Building blocks

I love making quilt blocks, they are my foundation, so to speak. Combining fabrics & assembling them into blocks -- it is so much fun! I know I am not alone in this thinking. One can easily find stacks of un-assembled blocks at garage sale, estate sales, antique malls, any of our storage closets. A quilt block is an independent unit that, when combined with her sister blocks, will make a beautiful whole. I can't think of another creative process that has anything similar, do you?

I've got quite an array going on right now.

Wayward blogger

I am a few months away from the 6th anniversary of my blog.

I began my blog at the suggestion of my young friend, Bryanna. Back then, everyone & their pet hog had a blog, so I wanted one, too. A place to show what I was stitching on, share thoughts, get advice -- it sounded fun. And it was fun. I was brand new to social media & I immediately loved blogging. I have always been a shy, square-peg with self esteem issues, a combination that makes it very hard for me to make connections with people in real life. The semi-anonymity of writing & sharing under an assumed name was freeing.

What I did expect from my blog? I don't remember. It seemed many of the young quilting bloggers were managing to turn their blogs into book deals, fabric lines, fame, fortune. I suspect I wanted that. But, really, what a shy, square-peg with self esteem issues was going to do with fame & fortune, I don't know. Luckily, it never happened. Blogging through those hard years of my Mother's decline, death, was a real lifesaver. Then there was the sharing of things I was making -- somehow, in the whole Worldwide Web, I found similar thinking quilt-makers. I have gotten the kind of encouragement & support I never got at any guild. It has been a joy, because, better than fame & fortune, I found friends.

Now years have passed. My friend, Bry, has moved away, no longer quilts, no longer blogs, but I continue on. Well, sort of. My life is much simpler now, but I've gotten quite lazy, my posts are pretty rare. But I want to do better. I want to maintain the connections with friends-I've-never-met. So I am promising to check in more often, maybe just some pictures, a line or two. Enough to say "hi" & "thank you" to my friends.

Fabric teaches a Lesson

Recently, my friend's friend passed away. I did not know her, but I understand that she was very creative. In her life, she had experimented with many different artistic media & had excelled at quite a few of them. Her studio was filled with the materials of her creative life. After her death, my friend volunteered to her friend's newly widowed husband, to help with the big task of clearing out the studio.

My friend's dining room was *filled* with her friend's fabric. She put out a call to her fellow quilters & to several church groups who sew for those in need. In spite of my over-full stash, the words "free fabric" had me in my car & headed to her house. I was amazed by what I saw! So much fabric! Fat quarters, small cuts, huge cuts. Cat fabric, Asian fabric (I came away with an Asian cat fabric), batiks, etc, etc, etc. There were zip bags filled with blocks & block parts. There was even tub filled with bandannas?

After several, round-eyed "oh my words!" on my part, I started thinking about how many plastic tubs would it take to contain *my* stash.
As many?
More?

But the good news is that though my friend's friend will no longer enjoy her studio filled with color & inspiration, her fabric has found new homes & will be put to good use. I brought home a couple of bags of WIPs to make up for charity quilts. One was a bag of bright batik blocks which made two quick quilts -- one to give, one to keep.

I am still absorbing the lessons.
The first lesson I was: people with too much fabric should not throw rocks at others who have too much fabric. I know a very few people who only buy fabric when they need it. Me? I. Buy. Fabric. I buy fabric because I LOVE fabric. I have too much fabric & now I have a little more fabric.

The second lesson was this -- don't worry about having too much fabric. Yes, it will present a problem to who ever has the chore of cleaning out my sewing room, but the very good news is that quilters will love the fabric I loved & will do good things with it. This dear woman's beloved stash is now scattered over Houston being loved & doing good.

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

Not all who wander are lost

I'm sure you've been losing sleep over my slow quilting start this year.
NO!?!?!
:-D

Neither have I, but I have been giving it quite a bit of thought. What I have come to realize is -- last year was an anomaly, not the standard I need to maintain. 2014 was strange -- I felt so compelled to sew & make! Things have slowed down considerably -- one finished quilt (no photos yet) & two finished minis to gift -- a pillow & a hanging (photos soon).

I've been sewing & sewing, but somehow it feels directionless. The rote assembly of parts is making me happy right now. And, boy, do I have parts to assemble! The shirting flying geese continue to amass (a gaggle of geese). I've made a quilt's worth of spools (what does one call a group of spools? a tangle?) -- 20 spools (actually, 21, oops, one for the back). The next-to-the-last pale, scrappy plus (an addition of pluses? sorry, I'll stop now) is on the design door. And! I now have one more than the original 4 pluses made with my parents' shirts!

As I sew, I've been thinking about where I am quilt-making-wise & where I want to go. I really want to diminish my UFOs & WIPs & I *really* want to Sew! My! Stash! I have SO MUCH fabric, so much BEAUTIFUL fabric. When I poke through it, I find wonderful things I had forgotten I had -- I want to sew & enjoy these fabrics while I can sew & enjoy them! Quilts to keep, quilts to give, quilts, quilts, QUILTS!

To that end, I pulled out a layer cake of Mary Engelbreit fabrics & am having fun with a new-to-me method -- the disappearing 4-patch.

Fall back

I will be using my extra hour today catching up on housework & resting a bit -- & maybe a bit of sewing.

I spent Wednesday evening, all day Thursday & Friday at the Quilt Festival. I am foot-sore & sensory-overloaded! I enjoyed myself more than I have in recent years -- I don't really know why, can't really explain it. When my feet were run over by rolling carts, when my sides were jabbed by bulky bags, when the woman in front of me suddenly stopped to admire something cute or beautiful or whatever -- I just smiled & accepted it as part of the Whole Experience. The not-my-style quilts that I usually pass by with a nod & a yawn, this year I stopped to really look at & admire & learn. I felt more open to Quilts, Quilters, Quilt-making, than I have for a long time. It was nice.

I caught up with friends that I see once a year at Festival, hung out with other friends who I see more regularly, made a few new friends & deepened a relationship or two. I came away with a vintage string top that I am completely crazy about, 3 pairs of scissors, just a bit of fabric &, most importantly, a fresh perspective on who I am as a quilter & where I want to go with my quilting.

Thanks, I needed that

I think that if I had been one of the early Humans, we all just might still be living in caves.

Tea & coffee, for example. I truly don't think it would have ever occurred to me to look at a coffee bush & think, "hmm, what if I heated those beans, ground them up, then poured hot water over them?" Or tea? Dry the leaves, again with the hot water. Nope. Dots I definitely would NOT have connected. We would all still be drinking water if it had been up to me to discover two of the most basic, universal & pleasurable beverages of Humankind.

Or Retreats? Going off with a group of friends with whom you share a passion, spending a few days away from one's daily routine & partaking of that passion. Again, nope. I would not have come up with that either. But I'm so very, very glad that someone did!

I'm recently back from HMQG's 3rd retreat. While the pace of my life has slowed to a more manageable one, the Daily Grind still gets pretty grind-y sometimes & getting away from it for a bit was just The Thing I needed.

Old friends, new friends, lots of sewing & a little wine! My main goals, quilt-y wise, were to take advantage of the large design walls at the retreat center & finish 2 tops that had outgrown my design door -- one done, one nearly done (I didn't bring enough of my background fabric). Then I just puttered & played with some of the many bagged-and-ready-to-go projects: plus blocks made with my parents' shirts that will be gifts for my brother & 2 nieces, a block for an HMQG charity quilt, wonky stars with a stash creature.

Learning to exhale

All I want to do is make quilts. I don't want to go to work or vacuum rugs or make dinner. I don't want to go for a walk or read a book or take a nap. I don't even want to blog. After the years when my 'free' time was not really my own, I am finally learning to expand into my unscheduled hours. I'm (more than) a bit selfish & stingy with my now really free time, but that is beginning to fade.

A dog story I read on Instagram reminds me of myself. A woman I follow there fosters pedigree dogs. She recently took in an adult male dog, a  sweet & good fellow, but very nervous & un-used to freedom. She can only guess at his story -- not abused, but neglected & often confined, maybe from a puppy mill. At his foster home, the ability to run & play then rest was just too much for him; he'd pace until he was weary but couldn't rest until he was back in his kennel. The good news is love & nurture is bringing him around.

That's where I am now. I sew until I'm exhausted. I have to make myself stop. I just finished my 5th & 6th quilts for the year. Tops 7 & 8 are done, basted & ready to quilt. It isn't like I'm in a race, mostly I am enjoying myself, but I'm trying to pull myself back, kennel myself so to speak, so I don't get burnt out.

Quilts 7 & 8 will be Christmas gifts for our 14-year-old nephew & 12-year-old niece. They are terrific kids! The last quilts I made for them were their baby quilts, so they're due some new ones. The tops were made using the Fat Quarter Shop's Charm Pack Cherry pattern. (The whole time I was assembling them I was humming the B-52's song, Love Shack -- I guess because "Charm Pack Cherry" made me think of "Love Shack Baby". Anyway...) 4 charm packs worth of fabric in each quilt, they were easy & fast & are pretty cute -- well, one is cute, the other is manly. ;-)

One year

It has been one year since my Mom's death.

In my small experience with loss, the first year is the worst -- all the milestones -- a year ago we were doing this or that -- and anniversaries. It is a little different losing a person who had dementia, you've been 'losing' them all along, but the finale is so very, well, Final. I feel a bit changed by her years in memory care, then death, kind of tempered -- stronger I hope, not harder. And it is a strange not having parents anymore. The child in me feels unattended, a little uncared for. The adult in me does not feel ready to shoulder the mantle of being the Senior Generation. I can't be a Matriarch (or Aunt-riarch)! I don't know anything, I'm just a kid!

The last time I saw my Mom was about 6 weeks before she died. During that visit, I went with her to get her hair done. Very often with dementia suffers, if they don't understand what is being asked of them, they'll just answer no. Do you want to go for a walk? Do you want to eat lunch? Do you want to have a bath? Do you want to get your hair done? Saying "no" is easier than trying to understand the question in their plaque-addled brains. My Mom's hair, permed & set all her life, had become long & straight because her permanent had grown out, the only 'do' she had was what the aides did after they gave her her shower. So we went together down the hall to the beauty/barber shop where she got a wash, trim & set. She looked nice. Then I did something I had not done in her 3 years in the nursing home:  I snapped a photo of her. She looked directly at my camera with this heartbreakingly clear, blank, bleak expression. I love this picture, can still see a glimpse of my Mom there. Then a new filter app that let me turn this photo into a 'watercolor; it took a bit of the edge off the original, making it even more beautiful to me.

Just curious

Are you an in-y or an out-y? Not your bellybutton, but how you fold your quilts.

It is my theory that there are 2 kind of people in the world: those who fold their patchwork to the inside &  those who fold their patchwork to the outside.

I fold my patchwork to the outside -- from blocks to top to finished quilt. In the unfinished stage, to my way of thinking, it reduces stress on the raw seams & protects them from fraying.
As a finished quilt, I just like seeing the finished patchwork folded along the edge.
But I can appreciate that someone else might fold their patchwork to the inside to protect it from harm & keep it clean.

Which kind of person are you?

On the changing of goals for a quilter

In the past few years I have kept more quilts than I have in my more than 30 years of quilt making.

My younger quilter friends are in that place in life where I used to be: that is, maintaining a long list of friends getting married & friends having babies -- and all *have* to be gifted with quilts. Not that these friends are demanding quilts, but we quilters feel they need quilts for these special occasions. There is little time for making quilts to keep!

Thirty years down the road, I still make the occasional wedding quilt (2nd marriage, marriage of a son or daughter) or baby quilt (mostly grandchildren now or just a block contributed to a group quilt). In between, there were the first communion & graduation quilts, quilts for a new job in a new city, new home. As an older quilter, I've made quilts for mile-stone birthdays (40, 50, 60) & retirement, comfort quilts for a serious illness & after a death, memory quilts made with a loved one's clothing. 

Quilts are there for all the Big Life Events. 

But as I said, I'm keeping more quilts now. My stack has gone from 1 or 2 to a big ol' pile -- more than we really need down here on the Gulf coast! Am I making more quilts or are the Big Life Events a less compressed in time as we get older? I'm not sure. And I really don't care that much about having lots of quilts (though I'm not ready to part with any of the ones here) -- most of all, I love making them. So I'm trying to balance making-to-keep with making-to-give-away. 

The 2nd stack of give-away quilts doesn't look like much since none of them are actually finished, but there's a dozen of them there, mostly lap quilts, some baby quilts & not in the photo are the ones in-progress & the few that are finished. I'm having such fun pulling out-of-date fabrics & making things with them. (One of my all-time favorite quilts, from back in the day, was made with fabrics given to me by a friend of Shug's; I didn't like any of the fabrics -- too ditsy & sweet -- but I really liked the quilt I made with them. It's a great challenge, making something you like with something you don't love or don't love anymore -- try it!) 

And using up my fabric oldies is making room for new fabric -- everyone wins!!!

Balls in the Air

There's a woman in my Guild who says she has just one project going at a time -- she works it till it is done & only then will she begin something new. No UFOs in her house! How smart, but, to my way of thinking, just a bit dull.

Me, I love having several projects at different stages of completion -- when I tire of cutting, I piece a while; weary of piecing, try some quilting; bored with quilting, maybe sketch for a bit. I have the luxury of having more than one machine, so all this jumping around is a bit easier. (But I have to be mindful of which machine is piecing what project -- I've found that not all quarter-inch machine feet are created equal!)

Maybe because the weather is so miserable (see my previous post), maybe because I'm finally getting over my focus-less funk, I'm not sure the reason, but right now I have an especial LOT of projects going: 2 gift quilts & a 3rd I'm thinking about, the Tower of Owls, 2 other projects with Stash Creatures to be revealed later, a simple tessellating block with an old jelly roll, a 16-patch using double knit scraps, a re-make of an old quilt, & a percolating idea that may be ready to begin.




 
Phew! A bit excessive even by my standards.

That's MS. You-Have-Too-Much-Fabric to YOU, buster!

Can one have too much fabric?

Well, I think maybe one can. More specifically, yes, I think maybe I do.

I'm feeling buried alive by the fabric in my sewing room. I've been quilting for more than 30 years (OMG!), sewing for longer than that. I'm not sure when I began collecting/amassing fabric, but it has been accumulating for a long, long time.

Pretty fabric, on sale fabric, on a whim fabric, thrifted fabric, inherited fabric -- it's all there on my shelves. Big yardages for clothing, small cuts for a specific project (did I finish that project? did I even *begin* it?) Fabric bought on trips, fabric given as a souvenir of some else's trip. More & more & more.

The quilt shops were smart when they started cutting fat quarters -- just a sweet, inexpensive taste, like the little spoons at the ice cream shop -- perfect for a small gift, a little pick-me-up. Then the manufacturers began selling pre-cuts -- the beginning of *my* undoing. At first I thought, what can you do with a stack of 5 inch squares!?! Then I began to enjoy the restrictions of the 5 & 10 inch squares, the 2.5 inch strips -- I often cut my yardage into these dimensions. I found working within the structure a bit like haiku, kind of fun & freeing once you get into it.

For the last several years, when my Mom was in nursing care & I was spending 2 to 3 months of the year away from home visiting her, fabric shopping -- especially e-fabric shopping -- was my self-medication. I think most of us have seen those hoarding shows on television & know that the shopping isn't about the things being bought, it's about filling a hole, healing a hurt. Is it better or worse if you know what you are doing & do it anyway? I don't know, but it gave me something to look forward to when I got home from a sad & stressful trip. And an e-cart is so benign. Your purchases have no volume, just electrons, so it seems like nothing & so easy to "Proceed to Checkout". Then the giant box arrives at my door, like a present -- that is, until the bill comes.

The thing that is overwhelming me now is all the stuff I've been bringing back from my parents' home. A lifetime of things saved & things never gotten rid of -- clothing from nearly every stage of life of each member of my family, yard goods never used, scraps from dressmaking, hankies, linens -- there's even a silk parachute! -- etc, etc, etc. Baskets & bins & bags of it (oh, my).

I'm making a serious effort to realistically look over this new-to-me stuff & the stuff I already had, evaluate what I can use, what I will use, what I don't like or want anymore, what there just isn't enough hours in the day to get to.

 
But will I stop buying fabric? Not likely. Over the years I've learned that, for me, fasting leads to over-doing. Moderation works best, so I'll try to cut back.

I am really trying to cut back.

Missing Mojo

I'm somewhere between malaise & ennui -- mal-ui?, enn-aise? :-/

It's not that I've been idle, I've been pretty busy in the sewing room: 8 tops completed, 9 & 10 are on the design door, 11 & 12 are a stack of parts by my machine.



Most of the completed tops are small nursing home lap quilts & a child's quilt or 2 -- very worthwhile endeavors -- 'de-stashing', taking fabrics I no longer care for & turning them into nice quilts that will warm the body & soul. I've also been working on a mini swap quilt -- sewing for someone else is so valuable, such a learning & growing experience to work in another person's style & colors (in spite of what some people might think).



I've just not been, well, inspired.
I'm trying to stir my coals by looking antique & vintage quilts, pulling a few of my go-to books from my library, pulling intriguing stacks of fabric. A big pile of beloved indigos might be flying geese or hounds-tooth (hounds-teeth?); my Dad's shirts would go nicely with some recently acquired linens; a variety of long-hoarded fabrics might come together in some sort of medallion; my & my Mom's dresses might come together in a newly learned technique; and then there's .....

One of the 7 Deadly Sins

Jealousy. Perhaps "envious" would be a better description -- and, I hope, not so deadly -- of how I felt reading about the recent experiences of several of my favorite bloggers. Why was I jealous envious? Because they

a. got to get away
b. got to get away with quilting friends
c. got to get away with quilting friends to quilt
d. got to get away with quilting friends to quilt with several of the Gee's Bend artists

Before you start feeling too sad & sorry for me (you are sad & sorry, right?), at this time next week I will BE AWAY! WITH QUILTING FRIENDS!! TO QUILT!!! The HMQG will be having our first Quilt Retreat!!!! No Gee's Bend artists, but I guarantee you we will have loads of fun! I have been so excited about this outing, I started 'packing' almost a month ago. I've been cutting & stock-piling projects, gathering sewing supplies, hoarding snacks & drinks (me to Shug: "Don't eat/drink that, I'm taking it to the Retreat!"; Shug to me: "We can buy you more in the WEEKS before you go.") I can hardly wait!!!

Anyway.

Reading about the time that niftyquilts, Bumble Beans & fiberliscious had at Quilt Camp caused me to go to my quilt closet & pull out this quilt.



This is the most Gee's Bend-inspired quilt I have made to date. The denim is from my, Shug's & my Dad's jeans & there is a bit of South African indigo fabrics. I think I made it in 2003 or 2004 but I have never felt like it is finished -- it seems to need something more, I just don't know what it is.

niftyquilts shared some of the quilts & quilt tops she & her friends bought after Quilt Camp. Seeing them prompted me to dig out this quilt.



This is one of the first vintage quilts I ever purchased. I've mentioned before how I am rarely moved to buy quilts, mostly I am content to look & enjoy, maybe, with permission, take a photo or make a sketch. But this one I had to have. The completion date is probably much more recent than the age of the top -- that variegated yarn was very popular in the 1960s. (I've always kind of wanted to take it apart, I don't like the way it was finished but I am afraid the yarn will leave behind big holes.) The gorgeous rayons are from the World War II era, late 1930s to early 1940s. I would love to know where & how the maker got the variety of prints that you see here. I've always thought it was luscious.

 

Where is the time going?

I suppose it has happened gradually, but I seem to have completely lost control of my time. There hasn't been a  big change recently, but I feel that my wheels spin all of the time & I don't get very much accomplished. I am trying to keep on track with finishing existing projects before beginning new ones, but I'm not having much success with that. I began & have nearly finished a project that I hope to enter to be hung in a Modern Quilt Guild show at this year's Quilt Festival -- but I'm not feeling the love. I will hold off judgement until I wash & crinkle it in the dryer. The postage stamp quilt is getting its river system quilted onto it -- again, not loving it. The next thing to quilt will be my HMQG row robin quilt; I'll do it very simply so it should go quickly. I have the Shirts & Slacks blocks spread out on the floor to assemble -- I am looking forward to seeing them all together. And there are one or two new ideas that are trying to nudge their way to the front of the line. But mostly I am feeling kind of dis-satisfied with what I've done & what I am doing. {sigh}
I am keeping close to my heart a recent post from the awesome completely cauchy: Life is not a competition.

My birthday was earlier this month. I was taken to lunch with work friends, I was taken to dinner by Shug, I got some funny & sweet cards & I got these lovely gifts:



The vase came from my boss, the bag came from the adorable wrongturnrojas & the hot pad & fat quarter came the talented Safieh. Love the givers! Love the gifts!

I think I can, I think I can

HMQG did a scrap swap last month. We have 2 months to complete a project for our partner using the little bits they provided plus any extra we need to add to make something that we think they will like. As I have mentioned before, I have never participated in any of the blog & flickr based swaps & bees -- I don't know why really, fear of disappointing, fear of biting off more than I can get done. Anyway, the only swaps I have done have been our HMQG row robin that we did last year & now the scrap swap.

And I love the experience! It is so much fun & such a learning experience trying to make something that you hope someone else will like. Somehow it is different than making a quilt as a gift for someone, often the quilt is for a non-quilter & for a loved one, so you know that they will love it. But the bar seems to be higher when you are making something for another quilter.

I was lucky, my scrap swap partner was pretty clear about what she wanted. She wanted a pillow to go with a pillow that she had made. Easy, right? I knew pretty early on how I wanted to use her scraps -- I wanted to experiment with Victoria's 15 minutes play, making fabric with the scraps & cutting it up for a block. I love how it turned out, but won't show it to you yet. Then came the scarey part -- DA DA DAA -- the zipper on the back of the pillow! Queue screeching sounds. I haven't put in a zipper in eons & was really afraid. But after quite a few emails back & forth with pillow-expert Safieh, I bundled up my courage & plowed ahead. And of course, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I put it in more like a dress zipper, I think the style now is for more of the zipper tape to show. But it is in! I'm so proud!



The rest of the weekend was spent working on a project that I hope to enter for the Modern Quilt Guild's show at the Quilt Festival this year. I'll give you a little peak --

Not a smitch of stitching.*

I know I am not alone: things have been so busy & hectic that unless we've been burning the midnight oil to finish gift projects (not me, thankfully -- this year I recognized my limits) we've hardly made it into our sewing areas at all.

I've been finding it hard to get into the spirit of the Holidays. I've been tired, sad and grumpy. But I finally sat myself down and said "Get a grip!!!" So I am counting my blessings and trying to see the glass as half full. Then I started thinking about this picture --



I think this was the Christmas that I was 5. My Mom got me a Shirley Temple doll a few months before Christmas, then spent lots of time sewing her a wardrobe. Now before you start thinking that I am *much* older than I really am let me point out that Shirley Temple is a contemporary of my Mom's. The dolls were re-issued when I was little and, probably as much for herself as for me, she bought one. I don't really remember this Christmas morning, but I have always loved this photo. There is Shirley down there under the tree. And look at the tree! All the little outfits hanging on hangers!! This is what Christmas is about!

So I dug out old Shirley and her clothes. I washed and pressed them, dressed up Shirley and hung the rest on the tree. (Which we only put up yesterday.) Since Shug and I will be home this holiday, we can do a little decorating. And while we will miss being with the families, I am heaving a big sigh of relief to not be traveling. I got out a few more things and it is really beginning to look and feel much more like Christmas.









Season's Greetings to Everyone and a Happy, Healthy and Blessed 2012!
love, Beth aka Smazoochie


* My thanks -- and apologies -- to Zuzu Bailey.

Pressing Matters

A good many years ago, I made a square-in-a-square quilt top; it was pretty ordinary -- calicoes and plaids in browns and blues. But there was something about the top that I really liked and for a while I couldn't put my finger on what it was. Because of all the seams that would be coming together at the middle of the blocks, I decided to press the seams open.

My first sewing was clothing and with clothing, one always presses the seams open. My foray into quilt-making was pretty much self-taught and my very first project was finishing up a stack of hand-stitched, 4-patch blocks that my Mom had made with her Grandmother back when she was quite young (my Mom, not my Great Grandma). The seams in those 4-patches were finger-pressed to one side. So, everafter, I  always pressed my patchwork seams to one side.

But when I really stopped to think about it, if I was machine-piecing, not hand-piecing my blocks there didn't seem like there was any real reason to press the seams to the side -- just like in clothing construction. The first time I had done this was with that square-in-a-square quilt top. And that was what I liked so much about that top -- how flat it was. I loved the look of the newly created piece of whole cloth -- cloth made up of smaller pieces of cloth. So now I don't press my patchwork, I iron it -- I really IRON it.

But ironing isn't working with these doubleknit stars. With one of these blocks, I spent quite some time trying to get the seams to lie flat, but, well, can you tell which one it is? I can't.

 
 
So I'm just going with cardboard-like nature of this fabric. This little quilt is kind of a nostalgic, whimsical oddity anyway. I doubt it will make it among the Fresh, Modern Quilts on flickr, it just is what it is. And I am rather enjoying the journey I am taking with it.

Turn turn turn

Shug has been turning wood for just a little more than 2 months now -- and look at what he has spun out!



There are 14 pieces there, of varying quality, though the quality is getting better and better. There are 2 bowls upstairs on my sewing table (one with spools, one with patchwork parts) and there are a few -- though just a few -- failed attempts. Pretty impressive I think!

He is getting much more done than I am. These days, I can't seem to do anything more complicated than browse blogs, flickr, pinterest & tumblr and play find-it games on my I-Pad. It isn't that I don't have PLENTY of needle-ready projects. Here are just some of them, along with my lame excuses:

The squared plates have been disassembled, squared & are ready to re-assemble, but, well, the design wall is full. The blue postage stamp top is ready to sandwich, but the table where I do this is covered with wooden bowls. The quilting threads in snafu need to be restitched & anchored, but I am still to irritated to work with this one.

 
 
I think the shirts & slacks quilt will be about 5 or 6 blocks by 6 or 7, so I still need many more of them, but I can only work on them for a short time because they make me sad. (I think this one is a real excuse.)



I just need to make more pieces for the indigo & white stars -- just haven't made the time. The yellow zig-zag is built diagonally so I need lots of space to spread it out; it is about 3/4 done & is pretty big. I am working on the Sunday School Stars -- the one thing I am getting done!



I want to add more borders to my Habitat challenge but need to get some more Habitat fabric. Come on! That means a trip to the fabric store! Surely I can 'motivate' myself to do that! The hexagons came to a screeching halt back in January or February, I don't even remember why, but I am sure it was a good reason. And I just dug out the purple & gray squares in squares. They were going to be a gift for someone, but I came up with something I liked better. The parts are all cut for this, it would be an excellent donation quilt, I just need, well you know, MOTIVATION!



I am always encouraging people to be easy on themselves, but I am the last one to take my own advice. Like the song in this post's title, there is a time for everything. I had several pretty good finishes this summer, so maybe I can take some time to rest & recharge. (Though Ecclesiastes doesn't mention anything about the internet or computer games.)


And check this out! HMQG's Habitat Challenge projects! AWESOME!!!