the photo. I had thought to make the photo fill the whole of the centre block but instead of leaving a 1/4″ seam allowance around the photo I left a 1/2″ and so there is a white frame around the photo. Personally, I thik it looks good so I might do a few more that way. If you have an opinion please let me know.
Now that I am on Christmas vacation (2 & 1/2 weeks off work) I hope to steam ahead with my quilt blocks, but like most people I have made so many plans for these days off that I don’t know how many I’ll get done. I was planning to make myself a new wardrobe of clothes, declutter the house, meet with friends. If only there were more than 24 hours in a day!!
So I came back today and wow!!! somebody actually read this blog. Thank you.
Well yesterday was very eventful for my quilting. I know that any experienced quilter will be sitting there going – well duh….. but I felt like a real discovery was made. What was this amazing discovery you ask?
NESTING.
Yes, I know, if you were like me you thought this was something birds did! But no, quilters also nest. As I said in my first post I am teaching myself how to quilt and not one of the books or magazines I had read said anything about nesting. I have spent hours unpicking seams because the points didn’t line up. I think one time I unpicked one seam about 6 times. Well, you could have knocked me over with a feather when I tried this nesting thing and my seams matched perfectly!!! How excited was I!! I might actually get this quilt finished in time for mother’s day now.
If anyone reading this is intending to write a book on how to quilt, please make a small chapter on nesting for the dummies like me.
Every book or magazine said to press the seams towards the dark side (sounds like something out of Star Wars) but never said anything about having seams that you want to join pressed in opposite directions.
Well now that I have made this momentous discovery it’s full steam ahead and back to make more blocks. But first… housework 8(
Hi There.
This is a new adventure for me. I have been lurking around other people’s blogs for years but have never been brave enough to comment or start up one of my own. I mean what would I say and really – who would be interested anyway. I guess the main reason I have finally started is that while I am craft crazy, most of my friends and family are not. So having bored them to tears for the past (I won’t say how many years as that would give away my age), I thought I would bore the rest of the world with what I am doing.
My first venture into crafting was at the age of 5 when my grandmother taught me to make a crochet chain. She didn’t teach me how to crochet into it – just chains. Wasn’t she surprised when she started to trip over my chain that ended up about 6 feet long. She decided she had better teach me a bit more and so the crafting bug bit me.
I seriously believe the saying I read online somewhere – She who dies with the most stash WINS! I have to admit that I am trying to reduce my stash so that it will fit in 1 or 2 rooms of the house instead of being spread out in every room. I’ll just have to wait and see how successful I am.
My current craft bug is quilting.
My husband and I recently visited friends in Vancouver, Canada. Sharon was showing me some of her quilting and I thought to myself: “Self, this is something you haven’t tried yet.” Hmmmm…….
What a coincidence, no sooner have we returned to Sydney (Australia not Vancouver Island) than what appeared on the TV but an add for “The Art of Quilting”. Of course I bought the first issue and made the first square – I was hooked. The trouble was that I couldn’t justify the cost of each issue (around $10.00 Australian) when I had boxes of fabrics that needed to be used, found some wonderful websites and can read a book. So now I am teaching myself to quilt with the help of the lovely people who blog and start their own websites.
The most inspirational blog has been http://ooobop.com/. Here she shares her adventure into quilting along with lots of other tips.
My favourite quilting website is http://www.quilterscache.com/QuiltBlocksGalore.html. I didn’t know there were that many different quilt blocks that could be made and the instructions are so easy to follow.
So what is my first quilting project? A cushion, a pillow? No, not being the retiring type, I thought my first project should be a memory quilt for my mother-in-law – well it is for Mothers day so hopefully I will have completed it by then.
If anyone has been brave enough to check out this blog – thanks and hope you have a great day.
Danna
stitchntyme 