Snowy Saturday Musings

Here it is, the year 2013, and I've been REALLY bad about blogging ever since I started this blog.  Because it's February 2, I can't even pretend that I made a New Year's resolution to be more dedicated about posting here!  Ha! 

So what have I been doing all these months that I haven't been blogging?  Well - work, of course - and sewing pretty much every Saturday, or visiting my LQS.  Bless My Stitches did a Block of the Month last year and I've actually got all of the blocks done, but haven't yet cut out the setting pieces.  Need to get on that - if the top turns out well, I plan to put it on our bed as a comforter.  I've made some wallhangings, put together another top that I pieced during the end of 2011 and beginning of 2012, made some purses, and actually finished lap quilt for my son and gave it to him right before New Year's.

Today I'm working on blocks for a Second Saturday Strip class and watching Foyle's War on Netflicks.  I've discovered that I really like British tv series shows and especially like the cop shows.  Foyle's War is set during World War Two. 

The blocks that I'm working on for the Strip Club are from a book called Jelly Roll Sampler Quilts by Pam and Nicky Lintott.  There are some very pretty quilts that can be made from this book.  Still can't decide whether or not I like working with precut strips though.  But I'm learning quite a bit and that's a good thing.  While I was pressing some of my triangle units, the thought struck me that this would be a great time to start charting my progress via this blog.  IF I remember to keep it up, huh?

I'm also a little bit in mourning.  Our son will be moving to Athens tomorrow.  He graduated from college December 2011, so I suppose that it really is time for him to move out and begin his adult journey, but it's also very sad to me that he won't be here at home.  I'm going to miss him so bad that I don't know if my heart can stand it.  He's the last little birdie to leave the nest.  Our daughter got married two years ago.  Now it will just be me, hubby, and the doggies.

Speaking of doggies, we have managed to inherit a Great Dane from our son's best friend, who has also moved to Athens.  Her name is Lacy.  It didn't take very long for me to get attached to this huge, slobbery, boisterous dog.  She has claimed me as her person and I'm trying, without much success, to teach her some manners.  Most mornings I get to work with paw prints between my shoulder blades and doggie spit all over my chest.  But I suppose that's half the fun of belonging to a Great Dane!

Here is the book that the Stripping Club is working from, and pictures of the first two blocks that I've made from it.  I'm a little dissatisfied with the first block and may sew a do-over after I finish the rest of the blocks.  The second block turned out a little better.     

Block One - it is actually MUCH more square than it looks in this picture - I take crappy photos

Block Two went together easier - I pressed the triangle square seams open - may do this for each block

Here is the beginning of Block Three.  There are some more pieces but I haven't started putting it all together yet.  Just finished pressing seams open on no less that 20 - yes, that's right, 20 - triangle units.  That's when I decided I needed to take a break and blog!  LOL

Today is a REALLY good day to have a neat hobby!  Here's what it looks like at my house at about 4:15 - it's been doing this for a while, I guess.  I didn't really realize that it was snowing until about 2pm when I came out of the sewing room for a cup of Java.

The picture above is two hours more snow than what I saw when I went into the kitchen for that cuppa Joe.  Boy, was I surprised!

 

And this is the view from my front porch looking down the pasture.  I just love snow, especially if the power stays on!  If the power goes off, I like it for about a day and then I'm ready for it to disappear.  Ha!

 

Hubby has made it back across the mountain from Cleveland so I'm relieved, but won't totally relax until he pulls into the driveway.  Driving in this can be SO dangerous.  The mountain was closed to traffic when he first got into Helen, due to a wreck.  I'm glad that he called to let me know he was on this side and safe!  He's going to try to go to the store for the makings of chili - that seems very suitable for a snowy Saturday, doesn't it?  Yum!  I'm hungry just thinking about it.  Oh Wait!  I'm hungry because I lost track of time in the sewing zone!

My Latest Craftsy Course

Recently I took a Craftsy.com course called Stitch and Slash, taught by Carol Ann Waugh.  The technique of stitching and slashing involves stitching four layers of fabric together in patterns, then tearing away various widths of the layers.  I'm not explaining it too well, but it was fun!  Once you get all of your layers slashed, then you go back and play by adding yarn and decorative stitching.  I had a lot of fun with this project and really like Carol's motto - "There are no mistakes!" 

So I won't tell you how many times that I managed to sew my free-motion foot to layers of the project, because - oh yeah - there are no mistakes!

Now, because I took the process challenge, I've actually got a picture of the unfinished piece, as I was beginning the process of slashing away the layers.  In this picture, you can see the front of the project, with the lines stitched down.  I used four batik fat quarters.  And I've slashed away the first layer of fabric in one section.



And here is a closer shot...

I did lots and lots of slashing.  And naturally forgot to take more pictures.  BUT...once I got through with all the slashing, the next thing was to add yarn over my stitching lines, and then add some decorative stitching around the circles.  Once that was done, it was time to make the quilt sandwich, and do some stitching underneath the slashed areas.  Then I added some free-motion loopty loops (some of which are not very good at all), and then bound the piece with yarn.  Ta Da!  It's actually finished, although I might still add some beads.  This was a fun project and turned out better than I thought that it would, especially since I was using some really cheap fabric. 

Civil War Blocks - A Craftsy Course

So...I've taken the Process Pledge and I am going to apply it to the blocks that I produce from my Civil War Blocks Craftsy course.  If you have never signed up for a Craftsy course, let me tell you - they are Tons of fun! 

Anyway...Kaye England is teaching a Civil War Block course that will yield 12 blocks, a plan very similar to the Block of the Month that I participate in at Bless My Stitches Quilt Shop.  The price was right, and I thought it would be fun, so I signed up for it.

The first block that Kaye has us make is the Remember Me block.  It's a two color, basic block.  So I'm thinking, yeah, I can probably do this, seeing as how I jumped into quilting learning to do more advanced blocks (the jury is still out on whether or not I've mastered THOSE techniques!  LOL)  Anyway, she recommends using some rulers that I discovered she designed.  I checked them out on the web and they do look to be interesting and useful, so I might splurge and purchase a couple of them.  When she demos them during the course, it does appear to make cutting much easier.

Kaye uses a method in her piecing that is new to me.  She doesn't iron between each stage of piecing!  Yes, you heard me.  She doesn't iron until the block is complete!  This is SO foreign to anything that I've learned so far in my quilting journey.  But I decided that I would try her method for the entirety of the course, to see if it actually helps my blocks be more precise.

Using this method on the Remember Me block, I felt like everything was out of control.  But, wonder of wonders, my seams did pretty much line up - usually my Seam Ripper is my best friend!  It just felt really weird, though.  I finger pressed, like she did in the video, so my pieces were basically flat, but it just wasn't as crisp as when you press. 

Since I hadn't heard of the Process Challenge when I started this journey, I don't have step by step pictures, but I can show you my finished blocks.  I made two of the Remember Me just to see if the process felt better to me with practice.  The second block does not have the border on it, but you can still see that everything went together pretty well.  Now in the first block, there is a mistake that I will need to correct.  Didn't see that until I had it up on the design board for picture-taking.  LOL!  You'll have to see if you can find it.  When I did, I wondered why in the world I hadn't noticed it before! 

So...here are my first no-press results:

Interesting Challenge

Today as I was browsing the web, I ran across an quilting page that had an interesting challenge - one that challenges quilters to document the "process" of quilting rather than simply posting the finished product.  That seems to be to be a Great learning tool for quilters to come, so I decided to make the pledge!  It's timely, too, because I recently signed up for a Craftsy.com course with Kay England, to make Civil War blocks.

So...now if I can figure out in this new editor, just how to add the pledge button, I'll be all set.  THEN it's simply a matter of remembering to document my progress.  Ha!

beadywoman2's photostream

beadywoman2's photostream on Flickr.

Happy Valentine's Day Wallhanging

One of the quilting boards that I subscribe to had a link to this free wallhanging pattern.  I had fun picking out the fabrics and making it!

Unexpected Blessings

The lights of the quilt shop that I frequent were glowing softly as I pulled into the parking lot tonight.  You might well ask what I was doing going to the shop after dark.  Well, tonight was a very special night - so special that I just had to write about it.  But first, before I tell you about the evening, I want you to take a moment to think of all the veterans that you know.  And while you are thinking of them, please take time to include their families in your thoughts.  I know that in my own family, we can count the veterans back through the generations to the Civil War and even beyond, to those soldiers who fought in European wars before our ancestors immigrated to the United States.  Family members that I know personally who are or were veterans include my grandfather, my father, my brother, and two uncles, as well as my father-in-law.  So service to country is something not unfamiliar to our family. 

My brother was stationed in Baghdad shortly after the war in Iraq began.  I vividly remember the panicky mornings I spent driving to work listening frantically to the news reports of bombings inside the supposedly safe Green Aone.  I would rush into work, log onto my computer, and try to find maps of the Green Zone to see if the bombings were anywhere near where my brother was, trying to decide if he was safe or not until I could get a reply to my anxious email telling me he was OK.  That was when being a family member of a veteran became personal to me.

When my local quilt shop became a Quilt of Valor shop, a group of ladies, including myself, were given the honor of creating quilt blocks and entire quilt tops to be given to veterans.  This project was begun by the mother of a veteran back in 2005, I believe - you can actually google Quilts of Valor and learn much more about the project than I can remember tonight.  Anyway, the purpose of the project is to give a quilt to veterans as a small token of appreciation for their service to our country.  The project was very intriguing to me, and as I've said, I am participating, although in a very small way.

Anyway, tonight at Bless My Stitches Quilt Shop, a small group of men and women gathered to honor a young man just back from Iraq and present him with a quilt.  I don't think that there are even any words to describe what an emotional experience it was to see this young man, not even 20 years old, with his mother and grandparents, to know that he is the recipient of a Purple Heart, and to watch him receive a Quilt of Valor.  How do I put into words what I felt learning of the bravery he has shown at such a young age?  Or voice even a modicum of the fears his mother must have experienced, or the joy when her son came back home to her? 

Standing in that quilt shop, looking at this young man, I fought back tears.  While I deplore war, at the same time I HAVE to be so incredibly grateful that there are people like this young man who are willing to put all the rest of us before their own lives, regardless of the reason for the war.  Without young men and women like the young man I met tonight, we would be without the many freedoms we take so much for granted. 

These were only a few of the thoughts that were running through my mind as he was thanking us for his quilt.  One thought that stood out from the rest was my thankfulness that this young man did not return to face an angry public like the one that my uncle met on his return from Viet Nam.  And just as that thought crossed my mind, our quilt shop owner picked up another quilt and gave it to a gentleman who, although I didn't ask, surely must have been a veteran of the Viet Nam War.  I think of the stoic, yet genuinely surprised and pleased look on that gentleman's face when he accepted his quilt, and my throat just tightens up and the tears brim even as I am typing this.   

As a nation of people who value their freedom above all else, we should ALWAYS embrace our veterans.  They are heroes any way you look at it.  Whether we believe in war or not, whether we believe in the current cause of the day or not, whether these men and women were called up or signed up, veterans deserve respect and thanks for the bravery, valor, courage, and selflessness they have shown when their country called.  Throughout the history of the United States, were it not for veterans, you and I would not be able to be about our daily business.

If, for just five minutes, we each put ourselves in the shoes of a soldier, experience what a soldier experiences, or experience the quiet desperation of the family members of a soldier, we all might come just a little closer to truly appreciating what these brave men and women have done for us.  I wonder how different our outlook might be if each of us took the time to do that.  Have any of us who are not soldiers truly taken into consideration just what a gift these people, throughout the history of our country, have given us? 

Tonight I experienced a blessing in meeting these two men and thinking of the men in my own family who have served our country.  I thought of those who have died in service to country and how blessed the families of these two men must feel that their folks returned from their wars, whole in body and healing in mind.  To say "Thank You" seems so insignificant in light of what these people do, but these two words can also lead to reflection on their true meaning.  Next time you see a soldier, please take the time to say, "Thank you."