The solid squares finished

I got the solid squares and the setting triangles of the quilt finished before Ladybug arrived.  Today I'll work on the sashing around the squares and hopefully get the pieced squares done too. 

With all the kitchen work over the weekend.... once again, I didn't get the window quilts installed.  Bummer.  First things first though.  Preserving the harvest had to be done first.  I'm going to try installing at least a couple of the window quilts this coming weekend.  This month is slowly slipping away from me.  The holidays are looming around the corner.  I want the last of the quilts finished in the next 3 to 4 weeks.  My customers don't mind if it takes longer.  It's me that wants them finished.  I want to do some cleaning and organizing in November, December, and January.  I also want to do some sewing of my own during this time.

I'm so close and yet so far from getting my life to what I want it to be.  A little work, a little relaxing, a little fun, a little crafting, a little cooking..... oh heck, you know what I mean.  I'm going to go quilt now.

Got it stabilized

Well, it's finally stabilized.  Its a cross stitched whole cloth.  Many people don't realize that the cross stitch kits are actually supposed to be layered before the cross stitching is done.   The stitching is supposed to make a reversible quilt.  The stitching is supposed to be the quilting too.  The faint lines of the background design are supposed to be running stitches.  Down at one dot, back up at the next.  In all my years as a professional machine quilter, I've never seen a cross stitch quilt done properly.  Umm..... maybe that's why?  If done properly there'd be no need to take it to a quilter so it's not going to be brought to me.

I went around all the flowers with clear thread and now I plan to follow the markings to do the background with white thread. 

I won't be finishing this one this weekend.  I plan to go through more things to get ready for the yard sale.  I may not get a chance to post over the weekend.  It will depend on whether I get a lot done or not. 

My daughter likes to watch scary movies.  Lots of scary movies.  Well, for me, all I have to do is turn on the news to get scared.  If I really want to get the crap scared out of me, I do an internet search.  Geeze..... it's enough to make me want to buy some depends.  The tv news tells of wars and murder and natural disasters.  I can handle that... a little.  BUT an internet search is absolutely heart pounding sometimes.  If I read too much it would drive me bonkers.  Don't believe me?  Try a search of your own.  Use these key words.....  sustainable living or emergency preparedness or economic crisis.  If you are like me; you'll get sights like how to train a hawk to gather your food, how to use fire arms to defend your home and where to store the ammunition, and storing a year supply of fuel in your house.  Now THAT'S scary.  The wrong kind of spark and there'd be no more need for the family to keep fuel. 

Ok, now that I've scared myself quite enough for one computer session, it's time to start sorting and organizing for the yard sale. 

Not quite finished

Has blogger changed again?  Yes, it has.  I do wish they would stop making changes without warning me.  Now the photos load differently.  It made me think something was going wrong with my computer.  Anyway, this quilt is not quite finished.  I plan to finish it today.

As I was taking a break from quilting, sitting on the porch, several futterbys came floating by.  Some stopped to visit with me.  White ones, brown ones, yellow ones, and this little gal.  She was the only one that stayed still long enough for me go grab the camera.  Who knows, I may put her portrait in a quilt someday. 

The owner of this quilt has given me permission to quilt it as I want.  I plan to show the process as I work on it.  I've sort of unofficially taken the "process pledge" that I see on many artist's blogs these days. 

The process pledge is letting others know the artist's creative thoughts and sharing of how the art is created.  (I think)  I've always said  machine quilting is art.  Machine quilting should play nicely with the design of the top.  Large open areas of a top give the machine quilter places to add their art. 

I could do some trapunto designs in those areas.  Hmm.... seeing plain trapunto designs just doesn't look right in my mind.  They might look good on someone else's top but not this one. I see this quilt with a few more flowers and leaves added to the vines.  Not as more applique; but as what I call "ghosted" images in the background.  More color to tone down all that dark fabric.  Sort of like I did with the background roses on the rose quilt a few days ago.  A technique I learned from Patsy Thompson. 

I will post about this quilt again after I've completed the quilts scheduled ahead of it.  Right now I need to get my day started.

The heat

Nothing very interesting to post about.  No finished quilts to show.  No art finished to show either.  The heat must be keeping everyone indoors like me.  No interesting photos to take.  No neighborhood happenings other than something happening to my computer that's very strange.  Yesterday and the day before, for no apparent reason, it would blip off right in the middle of whatever I was doing.  Just like when the lights suddenly go out.  Only everything else was still on so that wasn't the problem.  Then it would reboot all on it's own.

I ran all the different security software and several things were removed.  There is one remaining item that is an ugly pop up virus.  It's a CORN pop up.  Change the C to a P.  That's what the security software message said anyway. 

From what I read, if it's true, the only way to get that virus removed is by subscribing to a security software annual fee to keep current on these viruses.  McAfee.  Nope, nada, not going to pay anymore annual fees to keep writing blogs.  I already pay two fees for keeping photos and a monthly fee to have internet access.  I suspect it may be similar to the virus that went around the internet a few months back.  You know the one that said we had security problems?  Maybe it's time for my computer to go back to the 'puter doctor for a checkup.  I'll see how my budget is and plan for it next month.

Maybe I'll have something more interesting to post about tomorrow.

A new day

Yes, a new day, new things to think about.

As you know from reading my post, yesterday was a particularly bad day.  What I didn't say in my post was that it would have been my son's 42 birthday.  He passed away from cancer when he was 14.  I wanted to spend the day just remembering him and my mother took that away from me.  

I decided to lay in the bed and take my mind to the quiet place I learned about as a child.  There are no sounds and no responsibilities there.  Only peace.

I awoke this morning still a little depressed but at the same time ready to be normal.  I don't want to be that abused child with the responsibilites of an adult anymore. 
The only way to do that is to stop the contact with the abuser.  This is sad because despite everything, she's still my mother.  See, even now I'm reluctant to cut the strings that hold me to my abuser.  But it must be done.  I'm way too old to let her control the rest of my life.

Today I plan to set up an appointment to petition the courts to get my mother a state appointed guardian.  Neither my brother nor my sister will do it.  They have cut off all contact (years ago) with our mother except when I badger my brother into going with me to see her.   He goes only because of me.   He has a car. Sometimes he will go inside the nursing home for a short visit.  Sometimes he sits in the car and waits for me.

I have often told my mother that I just want to be a daughter.... I don't want to be her parent or her servant anymore.  The last time I was at the nursing home I asked my mother why she never, ever said the words "I love you" to me or the others?  Her response was "I shouldn't have to say that because I'm your mother."  Well sometimes a child just wants to hear it even if they don't believe it.  I asked her why she never called just to say how are you or what are you doing or how are the grandkids instead of just calling me to give orders of things to do.  Her response was "You are supposed to do things for me because I'm your mother."  I guess she never realized that being a mother is more than just giving birth. 

Being a mother should be about doing what is best for the child.  If a mother's love for the child is real then that mother should be strong enough to give up the child for a better life.  I remember several times when all of us had the opportunity to be adopted.  Really nice families that wanted us to be a part of their lives.  Sometimes all of us together and sometimes a family only wanted one of us.  Even today if I ask my brother or my sister about the families that wanted to adopt us..... they can remember every one of them.  I can only vaguely remember one.  I guess because I spent more time in my quiet place than they did.  I can remember all the opportunities but not the families. 

Hmm... I guess I best post this and head to the studio.  I can work until time for the courts to open.

I want my readers to know I'm fine.  Years of dealing with my mother has taught me how to get through the stress.  I either go to the quiet place OR I start cleaning everything in sight.  Today, instead of cleaning I'm going to channel the energy into finishing the quilt on the machine.

Another one finished

I had a hard time getting good photos of the stitching on this one.  The thread blends in really well.   No stitching showed up at all in photos of the back. 

It wasn't quite as hot in the studio yesterday which meant I could work long enough to get this one finished and the next one put onto the machine.

I did an alternating feather and curls on the border.  A simple loop design on the inside border.

I did a curl design on all the lime green inside sashing and floral designs on some of the piecing.

There's stitch in the ditch all over.   I did a leaf and curl design on the outside triangles.

The smaller piecing has line dancing on them with a futterby here and there on the larger of those.

It did take what seemed like an extra long time to quilt this one even though the designs were not difficult.  What took the most time was the stitch in the ditch.  There is a lot of bias with all the triangles.  Add to that the on point setting, you get lots of extra fullness that needs working with very carefully so you don't get puckers everywhere.  That's what took so long.  Being careful not to get pleats and puckers. 

The weather is supposed to be not quite so hot for the next few days.  I sure hope so.  It's been a really long time since I was able to start the next month's quilts a week early.  I have the first July quilt on the machine.  Usually, a machine quilter is way behind schedule because of life happenings and over booking.  I really like being semi-retired!  I'm headed to the kitchen this morning instead of the studio.  For one person, I sure do create a lot of dirty dishes.... geeze.  I'll get started on the next quilt after I clean up the kitchen.

Need opinions please

A few days ago I showed a portion of the sketch for this quilt.  Now it's quilted but it didn't turn out like I saw it in my mind.  I still like the idea.  I'll have to work more on the technique until I get it right.  My camera batteries were low so the photos look kind of washed out.  It's called "morning ritual".

I put too much stitching into the lady which drew up the fabric in those areas and created wrinkles.  Giggle.... I got carried away in stitching which often happens when I'm using the quilting machine.  I get started and don't know when to quit.  I had to put heavy quilting everywhere else to flatten it.  Putting in more stitching was easier than picking out.

I like the brightness of the colors on a black background.  There's just too much of it.  I made the mistake of going over stitching lines to make them brighter. 

I've had this idea for several years.  It all started when I would tell people  "machine quilting IS art" and "I use the quilting machine like a pencil".   Yes, I know there are many quilters doing thread painting.  Some are creating very beautiful paintings with thread and hand dyed fabrics.  I'm a little behind the times getting into thread painting.  A heavy machine quilting work schedule kept getting in the way.... until I retired.

One thing I did learn while creating this quilt it that I need to use something other than regular chalk for drawing the design on the fabric.  The chalk didn't stay and I kept loosing the lines that I was to follow.  It was the only thing I could think of for drawing on a black fabric.  None of my other marking pens could be seen on black. 

Another thing I learned is that I NEED someone to help make a tool for my quilting machine to help with back tracking.  I've asked several people to help make it but they either don't understand how important it is or else I'm not explaining it well enough.  Everyone looks at me with deer in the headlight looks and start avoiding the subject.  I've asked my son, my brother, a neighbor, a friend, and some others but I still don't have the tool I need.  I'm tired of begging people to help me get one made.  I know how it should be made and if I had the proper tools to work with metal I could make it myself.  Hmm.... Maybe a metal working class is in my future?  You think I could get away with taking only one class just to use their metal cutting/bending/drilling tools for about 30 minutes?

Well, I would love to start working on another art project but customer quilts are waiting.  Gotta finish those before I can play again.  Now that you've seen my art project....... any opinions or suggestions?

Good weekend

I hope everyone had a good weekend.  I certainly did.  It was quiet and restful.  I talked with my son in southern KY for awhile until a storm came up.  There was lots of intense lightening for about an hour but not a drop of rain.  I stay off the phone during storms just in case I need to run for cover. 

I really enjoyed the freedom of talking to my son without stressing over the quilting work that wasn't getting finished.  I've got a lot of years to make up for with my kids and grands.  I'm hoping it's only going to get better.  I was unable to reach anyone else.  They didn't answer the phone so I guess they were busy with the holiday in their own way.   I've started thinking about getting a car again.  It's become more important to have a car than it used to be when I gave mine away.

My mother is staying quiet for the moment.  (knock on wood)  The neighborhood was pretty quiet too.  I worked on an idea for an art quilt.  I really hope I can create it the way I see it in my mind.  There's a stray line or two on it.  Like her chin area.  Those will disappear once I start making it.

I haven't forgotten my other art quilts (roses & horses) waiting to be quilted.  It's just that when I get an idea for an art piece my mind won't let me think about other things until I've got it started.  If I can create this the way I see it in my mind.... it will look great.  I've got a lot of hopes and dreams tied up in doing art work. 

I did a little blog visiting late yesterday.  I hadn't intended to get onto the internet at all.  I lost a crown off a tooth about midday yesterday.  You know how getting on the internet seems to magically keep you occupied for hours and hours?  Well that's what it did for me.... kept me from thinking about the tooth.  Today I'll see if I can get an appointment to have it pulled.

Well its time for me to go work on a customer quilt.  The holiday weekend is over and, like the rest of the world, I've got to go back to work.

I have dirt

Yup, I finally got the compost and peatmoss for the square foot garden.  My brother took me.

Today is supposed to be a nice day so I'll try to get these plants in the ground.

Geeze, I didn't know plants were that expensive!  I guess it's like everything else.... the prices are skyrocketing.  Next year I'll start the plants from seed in my house.  I'm just doing what I can for this year.  If I only plant a few things it will help.  Next year I can do more.

Yesterday I started thinking about a fair entry.  I like to enter in the fine arts textile division as well as the quilting division.  I read the description for the textile art several times and I still can't understand it.  It's been rewritten and seems very confusing to me.  I'll have to call the fair board for an explanation before I know which department I can enter. 

Only a couple more weeks until I have my house to myself again.  My schedule can go back to the way it was 6 months ago.  Yippie!  I can work early or late without disturbing anyone's sleep.  Hmm.... I should be able to get a lot of creative work done just like before.  I can even catch up on reading the blogs of my friends and leisurely read emails once more.  I'll be able to post more often on both my blogs. 

Ok, those plants are not going to get themselves planted.  I best get started on it.  I need to finish the planting  and start on a customer quilt.  I'll have to take my door quilt off the machine and set it aside for awhile.  I have until winter to finish it so there's no hurry. 

Busting the stash

I didn't get the quilt on the machine finished.  I only got about half way through it when I decided it was time to do something else.   The thought of all the fabrics I have.... just waiting to be used.... was intruding on my mind.  Who says a fabric stash has to be used for quilts?  Not me.  So, I've decided to use some of it for other clothes too.  I've already used some of it for making my undies so why not other clothes? 

I can rationalize time away from the machine when I have to.  (hee hee)  I pulled out some t-shirt scraps and quilting fabrics.

Then started cutting out an outfit for Ladybug. 

I'll put this one together before cutting out more.  I want to know my measurements are correct and it fits her before any more cutting.  The sewing will have to wait for another day though.  Today I'll be shopping with my SIL. She has a doctor appointment on Friday so we are going today.  I also need to go to the fabric store and get some pretty lacey trim or maybe some rick rack to go on it.  Sewing for a little girl again is going to be such fun!  Especially when I have soooo much fabric to choose from.  It's gonna be a great stash buster.

It was very cold at the bus stops!

Well yesterday didn't go so well. Lots of delays at all my stops. A couple of places I didn't get to after all. I'll go again on Thursday.... maybe. At the library I quickly found one book and a couple of CD books to bring home then hurried to catch the next bus. When I finally arrived at the fabric store I had about 30 minutes to quickly pick out some fat quarters before my daughter picked me up. She had classes last night so I had to go.

Here's the book from the library. I picked it to learn about lights and shadows in quilts. I didn't have enough time to look for other helpful books.

Here's the fat quarters. I decided to stay with cottons instead of batiks. Batiks are very tightly woven fabrics and I need a looser weave for the quilting ideas I have. I think these colors will make some nice roses.

For such a tiny bundle these were pretty expensive. $2.50 per fat quarter. If I had the time I would have looked for yardage and had it cut. On the bolt some fabrics would have been $7.50 or $8.00 a yard instead of $10 as a fat quarter. Oooo.... that's not very thrifty of me. I have to make better "time" plans for my next shopping trip.

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As you can see too, there aren't a lot of mottled fabrics. I didn't see many. Either they didn't have many or I just didn't spot them on the shelves. I think these fabrics have enough light and dark areas to work for me anyway.

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Ok, a full day of house cleaning and laundry awaits me. Time to get started.

The last 2009 quilt

I'm still feeling under the weather. If I could get rid of the deep chest cough I know I would feel better. I managed to finish this last quilt for a customer. She picked it up yesterday because she's having knee replacement surgery this morning. She can work on the hand binding while she's recovering.

It's hard to see it but I did a leafy and curly type of feather design on the outside border and a leaf design on the inside border.

I did line dancing on some of the blocks.

This leaf and curl design on some of the blocks.

Here's a better view of the designs from the back.

The line dancing frames the leaf and curl designs.

Now that the 2009 commitment work is finally finished it's time to move on to my organizing my plans for 2010. I pretty much guessed right at how long it would take to finish up the work I had already scheduled..... way back in February and March.

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Having a toddler here every weekend and in the evenings means my entire schedule must change for awhile. When they move into their own home my schedule will change again. The computer in my daughter's room means I can't post until after they leave in the morning. Impossible to post on the weekends because Ladybug doesn't want me to sit at a computer when there are so many toys to share with NaNa.

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Laundry schedule must change. Cooking schedule must change. Cleaning schedule must change. Gosh, there are many things that must change. Isn't it great!

Life.... more meaningful

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I had a great restful holiday weekend. I hope everyone else did too. I sorted papers....

and made hot chocolate mix......

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and started quilting a customer's quilt. This one has been waiting patiently on me for a couple of months. I still don't know what I'm going to quilt on it. It's gonna require some stand and stare time before I come up with something.

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The papers I sorted were lots of recipes I've gotten off the internet to replace my own that I threw away long ago. I thought for sure I packed away my recipes. I may have and just don't remember where I put them.

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When I started becoming known in the area, and my customer base grew larger, I stopped using my "from scratch" recipes in favor of convenience foods. Convenience gave me more time at the machine to "keep on quilting" and making the customers happy. What I mean by convenience is buying a box of hot chocolate mix instead of making my own from scratch. Or relying on soups in cans instead of simmering my own on the stove.

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I changed so many things over the years just to keep the customers happy and coming back. My life became all about the quilts and the customers. My life became all about earning the money. Little did I realize I was missing out on so much of what should have been important to me. (Geeze, I sound like Mr. Scrooge when he started believing in Christmas again.)

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Life is so much more important than the money we earn. Simple things seem to fall by the wayside as we try to keep our customers happy. It's not the customer's fault. The customer only knows about their own quilt.... not the 100 or so ahead of theirs. The customer doesn't know when we have over booked ourselves.

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Yes, I'm going to really enjoy simplifying my life again. My days won't be any less busy but I sure hope they will be more meaningful.

I thought you were retiring?

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I got myself a good chuckle last night. In yesterday's post I talked about getting things down to a "normal work week". I was reminded (in a comment) that I said I was "retiring". I realized I sounded confused. Yes, I know it sounds confusing. Maybe I should start rephrasing it to "switching careers". I've stopped machine quilting for toppers and switching to just creating art or charity quilts.... for myself.

I still have a few topper commitments that were scheduled way before I decided to retire. I estimated it would take me the rest of the year to finish the last of the machine quilting commitments and I'm pretty darn close.

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After the holidays are over, starting with the new year, I plan to work on things like this.

I plan to work a "normal work week" at creating my style of textile art. For now, I simply want to create without any thoughts of whether or not I can sell anything. It would be nice to earn a living at textile art.... but it's highly unlikely. Maybe in the future something will sell.

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Another thing I want to continue developing is my cardboard furniture art.

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I really do like working with cardboard. There are unlimited possibilities with cardboard. The secondary benefit is I can create it to be functional too.

Have you ever seen the UPS tv commercial with the cardboard characters? Every time I see one of the commercials I get excited. The person that created those commercials elevated the status of cardboard out of landfills and into tv spots. I applaud that person for their talent!

I have several PIGS (projects in grocery sacks) that are grandchild quilts and charity quilts. I plan to finish those and get them done at last.

So, you see, I'm still going to be working. It will be a totally different type of work. "Switching careers." I'll work normal hours without all the stress of meeting topper deadlines. I'll work a normal schedule to make myself happy first and worry about selling after I've accomplished that.

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I have another finished quilt. I love this one. This is one side. It has two battings. One is cotton and the other is poly fluff. When it's washed the applique should puff up more.





This is the other side.

I did stitch in the ditch around all the applique pieces. I used mono thread to hide any imperfections of how close I got.

I did a simple meander in the background. It was the request of the piecer.

I also did a piano key stitching around the outside border and simple loops on the sashing. This was done to keep the stitching fairly consistent throughout. The owner wanted minimal stitching so the puffy batting would stay puffy.

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I had hoped to finish another one yesterday. A really small one that wouldn't have taken too long. I didn't get it done because my brother needed me. I honestly can't figure him out. If I could only understand his fears I might be able to say something or do something to help. We wound up taking him to Our Lady of Peace hospital but he didn't want to go in. He has become afraid of the VA hospital. That's why we went to a different place.

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His wife set him up with an appointment to be there this morning at 8 am. He will start going there every morning and return home after 3 in the afternoon. She gave him an ultimatum. Either go everyday or she moves out. No ifs, ands, or buts. He should be able to handle out patient visits. He does need someone to talk with and no one is better than the professionals.

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A good thing is that his son in law already goes there everyday. Now he will have someone to go with. They get along very well and play golf together quite often.... or at least they did before the panic attacks started. Both seem to be suffering panic attacks. Strange.... very strange that this should happen to them at about the same time.

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With him occupied for most days I shouldn't have any interruptions until after 3 pm. I'm already trying to keep my work time between the time Ladybug will go to day care and when she will come home. By the time she and mom actually move in here, my change of schedule should be a habit. That's the plan anyway.

A different kind of at home retreat

Not a lot to blog about today. I worked the whole day, yesterday, moving everything back where it belongs except for the kitchen. It's sooo not easy to squeeze three rooms of stuff into one room. I had to let some things go. I felt some regret as I saw things leaving but it had to be done. I had to choose.... the kids or the stuff. A grand child is much cuddlier than stuff!

Two bedrooms are pretty much empty and ready for the big move in. I still need to clean up all the dust bunnies from the walls and wood work. I should be able to finish that and the kitchen today then get back to quilting tomorrow.

After I had done all the moving, pushing, shoving, sorting, packing, and cramming I could do for one day it was time for a little computer play. I've been changing the time I get onto the computer so when my daughter is sleeping in the room with the computer I won't disturb her. My habit has been to do a blog post early am, while having my first cup of coffee. It takes only a few days to change a habit. I'm retraining my brain to think "blog post" later in the day. During a time when she will be at work and Ladybug will be at day care.

As you can see I made some changes to my blogs. I tried some of the blogger gadgets. It's easy, just point and click. One that I tried was a real time hit counter. It worked for awhile then both my blogs messed up. I couldn't get them to work properly for me so I removed the hit counter and everything started working again. Whew! If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

I best get my day started. Nothing will get done until I go do it.