Welcome to the "Quilting...for the Rest of Us" Blog!

It got too confusing to have a blog named something completely different from the podcast series, and although I like Podbean for a lot of things, their blog features don't work quite as smoothly as Blogger does when it comes to images and such. So I'm going to discontinue my tessellations blog and pick things up here. I'm pulling some posts (not all) from my tessellations blog to this one so you'll still be able to read some of the archives if you so choose.

Meanwhile, I'll post here about projects, occasionally give expanded information from podcast episodes, and just talk about life (mine and others--mostly my kids!). As I always say in my podcasts, I prefer to have conversations so I hope you'll use the comments feature here readily and with great enthusiasm!

Home again, home again, jiggi...ty....zzzzzzzz

The flights all went smoothly, but they were crammed to the brim. The requisite screaming babies (I felt bad for the mom, but also, admittedly, a little sorry for myself!), toddlers kicking the back of my seat, trying to avoid touching the poor guy in the middle seat of our row, etc. I didn't sleep much at all on the red-eye from Seattle to Chicago so I'm on definite major sleep deficit here; unfortunately, napping doesn't really work for me. I wake up feeling worse than I started. So I'm just going to plow through and go to bed as early as I think I can get away with tonight.

I only listened to a couple more quilty podcasts on the trip home--some older episodes of "Jackie's Quilting Chronicles." There's no way I'll have time to listen to all episodes of everyone's podcasts so I'm having to skate through and only pick out a small handful of each. I enjoyed Jackie's; I listened to a couple of episodes where she talked about various tools and picked up some good ideas. Check her out!

I have this weird reaction to Dramamine hangover--I tend to eat my way through the next day. I think it's a mixture of carbo-loading from being overtired and trying to do anything I can to stay awake as long as possible. So I'm now trying to distract myself with playing a computer game and in a bit, I may go up and tackle my scrap bins and see if I can cut some into usable pieces. Working on my next podcast episode on scraps has inspired me! I'm a little worried about using a rotary cutter when I'm this tired, though. Way to lop off a finger!

After listening to all of these podcasts, I am realizing that I've never really posted pictures of projects in progress--just completions. So I'm going to use this blog a little differently in the future. So--more pics, more short entries with updates on projects, and lots of questions for everyone!

Meanwhile, to sleep...perhaps to dream...(of quilted sugarplums?)

There's no place like home...

I'm starting my last day of my business trip. Head home on a red-eye tonight, so I just updated all my podcasts, especially the quilty ones!, and synched my iPod in preparation. I had a brief hope of doing a little touristy-shop-hopping yesterday during a break but didn't know any locals with a car, so I ended up staying in the hotel. Got a lot of work (real work!) done, though, so it was good.

I did have some odd moments here and there to keep working on my research for my next podcast episode. I'm learning a lot about scraps. Not sure if it's inspired me to do a "real" scrap project yet or not. I define "real" as using honest-to-goodness scraps, not precut packs (jelly rolls, charm packs)--I've done several of the precut type of scrap projects to warm myself up on how to pick scraps for a design and make it work.

I've got a quilt retreat coming up in a couple of weeks; I'm debating just bringing all my scraps and making myself take the time to cut them all to usable sizes. It would probably take me most of the weekend. Could I stand doing that? Hmmm....

You Know It's Probably Not the Right College When...

...your daughter's eyes glaze over 5 minutes into the tour. Maybe the glazing started even before we left the waiting room in the admissions building.

Granted, I think I agree. On Saturday, I could easily picture her on every corner of that campus--eating in the dining hall, sleeping in the door room, sitting in the classrooms, hanging out under the tree in the middle of one of the courtyards, and especially hanging out in the library. Today, at this school, I had to squint to imagine her anywhere there--and even at that, my imaginary daughter-on-campus was blurry and not altogether happy. It's a great school--just probably not the best school for her.

She's not crossing it off the list yet; it just dropped way down, probably below a few undiscovered colleges that have yet to even be added to the list. My husband and I talked with her on the way back to the hotel and explained that college visits are sort of like dating--much of the reason you do college visits is to find out what you don't like, as much as finding out what you do like. She can't entirely put her finger on why she didn't like the school at this stage, but she'll figure it out, especially after she's got a couple more visits under her belt.

And by the way, the only store in town that sells fabric is a general hobby store and the couple of shelves of fabric were stuffed in among dusty shelves of yarn, toy trains and accoutrements, woodworking tools, kids' craft kits, and all sorts of whatnot. Hmmmm. Maybe there is a connection between "the right school for my daughter" and "quilt-friendly!"

It's Kismet--Is this the College for Us?

So, my husband and I are trooping around the north country of NYS with our daughter visiting a couple of colleges this weekend. She's debating environmental sciences, biology, and anthropology. At the moment, she wants to be a park ranger or wants to be in school for the rest of her life (she tosses off references to grad school and PhDs and doesn't notice my husband and I clutching our chests and dropping to the floor over the thought of decades of tuition ahead).

In any case, we visited Paul Smith College today--gorgeous campus and does seem to fit her outdoorsy-personality. But was it perhaps kismet when we stopped in the college bookstore and there--almost immediately catching my eye--stacked amidst the rock music and computer magazines--were two quilt books?!?

I nabbed them and spoke with the clerk (a woman of a "certain age") about my surprise that there were quilt books in a college bookstore. Turns out that, until very recently, there was a quilt conference that used to be there each summer. I'm bummed I missed them! The quilt books are "northwoodsy" style--lots of moose, bear, and pinecones. But nice patterns and lots of applique templates I'll be able to repurpose into other projects if I choose not to decorate my house like a log cabin.

Kismet aside...

After the tour, we moved on to Lake Placid and spent the afternoon...in the snow...in April...poking around the shops in the village. And I stumbled across a small fabric shop tucked away in a little walk-in mall (a collection of about 6 shops in an alcove off the main street). It was very small, but she had a nice collection. I picked up several half-yards of some fabric appropriate for landscape quilts--something I eventually want to get into doing. Plus she had some great fabric on sale for 50% off, so I got a yard of that one (the floral), then she had a line of gorgeous muted tone-on-tones that I couldn't resist (the brown, sage green, and sort of steel blue that looks more intense in the photo than it is). Unfortunately not on sale, dang it. And a couple of other nice stash-fabrics.

So here's my souvenir of our trip...

I'll be giving a shout-out to the fabric store on my podcast and posting the link to the store's website in my show notes: http://quilter.podbean.com/.

Another day in Lake Placid tomorrow--trying to hike despite the falling snow--then on to Clarkson tomorrow. I don't know--if they don't have quilt books in their college bookstore, I may have to talk my daughter into removing them from her list. :-)

A Sandufo Finish!

Back to one of my own UFOs (the "Sandy-ufo", or "Sandufo")--finally done! This one always felt like a really stupid UFO. I got myself all caught up in feeling like I should do more with it than what I really actually needed to do just to call it done. I bought the panel about three or four years ago, shortly after we first moved into our new house. Our house was in a development named "Cherry Hill Estates" and so, when I saw this panel named "Cherry Hill," it seemed destined. And I liked the colors. It was hanging as a sampler quilt at a small quilt shop that's since closed (Pickett Fence, for anyone from around these parts). In an amazing show of complete lack of creativity, I think I just copied all her border fabrics. It was cute--and I wasn't feeling like being overly invested in the project at the time.
I got the borders put on quite quickly, but then it stalled. "Do I quilt just around the blocks and lines, or do I quilt in all the blocks too, to try to make it look like real applique?" Hence, the stopper. I couldn't decide what I wanted to do so it sat, and sat, and sat.




Finally, last week, in a fit of "I just really want to get this done and off my shelf," I threw on my walking foot and just quilted all the straight lines. I did decide to get a little fancier in the border, though, so last night I sat and went through one of my practice quilt sandwiches using some free-motion, free-hand patterns that Janet Root had taught in the machine quilting class I took last month. I liked the way the leafy one felt, so I went for it. (See close-up.) I had problems seeing where I was going with the patterned border fabric, but then I realized, if I had problems seeing what I was doing, anyone looking at it would have the same problems, so any errors would be virtually invisible. Woohoo!


The front of the quilt looks pretty darn good, if I do say so myself. The back of the quilt--Well, that's another matter, isn't it? But it'll be on a wall, so who's to ever know?

Momufo finished--Sandufo well on it's way!

Another Momufo done! Well, pert' near, anyway. I have to do a little work on the corners and slap a label on the puppy and then it's done. I had this one machine quilted at Mt. Pleasant along with the flag quilt and garden quilt (previous post). This one was just a pantograph--all over falling leaves. Can't see the quilting at all in this pic, sorry. It's a large quilt--took my husband and daughter both holding up sides of it and me standing way outside my front door to get this picture.

I tried a new method of binding that I'm either never going to do again, or keep practicing it until I get it right. Not sure which at the moment. It's the do-it-all-by-machine method, where you sew the binding on the back, flip it to the front and then use your machine and a decorative stitch or blind stitch to sew it down. I didn't quite get my front and back seams in the same place so I'm not keen on the way it looks in the back. The front isn't too bad. Not show-worthy, but I don't particularly worry about that anyway.

I have a couple of other Momufos left to do but they'll probably take me awhile to get to. One has a LOT of work to do but it's a really nice piece that Mom designed in EQ so I want to get it done for her. The other one is just a kit that she'd started--it's a nice springy piece with hydrangea fabric that I think is cute so it's not high priority, but probably fast once I dig into it.

Meanwhile, back to my own UFOs, or "Sandufos" for awhile. I got the borders on today so I finally have the top completely pieced on my square-in-a-square class project! Woohoo! See my blog post from March with a photo of the center part of this quilt finished--I explain how it all came to be in that post.
I just LOVE that border fabric. It's absolutely perfect for pulling in all the colors of the center. It's another Moda, although from a different line (this quilt started with a bunch of fat quarters from Moda's "chocolat" line from a few years back.) I'm a big fan of Moda. I originally intended to do mitred borders but decided at the last minute to do a slightly wider border, which didn't leave me quite enough fabric for the mitre. So it's butted, but once it's quilted you'd probably never even know.

I'm going to have it machine quilted at Mt. Pleasant as well. I've been living with this quilt for almost two years now--I just want it done! Can't decide if I'll have a custom job or just a pantograph. I've grown to like this quilt, but I'm not sure I love it, which is what I'd need to do to pay for a custom quilt job!

Most recent finish

I named this one "Gardens of Memory" because working on this one really allowed me the chance to honor Mom's quilting memory; it's a particularly impressive piece. It's such a complex and wonderful quilt that I decided to have it custom quilted at Mt. Pleasant to really do it justice. They did a beautiful job--which, unfortunately, you can't really see in these photos.

I queried Mom's friends about this one and no one knows anything about it. We all agree that it has the feel of a possible "round robin" to it (meaning it gets passed from quilter to quilter and everyone adds a border until it comes back to the original owner to finish). But it could just as easily have been something Mom did on her own. The border feels very "Mom" to me--the colors, the way the applique was handled. I also think I may have seen scraps from the inner border--the green floral--in Mom's stash. It's a mystery.

So, if anyone knows anything about this--let me know!

Right now this one is resting on our guest room bed, although I'm not going to allow it to be a bed quilt--at least, not one that gets a lot of use. But I also don't have the heart to squirrel it away in storage, either. So I'll keep it visible for awhile and then put it away when the room is going to be used again.

Some other completed Momufos

Mom had five tablerunners in various stages of completion next to her sewing machine when she passed away--Dianne (my sister) and I had guessed that they were likely Christmas gifts for all of us kids, and after checking it out with Mom's friend Marge we were right. So I finished all five tablerunners. Oddly, I don't seem to have taken pictures of them, although I thought I had. This is the only one I have in my files. They were all Connecting Threads kits, I think. This one ended up going to Dianne. (I took my best guesses as to which one may have been destined for whom.) Miraculously, I managed to get them all done by Christmas!

This quilt was the first momufo I finished. I chose to work on it during the memorial service as my own tribute--plus it helped me deal, to have something to focus on. It's a pattern named "Rose Garden Anniversary Waltz." I was fortunate enough to find the pattern in Mom's stuff so I could pull all the information from it for the label. All I had to do was put the binding on. If I recall, Wendy now has this one.
This next picture is the quilt label I've used on all of the momufos. The photo is one of my favorites of Mom--she's probably somewhere around 19 or 20, wearing a poodle skirt and sitting on the grass. I did some photo-editing to it ("posterized") and it works beautifully as a label.


The last picture is of two quilt blocks Mom had salvaged from one of her very, very early quilts. Apparently, it had been Dad's favorite quilt so when it started to disintegrate, Mom cut it a couple of the blocks out and intended to put them back into some sort of smaller wallhanging version. She had actually just talked with me about these blocks a few weeks before she died. We were in her sewing room and sorting through some stuff when we ran across them--she explained their whole backstory to me, and said, "I really want to do something with these because they remind me so much of your Dad," then proceeded to explain that The Sunbonnet Sue quilter represented Mom, and Overall Bob and the cow represented Dad. (Not that I needed her to point that out to me!) Obviously, I wasn't about to toss these blocks. After several weeks of pondering, I realized I could fix two problems at once--I'd also kept all of Mom's collectors pins from years of going to quilt shows and paid memberships to quilt museums, etc. So I put the blocks in quilting hoops and attached all of Mom's pins to hers. They're hanging on the wall in my sewing room now.

A few more finishes

Dang. I forgot to take a picture of this one completely finished before passing it off to my niece. This is Mom's New York Beauty (Karen Stone design)--I took this picture for Mom when she'd just picked this one up (with a couple of others) from Mt. Pleasant's quilting service. The date on this picture is 2006, so Mom must have pieced this sometime around 2004-2006. This isn't the kind of UFO she'd have left sitting around for too long before having it quilted. (NOTE--later comment rec'd from one of Mom's friends, Gail, that it was probably 2000-2001 since Gail had made one at about the same time.) She was never able to get the binding on it, though, because her fingers had gotten so bad with the neuropathy. So I just finished the binding on it this January/February. This was the last of the "Mom UFOs" I had to finish for distribution. Michael Anna had dibs on this one and she just picked it up yesterday. My first curved binding, btw. (Note the two curved corners--the batting is sticking up but I trimmed that off.)

From here on in, any other of Mom's UFOs that I complete I'm either keeping for myself or giving as gifts. They all need a whole heck of a lot of work done to get them finished--therefore, she who does the work gets to reap the benefits!

To whit:
This is the first "Mom UFO" (guess I'll start dubbing these "momufo"s, pro. "mom-oo-fo", LOL) that I'm keeping. I have a lot of memories about this one. Mom and I had gone to Material Rewards in Dansville one Saturday morning several years ago. A big flag wallhanging was in their window and both Mom and I really liked it. So we each bought the pattern and chose fabrics (mine in more country-colors than this), and then went back to Mom's to start working on them together. I'd never done bargello before so Mom walked me through the first steps. Unfortunately, after that, it took me a couple of years to get back to mine and by then, I'd completely forgotten what I was doing and messed up so many times that I finally bagged the whole thing and filed the pattern away. I talked to Mom shortly after that and she had just decided to pull hers back out, too, to finish. I found the finished top in Mom's quilt studio after she passed away, and took it to Mt. Pleasant to have it quilted in January. I just got it back a couple of weeks ago and have finished the binding and label. Since this particular Momufo carries with it memories of Mom and I quilting together, it's a definite keeper. Plus I have nothing patriotic done yet for summer holidays, so it'll come in handy!

Then, since I needed a break from UFOs (mom's or otherwise), I decided to take today and treat myself to a completely new project, but one I could get done in one day.

I've had this prequilted fabric yardage on my shelves for probably 7 or 8 years. Finally got tired of it taking up space and decided to whip up a quick tote bag. First tote I've ever made. It wasn't hard, but the directions were written as if they assumed a certain amount of knowledge on my part that I didn't have, so I don't think the corners are quite right. But given that it's destined to be a gym bag, it's definitely good enough.

It was fun to do, and definitely rewarding to have a completed something-or-other after only a few hours, so I plan to do more in the future!

Vacation's Over--Progress!

So the last time I blogged, it was to say I wasn't doing much sewing at the moment. I've gotten over that! Now I haven't blogged because I've been getting a lot done!

These pictures are of a project I've now been working on for almost two years, in a way. The centers of each block are the product of a year-long class I took at my local quilt shop. It was Jodi Barrows' "Square in a Square" technique and the class was taught by Peg Oppenheimer. Each month we were to complete four blocks with the options we learned that month. I never finished the last two months--Mom passed away before those last two classes and I just couldn't get my head together to complete the squares. I did keep going to class, though--although I'm still not sure I'm jazzed about the technique I did thoroughly enjoy the class and Peg's teaching. It's nice to be with the same group for a whole year, especially when several folks were from my guild. It gave me a nice chance to get to know some folks a lot better.

In any case, we were supposed to have our top pieced by our November guild meeting and Peg came so she could see everyone's results. I only had my blocks pinned to my design wall at that point--not at all even close to finished. So I brought my design wall, pins n' all, to my meeting. I'm looking forward to finally being able to bring the finished project!

I've named this quilt "Creeping Scope." This is a project that just kept growing and growing.

Without those last two months of blocks, it worked out to be just about perfect for a twin-sized quilt. I futzed around for a bit with how to lay them out and found a nice way to be organized and random at the same time. IOW, it looks random, but when you study it you'll see the sequence. Anyway, Bingo. Problem solved.

Then I realized that none of the blocks were the same size. So I referred to my Sharyn Craig book on "Setting Solutions" and decided to put the blocks on point and add corner triangles, then trim them down to size. Bingo. Problem solved.

Except--I pulled two different potential background fabrics out of my stash to audition them and realized that neither of them was enough for the whole quilt. OK, so I use both of them and alternate. Bingo. Problem solved.

Then I decided, OK, two background fabrics, very busy blocks, lots going on. Needs a sashing to calm it all down. Auditioned the brown--too dark. Auditioned the blue dot. Too light. Well, OK--we're going scrappy here, what if I used both colors? Brown sashing with blue stars in the corners? Bingo. Problem solved.

Now I'm mildly debating a border problem but I think I'll just end up doing the outside border as I'd originally planned, mostly so I can call it "done" and move on. Each of the above paragraphs reads as if they went a lot faster than they did. The final class was last June. So, OK--so that's not ALL I was doing that whole time--I'm also still finishing Mom's UFOs as I go. But still. I've been living with this thing on my design wall for almost a year now. It's time to let something else come out to play!

No Top 10 Lists Here, But...

I'm spending a last blessed day of vacation poking around into other people's business...in other words, catching up on reading some blogs. I noticed a few folks posting their versions of "top lists" of 2009 in recognition of the changing year. I hadn't really thought to do that but 2009 was an eventful year for me and my family on a number of levels. So it probably would do my soul good to do a little bit of a summary of what I've learned through surviving 2009.

1.) What I don't know can't hurt me. As my son started college this fall, and my husband and I agonized over his "transitional issues," as I began calling them, I had to keep reminding myself that if he were out of state on campus I wouldn't even know about most of what he was going through. I even reminded my son of that at one point, when he complained about my husband and I having an opinion about his actions. "If you stopped coming home every weekend, we wouldn't even know this was going on. Since we know, we get to speak up." It was said jokingly, of course, but on the flip side I would occasionally say to husband or myself, "If he weren't home, we wouldn't even know, so let's act as if we don't know." Not that my son gets up to serious shenanigans, just worrisome annoying ones that remind us constantly that 19-year-old brains aren't entirely developed yet. Sigh. In any case, there is such a thing as blissful ignorance. I'm learning to live into that reality.

2.) I'll pay in 30 years for what I do to my body now. Not that there's any guarantees in life, but watching my mom struggle with a series of health issues over the years made me more inspired (once I was dealing more effectively with the depression of losing her) to try to get myself healthy now so I have a better shot at being healthy later. Not all of Mom's health issues were self-induced, of course, but some things were aggravated, I suspect, by the sedentary lifestyle she lead and which I have largely inherited. Exercise first, quilting later. That's my carrot.

3.) I won't get better until I try. I had put off a lot of quilting projects because my skills weren't up to them. I had UFOs on my shelf because I was afraid of ruining them. But the motivation of finishing off Mom's UFOs to give to my sibs or include in the general distribution made me tackle projects quickly without agonizing over them like I used to. Need to learn a new technique to finish this project? Hop to it! Do the best I can and move on. Consequently, I learned several new techniques this year, improved significantly in other skills, and mostly, learned #4.

4.) No fear. At least when it comes to quilting. There's still a rather traumatic experience with a high ropes course last winter that reminds me that I truly am terrified of heights and, frankly, I don't need to overcome that fear to live the rest of my life quite happily. As I said in the debriefing afterwards, "I've embraced that fear and I'm good with it. I don't feel the need to prove otherwise, to myself or anyone else." However, from a quilting perspective, it's a different matter. The fear of ruining something with my lack of skill was piling projects up on my shelves with great speed. Now I'm ready to tackle them and finish them off. The couple already on my walls have an error or imperfection here and there, but no one else but me notices them--or, at least, they're kind enough not to mention it and I'm quite OK with that. I definitely have fears in my life--the number of sleepless nights I've had over my kids or other situations attest to that--but I've not really let them stop me from doing things. So I'm applying that same principal to my quilting. Here's for a fabrically-related-fear-free 2010.

I miss Mom terribly. I'm miss my son when he's actually away from home for an extended period. I miss my nephew who lived with us for three years and just moved out this summer--although comes back once a week for laundry and a decent meal. Our family has had a lot of changes in 2009, and I'm sure 2010 will bring a few more. But hopefully what I've come out of 2009 with will stand me in good stead for whatever happens in 2010.

And now, exercise completed for the day, I'm off to spend the rest of a cold, blustery, wintery day at my sewing machine, with a healthy stew bubbling away on the stove for later. Can't imagine a better way to spend the rest of my last day of vacation. (BTW, added a couple of wintry photos taken out my window today to the photo album below. Nothing exciting--I'm not willing to step outside in this just to photodocument it!)

So it's not a seagull, but...

Now that the gift has been given, I can post a photo. I never did figure out what I was actually remembering with the seagull kit for my aunt-in-law, but regardless, I punted and made her a tablerunner that will work on her sunporch year-round. Simple, but turned out nicely. I'm finding great benefit in tablerunners--they're a good way to reduce my stash and fast projects. Good way to practice machine quilting, too. I just have to make myself a couple now that I can keep.

Today is the day-after-one-Christmas-two-days-before the next. I'm allowing myself a partial pajama day, although we're going out to a movie later this afternoon so I'll have to get myself presentable at some point. Meanwhile I'm playing a computer game my daughter gave me yesterday and we're all regrouping. Tomorrow we'll be back into prep-day for Second Christmas, but it shouldn't be hard. The house is already relatively clean so it's just doing a little touch-up and the grocery shopping.

Today I was planning on getting the binding on the last of Mom's full-size quilts I need to finish for our family distribution, but it requires learning a new technique. I'm not sure I'm up to that--still feeling mentally fuzzy. Back to the computer game for a little bit--maybe after lunch (leftovers from Christmas dinner!) my brain will turn back on.

Manufactured Memories...Where Did That Seagull Go?

Here's a wierdism. The other night I was laying in bed thinking through Christmas gifts and who I still needed to do something for, when I had the perfect idea for one extended family member on my husband's side. "Oh--wait! Mom had that great kit of the seagull wallhanging that would be perfect for her! That wallhanging would be perfect for her cottage home by the lake!" I was so excited--I even thought through my schedule carefully to figure out when I'd have time to get it done before Christmas day. I knew Mom had probably gotten the kit to do for the cottage but I figured Mom would be just as happy seeing it used as a gift for someone who lived on the lake year-round. I had to force myself to stop thinking about it in order to drift off to sleep--the perfect gift for someone, and yet another kit off my shelf an into the world! Can't get better than that!

Two days later, I had a few minutes to spare so I decided to find the kit and look at what all was involved so I could figure out the schedule. I scurried into my office/sewing room and checked the shelf where I store the various kits I now have. Huh. Not there. I turned and pawed through my shelves holding fabric and project boxes--some random things are tucked in here and there. Nope, not there either. I proceeded to go through each shelf and stack a second time, a third time...then I trotted down to the basement to see if perchance there were still any bags of Mom's quilt stuff left own there--knowing there weren't because I'd just hauled the remainder out to a consignment store three weeks ago.

Nothing. No seagull anywhere. But the memory is still so vivid! How could I so perfectly remember holding a kit in my hands and thinking about how Mom had probably wanted to use it and deciding I'd keep it because it was pretty cute....and now it's nowhere to be found? And now, even though I'd felt a little stressed about whether I could get the project done in time for Christmas, I'm really disappointed that I apparently don't have the project to do at all!

The best I can guess--besides me somehow completely manufacturing an entire episode of my life--is that I inadvertantly mixed the kit up with the things I gave away to the consignment shop. So now I'm left with the question--do I order the kit again knowing that it would still be the perfect gift for her, even if she gets it sometime in May rather than Christmas? A much less exciting thought to keep me up at night.

Digging out from under the pile of projects

I'm currently on leave from quilting, but probably only for another day or two. My incredibly productive late summer/fall came screeching to a halt when I got the last of the Christmas gifts done and only had one of Mom's quilts left to finish for the distribution that will happen the week after Christmas. At first, I needed a couple of days to reclaim my sewing space--putting piles of scrap fabric and batting away, cleaning off surfaces, de-linting the sewing machine...basically, letting the dust settle again for a bit. I never felt stressed about getting anything done--it was just continuous, almost machine-like work. I loved it. It felt great seeing the pile of UFOs on one shelf turn into the pile of completed projects on the other shelf. But when I quickly finished the last of the projects the night before my guild meeting when I'd get to display them all at show n' tell (a natural, built-in deadline!), I suddenly...just...stopped.

Then I cleaned and reorganized, which is for me a way of bringing closure and welcoming fresh beginnings, plus a way to settle my thoughts and make space for what might come.

A few days later, I went on a shop-hop with my BFF and BQF ("best quilty friend") Kate. It was a shop hop that Mom and I had made a tradition the last few years--we'd take a day in December to hit some of the Amish-owned fabric and gift stores downstate and then eat at a wonderful Amish-themed restaurant (not sure if it's actually run by Amish but boy, is that great comfort food!). Kate was a willing and eager accomplice in keeping the tradition alive. Earlier in the week I'd wondered whether I might get emotional, but strangely, I never really did. Kate had come with Mom and I once or twice, so it wasn't much of a mental transition for me to be going with Kate rather than Mom. And Kate and I loved having the day to really catch up with one another in a way that daily emails can't always cover. We talked about Mom and memories of previous trips, of course. And dang if I didn't find some of the fabrics I'd inherited from Mom on bolts in the shops--which was quite handy as I set about buying coordinating fabrics for them. As Kate said, "See, your Mom is still leaving you clues!" Yep, I came home with a stack of new fabric (although I feel the need to report that the bulk of it was on huge-a-mongous sale, just to make myself feel less guilty for posterity!).

So now, sewing room clean and organized, new fabric neatly folded, labeled, and stored, I'm feeling that breath of fresh air sweeping through my brain. I've taken a pause. I've regrouped. I've stopped focusing solely on finishing Mom's UFOs the way Mom may have wanted them finished, and I'm now reintegrating my own projects, thoughts and imagination.

That being said, Mom taught me a lot over these last few months. I'm really not exaggerating when I say that every project of Mom's that I finished either taught me a new technique, or taught me how to use a new tool or new aspect of my inherited machine. Sometimes I had no choice. Other times I was quite intentional about it: "What new thing can I try on this project?" My skills have increased significantly. More importantly, my confidence in myself as a quilter has grown hundredfold. Does it have something to do with constant practice? Most definitely. But there's a niggling little part of me that has to admit that part of it is also that I can't go running to Mom anymore to tell me how to fix things. I have to figure it out myself. And I did, consistently, figure it out myself. I tackled problems that would've been stoppers for me before. I ripped whole parts out and re-did them. I came up with creative solutions. I actually machine-quilted in a contrasting color thread so you can see the quilting--something I've never been brave enough to do before!

Now I'm finding myself pulling my own UFOs off the shelf with renewed vigor and enthusiasm. A project I'd set aside because I was afraid of ruining it with my poor machine quilting skills is now done and hanging on my wall. Other ones are sitting on deck, and I'm hankering to get at them. I'm still pondering the start of something new, but I'm apparently still in a place where I need to draw mental closure to a whole lot of unfinished business. So for now, I'm tying up loose ends.

The next six months will most likely not be nearly as productive as the last six months have been, but I'm good with that. Things are falling back into order. A rhythm is being reestablished. The hole of loss will always be there, but it's being blanketed by pretty fabric that Mom and I both loved. And that's OK.

Imagining the Past

Two more UFOs down, still a stack to go. I was on the road a lot in October but managed to have projects at a point where I could bring some with me and work on them at night after meetings. It was stress relief and productive all at once. Gotta love hitting a double.

Yesterday I brought one of the antique quilts back to the appraiser, Beth Davis--I had only gotten a verbal appraisal on it the first time around but Beth had written a note, when she sent me the written appraisals on the other two, saying she was hoping I'd decide to get a written appraisal on the Lone Star as well. Then my BQF, ("Best Quilting Friend," who in this case is a regular ol' BFF dating from my elementary school days as well), Kate mentioned to me a few weeks later that Beth had commented to her at their guild meeting that Beth hoped I'd bring the Lone Star back. It was clear the Lone Star had made an impression on her. She doesn't get enough for these appraisals for her interest to really be in the money--it truly is a passion for quilts. So I called her up and made the appointment.

That is always such a fascinating experience. You can learn so much history from a quilt. Probably only quilters would get that jazzed about the detail in the conversation, but it is just so amazing what you can learn by looking at fabric and stitches! I still don't know who made this Lone Star. It's 1940s, and neither of my aunts recognize it at all. But Mom never bought an antique quilt that any of us know of, so it has to be family. My best guess is my great-grandmother since we know for a fact she made another one I have from a few years earlier--same level of skill, but very different style, so it's hard to tell for sure. I guess her sister also quilted, so it might be the sister's instead. I'll probably never know.

What Beth could tell, though, was that this was a quilter of great skill. Lone Stars are a difficult pattern, and this was one completely hand pieced and done beautifully. All the places where the multiple seams meet lay flat--the biggest pitfall with Lone Stars. It may have been from a kit, as those were popular at that time. But it's got a very unusual color combination, one that Beth had never seen before, and the quilting pattern was also very unusual and unknown to Beth. Doesn't mean it wasn't all with the kit (many kits come with a quilting pattern), but it could equally as well be original to the quilter.

But what turned out to be the most interesting part of the conversation revolved around stains on the quilt. It's not at all unusual for antique quilts to have stains on them, but this quilt has a very unique pattern of stains. The stains all appear on one particular fabric (orange), and only where that one fabric appears in the same row all the way around the star points. Plus, it's quite obvious that the stain was in the fabric before it was pieced into the star. It looks very much like something got splashed on it--it's a watery sort of stain. Beth and I imagined all sorts of scenarios about those stains. Did the quilter--I'll call her "Q"--spill something on a stack of diamonds waiting to be pieced? Was fabric so expensive at the time that she couldn't replace it despite the stains? Are the stains a clear indication this was from a kit (since kits only include exactly the amount of fabric you need and not a thread more)--and Q had to plow ahead even though she was now using damaged fabric? Did Q even see the stains at the time, or are they something that only came out with age (and would break Qs heart now if she could see them)?

I found myself running all sorts of film reels about those stains through my head on the drive home. For some reason, the stains make my relationship to Q feel even more real. Whether it's to imagine her knocking over a drink with her elbow and getting really ticked off at herself for doing it, or to imagine her seeing the stains later and feeling heartbroken that some things just go wrong no matter how you try to avoid it, I'm there.

No matter how you slice it, I have some talented quilters in my family tree. Now I really need to step up to the plate!

Surprised by Heritage

A couple of weeks ago, I was pulling quilts out of the room where Mom had stored them in preparation for bringing them home to photograph them for our online photo album--we're posting pictures of heirlooms and potential heirlooms so all the sibs can go through them to indicate which they'd have interest in. I was short on time that day, so although I'd inventoried some items at the house, I had decided I'd grab the quilts and take them home with me to finish at a later date. I emptied out a bureau where I knew she kept many of her quilts, then noticed what looked like more quilts sitting on the upper shelf in a closet. They were mostly in plastic bags, so although I could tell they were probably quilts I couldn't see much more than that. I shooed Mom's cat off the top of them and started pulling them off the shelf and handing them to my daughter, nieces, and nephew (the day's designated helpers) to load into my car.

As I pulled one bag off the shelf, the bag opened a little bit and I realized that I had probably found an antique quilt I'd been keeping an eye out for. It's a crazy quilt that we weren't positive whether it had been given to Mom or was only on loan. We'd found some paperwork about it, but hadn't yet seen the quilt. I tugged open the bag a little further.... Yep. Definitely a crazy quilt. I handed it off to one of the kids, warning them to be particularly careful since it was likely an antique, then continued to pull the rest of the quilts off the shelf. I noticed a couple were unfinished pieced tops, so I thought maybe one of them was a set of blocks that had been given to Mom by the same person as the crazy quilt--the plan had been to finish the blocks into a quilt. All we knew about the blocks was that they were supposed to be from the 1850s or 1860s--nothing about pattern or colors or anything. I glanced at the unfinished tops and although they didn't look quite that old to me, I don't know much about fabric-dating so I shrugged, again warned whatever kid took them from me to be careful, and moved on.

When I got home, the quilts were sent up to my sewing room while the rest of the car load went to the basement. I was far too exhausted to even think about the quilts anymore that night--I just commented to Chris that I thought I'd probably finally found the mystery quilt and blocks, and then didn't pursue it any further.

The next day, though, I planned to do some sewing--which necessitated moving the quilts which had now been stacked all over my cutting table and surrounding floor. I decided to check them out before I moved them, and started pulling them out of the bags. The first to be opened was the crazy quilt. Yep, definitely an antique crazy quilt, so that mystery was solved. Found it! However, Mom hadn't included any further documentation in with the quilt so I still didn't know if it was actually hers or not.

Next, I flipped open one of the unfinished pieced tops. Huh. Very strange pattern. Could it have been 1850s? Possibly, but I wasn't quite feeling it. Still trying to be optimistic, though, I decided that maybe I wasn't understanding the documentation correctly and the blocks weren't supposed to be that old, or maybe I was just way off in my very little knowledge of fabric dating. I dubbed it the "Paramecium quilt" (The applique pattern is truly unique). The second unfinished pieced top was more attractive--a variation on a Dresden Plate. Still didn't look old enough to me, but hey, what do I know? Neither top had any documentation on them at all.

The next quilt I opened was finished--a beautiful Lone Star. Clearly hand quilted. I had no idea of the age of this one because it's all solid fabrics (prints are easier to date), but Mom had pinned an index card to the side of it that simply said "Antique Lone Star." OK, well, thanks, Mom. I could've figured that much out! No indication of the age or the maker.

Next, a huge--HUGE--and extremely heavy quilt that's appliqued tulip blocks. Very cute, and to me it looked definitely 1930s. I've seen enough 1930s reproduction prints to have a pretty good sense of that time period, and the fabrics weren't new enough to be repros. No documentation.

Finally, I pulled the last quilt up to my cutting table and flipped open an edge. Oooh. Pineapples. One of my favorite designs. Clearly hand-quilted. Wow--look at that quilting--wonderful! I felt myself start to get a little choked up as I opened the quilt further and began to take in the full effect of the pattern. It's gorgeous. Here I am, someone who has never been an afficianado of antique quilts per se, and I was very swiftly falling in love. I kept flipping it open and scootching it around on my cutting table, and suddenly came across another pinned label in Mom's handwriting. This time, the label was from the Big Tree Quilt Conference--Mom had obviously displayed this at one point. The label read: "Name: Thistle Quilt. Maker: Mrs. Bixby. Year: 1891. Owner: Shirley DeMott--Shirley's great-great-grandmother."

I burst into tears.

Stuffed in the back of a closet, hidden from view and nothing Mom had ever mentioned to me that I could recall, was this beautiful piece of my family history. An antique quilt from the 1890s? You've got to be kidding me. Mom--why hadn't you told me?

I grabbed the antique quilts and layed them all out on my bed so I could see them better, then ran to find every family member in my house at the moment and dragged them upstairs to see what I had found. I still choked up every time I looked at the pineapple/thistle quilt. We looked for signatures or any indication whatsoever of who had made the unlabeled quilts, to no avail. Later that night, I called my Mom's best friend Margie and asked her if she knew anything about these quilts. She remembered that my Aunt Jean had given Mom two of them--they were family quilts. Since Mom never bought an antique quilt to the best of my knowledge, my only assumption can be that they're all family quilts (except the crazy quilt).

I called Aunt Jean (Mom's older sister) next. She had owned the tulip quilt and the pineapple/thistle quilt--she'd inherited it when their grandmother, Grandma LaBelle, had passed away. She'd used the tulip quilt on her own bed and the pineapple/thistle quilt had been on my cousin's bed. She'd given them to Mom when she moved to Florida. She said that Grandma LaBelle had made the tulip quilt, but had no more information on the pineapple/thistle quilt than what Mom had put on the label. She knew nothing about the other quilt or pieced tops. I also called my Aunt Ginny (Mom's younger sister). Aunt Ginny didn't know any more than what I'd already been told, although she mentioned to me in a later conversation that Aunt Flo and Aunt Lea (Grandma LaBelle's sisters) had also been quilters, although Aunt Lea less so, apparently.

I decided at that point to take all of the quilts to a quilt appraiser--not so much for monetary value, although we probably needed to know that for the estate--but I really wanted to know what time period they came from to see if I could figure out what relative may have made them.

The results of the appraisal? That'll be the next blog entry lest this turn into a novella!

It's finally done!

After weeks of pressing and folding, cataloguing and sorting, and eventually building a new shelving system and having my other shelves reinforced and bolted to the wall (!), my sewing room is finally usable again! Now let's just see if I can keep it looking this way.

I used Rubbermaid's "Homefree" series of adjustable wall-mounted shelves for the fabric, if anyone's curious. Perfect for what I needed, and easy enough to repurpose things from shoe and tie storage to yardage and strip storage! Note that my fabric is sorted by the ROYGBIV system (kinda sorta). We'll see how that works for me. Strangely, even though I'm feeling slightly overwhelmed by the amount of fabric I now have in my stash, I look at it and realize I'm still only at a fraction of what Mom had. Someone told me once, "That's because she had 30 years to accumulate." I'm not sure that explains it. I've had 10 and I only had a significant jump in size last month! I suspect it has more to do with expanding to fill your available space--as in, nature abhors a vacuum. Mom had a basement, so she filled a basement. I have these shelves. That's it. Something comes in, something has to go out.

OK, so to point out a couple of nifty little features of the Shelving System Remix. Note in the second picture the hanging rods at the bottom--nice place to drape my UFOs to keep them slightly more wrinkle free! (And to hide the bins stacked behind them--nice side effect.)

Note the two canvas pull-out drawers normally meant for scanty unmentionables. (Well, my unmentionables aren't particularly scanty, but that's a different kind of blog altogether.) The top drawer holds my entire fat quarter collection--what used to be tightly crammed in two fairly large plastic bins. Woohoo! The second drawer holds my jelly roll and accumulated 2 1/2" scrap strip collection. Another woohoo! Some of those were in a plastic bin, some were just stacked wherever I could find room on the old shelves. Much more enjoyable to look at now. Most of those jelly rolls are from Mom--she must have hit a sale because I found an entire shipping box full of them in her sewing room. I'm sorry she didn't get to enjoy having them. They're like candy.

And this final picture was my last Remix brainstorm--the pull-out tie and belt rack makes a great place to sort strips when I'm working on a project! Well, OK, we'll see how often I use it. But it's a fun thought.

So--my cutting table is finally cleaned off, my sewing table will be shortly (just a random collection of scraps I have to deal with), and I have plenty of elbow room. I'm good to go!

Just a Spoonful of Sugar...or Something

I could really use a spoonful of sugar right now...or maybe something a little stronger. Or Mary Poppins just waltzing in and clicking her fingers. Yiminies.

My sewing room has descended into complete chaos at this point. I had been making such good progress on the fabric; my shelves were looking more orderly, I could move from one end of the room to the other with only having to sidestep a couple of stacks of books and one 8' table holding the fabric-in-waiting.

But I realized my wall-mounted set of shelves that holds the quilt library would soon be going the way of its matching set of shelves that holds my work library--early last summer, that set of shelves threw itself out of its anchors and onto the floor with a very dramatic crash, splintering of wood, and not a few choice words flying out of my mouth once my heart had returned to it's correct anatomical position. Fortunately, no animals or humans were near enough to get hurt, although I did have to jump in and very carefully pull some books off precarious positions lest it rip more of the wall out as the rest of the shelves came down. With only a few minor bruises and cuts, I saved the rest of the shelves and restacked everything, and then got on the phone to a handy-person I'd worked with on Mom's house. "HELP!," I sent up the flare. He and his son came about a week later and described the best possible fantasy for me at that point--sturdy shelves that would hold all the books I need and stay exactly where they were meant to stay. Woohoo! And fix it he did.

So now that I knew I was probably doubling the weight of my quilt library, I figured that set of shelves could probably use some reinforcing as well--especially since (like the first shelves) they had NEVER looked entirely level to me but I'd figured it was some optical illusion. Nope--neither set was level. And they'd been professionally installed, too. Go figure. Steve measured this current shelf for me and realized that the center had sunk down and pulled the bottom a good 1/4" out of whack. So yes, those shelves were probably counting the days until they could also leap to their death. But he'll work his magic on them as well.

That being said, DH and I joke that these are now probably the most expensive sets of shelves we have ever owned. And no one but family sees them! But hoo boy--our house could get swept away in a flood and those shelves would still be exactly where they were supposed to be.

Steve is coming in probably starting tomorrow so I had to remove everything from on and around the shelves and find places to stack it. And this is the same week that I plan on changing out my current stash shelving to a different set of wall-mounted shelves (I have high hopes for the Rubbermaid "homefree" series!). So my sewing room will continue to get completely trashed before it gets better.

Just so you can be on the journey with me, here's some pics of where we're at at the time of this writing

It starts out so neat and organized at the top of those shelves, and then turns ugly as you get towards the floor.

The table pulled in for temporary staging as I move everything around. Can't wait to get that puppy back down to the basement were it belongs again.

The offending shelves in question. They look so innocent in this picture--but notice how far away from the door trip they are on the top, and then look at the same spot on the bottom. Definitely not a great install! Keep your fingers crossed that this set of shelves works as well as the last one does, and that my own shelving experience later this week goes smoothly and is the shelving system of my dreams!

Progress!

Teals and blues are now done!

And I've decided I need to completely reconfigure the shelving to hold it. I'll be shopping for one of those wall-mounted do-it-your-self shelving systems this week. I guess it's worth the money for the shelving to hold all the free fabric.

I had a good chuckle when one of my non-sewing sisters looked around Mom's quilt studio at one point, before we'd started taking anything, and said, "Wow. I guess Mom had a few hundred dollars worth of fabric, eh?" You should've seen how wide her eyes got when I corrected her, "Try a few thousand." You know it's more than a hobby when you look at the price tag. :-)