Community Quilting on a 'first snow' Monday

Monday was our regular community quilting day. I was able to join our little group ad to sew from 9 am to 5 pm inspite of a little ice and fairly constant, but not sticking snow! It added to the excitement to have the crispness of the air and the possibility of a snowy drive back home, again. Freqent trips out to my car for additonal sewing supplies only added to the excitement of fluffy snowflakes on my face. They disappeared quickly but were delightful to experience, even for a bit.

Today, we brought down all of our quilts from our storage area. We had sent 13 quilts off with a group heading to Mississippi just two weeks ago and we still managed to get another 16 ready to go for this next week! Keeping in mind that there are less than a dozen of us who regularly show up..it is pretty amazing! We quilt in a church so one cannot help but think in religious symbology. So loaves and fishes it was...it's like quilts just grow in abundance on their own. Suddenly, this quilter shows up with some she worked on at home. Another, finally got her binding on..whatever, they just keep adding up.

It's such fun and so exciting to have our stacks grow and grow and grow and then suddenly...we send them all of packed up in various suitcases and dufflebags for either Louisiana or Mississippi. The church groups then either donate them through other churches, or those on the trip hand deliver them. We also piled up our patriotic ones and made a call to the local National Guard for pick up and found we had 9 ready to go and two more in the works.

If I hadn't done so much frog stitching (riiip ittttt) today, I would have had mine done, but alas I was learning from my mistakes today. We break for the winter holidays, then start up again after the New Year...so new labels need to be created for 2007! Community quilting once a week is just enough to make new friends and hold on to 'old' ones and it is just plain satisfying to work with others for a common good! I just love it, love it, love it all!

Gratitudes

I am grateful.

Quilting in America, 2006 Survey Results are in !

Every three years, surveys have been conducted with the intent to measure both the amount of time, and the amount of money, spent in the quilting industry in America. A few statistics to see just how you compare to the typical 'dedicated quilter':

*17% (19.135 million) of U.S. households reporting quilting participation
*4.7% are represented as being 'dedicated' quilters, yet they account for 88% of the total quilting expenditures
Who is your typical 'dedicated'quilter? She is:
*Female
*59 years old
*Well educated (72% attended college)
*Affluent ($87,026 HH income)
*Spends an average of $2,304 on quilting annually
*Quilted for 13.5 years
*Has a room dedicated to sewing/quilting (83%)
*Owns an average of 2.6 sewing/quilting machines
*In the past 12 months has purchased 98.7 yards of fabric
*Bought an average of 5 quilting books (at average cost of $21.50/bk)
*Subscribes to/reads 4.2 quilting magazines
*Owns a computer (89%)
*Averages 2.2 hrs/wk on quilting websites
*Has high speed internet access (73%)
*Favorite fabrics are: small scale florals (73%)tone on tone neutrals (63%) batiks (62%) holiday prints (60%)
*Favorite color schemes are: jewel tones (37%) bright colors (31%) pastels (21%) earth tones (21%)

So, based on this survey, I am:
Poor, educated, literate, computer junkie, cheap, a scrap stashaholic, and use dial-up. How about you? Your survey says?

Community Quilting: I am a Community Quilter

I am a community quilter. I belong to a wonderful little community of quilters who began quilting together a little over a year ago when the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina left hundreds of thousands of people along the Gulf Coast homeless.

200 members of the Salem Community gathered to create 200 quilts in two days. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life.

The energy in the Salem Convention Center was enormous as caring and compassion became the common denominator for creation. We had massive amounts of donated fabric and batting of all kinds and it was absolute heaven to work with women with similar minds, hearts and interests. A smaller group of us went on to quilt together on an on-going basis every Monday from 9:00 a.m. to 5 p.m. We created 100 quilts last year and we sent them lovingly on to survivors of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, to families in Habitat for Humanity, to Interfaith Ministries, to the Union Gospel Mission and to a wounded soldier program similar to "Quilts of Valor" and others.

Along the way, we have bonded, made wonderful and lasting new friends, had an enormous amount of fun and learned to quilt. We are a scrappy and a very maverick bunch of quilters...terms I have learned to describe quilters from my on-line blogging!

Blogging has just intensified my interest in and love of the cloth and all one can create from it. So using words and photos to create a 'quilt' of words is just a new form of self-expression and creativity.

Stash, Stashed, Stashing, Stashes

stash (stăsh) Slang.
tr.v., stashed, stash·ing, stash·es.
To hide or store away in a secret place. To closet.

I must confess, I am a closet quilter. I guess that means I am always stashed. My sewing room originated as a storage closet, was transformed into a make shift nursery when I was 'gifted' with a third child, re-created into a teenager's hide-away when the 'gift' began to toddle too close to stair railings and a room switch was required and then, finally!, became my sewing abode in my much deserved middle years.

It is my haven and it is also, the container for holding my secret, closeted addictions. It is my stash. I honestly spend more time arranging its contents than I do actually sewing. It is simply a matter of survival. Either I am able to find the fabric of choice in a relatively organized fashion.....or my relatives are unable to find me!

I have been told by a dear friend that it is the smallest sewing room she has ever seen. This is a friend who has been permitted to take over her entire house for sewing! I feel lucky and blessed to even have a real room, otherwise I might be sewing under the stairs instead of above them! (insert little mice singing "Cinderella'here...) Once in a while, I make amazing, even scientific discoveries while sifting through the piles and scraps, bins and baskets. I have,for example, discovered the origin of that mythological archetype....the stash bunny.

She hoards scraps, often shredding them into the tiniest little strips and bits and pieces and when she is done, she takes the threads and fabric fuzz and deposits them neatly under our beds! I would be willing to bet, that she is even responsible for UFOs of ALL kinds! I made this amazing discovery while hanging a make-shift batting to audition my Veteran's Day sampler blocks for our Community Quilting group. Lo and behold! There she was, hanging there, ears abob...all the time! I knew she had been there for years and years. I caught her in a stash basket once. I found her hiding under my sewing table a number of times. But to find her,in broad daylight surveying her domain was the answer to all of my unanswered questions. I caught her white handed and speechless. Now...if I could just catch all of the babies, too!

Stitch, Stitches, Stitching

stitch
"In embroidery and sewing: a method of securing thread into textiles. There are many types of stitches, including:Chain stitch, Cross-stitch, Embroidery stitch,and Lock stitch."

As I sew, whether it is with nice straight stitches, or irregular, crooked ones, I think of the proverb "A stitch in time saves nine." This suggests that it is better to spend a little time, right now, to deal with problems, than it is to wait to deal with them later and end up spending even more time correcting them. It is often shortened to "A stitch in time."

Based on the initial discoveries of Albert Einsten and further postulated upon by other quantum physicists,it has been proposed that there is no 'real' time. That time and space are interconnected and multi-dimensional, one overlapping the other and cycling back again. There is in fact, the possibility of a multi-layered universe, one universe upon another universe with as many as 12 parallel universes of potential 'realities' for every action and reaction.

I would therefore propose that no stitches in no time every prevent what is meant to be, from happening. Since all things are interconnected and happening at once, anyway! Therefore, I postulate, my preference for sewing nine stitches to one, or perhaps nine times instead of one is simply pre-ordination...fate, karma, what have you or again, one choice amongst 11 others for the same action and/or my reaction to it! It never truly seems like the first set work out just right! I am not embarrassed to admit that I spend an inordinate amount of time getting to know my seam ripper.

Whether I am sewing with our wonderful little group of Community Quilter's on a charity quilt (which will be sent to Hurricane Katrina survivers in Louisiana or Mississippi) or one of my Habitat for Humanity or Quilt of Valor type of patriotic quilts, I inevitably have to redo or undo...something! I am always grateful if I do not catch entire corners underneath my meandering and that includes both my mental as well as physical! Invariably I spend more time 'unstitching' than actually stitching. I have heard that the unofficial term for that is 'frog quilting.' Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiippppppppppp it!

The Lofting of the Batt

batt,batting, filling,wadding (in the UK)
non-woven fabric manufactured by putting small fibers together in the form of a sheet or web, and then binding them either mechanically with serrated needles, with an adhesive, or thermally melting the binder onto a web.

The filling, or batting, is what determines the loft of the quilt. A lofted place means one which is lifted up. So lofting our fabric is lifting it up higher and higher. Maybe that is why I sometimes love to use really high non-traditional batt and make my quilts so puffy they have to be tied and not machine quilted. I love 'lifting them up' and seeing the detail that is created in the fabric itself. I have always loved creating wall hangings for that very reason.

This season, I had the added fun of scrounging through the fallen autumn leaves for the 'perfect' cottonwood twig to use with my little welcoming pumpkin. It didn't last very long outside in our entry. Everyone, but myself...was too tall and their heads brushed it askew or attempted to knock it down.

So now it resides happily inside, ensconced on a wall where it seeks to welcome others by peering across the hall and through an office window. It makes me laugh everytime I walk past it...not because I am proud of its creation (I am, after all, a very simple quilter:) but because I remember being outside in the wind and the rain..searching for the perfect twig hanger.

I remember the looks on my first visitors' faces when they had to avoid hitting their heads as they passed under it. I twinkled at the synchronicity of discovering a little meandered duck face in one corner...after watching so many people 'duck down' under it. It is the journey of the quilting that gives me joy, not just the quilted creation, itself!

The Fabric

fabric (Middle French fabrique 'fa-brik), from Latin fabrica workshop
structure, foundation, framework, a textile cloth which is used in construction of clothing and textile arts

I am finding that the fabric (structure, foundation, framework) of our lives is just as important as the experiences of our lives. By fabric, I mean the basic beliefs or desires or whatever we focus on, that are a deep part of ourselves. The parts that we call upon, draw in, or share with others while we are creating experiences.

One day, while we were quilting in our little group, a tv newsman suddenly popped into the room and began filming us. Suddenly, we had to think clearly, speak clearly, and share clearly,and it was not as easy as one might think. It made me realize just how much of our lives are spent simply experiencing and not reflecting upon or truly valuing.

So, that day, while being put on the spot, it created the perfect opportunity for me to look around at all of my fellow quilters and truly value all that we have created together. And while the tv exposure on the evening news was great fun, and showing up the local newspaper the week before, also great fun.........what really and truly means the most are the people that make us the fabric of my life.

My family, my friends, my wonderful quilting group, and my 'of the moment' acquaintances....they are what truly matter. The experiences are exciting, or memorable, or educational or even joyful...but the true fabric of the quilt of my life...is the people who help me put my quilt together.

The Test of a 'Good' Quilt

Every quilt has to be quality control tested before it is 1) cut out 2) sewn and 3) quilted. Usually, the testing apparatus used requires a 'four on the floor' and some form of a tail. It may be feline or canine or many other versions of animal life.

I would be willing to bet that someone out there has a lizard or other reptile that is their quilting companion and official quilt tester! As someone, whose home has always been filled with animals, I have always loved them, as well.

It was totally natural, that my three children would also love them and that our house would be filled with every kind of pet imaginable. Currently, in this stage of our lives, we are down to 3 cats and all three adore laying on my quilts..at each and every stage of piecing, sewing and quilting. I know it will be a 'good one' when the cats refuse to get off...even as I sew!

The Quilt

There is a saying. "He who sleeps under a quilt sleeps under a blanket of love.' I believe this to be very true, for within the process of creating a quilt out of the bits and pieces of fabric and thread, one also creates out of the bits and pieces of a life loved and shared.

So how can you not fill every inch with love and not have that love be shared through the energy of creation by whomever is then given the gift of that quilt? As I sew, I may be laughing, crying, focusing or daydreaming.

But each emotion comes straight from the heart, my own heart, right into that quilt that I am working on. The colors, the fabric, the design...all of the various elements symbologize and represent much deeper themes or deeper emotions.

In this wedding gift quilt, I wanted to create more than just beauty. I wanted to use the rose colors of the heart, the aqua green tones of the high or 'dragon' heart, and the symbols of the crane to represent good fortune and long marriage. I wanted to create a 'healing' quilt that anyone could wrap up in, feel surrounded by love and positive energies and be blessed by the gifts that come from above as well as below...from me, but not of me.

Whether it is color or design or symbol or intent....all of it is a bit of me given to someone else. And all of it, always, is about love.

Quilting Meme: The Orphan Block

Part of this journey of quilting has been learning how to do many, many new things. Learning to work with others, learning to give away things that I love and want to keep for myself, learning to appreciate other's creativity even when it is different from my own and learning to be part of a bigger community both in real life and online that I never even knew existed before!

I discovered memes and I didn't even know what that word meant! According to Wikipedia, it refers "to a unit of cultural information transferable from one mind to another." One which somehow binds us as one in its transmission and sharing.

Part of this journey has been my willingness to be 'tagged' and to post my own Quilting Meme.

Have You Ever? Variation: The Orphan Block Meme
1. Taken or given a quilting class
2. Paper pieced
3. Hand quilted
4. Hand pieced
5. Created your own pattern
6. Published a pattern in a magazine or book
7. Gone on a quilting retreat
8. Gone to a quilting convention
9. Met someone who wrote a quilting book
10 Combined your quilting with some other craft
11. Done any three dimensional quilting
12. Made something using designer fabric
13. Made something using batiks
14. Dyed your own fabric
15. Made a landscape hanging
16 Made a quilted bag or piece of quilted clothing
17 Made a baby quilt
18 Made a wall hanging
19 Made a journal quilt
20 Submitted your journal quilt for viewing
21 Made a fabric postcard
22 Made an artistic trading card
23 Exchanged artistic trading cards
24. Mailed your own postcard
25. Made a lap quilt
26 Made a twin size quilt
27 Made a full size quilt
28 Made a queen size quilt
29 Made a king size quilt
30 Donated a quilt to charity
31 Sent a quilt out to a quilter
32 Thrown away a UFO
33 Given away a UFO
34 Cut up a UFO and made something else with it
35 Ripped fabric instead of cutting it
36 Made a quilt exactly like the pattern, with no changes whatsoever
37 Made an applique quilt
38 Quilted your own quilt
39 Did free motion quilting
40 Put any embroidery or beads on your quilt
41 Given away your quilt to a stranger
42 Swapped fabric
43 Swapped blocks
44 Participated in a round robin
46 Kept a journal about your quilting
47 Written a letter to someone who made an antique quilt
48 Made a patriotic quilt for a wounded soldier
49 Kept a blog about your quilting
50 Participated in a gift exchange
51 Sent a quilting random act of kindness
52 Joined a newsgroup about quilting
53 Made a quilt using a pattern from any website
54 Joined an online block of the month
55 Made a block of the month quilt
56 Subscribed to a fabric of the month club
57 Bought fabric at an online store
58 Bought fabric from ebay
59 Own more than one sewing machine
60 Have a room dedicated solely to sewing
61 Hide a fabric purchase
62 Finished making a holiday gift before July
63 Spent more than $200 in one quilt shopping trip
64 Made a quilt using a book from the library
65 Worked with someone else to make a quilt
66. Joined a quilt guild or club
67 Become president or other officer of a quilt group
68 Taught a quilting class
69 Helped someone else get the quilting bug
70 Taught a child to sew
71 Made a quilt with a serger
72 Made a miniature or doll sized quilt
73 Subscribe to a quilting magazine from your own country
74 Subscribe to a quilting magazine from another country
75 Bought fabric from another country
76 Swapped completed quilts with someone else
77 Asked for quilting help online
78 Gone to a quilt shop to ask for quilting help
79 Bought fabric at a local quilt shop
80 Traveled more than 100 miles to go to a quilt shop
81 Used nontraditional fabric for a quilt
82 Made a quilt using instructions given to you on a blog
83 Make comments on someone's quilting blog
84 Met a quilter in person after only having talked online
85 Had a quilting retreat in your home
86 Own quilting software
87 Made a quilt you designed on your quilting software
88 Done any quilt research - history, interviewing quilters, etc.
89 Had any quilt related subject published anywhere
90 Donated a quilt to a museum
91 Bought a quilt from a thrift store
92 Made a quilt using fabric from a thrift store
93 Made a quilt using photos
94 Made a pastel quilt
95 Made a quilt using brights
96 Made a quilt using ethnic fabric from another country
97 Made a quilt using leftover blocks from other quilts
98 Had your quilt in a magazine, newspaper, newsletter, TV, etc.
99. Submitted your quilt to a quilt show
100. Won any ribbons with your quilts
101 Had more finished quilts than UFOs
102 Made a quilt using reproduction fabrics
103 Took a break from quilting that was longer than a year
104 Made money with your quilting
105 Had a job in the fabric or quilting industry

One of the numbers is missing. I guess that this is my "Orphan Block Meme".

P.S. A big thanks to Shelina! I just discovered that she is the originator of the orginal quilting meme. Memes mutate by definition. That is how they got their name..from 'mimicry' !

The Heart of a Quilter

What creates the commonality in quilters' hearts...our passion to create, our desire for the creations themselves and how they somehow represent us, or the need for community and fellowship we gain when joing other quilters...whether in quilting groups or online?

As I have learned to sew, learned to quilt, and learned to share my quilts and quilt with other women of like minds and sharing hearts, I have learned so much about...not only other quilters but about my own self, my own heart and it's need to contribute, to share and to give.

One of the very first opportunities that I was blessed with, was being given an entire quilt top by a 'drop-in' quilter. She had started this beautiful quilt in honor of her mother. Suddenly, on top of her own health problems, the quilt became bigger than what she was capable of working with. She gave it to me and asked me if I could finish it for her. I was overwhelmed with her story, the loss of her mother, and all of the emotions that all of that creates. I felt so honored to finish it for her. It had many, many beautiful machine embroidery blocks on it. Each one saying lovely things like 'love','hope','charity','vision', 'wisdom' or 'light'. The top was exquisite and all I had to do was add sashings, borders, cornerstones and piece a back and then finish it off.

It took me longer to do that, then to make one of my own quilts from scratch. Somehow, there was so much giving in that quilt, so much giving of the gift of it to me to finish, that I was also overwhelmed. When I finally completed it, our group donated it to the Union Gospel Mission's Fall Auction. I have learned that the gift of the heart itself, in the quilt is as big, if not bigger, than the gift of the quilt.

The Heart of Each Individual

For an entire year, each and every one of us...individual quilters,all working independently...sometimes even alone, have crafted and individualized our abilities into fabric.

We have learned to make simple patterns first...Brick Roads, Simply Strippy, and other quilting patterns and then we moved on to Illinois Roads or Turning Twenty.

Each new step is a new learning curve step for the individual quilter and a wonderful sharing curve step for our group. As we quilted for those who were less fortunate than ourselves, we also learned to quilt from our hearts and not just with our hands.

We reached out to not only those who had faced disaster, but those who had faced loss. We began to quilt with hope, and charity and for peace. We began to quilt red, white and blue quilts for those soldiers who had been wounded in service to our country. We created labels of purple hearts for those who truly had earned their own purple hearts of valor.

Suddenly, the simple act of giving from our own individual hearts, but working with and within the larger group, began to create synchronicities in our lives. One day, we were a small group of quilters working anonymously every Monday in a local church, the next week we were featured in the local newspaper and the following week we were unexpectedly on the evening news.

It was exciting and fun, but it was still not what we were truly about. We quilt from our hearts for other hearts, not for praise, not for glory, but with hope and love, charity and joy. We were thrice blessed. We both gave and received beyond measure.

The Heart of a Church

In October of 2005,thirty women moved, bags and baggage, to Salem First Baptist Church. There, we began the intricate process of forming a cohesive group out of a little gaggle of women..women who all loved to sew, who all wanted to give, but women who were very different from one another, had never met one another, and who came from all different faiths, creeds, and belief systems...and not just about quilting! But inspite of the odds, a number of us stayed, and we sewed, and we worked together..one day a month to begin with, then two, and finally four. Sometimes, we had so much fun and we had so much to do, we even added a few extra days. And the piles of quilts began to grow. We nestled down into the center of that church. We had found a home.