A Year in Quilts: 2015
7:21 AM - Posted by Bobbi - 0 comments
This year was pretty amazing for quilting. I bought my Juki in late December of last year and made my very first Jo Morton wall hanging on it in early January. (You can view it in the picture of Quilt #1). I learned a lot about the quilting process, too, and love having more room and a "smoother ride" to quilt with, so it's been a very interesting quilting journey! 

Quilt #1 (Watson by Jo Morton): I didn't care for this particular quilt when it was finally finished (I thought the colors were too reminiscent of the 1970s), so I gave it to my nieces to use as a doll quilt. Molly tells me she and Ella care for 11 baby dolls - an outrageous number, for sure, but it's true. She even brought the pattern with her when she came to visit in October, so I do know that the quilt is loved and well-used which makes me happy. I do love the pattern though, and will probably eventually make something that is more of my taste for my quilt group. It's amazing how many scraps of Jo fabrics I've started to collect. I think it's a sickness.  

Quilt #2 (Arrowstar by Carolyn Simonton): This was another quilt for my Jo Morton quilt group; in fact, Carolyn is in our quilt group and often makes some of the monthly sample quilts! Like my first one, I didn't use Jo Morton fabrics (at this point in the year, I still hadn't bought a Jo stash), so I decided to make this table runner for the Red and White Quilt Competition at Attic Quilts in February. I chose some red and white fabrics and put them together. The finished product is quite stunning, but I find I am quite fond of red and white quilts anyway because they are so striking. I ended up winning first prize in the competition - a $20 gift certificate to the quilt store. (It wasn't all that exciting; however, because I was the only one who entered!) This table runner was given to a friend of mine for her birthday at the conclusion of the contest. She loved it.

Quilt #3 (On Point Churn Dash): This quilt was supposed to be for one person but it took me so long to finish it that I ended up giving it to someone else. This quilt took a lot of planning - a lot more than I had anticipated. Since the churn dashes had to be the same fabrics and the rows were put together diagonally, I had to plan out the entire row before I could start sewing. The finished quilt is a fun, modern twist on an old design, but I'm not so sure I'll be making this one again anytime soon even though I really like the design. It's much easier for my schedule if I can make simple, but beautiful, quilts.

Quilt #4 (Arthur's Quilt): My boys know I love quilts. Arthur, in particular, had been begging to learn how to sew so I promised him we'd make a quilt together. He designed the quilt using a pattern worksheet he'd gotten from school and picked out all of the fabrics. Then he and I sewed it, squared it, and when it was finished, I quilted it. He insisted on sleeping with it the moment I took it out from under the feed dogs! 

Quilt #5 (Nine Patch Chain by Jo Morton): This was my first "official" Jo Morton quilt in that I made it not only using one of her patterns, but also her fabric. I chose three colors: red, black, and tan for the quilt, making sure that all three fabrics had at least one of those colors in it. The end result was perfect. A friend came up with the perfect name, too: "Cherry Pie"! This was also the very first quilt I made a faux-piped mating binding. One of the ladies that attended the meetings often put them around her quilts and I thought, "I should try that!" It was simpler than I thought it would be and adds a nice pop of color next to the binding. I haven't done one since, but I think they look beautiful with some of these small quilts. 


Quilt #6 (Squared Roman Roads): A friend of mine from Fairbanks was going through chemotherapy for breast cancer. I started this quilt early in the year but didn't finish it until close to the end of the year. It was the usual culprits: starting new projects and running the house (and maybe just a bit of ignoring what needs to get done). The final project ended up being her "Recovery Quilt" but it was still well-received. She even messaged me again to tell me how much she loved it. The design was going to be a Roman Road, but I didn't have enough fabrics in brown, pink, and green, and didn't want to buy a whole bunch of new fabrics, so I added another alternating hourglass block. It's a beautiful quilt.

Quilt #7 (Mo's Suspenders by Carol Hopkins): An old college friend was having a baby - her first - so I wanted to make her something special. She was supposed to have a boy (but - surprise! - ended up having a little girl), so I suppose it was a really good thing that the quilt was more or less gender neutral. The quilt was a lot of fun to put together, just on-point four patches leftover from a past baby quilt, but the tricky part ended up being the single squares all lined up in neat rows of green and brown. I was originally going to line up rows of brown, then green, then brown...but I ran out of fabric. (That's the problem with scrappy quilts, I guess!) Instead of going back to the quilt store to try and match fabrics, I did the 1840's thing and made due with what I had: I alternated the brown and greens within single lines to form a pattern in the lines around the four-patches. It's bright and pretty, which was exactly what I was going for!  

Quilt #8 (My First Commission): Believe it or not, I have never sold a quilt. Not even a wall hanging. Everything I've ever made, I have donated or given away as a gift. When Balin's old gymnastics teacher contacted me about making a baby quilt for her, I originally asked her about Mo's Suspenders (above), since I had already started sewing and laying out the pieces. She declined, saying she wanted something along the "Very Hungry Caterpillar" theme. Since she was a friend, I decided to charge her the cost of materials, plus a little something extra for myself. The total ended up being $75 which was way below what this quilt should have cost. In fact, a friend of hers messaged me after my friend posted the quilt on her page and asked how much I would charge to make her a quilt like that. When I explained that quilts are time consuming and expensive to make and that it would cost about $150 (yes, twice as much!) to make her a quilt, she never wrote back. To be honest, I wasn't surprised in the least. 

Quilt #9 (A Tisket, A Tasket by Jo Morton): I don't do much with appliqué. I am not a big fan of hand sewing and I would never do it if I didn't have to. Every once in a while, though, Jo Morton designs quilts with appliqué and then, well...I have to try. By this time, I had amassed enough Jo fabric to create something in oranges and browns. This picture is of the unfinished quilt, but I did manage to finish it this year and even quilted it with a fun pseudo-crosshatch design that I found online. The handles were appliquéd with a zig-zag machine stitch because I didn't want to deal with hand sewing (although, in retrospect, I might have looked nicer with hand stitches). Still, it's one of my favorites. 

Quilts #10 and #11 (Burgoyne): This pattern was also from Jo's club, but it is an old block, developed about 200 years ago. I couldn't tell what the design actually looked like in Jo's picture until I looked up the block online. It's a neat block with a lot of variations. I made both of mine with two colors, as is usual for this block. The first (left) I kept and put on my wall. I did quilt and finish it this year, though it is unfinished in the picture. The second one I  donated to the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program. It reminds me of something from "Space Invaders" and I get a chuckle thinking about who ended up bidding on it during the silent auction.

Quilt #12 (Star Wars Crazy Quilt): This is officially the third Star Wars quilt I made for my boys. This one is Balin's quilt and is sized the same as Arthur's, but there are some subtle differences. One difference is in the quilting: Arthur's was taken to a long-arm quilter and I quilted Balin's myself. Another difference is that Balin's Star Wars quilt has some newer fabric that wasn't available when I made Arthur's or Robinson's. It's about time the boys had something to wrap up in when they watch the movies!

Quilt #13 (Antiquity by Jo Morton): This was the final Jo quilt I actually finished this year (I had two that were pieced, but not quilted) and I liked it until I added the green border. The ladies at the quilt club tried to convince me that the border gave the rest of the quilt something fun, but I disagree. I ended up sending this quilt to a friend of mine who had a baby because I didn't have time to make him a full-sized baby quilt. I will probably make this one again because it was so easy to put together. It would look nice in a blue and cream, I think.

Project #1 (Wedding Pillowcases): These aren't quilts, but they deserve some recognition. I made these for my cousin and his partner who were finally getting married after being together for a decade. I had these pillowcases for years - ever since my grandmother died and I found them in her embroidery stash - but I had never done anything with them. They seemed to be the perfect gift for the two of them, so for several months before the wedding, I embroidered them in my spare time. They are gorgeous and a lovely reminder of our grandmother!

What will next year's quilting adventure bring? 

Blessed be.


Two Christmases
8:30 PM - Posted by Bobbi - 0 comments
My family is notorious for sending things late. Even my mother, who is usually the only one who arrives on time in my immediate family, sends Christmas boxes - but not Valentine's Day cards, birthday presents, or Halloween cards - late. Ironically, my sister - who is usually the late one - sent all of our presents well before Christmas this year.

We were in the middle of a move, which I do not recommend. Ever. Not only did we have to worry about Christmas and farm visits and cookie making - our typical December activities - we had to worry about cleaning our old apartment and organizing our new townhouse. So perhaps it was not entirely my mom's fault that the box didn't arrive on time because the post office had to redirect our mail, but regardless, we ended up having two Christmases anyway.

Arthur, of course, was very concerned about the gifts not arriving on time, but he certainly didn't complain when he got to open more presents a few days after Christmas! (Plus, the second time was more fun because he and Balin got to open them in front of Nana and his aunties.)

What did you do for Christmas? Did you have two of them?

Blessed be.


The Townhouse
10:28 AM - Posted by Bobbi - 0 comments
We've been in our apartment for a long time - almost two and a half years, to be exact. We had never intended to stay that long; the apartment had always been temporary, but good housing in Beloit is hard to find.

This spring, we saw three basement foundations about a mile away from our apartment. A nearby billboard read that a series of new townhouses would be built in the lot. We contacted the property manager right away and filled out an application. 

The townhouses were going to be 3-bedrooms, energy efficient, and spacious. When we found out we were approved to live there, we were excited; the only problem became apparent when building the townhouses became a much more laborious process than they had anticipated. 

They had originally slated the building to be completed in July, then September, then November. After months and months of waiting, we were finally able to move in December.

Relocating in December is disasterous. There's so much going on and it was a struggle to organize everything. The only positive was having time off from work to get everything in order. 

We got rid of several carloads of junk we didn't need anymore and there's still more to sort and put away but everything's where it belongs, more or less. 

Now the boys have their own rooms. The transition wasn't as nearly as traumatic as I thought it might be. After all, they shared a room since they were very young. They complained of it being too quiet and too dark, but now they have adjusted just fine. They are excited about decorating their own rooms - Balin in Paw Patrol and Arthur in Lego themes. So far, we've been able to find a lot of Paw Patrol stuff for Balin because it is so popular; the only Lego bedding and decorations we've been able to find has been from The Lego Movie and he's not fond of The Lego Movie. So, we're still looking for something that he'll like but is also cheap enough to fit into the budget.

They still attend their elementary school though they now ride a new bus. They've adjusted well to that change, too. 

It's a good change, a good adjustment. We're glad to have this opportunity.

Blessed be.


Yule 2015
11:29 AM - Posted by Bobbi - 0 comments
For the past two years, we haven't been able to celebrated Yule, not properly. We had been unable to have a real tree because of our apartment rules. One year we had a large wreath and last year we bought a fake tree.

This year, we took the fake tree back to Goodwill and bought a real one. Since we were in the middle of moving and I was still teaching, I left Robinson and the boys in charge of finding a tree. They were more than a little excited to decorate and show off their results after I came home from work. Since we had a real tree, we were also able to cut a Yule log from the trunk.

We had already coordinated with Gloria to have a holiday party at the farm before she left to visit Brian and Byron in Chicago. We decided to take our Yule log with us so that we could celebrate properly, but not with a bonfire. The log would be burned in the wood fireplace in the kitchen, not in a bonfire outside. This would be the warmest Yule we've ever had. 

Like our previous Yules, we each picked something that we wanted to learn or do over the course of the next year. Even Gloria chose something: she planned to become more organized.

Instead of carving the log, I wrote everyone's wishes on the end and then Robinson threw it into the fire. 

"The log gets burned and the wishes go up to God...if you trust Him," Arthur said. It was humorous at the time and I like to think this was less of a tribute to God, but more of an honest skepticism. 

The boys made cookies and kept licking their fingers as they sprinkled the tops with little candies. Gloria laughed and joked about refusing the cookies because of all the fingerprints. 

Robinson made a fondue of emmental, Swiss, and fontina that night, dipping chunks of bread, broccoli, cauliflower, apples, and pears into it. The boys drank homemade sparkling juice - a mixture of canned grape juice and ginger ale, while the adults consumed plenty of Winking Owl and Brandy Old Fashions.

The next day we started a 1000 piece puzzle and opened presents. Gloria laughed at our annual family picture and was excited to try her new spices when they arrived in January. 

Blessed Yule, everyone.


Breath
10:02 AM - Posted by Bobbi - 0 comments
There are days that I seem to inhale all the world's problems and grief. I do nothing but process these feelings. It doesn't actually help; rather, everything seems more depressed.

Today is a difficult day for me. I can't seem to think about anything without wanting to cry. I force the tears back and - even if I did shed them - would it actually help? Would it be cathartic or would I feel more hopeless and frustrated that I can't do anything to alleviate the suffering in the world?

The older I become, the more I realize the power of breath. I am alive because I breathe and I breathe because I am alive. I shed tears because of the suffering around me, but that does not mean that I shouldn't stop my breath.

So today I will feel this pain and anguish for a while longer until the Universe takes it from me. I will meditate upon where there is breath, there is hope.

Blessed be.