Aaah, cold weather is on the way....

And that sort of causes one to turn ones mind back to the nice warm quilt just waiting to be finished off. Just like quilting, my blogging comes and goes. But it is time that I updated my progress on the cat quilt. Since May, I put the quilt down for a while, then worked on it in two intense weekends, then put it away again for a while. But before I pick it up again, it is time for an update.

First, I need to feature the one who does all the REAL work on this quilt...my sewing machine. It is a simple, trusty machine that I got for Christmas many years ago. It needs oiled every now and again, but otherwise it is good to go. It has made numerous quilts, pencil endge my wedding veil, not to mention the skirts for my bridesmaids, and has stiched numerous other items. I felt like I was remiss in not showing this important peice of the quilting process.

Anyway, as you can see, I have gotten a good ways on peicing the quilt together. You can see above how I take the blocks and lay them out. As I get a line ready to go, I take it to my trusty machine, sew it, and then connect it to the body of the quilt. Sorry about having another foot shot. I swore I would avoid getting them in the shot, but was not careful enough.

It was a lot more time consuming of a pattern than I thought it would be, so I decided to make the section with the squares smaller and add a dark blue edge. This is a great way to make a quilt just a bit bigger. My husband specifically requested that this one be long enough to cover both his feet and neck . He says he does not like the small ones that leave parts sticking out!

I think the pattern itself turned out very neat. You can see how the pattern on the blue fabric lends to the chained pattern of the quilt itself, making it look more like a backdrop for the green fabric. It is very different. I don't know if I would like it with other fabrics, but with these it really turned out.

Hope fully I will have this done before Christmas and can post another update. Although, I am now starting to think about other projects to give as gifts. It is too easy to get distracted. But I love when I get a chance to work on these quilts.

hope you find this post interesting.

Mom's quilts

I have made a few quilts for my mom over the years. She is often cold, so she is really able to appreciate being able to wrap up in a warm blanket. In this post I will show you two of those I have made for her.

The first is one that we designed together...actually one day when mom was staying with me I woke up early, though of course not as early as mom did. When I got to the table with my cup of coffee, mom had a sketch for me. It was a quilt design that she wanted me to make for her.

As you can see, it is a long robe like quilt with a keyhole cut out at the top for your neck. This way, the blanket will wrap around your neck and keep warm air from escaping out the top! :)

Then at the bottom it is a big pocket for your feet to keep them toasty too. And a pocket sewed in the middle to hold a book or pen so that if you have to get up and go to another room, you can keep all your stuff with you.

I definitly recommend getting a big peice of fleece for this in a pattern that you like. These are great for wrapping up in. I like to call them the "Sophisticated Buffalo Robe". Remember, on this one, warmpth is key!!!

The second quilt pictured is one of the first I made for mom. A definite example of

falling in love with fabrics. I loved all these fabrics and had fun putting the peices together.

There is something so great about finding a fabric that is beautiful and soft and cozy. That is the key to a good "working" quilt...beauty and comfort. There are lots of wonderful "show" quilts out there, but I personally only like to make the kind of quilt that I am going to be able to use. I don't even mind it when small seams tear. This just shows that whoever has the quilt is using it...wrapping up in it, letting their dog lay on it sometimes :), having picnics on it, sleeping under it, throwing it in the washing machine, etc. It is functional. A quilt it a work of art that you can use.

The first stages of the quilt

OK, just wanted to start a kind of step by step plan for making a quilt. This is step one of the newest quilt I have been working on. As you can see to the right, I am showing the fabrics I have chosen. I thought that all three of these fabrics would go together, but now I am not sure of the butterfly print on the left. It does not go with the pattern I have chosen. Below is a close up of the main fabric.



OK, so once you have the fabrics, you have to plan and cut. There are a lot of possible patterns to be found on the internet. GO explore and find an easy one you like (especially when you are first starting out). Go for squares. All other shapes are HARD to manage. Definitely start with squares. And they look neat no matter how you put them together.

Then start cutting. I am using big squares and little squares on this one. For the small squares, I sewed strips together and then will cut them into strips the other direction in order to make the sewing part easier.

You can see below how it looks when I cut the strips apart and then start peicing them together into a checkerboard pattern. When I was young, I would take graphing paper and color in the lines with every other block colored in with alternating colors, just like a quilt. And now I love sewing these checkerboards together.


OK, so as I start, I alternate the cutting and the sewing, just to keep it interesting. I get to bored just doing all the cutting then all the sewing. Also, if I am watching TV, I can cut during the show and go to the other room to sew during the commercial.

You can see below how I am starting to peice this quilt together. It is a modified Irish Chain design. I am using the smaller squares for one part part and the larger squares for the other. THen these squares will make a larger pattern of chaining.


I hope you will see as I go and make additional posts what it is like to take these peices and connect them until you all of the suddan have this large whole that makes sense.


I so love doing this and the process of putting things together.

OK, now, this is a retro quilt with a different sort of pattern and cats on it. I need ideas for who should recieve this as a Christmas present, because the best part of finishing a quilt is seeing someone curl up under it. I have had the joy of seeing both my mother and my mother in law open a quilt from me, take it out, and then immediately wrap up in it. That is the best.


OK, more to come, keep watching!!

The call of fabric

This weekend I found someone else who has heard fabric call out to her saying "Make me into something". This new friend was kind enough to share some of this fabric with me, and now I am sharing it with you.

This was just a cool experience because I love when people are excited about a creation they are making. And I just happened to love the fabrics she had chosen for what she was making. We talked about some ideas for what she was making. This gave me some ideas for what to do with the peices she gave me. So there will be more to come regarding what I plan to make. But special thanks to Brittany. YOU ROCK!! And when your project is done, I will add a picture of that, too.

I had a few very interesting experiences in the past few weeks that I wanted to share.

First, some background. I work as a subcontractor for the state as a part of the Department of Mental Retardation Services. We work with people diagnosed with "Mental Retardation". As part of the paperwork of all the people I work with, it states that they are mentally retarded. This is standard language and standard procedure and not in any way intended to be derogatory. It is meant to be explanatory.

But I had this concept challenged the other day. I had a client who was very upset when I arrived at his home. Apparently that week someone had made a comment that upset him. HE asked to talk to me about this and we went walking outside where we could talk privately. This client stated to me that his staff had called him "stupid, dumb, idiot, mentally challenged" I of course recognized to him that this is not right, but I asked him to clarify what exactly his staff said. He replied "She said I am mentally challenged". She used a label...one that is not totally inappropriate. Mentally challenged, Mental retardation, developmentally disabled...this is what we are instructed to call people with diminished mental capacity.

I tried to explain this to my client. He is very smart, regardless of his diagnosis. I tried to explain that we work for the department of mental retardation and that this label is part of his paperwork. He looked at me and loudly stated, "I am not retarded...I am not a retard! I DO NOT want to be called that. THey can't call me that!" He did not want this label that he was given. He understood all the connotations that this label holds.
This experience really made me think about how quick we in the mental health field are to label people in an attempt to understand them, regardless of how we may be boxing them in. People read the labels and think people are less capable, dangerous, scary, disgusting, etc. before they even get a chance to meet them.

I had another experience later this same week of a different client showing me pictures she had taken of large and beautiful brick homes in our town. She flipped through them, pointing out different points of interest. Then she came to a special picture. She held it out to me and said, "THis house is empty...I want to live there!" SHe had a dream. A dream of living independantly in her own beautiful home. She had a very normal dream, but this is not an option for her. I did not try to explain that, however. Her dream was too beautiful to shatter. I want that dream to come true for her.

I learned a lot between these two instances about my clients. What they want and who they want to be. Don't be quick to judge people. This is one of the best things about my job...seeing people with potential and helping them find ways of reaching that potential.

And, of course, learning from my clients. They have a lot to teach, and it is a wonderful and humbling way to learn. Sometimes, after certain sessions, I think they have helped me more than I have helped them.


Check out this site for more info on this topic.
http://www.disabilityisnatural.com/peoplefirstlanguage.htm

April post

Whew, well it has been almost a month since my last pitiful post. CAn't believe it. I haven't had time to work on any quilts lately, although I have one half made waiting on my desk to be finished. I've also been planning to make one for my husband's aunt who has been sick. But there is so little time to do the things we most want to.

Speaking of that, I have been trying to lose weight for two years. The result is that I have gained 15 pounds. Why does it work that way? So we finally decided to get professional help. I just was not successful on my own, so it seemed like the last option. We are going to start working with a fitness trainer. I will keep everyone posted on how it goes.

When I saw my body fat percentage, I almost croaked. But I am hopeful that this will change. I am learning that if I am going to make these kinds of changes I have to prioritize things other than work. And to make that possible, I am going to have to change the way we spend our money. Everything in life is interconnected when it comes to this stuff. Just like the trainer said about our bodies. All the systems are interconnected. If you improve one area, it will affect all the others.

Well, last thing. Anyone who hasn't check Zorro out, please go to http://www.letters-and-surveys.blogspot.com/ There are some awesome vidoes on there!!

Blog at ya soon!

I think of posts on the way to work

But by the time I get home, I totally forget what I wanted to write. But in case people think I have abandoned my blog, I will post about the old abandoned train depot on my way to work.
See, the road I live on used to be a railroad track. There was a train that would go up and down. I don't really know what it carried. Maybe some of the farmers goods would be loaded on it. I know that one of my neighbors remembers the times when she would carry milk and live chickens to the old country store where they would be sold and taken to feed the people of the nearest towns. But I don't know about the railroad.

Anyway, on my way to work I pass this old Depot. It is yellow and green and covered in ivy in the summer. Right now the ivy is dead, so it looks sadder than ever. It is beginning to crumble and fall apart, a memorial to an age completely gone by.

And what is even sadder is what is inside. The depot, according to the story that I heard, is filled with all the belongings of a woman who died years ago in a car accident. Her mother owns the old depot and refuses to sell or remove the items. All her daughters things just sit there, probably unmoved since the time that her life was ended and disassembled.

A sad story, yes, but what gets me thinking on my way back and forth from the daily grind is the question of what we are holding onto and what we are letting go of. A mother holding onto a daughter that is far beyond her grasp, letting go slowly of the life that was. I think and wonder about what I am holding too tightly to. What mouldering items I have packed away in my own personal crumbling depot; things that used to have value before I let them rot away in my heart.

And this one is for The Lions Den, but what about our churches? How have they become old creaky depots by which hundreds of cars pass every day, but no trains run to anymore. See a train depot that does not change itself to something else gets left behind in a world that runs on gasoline. Our churches are stuck in an old mindset, wearing a suit and tie, and opening and closing its doors. But the trains are not coming any more. Until our churches start changing their approach, opening up to a world that runs on something different, we won't see a vibrant place of life and growth. We will see the old depot filled with moldy baggage, going no where.


Well enough rambling for now. These are just my observations, and to show that I have not given up on my blog. I also have a new quilt in the making, so if I can find some time I will track its progress for you.