Charlie

This Little Stories collection is all about finding comfort in everyday things, celebrating them, and unwinding. Unwinding is a hard word for me. I tend to reprimand myself for sitting around and doing nothing, but it is so important for any work. So, when I struggle with focusing and need to unwind, I let my mind wander while letting my hand do some easy work.

This is another set of the daily photos of simple, everyday things I took between Feb. 2020 – Feb. 2021. They possibly represent my version of unwinding better than I could ever do with words.

Simple 365 – Set 7

Please Click on the image thumbnails to see the photos and read the captions.

I also created a page with all the previously shared photos from Simple365. I will add more photos to that page as well, as I share them here.

Little Memories

I learned to play chess from my grandfather. He and I used to play every night after having dinner together. If I had too much homework, he would always wait for me so we could spend that time together. These are his fountain pens. I love to jot down little thoughts and notes with them. My love for printing and book making is a credit to him.

A Little Story

Mr. Nigel Forsythe Castleton is the proprietor of the Lost Pages Bookstore. Owing to the bookstore being in a very old stone building, it is very drafty and cold, even on the warmest of days. Mr. Castleton loves nothing more than to spend his days in the bookstore, but the poor thing is always very cold even though he is made of wool. Luckily, the bookstore has a wonderfully big fireplace, where he keeps a fire going at all times. He pours himself a glass of ginger wine and sits by the fireplace, perusing those lost pages.

This time he is visiting his friend who also has an antiquities book shop full of books of magic and alchemy. He loves the old city of York, so he has decided to spend some time there.

I have knitted and introduced Mr. Castleton before, but if you are new here and don’t know him, he is a very gentle fellow who loves all things books.

A Not So Little Celebration

Winter is a celebratory season at our home with tons of birthdays, starting with Charlie. He celebrated his 18th birthday very recently. Even though he is not allowed, he loves to sneak in sweets made of dairy. For his birthday, he got a special treat – a very sizeable portion of cheesecake.

He was looking up at my husband to sit with him while he enjoyed his birthday cake. They have a very special bond. Although Charlie is a perpetual kitten, I thought I paint this dignified version of him for my husband.

Little Journals

Growing up as an only child, I have always lived most of my days in the worlds of stories and books.

Hand-binding books for those stories while listening to an audio-book is one of my favourite ways to unwind while staying mildly focused. This moss green journal was the very first 3″ x 4″ journal I made for myself with a special drawing theme in mind. I look forward to starting on that soon.

(handbound by me pocket journals are available in my shop)

Girl And Her Cat – Wandering Pages

I painted the Girl and Her Cat stories in little 2″ x 3″ books. This is the last set of paintings from the the Girl And Her Cat – Wandering Pages book.

Please click on the image thumbnails to see the pictures and read about their wanderings –

You can see the full Wandering Pages book here.

The Girl and Her Cat decided to become lost in the mist for a while, visiting the land of the snowy owls. It is also time for me to go on my winter hiatus. I wish you the most magical holidays with lots of rest.

Thank you so much for being here with me and for your most lovely and encouraging words. I will be back around March.

See you then,
-Soma

I am linking up with the linky parties on my Events And Links page. Please pay a visit to some of them.

P.S. The Ink Torrents Graphics shop remains open. I will continue to mail orders, as always. You can also purchase quilting patterns, which you can access immediately via Instant Download. I will also be available via email. Thank you for continuing to shop from my store.

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This is a story about Charlie’s adventure. I shared this story once before when I made the quilt top. That was so many years ago that I thought would share the story one more time, along with the finished quilt.

Charlie is my sweet little orange kitty who, contrary to everyone’s belief, has a sweet tooth that would rival anyone. He would do anything to get a lick of ice-cream, watermelon, sweetened cream, or anything else sweet you can think of.

One day, Charlie learned that on All Hallows Eve, if he puts on a wizard’s hat and a bow tie and sits very very quietly amongst the Jack-O-Lanterns, magic leaves will come and carry him to the Land of the Seven Sisters who would give him lots and lots of sweets to eat. So he came to me and asked if I would make him a hat and a bow tie. I was happy to oblige.

As the evening approached, he donned his starry hat and bow tie, smartly walked outside, sat down in the pumpkin patch and waited very patiently.

Charlie has a very bossy sister and two very clueless brothers. They all love to play with Charlie. His sister specially loves Charlie and keeps a wary eye on him at all times. Charlie excitedly told her all about his plan. She didn’t really believe him, but she was not about to let him sit outside all alone either. Who knew what peril would befall her brother! She was also not going to leave the other two out of sight, because then she would have to spend the rest of the night looking for all of them if they got lost. So the bossy sister pushed the disgruntled brothers out the door and all of them surreptitiously waited a little distance away from little Charlie as the sun sank below the horizon.

They waited and waited and waited some more. Then, when everything had gone quiet, all the kids had gone home after their Trick-Or-Treat runs and the Jack-O-Lanterns were about to go out, they heard a rustle and a swoosh. Suddenly they were off, all four of them, carried away on gigantic leaves! These were no ordinary leaves, of course! On each one of them, a different adventure awaited the little kitties. They stayed together, hopped around and rolled from leaf to leaf, played, and had amazing fun.

All this time, while they were busy playing, the leaves carried them onward and upward to the Land of the Seven Sisters. By the time the little kitties got there, they were exhausted. They sat in the midst of stars and each had their favourite food to eat while watching the Jack-O-Lantern-lit Earth turning down below. Charlie had his most favourite sweets to eat that day and nobody was going to stop him. Slowly as the night got deeper, they fell asleep on top of each other and were carried gently and silently back down to earth, down to their soft, warm beds.

I had a wonderful time drawing, creating the layout, and designing the patterns for Charlie’s Adventure. I definitely had just as much fun as my little kitties. Charlie was all right with sharing the story with all of you as long as he and his beloved Papa could have the quilt.

Now I am really glad to have finished the quilt so that they can huddle under it together and dream of sweet things.

For the most part I did wavy quilting to depict the wind that blew them all to the Land of the Seven Sisters. I didn’t want to purchase new fabric for the binding, so I used some lime green material that I happened to have at hand. Although I had originally had a purple binding in mind, I rather like this one.

One day I would love to illustrate this story for a book.

As you know, Charlie does tend to come up a lot in my stories and artwork. This is a sketch I made of him trying to climb a wall. “Trying” being the operative word.

Last week I shared a little story about how he was one of the helpers of the Winter Fairy. You can read that little story here.

Charlie sat and supervised as I wrote the story. Actually, he was trying to convince me to give him some sweet treats. He was most disappointed when that didn’t work, “Nobody at home ever gives me anything!” So he went off to bed to dream about his special All Hallows Eve adventure while snoozing with his pumpkin. Supposedly the pumpkin gives him sweet dreams.

Although he is now 17 years old, he is still the perpetual kitten of our home and continues to make us laugh with his antics. Also, much to his chagrin, he gets smothered in hugs and kisses all the time, despite loudly claiming that “he is a grown-up boy who should NOT be hugged and kissed”.

Whether you read it today for the first time, or re-read it, I do hope you enjoyed the story, even though it is out of season.

Until then,
-Soma

P.S. I always get asked – the patterns are available in my shop.

I am linking up with the linky parties on my Events And Links page. Please pay a visit to some of them. They are a fabulous bunch!

Little Stories – Unwind