Mini-retreat, here I come

Tomorrow is my guild's mini-retreat. My DD doesn't understand what all the fuss is about. How can two dozen women want to spend 12 hours together, just sewing, in town, on a sunny day? (Imaging the big eyes rolling in her head)

I can't explain it either. There's just something very childlike about being able to walk away from reality and home life for a whole day and do something you are passionate about with others that truly understand without any explanation.

Ah-h-h-h-h, quilting buddies.

Recharging a project

Last spring I was taken by the pattern by Cynthia Tomaszewski, 'Sitting Pretty'. Only thing I didn't like was that it was designed in 30's fabrics, which I don't care for. In fact, I refer to them as 'gaggy 30's fabrics'. Yet when shopping for fabrics for this, I didn't see any other types that I felt would make this work for me, and I ended up buying 30's for the project. What I have so far is at right. I think what I like about it is the mix of free form shapes with the old fashioned fabrics. All the pieces are buttonhole stitched by hand. Something I started just to have handwork ready for car trips and watching dvds. I didn't get to the final borders her pattern called for though.

This was partly because I realized that I have no place to hang such a wallhanging. It's definitely not my decorating style at home or at work. So I had to let this sink in; percolate a little. Finally I decided I needed to recharge this project. Think about it differently. Going out on a limb, I bought more 30's fabric, and will now work to turn this into a bed sized quilt, using the four blocks as a medallion with paper pieced sections all around. Hopefully the fabric style will tie together the varying styles of construction. Wish me luck. I'm softening up a bit about this fabric style, but not so that I want to spend much more time working with it. In fact, I truly evaluated calling it done, quilting it and having this over with, or investing more time and money in making it bedsize, and maybe useful. The latter won out.

I made quite a big deal amongst friends about my anti-30's attitude. Now I'm a bit embarrassed about this project going in this direction. I'm waiting to see how the expanded version of the quilt looks before I admit I've gone over to the 30's dark side. Then maybe I'll show and tell it to the guild.

Getting Back to Work

I find it hard sometimes to get down to quilting. Especially if I feel in between projects. Not that projects are done, but more like I get them to a point where I need a break before taking it to the next step. I think I need to get some supplies for a handwork project so I'll have that to do in these moments. Lately though I've gone through stashes of t-shirts for 3 of 4 projects. Two are for my daughters, and one is for me, for a memory quilt using my father's travel shirt collection. I need to do the latter before I tackle a memory quilt for my sister and her daughter, using my brother-in-law's shirts. I've never done one before, so thought it best I suffer the errors on my own project before I do them for gifts. So for now we've been crazy cutting the important stuff off the shirts and getting fusible stabilizer on their backs. At least I've seen 3 piles reduced greatly in size.

Image details

Ooh, I'm going to like this. Just posted my first images. The quilt in the header is a Trip Around the World quilt, and it was my first. All hand cut, all hand pieced, all hand quilted. The wall quilt below was my second quilt. Again, done before I knew you were 'allowed' to do anything not by hand. The pattern is called Amish Cats and Rats, but I haven't been able to find the pattern creator. It was my first applique quilt, done back about 1990.

Amish Cat's and Rats

Getting into the habit

I'll most likely start off with these simple notes to myself to help establish that habit. I have aspirations of this becoming the site family and friends can visit to check up on the latest news, but I'd really like it to become my spot where my quilting takes center stage. I'm thinking it would give me a boost to document that part of my life.

I started quilting about 1986, after 10+ years doing any kind of craft I took a fancy to. This was different though. I started off focusing on one quilt at a time. Thinking the better quality quilt required all hand work, from templates, to cutting, to piecework, and quilting, one at a time was sufficient. This mindset continued when we moved to the Champaign/Urbana area in 1991, but once I discovered our local quilt guild, all bets were off. Quilting was no longer another craft in my repertoire-it became my primary creative outlet.

Suddenly rotary cutters, machine piecing, machine quilting (gasp), and collecting fabrics to build a stash were permitted. I can't believe how exposure to the women in the Illini Country Stitchers guild changed my view of quilting.

So this blog will be my way of sharing what I'm doing in the quilt world, and I'll add in family and friends stuff along the way. For now, it's like a private journal, but I'll soon see to changing that.

What have I done!

I've put off starting a blog for months, sure it would either swallow up all my available creative time, or become another project that I push to bottom of the to-do list and feel guilty about. It's a new year, and I think I can find a place for this in my life. So here goes.....