I Did It. My Way.

We've already established that reading pattern directions is my kryptonite. Even when I was making dresses and blouses for Home Ec I needed help translating arrows and darts. The fact that my mother was a pretty accomplished "sewist" didn't help matters because she was left-handed and (to me) did everything upside down and backwards.

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I wanted a purse made from my treasured stash of Japanese fabrics.  I knew how I wanted it to look, and I knew I had all the hardware and fabric and fusible fleece to do it.  I even had the right size hexagons to paper piece the top part so I dove right in and then spent an inordinate amount of time ripping it apart.  Ironically - I understand purse construction SO much better that now I might actually be able to tackle reading a pattern!

When I made this I tended to put pieces together and then say, "Hmm, I should have put those snaps in before I joined the 2 pieces together."  I honestly think I made a purse upside down and backwards.  While I don't think Mom would be proud,  it is finished.  I might need to remake one of the snap-in inserts, I got so caught up in stippling that the finished insert might be too heavy for the purse.  I was always so afraid to stipple but I'm finding it can be very Zen-like.  (It's also quite a workout for your upper arms, let me tell you!)  I have no explanation for my obsession with pockets other than to admit I have a fantasy of presiding over a completely organized purse. I bought a special zipper for the topmost closure - just in case those pockets get overstuffed and unseemly, I can zip the whole thing shut and no one will know.

I'd say it came out about 85% like what I wanted, and I might up that percentage after using it for a while. Think I'll move into it and give it a test drive next week.  But YAY, I finally (after years of waiting) did it!

Christmas in the Garment District

We were given the most wonderful Christmas gift from a dear friend - 3 days in Manhattan (last week) to do the Christmas "thing" in the Big Apple.  I have not been to New York in ages and I must say things were different, but mostly in a good way.  It was much cleaner, much more polite (I know!) and had a much heavier police presence.  We had unseasonably warm weather, the kind that continues today and reaaaally harshes my Christmas buzz.  I like snow and at this time of year I want a little frosty.  We won't be able to use the fireplace on Christmas because it will be too warm. How messed up is that?

As for the trip we did the usual touristy things (and a few OMG things) and had a ball.  Joe had never been to the Empire State Building so we timed a late-afternoon visit to avoid the lines. SCORE.  We went right up and had a good look at the most amazing city on earth.  The lobby of the ESB was just restored to it's breathtaking art deco magnificence; it  was like being in a movie.  Rockefeller Center was decked to the 9's and full of skaters, shoppers and tourists. All good things led to lunches and we went full throttle on a few places, including the Stage Deli.  There is nothing like a great NY deli. Bonus - you aren't hungry for a full week afterward. Oy.

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The highlight of my trip was breaking my Garment District cherry.  I've wanted to go forever and decided this was the trip. (Note to self - leave the guys at a deli & Lionel Train store while I do my thing.)  I was only able to get to 2 places, B&J Fabrics and Mood Fabrics, but both were fantastic.  I found the most beautiful selection of Liberty of London tana lawns and I treated myself to two of them to be used in a future project that must be found UTTERLY worthy.  The big score came when my good buddy (whose name I can't remember) dove through piles of rolled bolts and helped me secure just the thing for my long-unfulfilled fantasy.  I've always wanted a dressing gown - a circa 1920's fabu thing that you see in movies. (Ashley Judd wore one in DeLovely and it was stunning.)   I have looked for one for years in every brick and mortar and online store I could find.  Even the fabric was impossible to obtain. The closest I came was a place that had a good embroidered faux silk Shantung done in a very passable... polyester. (I'm a champagne girl on a beer budget.)  I'd pretty much given up hope when I found a silk Shantung that was swweeeeet. It is light as air and has the most beautiful (tho impossible to accurately photograph) Nile green color, and since I needed a lot I  managed to negotiate a price I could live with. (I knew being married to a Sicilian would pay off someday. ) Likewise for the satin, which will be used to trim sleeves, pockets and a wide, lovely collar.  Oh sigh.  It really is Christmas! It will probably be next Christmas before I'm swishing around the house wearing it, but by then Joe will have found a proper chaise lounge for Madame to recline upon while she plays upon her iPad.  It could happen.

The Mystery of the Bernina Walking Foot

HELP!  I've got this thingie that has another thingie and I can't for the life of me figure out how this should fit on my Bernina 1090 and operate as a walking foot.  Even the good people at @berninausa can't seem to fathom how this thing works.  They said it fits the same way the new one does, but mine doesn't have a....um....."receptacle" for the machine to poke into. (Think male/female parts.)  Here are a couple of pictures I shot with my iPod touch (my digi camera is MIA....)

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Anyone have a clue?  ANYONE?  It has a little arm that should go up and down if it were somehow connected to something, but it doesn't have the little "claw" at the end of it to hook on to your needle bar.  It also has a long, l-shaped arm thingie that somehow hooks in to it and lets you use that to measure the distance between your quilting lines so you don't have to mark up your fabric.  I really want to use a walking foot in my quilting SOMEDAY, but I have no idea how this thing works.  I know my mom used it, but alas - that is one part of the enormous cargo of information that sailed when she did.  I've tried using my MOMStar but that doesn't work either. Maybe I'll make a vodka and Squirt and see if I can channel her.  (That reference was for my sisters. xxxx)

ANYONE?

Why Quilts Matter - to Me

As a museum (and quilt museum) professional, I have a major chip on my shoulder formed by years of friends and acquaintances dismissing what I do as not a "real job".  Tell people you work at a quilt museum and they tilt their head a little and say something like, "(pause...) Well....isn't that niiiiice! You must lovooooove it!" They act like it's just a big 'ol quaint, cozy sewing bee.  Let me tell you something - there is nothing cozy about it. We have layoffs, budgets, deadlines, evaluations and performance goals. We are dealing with decreasing revenues and increasing costs - AND we have to deal with the general public e-v-e-r-y day. Believe me, it's a real freakin' job.

I promised a review of this program and here it is. I really did not know what to expect when I popped a copy of Why Quilts Matter: History, Art and Politics into my DVD player. There are some quilts in the series from the collection of the New England Quilt Museum  (where I have my "pretend job") so we received an advance copy.   I was so afraid it was going to be all Sunbonnet Sue and ditsy prints and old grannies with their white hair in a severe bun at the back of their neck - or go on to reinforce other negative stereotypes about quilters.

BOY WAS I WRONG.

I was positively thrilled at how wrong I was.  Shelly Zegart has taken the quilting bull by the horns and put it all out there - the good, the bad, and the dicey politics. There are nine programs in this series, each featuring good scholarship and interviews with experts. These are interspersed with photographs, images of many beautiful quilts and some good b-roll of exhibitions and colorful locations.  I downloaded the nine episode guides to my iPad so I could follow along with the narration. When I saw a particularly beautiful quilt all I had to do was look down and see the name, maker, location, etc. Nice touch.

The best pat?  Oh, how I bonded.  I bonded with the Gee's Bend quilter who said, "When I finish the top I love it, and then when I take it out later to quilt....I get another breath of it."   I nodded knowingly when Shelly Zegart talked about how quilting is often dismissed as "just" the work of women or looked upon as a domestic chore - not an accomplishment or an art or craft. I stood up and cheered when Shelly took on The Sun Sets on Sunbonnet Sue, threw down about the MYTH of the Underground Railroad Quilts, and called out THE QUILT POLICE on their marginalizing hostility. I felt proud to be a quilter, I felt my peeps were finally getting some respect.

As a museum professional I especially enjoyed Episode 6: How Quilts Have Been Viewed and Collected.  There was a wonderful discussion of how quilts are appraised and evaluated (just because they are old doesn't mean they are priceless, people)  and what makes them historically important. It was so gratifying to see it put out there for all the world to see and learn what epic changes and the rise of authoritative scholarship that has come about in the past decades.  The existence of The Quilt Index is one shining example of the tremendous knowledge base that has been created. The database of over 50,000 quilts, essays, lesson plans, and images has become the preeminent starting point for quilt research and exhibit planning.  Let's not forget the mothership - The International Quilt Study Center in Lincoln, Nebraska.  I guarantee that if you visit their website and play with the Quilt Explorer you will look up 2 hours later and say, "WHAT? WHAT TIME IS IT?" There are numerous organizations that promote quilt scholarship and research. The American Quilt Study Group is one of the most preeminent of them, and I am proud to note they are also based in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Fair Disclosure: I was born and raised in Nebraska.  When I hear people disparage the fact that the IQSC is located in Nebraska I get a little sideways. I grit my teeth and nicely point out what a great idea it was to locate it in the CENTER of the country where everyone has equidistant access. I then take the opportunity to educate them about the outstanding textile studies programs in place there long before the IQSC was founded.  

Let's wrap it up: this program is well worth the purchase price.  Yes, you'll see it on PBS but you won't see it all because you'll miss an episode and you won't be able to realize the full impact of this production. It will move you, inspire you and enable you to carry your head a little higher. If we truly want to promote and continue the work, art and craft of quilting we need to make it a priority.  We need to support this kind of scholarship and PR  with our blogs, our actions, and our money.  Buy it from the Kentucky Quilt Project. Buy it from your locally owned quilt shop or from a museum.  Just be sure you share it with as many people, guilds, neighbors, townspeople, church groups as you can.  It is a wonderful production that will entertain, inform and enrich anyone who appreciates something truly beautiful.

Quilts really matter to me.  I've given up more financially rewarding job opportunities to do what I do.  I don't want to burn out for a corporation. I don't want to come home exhausted to benefit a bunch of faceless stockholders. Don't kid yourself - I come home burned out and exhausted all the time. My daily commute is a 100 mile round trip. The cost of gas is killing me. I do it because I want to be around this kind of art. I learn from my co-workers and visitors every day. I'm willing to do it as long as I can because I thrive on the emotion I have always felt when seeing a quilt for the first time. It never lessens. I have the curators trained to call me when they are opening boxes for the next exhibit.  I want to be with them and see them first. When I go upstairs to open or close the galleries I have my own private time with the quilts and it just. fills. me. up. I am inspired, I feel creative, and I feel proud knowing I use my daytime hours to care for, promote and share this art. I can then go home and use my talents (and what I have learned at work) to create my own beautiful quilts.

Quilts have always mattered to me. From my earliest childhood I have always felt and known hand-made objects to give off a sort of emotion, energy, karma - I'm not sure what to call it.  I feel it when I touch quilts made by others - especially old ones. They almost whisper to me. Willa Cather (another Nebraska girl) called it, "That irregular and intimate quality of things made entirely by the human hand." This quote says it best:

It took me more than twenty years, nearly twenty-five, I reckon, in the evenings after supper when the children were all put to bed. My whole life is in that quilt. It scares me sometimes when I look at it. All my joys and all my sorrows are stitched into those little pieces. When I was proud of the boys and when I was downright provoked and angry with them. When the girls annoyed me or when they gave me a warm feeling around my heart. And John, too.  He was stitched into that quilt and all the thirty years we were married.  Sometimes I loved him and sometimes I sat there hating him as I pieced the patches together.  So they are all in that quilt,  my hopes and fears, my joys and sorrows, my loves and hates.  I tremble sometimes when I remember what that quilt knows about me. 

Marguerite Ickis, quoting her great-grandmother in the book,  Anonymous Was a Woman, 1979, Mirra Bank, St. Martin's Press.

August Wool

The dog days of summer are here with a vengeance.  Living so close to the icy Atlantic used to mean an afternoon sea breeze that cooled things off to the point where you had to close a window at night.  Not any more.  I am a climate-change believer.  I used to have at least five or six summer weight cardigans I needed to wear in the evenings out here.  Now I'm slicing the sleeves off old t-shirts to find something cool enough to wear around the house.

In July and August we crank up our trusty R2D2 air conditioner in the family room and I haul down my embroidery floss basket, a tub of wool felt and start  cutting up birds, stars, ornaments and mug rug pads so I can embroider my little projects that I sell locally.  I've set up a corner of the room that now looks like a wooly tornado hit it - complete with splattered bits of color from the bits  of wool and knots of embroidery floss that get snipped off as I work.  I could clean it up every night after a session of sewing, but what is the point?  A sample of works in progress:

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There is always that bit of a re-learning curve that comes with taking up embroidery after a long break.  I fumble around trying to remember old stitches and sometimes invent new ones in the process. I get very frustrated that the work isn't spacing evenly until I hit my rhythm and I'm back in the groove.  Then I wonder why I ever stopped - hand sewing is the most relaxing thing (well, next to a cigarette and a martini but I had to stop  smoking years ago and you really should not #gdas).

BTW, I  highly recommend the "R2D2" style of AC for a single room use.  I've put up heavy (upholstery remnant) curtains in the 2 open doorways to the room so it stays remarkably comfortable.  Joe rigged up a little template so we can tuck the exhaust hose out one of our windows. The only other work is to make sure there is a bucket next to it because it needs to "pee" every 5 hours or so.  (We don't leave it on overnight.)  The water gets taken outside to the porch to water the flowers.  It's a win-win.

I wait until I have a bunch of them finished before I bag and tag them - it's a very gratifying part of the process.  My tag reads "MSQ" as a tribute to my mom who used to make and sell small quilts and table runners at our shop here in Gloucester.  Since her last name was Major, she tagged her products, "Major Stuff Quilts" - hence,  the MSQ on my label.  I like sewing in the evenings while we watch a movie, surf around the DIY channels, or just discuss (and solve) the world's problems.   Joe is always there to bounce ideas off of and give me solid tips on getting the most bang for my embroidery buck.  Best part  -  he really gets it about my sewing, quilting, etc. and that is a remarkably redeeming quality in a partner.

EDIT:  If you were wondering, #gdas is a Twitter  hashmark for a Friday evening TweetChat where spirited, earthy sewing enthusiasts pop a cold one and discuss projects, tips, good food, and whatever else strikes our fancy.  (The name Get Drunk And Sew tells you all you need to know.)

Conversations with My Departed Quilting Mother

I need to make a confession.  You see, I was the recipient of my late mother's  Bernina 1090 sewing machine and every time I sit down to sew........she starts talking to me.  Most of the time she is pretty quiet,  but quick to yell when I'm sewing over pins or winding the bobbin too fast (and not paying attention).   Lately we have had some interesting conversations.  Here is a sampling of what happened recently when I was going to make up some potholders for my own kitchen:

ME:  Okay, today I think I'll work on....

MOM:  With that thread?  The color isn't quite right.

ME:   I know, but I'm not in the mood to re-thread the machine and wind a bobbin and it's just a couple of stupid potholders that Joe will spill sauce on and it will be stained and besides shutup, I don't care.

MOM:   You know Joannie, you had that same attitude when you were trying to cover that cigar box with contact paper for your 4-H project when you were in 6th grade.

ME:   Jeez, Mom,  I can't believe you remember that.  I hated that project.

MOM:   It showed. The end result was you  got a white ribbon and I think they gave that to you out of sympathy.

ME:   Thanks for reminding me, Mom, that humiliating memory HAD vanished long ago.

MOM:     Aren't you going to measure that fabric?
ME:    No,  Mom,  it's a potholder.  It will be potholder-sized appropriate.  I like doing these things, no rules, no seam allowance

MOM: That is good, because you still have not mastered a consistent ¼ inch seam.

ME:   I know, I know.  How did you do it?

MOM:  I sewed about ten thousand of them.  That’s how you do it.

ME:   Well, thanks, anything else?
MOM:   You get too tense when you sew, your shoulders start hunching up and your neck gets stiff.  You have to relax, get in to the rhythm of it. You also have a lead foot, you need to slow down.  That machine has a button to keep you sewing at ½ speed you know, why don’t you use it?

ME:   Because I don’t have a lot of time to sew and I feel like I want to get a lot done.

MOM:   That’s good.  Get a lot done.  It will look like crap, but you’ll get a lot done. Would it kill you to put on some lipstick?
ME:   Mom, I’m home, no one sees me all day.

MOM:  So what’s your excuse on work days?  I never see you with lipstick. I never would have left the house without it.

ME:   I know. (Trying to continue sewing)   I’m 52, Mom, I’m not going to start now.

MOM:   Well then at least bite your upper and lower lips a little, that will give you some color…..

ME:   Yes, Mom.  I remember you doing that a lot.  I thought it was because you were angry.

MOM:   Well, most of the time I was mad at one of you kids, but I did it to keep my lips pink when I didn’t have a lipstick handy.

ME:   That’s nice, Mom.

MOM:   What is the  stuff you are putting in that potholder?
ME:   Well, I usually use squares from an old,  cut up mattress pad because  they are soft and thick, but this is a new product that is very thin but has a super heat-resistant layer.

MOM:    That’s nice. I’d put that on top of a square of mattress pad if I were you.

ME:    I was thinking about that……I’m not sure if I trust it.

MOM:    Listen to your Mother….

ME :   Okay, Mom, you’re probably right.
MOM:   No “probably” about it.   I am also right about your hair – why don’t you get that short cut you had when you finished high school?  That was your best haircut, it looked so nice.

ME:   Mom, that was 1976 and every girl had that Dorothy Hammill skater  haircut. I’m not going to get a haircut that is 34 years old and only looks nice when you spin around.

MOM:   OH Jo, you are so rigid sometimes.  You are so like your stubborn Scott(ish) father.

ME:    Excuse me? You don’t think this is from your Irish blood?
MOM:    Don’t be ridiculous.  And watch the binding there, you aren’t going to have a nice mitered corner if you sew too close to the edge and….

ME:    Damnit.  I went to far.  These are going to look like they were done when I was having a martini…
MOM:    Or two.  I don’t know how you drink those things.
ME:    I don’t know how you drank vodka and Squirt. That stuff was sour and vile.

MOM:    Vodka and Squirt was a lovely drink, and if you had 6 kids and a sick husband you would be pretty damn happy to enjoy one at the end of the day.

ME:   Oh, yeah, true, I don’t blame you.  How does this potholder look?
MOM:    Well, not bad. Maybe a red ribbon from the 4H judges.  I don’t know why you are worried about it, you should be working on one of those unfinished quilts.
ME:    I know, I know.  I just wanted to sew a little something and get warmed up.
MOM:  That’s my girl.  Now relax, slow down, and remember to get up and stretch once in awhile.

And that is pretty much how it goes.  I love sewing on her machine (it will always be her machine.) On the days I sit down to sew and don’t hear her voice I never sew as well.  I miss her terribly, and sewing at that machine is the time I feel closest to her.

I will often wear one of her old necklaces to work, and frequently wear a silver thimble keep on a long chain. Inside is her sewing thimble.  I like “taking her to work” with me, especially when we open a new exhibit.  I always hear her quilt commentary in my head.  (She swears more now that no one else can hear her.) Whenever I see paisley fabric fat quarters I pick them up and  think, “I’ll put these away for her birthday…” and then remember that I can’t give them to her anymore.  The realization still makes me weepy.

Then I think about it. The power of love continues to astonish me. Not even death can diminish or  alter the love between a mother and child.  If anything,  the love  has grown  stronger, wiser and is more nourishing.   I certainly keep learning from her, and I know I'm a better quilter because of her.

Thanks Mom – I love you, and heck - I love  your Bernina,  but mostly because it keeps me close to you. A girl never stops needing her mother. I promise to work harder on that 1/4 inch seam thing, too.

What Gives?

I'll tell you who gives -  Betty Londergan.  Her blog is called What Gives 365 and here is some insight on her thinking:

I’d been looking for a way to do some good in the world for a while but could never figure out exactly what to do – so I’ve settled on a random shotgun approach of giving to anything that rings my chimes –which hopefully will inspire other people to pry open their wallets and give as well. I’m using the money my dad left me to fund this venture – and since he and my mom were thrifty savers who were also passionate givers, it’s poetic justice that those hard-earned dimes and nickels will be passed along to good causes. Dorothy Mae would love that—and say that it’s about time I stopped buying so many darn shoes and did something for others.

Today she gives a shout-out to the New England Quilt Museum (yay!) by featuring a beautiful quilt from the collection, and gives props to the Quilt Index and the Alliance for American Quilts. It's a wonderful blog entry - just click on this link. Thanks, Betty!

Help, Please!

Please take a two second poll that will help enormously with a future project. THANK YOU ! ! !

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A Quilter's Confession

I'm still thumbing through Anonymous Was a Woman.  I pick it up often and every time  I find something wonderful to savor.  This is today's excerpt, and every woman who has made a quilt, mended a shirt or hemmed a pair of trousers knows exactly what this woman is talking about:

It took me more than twenty years, nearly twenty-five, I reckon, in the evenings after supper when the children were all put to bed. My whole life is in that quilt. It scares me sometimes when I look at it. All my joys and all my sorrows are stitched into those little pieces. When I was proud of the boys and when I was downright provoked and angry with them. When the girls annoyed me or when they gave me a warm feeling around my heart. And John, too.  He was stitched into that quilt and all the thirty years we were married.  Sometimes I loved him and sometimes I sat there hating him as I pieced the patches together.  So they are all in that quilt,  my hopes and fears, my joys and sorrows, my loves and hates.  I tremble sometimes when I remember what that quilt knows about me.

Marguerite Ickis, quoting her great grandmother,  from the book Anonymous Was a Woman, 1979, Mirra Bank, St. Martin's Press.

Food for Thought

Whatever you say,  do, create, paint, weave,  whatever --   this is today's food for thought:

I've been a hard worker all my life, but 'most all my work has been the kind that 'perishes with the usin'," as the Bible says.  That's the discouragin' thing about a woman's work....if a woman was to see all the dishes that she had to wash before she dies, piled up before her in one pile, she'd like down right then and there. I've always had the name 'o bein' a good housekeeper, but when I'm dead and gone there ain't anybody goin' to think  o'  the floors I've swept, and the tables I've scrubbed, and the old clothes I've patched, and the stockin's I've darned...But when one of my grandchildren or great-grandchildren sees one o' these quilts, they'll think about Aunt Jane, and, wherever I am,

I'll know I ain't forgotten.

Aunt Jane of Kentucky,  ca. 1900 - from the book Anonymous Was a Woman, 1979, Mirra Bank, St. Martin's Press.

BP - the Good One, Not the Evil One

I loves me a new exhibit opening, and this one is a beaut.

Contemporary Broderie Perse: An Elegant Revival

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Opening today at the New England Quilt Museum,  this is a contemporary take on a beautiful technique.  BONUS - the quilts from the permanent collection are of the vintage variety, so you get the best of both worlds!   This from our PR maven  Christina Inge:

Combining collage, fine appliqué, and fine quilting, broderie perse, also known as cut-out chintz appliqué, presents a high point in the art of quilting and deserves the admiration and attention of all who appreciate fine needlework.  The technique emerged in the late eighteenth century when chintz fabrics were very expensive and only the very wealthy could afford whole cloth bed coverings made from large pieces of chintz.  By cutting motifs out of a small amount of fabric, the quilter could rearrange them onto a large field of inexpensive plain cotton to imitate the designs on larger fabrics.  Plain cream or white fields filled by fine quilting surround the trees, floral sprays, wreaths, urns, birds, and baskets appliquéd with tiny whip, buttonhole, or reverse buttonhole stitches.  The style, which was very popular in the Middle Atlantic States and the South into the 1840s, largely disappeared after the 1850s. The exhibition, curated by Anita B. Loscalzo, presents 30 contemporary broderie perse quilts and several antique examples in order to familiarize viewers with the style and its history.

I'm still working on my little no-faux-bro but I think there is a workshop scheduled in October and I really should take THAT before I sit down and attempt this technique. (Especially after seeing some of these quilts up close - wowza!)

Monday Design Wall

Or, in this case, design bed.  Whatever.

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I thought I had finished my Christmas cathedral windows table runner slash thingie, but now that I look at them as a group  I realize  they do not  all "go" together.  One set is more shiny and gold-threaded than the other.  Who knew?  They all came from the same collection.  This means I'll be making two table runner slash thingies.  I can put one in the front hall under a big glass vase that I usually fill up with holly and cut greens, so that is easy.  The other can go on the dining room table or find a home somewhere else , it's not like there aren't  plenty of halls to deck around here at Christmas.  I just thought I was done - and I'm not! Back to the layer cake of holiday prints to find - and this time I'll pay more attention - the ones I need to complete the set(s).

My Bestest New Quilting Gadget

Okay I am not making this up.  Today I checked the caller ID on the phone and it gave the name of the place where my Bernina is being repaired.  The message light was blinking.  I hit the button, expecting to hear my baby was back and ready to be brought home.....and...... FAIL.  Evidently the repairman is going to go out on medical leave and so all repairs will be delayed for two more weeks.  Rats.  I feel really bad for the repairman - I can't imagine what would necessitate 2 week medical leave and I will certainly say a few prayers for a speedy recovery.  It's kind of a moot point - even if the Bernina was back, I wouldn't be in my sewing room in these temperatures.  It's freakishly HOT, day after day.

So lets lighten the mood with a website that will make many, MANY quilters very happy.  It's a wonderful site  by Incompetech Creative Industries. Check it out - it is fun to just play with and see what you can create.  This site will generate grids, graph paper, hexagons, circles - you name it, you can make it.  The finished product is a one click download of a PDF of your new file.  I chose to make a 1 inch square grid on 11 x 17 paper so I could lay out my cherry blocks.  I taped a few sheets together and have this WONDERFUL surface to lay out and align the cherries, play around with placement - it's GENIUS!   And it's  free!!  You can change the line weights and colors, too.

You're welcome!

Pressing Issues

I'm enjoying a bumper crop of hydrangea in the garden - this one is blooming for the first time in ages. When those orange day lilies open up at the same time the purple hydrangea get it going on, it is going to be spectacular.  Pictures in about 3 or 4 days, I think.

Well, I bombed out with the electricians but I made their day.  I'm glad somebody went home happy.  The fact of the matter is that with a window AC unit plugged in on a 20 AMP service, you cannot plug-in a Rowenta iron that sucks down 1700 jiggawats of power.  The guys did not believe that I "only" had an iron plugged in - they wanted to see what other ghost appliances I was using.   I took them upstairs to my sewing room and showed them the beast and the nice rack of clothes that were neatly ironed and waiting to be returned to the closet.  One of them said, "Wow - you iron?"  or maybe it was more like,  "WOW - YOU IRON!"  Either way, they were a little dumbstruck.   Apparently my iron is an energy hog.  Whatever - I love it. It's a "git 'er done" iron and I'm not going back to some sappy doofus girl-iron.  That's just how I roll.  I'll try to remember to unplug one when I want to plug-in the other. It isn't a monumental  pain, but that split second after I hit the "on" switch that powers up the iron and I think, "NNNNNnoooooooooooo" and realize all the sewing room and  bedroom clocks, vcr, etc. have to be reset.....again.... and I start exercising my vocabulary, if you know what I mean.

I shall console myself with the fact that it is only a problem 3 or 4 months out of the year and I can take the money I could spend on adding more power to the circuit box thingie and spend it on something important - like fabric, vodka, and lovely Eileen West cotton nightgowns.

Monday Design Wall

Today's projects have to be completely revamped - the electrician is on the way to make some changes in our service that would enable me to have an AC (window unit) running AND plug in my freakin' iron at the same time.  Novel idea, huh?  This house is 35 years old and appliances were not such energy hogs back then.

I'm not sure when he'll need to shut off the power but I'm going to have to find something I can do without irons or AC, not even a fan.  Since today's highs are in the mid 90's and the humidity is already about 83% I'm guessing it will be more of a challenge to stay sane than to come up with something to do during the blackout.  Looks like I'll be making more circles and embellishments for the Kitchen Saito project.  Esssh.  I hate summer heat....

The NASCAR of Quilting

The wait for the Bernina repair has begotten a  palooza-monster.  I've got enough cherries made for my wall hanging and I could stop - but I'm still in the zone.  By "in the zone" I mean I can whip a basting stitch around a 1 inch circle, yank it over a mylar template, pull the thread tight and cut the cord in record time.  Kind of  the equivalent of a NASCAR pit crew -  or maybe it's a rodeo calf roping thing - except I don't  pull the cord and jump up and throw my hands up in the air.  (Or yell, "Boogedy boogedy boogedy, let's go racing boys!")

Until I get the leaf pattern for Mrs. McGills Cherries drafted and cut, I wanted to keep going with this newfound talent.  I have some shades of solid purple  in my stash (for the day when I would appliqué a grapevine quilt I saw on Martha's Vineyard about 15 years ago) and that day has apparently arrived.  I'm now in the  purple-palooza zone.  My quilting Sherpa Debbie has schooled me on Mettler thread weights for appliqué and I have the background fabric all ready to go.

I'm feeling much less separation anxiety about the Bernina, too.

Again with the Cinderella Thing

This weekend is the Vermont Quilt Festival in Essex Junction, Vermont.  I have always wanted to go to this show but it is just far enough from where I live that an overnight stay would be necessary.  Since I work on  Saturdays and Sundays it is just not possible to make the trip. Rats.  Ironically, the museum I work for has a table up at the event where they get to meet and greet show attendees  all day.  That might not be so much fun (it's actually pretty draining)  but the opportunity to pop in and out of the show would make up for a lot!

There are some wonderful special exhibits which (by themselves) would make the trip a good idea. Add to that the superb quality and  number of entered quilts, the merchant's mall, and the proximity to the Shelburne Museum in Burlington, Vermont, and you have yourself a five-star weekend. I encourage any and all of you who are in the vicinity to make the trip. You won't be disappointed.

Cinderella must stay home, mind the museum, and leave the fun to others.  I guess I am ok with that, but it does make me wonder where the hell my Fairy Godmother has been lately.....

A Funny Thing Happened At Cherrypalooza

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So I'm working along, thinking I'll use yo yo's for the flower parts of the block and the authentic cherry appliqué circles for the "buds" part of the block when a strange thing happened. I made about 180 little yo yo's and was pleased to find I had developed blistering speed and accuracy in my yo yo-age.  Nice.  Then came the time to grit my teeth and begin the appliqué circles again.  Started, and failed.  Got some helpful advice from my quilting sherpa Debbie ("Starch the HELL out of them) .... and it worked!  None of this namby pamby 'brush the sides with a little starch' thing. Oh no.  STHOOT.  And it works.   So I started back in.....and the strangest thing happened.  I developed some serious technique.  I like doing them. The AC is on in the family room, so when I'm home I hole up there and sit and whip these things out. Then I run upstairs and iron/starch them, let them cool, pull the mylar templates out of them, and run back downstairs to cooler climes and do another batch.  It  rocks.  I'm close to having enough cherries and yo yo's to do  a 4-block wall hanging (a big one at that) done! The pictures above show them in the initial freezer paper cutting process and the ironing/flipping them over process. I press both sides.  PRESS. Not iron.  And I leave the little thread tails on them, it's cute and I can give them an extra tug when I finally pin them down to appliqué them on to the background fabric.

Here is the rub.  I think I could make a million of these little cherry things. Honest. I know I didn't get enough Kona Chinese Red to  do an entire quilt top.  Dye lots are sketchy - I doubt I could match the fabric, and I bought the last 2 and a 1/4 yards on that bolt.  The bonus?  I have a new-found talent and that makes me very happy. I will never again feel intimidated by a technique that is new to me, knowing that it really IS just a matter of careful repetition. The minute it clicks and you start exhibiting such skill is just magic.

Design Wall Monday

As the Bernina is still not stateside, my hand sewing projects are continuing with this is a bit of reverse cathedral windows done with a layer cake of Holiday Flourish by Peggy Toole at Robert Kaufman Fabrics. This was my trip treat from a recent visit home that was also an epic road trip.  I found this in St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin, where my sister lives.  I rarely (well, pretty much never) buy Christmas fabric but this collection was such a wowza I could not resist.  It seems a little decadent to use it for this particular block as most of the fabric gets chewed up in the process - but I don't care.  It's for Christmas and I'm willing to bend a little.

I'm still finishing the windows, but it is nice to take a break and rearrange them and see what a little gold star or silver snowflake looks like in the center. This will probably be a table runner or a mini-quilt for the table in the front hall.  It's also going to be reversible so I need to figure out what (if anything) to put on the 'plain' back side of things.

Oh yes - Cherrypalooza continues apace.  I'm still in love with that Kona Chinese Red fabric.

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Yo to the Yoyo - Yo to BP

Cherrypalooza is rapidly becoming yoyopalooza.  However, I have an interesting twist that might satisfy Grace AND enable me to retain my sanity,  so I got that goin' for me, which is nice.  The Bernina is still on its way to the motherboard repair shop, but I received a lovely postcard today:

This is a link worth checking out:  If It Was My Home shows you just how enormous the oil spill is by superimposing it on a map of where you live.  Like I needed something else to keep me awake at night - this oil spill is going to have such long-lasting and far reaching effects it makes my head explode.  And not in the good way.

EDIT: For some reason,  I have the uncanny ability to find typos and weejits AFTER I publish my blog update.  What is that all about?