My Quilting Journey (long)

I began quilting in 1999. I'd always wanted to try my hand, or should I say machine, at it. So much so that I crocheted a 'patchwork' bed cover back in the late 1970s. My nearly blind grandmother (she had macular degeneration) made a whole bunch of quilts from feedsacks in the '70s and gave one to each grandchild (I wonder how my brother got two?). I didn't know a thing about feedsacks at the time, let alone how to care for such a precious gem so I loved that quilt to the point of it showing lots of wear and tear before finally stowing it away in my hopeless chest (no chest, just a box and I was single with no prospects). Back then, at least to the extent of my knowledge, quilts were tied and used for bed coverings, not highly decorated and placed on a wall, nor in a glass case. Perhaps that's why I far prefer traditional quilts over fabric art. Don't get me wrong, I 'appreciate' the art pieces and the labor and creativity that go into them, but in my book, true quilts go on a bed or over a lap, other than that, they're quilted wall-hangings or fabric art. And yes, lest anyone take offense, I have made and display quilted wallhangings and some that would be considered fabric art because I've added decorations in the form of buttons, bows and other ornamentation to them.

In 1997 we had been married for about a year and a half, not getting younger (not quite mid-40s) and DH and I decided we should be letting God decide if we were to have children, so we stopped preventative measures and in Feb 1998 were happy, though a little frightened, to find I was pregnant. That pregnancy became the now near-teenager. And he was the only one, though I have a daughter from a previous marriage. Having the near-teenager gave me the blessing of being able to be at home full time, that and DH taking a new job within six months of his birth that increased his income substantially.

While I lay in bed nursing my newborn darling boy, I discovered HGTV. I never knew of it as prior to my marriage I didn't watch television and hadn't, except rarely, in nine years and was pretty much clueless as to daytime and cable television because I'd been a full-time employee, part-time student, and very involved church member - there was no time for TV. Wouldn't you know, I discovered Simply Quilts with hostess Alex Anderson. I loved that show. I loved all her guests and I kept saying to myself that I should try it and see if I'd like it or could even do it. So after two years, yes, you read correctly, TWO years of watching - ok, so I'm slow and lack confidence - I found some scrap pieces of fabric from my high school home economics days (yeah, I'd kept that stuff for, um, well, over 25 years) and from somewhere had a pattern for a single pinwheel block. Wow, cool, ok, I can DO this, I LIKE to DO this. So first on the agenda, and maybe I'd already done this and that's where the pattern came from, I bought a beginner quilt supply kit. You know, the one with the rotary cutter, a ruler, and a 6"x 12" cutting mat. Having watched Alex's show for so long, I trusted her so I picked up her Start Quilting with Alex Anderson book. While the book gave the fabric requirements to make individual quilts of each of the five blocks, it didn't give a separate list of fabric amounts if you wanted to make it just as a sampler. With not knowing a thing about drafting or adjusting the fabric amounts and hearing that five-letter word "stash" I went ahead and purchased fabrics for all the quilts, except for the backing fabrics, and so my stash was well on its way to becoming a hoard.

Somewhere I had picked up the notion that really good quilters didn't need to pin, so my very first quilt (wallhanging) saw no pins. If it wasn't perfect it was unsewed (I don't like the term reverse sewing, that to me says sewing backwards not ripping out what you've sewn.) and then resewed. The block section turned out quite well, I was very proud of my accomplishment. Overall I was very happy with how it turned out. Of course, now that I have more than a decade's experience behind me, I have become very dependant on those pins I once abhorred. I like very thin pins for piecing. Also, I can now see the less-than-perfect areas of this little quilt. Some of the fabric choices and colors are just, bleh, the borders are a little wobbly - I must've missed the lesson on measuring those! - and the binding is so-so even though that isn't really obvious. Knowledge and growth can sure change perspective, but I wouldn't trade, or try to fix, that "first quilt" from the way it is for anything. It's my history. And the genealogist in me says "let it stand".

There's a bit of OCO in my quilting...Obsessive/Compulsive Ordering as I don't like DISorder in some areas of my life. I have kept nearly every receipt for any quilt-related product or purpose and set up an Excel spreadsheet to track my purchases by item, and I also label my fabric with a pinned on sticky post with where I purchased/obtained the fabric, when, cost, how much fabric and an assigned number which is logged into yet another Excel spread sheet. However, I didn't start this until somewhere well into the first year of quilting so I don't have some of the early information, but do have the receipts. I just can't identify which specific fabric they go to. During that first year, a neighbor a block away was having a yard sale and I bought an absolutely HUGE box of mixed fabrics, and a couple bolts of juvenile blends, all for around $40 :) it was a little difficult to assign an individual cost to those. My purpose in all this was that as I could see my stash growing and this was/is a hobby, I wanted to be a good steward of the resources the Lord provided through my husband's hard work, so tracking my expenditures on a hobby was important to me, although DH really didn't care.

I also developed a form to fill out for each project I began that would give me all the details that went into the making of the quilt project i.e. the materials, the pattern name & author, and how much time I spent on each element of the process. I also developed a separate sheet that would have 1 1/2" square samples of each fabric with the aforementioned identifying number. Yes, there's some maintenance on my part in all this detail, but I figure it helps me by keeping my 'work' brain active should I ever have to return to a paying position in an office environment. I'd worked in a telecommunications department of a large aerospace firm doing billing reconciliations, coordinating between the responsible departments and accounts payable. So in that sense, I was an analytical bean-counter, lol.

The realization had hit that I was behind in some areas of this process, so yesterday I caught up, and additionally pulled out my finished, my UFO and everything in-between projects and made sure I had photos of them. Photos will begin to appear in the next few days, or sooner.

That's the journey. In 12 years I've started 34 quilting projects of my own that I've logged. Maybe 30% are finished, 30% are nearly finished, and the rest... well, their process will be shown here eventually as well. I have also during those years helped with other project not my own, and some community service items through the quilt guild to which I belong.

Distressing News

This morning I received a phone call from my family member in the Northwest to let me know that she has breast cancer. She has chosen, given her age, to have the affected breast removed rather than have the lengthy, and daily(?), radiation treatments. While optimistic, one never knows the outcome of these things in the early days. Yet to be known is if the cancer has traveled to the lymph nodes or elsewhere. The nasty intruder is said to be the size of a nickel. Isn't that pretty large? It wasn't discovered in the last mammogram she had two years ago. Perhaps this would be a good time to stress keeping your annual mammogram appointments!

There is no update on the kitty's health issue. I stopped at the vet's this morning, but Mrs. Vet wasn't in today so will get kitty there tomorrow for an exam and to discuss if there are any options to keep her with us. This is not a good time for this to be happening as the near-teenager will be a teenager on Saturday and it would be an awful dampener of his special day.

Much prayer is needed, and requested. Thank you ever so much. The Lord knows the lady and her needs.

Special Needs Kitty

Meet Fanner. She is our much-loved kitty with some very special needs. From the time she arrived in our home, we were able to see something wasn't quite right with her. At just a couple months old, she was walking funny one day and drooling from the mouth. She spent a night at the vet's office quite aways from home because it was the only one open on a Saturday late-afternoon. They weren't able to diagnose the problem but informed us we could take her to a specialist for a spinal tap...a drive of two hours away and a likely cost of over $1500 or have her put down. Ooooo-kayyyy. Well, we opted for neither and took her home to love her and wait and see how things would naturally go. I should mention here that we got her specifically for our then 6-yr old son. Or was he 5? She did better and over a few months we determined she was allergic to fish in the canned cat foods...good observation by hubby. Fish in dry food was ok. We had a regular vet nearby but testing he did wasn't adequate and over the next couple of years things were touch and go and almost gone when he gave her all of her shots at one time. More time spent overnight at the vet's. Eventually, I was recommended by a neighbor to go to another vet here in town, more expensive, but she specialized ONLY in cats. After several more tests, and a process of elimination, it was determined that Fanner had a condition known as liver shunts, more often found in dogs than cats (Google searches can explain it far better than I!). Something doesn't develop right with blood vessels & liver at birth. During the two years prior to Mrs. Vet, Fanner also began having seizures which became more often as time passed. Mrs. Vet put her on a medication that would hopefully help and it has some, but the seizures have never stopped and the medication, being a sugar-based product, caused uncomfortable flora to grow in her belly, so she also had to start taking Amoxycillin to curb the flora. From the seizures, she became blind although she can 'see' light and seems to be able to tell some things when in her path but will run into others. Regardless, she gets around very well indoors and in our enclosed back yard. She can't get out because she can't jump - hind leg muscle weakness issues. A couple years ago, she developed bladder stones. We'd noticed she was having trouble urinating and there was blood in it. Back to the vet and an expensive bill to surgically remove the stones. Mrs. Vet showed them to me...as big as my little fingernail! That's big for a little 6-pound cat. I can only imagine the pain yet she never wimpered. Mrs. Vet told us that should the stones recur, that she wouldn't recommend another surgery, it would be too hard on her. Well, the reason for writing all this...we've reached a point where it appears the stones are back. She's presenting the same symptoms and unless Mrs. Vet has some new options when I call in the morning, I'm afraid we'll have to say goodbye to our precious kitty. It'll only get worse and we don't want her to suffer. She's my boy's kitty, but I think I'm more attached than he is. She sleeps next to me most nights, follows me around the house like a puppy dog during the day. I feed her, medicate her and scoop her litter. And I don't want to face tomorrow :(

Planning For 2012

No, I don't believe the world will be ending in 2012. Believing the truths of God's word in the Bible, the Lord Jesus would have to return to remove His followers (known as the Rapture of the Church). Following the rapture is the seven years of tribulation, which is then followed by Christ's 1000 year reign ON THE EARTH, so the earth has, at a minimum, another 1007 years should the Rapture occur imminently....many days I would like that to happen now rather than the day of which no man will know until the time. Other days, I pray it doesn't happen for a very long time because there are so many people I love who don't have a personal relationship with Christ and I want to see them in Heaven. So, I know the earth will be here in 2012, whether I am or not! So I will plan, and the Lord will make the necessary adjustments to my steps.





Since girlhood I've enjoyed collecting recipes. In part I think, because growing up we pretty much had just basic foods and repetitive meals. That may have been fairly normal in a rural area where neither money nor grocery variety were abundant during the 1950s and 1960s. Over the years I've culled through those old recipes, added new ones and added numerous cookbooks to my shelves. Something I need to do frequently. Lately I've been creating weekly menu plans with a breakfast/lunch/dinner chart on the front and a shopping list on the back. For both, I found forms online, adjusting to suit my needs. I have about six months worth in work at this time. What I've noticed is that I must really be desiring winter, as many of the recipes I'm adding are casseroles, stews, soups, and in general, hearty meals. As I refine these menu plans, I'll see how I can adjust them to make them healthier without robbing flavor. Hubby and I both need to lose more than just a few pounds while the almost-teenager is a true string bean! We want to keep eating like we're 20 and the string bean doesn't. My goal is to have the menus ready for 2012, if not before.

Next on my list is to get more quilting done. Aside from Poseidon Loses, I've done nothing on creating quilts except adding to my fabric stash and quilt tools and books collections. PL is the 34th quilt I've started/worked on since I began quilting in 1999. And some of those, as with PL, were worked on by others as well. In that count are some missionary quilts, a couple quilts for military members in our church fellowship group, and a quilt for our pastor and his wife that were joint projects where I did the piecing and others did the quilting and/or tying and binding. Some of those projects have only reached the starting point of setting aside the pattern and fabric, but I still count them because I will proceed with them. I'm looking forward to joining Judy L's weekly stash reports, Design Wall Monday and UFO Challenge 2012.

In part, that's also why I want to keep up with this blog. It may not be daily, may not even be weekly other than the reports, but I'd like to keep it going with some of the things in my world, and as I learn my way around this blogging thing, I'll start adding some photos.

Poseidon Loses

This project was tossed my way this past Spring. It was intended to be a quilt for missionaries from our church. It may remain in my custody for a very long time. The fabrics, all wonderful, were chosen by someone else, my guess probably more than a decade ago. The pattern is altered from the book: Samplings from the Sea by Rosemary Makhan copyright 1993. Many of the various blocks were already finished but some didn't align 'perfectly' but I thought they were close enough to 'ease' together. Many other parts to various blocks were also cut out. I cautiously checked the remaining amounts of the various fabrics to make sure there was enough of each to make the quilt in the layout that would work for our missionary quilt preferences. The diamond blocks in this project are all template made (have I said 'ugh' yet?). I cut some of the additional pieces needed and set myself to sew together all the blocks (I confidently ignored the cardinal rule of measuring the finished blocks.). I then, just as confidently, sewed three strips of the blocks together before taking them to my design wall and pinning them up to see how it would look. Gasp!!!!! They DIDN'T LINE UP!! And they were too far off to 'ease' in. Like about 6" between the first and second rows...how could I have goofed THAT badly. Well, lesson learned for sure! So this is where the hours of unsewing, remeasuring and trimming, and yes even adding smidgens, and in some cases all new pieces to do it all over again. I unsewed nearly EVERY block in the piece. I was NOT going to let Poseidon win. The top measures 86.5 x 74.25.

End of Summer...Catching up

Oh my! It has been quite some time since I posted, hasn't it? I realized I had prepared a post welcoming in 2011 but hadn't posted it; it is now posted.
On to some updates from 2011:

• Our son, nearly 13....and several inches taller than I! He's grown a lot this past year.


• My daughter gave birth to an utterly handsome baby boy the first week of September 2010. We traveled to visit them during Thanksgiving week and met the little bundle of joy. (It's over 1100 miles away.) He's now over a year and walking.


• In the spring, a whole lot of quilt fabrics and books were passed my way, along with a project that had been started & abandoned...I now know why! I spent many hours sewing, then unsewing, then resewing and now have a beautiful Storm at Sea quilt top ready for the backing to be assembled. Project is currently on hold due to a couple of the following reasons.


• My 40th high school reunion was this summer so our son and I traveled to my hometown. Where did 40 years go?


• While attending the activities of my class reunion, a pain developed in my lower right abdomen, yep, appendicitis. I put off going to the ER for several days so am praising God it didn't rupture during that time.


• One week after the appendectomy, I took a fall and injured my wrist. Another trip to the ER. Not broken, but badly sprained. Upon returning home at the end of vacation had an MRI: tears in the ligament. Eight weeks later, it's still a bit painful with certain motions but is on the mend & won't require surgery, but I still have to use the splint with certain chores and activities.


• Son's school resumed the last week of August, so we're adjusting to the changes of being in junior high.


• With the wrist issues I've been able to do only the minimums with housekeeping and such, and very little to nothing on my hobbies of quilting and genealogy. DH isn't 'allowed' to cook, or wash dishes...it's just best for all that way ;). Son has learned to wash most of the dishes.


• Hmmm, now I'll spend time figuring out how to return to normal margins instead of bullets. Technology!

Hello 2011

Whew! Where have I been? Utterly distracted. Treacherously dealing with the affairs of the 'farm' and the 'frontier' and secretly wishing both would go away and take my 'addiction' to them with them. Well, that likely won't happen, but hopefully, prayerfully?, the time spent on them will be lessened.

2010 is nearly over; in less than six hours here. 2010 in so many respects has been a personal waste. I've neglected much. I've felt the un-dealt-with effects of my own sins of anger, resentment, bitterness, laziness and neglect of God and His word. And so 2011 will encounter the prayers and efforts of trying to undo what I should never have allowed to occur within my own heart and soul.

Lifting my bottle of water, as I'm not a drinker, here's to 2011 !
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Oct.1, 2011 - I obviously didn't get this posted on Dec 31st, LOL