Our walk

The tempurature here reads 56 degrees fahrenheit. We walked along the edge of the Atlantic. It is always glorious and even more on a day in January which by all rights should be cold and harsh along the water. Today seemed a gift, and so we took it.
I wish I could share the salt spray and air and the warmth of the sun along with pictures.
Now we are home and it is past noon and we both have things we hope to accomplish today. Mike is grouting the tile!!! Woo Hoo! and I am going to stitch some blocks and maybe later for fun I will do a Gail Wilson kit.
www.gailwilsondesigns.com
The four legged friend was just stopping by for a visit and sniff.

I have fears about not being able to replace fabric. It causes me to hesitate before cutting a piece of beautiful material, cut into my stash. It causes me to buy when I know I have enough. It is not a good feeling. So I am somewhat stuck. I noticed it today when I was making a drawing for a journal quilt and I thought about using some beautiful hand dyed fabric I have and I noticed my sense of loss when thinking of using this fabric. Once it is used, it is gone and the dreams are gone,the dreams of the other things I can do with it and the anxiety about not being able to replace it because yes in order to feel safe I do need a my art, and my means to create it. I guess that is the bane of the quilter/artist. I do experience these pangs when using all art supplies, not about food or money or clothes, but beautiful supplies.Fabric thread paint cancvas pastels pencils clay
So it is now that I have to fall into to my faith and trust that the great provider will continue to give me what I need. I used to feel like these things-beauty, color, art, quilts, a studio, were superfluous. But now I understand that these fabrics and paints and threads, pencils and paper, are necessary for me to feel happy and purposeful.It does the world no good for me to be miserable. I used to think my need to create was a less than important purpose. I did not have fame or a following. I had made no lasting impression in the world. I was, therefore, not important.
I look at the sky and I think God is a wonderful painter and creator and it is not wrong or shallow to want to create beautiful things like God does. It is not wrong to want to be like God.
Somewhere in my life someone put terrible wrong ideas in my mind-that it is virtuous to live in lack, morally shallow to make pretty things and now it is part of my journey to have to take back my voice and my ownership and be a co creator with God.

The pics are the round robin that I received from Germany last week. I am so excited to begin work on it. I am going to make my border a frame of Dear Jane blocks which I have all printed from eq5 and ready to go. I do love my eq5! And Dear Jane and Dear Hannah and Nearly Insane and and and ...
Another trip to the ER last night as we watched my hand swell up to the point where I had no knuckles and turned purplish.Doc said it was a blood clot but not the kind we have to worry about. He said cold and hot compresses and no aspirin or ibuprofen which are blood thinners. Well the doc who did the surgery put me on 800 mgs of ibuprofen so who knows. I will just stop taking it altogether.
Friend and internet mentor, Tilde has pointed out that many of us have many crafty interests! I do have many other creative interests, but sewing has always been my favorite, like mac and cheese,or beef stew or chili (maybe I have too many comfort foods?) it is comfort substance.
I sort of took a leave of absence from the lofty and demanding world of fine arts when my dd started having troubles which were eventually diagnosed as bi-polar disorder. I needed to be in familiar territory and comforted by the feel of fabric.I am a fabric fondler! There is also the theraputic value of piecing together fabrics to make a whole. KInd of like piecing together my life. I know this sounds corny but , for me, it is true. And in the last few years the amazing community that has been facilitated by the internet! What a gift to have you all "by my side". And lastly(?) the finished quilt to gaze lovingly upon. There is no better medicine.
As for the cross stitch projects-well, I will keep those in hiding. I think I have three that are in various stages of progress -two Christmas and one other. Through the years my daughters have all gone through the friendship bracelet stages and I have given them my floss to use up. I had it arranged in three ring binders, cut to the right length for stitching and strung through holes which I punched in old manilla folders. The supplies are all tucked away in a cabinet under the tv. With the polymer clay stuff....
Yesterday-for the first time in a year or more, I prepped a canvas for painting. May or may not put paint on it. Haha. I have many other canvases prepped. Today I will do quilty things.
Love and peace and creative energy to you all.
m

Thirties Bullseye Blocks

Got these blocks in a swap and just wanted to sew something together. These blocks were swapped with Leoni's NickelQuilts swap group. I am enamored of swapped blocks. You get such a nice variety of fabrics and combinations that you would never think of. I will put it aside for now because I want to work on my round robin. I am in the idea stages and I am pretty sure I am going to make a row of stars for my round. Maybe in a couple or three different sizes.
We are back from visiting Mike's family-a final send off for his Aunt Olga, and we are ready to call it a night at eight thirty!And I am computer sharing so I am outta here.

cookies?

Today i sewed together 36 ten inch nine patch blocks for my swap. All are ironed and folded and ready to be put in the envelopes and mailed off. I also sorted all of my remaining thirties fabrics into colors-the pile is getting smaller and smaller. I also received a nice round robin to work on. More on that later.
Seems like we will not be going to Vermont next week after all, I am not disappointed. I am only a tentative skier and I can think of better things to do with my time than to drive nine hours to strap sticks on my legs and hurl myself off the side of a mountain, spend two nights, and turn around and drive nine hours home again. I love my friends and my husband but I also love room service and quiet strolls through museums.....am I spoiled. I guess so. And I am not comfortable leaving my kids for that long now that they are evil teenagers.
And maybe dh will finish the &*(&^^%$%$$#%#$@ bath room!!! Tomorrow he is going to the motorcycle show and he will come back with new resolve to finish this week so he can get another job and a new bike??? maybe not. maybe i need to get out more, but not skiing and not to motorcycle shows. The last time I went it was so crowded I could not push my way through the the thronging mass of flesh. Since Mike wants to see the custom bikes and that is where it is most crowded, I am sitting this one out. Maybe I can work on my wonderful round robin.....
Maybe I have pms. Maybe cookies will help.Maybe oatmeal cookies.

Snowmen and what I found under the bed...

A sock and a candy wrapper of course.
the snowmen are finished. I am celebrating with a chocolate peanut butter cup.
The thirties fabrics are washed but I think I will wait til tomorrow to cut them. How many times can you sew a row of snowmen on facing the wrong way? I lost count,lol.
Another riddle, How can you lose your seam ripper whilst sitting in one chair? Answer: I don't know the answer to that one either. It is the sound of one hand dropping.....(sorry couldn't resist).
I am doing the Lillabet's garden BOM and you can see the first block. I am not sure which colors I liked so I did both. The last time I did Beth Ferrier's bom, Moondance, I did two entire sets of blocks, so who knows I may just do that again.
And to finish off the night I am hemming my DH's work pants for the second time. I did them once, knowing I would have to do them again after I washed them and so I left enough hem to let out a healthy inch. So it seems today is a day for doing things twice.
My surgery is over and I am sewing comfortably. The worst part was the nausea from the anesthesia. I was sick for hours, but now I am fine with hardly any affects at all. True success is that I will no longer experience excessive bleeding! Time will tell but I have high hopes.

My Stash

Here are couple of pictures of where I sew.

Long Beach on a fogged in day and my studio shelves

I started quilting in the seventies but only
in the past six years did I start to buy fabric in
earnest. I ususally buy for a project, although I have
sometimes bought just because.I keep all of my fabric
in plastic tubs or boxes and it is mostly by project.
Of course there is some extra, some overlap, some that
I forgot I had bought, some abandoned. Since I live in
a little house (1250sf) and I use my son's room while
he is away at school I have been forced to keep it all
together and all transportable-which has helped to
keep the buying in check.
I find it helpful if I can put it all away when I
finsh working on something especially since I switch
between projects alot. Maybe not the most efficient
way to work but I am comforatble with it.
and you know sometimes life seems so dreary that you
need to have some beauty to shore you up. I love
beautiful things and I think is important to have
beautiful fabric and art in our lives to remind us
that life is meant to be lived and enjoyed and we need
to do what ever we can to contribute to that aspect.
Bad stuff happens and we can't help that but we can
darn well have some fabric if we want.
I am going to shower and get dressed and take my dd to
therapy and then I will post some pictures in my blog
if you want to see my space. I will show you mine
if.....

later that day....

Just a hair and glass update....
the glass needs to be saudered and patina applied. Then it has to be cleaned and the sauder lines waxed to prevent oxidization.Then I can put it onto the lamp and take a new picture. The iridescent glass is opaque and the dark pieces are a clear cerulean blue, which will show when the light is turned on behind it.
the hair is done:)
O news flash! I have decided to send a finished quilt top off to be quilted by a long arm duo who are on my Dear Jane list. This is a first time for me and I am very excited!!

Bad hair day

I had to have emergency surgery done on my hair this morning. Thank Heavens it is over and I came out ok. It was dicey there for a time...the roots were stark white, glowing in the dark roots, and the once deep red color had turned a brassy orange like an aged surfer who has not yet accepted that youth is past. Ah well-- I am better now and will live to see another day.
The last few days have seen no quilting but I have been making a stained glass panel to be used on a lamp fixture that we bought at Ikea, and subsequently broke on the first day we had it hanging on the wall. That was last summer and I have finally got around to starting it.The panel slides into clips that extend out from the base that holds two light bulbs.
Having electrical ablasion done on my uterus next week. I hope to be finished with the monthly floods that have been plaguing me for the last year. Middle age is here! www.novasure.com
this is the procedure that I am having done. I am told it has helped alot of women and is saving alot of women from having hysterectomies-which was a common solution to my problem in the past. What did we do without doctors?
So that is "where I am at".
I have got Katy back on the home based schooling plan which I hope to get started next week. Still haven't decided how much to share about my beautiful bipolar baby. Just doing all I can to see her to adulthood.

The City Quilter: Quilting in New York City

The City Quilter: Quilting in New York City

Saturday in the city

Had a wonderful day in the city with my three beautiful daughters. We had lunch at a diner and the girls were measured for their bridesmaid dresses at Klienfeld's of Manhattan. We then hopped in a cab and went shopping at the City Quilter where I bought some wool felt pieces for my snow men and some fusible web and some fabric for bowls and even a couple of bag patterns that my dears picked out for themselves. Now only if they would learn to sew!! Grabbed a cab back to Penn station and made our train with seconds to spare. It was so nice to spend time with my daughters, preparing for a happy occasion, no bickering or teen age fits of pique!(Well dd#3 did not want to go to the fabric store and there was some pouting but nothing serious.)And I even found a dress that met with Jen's approval so I went ahead and bought that too and got measured and did not even worry about the twenty five pounds that I will surely lose before August-hahaha.So that was my day. I did not stitch a stitch but I may yet!

Applewd Farm Publications - Block Of the Month

Applewd Farm Publications - Block Of the Month
Love this! I am tempted tp begin another top??

Rainy Thursday

Last night I stitched down all the wool bits to the twenty snowmen that comprise the border for my big snowman block.I also added a head to the second snowman in the center block. I found it rather disconcerting that he had no head!So I changed it. No scary snowmen in my quilt!
I also want to do some beading and other embellishment.I hope to get some time today to put them altogether. I will stop later at the lqs in Cold Spring Harbor for some fusible stuff for next moths blocks and some bowls that I have started.
Katy is home today. Do I blog about my kids? I think I will not as they would think it an invasion of their privacy-even if no one ever reads about them, even if it is their only fifteen minutes of fame. Perhaps this is why I don't journal so much any more-i always wonder what I want to leave my kids with...maybe not the stuff in my journals. Tho I have told dd jen that she should archive them after I die. almost four decades of journaling. I wonder if there is a school that archives journals for future study?anyway I have expanded my creative efforts.Done my drawing a day even if I feel frozen and blank I still put the pen or pencil to the page and date and sometimes annotate. Just because it chips away at the sheath of ennui. Can ennui be a sheath?hahahaha
I crack myself up. First: do no harm:). Drawing makes a scatch on the surface and points my compass in the right direction, as does walking and writing.Tap tap tap knocks the muse upon my door... I am here I am here I am here I have not left I am still here....

January 4 2006

I have decided to join the blogging world. The picture I posted is the January Snowman from Curtis Boehringer Block of the Month. I bought the pattern from barbara in CA and I am doing it along with two other quilting ladies from the moondance 2004 bom group. The snow man and accessories are wool felt and the backround is cotton. It will be a fun quilt to make. At this time I am in the process of thinking about the quilt work I want to do this year. There will be Jen and Jason's wedding quilt and I want to do a monthly journal quilt. I have a couple of swapping commitments in January and them I want to be swap free for a while. I am in a round robin group and that will be ongoing till the summer at least...then there is the Dear Jane-which was the catalyst for my re entry into the world of quilting.
I began quilting in the seventies, when I was a teen ager in boarding school in New England. All of my relatives were sewers but not quilters, mostly dressmakers and hatmakers by inclination. I started off garment sewing and got quilting fever way back then. And I am still passionatley afflicted:) Since discovering the Dear Jane on line group, I have found many other lists and friends and I spend many hours reading and learning and being inspired by all of the amazing talent. So this is my first post and it feels weird to be sending my words off into the universe. I hope to join a quilt ring and meet new artists.