No news

I continue to muddle along in my sewing room, with little to show for my efforts. I have all the blocks made for two tops, but am just not in the mood to put them together. I keep pulling out more WIPs, adding to my to-do list & adding to the mess on my sewing table. I did manage to make 10 pillow cases for my Guild's charity. If you have never made pillow cases, you should; if you haven't made any in a while, make more! They are so satisfying! Easy, quick, pretty -- and they are great stash busters!

Even though the calendar says Summer is still a few weeks away, it is SUMMER! here already. The AC has been running for some time now. We've gotten quite a bit of rain -- good, we needed it -- but it also bumps up the humidity & the mosquito population. The good news is: the magnolia are in bloom! Flowers as big as dinner plates, petals as big as my hand. I wish I had a scratch & sniff blog so those of you unfamiliar with their scent could smell them -- their fragrance is subtle, slightly sweet, slightly citrusy, completely heavenly. As they begin to fade, they look like leather.

The In Crowd

I'm in with the In Crowd,

I know what the In Crowd knows.

I'm in with the In Crowd,

I go where the In Crowd goes. *

Me? Nope, that's not me. I'm not in any Crowd at all.

Traditional Quilters think I'm too Modern. The Moderns think I'm too Traditional. Art Quilters say I have no vision, no voice. I'm too controlled for the Liberated Quilters, too wonky for the Perfectly-Matched Seams set. I fit neatly -- no where. My style is hard to define, a bit from the whole spectrum of quilting. Not a big deal -- except that the quilting world seems to be getting so clannish, that if you don't subscribe wholeheartedly to a Group's lists of dos & don'ts then you don't really belong to the Group. OK, I've always been something of an out-lier, outside looking in from the thin end of the bell curve. I'm used to being there, it just gets a little lonely sometimes.

I am trying to shut out the distractions of the latest fabric challenges & QALs, swaps & the newest trends, the nay-sayers & the yay-sayers. I think it is safe to say that half of my life is over now, I hope I have many good years of quilting ahead of me, but life is uncertain. So I am trying to listen to *my* voice & make *my* quilts. I love making quilts for family & friends, trying to get inside their skin, finding colors, fabrics, designs they would like -- them, but through my eyes. Sometimes I nail it, other times a near miss. I also love sewing my stash into simple quilts for charitable giving -- de-stashing by sewing things that will warm bodies & souls. But when I am not making quilts to give, I want to make quilts that are me, my Own. A new friend used the word "authentic" -- that's what I am aiming for: quilts that are Authentically my Own.

* Billy Page