Flickr-ing

I've been inspired by the little Flickr badges on several quilting sites to sign up. It will be a few days before my photo content is approved for publication (can you imagine having this editorial review job??), so I don't have the flashy badge. Until then, here's my Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/quiltingroom/.

Star(t) Quilt

I've been in pre- and post-defense land for the last month. On the day of my successful defense, my division leadership team surprised me with an extraordinary lunch. Then, my husband surprised me with a five day trip to NYC, where he surprised me the first morning at breakfast with a table full of friends who had also flown up for the long celebration, and then surprised me again at Tiffany's with a lovely silver bracelet engraved with my new academic title (Dr.) and the date of my defense. I surprised myself by agreeing to let a woman at a Macy's street fair paint my face like an aquarium filled with two kissing zebra-striped fish. My children surprised me by actually being interested in some works at MOMA. And, in line at Magnolia Bakery, the luminous Naomi Watts surprised me by being very cute and playful with my little roustabouts, so she is now my very favorite actress.

It took a while for everything to sink in--and it's still sinking. The honest-to-goodness page proofs for the first two chapters of my co-authored textbook arrived via FedEx yesterday, and it's an odd experience to see the words that flowed from my weary brain at all odd hours while I worked on this project made manifest in oh-so-professional form.

So, I've cleared the decks for new adventures. And, in one, I returned to the local quilting guild. Years ago I was guild vp and workshop chair, but I grew tired of herding the cats at both work and play . . . so I left. This time I've returned to be "just a member" and was delighted to find a few of the women I so admired still keeping time with the group. This should be fun. One thing I did at the meeting was applique--by hand!!--the first two stars of my online group's next small project quilt, Harvest Moon by Blackbird Designs:



It was actually very, very fun to make these stars, which is probably a good thing since I'll need 29 (!!) of them. It's my own peculiarity that I love seeing the raw edges become closed and smooth. I have the same feeling when I sew pieces together and bind a quilt. Closure! It's such a rare commodity everywhere else in my life.

I also ran around the blog-ring to catch up on everyone's work and was surprised to see that one of the group has dropped out. In her goodbye message, she wrote about the realm of art quilts and becoming a quilt artist. Her work is fantastic, creative, original, and wonderful, and she is without doubt an artist. But, aren't we all in some way? I am always a bit saddened and even a little angered when "art" becomes a divisor and when our creativity becomes tangled up in a reinscription of the high/low dichotomy that has historically kept women (among others) on the outside looking in.

My artistic tastes are quite catholic. I could sit for hours in front of a Holbein, de la Tour, Chagal, Matisse, Sargent, Kahlo, Rivero, Twombly, Bearden, Motherwell, Nevelson, Neel, and so, so many others. I grew up as an English grad student in the days when theory ruled the roost, so I cut my teeth on the intersection of aesthetics, textuality, and ideology, and can cleverly discourse on Kruger, Baquiat, and Holzer with the best of them. But, I've never been as gobsmacked by a work of art as I was when I stumbled on Liza Lou's shining force of fury and celebration, Kitchen, one day in Minneapolis or rounded the corner one rainy afternoon in DC and came across James Hampton's magisterial and poignant The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations' Millennium General Assembly. These are works that were most decidedly walled out of "art." Long before she was awarded the McArthur genius grant, Lou was essentially kicked out of the art academy for working with beads. And, the thought of Hampton working in unacknowledged quiet passionate reverence in his small garage on The Throne brings me to tears every time.

When the art/not art question raises its head, I always think back to these less-famous lines from Robert Frost's "Mending Wall":

"Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence."

I love the pun in that last line. I'm happy to stay on the side of the fence where my 29 hand applique'd stars sparkle with a comforting and joyful low art glow.

Aargh!

My son has a thing for pirates. When I say "a thing," what I mean is that he has memorized entire sections of dialog from Pirates of the Caribbean 1 & 2 and can deliver them in a mean Jack Sparrow imitation; he has enough swords to merit an official "sword basket"; he regularly wears a belt and shoulder belt, bandanna with pirate dreds, and pirate hat; he has a bathtub-ready Playmobil pirate ship fully manned by an odd hybrid family of Playmobil and POTC pirates that is regularly attacked by a tiny octopus "Kraken"; he intends, one day, to marry Captain Jack Sparrow and have a pirate baby (look, I'm there with him on the last one). Perhaps we are enablers, but he's so darn cute, especially when I draw on a little mustache and beard. Plus, I'll take a pirate over a power ranger any day. So, I tracked down some POTC fabric and made him this quickie quilt and will make him a new nap quilt with the same fabric, too. What we won't do for our children!

I've also managed to pull together the do-not-attach-until-later row that goes with the fourth Birds of a Feather block:



I am so liking this quilt! The more fabrics I put in the happier I am.

I had off this week and thought I'd do more sewing but came back from a conference last week with the flucold and was sick for about five days straight, so I did more reading and tv watching than sewing. I watched everything from a fascinating documentary about Lew Wasserman to the new PussyCat Dolls reality show to all my TIVO'd Heroes that I missed while working on my dissertation (this is my new Buffy/Angel). Then, when I felt better, I only wanted to clean the house and catch up on work. Maybe I'll get more quilting done after I defend my diss in a couple weeks. Here's hoping!!

Back to Life

Gosh, remember SoulIISoul?

Well, I've finished copy editing the last textbook chapter and wrote a quick preface for instructors, which is the only remaining element for our developmental editor to review. Done, done, done!!

Then, I spent a long, long, long four day weekend working and reworking my dissertation results chapter until I finally received an email from my committee chair with four magic words: "Chapter Four is fine." Then, quickly revised the last chapter to fit with all the new stats in four. And, with a very quickly beating heart and a full-on belief that I would be hit by a truck or struck by lightning or taken up by aliens at the very moment I crossed the threshold of the graduate school, I dropped off my dissertation for editorial review. Now, all that's left is the defense in late March, and I'm done, done, done!!

Somehow in there I also threw an unbirthday party for my daughter and 12 other screaming 5 year old girls, complete with a tower of Little Mermaid wave-frosted cupcakes and a sand castle bundt cake filled with strawberries.

So, after this crest of anxiety-inducing deadline crunchwork, I finally get to quilt again. Yee-haw! I'm even thinking up new projects (like a pirate quilt, aargh).

Oh, and the picture that's below is a response to questions I've had about how I'm applique-ing the BOAF quilt: machine blanket/button-hole stitch. I'm using a color called "milk chocolate" on all because I decided that switching for every color would make me loonier than I already am. You should be able to see the stitching especially on the pink and red trumpet flowers.

How I Didn't Get to My Quilt Retreat

Well, I got out of my statewide meeting almost an hour early, so I was psyched. Rather than change out of my suit and three-inch high pointy-toed pumps, I decided to head straight for the retreat, to get even more sewing done. I was zipping down the road on my two plus hour drive from the capitol to my retreat city along an Interstate that runs through a very rural part of the state. I was listening to Bill Buford's Heat on tape--which should have been more interesting than it was. I was about half way through a state forest when I heard a sound from the dash of my car. When I looked down, I saw a flashing red "STOP!!" with a little oil can symbol and a note about oil pressure.

Here's where I will interject something about the forests in my half of our state. Think back to grade school, when you did Venn diagrams. Now, take a piece of paper and draw four circles. Label these four circles "recently released felons," "folks cooking meth," "white supremacists," and "survivalists," and have them intersect in various ways. Then, overlay this with a clear sheet labeled, "folks possessing automatic weapons." You would have a fairly accurate population map of our Northern forests. I'm sure there are regular ol' campers in there, too, but they seem to get shot and/or disappeared with surprising regularity by one of the folks in the other four circles. So, when the light went on, I thought, "Um, yeah, I'll keep driving till I hit an exit."

When I got to the exit, which was entirely populated by one run-down gas-n-sip, I first called my husband to scream about how much I hated my car (a VW 1.8T Passat, a model with remarkably common and documented oil sludge problems), then called AAA. AAA said they'd be out in about an hour. So, I sat in my car; charged my phone; watched birds (very helpful for my BOAF project); became fairly certain a guy in a flannel shirt lived in the brush behind the gas-n-sip; refused to get out of my car to talk to an odd guy drinking Red Bull (who seemed to be trying out very lame, proto-serial killer excuses to get me to engage with him--example, could I walk to the end of the gas-n-sip to show him which way was West on the Interstate--yeah, nice try); listened to a young guy lie to his boss on his cell phone about where he was; and, in general, felt more and more depressed about the likelihood I would not be going to my retreat.

A little over an hour later, the tow guy came. I've taken to calling him Detroit Rock City (DRC), which was blaring at full steam out of his truck when he pulled up. We both first had a conversation with an older man whose car had also broken down and who seemed to be attempting to jack my tow truck. Not happening. Then, while working his chaw, DRC hoisted my car on the flat bed and gallantly opened the door for me to climb the four feet up into his truck, which I gamely did--even in three inch heels.

He then turned to me and, still working his dip and his cup, said, "So, you want to go to Bob Smith's?" "Is that a service station?" I asked. He half nodded. I then just threw it all out there for him: I'm from a city in a different part of the state, I'm going from meeting to meeting, I have no idea where I am, I just need the red oil light to go away, and I have no idea who can do that for me. "Well, I don't know if that's Bob Smith's place," he said. "Is is kinda close?" I asked. When the answer was yes, I said, "Well, let's give it a go." So, he then hauls off down the county road going fast enough that--in a flat bed tow truck with a Passat wagon in the back--we are passing people . . . frequently. We chat about the ashes flying around us--somebody's burning something somewhere, we observe. And, I wonder how quickly one dies when in a tow truck crash. Then, boom, he pulls off to the opposite side of the road at Bob Smith's . . . which doesn't look promising.

We both get out of the truck--me a bit more slowly, since I am wearing heels and getting out on the side of oncoming traffic. By the time I get in to talk to Bob Smith, it's clear this is a non-starter. Bob says to DRC, "I haven't worked on a car in over 5 years. Why do they send people here?" Bob is watching Fox News with three other guys, all leaning back in a way that is so typical of small town life in my state. Except the story is about Anna Nicole Smith's death, which makes it all even odder than it already is. "I got another idea," says DRC. So, I follow him back to the tow truck.

"I'll take you to Another Auto Shop (AAS). It's just up in town. I take my cars there. Only place I'll go," says DRC. "Sounds great to me!" I say with enthusiasm. "Where is 'town'?" "Just a few miles up the road. They don't rip you off. Plus AAS has its own part shop." "Fantastic!" I say with overdetermined glee. I buckle up, and we're off. DRC and I share laughs about others' driving abilities. Apparently, "half the people get their driver's licenses from Sears Roebuck and the other half from a box of Cracker Jacks," an observation with which I agree--while secretly deciding that if this whole thing suddenly goes bad, I will be forced to seek common ground with DRC by admitting I was once a member of the KISS Army. But, it doesn't go bad at all. We pull into town, head to AAS, and DRC introduces me to his friend and mechanic: Tommy.

At that point, Tommy is standing around with a couple friends--or fellow workers, it's hard to tell--poking at a car engine with, I kid you not, a knife. So, standing in a dirt-sandy lot filled with a surprising number of trucks and cars that will likely never see the open road again, and being snowed on by ashes from some fire somewhere, I tell Tommy my story. He pops the hood and makes a snide remark about my car's plastic dipstick. He's a bit shorter than I am, but I manage to look him in the eye and say, basically, "Look, I know this car is a trendy piece of junk. I completely share your disdain for my vehicle and the hipper-than-thou parent lifestyle that it represents. But, I bought it, and I'm driving it, and I just want to get home. Can you help me do this? Please." All is now right with the world. Tommy and I bond over our mutual distaste for VW products; he shares that he had to replace the motor in a Beetle last week and it was the worst day of his life. So, he adds a little oil to my sludge-mobile, describes how the oil filter works, tells me what to do if the light goes on again, gives me directions for the quickest way to get to my home city, invites me into his inner circle to laugh at some guy whose PT Cruiser needs a fuel pump (apparently there are cars held in even lower esteem), and charges me . . . $2! I give him $3, which makes him happy, and head off to find something to eat, as it's now about 4:00 pm, and I haven't eaten since the meeting's continental breakfast.

I pull into a Wendy's, call to vent at my husband, head in, sit in the bathroom stall, look at my filthy pumps and my dirty, grease-stained legs, and just start bawling. Two minutes later, I feel much better, wash my face, and commiserate with the counter girl whose co-workers are having a screaming drag out in back. I take my disgusting cheesy-bacon-mushroom burger and caffeine-rich diet coke to my car. Promptly drop a plop of cheese goo on my dress, sigh, and head off for home. Tommy's way out is perfect, and even driving slightly slower per his instructions, I'm back in my town within 75 minutes.

I then chat with my mechanic who notes that my husband informed him that I don't like my car. "No," I say, "I hate it, actually. But, whatever." I then pop the hatch and sit in the back of the wagon--next to my sewing machine--in the quiet close of the day waiting for my husband and kids to arrive. I call my sister, who's at the retreat, and we swap stories of hated automobiles. She notes that it was probably lucky that I was wearing a suit and heels since it likely made them all feel sorry for me. Looking at my completely dusty and scuffed pumps and my cheese-stained suit, I agree. Then my family pulls up, and I head home.

That's how I never got to the quilt retreat. But, I still got to sew, and watch Star Wars movies with my kids, and snuggle with my husband while watching some TIVO, and sleep in my own bed. And, I got to learn that some people are still nice and helpful. So, it wasn't terrible after all.

And, the Grammys are on tonight. I'll bet DRC is watching!

Four for the Road

Here's the last BOAF block I'll layer before I leave for a statewide meeting followed by my quilt retreat. I'm hoping to get all four stitched down while I'm away. Then, I can meet all the online group deadlines that will pop-up while I'm finishing and defending my dissertation and finalizing all the substitutions for denied permissions for my textbook. It will beyond-wonderful to have both of those off my plate . . . forever!!!

If you have the BOAF book or patterns, you'll notice that I skipped the legs on these birds, and if you read the last post, you'll know that I did the same on the last block. I've decided that they add an unnecessary aspect of reality to the block that just creeps me out--stumpy bird legs. I like my birds free-floating :) I've been using up a bunch of my Baltimore applique-type fabrics in this project; all the gradients and washes. They're adding a nice sense of light and shadow. Below, you'll see all four blocks together, along with my dog's errant paw. She just loves fabric!



My next block background is a homespun plaid that will bring in the light/dark alternation of the zig-zag but in a very different fabric type. I've really enjoyed digging through my stash for this quilt and am so glad I didn't do a block of the month. It's been a nice stretch for the other side of my brain that's been languishing lately in favor of SPSS. I'm also trying to figure out how to explain all the blue I'm pulling. I'm not a blue person (in mood or color palette), but from the first block, I've been attracted to it for this project as a kicky accent. Intriguing.

Another Block

This is the third Birds of a Feather block. I changed mine a bit from the pattern--subtracting a couple leaves and adding a center circle to the vines. My bird's tail also crosses over one of the vines, and I took away the bird's legs, because I found them a little creepy. This may sound a bit weird, but I think the bird looks kind of noble :) It's funny how easy it is to anthropomorphize almost anything, including a purple piece of fabric. I guess that's our constant push to make meaning and tell stories. I had a discussion with a couple friends this week who name their cars. One was recently in a crash, and his son had become so attached to the car (which was totaled) that he wept when they couldn't get it back and wanted to go say goodbye to it. My friend is avoiding naming their new car just so they can avoid the issue in the future. I've never named a car--though I have cursed mine once or twice and pleaded with it a few times.

Here's what all three blocks look like together so far:



Obviously, they aren't really arranged this way in the quilt, but I like the way the colors are coming together. If I have time, I'll also pull together block four before I leave for a quilt retreat next weekend. Then I can blanket stitch them when I'm not in class. Okay, now on to clean the kitchen!

Busy Bee

Ack, I feel badly that I haven't posted in a while. Yesterday, we did the big reveal of the first Birds of a Feather blocks in the Primitive Folk Applique Yahoo Group. I couldn't help but notice how much busier my block was than the others. Some were bright, some were subdued, some were dark--all were lovely. Last night, while the kids were in the tub, I pulled through my stash to set aside fabrics for the next two blocks, and then, after getting them tucked in bed, I went back to the fabrics I pulled and realized that they fit perfectly with the busy-ness of my first two blocks. So, I began to think about how our quilts reflect our lives.

My life is busy. That's not a complaint, just an observation. Here's what I've done this week . . .

Presented at a local day long meeting full of state legislators and staff and then met with a US Senator later that same day for a meet and greet. (He has super staffers who actually remember you from meeting to meeting!), then . . .

Attended a funeral for an extraordinary retired faculty member, then . . .

Wrote a state grant concept paper, then . . .

Revised my data set just one more time, ran and double-ran my research correlations and regressions, then . . .

Met with my dissertation chair about finishing my dissertation. My advisor again changed my dependent variable (to a different DV which, thank goodness, I had already calculated just in case), knocked out three of my independent variables, made me identify two new IVs . . . but still blessed my regressions and results. (Yay!!) And offered to co-author a chapter with me in a new book. And offered me adjunct teaching post-PhD. (All big yays!!), then . . .

Worked on copyediting my textbook and stressed out because our instructor's manual author backed out, then . . .

Attended another funeral for a staff member (this one from my immediate office), then . . .

Called to get permission to fax in my graduation application since I got caught by two calls on my way out of the office and wouldn't get to DoubleSportChamp U before the registrar closed, then . . .

Finalized the agenda, rooms, speakers, food, technology, etc. for a statewide meeting (because the outgoing chair was distracted by his own move and let things slip a bit, sigh), then . . .

And, of course, I also did my day-to-day meeting-to-meeting job--which was surprisingly full of mop-up activities this week; played with my liddle kiddles and finally just gave up the ghost and let them sleep in the same bed if they were very, very good; filled out unbirthday party invites for my daughter while making rice pudding (ah, comfort food); made sure my son had his drawn on pirate moustache and beard as needed; researched 529 plans with my husband and made summer vacation plans; found out we might have a slab leak; stressed about not exercising after my co-worker died of a heart attack on Monday and got my booty back on the treadmill (to work off the comfort food); blah, blah, blah.

So, I'm thinking this is why my quilts tend to be busy. One day, maybe my life will grow subdued, but I doubt it :) (As Jay-Z says, "You wuz who you wuz when you got here.") I'm drawn to busy-ness, to the rush of plaid against floral next to dots by the stripes. I like it when some things aren't distinct enough, when the lines aren't clear enough, because that's a depiction of my life: a blurry rush where meaning comes from the mixed up blend not the separate ingredients. We are what we sew and we sew what we are, I guess.

Another Fine Nest

Because my February will be monstrous with work, travel, and dissertation, I'm getting a jump on the Birds of a Feather group project. Here's my second block:



I really like the way the zig-zaggy background worked here. I also discovered that fusible cut on the bias works just like any other bias, so I was able to whirl my vine around just fine. I'll now be able to take both blocks to my quilt retreat early next month to blanket stitch them. Here's how the two blocks look together--they won't be sewn in this order at all (and, in fact, go in different sections of the quilt), but it gives a nice idea of how the fabrics are playing off each other:



I'm happy I took on this project. It's pushing me to look at my fabrics in different ways and take some risks with patterns and colors.

Also, many thanks to everyone who wrote nice things about my dog--who's a girl, actually. I'd like to put in a plug for adopting rescued animals, especially adult ones. We adopted her about six months ago from a rescue group and couldn't ask for a more wonderful pet. She tolerates us all: kids, grown-ups, and cats.

How I Know I Have Enough Fabric . . .

Because my rather large dog can sleep in it . . . and it doesn't even stop me from finishing a project because I have two other completely full storage boxes of repros to work with :) And, I didn't even have to break open the full box of plaids!

Empty and Full

This is an entry about my psycho Type-A tendencies--and how they sometimes do pay off.

Because I don't have enough to do :), I recently signed up for a Yahoo group on Primitive Folk Applique. Prior to my joining, the group had decided to do Blackbird Design's "Birds of a Feather" as a year project. Well, of course, I was several weeks behind, so I immediately ordered the book from Amazon and downloaded the first block from the KCStar website. I rewarded myself for finally whipping all my dissertation raw data into meaningful variables and finding that several of my independent variables are statistically significant (YES!!), and spent my Grey's Anatomy time tracing out all the Block 1 pieces. This morning, I set my daughter up on Stardoll and my son in front of Pirates of the Caribbean II--with the scary bits redacted by me during the watching--and got to work. By the time my husband woke up, I was done with this part:



I took a quick break to run to the grocery store, eat lunch, get the kids down for nap, and throw the roast together in the slow cooker. Then, managed to do this:



I'm doing it with fusible and blanket stitch, so now I have just the latter to complete. And, it's all from my stash! The only thing that I'm uncomfortable with is the brighter yellow/green on the big leaves, but I'll work it and the same tone into other blocks so that it stands out less. It also brings some light into the quilt to give it movement. Plus, it's from my stash (did I say that already?).

Too, Too Much

I was reading around the ring the other night and found a post on someone's blog (I forget where, it was late) about having too much fabric. I immediately felt the shame of recognition! This is the fabric I pulled from my stash for a project at an upcoming quilt retreat. See how it all falls together (sort of, I'm still on the fence about that Fassett)--quite a coincidence :) Clearly, I bought most of this at some point for some project that I can no longer recall. And, it has been sitting, for who knows how long, in a plastic bin just waiting to be used. When I was finishing up the Welcome quilt (shown in a previous post), I pulled out a fabric that was marked 1997 on the selvedge. So, it had likely been been sitting around for 10 years! Good gravy! So, one of my resolutions for this year is NOT to buy any more fabric--or books--or patterns. I need to show some love to all of the glorious fabric that I just-had-to-have last month, or last year, or last decade. And, unlike my eternal promise NOT to buy any more shoes, I really mean this one. (Seriously, who can resist the allure of Piperlime, with the individually wrapped shoe boxes and the cute notes and the awesome clearance prices?)

When the Welcome is Finished

Yay! It's done--and boo! I once again put the hangars in direct line with the white hanging hooks, making the top all wavy. But, it's already after 11, and I'm ready to crawl into bed to read and watch SNL with guest host the remarkable 2nd-act-er Alec Baldwin and the remarkable all-act-er Tony Bennett. So, I'm thinking it's fine for tonight. I really liked the way the border turned out. I had to think it through a bit to get the L's to align as I wanted, and I love the way these two burgun-reds play off each other. I also managed to take a photo of one corner (without flash-blinding it) to show the quilting.




















I did simple echo channel quilting every 1/2 inch around the square, but it's been so long since I've done straight lines in my borders that I was quite proud of it. All in all, a perfectly satisfying small project that now serves as a lovely greeting for all who stop by (including my postperson, who leaves me extra JoAnn's flyers with nice notes about how she likes my quilts!).

Welcome, New Year

This is my latest work in progress. I packed away "The Merriest" until next Christmas season, and wanted to put together something new--quickly--for the new year. I plopped down on the floor of my quilt room to run through patterns and found a long-ago purchased one from Little Quilts with a bunch of letters. I thought about spelling out "Welcome" but didn't want a longish banner. Then, I realized I could arrange the letters in a folky nine-patch with some fillers. By the way, the four patch fillers you see here aren't yet sewn, so don't fret about my seam matching ability. I just laid the whole thing out to see if the colors worked. I tried out about 10 different borders before deciding to split the difference and will go with "L"s of the two I liked the most. I really do like the way this is turning out; it looks just odd enough to have character. Currently, it's only arranged on my ironing board, and I hope to have it all finished by the weekend. Welcome, new year . . . just two days in, I'm already too busy for you but am willing to give it a go if you are :)

Cookie Night Catch-Up

Tonight was cookie night--gingerbread, sugar, and chewy chocolate; all are safely packed away for family gifts. I've been making my Christmas cookies from the same special cookies-only edition of Martha Stewart Living since 2001. Say what you will about her personality (and ethics), every darn recipe I've made from her cookbooks or magazine comes out wonderfully. This year, both of the kids were old enough to help with the decorating, which was both hilarious and horrifying. Luckily, good taste and good taste need not go hand-in-hand.

Since I'm feeling productive, I thought I'd go through my picture file to see what I haven't posted. I'm realizing that I never posted the quilts I made for my son. So, here goes.

The first is based on a Country Threads bulls-eye pattern. I think it was *the* pattern that inspired all the raw-edge cut-n-piece blocks that appeared a few years back. His nursery was blue and yellow, so I knew my color scheme--and again, all these fabrics were from my stash at the time. Here's the weird thing--I know exactly when I made this quilt because I was sewing it the morning of the Columbia shuttle disaster. Initially, I just had on CNN because it was background noise. Then, I looked up because I started to hear those eerie calm tones in the NASA radio announcements; the same ones you hear from doctors when things have really gone wrong. I had already decided to name the quilt "Digable Planets," as a nod to a long-ago trip hop band and to the fact that I had put up star curtains in his room, but the events gave the name an edge that otherwise wouldn't have been there. I quilted it with lots of spirals. At a distance, the disjointed blocks in this color scheme have a real Eric Carle-feel to them that I like very much.



I made both of my children a pieced and an applique quilt. Initially, I bought the Monsters pattern for another quilt for my daughter, but life intervened (literally). So, I redirected this project for my son. As it turned out, the Monsters quilt suits him perfectly, my wee little beastie. When he was still in his crib, I would take both children over to touch each monster at night. They especially loved the green one in the lower right with perle cotton "fur." Now, it hangs above his bed, and he fiddles with the bottom when he tries to fall asleep. So, at least once a week, I rehang it to get the weird wrinkles and warps out. This pattern was a block of the month through a neighboring quilt shop, but I skipped the massive triangle overload border in favor of a plain one (quite honestly, time was of the essence at that point). I still love this border fabric; it's such a fun red. The blocks are closely stippled on the interior, and the border is looping squiggles. I remember that I initially stippled a couple blocks in variegated primary, but it was so distracting that I ripped it all out and did it again in plain white.

Fresh Market Madness

I have succumbed to Fresh Market Madness, which is now an official disease in my town. I went on the first day it opened, went back two days later to buy even more for a party we were having that night, and then stopped by the next day to buy meat on the way home from a party. Clearly, much of this is my way of dealing with the stress of my friend's death (on the day of her funeral I bought a giant blow-up snow globe for the lawn). Still, nothing beats tackling a quilt room cleaning and new project empowered by Peet's coffee and gourmet ginger cookies :) A guaranteed way to beat the blues. So, I have several photos to tell my story.

The first three are of my quilt space, half of a room I share with my husband's video and music editing system. What's extra nice is that the window directly overlooks the backyard, so that I can watch the kids play while I work. The project on the wall is done now and more pictures follow. I bought a bunch of stock cabinets to organize my life at my last house and they've come in very handy repurposed for the quilt room. I also used to have to keep all my fabric in the garage, hence all the labeled plastic bins. You can see all my dissertation materials on the shelf above my sewing machine; I use this same desk to write my diss in marathon multi-day sessions when I can manage some time away from work. That's Jack on the chair.








Earlier I mentioned that I was working on a new holiday quilt. I've called it "The Merriest" after a June Christy song on my Holiday iMix. It's kind of an abbreviated version of the APQ cover quilt this month. All of the fabrics, including the border, were in my stash, and I even had the black to white variegated thread that I used to quilt the border. I quilted the interior with looping squiggles in a bright variegated and the border with loopy-linked stars. The applique is simply iron on. The quilt is hanging next to the front door, so I couldn't see even machining it. I finished it today and then whipstitched the binding while catching up on TIVO'd Ugly Betty's. I really like it. There are four of each item because we're a four person family :) I also took a close-up of the quilting.

This Is Not Your Year

That's the title of a song by the Weepies, one of my absolute favorite bands, and it kind of sums up my feelings today as one of my dearest friends died early this morning after a short but mean battle with cancer. I was going to post images of the quilt shown in sandwich form below--now finished--since I really like the quilting I did in the border (linked leafy vines), but the pictures all came out blurry. I have no idea why. This weekend, I had to finish one feature for a chapter in my book and write a grant on a topic I know very little about and worry about my friend. So, I, of course, finished a quilt and completely organized and cleaned my quilt room. Then, plowed through my writing. And, then, tonight, worked through my grief by beginning a new quilt for the holidays--a modification of the cover quilt from the Dec BHGAPQ. It's amazing how soothing the clean light from a tracing box can be, and how comforting it is to simply trace shapes over and over.

Post-Turkey Day

One of the quilts I put in the gallery show came from my office, which has left a blank space on my wall at a time in my life when I don't need any more open spaces. So, I found this stack of blocks in my quilt room and decided to pull them together into a basic 3x3 wall quilt. I don't know when I made these or why; my seams in a few were atrocious, which I deftly covered with some sashing. I actually had ten of the blocks but left one out to make this work. I'm going to try to get it quilted this evening so that I can hang it Sunday when I run in to clean off my desk so that I can start back after the holiday with a sense of purpose. I'm thinking of calling the quilt "The End of the Smithsonian" since it has some fabrics in it from the very first Smithsonian repro line. I like the off-block in the middle; it adds something to the mix.

Quilt Show

I was invited to show three quilts in a gallery show at work. What's nice is that my quilts were considered strong enough to hang next to those by our local quilt artist of some renown. I had to write an "artist's statement," which was surprisingly difficult. I didn't realize it would be mounted next to one of the quilts, so it's been interesting to get comments on both the quilts and the statement. Only two of us are not selling our quilts. I've never sold a quilt. I'm always befuddled about pricing them; it was difficult enough to value these three for the exhibit insurance. I once traded two for advertising for one of my husband's bands; they were fun baby quilts for the publisher's nephews. I prefer to just give them away to people who would appreciate them.

Here are the three I selected.

This quilt is new to the blog. I made it years ago as a mystery quilt. I was stumped when it came to a border and went with the checkerboard to pick up the purple and gold of the tulips. I used lots of different shirtings for background. It's quilted in a repeating diamond echo every two inches out into the checkerboard to reinforce the lines of the leaves, with a swirling pattern in the border that reflects the fabric. It's 48 inches square.



This is a small quilt that usually hangs in my office. I needed a small one for the show and it's 24 inches square. I've written about it previously. As you can tell, I like checkboards!



I've blogged about this one before. It's a nice wall hanging size, about 42 by 48. It's so bright. I don't know if I mentioned before that I changed thread colors for each piece to match the base color, which made for much joy when doing the border (quilted with one spiral circle per square).

Back(ing)

It's been a while since I posted. Life has been intervening in all sorts of ways. I wanted to post a picture of the quilt I made for my friend who has been ill. She went into the hospital a little over a week ago and took it with her for comfort. When I visit her now, it's either wrapped around her or draped on her chair. I wanted it to warm her through a winter she will now not see, but it is likely serving a more important purpose where it is. Nurses and other visitors compliment me on it, and I'm never certain how to respond. There are lots of things I could say, but I usually just say "thank you."