A Picture-less Post. The Best I Can Do For Now

I dropped my computer off last week and I'm still waiting to hear back. Getting a little panicky, but trying to be optimistic. It is a busy time of the year. For today I confiscated my husbands laptop. Desperate times call for desperate measures and if you know me and laptops, well... I have this thing about laptops because they don't make sense to me. I'm always losing the cursor, getting stuck in capslock hell--weird things like that. Been lurking on my little tablet, but some things won't load. Like my Quilty 365 linkup. And how annoying is that?

I want to respond to everyone who linked up to me, catch up on my blog reading etc.  On the other hand, I've been trying to relax and go with the flow as well as I can. So I don't have my precious computer. You won't believe how much time that frees up for me! I have been hand quilting, making decisions about different ongoing projects and I even got my baby quilt sewn together and ready for machine quilting. Aha! I might make my twelve-finished-quilts-a-year-goal yet!

I've also been sick with a nasty head cold and trying to get things ready for Christmas. The tree has been on our front porch since last Saturday and I'm only a third the way through my gift buying. Where oh where has this month gone? Hopefully, hopefully I'll get my computer back soon and post some of those quilty pictures you want to see instead of all this wordy gunk. Apparently I just don't have what it takes to do it from this computer. Honestly, I did try.

Are you still staying up with your circles? I am, amazing at it is to me although early this week it was touch and go. When your head hurts nothing feels very important. Okay, enough blathering for now. Got to get busy for company coming in this weekend and round up those Christmas tree ornaments before my kids stage a sit-in......

Dutch Comfort

Dutch Comfort is done. Finishing up this quilt has brought a lot of what I've been thinking on lately to a forefront. I started this quilt back in June of 2011. It was a tough year. Thankfully I didn't realize that things would get even tougher before they would start getting better again.

Dutch Comfort in the sunlight

If I would have thought to have a word for last year, it would have been 'undefeated'. Sometimes you have to get down to the very bottom and rise above to understand where your strength is, and now I understand a lot more about that. Not dismissing God's help in my life one single iota, I look at this quilt and wonder how much my love for quilting has helped me through these hard times in our life. It's so incredible to think that this thing of beauty was conceived during such very difficult times.

Dutch Comfort

I'll be blunt for a moment here. We almost lost our house, our business and for sure it affected our marriage and our family. But we survived and maybe we're even the better for it. I know my quilts are. They've kind of absorbed the roller coaster of my emotions into something tangible and lasting--something sweet and positive.

A little closer look at Dutch Comfort

I feel even more affinity for the ones that stitched away on their little bits of loveliness hundreds of years ago, cherishing their moments of beauty in a sometimes bleak life. And don't get me wrong, I've had lots to hang onto and appreciate about our life. Money isn't everything. I wouldn't trade my kids or my husbands smiles and happiness for anything in the world.

A closer look at the hand stitching--the backing
colors are richer in actuality than the picture shows

But I'm glad I decided to delve a little deeper into my fascination for quilting. There's nothing quite like it for clearing the mind of cobwebs and bringing important things about life into sharp focus. And I'm happy to see for sure (as I work through the final stitching of these quilt tops that came together during these past three years) that I never did give up. Not on life or on hope. The proof is in the fabric, the piecing and the stitching. Oh I still have a stack of quilt tops to work through, but I'm not afraid of what they might say. I remain undefeated.

Long Post About Quilt Show Thoughts

Here are some of the quilt show pictures from last Saturday. Unfortunately, not all the quilts photographed well so I won't be posting those pictures.  As I looked at the pictures and thought about what I have accomplished, I considered too, where I want to go with my quilting.  I believe that I am a much better quilter than I was when I started (duh!) but that I don't want to stop here and just coast along.  If (you know, THE BIG IF) I could just figure out how to express my personal spirit and energy through my quilts, I would start to feel very accomplished.*wink

Spumoni (blended Bunny Hill Design & Blackbird Designs patterns)

One of the things I did when I first started quilting was to make a long list of every single thing that attracted me to any particular quilt.  I flipped through tons of books and magazines and noted down the elements that I zeroed in on, such as log cabin quilts.  It didn't matter if a log cabin quilt was purple (my least favorite color), I stopped and took a long look.  Bingo.  Log cabin patterns went on the list, not purple.  It helped me to work through the learning stages of quilting.  It also greatly helped in keeping my focus on making the kind of quilt that spoke to ME on many levels.

Mellow Log Cabin (from a picture in a Weeks & Ringles book)
Incidentally, this has a lot of purple in it!

The interesting thing is, as I keep quilting through the years, I notice that I hit 'dry spells' in creating quilts that I'm truly happy with.  Surprisingly, the quilts I'm often most pleased with are a result of a challenge of some type or another.  They are usually immensely frustrating to me at some point (or maybe all the way through) and cause me to constantly question what I'm doing.  Properly implementing my ideas from start to finish is something that I'm still working on all of the time.  I don't always get it right either.

Be Thankful on left (Pat Sloan pattern, changed the colors)
Crazy Sunflowers on right (tried to reproduce a quilt I saw in a quilt shop in my own colors)

I have thoroughly enjoyed my constant contact; ie: inspiration with the on-line quilt blogging world.  When bloggers post pictures from quilt show that I'm never going to be able to attend, I am immensely thankful to them for taking the time to share.  I especially love pictures of antique quilts as that is my greatest love and where I feel that I draw the most inspiration even when I don't fully understand the why's of it.

I read something today over at Material Obsession that really caught me attention with all that's been on my mind.   'Participants wallow in the slow processes of applique and hexagons full of the elements of design necessary to make original, heartfelt quilts that resonate with personality.  They produce the kind of quilts we all swoon over because they are full of the discovery of self expression that comes from making a multitude of choices regarding fabric, shape, pattern and form and from taking the time to do it properly.'  

Prairie Vine (Quilt Sampler pattern with some added Blackbird Designs & Sue Spargo elements)

Ta-da!  She was talking about a favorite class that involves hexagon work along with other applique, but I think it's time to make me another list.  It wouldn't hurt to readjust the direction in which I'm headed instead of blithely jumping from project to project.

Sawtooth Stars of Friendship (basic antique quilt design with friendship blocks)

I can definitely see that I have to keep challenging myself.  For instance, there's this picture of a quilt that's been on my wall for over a year now.  Instead of playing it safe and buying that gorgeous and incredible pattern over at Collector With a Needle (like I really, really want to do), I think I would be better off pushing myself to reproduce the original quilt in my own way, with my own fabric choices, with the changes I make for all the reasons I personally make changes.

Our House (Indygo Junction pattern with change-ups)

Like I said, not all of my ideas come out the way I envision them in my head.  And just for your information, 'Our House' looks way better in person.  (I think it's the hand quilting that adds so much, and which you can't see very well in the picture!)

For The Birds (Miss Rosie's Quilt Co. pattern with Whimsicals & Gwen Marston elements)

I know these are little changes and little differences from the original creation, but it feels good to make a quilt 'your own'.  Now I need to to do more of it and learn to do it better.....

The Rabbit Hole

What I could have been doing

Wow!  I am supposed to be getting ready for our annual church campout this weekend and instead I've been happily clicking away at all the entries for the Bloggers Quilt Festival.  I think I only missed out on a few.  So fascinating to see what's been happening out there in quilt land lately!  And yes, ahem! like one blogger said, (somewhere on one of those hundreds of blogs I landed on) it's like I fell down the rabbit hole this week.  The time is forever gone to me.  The only regret I have is this.  I now have the words 'Kona Snow' embedded in my brain.  Puh-leeze.  It's WHITE.  I can sue Kona for genius marketing can't I?  Can't I?  It's like the McDonalds cup of coffee fell into my lap and it's too hot.  Somebody needs to pay for this.*wink

Sharing Quilting Space With Children

I should have took pictures, still not sure why I didn't.  Last week I spent about two days shoveling out the inside of my house for some of my husbands family to come visit over the weekend, then today I had to clean up the tornado that resulted from their visit.  The picture that would have been priceless was all the Nerf gun darts decorating my quilting 'area'.  My youngest son knows it's OFF LIMITS TO KIDS AND OTHER UNAPPRECIATIVE HUMANS , but for some reason visiting children like to make themselves very comfortable back there.  So why does it always shock me to find weapons of destruction nesting among my scrap fabric, totes of projects and other quilting paraphernalia?  Seriously, what was I thinking when I decided to share quilting space with children?

Time For a Tune-up

My trusty Bernina  (my work horse) is going to be out of action for a little while--a very unsettling situation to me.  What am I supposed to do with this?

I know, I know. There is always the hand work for which I profess to enjoy.

 Including this lovely quilt needing much hand quilting.

And these crazy little baskets some sadistic person thought would be a wonderful long-term project.  Oh wait!  That would be me.  What I should do is take advantage of the opportunity to clean my quilt room from top to bottom and do some reorganizing.  It's just that, when my sewing machine is MIA, I suddenly have urges to do some chain piecing or something else involving a foot pedal.  Go figure.

I Have More Scraps Than I Used to Have Fabric

As you can see, this scrap basket has lost it's inclination to cooperate with me....

I made a little trip upstairs this evening to re-acquaint myself with my good friend, the quilt room.  'Scrap Republic' has got my mind simmering with half-baked ideas for possible solutions to my uncontrollable scrap heap.  I used to cut everything into 2 1/2" or 1 1/2" strips for future log cabin quilts, but that lost it's appeal a few years ago.  Lately I have been mostly gleaning the choice pieces of fabric for applique odds and ends, then just leaving the rest to look pretty over there in the corner.*snicker  How can I possibly nag at my husband about his messy collections (with a clear conscience) when I have this particular situation going on in my own corner of the world?

Pure Therapy

Sometimes life gets so busy and complicated that I feel like someone let a hive of bees loose inside my brain.  Everything gets sort of foggy on the outside because of the constant buzzing inside my head.  Do this, do that, don't forget about such and such, is this child really doing okay? are we really already out of milk again? blah, blah blah.  I'm a worrier in case you didn't catch that.*wink  I finally had a couple hours tonight to sit down again and do some hand quilting and wow! did I need that time.  (I say 'finally' because it felt like it's been forever, which okay, I KNOW is not true.)  The husband and I chatted for awhile until he got bored with me and fell asleep in his recliner, but I just kept on a quilting--needle in, needle out.  This is probably the sloppiest quilting job I've done in years because I keep zoning out on the details of my quilt while I'm processing the myriad details of my life, but WHO CARES?  I'm about to move on to the third partially used spool of thread (not an exact match), which I would never have done even three years ago.  Am I losing my high ground of quilting expectations?  Maybe.  Mostly I just think that I'm just giving myself permission to use this quilt for pure therapy. I remember reading one of Mary Lou Weidmans' quilting books years and years ago about how much quilting she got done during the teenage years of her kids life.  I think I'm starting to understand.  I wonder if I'll look at the quilts finished during this time of my life and be reminded of our roller coaster days of (hopefully) yore.  Hmmm, is pink fabric actually code for crazy, unrelenting days of dealing with teenager demands +/- moodiness on a severely reduced household budget (hey, I still own the same couch I bought used just before my 15 yr. old was born) during a era of 'it's really scary to be self-employed'????

Dealing With Disappointment 101

The best way (that I've found) to deal with disappointment is DIStraction. We always, always head to the coast on the 4th of July except, apparently, this year. No moolah, too many bills and wow! have you figured out what a tank of fuel costs these days? Which is why I'm disappointed. Which is why I started a new project. So far I'm falling for it in all it's beachy florals and calm, soothing, yellow golds. May the force be with me. Or whatever. I really, really don't want to cry today.

Frazzled Nerves

I am getting totally cranky. Why is it that quilting gets put on the back burner around this time of year? Aggghhh!! We have all the end of the school year stuff to wrap up, our camping trip (which was cold, but great fun), business stuff starting to overflow on my desk, and just the general craziness of having a family. I confess I wouldn't trade it for anything, but a little hand quilting would definitely soothe my frazzled nerves.:)

Reasoning it Out

My daughter has a sign in her bedroom that says 'If you follow the crowd, you might get lost in it'. Sometimes it seems that the most popular quilting ideas floating around on the Net tend to get this mindless sheep thing going on. If we aren't careful to look at the roots of why people do the things they do, use the fabric they use, and feel so personally creative about it all, we can follow them right off the cliff, so to speak. Or we can sit in perennial judgemental critique mode and question their intellect.:) I like it when people speak up about the Reasons behind the direction they're currently taking in quilting. Ahem, look no further than the mirror on the wall. I may be an ordinary, every day quilter with a fondness for scrap fabrics, but I also have a streak of frugality, a constant urge to challenge myself, and a love of the 'Country Living' style of quilts mixed with a healthy dose of beach cottage quilts. May I find myself before I dive over the cliff with the rest of the sheep.*wink

The Little Quilt Top That Could

I am actually starting to like this quilt again--shock shock! It always humbles and amazes me how quickly the quilting stage can add new life to a quilt top that seems almost hopeless. The blue fabric was something I quickly fell in love with at the quilting store (2 yrs. ago?) and made an on-the-spot decision to purchase enough to be a focal point in a smallish quilt. Then, for reasons that only I can even begin to fathom, I decided that the dark reddish fabric (hideously ugly, old and languishing away in the bottom of my fabric totes, probably the sum total of my decision making for that day) would be a good background fabric for my basket blocks. I'm not sure I was thinking much of anything beyond, wow! beautiful fabric.*smirk I enjoyed making my baskets, the quilt top went together in a big hurry and the border was ridiculously easy to put on. Quilt Top Done! Acckkkk!!! It somehow did not meet my rather grandiose expectations of true brilliance. So, I hid it away with my other quilt tops until this spring when I wanted a quick little quilt top to put in the hoop. I've been hand quilting on it rather reluctantly, begrudging every moment of time I spend on this hideous little quilt until somehow it snuck into my heart AND aw shucks, I'm actually starting to like it just a little bit in spite of myself. The hand quilting, in all it's imperfections, is bringing texture to the quilt and perhaps some old fashioned goodness. It may be just that, as I sit up hand quilting into the late evening, I'm putting my worries, cares and stresses into this little quilt top and it helps me cope with another day. That has value to me. It makes me hesitate to be so dismissive of a quilt that doesn't quite measure up....

Don't Want to be a Guilty Quilty

Oh, I just hate this whole recession thing. It is totally messing with my ability to quilt virtually guilt free. I have a chance to go to the big city today and then because of the Very limited amount of money in my wallet, I will have to make big choices. Do I buy new underwear (desperately needed) for my children? A new shirt/jeans (wouldn't that be refreshing) for me? Or fat quarters (my life blood) for a new project? Grrrr, I really, really miss 2008.

Looking for the Interesting Quilt Blogs

I admit to spending waaay too much time looking for interesting quilting blogs. Frequent posting is good, pictures are great and interesting dialogue is The Bomb. I love and adore reading about issues, decisions, quirks, loves, hates and all the other stuff that comes along with being 'creative' in our fast paced and over-commercialized world. This latest craziness about 'dumbing down of quilting' just opens up another window into the personalities of other quilters. Why do we quilt? What are we trying to do? Are there any like-minded quilters out there in the blogosphere? Fascinating reads when you stumble onto it. I'll catch a blog three times a week if I find it intriguing, no matter what types of quilts are produced by the author. I'm sure I'm not the only one.*wink

Problems

I have this problem. I start out with a perfectly good pattern and then I decide to change it. Personalize it. Make it better. Then I get to a point where I am disgusted that I have a square quilt top and can't figure out how to make it longer than it is wide without totally ruining everything. Hello? Did I not see the quilt pattern before I started cutting everything out? I do this so often that I should be amused or at least more proficient about fixing the problem. hehe

Baby Quilts

I have two baby quilts I need to get started on. One needs to be finished by the end of this month and the other should be finished by April. Hmmm.... I have the fabric all picked out and ready to go for both, but I need to figure out a pattern. Baby quilts are so simplistic and fun that this shouldn't be a problem, unless I'm overthinking things. Am I? A small quilt doesn't need a complicated pattern or a fancy bunch of fabrics to be both charming and sweet. Which is really all I ever expect.:)

Just One More Quilt

I think during my first several years of quilting I was Very easily influenced. If I read a book that heavily discouraged using sashing, I suddenly developed an aversion to sashing. If I read a book that pushed pieced borders as the only civilized way to quilt, I decided borders were necessary for each and every quilt I finished. Now that I've settled into my adult years of quilting (lol!) I am trying to figure out my own personal style and what it is that interests Me. (Peer pressure gets me every time.*wink) Hmmmm, you know I think it varies depending on what reason I'm making the quilt, the fabrics chosen, who I'm making it for and all sorts of other reasons---and that's okay. Really, really, seriously OKAY. Why should someone else be allowed to dictate what is appropriate and acceptable for me and my quilts anyway? I am slowly trying to debunk all these RULES that are lurking around in my head. It's such a trial too. I have to keep proving my theories by making just one more quilt. And then maybe just one more after that....

Things I Know About Me

Just an odd little thought process I was having the other day. Things I know about me and quilting: I am a finisher--UFO's haunt me. I don't like to work on a quilt beginning till end--I like to break it up and have stopping points. I work better when I'm working on 3 or 4 or 6 quilts--all in different stages of being finished. I'm not a perfectionist--until I am, suddenly and with great attitude. I keep returning to the idea of a red/cream or tan and blue quilt every couple years--not sure why but they seem to be a calming influence. My 1/4" seams continually fail me when I'm in the zone. I use brown in almost every quilt--even when I don't intend to. Pure white fabric makes me very nervous--it's too bright and 'blank slate' all at the same time. Old, imprecise and make-do quilts make me almost weep with pleasure. Modern quilts intrique me greatly--but I don't really want to make one (do I?). One fabric borders make me almost crazed from irritation when I hand quilt them. And I'm sure there's tons more I can come up with if I tried. It's so interesting to figure out my quilting personality. lol!