Tuesday 10 May 2011

Library Tale

At the risk of showing my age, the previous library I belonged to was in the last century.  It had a card index system and we all spoke in whispers.

Move to 2011.  A new Council Library has opened in our area and I have a snazzy piece of plastic to process my borrowed books, and we're allowed to talk out loud - in fact, it's encouraged.

I love Kaffe Fassett's designs, both quilts and fabrics, so I was delighted to find this wonderful book which I could take home and cherish, albeit for a short time.  When I discovered a quilt in the book which I knew I just had to make, I keenly flipped to the instructions page.  In French.  Not the whole book, just the quilt I wanted to work on.  Of course. 

When the book was due to be returned, I mentioned the printing fault to the librarian, in case some future borrower equally fell in love with the quilt and would be frustrated (unless they spoke fluent French, of course).  I had taken a copy of the templates and knew I could work my way around the language barrier, so I wasn't too distraught.  I have a vision of somewhere in France where the same thing is happening in reverse.

Imagine my surprise on arriving home to receive a phone call my my new best friend, Neil the Librarian.  He had gone to the trouble to contact the Brisbane City Library Head Office and a search of all their libraries revealed several other copies with the French section.  My buddy Neil had procured the full English edition and it would be waiting for me next time I was at the library.  My - let's hear it for dedicated, modern librarians.

I've just completed a reversible dress with apples on one side ...

... and a contrasting reverse side with different coloured buttons to add interest.  Now that it's finished I can plan my lovely new quilt, which I know will take me FOREVER to complete, but hopefully it will be well worth the effort.  Stay tuned for progress!


4 comments:

Mannick...91 said...

Hello Robyn,
I know this book has been translated for the French ... for us, it is above your "size" (inch..) problematic and it is surely yours for French books.
We come to the same patch with books in Japanese .... models always explained well.
Your new dress is beautiful.

Chrisy said...

yes it will be worth it robyn...ooh la laaa...after the library experience of course subliminally the staff will always see you as 'la french artiste madame'!

Sandrine said...

Oh lala!!A "mistake" book just spot on pour moi!!Even in french...I am still a little traumatised with the last quilt :)But I can see it is like giving birth, I will do it again... thanks to bad memory!lol
Have fun

Anonymous said...

I have rediscovered libraries too! The one in our local area is just lovely. I am a regular bookworm. So many craft/quilting books to choose from.

x Catherine