A NEW YEAR

Happy New Year to Everyone! It's so hard for me to believe that we have begun another new year. It's scary that every year seems to go faster and faster. It's a little like being on a tilt-a-whirl. As hard as I've been working on wrapping up my fifteen quilts for my book project, I somehow managed to make some fun little Christams gifts for family and friends. To me, it's not really Christmas without handmade gifts. I even managed to make cookies and candy too. Honestly, I'm not sure how, but I did. Here are pics of my handmade holiday gifts:

The little owls are pin cushions using felt and vintage buttons -- so cute! I found the pattern through Pinterest (of course!). The three scarves were for my oldest niece Meghan -- she requested a scarf for Christmas so I made three of them, all out of purple silky fabrics. This project game me the opportunity to teach myself how to do a narrow hem with my narrow hem foot attachement. It took me a few tries, but I did figure it out by the time I completed the last scarf. The mittens were made for my dear friend Isaac. I upcycled wool from a sweater with holes in it! He really loved them, too! I personally loved the orangey color of the wool! The reversible tablerunner was a gift for my boss at the library where I work. She seemed to really like it. Oh, and I can't forget the snap bags. They are so addictive to make -- I think I made more than 20 of them in total! LOL! These were great little gifts for all of the females that I know. ____________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________ BOOK UPDATE Well, deadlines are really approaching now. I am seriously almost done with all fifteen quilts. I've really worked hard in the last few weeks to finish up binding, etc. I even managed to bind the 90" x 108" GIANT quilt in a little over three movies. I have about twelve inches of binding and hanging sleeve to hand sew and then I'm done. Shocking, I know, but my project deadline is literally right around the corner so I am right on target. Now I'm trying to get the patterns written and then I have to wrap up the rest of the written stuff. Writing a book, sure has a lot of work to it, but it's all good, of course! Right now we're looking ahead to the upcoming photoshoot. If all goes well, we'll be doing some of the photography here in my area. I am so excited!

No, I didn't drop off the face of the planet...

No, I haven't dropped off the face of the planet. Really. I haven't taken the time to blog since the end of October because I've been totally immersed in working on my book projects and magazine pieces. It's been quite a hectic time, believe me. Now of course, I'm trying to fit the holidays into the mix as well. Whew.

Here is a photo of my "QUILT STACK". All except for the two bottom quilts are for my book and this isn't even all of them either! I have two more stacked on top of my sewing machine in my studio and the sampler quilt is still at the quilters. If all goes well, I will have all of the quilts done by the beginning or middle of January. There are a total of fifteen quilts in my book ranging in size from a small wall quilt all the way up to a queen size bed quilt. And then I have to finish up all of the written material by February. I can't believe how little time I have left, but I know I can do it! Writing a book is an awesome and awe-inspiring undertaking because somehow you have to keep it from taking over your whole life. Adding the holidays makes it even more challenging. I'm so fortunate to have three great friends who each pieced a quilt for me as well as two very talented machine quilters who quilted three of the fifteen projects for me. As for the rest, that is all up to me. If you've ever thought of writing a book, I say go for it, but do it with eyes wide open!

Frankenstorm and Me

Well, after several days of preparing for the worst, thankfully my neck o' the woods did not receive terrible weather like those on the East coast. Yes, we had wind and quite a bit of rain, but no serious problems. Last night I worked on hand-sewing bindings and hanging sleeves while watching some reruns on Dish, just waiting for the electricity to go out. It didn't though, thank goodness. I really feel for those who were hit hard. We had some small branches down and this morning we had a disoriented ring necked pheasant hanging out in the yard, but beyond that we weathered the storm remarkably well. I didn't make it to Quilt Market in Houston this year, but my freidn Cathey did with her boss at the quilt shop where she works. They attempted to fly home yesterday from Houston, but were rerouted to Dallas. Hopefully, they'll be home tomorrow. Can't wait for her to get home so I can find out all about the "new" stuff she saw at Market. If all goes well, I'll be in Houston next year (with Leslie, my travel buddy and budding designer) to debut my new quilt book.

NEWEST ORPHAN ADDED TO MY COLLECTION

I had a lovely surprise when I went to work at the library on Saturday. There was a plastic bag on my desk with a completed grandmother's flower garden quilt top folded up inside. The notes said that it was from a member of the Women's CLub that meets at the library and that it had belonged to her mother, and, no she didn't want it back. So, another orphan is added to my orphanage.

Today I decided to give the top a preliminary wash so that I could see what I was dsealing with. Besides it was a nice day to hang it outside to dry, breezy and overcast. I washed it in the washer on the gentle cycle, allowing it to soak for a couple hours, using Quiltwash with some vintagev soak thrown in for good measure. It came out much much cleaner, but now I could see the remaining brown age stains as well as the frayed seams and separated seams. Well, so the work begins. I will need to let it soak in either Restoration or Vintage Soak for a while to see if I can rid the top of the brown stains. Then of course I will need to repair the split seams. Luckily the fabrics all seam to be in good condition, no holes or tears. Stay tuned to find out how this top turns out.

The Newest Addition to My Quilt Dungeon (err, Studio)

After two years of begging, my Dad has finally made me one of those big ironing board tops that fit over your existing ironing board. Of course, he designed his own version and calles it "The Big Topper." It is big, too -- a whopping 24" x 60", several inches bigger than the ones available commercially. I even put it on a different ironing board -- a charming vintage wooden one from perhaps the 1920's with great orangey-red original paint. I love it and it's so sturdy I think I could tap dance on it! Of course, my Dad added a few special safety features (he knows me too well, I guess).

He liked making "the Big Topper" so much that he's now designing a "Lil Topper" as a portable board for me to take to class or wherever. He's very excited and has decided that he wants to make more boards and offer them for sale (locally right now, because the shipping would be insane). Already, my "Big Topper" board has really been a life saver! I am currently working on the HUGE bed-sized sampler quilt for my upcoming book. Thank goodness there's only one giant quilt in the book. I've been working on it for about three weeks. Yesterday, I actually assembled the center of the quilt, but it seems like I will never get it done. I need to get it done, of course, so that it can go to my friend and long arm quilter extraordinaire, Gaynel, so that she can work her magic on my humble quilt. Sadly, I probably won't get back to it until next week. Sigh..... Anyway, the book is coming along. I have nine quilts completed (mostly, anyway) and I'm working on the giant quilt right now. Then five to go. Hopefully this week end I will be able to get two more tops done and the final three quilts are being put together by my dear friends Cathey, Leslie, and Mary Lee, who also pieced quilts for my first book, Orphan Block Quilts. I've also begun writing instructions too. Let me tell you that writing instructions isn't easy. I've been used to doing them in a certain way for the magazine pieces that I design, which are mostly geared towards the beginner, and now I'm trying to write instructions for the intermediate quilter. Ugh. How much is too much ..... or not enough? Right now, I don't have answers for this so I'm mostly experimenting right now. But, things will all be fine. (So I keep telling myself, anyway.) Recently, my three friends Cathey, Leslie, and Mary Lee, and I went on our annual quilt pilgrimage to Chautauqua Institute in New York for the Quilting Around Chautauqua Weekend. The event begins on Friday, but we start our pilgrimage on Wednesday........ It was a great five days, although it is always way too short. I had the privilege of meeting Mary Fons (who was one of the speakers along with her mother). I really enjoyed her lecture. She was articulate, fun, and energetic. Have you checked out her new magazine called Quilty yet? Next year it will be going to 6 issues. I'm personally looking forward to that because I'd like to submit some of my work for consideration........ We'll see. This coming week end (as in two days from now) I am going to Quilt Camp for the first time in three years. It should be fun. Both Cathey and Leslie will be there too. It starts at 2 PM Friday and goes to 2 PM Sunday. As I think of what to pack, clothes are the easiest -- I only need three pairs of jammies! Just think -- sewing, eating, laughing, perhaps a little sleeping -- AND THEN REPEAT! What am I waiting for -- Quilt Camp here I come!

What a Relief!

Whew! The other night I finally had the opportunity to talk to my editor for quite a while. It's amazing how much better I felt after our discussion. I realized that I am actually doing okay with my progress and that everything is going to be just fine. We even changed several of the projects into smaller pieces which of course makes my job a little bit easier. It's amazing how not knowing things has a tendency to make me freak out and expect worst-case scenarios. Perhaps this is just human nature, who knows? I am glad to say that at least now I know what I have to do and how long I have to do it in. On a different note, I am so proud to say that my niece, Meghan, is officially a freshman at Allegheny College (my alma mater!) Here she is with her completed quilt! I actually had it done before she moved into the dorm so she could take it with her.

Meg is planning to double major in English and history with the future goal of becoming a college professor! I'm pretty pleased that one of her very first classes in her first semester is with my college mentor. How perfect is that? And, of course, Meg just adores her.....I hope she still feels that way when she gets her final exam.

Returning From Nowhere

Well, it seems I've taken a very long vacation from blogging. Strangely enough, I don't feel any more rested than I did before. OH! That's right, I've spent the last six weeks attempting to keep my head above water while I tried to balance work, work, and work. Oh, yeah -- the Olympics was in there too. AND quilting (that's work too, but fun most of the time). Anyway, I've been trying to get as much done as I possibly can on my quilting projects for my book, magazine pieces, and the monthly class that I co-teach. The strange thing is that the harder I try, the more obstacles that jump into my path. One of my biggest obstacles right now is trying to find a place to work where people will leave me alone. For example, right now I was sitting at the dining room table, writing this blog (after completing my latest magazine submission) and two members of my family came out from where they were working on their own projects and begin talking to me. The one family member is complaining about sopmething or another so I have to stop writing and take care of it immediately or else I won't hear the end of it. Then the other family member turns on the TV and proceeds to find something to watch while the volume is quite loud, all the while having a conversation with the other person. So now I have grabbed my laptop, mouse, etc. and I have relocated to my bed. Thank goodness for wi-fi! Oh, of course, my dog follows me and I have to put him up on the bed too (he's cursed with very short legs and is a terrible jumper...). Looking back on the past six weeks, this scenario has repeated itself over and over and over with slight variations of course. When I'm in my studio working on a quilt project, someone needs something somewhere or the dog has to go out....or whatever. I know, I know......welcome to reality. The only problem is that it's only really gotten this annoying in the last couple months, or has it? I love to be needed, but not that much. The really ironic thing is that I'm no one's mother nor am I someone's spouse. The only children I can claim are the furry ones on four feet. Please forgive my frustration and my complaints, but I can't seem to get enough accomplished.....or maybe I'm asking too much of myself. I'm not really sure. If I had a little help and cooperation, things would go more smoothly, I think. Thanks for listening.