Kindle Cover by Request

 By request, and maybe kinda never again.  This stuff is tough!  Matching up all those little edges, stitches, and the triangles just so, so that they actually hold the Kindle in.  This had to be a very zen-like project, slow and steady, little bit by little bit so as not to make a mistake.  I didn't use a pattern or tutorial (maybe I should have?!)  and I had to undo stitches a few times to get things exactly right, and sad that there's a bit of double topstitching so that it doesn't look completely polished; working with plastic inserts for stability was a first, but it looks and works mighty fine.  This was a special request for a great friend and wonderful person who boldly and beautifully heads up our childrens' ministry at church, and who made me the most wonderful cards as a birthday gift.  Since it was her birthday recently, I'm happy to return a gift!

Quilt Show!

Being a homeschooling mom of two very active little boys, and being wife to a wonderful husband who has in recent years been a working musician, quilting seems to happen most late at night, when I'm by myself.  I don't know anyone else, in real life, who quilts.  When I am stumped about how a layout is coming together or how I should go about quilting a particular quilt, I have no one to ask.  The internet can be very helpful to a point, but there are still plenty of those moments when I've got fabric spread all over my bed and I'm standing there staring at it... staring... staring... getting no closer at all to a solution.

But this might change in the future, after going to my first quilt show!  My husband was leaving one weekend for a fishing trip, to be gone 3 days, and as I was looking around for a fun way to fill some of my solo time with the boys, I stumbled across an announcement there would be a quilt show.  SERIOUSLY?  A QUILT show?!  And right around the corner from us!  I was ecstatic.  "Hey BOYS!  How would you like to go - well, wouldn't it be FUN to go together to look at some really awesome quilts and fabric and stuff like that at a show?"  They actually said it would be!  I wasn't that surprised, these boys do take an interest in what I love, especially since I often make things for them.  

So we went!  And we all had fun!  And the quilts were just so beautiful, and so much inspiration was gleaned.  And as it turns out, the show was put on by a local guild that meets monthly and I am going to try to find myself available on those nights so I can meet some quilters in real life.  

I took many pictures at the show but don't want to post many since in the busyness of keeping up with little boys at a quilt show I wasn't able to document the maker of each one, but here's my cute little quilt lovers:

It means so much to me that these boys are interested in what I do, and that they enjoy looking at quilts and playing with fabric.  My dad so sweetly commented that it's because of the way I invest in them and teach them and share things with them.  Maybe that's it, but regardless, I'm so glad that things that are important to me are making an impact on my boys.  It's something happy to think about during those late nights, when I'm staring at fabric, stumped.  

Quilt in a Day [Quilt #11]

Yesterday morning when I woke up I had no thought about sewing.

Scratch that.  My waking thought was about sewing, but I kept putting it aside as I had other things I needed to do: lots of home schooling, clean the house, garden - catch up on things while my best friend kept one of my sons so that I could have a bit more peace and organization to my day.

But as I dropped my son off, my best friend mentioned she needed a gift for her sister's baby shower today. "What can I do that's cheap?"  she asked me, because we both know what it is to not have money for such things, regardless of how badly we wish we did.  I suggested flannel receiving blankets since I had some flannel.  But after looking at my flannel, it didn't seem to fit what I'd want my best friend to give to her sister at her family baby shower.

Because, there are some reasons why she's my best friend.  And when it comes to family, and when it comes to her loving her sister, and when it comes to family sometimes maybe not always being what one would really hope family to be but that my best friend consistently makes every effort to be what family is supposed  to be - well, my flannel wasn't good enough.  And it's ok if that doesn't make any sense because, like I said, there are reasons why we're best friends, and we get it.

So, I said to my older (7 yo) son, "School is officially finished.  We're going to the fabric store!"  He was nonplussed.  This is not his favorite thing to do, but he was willing to be my bud and go along.  Honestly, it's not my favorite thing to do - I much prefer to shop online for fabric as our area is for some reason devoid of what I really look for in a fabric store.  We went to one - and found nothing.  We went to another - and found almost nothing.  Bud-bud was starting to resist the idea of a third, so I started to make something work in my head.  Always attracted to blue and red for boys, and anything with stars... then there was this blue with teddy bears with red bows, and this neutral toy toss and look here - some coordinating flannel - okay!  We were off and running.

I didn't really have extra money to spend on fabric.  But I was babysitting this week and I would make some extra money - I'd had other uses for it but hey, this is my best friend.  Who keeps my kids way too much without letting me pay her, who made me dinner and cried with me when my dog died, who does so much for other people all the time and always has kids over at her house eating up her snacks when they are on the smallest grocery budget I know of... I will most definitely spend my extra money on fabric for my best friend.

And I will most definitely take it home and make a crib quilt, finished before bedtime (surprising myself once again!).

I've been wanting to try the quilt-as-you-go method and it worked great with this little project!  And the flannel backing turned out so soft and warm-feeling.  I might make all future crib quilts with flannel backing.

So - yesterday I woke up with absolutely no intention of making a quilt, but went to bed with this neatly folded and ready to deliver.  That's a good day in my book.

I Have Surprised Myself

Well over a year ago my Aunt Jimmieann happened upon the library when they were clearing out their periodicals.  She noticed a box of quilting magazines on it's way out and asked if she could have it and they said yes, and months later we finally found the time to meet up so she could give them to me.  I think there's 30 magazines all told, all different types.  It's been so much fun looking through them in quiet moments, and I've learned a lot from them!

Some of them I'll pass along to others, but I have a pile of keepers.  Recently this one was on the top of the "Keep" pile:

It's the January 2007 edition of The Quilter Magazine, and my what a beautiful thing they put there on the cover!  I read about this quilt, how to make it, and the reason it was in the "Keep" pile is precisely because I wanted to make this quilt, one day.

When I say "one day" I mean when I'm much better at doing what I do.  This one was tricky!  So far I've only worked in squares, rectangles, or strips but this one had angles!  Kites and diamonds, both fussy cut, and very exactly stitched and matched to pull off those medallions.  And it would require the right fabric, with a certain size and shape motif in order to pull it off.

After playing with a number of half-yards yesterday, I'd laid them aside, by chance next to my pile of "Keeper" magazines, and by chance, with this one on top:

That's from Anna Maria Horner's Innocent Crush collection.  It hadn't made the cut for the quilt I'd been playing with because the blues in it were standing alone without anything to bring them along with the rest of the prints.  And then there was a moment in my evening when I realized THIS would make the PERFECT cuts for block like that quilt!  I couldn't wait to be done with dinner and boys' bedtime routine.  I was going to play!  I thought I'd play with cutting, goof off with seaming, and learn a few things while, unfortunately wasting some pretty fabric.

But the cutting went along much better than I expected:
(Though with my 1/2 yard I didn't have quite enough whole motifs and had to piece together 3 of them.)

And the seaming went along just as smoothly!  And so I took a chance matching a fabric at night, under my incandescent lighting, and within an hour I had something pretty special:

Nope, it's not perfect, but I am THRILLED; and for two reasons.  One, I completely surprised myself with how much I've learned without even realizing it, being able to meet those angled corners and stitch that scant 1/4" without any trouble at all, and the whole things lays completely flat without puckers.  Two, I've been struggling finding the right design for a purple flower gypsy quilt for my mom, but even though this fabric didn't originally make the cut for it, it's going front and center and the rest of the design is starting to come together in my head.

And it's making me wonder - what else could I be doing, that I'm holding back from, because I think I'm not good enough?

All Done Up [Quilt #10]

It's not as perfect as I aimed for, but I'm pleased with it.  I think my sewing machine needs servicing - we didn't have the same great chemistry that I've had - more little puckers that I couldn't find my way out of.  I'm really happy with how the different fabrics came together.  Most are from Sarah Watts' Timber & Leaf, two are from Fairmount Park by Lonni Rossi, and it seems I can't design a quilt without some Joel Dewberry (in this case Modern Meadow) thrown in.  There were 4 other prints from my fabric order that didn't combine as well in real life as what I thought I was seeing on my computer monitor, but that's just fine - they'll make great additions to my stash!

As usual I didn't buy enough backing fabric and so a little creativity with leftovers stood in the gap just fine.

I hope this quilt brings beauty and encouragement and a little joy into my dear friend's life during this hard time of losing her home and everything in it.  I was too emotional and a bit insecure about it to give it to her myself; so I sent it along with another friend.

Quilting : A Process

Quilting is a process, and one that for each quilt happens over days, weeks, and sometimes months or years.   I sneak in moments of quilt-making on sunny days, an hour or so on rainy days, and many hours of it late at night.  The daily moments and hours intertwine and mix together with the other events of my day and my life.

And then there are those kind of moments when something happens and you will always remember where you were, what you were doing, and if you're quilting, you know exactly where and what.

I was matching the seam in the last column between the 4th and 5th block when my phone rang.  I'd taken our beloved Georgia Black Dog to the vet that morning, and though we had some very real concerns, the tests they had done so far that day were hopeful.  But I knew that the timing of this call was not good, and indeed, what they had to tell me led to a hasty call to my husband and a necessary conclusion.  It was time to let him go.  After talking to the vet one last time, I called my sons in to share the sad news with them, then I cried and I cried and I cried and I cried.  Then I texted my best friend who would want to know right away, and then I called my dad.  Then I cried and cried some more.

Then I got up, cleaned up my face, and sat back down to sew that seam.  Then with a heavy heart I sewed the sashing on the next block, stitched it in it's place, then added the last block and the last bit of sashing.  I pressed the seams, feeling as if the weight of sadness was pressing down into my heart.  And then I sat there staring at the work I had done.  My late night quilting endeavors will never be the same. He will no longer be there to sleep curled up on the couch and occasionally open his eyes to check on me.  He will not be there to inspect this one as it's laid out on the wood floor, getting pinned.  He won't give me that sweet look and sweet wag of his tail as if to ask, "Is this soft thing for me to lay down on?"

This quilt is going somewhere where I will visit in the future, and I hate to say it, but I will always remember that seam.  And I will remember how absolutely beautiful this fabric is, and how staring at it, even through heavy tears, brought me comfort.  And how the process of lining things up in a neat, orderly way and rhythmically stitching, stitching, stitching made sense to me and busied my hands and busied my mind and busied my heart in a way that kept myself from being too busy trying to figure out why, or questioning if he knew enough how much he meant to me, or wondering if we could have or should have done something different - and all those other confusing thoughts and questions that have no answer and are not at all helpful.  Straight seams, keeping my mind straight, orderly, rhythmic, on track, not giving in to an unhealthy form of sadness.

A process, sometimes for processing life.