Resistance Writer Charles Dickens

For the anniversary of the death of Charles Dickens (died Jun 9, 1870), I read Charles Dickens: Compassion and Contradiction by Karen Kenyon.

This concise biography of 112 pages covers all aspects of the author: his childhood trauma; his career as an author and actor; his love affairs and unhappy marriage; and his commitment to social justice.

Dickens was a megastar in his day: a best-selling author, an outstanding orator and actor, an entrepreneur who started several magazines.

This was an era when literacy and cheap reading materials were peaking, and magazines were in their heyday. Dickens serialized his novels in the magazines. His readers would scramble for the next installment.

Charles Dickens in 1842

I appreciated learning about the events, places, experiences, and people who inspired Dickens characters and plot lines.

Kenyon notes that Dickens may have had epilepsy and he may have been obsessive-compulsive. He was a 'dandy' in his fashion and bathed daily. He had a strict schedule which included long walks daily. Often he walked the streets of London all night as well.

Obsessed with money and adulation, he was a workaholic who worked on several works at once. He also 'saw' and imagined his entire novel before setting pen to paper then put his heart and soul into his books.

The subtitle of the book points out the crux of Dickens' personality. He was a great social commentator whose novelizations of the plight of the poor actually impacted his society and lead to changes. The Industrial Revolution had brought rural folk to the cities for factory jobs. The lack of housing, air pollution, a lack of clean water, poverty, and long hours working for small wages brought the average age in London to 27. Only one child out of three attended school. There were over 70,000 prostitutes.

At the same time, Dickens was able to emotionally detach from his wife and family, casting his wife aside (after 11 children!) and idealizing her younger sisters.

Thirty years ago I read a two-volume biography of Dickens. It was nice to revisit his life again.

I received a free ebook from the publisher

Charles Dickens: Compassion and Contradiction
Karen Kenyon
The Odyssey Press
$3.99

Charles Dickens Quilt designed and made by Nancy A. Bekofske

Charles Dickens, Nancy A. Bekofske

Four Years with Charles Dickens

The Bicentennial of Charles Dickens' birth was in 2012 and I decided to make him a quilt which I have just finished hand quilting and binding!

I designed and hand embroidered blocks representing his novels. Some images are based on the original illustrations and some I designed. The book titles are in Dickens own handwriting as found on his manuscripts.

being quilted

Novels included are Pickwick Papers, David Copperfield, Barnaby Rudge, A Christmas Carol, A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, The Mystery of Edward Drood, The Old Curiosity Shop, Oliver Twist, Little Dorrit, and Bleak House.

The Inimitable himself appears over his signature. I used fusible appliqué and embellished him with thread work.

I made my first Hexie blocks for the borders. The fabrics are mostly reproduction or just look old, and the piecing is inspired by early 19th c British quilts. This was one of my design-as-you-go quilts. I had no plan when I started, so that will explain it's design weaknesses.

 

I may have finished the quilt sooner but life got in the way: my husband was assigned a new church in 2012 which meant a move, my husband retired in 2014 which meant a move. We retired to the house my folks bought in 1972. We remodeled the kitchen this summer and are still settling into our permanent, 'forever' home. (Which is half the size of the parsonages we lived in for 38 years!)

While designing the embroidery I reread several Dickens novels and read for the first time Little Dorrit and watched the BBC series Bleak House.

I was sorry I had not finished this one because it was the Bicentenary of Anthony Trollope's birth this year and I love his Barchester novels about the church and have watched The Pallisers BBC series many times. Sorry, Anthony, no quilt for you. Yet.

But he has to get in line. I have my Austen Family Album quilt waiting to be hand quilted next! Austen's bicentennial of her death is in 2017 and I may need that long to finish her quilt!

All My WIPs: Quilts, Books, Kitchen...

I can read a book in two or three days but hand quilting a bed sized quilt....takes me a lot longer! I am finally on the border of my Charles Dickens quilt. 

 

 

I usually work on it every Tuesday with the Clawson quilters and evenings at home.

I forgot about this Redwork project! It was hiding in a dough boy end table! The free designs from Mirkwood Designs were based on the original illustrations.

 

 I added a little more to Vintage Rose, but she is finished.

I found a fabric butterfly pin at a craft fair and bought it for my wall hanging I made a little while back. So perfect!

As you can see from the photo below that pin was really necessary. If only she had two in that color!

Every now and then I get out Love Entwined to work on the fourth border...

I also joined TWO local book clubs! For next week I have reread Jane Austen's Persuasion. For next month I will read Girl on a Train by Paula Hawkins and Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.

On my NetGalley shelf I have:

Daisy Turner's Kin: An African American Family Saga by Jane C. Beck
Wings in the Dark  a retro style mystery involving Amelia Earhart by Michael Murphy
Circling the Sun, a novel about Beryl Markham by Paula McLain
The Marriage of Opposites, a novel about the mother of Impressionist artist Camille Pissarro, by Alice Hoffman
Joy: Poet, Seeker, and the Woman who Captivated C. S. Lewis by Abigail Santamaria
Song of My Life: A Biography of Marilyn Walker Carolyn Brown (author of the novel Jubilee) by Caroline Brown.

Forthcoming book reviews include:
House of Hawthorne, a novel about Nathaniel Hawthorne and his wife, by Erika Robuck
The Great Detective about Sherlock Holmes by Zach Dundas
Exit the Actress about Restoration actress and mistress of Charles II Nell Gwynn, written by Priya Parmar whose Vanessa and Her Sister I reviewed last year
Donna Bell's Bake Shop, a cook book and story behind the store by Pauley Perrette and friends
Shoot the Conductor: Too Close to Monteux, Szell and Ormandy, a memoir by violinist and conductor Anshel Brusilow
Worthy by Catherine Hyde Ryan whose Language of Hoofbeats I reviewed last year
The Truth According to Us by Annie Barrows who wrote the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Language Arts by Stephanie Kallos who wrote Broken For You which I had enjoyed

Today we bought a lovely yellow rose and some herbs to plant this week. I am preparing sleeves for the quilts that will be in my guild's show June 5 & 6. And that kitchen remodel? We decided on a cork floor, the back splash for over the stove and behind the hood, and bought a hood.  (Jen said she bought one after she saw the great price!) Jen has bought my sink and has ordered the cabinets. The Wilson Art Betty laminate is available! Time to pack up the kitchen!

Charles Dickens Quilting Coming Along

Thanks to the weekly  quilters gathering I am getting Charles Dickens quilted. All the center is done!

Dickens Quilting Progressing; Upcoming Book Reviews

I am trying to work more on hand quilting my Charles Dickens quilt. I have been taking it to my Tuesday quilters gathering.

In the next month many book reviews will be shared:

Songs of Sorrow by Samuel Charters, about Lucy McKim Garrison, early collector of Slave Songs

Abe & Fido by Mathew Algeo about Lincoln's relationship to animals, especially his dog

Romantic Outlaws by Charlotte Gordon about Mary Wollestonecraft and her daughter Mary Shelley

The Children's Crusade by Anne Packer, a highly anticipated family drama

Children of the Stone by Sandy Tolan, how music changed the life of Ramallah refugees

The Last Bookaneer by Matthew Pearl, fiction about book thieves planning to steal a manuscript from Robert Louis Stevenson at his tropical island home

Recycled Hexi Quilts by Mary Kerr, using vintage quilts in making new quilts

Charles Dickens Quilt Top Completed!

Before our move I had purchased the border fabric for my Charles Dickens quilt. This week  I finally was able to add the border! If I EVER finish the quilting of my "Green Heroes" quilt, of which I have one long border left to do, I will hand quilt Dickens next.

I hand embroidered scenes representing Dickens's novels and used fusible appliqué for his portrait which was then thread embellished. Using reproduction and 'older' looking fabrics I set the embroidered blocks together with various squares, triangles, and strips. Totally unplanned, by-the-seat-of-my-pants quilt-making. I tried my hand at hexagon flowers for the first border, then added the final stripped border.

The illustrations came from various sources including my own drawings, original art from the books, and adaptations of clip art or photographs. The titles and Dickens signature are all based on Dickens's own handwritten manuscripts.

I trust I will enjoy quilting this more than my Green Heroes which has a black background border.