To make matters worse, I’ve been OBSESSING about trying to figure out how I should be dressing for this new Job That Pays Real Money (JTPRM).  After 17 years of wearing jeans/polos/sneaks to work I’m lost.  Pants?  Skirts (and the related freak about legs/hose/heels/flats)?

So I’ve spent more time than I care to admit shopping, both online and in stores (along with the requisite purchase/return/purchase merry-go-round) trying to get some items that look appropriate, feel comfortable (climate control being a big part of my world) and well, honestly, make me look competent. (Because sometimes I don’t feel very competent, so dern it, I’d better at least look it.)

Oh, and by the way:  will someone please tell me where my waist went?  And why I need serious engineering to get my bosoms back up where they belong?

Getting old is not for weenies.

Ah yes, but here we are.  A quilting blog.  With precious little quilting to write about.

Since I started with true confessions and how real blocks often need a little nip and tuck to get them into shape (plastic surgery for quilters?) I thought I’d follow through with a couple other tips that I use all the time (when I do sew) that give me a leg up on my never ending list of projects.

The first is chain-piecing.

Yes, I luv chain-piecing.

(You experienced quilters who already know about this can go check out the following fashion blogs for those of us in the throes of middle age – ones that don’t make us look like crazy art teachers with W A A A Y too much crafting time:  Fashion for Giants, Not Dead Yet Style, Already Pretty are three of my favorites.)

I’ve written before about my propensity to make more than one quilt at a time, using essentially the same fabrics, and it’s important enough to repeat:  chain piecing takes a little planning, but it can yield the start of a second project that might be just what you need to have underway for those emergency gifts.

Here’s a taste of how it goes:Here I am, sewing along, minding my own business.  However, lurking in the background is this:To the inexperienced eye, this looks like a hot mess – the leftovers from another project that yielded a whole bunch of right triangles.  But look what happens:  As I get to the end of the section I’m stitching, I take a few extra stitches with no fabric under the needle, then feed two of the right triangles under the pressure foot:Well, you have to use your imagination a bit – but here is what I ended up with:The two sections are joined with a small, chained strip of thread.  Cut the thread and voila! Nice and tidy stitched sections with minimal thread waste!  Now let’s take it to the next step:What’s that, you say?  Open seams?  Yes, grasshopper, press the seams open.  Especially if you are machine quilting.  Flat is good.  Very good.

My friend Meghan (she’s a sweetie-pie that I met thru the Indy Modern Quilt Guild and her blog is very good) wrote that quilters traditionally pressed seams to the side to reinforce hand-sewn seams.

The next step: pressing.

This step is essential to getting a good trimmed block and a fabulously flat surface to machine-quilt.  So much so that I make my point with a little of this:Pressing is not ironing, so no pulling the iron over the surface of the block.

It’s a great way to take out a little aggression too.  Spray and press with a nice hot iron.  Your flat blocks will be the envy of your guild – and you’ll be thanking me when you are feeding them under the needle during machine quilting.

Then, just like before – time to trim:The next thing you know, you’ll have this to work with:Then, before you know it, you’ll have this:All while you’re making something else.

Isn’t that great??

Well, at least I’m feeling a bit more competent – if only I could use chain-piecing in my JTPRM.

All the best -

Chris

Things were Too Clean.  Too, well, Perfect.

Come on now.  This is not a perfect art.  You DO NOT have to be a perfectionist to be a quilter.  Trust me on this one.  Like the photographer who “enhances” the boobs of a twiggy 15 year old model, there are a few tweaks here and there that help.

Let me share one of my quilty truths.

Half-square triangles (HSTs) never come out square.

Not straight out of the machine anyway.

Don’t kid yourself.  Those glossy tutorials showing how to easily make 2 perfect half-square triangles  by sewing on the diagonal without any trimming are fantasy.  Like the pants that supposedly make your 50 year old ass look perky, honey, they’re all a big ol’ lie.

Just in case you don’t know what I’m talking about, a quick picture tute (of the HST, not my ass): Cut 2 squares about 1″ larger than the desired HST size and place right sides together.  (That is, if you want 2 1/2″ HST’s, cut your squares 3 1/2″)  Draw a reference line on the diagonal – corner to corner.Sew 1/4″ to one side of the drawn line.Flip the square around and sew 1/4″ to the other side of the line.  In the crappy picture above, the scissors are pointing helpfully to the other stitching line.

Cut along the drawn diagonal line, Press the two sides open and voila’!Yikes.  Yes, the left and bottom sides are (sort of) aligned with the cutting mat grid, which means if I use this in my block, that unevenness will multiply until nothing is square ever again.  So here’s the trick that very few will tell you about:Oh, yeah.

And no, this is not cheating.

The extra inch of size not only allows for 2 HST’s to be made at once, and sewing the diagonal seam on an uncut square can minimize the diagonal bias distortion.  And best yet, you can then trim the dern thing to the size you need.

(I will say, however, it does put into perspective how maniacally anal quilters of long ago had to be since they had neither fancy rotary cutters, rulers with grids and diagonals, and such.)

Other blocks lend themselves to being trimmed into shape – 4 patches (not 9 patches – unless you’re going for the intentionally wonky look), but it can be a slippery slope for others.  I have yet to figure out a good way to trim up flying geese blocks (here are some not sewn together – they’ve been trimmed, but are still a little off – see how the bottom one is larger than the top one?) without completely screwing up the proportions.

It’s a fine line.

I remember the first time an experienced quilter told me that she trimmed her blocks before putting them together.  I was floored.  I have NEVER considered that someone might trim the odds and ends off their blocks to square them up.  I thought I was the problem.

Well, I am the problem, but it’s a problem that can be fixed!

Do you have quilty truths?  Things you do to make it work, as Tim Gunn might say?

I’d love to hear them -

Until then – all the best!

Chris

Not. One. Stitch.

It’s not like I’m vacationing in a beautiful part of the country, or putting together some fancy exhibit.  No excuses – just couldn’t pull it off.

However, rather than write-off the week as a jumbo-sized crafty bust, I want to tell you about an extraordinary woman, someone who I consider a mentor and guide and who is just a majorly cool person.

I’ve known Lorie Lee since she was DS #2′s pre-school teacher, but lost track of what she was doing until she decided to go back to art school.  Now she is a wonderful artist, painting amazingly soulful images that incorporate her deep spirituality.

She is thoughtful and funny, loving and supportive.  She faces problems and challenges with grace and humor.  She is so encouraging to me and my quilt making.  I feel like she loves my work, gets me, and is that bold person that will step into the discomfort zone to give a friend a hand.  Or a shoulder.

And she paints rocks.

I heard about this little project that she started with her friend Nancy a couple of years ago.  They collected rocks from the beach and painted positive messages of them.  Then they scattered them about back on the beach and other places where they might be found.

Just tossing out messages of love, acceptance, strength and peace into the universe – good Karma for whomever might stumble upon it.

Now how lovely is that?

Since Lorie Lee had a big birthday (I’d never know it if I didn’t know she had children as old as they are), another friend started a Facebook page and asked anyone who wanted to join and participate to come on down.

I’m in.I used acrylic ink.  (Next time I’ll use larger rocks because things got a little squishy.)Can you see the little Facebook logo?  (OK, the picture is crap.  Just look harder.)  You can go to the Facebook Page “Rock On!” and “Like” it.

Better yet, you can paint some rocks too.  Goodness knows, the universe could use as much good Karma as it can get.

Thanks, Lorie Lee.  I hope your birthday was wonderful.  (And I can only hope that I can be as encouraging to someone else as you have been to me – which is the best Karma yet.)

All the best -

Chris

It’s no surprise that my 15 minutes per day of quilting on this queen size baby makes for slow going.  Yes, Mom, sometimes I do stretch it out to longer than 15 minutes, but some nights I can’t quite get my fanny in the sewing room.  The quilting is pretty repetitious too, with larger paisley in the HST’s and bubbles in the sashing.

So let’s talk about something else, shall we?

I got my next Round Robin block to work on and Molly likes pink.

Obviously, not just any pink, either.  This has a fluorescent saturation – screamin’ bubblegum, I’d call it.  (Maybe this is the reason I’m not on the committee to name the Pantone color of the year . . .)

And to make it especially challenging, she really doesn’t want any other color in the quilt.

I pulled out some eligible bachelors that might like to go on a mini-date with Pinky:Surprisingly, I did have a few candidates -

But what, you say, are those interlopers to the left?  Hmmmm??????

Well, pink and yellow play very nicely together.  Think pink lemonade.  OK, screaming pink lemonade.

I also think that a little of this might be very nice:I love working with complementary colors, and green looks fresh with pink- especially the softer shades.

What if we change up the neutral from white to:I like this too, but it might not be enough of a contrast with all the white that is already in the block -

The hardest part of visualizing these alternate combos is getting the proportions right.  A smidge of green or a tinge of yellow would look much different that the pictures above.

Well we’ll see.  She wants pink and white, so that’s what I’ll work up for her!

Oh, and I got new glasses:A very different look – it’s taking some getting used to!

And a teaser about an upcoming project – Have a wonderful week – all the best -

Chris

I’ll take that back.  I remember she had small laugh lines around her dark brown eyes, which suited her perfectly.I was going to write about the Spring (finally) bursting forth in Indiana, with the winds blowing promises of warm weather to come and the flowers that never cease to surprise me in their return from the frozen months before, but then I came across this post.  It changed everything.She probably didn’t think this was all that special.  Seriously, she made hundreds of projects in addition to quilts – knitted, crocheted, embroidered – from patterns and books that she kept in a stand near “her” chair.  Many of her dozens of grandchildren have her keepsakes – things that she made just for them.

I would guess that the little panels were pre-printed squares from LeeWards that she purchased and embroidered.  Set with soft yellow sashes and backed with a ducky print and no batting that I can detect, this has been an integral part of forts – made of card tables and folding chairs, boxes and step stools – too numerous to mention.I used to lay it out and make up stories about the elves doing all the clever things that elves do.  I would trace the stem stitches around the rose as he snoozed contentedly in it’s petals.When I got old enough to handle a needle, I would pour through the LeeWards catalog with it’s dresser sets and pillowcases, embroidery floss and fabric paints, dreaming of what kind of a place it must be that was completely and unashamedly devoted to needlework and crafts.

They say it only takes two generations.

Two generations to be forgotten.

My little elf quilt is not labeled, but I know it personally.  My sons will not understand it, or remember why I still marvel at the duckies, or wonder if the elf pictures are in the right order.

They won’t know that she completed this for me.  I was one of dozens of her grandchildren, and she took the time to make this for me when I was born.

If the quilt were labeled, they might understand that they have a little piece of the woman who started me on this journey, and whose legacy lives on in the lineage of those noisy children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and on and on.

I don’t have her unflappably calm demeanor.  I laugh loud, ramble when I talk, fret about if those pants make my ass look big, and break out in hives all over my neck when I get angry, frustrated, or just want to make a point.

But I do have a small, frayed, yellow elf-y quilt with happy duckies on the back.  That needs a label.

It is important.

All the best -

Chris

Dogoneit, she has 5 kids and a quilting life, so if she can do it, so can I.

In 15 minutes I can:

Turn off the alarm, shower, and grate the callouses off my heels.  (Notice I didn’t include “wake up.”)

I can do my morning old-woman stretches and exercises while scratching one or even 2 kitties behind the ears. (Proving again that I can multi-task.)

I can do my makeup and hair (Notice again neither “wake up” nor “style” is included.)

I can pick out what I want to wear – um nope.  The first hurdle of the day -

Let’s not go down that ugly road and stick with quilting then, shall we?

First thing I can do is clean off my work table.  In 15 minutes, I can throw away the annoying scraps that have accumulated:(Yes, throw them away.  In the garbage.  Out to the street.  And not pawing through them again to find any scraps I might need.)

In 15 minutes, I can turn these odds and ends of right triangles (which I found when cleaning off the worktable:Into these half-square triangles:I can put them with their other 50 or so friends for my KF HST UFO!

OK, not too bad.  Let’s see what I can do with my Round Robin project!

In 15 minutes I can piece 5 teensy flying geese blocks (1 1/2″ x 2 1/2″):Over a few evenings, I can piece enough of these to prepare one side of my round:(I added the tangerine flying geese round before I thought to start taking pictures.)

(Oh, and the math to figure out how big the geese had to be to fit evenly on the sides and how big the light tangerine border had to be to make them fit right – yep, all that – took more than 15 minutes.  Just sayin’.  I’m not THAT good.)

Sewing each strip onto the center square takes another 15 minutes per side.

After several more sets of 15 minute slots, I can cut and sew the final rounds onto the center square:Tah dah!  I’m calling this a finish, ya’ll.  This is ready to go to the next lucky round robin participant!

This little work method isn’t going to work for everything – I get it.  In addition to the math, the fabric choices and design choices took more than 15 minutes.  Lots more.  Obsessively more.  And a blog post will ALWAYS take more than 15 minutes – unless I start whiffing it with a “wordless Wednesday” or something like that.  But I’d still need a caption, right?

All the best -Chris

I haven’t worked full-time since before DS#2 was born – during those crazy years  in the early nineties when we were told that hell, women COULD and SHOULD work full-time and have 2.5 kids in school and sports and a husband who also worked full-time and still keep a nice house with home-cooked dinners and volunteer at school and daycare wasn’t all that bad.

Yup.  I drank the Kool-aid.  And just about lost my freaking mind.

Right after DS #2 was born, I convinced a small construction company that I could work part-time, realized too late that it was a bad match, then convinced ANOTHER company that I could do it all part-time and didn’t look back – no time to second guess again, I just kept putting one foot in front of the other.  And that’s where I’ve been to this day.

I am grateful that my kids survived this Grand Experiment and are good, decent, hard-working men.  I don’t doubt for a minute that we benefited from the perfect storm of chaos, stability and Grace in the midst of it all.

And, since we’re almost empty nesters (DS #2 graduates college in May!  Yippee!) the past few years have been pretty easy for me to work part-time and seriously pursue my quilting love affair.

You know, I do love my accounting work.  It’s more than the paycheck – although there is something comforting about having a second source of income when things don’t work out the way I expect – but just as importantly, I like solving problems – understanding systems, both computerized and human, and figuring out ways to get them all running in the same direction – hopefully one that leads to profitability and benefits for the folks taking the risks and doing the work.

So, even though DH and I played the game and did everything that we’re supposed to do, the economy took a turn for the ugly for us (as well as lots and lots of other people).  I set my path toward a full-time JTPRM – and it is with great gratitude that God did save a bit of my sanity and that I did continue my accounting work all those years.

(Just so we’re clear, quilting is not a JTPRM – not for me, anyway.  And for damn precious few, as far as I’m concerned.)

I am looking at an exciting new adventure in a new JTPRM.  The downside is that my quilting will now have less time devoted to it.

No tears.  It’s just where I am now.

My projects will be fewer, my UFO’s unfinished longer, and I’ll be attracted to smaller fun, quick, finish-’em-up projects – with enough meat on the bone to keep my right brain chugging along, but not so overwhelming that I get lost.

So, my bloggy friends, even though I am again pulling back the pace, I’m still here.  I love the writing process as well as the quilting process.  It is all good, it’s therapeutic and I’m lucky that I get to play with words as well as fabric.

And doggonit, if I don’t write it all down, I’ll forget.

Now my quilting update:

Speaking of lost, I pulled out Crossroads in order to add the next section.  Our current bedquilt is now so ratty that I can hardly pull it out of the closet in good conscience.  What kind of proper quilter has disgusting ripped quilts on her bed?  Once the down comforter comes off when the weather finally turns warm, we will need our new quilt!

So, confident in my QAYG talent, I pulled Crossroads out and sewed section 4 on.  I knew I was working in a lot of ease, but damn it, I know what I’m doing.

Houston, we have a problem:Um.  What happened?  Those pleats of excess fabric were NOT supposed to be there when I added section 4!

The biggest problem, it turns out, is that not all my seams are a perfect 1/4″.  Combine that with the fact that quilting pulls up the ease on the adjoining section, and the batting wasn’t cut straight but that I was sewing a curved edge of batting to a straight seam and voila – a new, custom-made 4 hour project to unsew and resew section 4 to sections 1, 2 and 3 is born.

A wise woman once said something to the effect that it’s not so much that QAYG is so much easier – it’s just that you’re exchanging one difficult process for another hopefully less-difficult process.

You get to pick your poison.

How true.

So, after a lot of swearing under my breath, here’s the after shot:I know, it almost looks fake, doesn’t it?  Trust me, after 4 hours, it’s not fake.  It is now pin basted and ready to go under the needle.

Ooo ooo ooo – and for a small side project, lookie what my round robin partner gave me to work on:So cute, yes?  My round will probably use the fabrics that I added  to the left of the picture (and yes, I had to buy some because I had NO tangerine in my stash.  Hard to believe, I know.)

I will say that the blue with brown dots off to the left looks A LOT darker in the photograph than it does in the sewing room.  Maybe I need to rethink that.

Let me show you what I’m thinking of doing:Hmmmm . I love those zig zag borders.

So, a very long explanation and not-so-much quilting (but lots of un-sewing) in this week’s blog.  I hope you’ll continue to stick with me, my friends.  I love seeing your stats on my counter and comments when you can – take care.

All the best -

Chris

I kinda knew you would . . .

All the best -

Chris

P.S.  If you want to see some insanely amazing selvage projects, check out The Selvage Blog, by Karen Griska.  I’m a regular lurker there.

So first up, the round robin!

OK, so not the spring-iest of palettes, but you know I love me some black and white.

Meghan with the Indianapolis Modern Quilt Guild (IMQG) decided to coordinate our first round robin event – well, at least the first one I’ve ever been involved with.  In the hopes of finding a successful project for a wide range of abilities, I started with my trusty black and whites and hope that each person that gets my project will add a row onto the one I started.

It would be fun if everyone picks a different piecing or applique pattern – and when it’s all done in black and white with a nip of red, I can see it morphing into sort of a tribal or ethnic looking piece.

Now on the springy stuff – I decided to finally finish up some old projects that used school glue resist.  Didn’t this one turn out SO COOL??!!For the life of me I can’t remember why I set it aside in the first place now that I see it all finished up.  Here’s another silly piece:Not quite as polished looking, but the silk is lovely and it will make beautiful stuff.  Here’s another piece that I finished that will go into a slightly larger work:I’m very stingy on my silk usage but it’s SO worth using silk for the sheen and luster.

Finally, some of my finished silk greeting cards:The little tag on the second one is a laminated fortune cookie fortune.  I have a soft spot for fortunes – I’ve collected about 200 over the years.  That’s a lot of fortune cookies!

I’ve got one more card to finish tonight for a very special friend who has a big event coming up in another week – I’d better get moving . . .

All the best -

Chris

Time for a collection of fun images from recent weeks: 1.  This is the pincushion that I got in the Modern Quilt Guild pincushion trade from Lauren Tolhurst from Vancouver.  Is this just adorable or what?  It has a cute hanging loop and is slightly weighted with beads so it stays put next to my machine.  PERFECT.

I also got the sweetest note from AnneMarie Q. in the Bay Area for the little cactus pincushion that I sent to her.  Such a nice sense of satisfaction from such a small gestures. (I misfiled the picture of her sewing room that she sent me – DARN IT!)

2.  Scrappy Trip-A-Long at 19 blocks (just ignore the shadows around the edges . . .)  Loving it – although it doesn’t look very modern.  I added more sage green which was good – need to punch up with a bit more of the colonial blue and maybe a stronger pink . . . I think 30 blocks (5 blocks x 6 blocks = 60″ x 72″) is a nice size, but maybe 35 blocks (5 blocks x 7 blocks = 60″ x 84″) might be a more usable size.  Any suggestions?

3.  Fresh baked sourdough bread – made by DS #1!  He has a bread starter (he named it Steve – just sayin’) and made us a lovely sandwich loaf when we visited 2 weeks ago.  He also pickled green beans and eggs which is cool in the fact that he is an adventurous cook (even though pickled eggs are disgusting.)  I am one lucky momma that both my babies love to cook.

4.  My sister Karyn visited last weekend and we had a blast.  Here she is trying out one of those fancy zero gravity massage chairs at a novelty electronic store.  This was after she grabbed the remote away from me – I can’t imagine why.  (I told her she could trust me.)  After this picture was taken, we decided that we need to always have our picture taken reclining in a zero gravity chair. 5.  My art exhibit has been a wonderful experience.  Five pieces have sold so far – a few $$ raised for the library!  I’m so grateful that Friends of Carmel-Clay Public Library offered me the opportunity.

6.  My Christmas cactus is blooming.  This is a fabulous time of year to have a little extra color – our Indiana skies are gray most of February – in fact I’d MUCH rather have these festive pink blossoms now than in December.  My Dad gave me the start a couple of years ago, and until this year, the blooms were, well, meh.  This year DH watered it and opened the south-facing curtains every day and now it is a monster, threatening to take over the entire southeast corner of our family room.  The kitties hide in it like it was a jungle.   Who knew?7.  Speaking of kitties, my handsome Beau-zy-cat is getting old.  He is still very quirky and very very jumpy, always ultra-sensitive to noise and sudden movements, but I noticed recently that his body is thinning out like an old man’s.  His thick double coat is looking just a little more ratty these days, and I have to be extra gentle when I brush him.  He still purrs and bumps and chirtles little happy kitty noises when I brush him and isn’t above stealing Flo’s treats when I’m trying to pill her (a prime time to sneak a snack since I have to hold her in a death grip to get the meds in her without her drawing blood.)  (My blood.)  It’s hard to look at him and think that one day he may not dart out of the laundry basket when I toss dirty socks in it without looking first, but he has been a good friend now for 15 1/2 years and I am blessed that he is part of our little family for most of that time.  This is my favorite picture of him:

8.  And requesting equal time, here is Miss Flo:I’ll just say that she is not particularly happy in this picture, but it makes me laugh every time I see it.

9.  Of course, I am blessed that you all stop by and read my little blog – thank you thank you thank you!

All the best -

Chris