No Small Task

When I pulled out three of my fabric bins to organize, it was no small task. And already, it seems like I worked against having the pieces all cut, marked and set into the size system when I took out some pieces to make another mug rug.

Its amazing that the jumble of fabrics folded into three of the bins & now fit into one. Everything is tied with the selvage edges ripped from larger pieces before I used them. Everything is colored too from light to dark.

I got to thinking that while I did find the sizing for all the pieces, I didn't know how many pieces went into them for sale  in the stores.

• A Dessert Roll is 20-25 different fabric pieces that are cut 5" wide and Width of Fabric (WIF) long. Some fabric manufacturers stopped selling them, but I did find a pattern I want so I can use these up and make a back for a quilt.
• A Jelly Roll is 40 different fabric pieces cut 2.5" wide and WOF
• A Charm Pack is 40 different fabric pieces cut 5" square WOF
• A Mini Charm Pack is 42 different fabric pieces cut 2.5" square
• And the Layer Cakes Pack is 40 different fabric pieces cut 10" square

There are abundant choices for quilt patterns that use these sizes, and the ones for sale in the stores are really sold as seasonal promotions for the fabric lines.

As I looked at what I cut and organized, it came to me that these are wonderful scraps that I can use and make as quilt backs. All I need to do is get a coordinating fabric from the front design and use it as sashing or borders, and be able to use up what I have.

It takes a lot of work, thought and planning to use what I have. I think I have been mindful of so many ecological issues for my life. I compost my kitchen veggie cuttings, I use up the dregs of household products before buying something new. That sort of thing. So it makes such sense to find uses for fabric scraps.

My next task is to go through all the small bags with smaller scraps and decide if I can use them or if they need to be given away to someone who can. I put all of them into a bin, and at least they are in one spot.

Preparing for my trip back to MN/WI next week is really a top priority for me right now. I want to finish loading the dream pillows with the Lavender and sew up the seams on them. And I want to make sure I have the mug rugs finished as well. 

The tasks awaiting my touch fill me with anticipation and joy. I am not a procrastinator and so each seems like an opportunity for growth. I really like being this organized even though I can create chaos in a New York Second and I often will change my systems if I think something else will work better. Change is delightful!

Lavender Dream Pillows

I've been a long distant Granny for almost all their lives, so have found ways to connect to them, one of which is making Lavender Dream Pillows. Finding ways to make connections to family and friends can be uplifting and challenging.

This year, with the drought in Cali, the flowers are blooming ahead of their usual season so I was able to harvest Lavender from one of the older plants and dry it in a couple of vases in my office and on the dining room table. This means I can bring the Dream Pillows with me and give them to each of my seven darlings on my trip back to the Midwest next week. I used to take harvested Lavender and Dream Pillow forms with me so the Girrlies could load the herb and hand stitch them closed themselves. They learned how to thread the needles & do the simple stitch. Ahhh, such grand Memories.

I posted photos on Facebook of the plant before cutting it and shared my plan to make Dream Pillows for my Grandchildren. It wasn't too long before they were replying with the colors they wanted for theirs! Memories and Traditions pull at us for all our lives. Those Memories & Family Traditions are the moments that either build self-esteem or take us down. This is definitely a good moment for all of us. With all the fabrics I had been cutting the last few days, I went to the pile of 10" squares to make the Dream Pillow forms.

They are double sided, and I simply flipped them over and kept them in the same positions here. They are filled with a poly batting and after the Lavender is completely dried, they will get several tablespoons full of Lavender and be hand stitched closed so they are finished when I give them to my darlings. They will fit into a larger baggie with the air sucked out to go into my suitcase.

Lavender is one of those herbs known for its calming fragrance and has been used for centuries to help sleep. I've seen it added to baby oils and bath soaps, as well as to detergents and dryer sheets. Yesterday I bought TP with it infused on the cardboard tubes.

For myself, there are a couple of small pillows on my bed that have been there for years. I reach for one of them in the night and within a breath or two relax and sleep well for the rest of my time there in bed.

I did finish the cutting, measuring and tagging the fabrics from three of my bins. They lay so perfectly in order that one bin is empty now and can be repurposed. I've found a couple of patterns that call for either fat eighths or fat quarters, but have yet to stumble on one asking for that "dessert roll" size. Two and a half days for this task of cutting, measuring and tagging. I must say that towards the end of it, I hated all the standing and sorting and really wanted to pack it away and give up on it. Making the Dream Pillow forms was a welcomed  relief that made it easier to return to the cutting project and get it done. Also, the Lavender scent helped relax me.

The cutting project had its benefits to my entire work as a foundation. There is satisfaction and sense of value in the task now that it is done. I don't think I have developed enough of a tradition to do this with new fabric because I don't often buy new fabric. I want to hold the memory of it like I do with the memory of making Dream Pillows. 

Well, its a good plan.

For All Those Who Stand & Cut

I spent most of yesterday standing and cutting fabric, and am only half way through the project. As I worked, it struck me that cutting fabric is a metaphor regarding the separating that we must do for other things in our lives. Sometimes, its about cutting people or situations out whose time has come for us or them to leave.

Like cutting fabric, I tend to let that go for far too long. Its a hard act to do, this cutting away. Its not always that someone or something is dysfunctional, though sometimes that is the case as well. We simply don't have enough role models showing us how to do it, and that we will survive.

 Cutting into fabric when you are using it with a pattern is wholly different than cutting the leftovers into the various pieces (I listed some sizes on my blog yesterday). Then, its the thought of "What If?"  What if I need something different? or whatever.

The first pile I made from the three bins was all the smaller scraps. They were easy to cut into 2.5", 3", 4", 5", 6", 8", 10", the 2.5" strips, and the dessert strips of 5". I could imagine these easier cuts as leaving school, or walking away from low paying jobs out of necessity.

The second and third piles from my stash had larger & longer pieces, and so I was able to add fat eights and fat quarters. As I continued to the third pile of stash, it became a matter of measuring for 1/8 yard, for a 1/4, 3/8, a 1/3, 5/8, 2/3, 3/4, 7/8, and a yard.

Measuring more and cutting less, yet still cutting in some cases, and in other cases, letting the inch or two ride with the piece. Measuring was like evaluating, assessing and yes, judging. More thoughtfulness came with this part of my task, as if I had learned what it meant to cut or to say good bye, and it had taken on a whole other dimension to the metaphor. 

It seemed to bring a new level of personal confidence in what I was doing. There was less doubt in my relationship to those pieces of fabric and I was aware that whatever was right would be there at the time I needed it. In fabric.

My thoughts stretched to my life, and the people in it. If how I quilt is a great teacher for my spirituality, was I learning that it was ok to cut out situations and trust that what I need at the time I need it would be there...be there because I was doing the work to clean up my spiritual and emotional stash and bring order to it?

This had become an opportunity for me to take stock of my material assets and see what counts, how I count, how people in my life count. It can be hard to believe that what is right will come to us. Its hard to make those cuts because we fear our judgment about what we are destroying to go forward. And now, onto Day #2 for the rest of the project.

Rockin' Wednesday

There is a happiness in knowing who I am even if what I do makes me smile at myself. When I was growing up, there was a standard in my home for organizing, for cleaning, in caring for our possessions. Like all kids, I resisted the work and the essence of it all. And of course, here I am, being uber organized.  

Recently, I posted on Facebook that I was adding labels to my WIPs (works in progress). Someone emailed me with a concern for my well-being. Guess they took it that I was organizing my things for someone else to step in. 

Organization, in my opinion, is about easy retrieval. I want to be able to go into a bin and see what I want without having to tear everything apart.

Yesterday I finished cutting the second group of fabrics for one of the Mystery Quilt projects I am doing. The author made her pattern corrections and so now, both groups are cut and ready for the next step which I will do when I come home from my trip to the midwest.

My next step, however, was to put away the leftovers. I read somewhere that when you shop for fabric, you buy an extra half yard so you can cut it into two fat quarters. One goes into a fat quarter container, and the other can be cut into various pieces. 

Wow, that was easy. I am in between project deadlines and so this is a perfect opportunity to keep doing the organizing.

I pulled out three bins from my closet and pulled the fabrics out. No one is standing over me telling me how to do this or what to do. I am on my own. This morning, I sorted the fabrics into four piles; One is smaller scraps, one is larger squares, one is strips and the last one is larger pieces. 

What I plan to do next is to cut.

I looked up the standard sizes that fabric companies sell and how their fabric is cut & sold. I plan to go through fabric piles from my stash and cut them into the largest parts first, then sort into color and label them all.  Label for organization, for retrieval. Some cuts include the following & there are probably more:

• The mini-charms (2.5" squares) 
• Charms (5") also called nickels, 
• and they go with the 10" squares (called layer cakes) making the five & dime combo. 
• There are jelly rolls (2.5" strips) 
• and the dessert rolls (5" strips).
• Then there are fat quarters (18" x 20")
• and fat eighths (11" x 18").
• A regular quarter yard is 9" x 44"
• 1/8 yard is 4.5" by the width
• 1/4 yard is 9" by the width
• 3/8 yard is 13.5" by the width
• 1/3 yard is 12"  by the width
• 5/8 is 22.5" by the width
• 2/3 24" by the width
• 3/4 is 27" by the width
• 7/8 is 31.5" by the width and 
• 1 yard is 36" by the width.

Of course I smile at myself this morning. All that grumbling I did when I was a child learning this standard was part of the experience. I think about the patience Mother must have had to deal with me over cleaning & being organized. Suddenly, with this new enlightenment, she attains sainthood where before she was the embodiment of the Wicked Witch of the West.

You Never Know

Quilting can be a form of dreaming. I find myself saying things to myself like...if I only knew what this would look like...follow your dream...take that one step at a time... don't settle for less....

Dreams actually give direction to my life. Some mornings, just before I am really ready to get out of bed, I find myself thinking about the day to come. Is it visioning? Is it still dreaming? Either way, what I think about becomes my guide to taking those next steps.

Quilting, like life, is a series of steps. Success comes inch by inch and stitch by stitch. Failure? Well, in quilting there is a ripper. In life, maybe all you can do is make an apology.

The next step for the Mystery Quilt came out yesterday, but was fraught with errors the author didn't catch before publishing it. She scrambled to make corrections, some easy and some really hard to make work. Any time a person puts themselves out in public and screws up, they are subjected to a LOT of criticism. 

This photo represents the first cuts I made from the corrected pattern. There are more steps yet for me to cut squares out of the wider strips before I can set it aside and wait.

I don't wait easily. It could be another time for dreaming, this waiting stage. However, I scramble to fill up the time with something else, some other part of my dreams or visions. 

With these Mystery Quilts, you never know how they will turn out no matter how carefully you select the participating fabrics. If there is too much time for me in between steps, its too much time to think and I start second-guessing my choices.  What I did to help me in this process was to set aside two groupings of fabrics to do two MQ's for quilt backs. I have another one to cut after I finish this first one. 

You never know. I never know. And that's what makes my world go 'round.

Reciprocity & the Power of Giving

There have been many studies regarding the exchange of gifts between people, between nations. Some believe that the function of giving is benevolent, can be used to strengthen relationships, to create new ones, and can also be used aggressively to place others in debt so that one can control them. The innocence of a person's gift really depends upon their intention. Studies indicate that sometimes people receiving gifts are disappointed and either want something different or something more. 

Humans. We can be a funny lot.

Recently, my friend Virginia sent me some lovely Batik Squares and yesterday, I put these together as mug rugs to take back with me to MN on my trip next week. It is my intention to give them as thank you gifts to the women who  transport me around town. I was able to use some of the 2.5" strips I have in my stash as well as some other hand-dyed fabric for the backs. I was also able to test out decorative machine stitches.

They look similar in construction for a selfish reason; I am on limited time before flying off on the 11th. Making them with the same concept or pattern allows for variety of fabric selections. They still turned out very different. I personally love the size of 6.5"x10.5" to fit on my workstation and hold my cup of coffee or glass of water throughout the day.

I happen to cherish my friends and family back in the midwest. Giving these mug rugs is simply a token of my appreciation, and has nothing to do with having power or control or feeling obligated. Its just what I do freely without strings attached because I care about my relationships. Back in the day when travel was less expensive, they might have flown out to Cali to visit me and I could have shown reciprocity by picking them up at the airport, driving them to various sites, and driving them back to the airport. 

And of course, with every time I use one of the Batik Squares, I am thanking Virginia for her lovely gift. What goes around comes around.

Decide to Act

I guess the principle of the Red Cross 1st Aid classes is to help a person know what to do in case of emergency. It was a full day of seeing and listening to scary stories, scenarios you hope you never encounter. There is so much info crammed into the day that asking questions or questioning anything is not really appreciated. For instance, no kid I know will sit quietly if they have a glass fragment stuck in their arm and are bleeding profusely. But when I said that out loud, the instructor told me it was my responsibility to control those kids. Humpf...what?

Anyway, this morning, I took the one bit of yesterday's training which is "decide to act" and took stock of my storage bins. These two hold projects that are ready to machine quilt. I don't like the container covers on them because that cuts off air circulation. My machine is ready for Cody's quilt, and it will get completed through attaching the binding by machine and then go to the next set of bins ready for hand binding. 

They go into another bin in this area. One holds holiday fabrics and future projects separated with a pattern and what needs to go into the quilt and below it are where I keep larger pieces good for backing. I keep left-over batting in one bin and use the smaller pieces for things like mug rugs, and candle mats, joining larger pieces for quilts too. Most of those bins have the fold over flaps so that there is air circulation. I go into them often enough and move things around too.

This last pic is another closet where I keep more stash and have smaller containers for individual projects. Its also got a thread keeper, a ribbon box, embroidery flosses and hoops, and is a place where I keep family photo albums I work on from time to time.

My organization for my stash and projects helps me when I want to do something different that day. Every project I have going is in a particular stage.

Being selective in choosing my activities, in choosing my friends, in choosing material possessions fosters appreciation for them. I am deliberate in those selections, deliberate in steps to being organized.

Yes there are things that go bump in the night, yes there are things that go hewy-screwy with my quilting, but I am not a person who wants to focus on anything negative or scary for long. I know that crisis can happen and that our bodies are fragile. Yet, in it all, through it all, we are strong like silk thread, durable like 100% cotton, bright, glorious and varied like bolts of fabric in our stash. 

And underneath it all, we have a choice. We can decide to act and make the world a beautiful, safe place. Happy Sunday. Happy June.