Christmas Wishes

It is the Saturday before Christmas and we had one last visit to the shopping mall today. Now it is late afternoon and the wind continues to blow fiercely as it has for the last 24 hours. The fireplace is roaring, the gifts are wrapped under the tree, my husband is napping, my daughter is on her computer, and now is a quiet time to write a note of good wishes to you. I wish you all a Merry Christmas. I hope for all your loved ones to make it safely thru the weather created difficulties. I hope there is a large turkey and cookies a plenty on your table. Lastly I wish you one last quilt completed by the new years end.

Bonding Over Quilts

Last Sunday my daughter and her husband held their annual open house. They are wonderful hosts and everyone had a great time and was reluctant to leave. One of the guests was a past coworker of my son in laws. They had been assigned to the same squadron on the west coast some 20 years ago. As most of us realize it is a small world. The coworker and family now live on the east coast about an hour away from our area. As my son in law gave them a tour of the house she noticed a quilt. She asked if my daughter had made it. My son in law replied that his wife’s mother had made it. Upon returning to the main room, our conservation became centered on quilting. She is currently making a disappearing 9 Patch and loves batiks. Who could disagree with that, not me? We had an enjoyable time bonding about quilts. I look forward to next year to hear what she has made during the time interval. I love the coincidence that leads us to fellow quilters. The quilt world gets smaller all the time.

Giving is better than receiving

Yesterday I had an appointment in the morning that finished early. I thought about going home and doing all the things waiting for me. Yesterday was also my quilt guild’s charity quilt day. I hadn’t attended in several months and was feeling guilty about it. So I drove over to lend a hand. I am glad I did. The saying goes that you will get more out of giving than receiving. These quilts are donated to a local hospital’s Chemo Center. So far the guild has made and delivered 138 quilts. The guild group has a goal of 150 by the year’s end. When a bundle of quilts are delivered they are spread out on a table for all the staff and patients to admire. No one can resist hoooos and awes, and touching them. We all know that quilts do more than keep you warm, they warm the soul too. The center has told us that the quilts are highly prized by those who receive them. In fact one the ladies attending yesterday’s bee commented that her mother had received a chemo quilt (from another place and time) and loved it greatly, it had given her a great deal of emotional comfort during her ordeal. The comment cemented the fact that this project was giving to us as much as we were giving to the project.

Autumn has past

October has flown by. It seems I say that every month. Every month I feel like have accomplished only half of what I intended to. October I taught a workshop, vendored at a quilt show, finished a quilt, and went to Quit Market in Houston. It sounds impressive. Yet I did not write a single blog entry. It only takes a few minutes. Actually it takes me longer than that as I really do not like writing. One event I did notice this month was the beautiful autumn we had. I love September and October, warm sunny days and cold nights gave us lots of color. I did take a picture or two of trees in their prime. I knew if I waited another day that color would be gone. A couple of days after the picture taking I left for the Quilt Market in Houston. Houston was having a cold spell. I usually take capris and tops but this I packed long pants and sweaters and I wore the sweaters every day. Super storm ‘Sandy’ was the topic of conversation, and some attendees left early in order to return home. ‘Sandy’ swept our home area more gently than most areas. When I returned however all the leaves were gone – not gone exactly – on the ground. Winter has firmly arrived; the sky is gray and cold. I have a new list to accomplish this month. We have the fireplace burning and I am writing again.

Sewing Room Continues

My husband made me a design wall. All these years I would lay blocks on the guest bed or on the floor. He bought foam insulation board from the home supply store. It comes in 4’ x 8’ sizes. I choose a finished size of 4’ x 5’. We cut the board to size and covered it with batting and duct-taped the overlap on the back. DH made a wood fame, like picture frame, for it. The frame made it easier to hang on the wall. If you should try this remember to hang it into the studs in the walls. The room is taking shape and feels like a true studio now. Fabric is back on the shelves and my sewing machine is plugged in and running. I wonder if my quilts will now look better because of the new look in the room.

Sewing Room Reorganizing

Painting the sewing room was the first step in updating it. For many years I have had make shift selves in the closet of my sewing room. You know the left over chip board bookcase and / or the wire ‘cubbies cubes’. We decided to change that. Measurements were taken of my closet and we discussed the befits of readymade vs. custom made (D. H.) selves. On a Sunday afternoon, we drove an hour to the nearest Ikea store and bought bookcases to place inside the closet. One case is really deep- 15” and 30 ½” wide, I love it. The total width of the closet would not allow 2 of this unit. The width is enough but due to the height of the case (70”) one would not be able to put in the closet – it had to do with angles. So the answer was 1 large and 2 (10” depth) smaller cases. While the combined width is the same as 2 large cases, placing the small cases into the closet was possible. Anyway the result is wonderful. I have lots of selves. I even had room in the closet to tuck in a ‘CD’ tower to use for fat quarters. I have organized my fabrics into appropriate groups and placed them on selves. Some groups need further sorting but it’s good for now. I found fabric that I can pre-cut into squares for future quilts thus thinning the amount of fabric. More room on the selves means I can buy more fabric to replace it. What fun.

A New Sewing Room

In July I wrote of carpet being replaced in my house. The new carpet is wonderful, thick and luxurious. A side note to new carpet is the blemishes of the house showed up. My sewing room was still painted contractor’s beige. We have lived in the house for 13 years. Our thought was what better time to paint than now with everything out of the room. I thought a light yellow would be cheerful. Yellow is not my color but I can appreciate it. I followed all the rules of tints, shades, and pure color. Yellows with orange or green casts to them, and I made my choice carefully. Be aware that paint may change color when placed on top of other colors, even beige. Fortunately I had only painted one wall before I decided this would not do. We covered it with “Kills” and decided to change the color choice to the light blue found in many of the rooms of the house already. I am pleased with the look. I am a blue color person.