Southern Cali is experiencing interesting weather. Not real rain. More like lightening, thunder and then flash floods that started mudslides. With new watering restrictions, we are not to water after measurable rain. I'm not quite sure what that meant with what we got or didn't get, so I did water my new plants, and then it rained. Not a lot, but some.
Meanwhile, I finished the Pay It Forward for my friend Susan and have it wrapped and ready to ship out early next week. I have one more PIF in process, and I've been thinking that I might not offer any for the remainder of the year.
With my new focus on doing Random Acts of Kindness, it seems to me to be an act of unkindness to leave behind a huge, demanding task to clean up years of fabric / quilting purchases that evolves into an entire houseful of stash. I question if it is a gift for the survivor at all to dispose of the goods. Yes, I know this is tradition in many families. I am not judging other people's choices, but looking at myself and what I am doing. Everyone gets to chose how they live, how they spend their money and how they do their art work.
My choice, as a result of seeing the inheritance of stuff (that is more a liability than it is an asset) happen way too many times lately, is to get as much as I can completed with what I have, and not buy more if it can be avoided. I want to finish my family quilts and Winter Solstice projects first. Its also time for me to finish all the projects that have been started and are in various stages in my closets.
It is not that I am ready to stop quilting or stop living. However, I do want to stop building my stash faster than I can quilt. Its my responsibility, and my RAK to others in my life is to actually carry these projects to completion.
Obviously, some things need to be purchased to complete the project. Things like thread. Most of the projects I have going right now will need fabric for backing. I have made some creative backs on quilts and have even done creative binding.
I pulled up the border segments to the Constellation quilt, pinned them and pieced one side of each segment, pressing them too. I want to pin them to the center piece before creating the entire border in case seams need tweeking. I'd rather not have to rip anything out.
I have dedicated one day a month to working with paper projects, and one day a month to working on Winter Solstice gifts. I've decided to do TWO days a month on each of them for awhile just to make more progress on them.
The topic of borders has always held my attention, personally and professionally. I remember doing a class that considered the rights of people to have their own space, to erect fences & what you could and couldn't do if someone fenced you out.
I thought of that again while working on these borders. The second dark red is made of two fabrics, one going E-W & N-S and the other going W-E & N-S, as was suggested in the pattern. It actually worked for me here because there wasn't enough of any red from Lee's stash to make all four parts. Fabrics coordinate but often were leftovers, so I really had to make do. What I found is that when fabric becomes vintage, as much of hers was, then the dye lots change and you cannot just go out and buy colors to match. Many of the green pieced segments were done last year when I first got her fabrics, and it was a matter of joining the bits and pieces, and trimming them to a 5" width. There were not enough to do the vertical sides, so while I worked on it most of the day, it is set aside with Notes-to-Self for the next step. I am liking it so far.
Over several hours I thought more about borders. All kinds of borders. Not just those we quilt with. Thoughts about property borders, walls we put up in our lives and laws we have to live with because of borders... took me so many places and stirred up a lot of emotions.
I'd like to say that it was all positive thinking but that's simply not true. And when a person entertains darker thoughts, other people run away. I hesitate to stray from being positive here because it looks like something more than it is. Every once in awhile, I do entertain thoughts that push borders and get pretty wild.
Next on my list of things to do was a PIF (Pay It Forward) project, which got cut, pinned and a lot of piecing done. I tend to avoid taking photos of those projects just because I'd rather keep them between me and the person I make it for.
My thoughts did turn more positive because I got to thinking about the people in my life who touched me in ways that make me feel enough gratitude to want to pay it forward.
This particular quilt made me see how I enjoy the unusual and look for patterns that stimulate my curiosity and creativity. If its a border or two or three that make the quilt special or the color combinations, then it holds my interest.
Patience has been a strong quality of many other people I know. Passivity is something I see as more of a challenging aspect for a few others. Neither of them are words I would use to describe myself and neither of them mean the same thing, though the appearance of someone sitting with patience and someone sitting passively tend to look alike.
Me? Well, I've always leaned toward action, toward presenting a more bold determined energy. And when I just went rushing out without a plan, I've had to either back-track or live with my choices.
First thing I did today was to work from my plan to measure and cut dark blue segments for the Constellations quilt. It was laid out on the design space until the new cat decided it was fun to slide on. I pulled the center piece out. The dark and light pieces are ready to pin. It would have been nice to work with the center as I go, however, I am not a person who scolds cats for being cats, so removed the slidey-fun.
Then, I took the Cat Paper Piecing center into one of the fabric stores in town to start gathering fabric for borders. I have a black, but need enough for two inside borders and one larger one. With all the colors used for the tessellating cats, it would seem any fabric would work, but after half an hour laying bolts out, I realized that was not the case. I've got a call into Amy asking for color and a sort of genre for the outside border.
After getting back home, it was onto my Brother-In-Law's quilt, Winter Golfers. Its being made from vintage fabrics I got from Lee's estate. The very center is one of the panels my friend Carol gave me, and I've been adding specific borders from a quilt pattern idea I got from a Nov/Dec '07 issue of Quiltmaker originally called "Holiday Homes". It had a center panel of 4 house blocks in it that were the same size as the golf panel. The other change I made was to make it longer than square and did that by simply adding an inch or so of width to the top and bottom segments. It was meant to finish at 46x46 and I wanted it much larger but still a personal lap quilt. I left it with great notes-to-self, so it was easy to pick up and work on again without needing to re-trace my steps. I've kept all the coordinating fabrics with the evolving topper in the event they were needed as borders. Its 30x40 right now.
One thing the pattern did was to use two different colors for one of the borders as a framing technique, as well as to add interest. That will be perfect because I didn't have enough red for the next border to make all 4 sides. The pieced border follows the pattern next.
Not patience. Not passivity. Neither is it rash and unplanned action.
Calculators/Border was my next stop to get a visual and calculation of borders. To get to the size of 62x72, I need four borders measuring 3.5", 4.5", 5", and 3". There is enough fabric to do it. Eeehah!
Circumstances really do not change me. After all these decades on the planet, I am still the one who has to change my attitude, make my choices and take action no matter what is happening in me, to me or for me.
While waiting for the window guy to come this morning to caulk and do some last minute checking, I finished up the work on a needle keeper, and was able to get it ready for shipping.
My friend in CO saw the knitting needle keeper I made for a mutual friend, and asked me to make one for her partner in purple and aqua. The background on this print is more a light purple or lavender, but it was the best I could find at the stores. Actually, I hope she loves the butterflies because that is what sold me on the fabric. Its an easy pattern to make.
In addition to the needle keeper, I ran a stitch around the edges of the Cat Paper Piecing project so the paper can be removed without damaging any bias-cut fabrics. I took of most of the larger pieces of paper and now just need to pick at it to get threads cut and the papers off the edges and corners. I've learned a lot with this quilt.
The next few days and nights are all going to about hand work for a few mug rug bindings.
My 'design' floor is open now, and once I wiped down the floors to clean up after the window installer, it was ready for me to lay out the Constellations quilt. All the light triangles for the border are cut and laid out, and now to cut 18 dark border segments 17.5" long with both ends cut at 45 degree angles. It calls for clear thinking as I do this to make the border work. My plan is to do the shorter sections first. It will be magickal when it is done.
Windows are almost in. He's coming again at 7 am to finish up. Wow, does it brighten the inner world, not only with clear glass but also with white frames. They slide wonderfully!
I went with my friend Carol to help a woman deal with a quilter's estate. The woman, the survivor, does not quilt but was good friends with the quilter who passed, and is the recipient of the home and its contents. The quilter, bless her heart, has ROOMS and endless boxes filled with fabric and notions, including several quilting machines. There is no way she could have made a quilt with every kit she bought. Her friend, the survivor, tried to put what she sees as like fabrics with like. It is an overwhelming task at this stage. I helped look through the boxes and started separating items so they could be listed for sale. Some projects are still in their bags as kits and have pricetags on them. Most fabrics and notions are not priced and are often in their original bags, sealed and unopened.
When I returned home, three of four windows were in, and the last one, in the bathroom was going to shatter because the frame was so tight around it. It did. He is finishing the outside by caulking the frames and has a bit to do inside as well.
I finished one block called the Star Flower Block. (link to Star Flower block pattern) My partner for this swap is making a Seahawks quilt, so she asked for that bright blue and bright green. I do hope this works for her. There are two different blues in it that match.
Yes, I bought fabric and some thread at the estate pricing. One bag holds more than enough fabric that will work for a Valentine's Day quilt; one has 4 yards of cardinals and 23 shades of red FQ's; one has B&W cat novelty fabric, panel and 3 coordinating prints. While I paid a fair price for what I got, I need to watch what I buy when I go back to help again on Wednesday. The Valentine's Day quilt is the only one I actually wanted for 2016, and will be made for a specific family member. The other two, are purchases 'just because'. That is a very scarey way to spend money.
Seeing yet another estate like this shows me how easy it is to gather and stash. And having my day disrupted by the window installer shows me how easy it is to step away from a routine and get little done in a day.
I spent a good amount of the day cleaning house so as to ready four areas around windows being replaced. It was more freeing up the spaces than as much cleaning so the installers have an easy time of it.
Once again, I used Q-Tips to pull dust out of the machine and re-loaded bobbins. Its interesting to see how long it takes to do mindless tasks, whether its general housekeeping, gardening or even quilting. They can fill up a day and suddenly it seems as if nothing got done. From time to time in my life, I have hired housekeepers to do these kinds of tasks and I sure have been thinking about it the last few weeks.
There is a fine line to get into the mindset of hiring help. While there is a lot to be said for delegating some of the chores, on the other hand, it takes a lot of courage to give up control in doing things on my own. In the past, when I did hire help, I would often work in the house at the same time. My list of tasks was divided between what I wanted to do and what I wanted them to do. It always seemed to make the time go fast and a lot got done.
However, once I got into the "Fly Lady" system of having zones and doing 15 minutes a day in a zone, it seemed that things didn't pile up or become too intimidating.
As of yet, I have not hired out my quilting projects. Both fabric shops in town offer long-arm quilting with about an 8 week wait time. Adding the cost of quilting to the project makes it pricey if one is on a budget.
I have thought nothing of hiring companies to install windows, paint the house, re-doing the plumbing and put in an electrical socket outside. These are projects beyond my desire to do. I take my car to have an oil change, tires rotated and recently had a throttle box replaced.
Yet, I have not made the jump to getting a quilt done by someone else. And I am starting to wonder why. Thinking. Really thinking about it.
I've been thinking about how we give so much power to people in our lives, from our parents as children, our bosses at work, our partners in our homes and even friends within our various groups. How we learned to respond to them formed who we are and what kind of confidence we have. In a way, I think this sort of behavior exists in me as I quilt.
This month's 12" Block Swap Adventure quilt block swap was called 'Cathy's Campfire' and all I could find for the pattern was one for 6". I emailed my partner to tell her that and she gave me the size conversion. With this swap, each of us can say what kind of block pattern we want and what colors we prefer. The block-maker (me with this one) still has the choice of finding fabrics.
I texted my oldest Granddaughter to see if she wanted a Lavender-filled dream pillow or one to go in an underwear drawer. Her response was immediate, and asked if she could get both, and then asked if I wouldn't mind making another for her Step-Daughter. She wanted pink. I am so not a pink person, but found enough to do both a small dream pillow and a flat insert for a lingerie drawer. Again, its not so much that she has power over my choices as much as I GAVE her the choice to say yes or no and then asked her color preference. Once she made her choice, then I had to make it that way.
I had some small leftover pillow forms from when I taught a middle school class last year and will give Jess one of them filled with some of the lavender from this year's crop. The others will go in some swap-bot swaps as unexpected extras.
I retain a lot of choice in how I quilt and yet, sometimes question if that is really so. For the most part, my choices are first to use what materials I do have. And then I have chosen which groups to continue with. By staying with certain groups, it means following their guidelines and keeping to their standards. Even with my personal quilting for family and friends, I do try to ask and respond to their desires.
Maybe we cannot get away from issues of personal power because it means either negotiating for a mutually beneficial balance, or finding ourselves either being oppressed by someone or oppressing another being.
